How Curtis Butler Built a Fully Booked Coaching Business

In this powerful follow-up episode of Success Leaves Clues, host Davis Nguyen sits down once again with career coach Curtis Butler to discuss the incredible growth of his coaching business, the lessons he's learned, and the personal challenges he's overcome since their last conversation.

Curtis shares how he transitioned from a successful 30-year career in finance into coaching, despite financial uncertainty and family pressures. He opens up about the struggles of entrepreneurship, the importance of mentorship, and how staying committed to his mission of helping students, graduates, and families has transformed both his business and his life.

From packed calendars and growing demand to achieving milestones that once seemed impossible, Curtis reveals what it takes to build momentum, create lasting impact, and scale a coaching business without losing sight of purpose.


Connect with

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtisbutler/
Website: https://www.guidedascentcoaching.com/

Transcript

Curtis Butler 0:00

But the biggest change is one of those high class problems to have. I have no free time. I mean, I have not sometimes it's choking, right? Sometimes feels like I can't even get the things done. I was I wanted to do this. I want to do this creative. I want to do this post, but I have back-to-back meetings from nine till seven. That's the biggest change, is that my sk my calendar is overwhelmed. But that's a high class problem to have, right? But now I need to, if I'm going to continue to grow, I need to add other people's calendars to it.

Davis Nguyen 0:25

Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast where we talk with successful career coaches on how they built their success and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin and I'm the founder of Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, and even $100,000 weeks. Before Purple Circle, I've grown several seven and eight-figure career coaching businesses myself and have been a consultant at two career coaching businesses that are doing over $100 million each. Whether you're an established coach or building your practice for the first time, you'll discover the secrets to elevating your coaching business. Welcome back to the podcast. I have with me a special guest because he's part of our series where we interview previous guests from the previous seasons and catch up how they're doing. Curtis Butler is probably one of the most genuine human beings and coaches, career coaches, just bobber human being that I have ever met. Like you, he, like he says on his previous episode, which I'll link below, is that he's an open book. But beyond that, he's an open book for helping people. As in, I remember just all the people he helps and the way that we he was describing as we were working together is just no matter who the person is. It's almost like you have this tendency not to, it doesn't matter if they have money or not. You're like, you're gonna help them. And of course, there's things we work on, but genuine human being here. So Curtis, thanks for joining me.

Curtis Butler 1:36

Thank you very much. Very kind.

Davis Nguyen 1:37

And for anyone who's watching the video version of this, we are sitting behind our conference room that we'll be using tomorrow for one of our purple circle events, where Curtis is actually going to be the main feature speaker for tomorrow. And so super excited for that. So we're just gonna set up. So if you notice some empty seats in the back, that's what that is. And so we're just gonna have a conversation about how have you been since the summer episode and where have we been the last, well, almost six months now. And so, well, Curtis, for anyone who didn't watch the first episode yet, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit about your background?

Curtis Butler 2:04

Sure thing. So I am um married, father of two. We live in Connecticut. I have left a 30-year career in finance to become a career coach. For lots of reasons, which come up all the time when I run into my former colleagues. Why'd you leave? The biggest reason, excuse me. The biggest reason was that I was born to serve. And starting, I think my favorite job until this one was being a TA in grad school when I was 23. And I thought, oh my gosh, this teaching thing is incredible. I love it. And I love the way I can help other people feel more confident and get what they want. And whether that's, you know, a good grade in an econ class or now, I started this business two years ago to help people face what is perhaps the most challenging job market we have ever seen. So I just love serving that way. Um, I love you know connecting with families. My whole business started again two years ago just with people in my town. There's a wealthy town in Connecticut. A lot of kids want to go into finance. Parents started attending my presentation. I said, wait, not only is that guy how does someone leave finance to coach kids? Nobody does that. So we like this guy, but also he seems to really care. So that's why I say often my clients are students and recent graduates. My target market is parents. Parents. And mostly moms. Because the moms care so much about what's going on with their children, not just their success, but what's actually going on. Like her confidence is really low. Can you help with that? It's like, yes, I can.

Davis Nguyen 3:37

And I I know we've talked about this, and you talked a little bit about this in their your first episode as well. Is was it hard? Because you were basically in 30 years in the finance, you could have earned a seven-figure job. I know your wife would have loved that, and you have two kids just born you. Tell me a little bit more about that decision to go into coaching because now you've had some is that it wasn't an easy decision for you.

Curtis Butler 3:57

No, and again, you know, for lots of reasons, historical reasons, but also my family, you know, we have a complex family and one daughter with significant disabilities, which is a huge investment. You know, we have staff, but we pay that all out of pocket. So um, so people would be surprised, given my success in finance, to learn we weren't sitting on some pile of cash. Because people maybe assume that, like, yeah, great Curtis, you kind of retire from finance and go do coaching, which is something you love. The dirty little secret is we needed cash. So I needed this to work. And I had I had known as soon as I was interviewing for finance jobs, and I thought this doesn't feel right. I'm gonna throw myself back in the soup and I don't want to be there. And then I just started listening to those internal messages, started talking to to friends who just said, Kurt, this is your calling. We've been waiting for you to make this kind of choice. Go for it. Yes, but it's gonna really risk the family. And what if it doesn't work? Right? Is it gonna be harder to get back into finance when I'm in my late 50s having not worked for a couple of years? And the answer was just like, Kurt, this is you. You're gonna do this. Like, you're not gonna do anything half-hearted, and you are so motivated to help your family feel more comfortable and more secure, which is absolutely the case. So I decided seven days a week it is 24-7. Invest everything I have in it, mostly my heart, but also just the skills that I can bring from my own career. And then listening to people like you who've been down this path already. Because I don't have time to make those mistakes, which is exactly what I teach my clients. Trial and error takes too long, and you could miss a real opportunity. Skip it, hire a coach, which is why I hired a coach.

Davis Nguyen 5:40

You know, it's interesting. It's like when when we invited you to podcast, obviously there was no intention of you were us ending up working together. And of course, afterwards you listen to us, I was like, hey, uh, you're you're listening to another co-host, Kevin. You're like, when do I get to meet Davis? Tell me a little bit more about that. As in, obviously, you had a fantastic story. I've heard your videos, I saw the clips of it as well. And of course, we wanted to invite you onto podcasts earlier. And then eventually, what's Farchair is like at some point of like, hey, I want to learn more about Kevin. What what do you guys do? Who's Davis? How tell me more about purpose cycle 100%.

Curtis Butler 6:08

And again, the timing was brilliant. Like I talk about the fact that one of my biggest lessons about becoming an entrepreneur late in my career is humility is the only way forward. Because I may be a smart guy with lots of business experience, but I don't have experience running my own business. So I need to listen to people who do. So when I was talking to Kevin on that podcast and he's like, Chris, do you even know who we are? I'm like, no, can you tell me? And I said, That sounds very interesting. He's like, Would you like to meet David? So I absolutely would. And then the first time you and I got on that call, true story, I hung up, it was a venue call. I hung up that call. He said, and I quote, Arlene, I think I found my guy. And she said, What do you mean? I said, I just think believing this is gonna work, I think this guy can help me shortcut everything, can help me do things faster, can help me avoid the pitfalls, and showed me the secret, the biggest secret so far has been, Curtis, you're already the coach. Go let people know through ads. Send them to your workshops. When they see you in action, they're gonna want to hire you, which is proving to be true. So thank you for that.

Davis Nguyen 7:14

Of course. Well, we'll get into the successes too. But was there any hesitation? I know, for example, you and Arlene at the time, and you talked about this as like you there were taxes you owe, there were other deaths of payoff, and obviously investing in coaching. You tell other people to invest in coaching, and obviously investing in coaching costs money. There was there other hesitations that were going on with between you and Arlene when you were thinking about working with Professor Cal, working with me or Yeah, and that's a great question.

Curtis Butler 7:36

Just generally speaking, so our our daughter with all the challenges, who's you know, wonderful, amazing, we wouldn't give her up for a second, but it's been a really, really challenging 20 years and has has had, you know, major setbacks, major financial setbacks. Because when you when you have to take care of the family that I have, the the house that we had, we tore down half the house in Darien, Connecticut, right? Ritzy Town, tore down half the house, built it back up so it was level on the first floor, properly level because she's in a wheelchair. And then we added an elevator and a therapy room and a handicapped bathroom. I mean, this was a big deal. And then I ended up um out of a job, out of my big, big job uh at JP Morgan, it turns out right before COVID. And, you know, I had all kinds of things going on. I actually was on vacation with Arlene when because I met with the CEO of a very large firm, they were basically gonna hire me in a very senior role. And I met with the CEO on Friday. Arlene and I went away for vacation, just the two of us, waiting for the offer while we're on vacation. We already talked money, everything, like great. Wow, this is amazing. This was the end of February 2020. And then while we're on vacation, all this news started coming from China and India or Italy, and what's happening? And I was gonna basically be running overseas operations for this investment group. And then all of a sudden the call came, yeah, we're putting this thing on hold. So all these, you know, setback recovery. Wow, how did he pull this rabbit out of a hat? Setback recovery. So this has been really the experience of the past more than 10 years. And that is that is chipped away at our savings, that is chipped away at Arlene's trust and confidence. I don't blame her. She married into a guy who's like, he's got it all. We're gonna have that, you know, house on Cape Cod, we're gonna have the kids' college education is all paid for before they're even born, you know, all that kind of stuff. And and fate would, you know, had a different idea. Um so when this when that the last rabbit that I pulled out of her hat back in this incredible finance job, as you said, making significant money, making a significant contribution, then for lots of different reasons I realized uh oh this isn't right, this isn't where I belong. Um and that's what I said. That's it. Time for this change. I have to believe in this change. And it was very challenging because Arlene was panicked and couldn't believe that I was willing to make that kind of choice and sacrifice the family. And again, I don't hold anything against her for that. But imagine trying to start a business based on faith in your own ability when your most important partner doesn't share it is hard. Now I think she does. Right? I think she does for lots of reasons. Number one, she's seeing cash flow finally coming her way. And uh, for example, a year ago, she thought we can't hire a college coach for Claire. Where's that money gonna come from? But we did. And we took a vacation and we bought a brand new awesome Mac. We have funds now to take care of ourselves. And uh so I think that's been a a really, really big difference. But I will say, thank God for the decades and decades of compartmentalization and fortitude and inner strength that I've been able to build, in large part because of the situation of my family, that set me up well to be able to handle that kind of overwhelming pressure.

Davis Nguyen 10:59

I love that. And of course, you you mentioned, of course, it wasn't an easy decision. You went through it. I remember Arlene was like, okay, well, this is our life. If you're gonna give it a go, let's see what Davis can do to help you out. But how how's it been uh since we've been starting to work together? You mentioned, yeah, slight bulb hit, but obviously we went through our journey as well. But tell tell people more, like where were you before and then where are you right now? That's as we're heading into this retreat.

Curtis Butler 11:20

Yeah, even though so it was interesting, the timing could not have been, I think it was probably divine, but the time that I had the first podcast with Kevin when I was introduced to the idea of you and Purple Circle was right when I was learning about all the marketing and learning from people like Dan Sullivan, literally listening to him read his books. About this whole idea of if you want to build something, if you want to take on a new endeavor, don't think how can I do this as a solopreneur. You have to think, who can do this for me? That's the whole who-not how concept. If I met Dan, I would just be like, dude, so good. And that's why you fell into my lap. Because I was open, and then my friend Bob is telling me who's runs an outrageously successful energy consulting firm. He's on MSM or CNBC in Bloomberg every single day. And uh you say, Kurt, you need to bring in other people. You cannot put all this on your own head. First of all, the pressure's too great, but if you actually succeed, it's gonna blow up. There's only one you, and you only have so many hours in the day. You need to train other people, you need to offload responsibilities. So Bob is in my ear, Dan Sullivan's in my ear, and then I meet Kevin on the podcast and learn about this guy named Davis. So the biggest, the biggest difference was you're you're so first of all, you're so caring. The same way I talk about my coaching, you're the exact same in terms of you care so much about the people you're talking to and helping. Um, but that's my experience. And then the second piece is you're honest. I love the clarity, just like don't waste time doing this. Just do this and trust that it will work because Curtis, you bring everything else that you need to bring. This is the piece that's gonna open that door for you. Yes. And you are 100% right. Now we've got all kinds of operational stuff to iron out as we as I grow, right? The growing pains they call it. I do need to start finding a way to bring on other coaches. And because that'll that's the leverage that will just I'm the brand. I'm the one out there telling the world about this coaching methodology that I've developed over my career and really focused on in the past two years. But other people can implement. That's the big lesson, right? Curtis, you're not the only one. Other people can do what you teach them.

Davis Nguyen 13:28

I love that. And so what's changed for you personally, like in the business, and then we'll talk about life as well. But what's changed in the business compared to when we first had the first episode since we started working?

Curtis Butler 13:38

The biggest change is one of those high-class problems to have. I have no free time. I mean, I have not sometimes it's choking, right? Sometimes feel like I can't even get the things done. I was I wanted to do this, I want to do this creative, I want to do this post, but I have back-to-back meetings from nine till seven. That's the biggest change, is that my sketch, my calendar is overwhelmed. But that's a high-class problem to have, right? But now I need to, if I'm going to continue to grow, I need to add other people's calendars to it.

Davis Nguyen 14:04

Exactly. It's like we're at the point where when we first started, it was just obviously you had referrals, you had the town events. Sometimes you would just fly and do some events, and nowadays just come to you. We have those consistent leads going, but now we have to be able to get the consistent results and consistent operations and consistent sales going. So for your Curtis to be able to do way more of what you're doing speaking on stage like you are tomorrow and so forth, because your your message is worth hearing in the world too. So I love that. And what about personally? Obviously, how how how are the girls? How's Arlene feeling about the business now compared to let's say a year ago before we met?

Curtis Butler 14:36

Yeah, I mean Arlene's closest friends are her sisters, and they talk every day. And of course her sisters are really care about her and concern about her situation. So you can imagine what those conversations were like, right? That what's he doing? Where's the cash flow? How's he taking care of his family? You can't blame them. I would probably do the same thing. So that was always in the ear. So that the challenge a year ago was really A, to keep my family together, and B, but at the same time without doing it in an offensive way, to secretly tune it out, ignore it, which is really hard. When it's your best friend, somebody you absolutely love and and care so much about, just to not hear them. Because there was an inner knowing, and that's another story altogether, but there was just a knowing. This I I told Arlene a year ago, I can't explain it. We are gonna have more money than you know what to do with. And I know it doesn't look like it, and I know if you look at your bank account, there's nothing there, but we are. We are gonna have that. And over time I knew things were starting to make an impression on her because there were fewer and fewer questions about when we're gonna run out of money. And when she needed something or we needed to hire a college coach or buy a new computer, we did it. So that's a big deal.

Davis Nguyen 15:48

That's a big deal.

Curtis Butler 15:49

A really big deal. The biggest one is we we've been in this kind of middle situation right now. We sold our home during COVID because I was between jobs then. Got an amazing job after that, but it wasn't the right job. So back we are. And I think things are really starting to the universe is kind of starting to coalesce around us right now because we just uh found a home to rent. Yeah. Which is gonna give all of us more space. We're all too cramped together, you know, with a child with a lot of challenges and a 17-year-old high school junior. We just all need some more room.

Davis Nguyen 16:17

Exactly.

Curtis Butler 16:18

Yeah. So her last year in high school is gonna be in this home as opposed to, you know, an apartment complex with people living upstairs and downstairs. So things are things are kind of working. And I'm a huge believer in that whole idea of momentum. When one thing in your life starts working, you focus on that. And then other things start working, and then focus on all of those, and then everything starts working, which is the life you've been blessed to have. And I'm really looking forward to that. Really looking forward to that situation where it's like, okay, this thing is on autopilot, we're doing so much good for so many people, and I can step back and do the speaking circuit and represent this whole idea of how we can help our kids, this confidence piece that I talk about. And just parents, you can have a different relationship with your children so they don't hang up on you. I have that conversation every week at my workshops.

Davis Nguyen 17:05

You do, and your workshops. I remember in the beginning, you were just we couldn't even feel those. You're like, Yeah, I'll get referrals, but then it dries up, and all of a sudden I remember one day, was it probably like December or something? We started running into marketing campaigns with the ads, and then all of a sudden you're like, crap, babies, I have like 25 people. And it's like, oh wait, this similarly didn't even work. There should be more people. And then the next one's like 50. I'm like, what do I do with all these people? It's like, well, Chris, change their lives. Try value. Get them on the calendar. And let's enroll them onto the program. That's right. And then one of one of my favorites too, I remember at one point, your what used to be your high ticket, your your main program, you've enrolled multiple people who are like 2.5 times X that price point. And they're obviously delivering great value for it too. And it's like the evolution of where you were when we first chatted and where you are now. I'm just like amazed at it. And I'm just so proud of everything else because I think you prove a couple things, which is you keep saying, like, you know what, I'm in my late 50s. But the one thing is that you always have this drive that you are going to impact the world and you're me for greater things, and then you believe that there is greater purpose, greater impact. And you never gave up as in tough times to do everything, ups and downs. You never gave up. You learn obviously through me. You already had this, which is more like, all right, what direction do we run? Because I never, another purple circumference was talking about this. It's like, yeah, Davis, before you, I was just running really fast. I was just running in the wrong direction. And you just said, run here instead.

Curtis Butler 18:20

Well, it's funny again, mentors, mentors are everything. I tell anyone, be a mentor, get a mentor, it's absolutely everything. My mentor, JP Morgan, he's almost 80 now. I saw him last night. Uh it was a big JP Morgan event, alumni event. But before I left the company, I left the company before he did. And we were talking about he knew I was leaving. We were talking about how I was gonna find the next role. And he said a couple things. He said, number one, Kurt, you spent your entire life helping other people. It's time to ask for help. Number two, when I eventually landed, again, that COVID situation, that job went away that was literally ready to sign. And then I talked to him about it. And I said, We said, What are you gonna do? I said, Started all over again. And then I got this incredible job no one thought I could get. And he called me up and said, Curtis, I have to tell you. I've known a lot of people, but your unwavering optimism and strength and just believing that it's gonna work out is the reason it's going to. And that's where I have to remind Arlene sometimes that um I'm never giving up. Like I don't I think it's a movie line, but I don't know what it means to quit. I've never quit. And we've been handed some really tough hands of cards, but I just don't quit. So I'm not quitting this.

Davis Nguyen 19:31

You're not quitting this, and you're impacting way too many lives. You're in such an upward directory that quitting now makes it will make the you of six months earlier think, Curtis, why do we build all this for you just to quit? We're like better than we were six months ago. Okay, why are we quitting?

Curtis Butler 19:44

Yeah, and I'm and I'm really excited. Um, I had promised my wife last year, I said, my goal for 2026, after you and I started working together, my goal for 2026 is to book as much revenue as as I made in income in my last job in finance. And I don't know if she really believed it, but the first 13 weeks of 2026 matched all of 2025. And that might just get me there.

Davis Nguyen 20:11

Well, that's that's proof, right? We did more, you did more in three months this year than you did in the entire year before. So it's like we're getting there, and I'm I'm excited for you. It's been it's been an honor just working with you and just seeing everything because you're just so open about sharing and everything. And it's been phenomenal. And I believe that you're meant for greater things to impact so many lives, so many coaches on the show, so many parties who are watching this, is that if you're at the moment where you feel like you have something great, but it just feels like there's a barrier there, just realize that other people have crossed that barrier. Just need to find out who that is. It doesn't matter if it's me, purpose circle, whoever, but find that person. It's like if we are coaches, we also need to believe that there are other people who can coach us to where we want to be. And you're a great example of that.

Curtis Butler 20:51

100%. Yeah, there's always somebody who's been there before you, and that's exactly what I wanted to find. And you're one of those people that I found. So I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for that.

Davis Nguyen 21:01

That's it for this episode of Career Coaching Secrets. If you enjoyed this conversation, you can subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're listening to this episode to catch future episodes. This podcast was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help career coaches scale their business to $100,000 years, $100,000 months, or even $100,000 weeks, all without burning out and making sure that you're making an impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.