How Strong Leadership Creates Lasting Business Results with Todd Zimbelman

In this episode of Success Leaves Clues Podcast, our guest is Todd Zimbelman, executive coach, leadership consultant, speaker, and organizational development expert who helps leaders and teams unlock higher levels of performance through intentional leadership, accountability, and people-centered growth. Drawing from his extensive experience working with executives, managers, and organizations, Todd shares valuable insights on developing leadership capabilities, building high-performing teams, fostering a culture of ownership, and navigating the challenges that come with growth and change. We explore the importance of communication, trust, coaching, and strategic thinking, along with practical lessons for empowering employees, improving team effectiveness, and creating environments where people can do their best work. Whether you're an entrepreneur, executive, manager, coach, or aspiring leader, this conversation offers actionable strategies for building stronger teams and achieving sustainable success.

You can find him on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-zimbelman/
https://www.growwithcocreate.com/
https://www.instagram.com/growwithcocreate/

Transcript

Todd Zimbelman 0:00

What I what I will tell you in my experience is I've never had a client ask me for a certification. They are basing it on somebody else's experience share, and then they have this. You know, say that as much as I say Pedro does a fantastic job with this, you know, I also seek to just be very present. What is the need? What is the engagement level of the individual? Because I do a lot of this too.

Davis Nguyen 0:23

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues, the podcast where we interview business owners on how they built their businesses and the hard lessons they learned along the way. My name is David Swin, and I'm a business coach and a founder of Purple Circle, where we help business owners achieve their first six-figure, seven-figure, and eight-figure year, all without sacrificing their quality of life. Before becoming a business coach and before founding Purple Circle, I started and scaled several seven and eight-figure coaching businesses and have been a consultant at several businesses doing over $100 million each, including some that are publicly listed and doing over a billion dollars each. In every episode of the podcast, you're gonna learn lessons that took our guests years to learn, and you'll be able to learn that in minutes. No matter if you're a new business owner or an established business owner, every episode is going to give you the clues in order to elevate your business.

Pedro Stein 1:07

Welcome to Success Leaves Clues Podcast. I'm Pedro, and today I'm joined by Todd Zimbelman, a professional executive coach whose decades of experience in leadership development, organizational culture, and personal transformation have shaped a deceptively simple but powerful philosophy. Experience plus reflection equals expertise. Todd's coaching style is grounded in creating space for others to grow through their mindset shifts, emotional intelligence, and practical strategies built for a real-world leadership challenge. Todd partners with clients to identify their goals, challenge their defaults, and move toward deeper influence by doing something most leaders never prioritize. Slowing down, thinking clearly, and moving forward with intention. His belief that growth happens when leaders take time to reflect rather than just react sets him apart in coaching world that too often rewards speed over substance. Welcome to the show, Todd.

Speaker 1 2:14

You're hired, Pedro. You're hiring. You can stop right there. That was really great. Thank you for that.

Pedro Stein 2:19

Dude, you're the one to blame, okay? I was here in Brazil just chilling, and you were doing all of that. Like, come on. I'm not kudos to you, but here you go, here we go, okay? Because I am a kind of a comic book nerd myself, right? So I love the first editions, the origin story. You could be doing so many things, man. Plumbing, you know, you could be a chef, but here you are. You chose coaching. So walk me through how coaching started in your life and where we are today.

Todd Zimbelman 2:49

You you want the short answer or you want the long answer?

Pedro Stein 2:52

I want the fun answer, man.

Todd Zimbelman 2:53

The fun answer, you know, it starts in childhood. No, I mean it does to some extent, right? I I mean, I I wanted to explore the world. Um, that led me to, as a young man at the age of 19, getting a job with United Airlines allowed me to travel the world, which was rewarding. 9-11 uh directly impacted my life. Lived in New York, worked for United Airlines, and so it changed the trajectory of where I was headed. That really became the the inflection point for me to pursue a passion was the arts, but specifically the performance arts. And I think this was the inception uh really of what now my coaching practice looks like. I did that for six to eight years, six years pretty full time, and then I found myself in a corporate environment where I perceived myself as a cog in this vast machine uh where I had lost my sense of purpose and passion. And so I had to work to find that for myself. That then connected me to an entrepreneur. I'm leaving out a lot. And the opportunity with because of what I was able to accomplish in the corporate environment, my the opportunity that was created to work with this entrepreneur uh really helped to reinforce what it was that I could do outside of being uh an actor, and I was able to use the the parts that I was passionate about in doing that. As an executive for this entrepreneur, one of the uh amenities that I had was to work with an executive coach. And that was really my first exposure of what this could look like. It was having an executive coach. I achieved what I set out to achieve with this entrepreneur, and then I started thinking about what was going to be next in my journey, and really this was it. It became very clear to me through my coaching experience with my coach. She was very supportive and pointed out things in terms of how I approach even my work as an executive that she said aligns really well with the coaching experience, and my experience has been that she was right on. So that that's the very nutshell story of how I ended up here in this moment looking at Pedro.

Pedro Stein 5:07

Interesting. Okay. Now I want to understand one thing that happens eventually, which we I usually call it a shift, because in the early days for coaching, we're still I'm a coach too, and testing waters, right? See if this is gonna land or not. And it to a point eventually, you hit a point that it's like I'm helping people to, you know what, I'm building a real business around this, you know. At first, it's advice giving sometimes mentoring, you know. But when did you realize for you like a shift that happens from, you know what? This is actually a coaching business. Is it the first invoice? Is it the first paying client? You know, how did that look like for you?

Todd Zimbelman 5:49

Uh it was far more scary than that. From this standpoint, as I said a moment ago, I had been working for this entrepreneur for about five years. His objective in hiring me, what I had started doing in the corporate environment was building teams. Um, and you know, really what was fundamental about that work where I had experienced some success was focusing on what was most important to the individual. What was it that they really wanted to be able to achieve, and then aligning what the company was seeking to their own personal desires. I shared this with him, and so then he hired me to come help build a team. I accomplished that with him. Um, that team to this day is still in place, most of them, and I collaborate with them as a coach, no longer as their boss, as you know, the key executive. And so the inflection point, right? So it was in 2019 that I started, I had a vulnerable conversation with my employer, the entrepreneur. Uh, his name was Jerry, uh, or is Jerry, and uh I said, I'm ready for the next thing. And he asked, What did that look like? I said, I don't know yet. I told him I was working with my coach at the time. Um, her name is Sarah, and uh it was over the course of that year that we developed a plan and a framework of what that could look like. And then January 1st of 2020, that was when I launched in. I had a number of clients who had engaged uh on day one. So there was there was some comfort in that, and then of course, as most of the world is aware, April of 2020 here in the United States, uh, things changed dramatically, and half of those clients that I had already established paused because they didn't know what was going to happen with their business. But really, it was just a planning for a year, uh, developing uh client relationships or prospective client relationships over the course of that year, and then diving in. I did not have enough to support myself when I first launched. Thankfully, my wife was also working at that point, you know, and so it was immense gratitude for her that we were able to get through those first six months, first 12 months, really. Without her efforts, it wouldn't have happened.

Pedro Stein 8:08

Okay. A lot of shout outs. Shout out to Jerry, to Sarah, the wife, right? Monica. Now, Monica. Shout out to Monica. Okay. Now, you know, you started what, six years ago, January 2020, right? That's what you told me. And I noticed a name, I haven't brought it up, which is Co-Create. That's the name of your business. Can you walk me through that decision? Why co-create, man?

Todd Zimbelman 8:32

I think it's everything. I just, you know, how the the distillation of narrowing it down to that name came through a particular sounding board. Another shout out to Dan. You know, he was instrumental and uh supporting me through that period, just even as I had supported him on his own uh career journey. And so we would just have these back and forth conversations about you know, just that stream of consciousness, the things that I was thinking about. And I had through that again, just that reflection, said create and co-create, although not even realizing it had come out of my mouth, and he reflected it back to me. He said, What I hear is that you really want to co-create. Um, and he was the first one that said it back to me. And I'm like, Yeah, that's it. That's it. And it was just like that. That's I knew that's what it was gonna be.

Pedro Stein 9:27

Okay, interesting. Um now I'm curious about another thing. The the early days in coaching, I go back to these always. It's like when you start your business, right? And that happened to me. Uh, we tr we're trying to help everyone, right? We're like, yep, I can help you. Yeah, I can coach you. But eventually we sharpen the the blade. We got to a point that even if we knew down or not, it really depends. But we find people that we actually notice as our tribe, right? Um, so my ask my question to you is how did that evolution come up to what it is today, six later, six years later, you know, from the people you were helping to the people you help now, and who are they, you know, the the people you actually serve today.

Todd Zimbelman 10:11

Yeah, this is why you're so good at this, because you understand, you do it. Uh you know, so it's it's not specific to an industry. I and I've heard other coaches say, hey, really hone in on a become very niched. You know, it's it's a bit broader than that, but I do have criteria. And part of it starts with, you know, that what I was saying a few moments before and being in that corporate environment and losing my sense of purpose and passion. And so what I created for myself was a focal point, which was relative to that sense of purpose. And it became I will have a positive impact, I will lead by example, and I will help create change where change is desired. And so that became the light for me in that environment. And so, how that relates to your question in terms of the clients that I collaborate with, that I seek to collaborate with, is well, you know, one is where is the opportunity? Can I serve this individual? Do I have the ability to create some sort of positive impact in their life? You know, to lead by example, it you know, that that means I must, for me personally, must be doing these things or testing new things and leading by example. And so what I'm also evaluating is are they willing to also grow by doing things that are uncomfortable? That's part of leading by example because you know, that comfort zone to growth zone, the layer right outside of comfort is that fear zone or that discomfort. And, you know, that's other people's thoughts and opinions. It's our own self-doubt, it's the excuses that we make. And so it is the willingness that I'm also evaluating in terms of the clients, are they willing to take these steps and be in that fear zone to help create change where change is desired? What I've experienced is that some individuals that approach me say that they desire change. And then what I recognize, you know, either initially or shortly on, is no, that's not, that's actually maybe not accurate. And then there I also have boundaries around that as well. And it doesn't mean that I just leave a client high and dry and unsupported. I I, you know, I seek to work with them to be able to name that. But really, it's that criteria and that framework that I'm offering in terms of who are my ideal clients, who's my tribe. It's people that are interested in being the best possible version of themselves in this endless pursuit of working towards that. And that means that we have to we have to do things that are uncomfortable. Yeah.

Pedro Stein 12:46

Okay. Well, first of all, I'm gonna send this episode after it airs to my mom. So thank you for the kind words. When I'm so good at this, I'm not sure about that.

Todd Zimbelman 12:55

So it's well deserved, buddy. It's well deserved.

Pedro Stein 12:58

Mom, uh, we have Todd saying that to me and also the wife, okay, and my two boys. So thank you, Todd. Okay. Uh, on a side note, obviously. Now, moving forward, because before we get into a rabbit hole here, Todd, and start cracking some jokes, right? I'm curious about one thing. Actually, I want to do a quick exercise that will suffice that curiosity. Let's pretend I'm your ICP, I'm your ideal client profile. I want to be the best possible version of myself. I do desire change, right? Is it okay if I say I'm a business owner? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. I'm a business owner. A business owner. So let's first let's walk me through how I would be able to find you in the first place, marketing-wise, right? How will I be able to connect with you?

Todd Zimbelman 13:44

Yeah. That's a good question. Um, probably not as easily as I would hope, right? You know, so I use the social media channels. I have somebody that supports me in that. There's LinkedIn, there's Instagram, there's Facebook. Maybe that just to name this, maybe the challenge for me is I don't really participate in those platforms. So this is again where it's helpful to have somebody help me through those things. Most of my, I'll just name this. Most of my business has grown through word of mouth. And yeah, that's okay. You know, it's it's actually one of the questions that you'd asked me beforehand is you know, how how do you build the business? And I would just tell you this is something I've been very fortunate. I also named the the monthly revenue as part of our initial meet and greet. And so I think that I've been very fortunate in terms of what I've been able to participate in, co-create in, but I don't always know necessarily where my next client comes from. What I will tell you though is that I have a number of clients, I'd say 20%, that I started working with on day one that still continue to engage with me. And so I attribute that to just my constant pursuit of growth and being able to one, understand what are their needs. Um, and again, I'm I feel very fortunate that I have a number of people in my life that have helped promote me. And as soon as they hear something relative to their own experiences, I I get these random phone calls or random emails. Um, you know, and so that's kind of how it works. Um maybe I'm answering your question, maybe I'm not answering your question.

Pedro Stein 15:19

Oh, you are answering my question. Okay. Um, let's pretend I'm in the same scenario. I looked at your social media content you have out there, you know, uh Instagram, LinkedIn, you mentioned a couple, or even someone told me, hey, you gotta meet this guy. You gotta talk to Todd. And I'm like, okay. So speeding up the sales process a bit, I uh I make the effort. I'm doing the outreach. I'm like, hey, how do I work with you guys? Right? And we can speed up that a little bit. Let's say there's alignment, okay? I am uh a person you see you can help, I'm coachable and all that. Um so can you walk me through how does it look like to work with you? Okay, a little peek behind curtain and uh the potential outcomes I can expect out of it.

Todd Zimbelman 16:04

Yeah, I think somewhere where I've gotten better, just in terms of my own assertiveness, and it's just the recognition of what's most effective. If some if I'm approached, again, I sometimes I have no context. I'll get these very brief emails that say, Todd meet Matt, Matt meet Todd, take it from here. And that's the context. And then I have these, you know, 30-minute meetings, introduction foundation meeting, just to understand what is the opportunity. And as part of that, I name the framework, right? And is relative to the experience plus reflection equals expertise. I'm happy to elaborate on that, Pedro, if you'd like. And uh from a you know, from a structure standpoint, what I tell them is we must meet weekly, we must engage for no less than three months. It starting out, not that growth cannot happen before those three months, but it's just the mindset of commitment. In fact, oftentimes growth happens much sooner than three months. But then usually it's not a question of like what's the commitment I'm making without because I would say coaching is still very um it's in its growth stage, right? And so ICF, International Coaching Federation, right? They've created certifications. There's other ones out there that certain organizations will look for. But I what I will tell you in my experience is I've never had a client ask me for a certification. They are basing it on somebody else's experience share, and then they have this, you know. As much as I say Pedro does a fantastic job with this, you know, I also seek to just be very present. What is the need? What is the engagement level of the individual? Because I do a lot of this too, right? I spend probably 80% of my day looking at uh Zoom or some sort of uh screen, right? And so that in itself is this inter, you know, it's this interesting ability to be able to experience the energy transfer, the co-creation through the screen. And so that that's a part of the initial meeting, right? But we'll from a if this is answering your question, it's weekly, it's one hour a week, it's those three months, and then I just tell them what the engagement investment is. It's an investment in their growth. That's how I name that. And you know, what's wonderful about that is they've already named their challenge, they've already named the reason that they're there and what I'm able to tell them because the frameworks, the principles are pretty universal. Is here's my prediction based on the work and what it will create in their lives.

Pedro Stein 18:40

Okay. Interesting. Now let me ask it this of some of the coaches out there and even potential clients. Is it are we talking exclude exclusively about the one-on-ones, or is there a one-to-many component? How does that look like?

Todd Zimbelman 18:53

Yeah, I'd say a majority of my business is one-on-one, but I do a number of team meetings also. Um, and there's there's there's different offerings I have. I have a culture by design program that I offer that is really centered around gratitude. I'll be brought in by different organizations, some on a monthly basis where it's an all-team. Um, the largest team would be 50, just over 50 individuals. So it's an investment for this organization. They're putting everybody on pause for an hour and a half. And I come in and I teach a concept, a coaching concept. And then the other part of that meeting is we participate in gratitude. Everyone knows to come in with one thing, two things personally, professionally, and everyone has an opportunity to be heard. And from a business ownership standpoint, the business owner walks, it's like it's fascinating. They find out things they never would have found out from things that are happening in the business as well as in their team members' personal lives, um, because every person has this ability to express. It takes time. The there's there's science. I, you know, part each of these offerings are really connected to how is it grounded in neuroscience? What are we, you know, what here's the the results, the ROI, um, that return on the investment that you can anticipate as part of these experiences. But that's just one example. I do a number of different team meetings. Yeah.

Pedro Stein 20:17

Okay. Now here comes the first curveball. Okay. Prepare yourself. Okay, here we go. You mentioned team meetings. That's always something I'm I'm very curious about because I see a lot of coaches out there organizing, you know, team meetings, facilitating that. And they're hired by this guy who's the you know, the CEO or whatever, to facilitate a team meeting. And sometimes, I'm not saying it's your case, but sometimes there's a little bit of friction because they're like, okay, dad, I have to go to that meeting. They didn't hire you at the end of the day. So, how do you navigate that eventually if you have someone or if you're feeling the energy is not very positive in the room? It sounds like just their boss up to put them to the go-through.

Todd Zimbelman 21:03

Yeah, so two things. In the case of the gratitude meeting, this does not apply, right? So it's it's an all-team. But for most of these team meetings, where it's like an executive group, um, I work with each of the individuals on that team. So when we come together for a team meeting, there's relationship in place, you know, and so my my role is to be objective, my role is not to be right, my role is to reflect things back. My role is to, it's part of reflecting things back is to point out where somebody is being incongruent. And again, not to be right. I'll ask it as a question based on, you know, I take notes and I'm listening, and I it's interesting, even as I take notes, I write it down, not always verbatim, but as close as possible. And I write it down as an I am statement. It's whatever they're saying, right? And I'm like, let me just reflect back what I heard. I am dot dot dot, whatever that is. And so that reflective listening is really. Key. Specific to your question, have I participated in team meetings where somebody did not want to be there? Absolutely. Um, is that a challenge and an opportunity? Absolutely. And it has everything to do with trust, right? And if you know, Patrick Lencioni, just elaborate for a second. Patrick Lencioni has the five dysfunctions of a team. Maybe you've seen this graphic, it's a pyramid. If not, you can pull it up, right? And at the foundation of any team that's achieving results by design, that's the pinnacle. It says trust. And so then this is a tool that I would often introduce in these team meetings, especially if I haven't met somebody. Um, and we're sitting down now for a conflict meeting, because that's one of the reasons I'll get a phone call is to help navigate conflict. It's this foundation of trust, right? And so then I talk about well, what are some ingredients of trust? And what I tell them is part of the ingredients that I've identified, and Patrick Lincioni also spoke to is the accountability, or excuse me, yes, uh, not accountability, but authenticity. It's our willingness, it's our willingness to say the thing. It's you know, it's our thoughts, our words, our actions being aligned. And so this is a part of that reflective listening I was talking about a moment ago, like reflecting back things where maybe the authenticity is not not because there's fear typically, right? Especially in conflict, and you know this, your head is nodding, yes. People it's like if I say this, how will somebody receive it? I'm in this fear zone, and so my job is to try and help those things be presented in a safe manner so that they're being said, but it's the authenticity, it's the vulnerability, which is our willingness to say the things that need to be said. Um, and then something that we're evaluating and measuring as part of the trust component is competency and capacity, meaning, you know, so the competency, it's especially in the working environment. Again, you you can, I'm certain relate to this, Pedro. It's like if I go to Pedro and say, Hey, can you do this for me? And Pedro says, Yep, no problem. A week goes by, come back to Pedro, and I say, Hey Pedro, were you able to get that done? And he says, Nope. And I'm like, Great, can you do it? And he's like, Yes, I can. Another week goes by, same thing, right? I'm beginning to wonder, is it his competency? Does he not have the ability because of a lack of knowledge, technical ability, or is it his capacity? Is he overwhelmed? Um, and so these are things that I'm thinking about, especially when I'm in this team meeting environment where there's conflict and maybe people don't know me. I must be able to demonstrate them my competency. I must come across as a subject matter expert, and I must be able to demonstrate my capacity in being able to hold that container, especially in the conflict, because it becomes emotional. We become dysregulated. And so then I have to, as part of that in my co-creation, help to regulate and have the tools and the practices to be able to quickly build that trust. And that's my objective. That was a long answer to your question.

Pedro Stein 24:59

No, interesting. I found out that you do have a tracker here in my computer, so you know I eventually skip dates. Don't hit the don't hit the the timelines, okay? We got that saddle. Good to know. I'll take care of myself here a little bit more. No. Now, Todd, here come I love the answer, by the way, okay? But here comes the the second curveball because you mentioned a word keyword, capacity, you know, and uh there's a reason why I want to brought uh bring this up. I see a lot of coaches out there advocating against burnout, right? And sometimes they're burning out themselves. For example, your own practice, you have a lot of one-on-ones, you have you're facilitating teams, you have business development, right? So marketing, there is sales eventually. So, how do you think about capacity? So don't stretch yourself too thin and burn yourself in the process.

Todd Zimbelman 25:57

Yeah, I would say it's a great question. Again, speaking from experience, um, I would say that early on I didn't do well with that, right? Because I was trying to I was trying to build a business, um, be successful, uh, have enough to provide for my family, all the things, right? Um, which frankly, I think as a coach helps us to relate to the people that we're serving because oftentimes, again, the people that we're collaborating with are in pursuit of the same things. Um, you know, I'm very fortunate. So, you because again, you you asked this question earlier about you know sourcing, or maybe it's a question I think last time or you sent to me about like what organizations uh am I associated with. And so this isn't forgive me if I'm stealing your thunder, not to jump ahead here. But um I was very fortunate also as part of being this key executive for this entrepreneur that he belonged to an organization called EO, which is the entrepreneur organization. Um, and it would be similar to like a vistage or a YPO if anybody is familiar with those things. But the the key part of that experience is that you have a forum, and this forum meets monthly, and it's a we have a constitution for the sake of our meetings, and there's agreement, like confidentiality, especially for entrepreneurs who are maybe making decisions relative to finances, and so you know that one of the core principles is gestalt that they use gestalt language, right? So, as part of this forum experience, we are not permitted to should on each other. You should do this. I'll say, hey, don't shoot on me, I won't shoot on you. Um it's it so no advice, it's it's just the experience shares, right? And so that experience having a group of individuals in pursuit of many of the same things, uh, they were because it's again confidential, it's a vulnerable space. We talk about the 5%. We're supposed to talk about the 5% that's most vulnerable to us. And again, there's a framework to that. Um, I was able to listen to things that they were doing. You know, like one of the big things for me was getting a full-time executive assistant. That was a game changer for me. I could do as much of this throughout the day where my passion was, and my assistant could manage many of the things that frankly I didn't want to do, that I would do at the end of the day, that would then drain me, uh, so that right before I go home, you know, I've had all this energy transfer, excitement throughout the day, and then I get bogged down. I'm in QuickBooks, I'm scheduling appointments, I'm, you know, doing all these things that just it's just not where I want to be, right? And then so by having somebody that gets energy from that, again, my assistant, how virtuous. Um, that's one example. I I also hired a strategic implementer who helps me with the strategy part of my business and helping the growth. I have a social media marketing person that helps me with that. Now I have an AI person. So um that just helps me with AI integration. So I make a number of investments in building out the framework. And, you know, part of that is I've had other coaches approach me and say, I want to be a coach. And my response in the past was, I'll give you everything you need, go do it yourself. Um, but the pushback has been no, no, no, we want to work with you. And uh how humbling that is for me, and but I also recognize part of it is building out that framework. So, again, another long answer to your question.

Pedro Stein 29:37

I have another question for you because you were mentioning too in the early days, like you gotta you you went through the COVID era, right? And bills were knocking on the door and all of that. And one thing I see every coach wrestling with at some point is pricing, but not necessarily uh talking about hard numbers here, more about the mindset behind it, right? Because if you have that scarcity mindset and at the same time you have bills knocking on the door, sometimes you're like undervaluing you, you know, yourself. And the coaching space is a very self-worth path. At the end of the day, sometimes you're just trading your time for dollars, right? So, my question to you is how do you think about a topic today, the pricing? And weren't there any lessons along the way that shaped how you landed where you are right now?

Todd Zimbelman 30:27

Yeah. Again, I I know you're speaking from experience, and others that are likely listening to this have experienced it. Yeah. You know, I started at $100 an hour. That's where I started. And that's because, you know, I just there's a relationship between uh confidence and competence, right? And the relationship between these two points, because people will say, hey, I want to be more confident at this, and I'll say, Great, that's a feeling, and what we know is that our feelings are lagging to our way of thinking, and so part of that confidence experience is about ourselves perceiving that we're competent, and so that was my framework. I must build my competency, and that in this case, as I'm serving others, comes through the observation of growth through others and seeing what works and maybe where I need to adjust, and then as I gather that data, then you know I'm able to reinforce and offer more of that and then see even more growth. And as a result of my perceived competency, and then others also reflecting that back through their word of mouth, I became more confident. And because this work for me fills my bucket in another way, I'm not necessarily thinking, oh, I must raise my rates. But what did happen was I ran out of capacity and I couldn't take on any more clients. And I would from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., I'm going back to back to back to back. That's that burnout, right? And because it was like there's abundance, and uh it's like, no, another new client, that's fantastic. Somebody else is making referral, that's fantastic. And then I realized what I was saying before about bringing on these other resources, like my assistant. If I want to be able to support somebody else, that became my messaging to my clients. Hey, you know, thank you so much for your support. I'm raising my rates, I'm gonna bring on additional services to uh also improve your experience because that became the mindset. And then frankly, if not for my forum, I really would they held me accountable. This is the great thing about accountability and that strategic implementer that I was talking about before. We put dates to it, we put messaging to it, and we even he even predicted for me if you lost 20% of your clients as a result of this rate increase, here's where you'll end up. And it was still above where I was currently at, um, and I didn't lose any clients.

Pedro Stein 33:26

Nice. Love the insights, man. Now I want to shift gears for a second, you know, talk a little bit about future, what's next, what's exciting. So looking ahead. Where do you see the business going? Where's CoCreate going?

Todd Zimbelman 33:42

Well, I like more of looking at this face from the standpoint that you know, I I do appreciate very much um this opportunity. I set a goal last year, it was somewhat arbitrary from a number standpoint, but what I said was at the beginning of 2025, I want to be able to say that I positively impacted 50,000 lives. And that that that number part was arbitrary. The reason I said 50,000 lives was because it seemed like a really big number in my mind. Um, and so that then shifted my way of thinking of how do I go about accomplishing that? What do I what infrastructure do I have to build out beyond just my own efforts and this? Um and that was also right around the time another individual uh who had been interested in the coaching world had approached me and said, Hey, I want to start coaching. Tell me about your journey. And I told him, if you're really interested, then here are the things that I would encourage you to do. And so the, you know, to again, not to get too wide here, to answer your question specifically, it is still very much this focus of how do I continue to positively impact lives. It is also still very much about how do I build out this infrastructure. What I envision is part of that vision is that it means that the team, it's no longer Todd. That's why it's called co-create. It's not Todd Simbleman coaching. Um, not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just not my focus. I want to co-create. That's where my energy is at its peak. And so it's building out a team of people who are aligned to that, um, who want to go positively impact lives, um, which means that I also have to grow the business to be able to do that. At some point, I think I'd like to publish, you know, just from a writing standpoint. I think that there's in particular a challenge for me in that. I'm excited by the challenge. Last thing I'll say. One of the things, you know, I talk to clients about the buckets of their life, right? And if we can identify what those buckets are, I'm a father, I'm a coach, I'm a husband. Um, well then I, you know, I channel energy into those buckets. And they're not all going to be filled to the same level, but I seek to understand where's the harmonious point for each of these buckets, how appropriately do they need to be filled? One of the other buckets that I have is fear. And again, fear relative to growth. Fear, it has a purpose, and there are gifts of fear, the wisdom, the preservation. And also I recognize it again as that indicator of growth, and so that's why I pay attention to it. So later this year, um, there's a co-create summit that I have been challenged by my peers um to say, hey, you've been thinking about this. What's the timeline? And so now the timeline is upon us. And um, yeah, I mean, so it it's it's also just very much continuing to surprise well, I said I started with Pedro. It's continuing to surround myself by like-minded individuals who are in this pursuit of being the best possible version of themselves.

Pedro Stein 37:05

Okay. Now I have one last piece of question for you. Um, a little bit of a sci-fi thing. Okay. Let's pretend we have a time machine here in front of us, and you can step in, go six years back to when you started your own business, right? So, what kind of business advice you can choose one, okay, you would give to yourself when you started your coaching business that you wish you knew back in the day.

Todd Zimbelman 37:33

I'm gonna cheat if I can, right? It's a great question. This is an experience share because I think I would probably say what it was that I heard. That entrepreneur that was so incredibly supportive that I worked for before, because again, in 2019, I told him, hey, I'm thinking about the next thing. Some employers would say, You're checking out, you're out, you know. Not him. What he said is, I want to keep getting what I'm getting from you. And he likened it to, you know, he said, What is it like? Because I was running a gratitude meeting, I was doing all the coaching of the team members. That was just part of my role because he asked me, What's the best part of your role? And I named these things. And he said, What's it like? For whatever reason, I said it's like church on Sunday morning. Um, and he said, Okay, well, why would you want one church when you can have seven churches? Um, and I'm like, okay, that's interesting. Um, and what I would say is that has very much come to fruition in my life, just using that analogy of being able to spend my time doing this. But then I had some apprehension, especially as I got closer to that January 1st, 2020 uh date where I no longer had predictable W-2 income, and I was hedging and I was saying, Hey, what if I still did some of these other things that I was currently doing so that I could receive additional income? And he told me no. No, you cannot. And I was somewhat surprised by that, and he said, Todd, you need the fear. And if you have the fear, again, relative to growth, if you have the fear and you can sit in that fear and you can overcome that fear, no matter what sits in front of you, at any point, you know that you will be able to overcome it. And so that was the fuel for me, especially as April hit, and I tapped into my network deeper than what I had before, because when I needed to, but also I saw that people were in need, and that became my focus of how can I help? Even if there wasn't dollars that was associated with my investment, time, insights. Um, I just wanted to be able to have that positive impact. And then the result of that is it it exponentially grew my business because then some things with COVID the United States did in terms of supporting these businesses, it created additional income for them that was then invested in resources like myself where I could go focus on helping people.

Speaker 1 40:09

A cheated.

Pedro Stein 40:10

I love that, man. There's no it's like you're opposing the plan B mentality. There is no plan B. We're going, we're gonna push forward with this. And if you can own that fear, you're gonna make it, okay? Love that. Now, if someone listening wants to connect with your follow your work, Todd, and we're gonna have all the links in the description, okay? But what's the best way for people to find you and connect with you?

Todd Zimbelman 40:36

Yeah, everything is uh Grow with Co-Create. So the website is www.grow withcocreate.com. It's the same for Instagram, um, same for LinkedIn. Todd Zimbleman is my name. Um, co-create is the business. Probably not doing the best job of, but that that's it. That would be the way to get a hold of me.

Pedro Stein 40:56

Okay, you know, there were a few moments from this chat today that really stood out to me. I'm gonna read them back for you. Okay, for example, when you were in your early days feeling like a cog in the vast machine, and you kind of lost passion, right? I I that hits home for me. I worked at banking, I worked at a consulting firm, Ernest and Young here in Brazil. So, yeah, you know, when you're feeling like a little bit empty, is this really the thing, you know? Oh, that resonated with me a lot. And um, and also, but could it was a corporate in a way, right? When you got that executive coach exposure that you you went through, and you're like, oh, this is a thing, this is pretty cool, you know. So that's also interesting, great reminder. Um, another thing, when we were talking about the sales process process and how you manage that, and you're like, and who do you serve, right? So you help create change where change is desired, if I'm not mistaken. That's that's the quote. And then you follow up with, can I serve? So uh I was a high-ticket sales closer, something clicked for me when I stopped trying to close people, you know, get deals, push my agenda, and was there just to serve. So I'm not selling even. I'm just there, you know. I'm just going to this place. You want to hop on? Awesome. If not, it's all good either way. So coming from a place of being of service, is this is one of the reasons we created a podcast to be of service to other coaches. Great reminder. I love the the frame you you and and the intention you're coming from. It right, you you want to help people, and it gets as simple as that. So last but not least, the foundation when we were talking about trust, right? How to navigate those conversations. You're like, oh, the foundation, it really is trust. And that's a good tie-down for me. And the reason for it is because you were so vulnerable, so open the entire episode about your own struggles, what you've been through, right? And to create trust, you gotta meet them in the same level. At least that's my experience as a coach. So if you're open about your own struggles, you're not trying to pretend who you're not or trying to be perfect. Man, it's so much easier to create that type of trust and makes the work so much fun and smooth, and a lot of things are just great. Okay. Now, Todd, this is just my long-winded way of saying that I appreciate what you do, and I appreciate you being here and sharing so openly today, okay? It was great having you on.

Todd Zimbelman 43:29

Well, if I could have a moment for my own gratitude, I can I can I can see what a wonderful coach you are. I'm I'm very thankful that this is the purpose, the mission of um success leaves clues. Uh yeah, I I just I'm immensely thankful to you, and you make this very easy. You are very again, tell your mom, tell your wife.

Pedro Stein 43:52

Oh well, man.

Todd Zimbelman 43:53

You're very good at this.

Davis Nguyen 43:54

Thank you, man. I appreciate you. That's it for this episode. This episode, as well as this podcast, was brought to you by Purple Circle, where we help business owners elevate their business to six, seven, and eight figure years all without burning out. If you're looking to grow your business, as well as get the time freedom that you are looking for, visit us at join purplecircle.com and see what we can do to help you end your business.