IAM2076 – Leadership Coach Helps People Effectuate Change to Better Themselves

In this episode, we have Craig Colvett, a life and leadership coach from Denver, Colorado.

Craig Colvett is an expert in helping people effectuate change in various aspects of their lives, including career, personal relationships, mental health, time management, and transition periods. Craig also can address the human aspects of business and life.

He discusses his role as a coach and how it allows him to step away from being an expert and focus on listening, engaging, and guiding others towards their desired goals.

The conversation covers the importance of learning from challenging situations and using them as opportunities for personal growth and the need to recognize what can and cannot be controlled, and to focus energy on crafting a positive response.

Website: www.coach360.io

LinkedIn: Coach360 and Craig Colvett

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Transcription:

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Craig Colvett Teaser 00:00

Don't have to be the expert at anything. I have to be a good listener. I have to be engaged. I have to keep a little bit of a road map, if you will. I have to tell people that I coach, you're driving. I'm navigating. So I'm keeping my eye on the road, but I'm also mapping out where it is you wanna end up. And so trying to balance those two.

Intro 00:19

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:46

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Craig Colvett. Craig, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Craig Colvett 00:54

Thanks for having me here. Appreciate it.

Gresham Harkless 00:56

Yes, absolutely. Super excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're doing. And, of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Craig so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Craig Colvett is a life and leadership coach from Denver, Colorado. He focuses on helping people effectuate change to better themselves, whether that is in their career, personal relationships, mental health, time management, or transition periods.

Through his two decades of experience in the financial sector, Craig has established a reputation for helping people with all of the non financial elements of retiring, including finding their purpose, improving their mental health, and making sure they have a plan for social interaction. And I always say that, we forget about the human part of business and, honestly, the human part of life at that. And it sounds like Craig is able to speak and help people directly through those human parts. We think about all the nuts and bolts, but we forget about who are you gonna speak into, where's your mentor.

All those things, it sounds like Craig works with. And I love that he has a start in that financial industry. He has so much experience, but he helps people out with those, quote unquote, other parts. And then I don't know if he would argue that may or may not be as important or maybe even more important when you're setting those things up.

So, Craig, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

Craig Colvett 02:04

Absolutely. Let's go for it.

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Gresham Harkless 02:06

Let's get it started then. So to kick everything off, let's rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

Craig Colvett 02:13

Yeah, absolutely. We can come back to that argument question that you just brought up too if we have time because I could definitely make the argument there without then a problem. So, yeah, as you mentioned, I basically graduated college. I became a financial adviser. Yeah. I bring this up. It's important, right? Early on as an adviser, I was basically helping people craft and execute a financial plan, right? And being younger, I think one of the things we all lack is perspective. And so as time wore on, flash forward to somewhere around 2018, 2019. I became a father at that point. I had three young kids, so being a parent definitely starts to shape that perspective and give you a different lens.

And, also, the pandemic was starting to happen, right? So right at the beginning of 20^th, I had the pandemic that came to be. And so I just started to think a bit about what else I could do with my time, quite frankly, on earth over overly dramatized it a bit. And I thought about some different paths that I could go again with my skill set. I enjoyed engaging with humans, and I thought, how can I help them?

And one of the things that the pandemic highlighted was really how, on a basic level, many people were struggling. So like a basic level meaning day to day, their family, their primary relationship, ailing parents, there's a lot at play. And, again, being a somewhat new parent, at that point, my oldest was about four, but still growing into that role and recognizing the challenges, I thought, gosh, what an opportunity here to potentially be in front of these people and be there to support them in a way that they may not be getting.

And then also is not just to delve into coaching a little bit, coaching is not prescriptive. So I don't sit down with you, Gresh, and I don't say, here's what you need to do. Instead, I curiously explore, what do you wanna be doing? How are you spending your time? What support do you need? What's working? What's not working? And so what that allowed for me was, number one, it took me out of the expert role. I don't have to be the expert at anything. I have to be a good listener. I have to be engaged. I have to keep a little bit of a of a road map, if you will. I have to tell people that I coach, you're driving, I'm navigating. So I'm keeping my eye on the road, but I'm also mapping out where it is you wanna end up.

And so trying to balance those two. And so flash forward, all these things thrown into a pot. Okay. What options exist, right? And becoming a coach was one of them. And I simultaneously am running the business of Coach360, which is essentially a connector from my past life, if you will, where I was working with financial advisors. And now tying that into life coaching, because again, back to your argument conversation, the recognition that money is just the means, there's something always on the other side of money that people are grasping for, that they wanna get to. And that's what I wanted to help them achieve.

Gresham Harkless 05:08

Yeah, absolutely appreciate that. And I feel like we all have and probably are still going through some of that understanding of what our value is, what our purpose is, all those things as a result of the pandemic brought a little bit more awareness around that. So that sounds like a little bit more of what those conversations you are having with the people that you work with.

Craig Colvett 05:27

That's a big part of it, Gresh, is right, is helping folks recognize because it's very easy, again, especially being coming from the parent perspective. A lot of time you just get in these paths and it's the path of least resistance, right? There's something to be said for familiarity. And even if some people don't like what they do, there's familiarity to it. So it's easy to stay in those grooves, stay in those channels.

And at some point, sometimes perspective gets forced on us, right? So we've all seen movies or TV shows around somebody maybe getting a bad health diagnosis, or suddenly the death of a loved one, and all of a sudden they reevaluate what's important. And something that I've personally always believed is, I don't wanna have to wait for one of those moments to happen to me to reevaluate what's important and how I'm spending my life.

And so that's what I want folks to recognize is there is a way, there's a partner out there, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a coach, but it could be, to just simply reevaluate where are you right now? What arc are you on? Do you like it? Are you even remotely happy or are you miserable or somewhere in between? Let's pull it apart. I like to say I like to slow things down.

Gresham Harkless 06:37

Yeah. That makes so much sense that you consider some of those questions I imagine that you're having with your clients is exactly what would you take the people through.

Craig Colvett 06:44

Yeah. I think about stick with the sports analogy because for most of us, it's very visual. It's easy to see. We watch games. We attach ourselves to athletes, etcetera. But you think about all the greats and take whoever you want, all of the greats have coaches. And the reason is simple. The coaches aren't better, but they can see the whole field, right? Take whatever analogy you want. They can see all the players. They can see different skill sets. They can see where things are working, where they're not.

Gresham Harkless 07:10

So I know you touched on me a little bit, but I want to drill down a little bit more to hear a little bit more on how that process goes in terms of you working with your clients, how you serve them, and what you feel like might be a little bit of what I like to call your secret sauce and what sets you apart and make sure you need.

Craig Colvett 07:24

For sure. Process wise, the biggest thing is it's really exploratory, right? You have to go in with a really, really wide net, be really open to self discovery, right? Because some of the questions, and this is a potential reason why folks may not wanna work with a coach, is they don't always wanna find out some of these answers. They're better left untouched because finding the answers to some of these questions that we don't wanna ask can really scare people.

And that's a good thing because it means there's something else there, right? If it's scary, there's something that has not been unpacked and dealt with. So that's really important. And so we wanna honor the initial agenda, but we also wanna maintain a lot of flexibility. And so allowing that nimbleness, that flexibility to come up, and I like to allow energy to dictate it. So how is somebody's energy towards a topic? How does it make you feel when I say a certain word or when you think about what you're gonna be doing tomorrow?

And so what that allows is, again, the client to still dictate it, but allows the coach to provide some accountability and some perspective and bring it back to, hey. Initially, when we started out, we were talking about your career. We have since moved into your physical health. Do you wanna stay on this path or do you wanna come back or what does that look like for you? And so really it's allowing the client the control, but it's also giving them some some bumpers a bit at times to say, pick a path and be very intentional for right now.

Gresham Harkless 08:59

Yeah. That makes so much sense. And so do you feel like your ability to be able to understand that is part of, like, what sets you apart and makes you eat that secret sauce?

Craig Colvett 09:06

Yeah. So they'll tell you when you go through a coaching program, they'll tell you that again, back to the the coach is not the expert. You are your own expert, right? But there's an important part here in that life experience rolls up into, again, whatever professional role we have. And so being a parent allows me to to be a different coach, for example. And so, yeah, I do think that's a big part of aggression, simply saying to folks, being able to hold people accountable in a very firm yet respectful way. You told me X. Your actions are Y, what are your thoughts? Tell me what's going on here.

And so I think there's a comfort being able to call people on the carpet in a sense to themselves. There's a potential conflict in there, right? And it can feel uncomfortable. And I actually think that's something that I've really grown accustomed to, that I do well, is look. You hired me for a reason. You told me this is important to you. In order for me to effectively help you, we need to square this a bit. And so I think that's a big part of of that.

And, honestly, just being really empathetic and letting them know they are not alone. So something I do when I coach is sometimes I will share with the client's permission. I'll share something that's maybe a similar struggle to what they're dealing with. And in general, coaching philosophy would tell you that's no no, but I believe the bond is strengthened when two people are experiencing a similar challenge. I think people recognize that and they gravitate towards it. And so I do, again, with their permission, I'd like to let them know. I'd like to share this with you because you're not alone out there. None of us are.

Gresham Harkless 10:49

Yeah, absolutely. So would you consider that to be what I like to call a little bit more of a CEO? I have just like an Apple book or even a habit that you have, but something that makes you more effective and efficient. Is it that ability to be able to ask the I don't know if I wanna say the right questions, but ask those questions and look at things in a different perspective. Do you think that exercise could be a seal on that pack for you?

Craig Colvett 11:08

Yeah. So, actually, it ties into a book, Gresh. It's, Mindset. Carol Dweck's book, Mindset. And what she talks about in there I think I'm gonna get this mostly right. What she talks about is every situation is an opportunity for you to learn something about yourselves. So one example that she used in there, and there were numerous, there were sports examples, there were academic examples. But one of the examples that really stuck with me, because I have kids who are elementary school, is how, she used one specific teacher, for example, how the teacher asks herself what she can learn from six, seven, eight, nine year old kids.

And at first glance, I'm like, what's the kid gonna teach your kid? But she's right because she can evaluate her teaching methods. How are my kids responding? How is their behavior when I'm teaching a certain subject matter? And so back specifically to your question, the situations that we have the potential to learn the most from are the ones that actually at the time suck the most, the ones that suck the most. So it's a great opportunity again to learn about yourself and figure out what you're made of, what you can do differently, how you come out better at ford on the other side.

This might be the the CEO nugget thing. You really have to recognize what can you control and what you cannot control. And don't waste your time and energy because it's easy to do, and I'm guilty of this. I'll be the first one to pipe up and go, man, I've spent too much time, wasted energy, frustration about a situation that I didn't want to happen as opposed to simply saying, how am I gonna craft my response accordingly and direct my energy there? And so maybe that's another one that ties into both of happening for you, but also, again, how how you gonna choose to respond? Control what you can control, make that your focus of where your energy goes.

Gresham Harkless 12:57

Yeah, absolutely. So what would you consider to be your answer to my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be? And our goal is to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on their show. So, Craig, would just being a CEO mean to you?

Craig Colvett 13:06

It really means freedom, Gresh. There's creative freedom. There's time freedom. There's freedom from money. The creative one, I'll stick with just for a moment and say, I didn't think I was that much a creative until I started my own business, and then I was like, oh, this is a wonderful part of and I see the smile on your face, and so I know you can relate. The creative freedom is incredible, right? You get to in a large extent, you get to choose the path you go, who you work with.

And I think that's an important part, especially you didn't touch on retirement earlier. When we think about how we spend our days, one of the things I really harp on with people who are still working and thinking about retirement is right now your coworkers, you spend more time with than anybody, than your own family, your spouse, your kid. You spend more time with your coworkers than anybody out there. And so who are you spending your time with? Do you like them as people? Do you like the mission that you're on collectively?

And so for me, having that freedom, being able to talk to folks like yourself, being able to hopefully spark something in people and get them thinking in a different way and hoping that some inspiration, some change can come along. But the freedom that comes with, again, running your own business, not having to, run ideas by people or have a compliance improvement or anything is a really big thing for me. So I'm really, enjoying that aspect of it.

Gresham Harkless 14:27

Yeah. I think it's so much in line with everything that you do because you start to, again, create space for your clients to start to have those conversations. What do you want to paint? What does that look like? And I think whether we're talking about a business or your life or anything like that, we sometimes forget we have that paintbrush in our hands.

Craig Colvett 14:42

Big time. Right? People do. Because, again, you think about people's trajectories and think about maturity levels, even the courage, right? Courage is something that really should grow with age. And so it can be really tricky when you're in your, let's say, late teens, early mid late twenties, early thirties. It can be really challenging to come up with the courage to make the move that's gonna best suit you for the long term because you might upset some people along the way.

You might surprise people. You might disappoint people. And that's an important part of what coaches can do is they can free people from the other's expectations and allow them that. So that's a great comment about the recognition you do have the power, and some of these limiting beliefs might be coming from, again, an old belief system, society. Society tells you gotta be doing this. What do you think?

Gresham Harkless 15:39

Yeah, absolutely. So, Craig, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I want to do now is pass on the mic, so to speak, just see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find about all the awesome things you're working on.

Craig Colvett 15:53

Absolutely. I'll give them the easy ones first. You can go find Coach360 on LinkedIn, Craig Colvett on LinkedIn as well. That's where all my content goes, and you can find some resources there for yourself. Again, the Coach360 business pairs up to the financial advisor world, so that could, be something as well.

Gresham Harkless 16:12

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much, Craig. We're gonna have the links and information to show notes, of course, for people to follow-up with you. So thank you so much for holding space for so many people to do that, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Craig Colvett 16:22

Same to you. Thanks for having me, Gresh.

Outro 16:24

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by CBNation and Blue16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community.

Check out the latest and greatest apps, books, and habits to level up your business at CEOhacks.co.

This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless, Jr. Thank you for listening.

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