Dr. Bob & Dr. Judith Wright: The Secret to Purposeful Leadership and Lasting Success

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues (formerly Career Coaching Secrets), host Davis Nguyen sits down with the founders of LiveWright, a husband-and-wife team who have spent more than 45 years helping executives, entrepreneurs, and business leaders build extraordinary careers while creating meaningful, fulfilling lives. Drawing from decades of coaching experience and research, they share insights from working with leaders of multi-million, billion-dollar, and global organizations.

Dr. Bob and Dr. Judith discuss the hidden challenges that successful executives face, including imposter syndrome, burnout, lack of fulfillment, and developmental blind spots. They explain why purpose-driven leadership creates better business results, how great leaders reclaim their time through intentional delegation, and why investing in personal growth delivers returns that extend far beyond financial success.

The conversation also explores leadership development, executive coaching, company culture, lifelong learning, and the importance of continually evolving as a leader. Packed with practical wisdom and inspiring stories, this episode offers a powerful roadmap for anyone looking to build a successful business while living a more meaningful and impactful life.

Connect with


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjudithwright/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbobrobertwright/
Website:https://livewright.com/meet-judith/
Website: https://livewright.com/meet-bob/

Transcript

Dr. Judith Wright 0:00

Look at the research. If you don't do that, you don't just stay at plateaued. You actually your abilities degrade. If you're not trying to get better, you actually get worse. And we see that. But it's beautiful to learn and grow. It's like exciting. It's like a new thing. I don't I don't know. I just I don't know.

Dr. Bob Wright 0:18

One of the key things we do in addition to helping you not waste your time, not waste your energy, is to spend your life more beautifully for the uplift of your people and your company and your clients.

Davis Nguyen 0:31

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 Davis Wynne, 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 another episode of the podcast. I have two very special guests with me today, Dr. Bob and Dr. Judith Wright. They are some of my favorite people in the world. As in, I can't speak so much. I can't, you will know how much I admire both of them through this episode and just the pleasure I've had with working with them. But this episode is not about just me working with them, it's about the work that they're doing to just change the world on it. So I've gotten to know them in the past year through our work together through Purple Circle. And even you can see the background for those of you who are watching the video version of the beautiful retreat that we are at today. But for those who don't know who you are, but who haven't read your best-selling books, who haven't been to your live events, who haven't been to your campus, who haven't seen you speak on these mega stages, why don't you introduce yourself? Who are you and what do you do?

Dr. Judith Wright 1:47

I'm Dr. Judith Wright, I'm the CEO of Live Wright.

Dr. Bob Wright 1:50

And I'm Dr. Bob Wright, president of Live Wright, where it is our delight to help people have their best life in all areas of life, from their marriage to their career to their uh social contributions. And many of them, whatever the faith, find that they live their faith more fully.

Dr. Judith Wright 2:14

And we do that through coaching and training and programs that are really designed and research-based to really help people live magnificent lives, but really improve their leadership and have glowing, growing, productive uh businesses.

Davis Nguyen 2:27

And you guys say very humbly, but I'm gonna share some numbers here. But they they literally do coach executives and leaders both in the business life and on the personal life as well. So I'll give you the stats here is they they just celebrate their 45th anniversary and they do help people through their marriage as well. As in the average divorce rate is 50%, but the people who go through your program is like less than 6% ever get married. And of course, they know that they're they need to improve on it. And it was a I remember the stat was like 99% of people feel better about their marriage. And so you do own that. But today we want to talk about the business side of it, which is with the executives. As in, you've worked with executives who have $10 million companies, $100 million companies, billion dollar companies, $20 billion companies, and beyond there, as in how to know, as in what once you both started in in that work, because obviously both of you started with personal work, but coaching executives is your bread and butter. How did that come out to be?

Dr. Bob Wright 3:19

Well, first of all, we practice what we preach to the best of our ability. And we work together. One executive, well, actually, the the common story is we begin working with an executive at their first job or before their MBA. And Judith works with them on their leadership, their um quality of life, uh, their emotional well-being, and their relationships. And I tend to work with them on their purpose, on their vision, on their mission, their strategy, their tactics, and daily implementation. So we're able to save them tons of time because we work as the vision holders, and they come and talk to us about what's going on. We help them get reoriented and they go right back into the fight.

Dr. Judith Wright 4:07

That's right on. You know, oftentimes there's people that are extremely successful, the executives we deal with, several of them are, or many of them are, and yet still feel like there's something missing. You know, that's just like, is this just all there is? In fact, that was in the title of my first book, There Must Be More Than This. And I think sometimes that's the feeling that comes up too, because there's success, but stop doesn't feel like the meaning is fully there or the purpose is there, or the relationships in their life aren't where they want them. So we we look at the whole life being really successful in their business and their leadership, but also having high quality of life, so everything's working. And that's what we've studied. Our my research research project was really studying people who live great lives, people who have a great relationship with themselves, they have intimate, satisfying, fulfilling relationships with others, they have career success, they build beautiful businesses, they're contributing, they have this way that all of the aspects of their life are working. It doesn't mean everything's perfect all the time, but these people that are living these great lives were who we studied. And what are they doing? We found out what they do, what those skills are that are needed, and we now know how to teach those and coach those and support people so everybody can have that. And that's what we do for executives. Their businesses thrive, but they do also, and their families and whatever else matters to them.

Dr. Bob Wright 5:23

So I I'd say that there are several types of executives we serve. Uh executives who have had all the success they wanted, it still wasn't it, which Judith is talking about, and they're not planning on shifting what they're doing. Then there are the executives who have left what they were doing, and they are in transition, and they really want to get clear about their purpose and meaning for the rest of their life. And that's a really varying time when there's been a liquidity event, they're sitting on top of hundreds of over a hundred million dollars or more, and they're going, okay, now what's that all about, Alfie?

Davis Nguyen 6:00

It is like I I you do a great job with serving people who have these liquidity events, and they're thinking about what do I do next with my life? I've achieved all this material success, I've achieved all these career successes. What do I do next? But obviously, you but you also do the opposite too, which are executives who are aren't at the places where they are trying to figure out how to be successful on it. And remember there's a story where you coach somebody who from their MBA to being the executive of a $20 billion company, and obviously they didn't have the money up front. But what was that journey like for someone who isn't already at a hundred million, a billion dollar exit?

Dr. Bob Wright 6:33

Well, probably the the best example is what you just referenced. Um, executive uh we coached from before his MBA to where he developed the highest-rated e-commerce firm in the world, and uh sold that uh to Cap Gemini in France. And um he and I just finished uh number one bestseller called Life is Sales. It's about purpose, meaning, and so the next phase for him was sharing what he had learned in sales. And he and I have also just finished a book on culture and the unique nature of his culture that performed better than any other culture in the e-commerce space in the world.

Dr. Judith Wright 7:12

Exciting to watch that whole and what's different, I think, and interesting about what our path has been is we've been in the business a long time. We've had this really beautiful opportunity to work with people like that from the very beginning all the way through. So most coaches, everybody coaches really help people. We have this perspective that many people don't have because we've watched people through the entire process, through all the aspects of building a business from the beginning to building. So we know what to expect. We know what those what unfolds over time, we have that perspective, and that's really helpful because we don't just see somebody sometimes of course we'll deal with people for short periods of time, but we also have this arc of their entire career to to draw from.

Davis Nguyen 7:54

What have you noticed have been some of the patterns through the different phases that you're like, you know what, most executives they get stuck here?

Dr. Bob Wright 8:00

I think the biggest thing we have to contribute is that you don't have to do something else to be fulfilled, satisfied, and have a great life. Most of the world says, what am I gonna do next? The real question is, who am I going to be next this next instant? Am I going to learn to live present in the here and now? Am I gonna learn to be more emotionally aware in deeper contact? So I'm more nourished by the work I'm doing, whether I'm leading 13,000 people or whether I'm lead leading 13 people. How do we create the most nourishing environment? And that starts with my life inside as an executive.

Dr. Judith Wright 8:40

And I think the other thing we find in is that uh we all have developmental gaps. You know, we come up against our own barriers sometimes or belief systems, or we do we doubt our capacity sometimes. We have imposter syndrome, and that comes up a lot for people that we're working with. And if you can if and to unlock that um provides such a possibility for people to continue to grow and to expand their businesses. They you come up against, yes, there's external barriers. There are things that happen in business, there's external things, but there's internal barriers. And when we can notice those and unlock those, it's like wow, it's like rocketing off.

Dr. Bob Wright 9:17

I I was talking to an executive of a major finance firm uh just the other day, and uh he prides himself on developing the executives under him. And uh we we've coached people who have their their progeny leading companies around uh the country. And and I was talking to him about what he does and what he's so proud of and what he does with his executives. I said, So you're giving them what you never had that you wish you'd had? And a tear just starts dripping down the corner of his eye. He said, Yeah, that's a bullseye.

Davis Nguyen 9:50

I think that is one of the most powerful things because I see that through obviously our work together. When I'm looking at your coaching calls, when I'm looking at the workshops, even yesterday when you were doing the parts, like even the toughest of people will break down when they say, you know what, you you hit something there. I think that's that's something you bring. Someone can't just bring if they just finished their MBAs, like they can't see it's in the cell. So obviously, you've had decades of experience, you've seen the pattern recognition over multiple lifetimes and multiple industries. And it's like there's something, there's something soothing when you sit down with someone, and I see that in a conversation at dinner, it's like all of a sudden, Bob or Jude, if you're sitting with someone who's in purpose over never met you before, and then you sit down, and all of a sudden, I can see you guys going for hours until the restaurant, it's like, all right, well, it's you guys gotta go. And so I think that's something powerful that you do is you you unlock this level, people can't see it in themselves. So, even during your conversation you have with my wife, where she didn't finish her college degree, you're like, you know, there are degrees that will accept you later in life that you can actually like be like credit, it's like opening her eyes into what's possible, right? So it's not just you with executives, just anyone I see, and that's such so powerful with it. And of course, a lot of the executives you mentioned, they're already doing really well, very successful. But let's say that someone is just starting out, they're struggling, their business isn't doing well, as in, and they're worried, hey, Bob, you're I'd love to work with you, but and I've seen this, seen the testimonials. Like, I've seen people say, Wow, you made me more money than I invested in you. And what would you say to those executives who are like, I don't think I can afford you guys?

Dr. Bob Wright 11:17

Well, obviously they can't afford not to. And one of the key things that they don't understand is that the quality of their relationships is going to determine the success of their career. They, as leaders, they have to develop credibility with other people and authenticity, being true to who we could become and and honest with people, has huge loyalty in followers who are going to carry you up to your heights.

Dr. Judith Wright 11:45

Yeah, it really is that I'm I agree with what I'm saying, because what we see is that it's an investment in yourself that pays off multiples, multiples, multiples with people. As they become as you become more you, you bring more what you're doing, and our stats on people's financial success is really high because and it comes from inside out the way that we work with it.

Davis Nguyen 12:05

Exactly. And it's not something that you can quickly just Google or use AI to do because that's just taking all the slop on the internet, but you guys actually have proprietary information, data that's not available anywhere else. And I know because we when we do AI work, one of the things you guys are is like, hey, do we own the data and so forth? Because you're keeping that because you guys have just five decades plus worth of information that you can't find anywhere else. And I think that's so powerful. And of course, the executives, I love that. He's like, they can't afford not to work with you because just if you don't make a change in your life, you just continue to spiral. The the other thing I love too is that when people do work with you, oftentimes, oh, I'm so busy. But somehow, after a session or two, they realize, oh, wait, you just freed up a lot of stuff I did not need to do anymore. So you actually get them back time. What's that without stealing any secret sausage? Like, what's the process? How do you do that?

Dr. Bob Wright 12:55

Well, well, it it's it's actually their best. We've got one executive who has uh founded her company and taken it from 50 to 60 million annual revenue last year and just closed a $100 million contract, uh, raises a number of children, and makes more seminars than you could imagine because she always feels better and comes out leading more effectively the more she learns and grows. And so that's an investment that returns, gosh, I don't know how many times the the minutes you put in and the dollars you put in.

Dr. Judith Wright 13:33

I want to add a couple things to that. So right what you're saying is that and and the the research shows us as well, and we and we teach this, but living more purposefully, you know what your purpose is, it's the butte in all the things you're doing. What happens is that you delegate better because you're on purpose. You do you only need to do, you let go of the other things. It really makes this huge difference. Living on purpose and being purposeful in your business really does make a huge difference. You gain back time. The other thing that we do that helps people with the time, people think, oh, I can't have that time, whatever. We do give we have the assignment way of living. You have life assignments that you're actually applying in your life to really make these changes, but they don't take time, but they're not in addition to your work life. They're just certain things to hold in mind and have intention as you're in the meeting, as you're with your staff, as you're doing your planning. And it's like, oh my gosh, it makes such a huge difference. It's not extra time, but it's intent and consciousness. It makes a huge difference in the quality of their being and the quality of their uh businesses.

Dr. Bob Wright 14:30

And quality of life. So we we coached one CEO uh when the company was at $230 million a year to uh to $500 million. And the first thing we had to do with him was get him to stop doing so much. Now we coached his successor into the next job, and his success his successor accepted the challenge I give top executives. You must have an empty desk, and if there's anything that you can delegate, you do, and you do not let people delegate up to you. That sounds easy and straightforward, but it is not as easy and straightforward as you would think. And so there are many levels. And you know, when an executive is starting out, they want to prove themselves. They want to take as much as they can do and do it as well as they can do it. That's great. We're gonna help you do it better. But one of the key things we do in addition to helping you not waste your time, not waste your energy, is to spend your life more beautifully for the uplift of your people and your company and your clients.

Davis Nguyen 15:36

Very well said there. As in, I love that because oftentimes when people come to not just you, but any coach, they're like, oh, it's gonna cost money, but obviously the ROI is there, like they don't have to take your word for it, they can just see it through all the testimonies you've had. And one of the things is that you are helping them live a more purposeful life, which means that they can get time back. And I I love that because it's just it's everything you want in a coach, right? You want to be a better version of who you know you can be, but who's gonna actually get you there? And of course, the other thing that people often wonder is that, well, that's great for you saying to me, but what about yourself? And I will say, like working with your team, you live it. You have your team actually go through the Live More program, you actually have your team go through the same coaching, same process, and you can see that they're raving fans and the right people stay on there as well. But you also both invest in yourselves as well as in how do you think about it? Because you're at the stage where most people are like, you know what? I probably know everything, right? Like similar to my my grandma's, I love her grandma, but she has her service like, nope we're gonna do it today. But how do you both just personal questions stay so open-minded at your age? Because even when we're going through our our sessions, you're like, Oh, that's a really neat idea. Telling us more about that. Like even at this retreat with everyone else, you're like, Well, tell us more about that. You're just always leaning in. How did you keep that curiosity, that open mind?

Dr. Judith Wright 16:52

I I think we've always had it and always had that. And I'm thinking about also is in my research, is what I found those people that live those great lives, they're always learning, they're always growing, they're always on your edge. And also, if you look at the look at the research, if you don't do that, you don't just stay at plateaued, you actually your abilities degrade. If you're not trying to get better, you actually get worse. And we see that, but it's beautiful to learn and grow. It's like exciting, it's like a new thing. I don't, I don't know.

Dr. Bob Wright 17:19

I just infinitely curious. So she keeps us up to date on all of the emerging research. So that's one way. And and in addition to the fact everything we do is is new. So and we love to learn. We've both just insane learners from our earliest years. Judith, when she was valedictoria, and Summa, Summa, Summa, everything, and you know, founding one of the first uh three barrier-free college programs in the country, then developing what is currently still the state-of-the-art and early childhood intervention. So, curiosity for us must have an outcome that contributes to our world, because that's really what we're doing, is as we're supporting an executive or an upcoming executive and having a great life, we're expecting them to make a great contribution to our world.

Davis Nguyen 18:10

I love that. And you don't just like even when we're when I we're at the retreat, we're at the AI session, when Bob, you were talking to another member here, Judith was just leaning in, taking notes, screenshots. I think she took more screenshots than anyone else. And after it's like, oh, how can we apply this to our business? Like, you you don't just tell people to be curious, you are actually curious. And I love that you're always leaning in and just personal, and then most people at your age will just retire to Paris, which I know you both love, and just call it a day. But you're like, no, we have greater purpose.

Dr. Bob Wright 18:36

Well, we could have retired before we started our accredited graduate university. We were in a very nice position to do that, but we mortgaged everything we had, we spent everything we had, we borrowed a ton more money, and we developed uh an accredited graduate university offering uh accredited master's and doctoral uh degrees in transformational leadership and coaching and an accredited MBA in transformational business. Well, then we had to build up the war chest again. And we've built up the war chest again. We want to die in the saddle.

Davis Nguyen 19:11

Yeah.

Dr. Bob Wright 19:11

I mean, this the this life is too much fun. People that want to escape, it's so sad. They bargain to to to get to a retirement to learn, and it's too late to learn to live. We help people learn to live now and love now and have their best life now, wherever they are, whatever they're doing.

Dr. Judith Wright 19:30

It's a lot more fun. It really is fun to learn and grow and develop and to stay have that beyond that edge.

Davis Nguyen 19:37

I know it is like you guys, you fit in with everything. Even when we went in on the Cesinotes yesterday, you were both in as one like, oh man, oh, okay, well, Bob was like, nope nope, nope, win the water too. Okay, I'm no excuse. Get in the water. Guys, we're jigging, we're going down the cave. And it's just, I love that because there's so many coaches who say what others should do, but you actually live it. You invest in yourself, you're curious, you're always trying to evolve, you're evolving your team, you're evolving yourself. And but most importantly, you're not affording the information, you're actually giving it like in multiple ways. Like, whatever way that people can connect with you, if they can't afford, well, they can't afford not to work with you, but even the executives are like kind of like, well, 10 hour workshops, let's let's read our books, like read our research papers. And I love that that you're on this mission. I remember even on the first day when we were getting to know each other at this retreat, as in obviously we've been working, you've been in multiple retreats, and even for the new people, they there the people who work for it knew exactly what you meant, but for everyone else, I love that Bob was like, Look, we're here to change the world here, as in we're we're gonna do that until usually it's like until we die on a saddle, we are literally, which is many, many, many decades away. Many, many, many, many away. So I love that. And it's just so many coaches. I imagine when you first started burned out, they didn't they quit because they didn't live that intentional, purposeful life, but you both did. And it's just not you, it's just not me. It's it's literally all the people that you've impacted who are just raving fans. I I love that because every time we host a webinar, obviously you get you get hundreds of people, but it's also at the same time you get people like this is my seventh time attending this workshop, and they still love it. So it's it's just a testament to you both.

Dr. Bob Wright 21:08

Well, thank you. We we say that our purpose is to lead an authentic lives and to support others to unleash their potential by consciously engaging in their own transformation and leadership for the advancement of humanity and conscious, sustainable, regenerative living on the planet. And our strategy is one person at a time becoming stronger, more capable of saying what needs to be said where it needs to be said, so that we have a world that works for everyone in food, medical services, finance, education, infrastructure, and that sustainable regenerative living with the planet in the next 175 years, it'll be in 174 as of December 31st. Most of the world tries to change too much too fast, and they don't change the one thing they can change, which is themselves.

Davis Nguyen 22:00

And by the way, for anyone watching this on the audio version, there's no script. But they write that off literally. They they they they recite that. And by the way, they have their team meetings, they start with that. So I'm I I will vouch that there's no script. Like they live this. And so I just have to make that known for anyone who's watching this on the audio and not the visual. If you're in visual, you're just like, oh wow, they just did that in sync personally. So for any executive, anyone who wants to change like how what's the best way for them to connect with you and with the Live Wright team?

Dr. Judith Wright 22:29

Great. You can go to our website, Live Wright, and that's right with a W, Librite.com, and you can reach out to us individually. We can email us drbob at livewright.com or drjudith at livewright.com.

Dr. Bob Wright 22:40

And we're on LinkedIn and you can just message us. Message us.

Davis Nguyen 22:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we'll go to the show notes, and that is 100% true. As in they will they will get back to you, even if that they are in this beautiful resort here. They somehow managed to get everyone back. And so thank you both for being on the show and just thank you for impacting all the lives. And I'm so excited for all the people who who are going to be able to watch this from your audience and just continue to just thank you for the impact that you're creating on the world.

Dr. Judith Wright 23:08

Thank you, Dave. Thanks for your partnership.

Davis Nguyen 23:11

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 the impact and having the life that you want. To learn more about our community and how we can help you, visit join purplecircle.com.