September 11, 2025 • 40 mins
In this episode of Career Coaching Secrets, our guest is Kristine Dias, a dynamic career strategist and coach passionate about helping professionals unlock their potential, transition into fulfilling roles, and build impactful personal brands. Kristine shares her journey, key insights on navigating career growth, and actionable strategies for professionals at every stage. With years of experience in career development, leadership coaching, and personal branding, she has empowered countless individuals to find clarity and confidence in their career paths.
You can find her on:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristine-dias/
https://www.kmdadvisory.com/
You can also watch this podcast on YouTube at:
https://www.youtube.com/@CareerCoachingSecrets
If you are a career coach looking to grow your business you can find out more about Purple Circle at http://joinpurplecircle.com
Get Exclusive Access to Our In-Depth Analysis of 71 Successful Career Coaches, Learn exactly what worked (and what didn't) in the career coaching industry in 2024: https://joinpurplecircle.com/white-paper-replay
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristine Dias (00:00):
I am kind of a, I joke, it's the no BS version
of, you know, leadershipdevelopment.
And sometimes there's some hardtruths that have to play into
that and how we move forward.
But that's me.
And I will always be authenticto who I am, I think.
Davis Nguyen (00:16):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast
where we talk with successfulcareer coaches on how they built
their success and the hardlessons they learned along the
way.
My name is Davis Nguyen, andI'm the founder of Purple
Circle, where we help careercoaches scale their business to
$100,000 years, $100,000 months,and even I'll see you next
time.
Kevin Yee (00:47):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast.
I'm Kevin, and today we arejoined by Christine Diaz.
She is the founder of KMDAdvisory.
She just recently fullytransitioned into her business
as of one year ago.
Welcome to the show, Christine.
Kristine Dias (01:04):
Thank you.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Kevin Yee (01:07):
Well, one of the ways that I like to start off this
podcast, by the way, islistening to the origin story,
the lore.
And so let's start at thebeginning.
What was the moment that yourealized that you wanted to do
coaching and more importantly,turn it into a business?
Kristine Dias (01:23):
Yeah, of course.
So I have been in humanresources for just about 20
years in a variety of positions.
And my last corporate HR role,I was working as the vice
president of HR for a technologycompany here in Arizona.
And a big focus of my job wasto coach and develop new
(01:46):
leaders.
new managers and really enjoyedit.
And so when we were thrust intowhat I call the private equity
cycle, we were purchased by aprivate equity firm and kind of
went into that buying or beingbought cycle of that world.
You know, I knew at some pointmy time would come and I most
(02:07):
likely would be acquired and myposition would become redundant.
And that eventually did happen.
And so I took some time off,did some soul searching about
what I wanted next in my careerand determined, you know, I
really enjoyed working withmanagers who were new to people
management.
(02:27):
I had seen it working in a techcompany.
I was working with brilliantsoftware engineers.
So smart people knew theirstuff who then were put in
positions either by choicebecause they thought that they
needed to be a people manager toprogress in their career or
because we asked them to becausethey were so good technically
(02:48):
at their jobs that we wantedthem to lead a team.
And they struggled.
You know, they're fantastictechnically, but they struggled
with the people management partbecause no one taught them how.
And it wasn't necessarily, youknow, they knew that go have a
one-on-one meeting, go have aperformance review conversation.
They didn't know the nuances ofhow to build trust in a team,
(03:12):
how to create an environmentwhere risk was not just
tolerated, but wanted.
We wanted folks to try newthings and make mistakes and
have that be okay.
And how do you create thatenvironment where you, the
people manager, are then goingoff and creating problem
solvers, right?
So you now have this cohesiveteam of individuals that were
(03:36):
thriving in a collective unit.
So that's kind of where thiswas born.
I walked away from corporate HRwanting to do more of that work
and contribute and help newmanagers in that environment.
Kevin Yee (03:49):
Yeah.
I'm kind of curious, too, aboutthe journey of your soul
searching and all that.
Like, as you were thinkingabout going full time, what were
some of the thoughts orfeelings that you're kind of
noticing?
Were you scared?
Were you excited?
Oh, yeah.
Kristine Dias (04:04):
Terrified.
It's terrifying.
I had done consulting work in apast life, you know, but I was
doing it for a business.
I had the support, the name,the leverage of having a company
behind me so the scary partwasn't the work I knew the work
part the scary part was howvulnerable it does feel to go
(04:24):
out on your own and have it beyour name your reputation and no
one is around or behind younecessarily to lean on and so
that's scary it's a very lonelyvery scary vulnerable thing to
do so yeah I went through I wentthrough the roller coaster of
emotions of can I do this shouldI do this should I just go get
(04:44):
another job am I making amistake right so lean on the
support groups that you do have.
So for me, my family was huge.
I needed to know that my familybacked me and they did 100%.
Your network, my professionalnetwork came out in numbers I
couldn't even imagine.
It was very humbling to see andfeel the support of people that
(05:05):
I had worked with over thecourse of my career.
I joke when I finally, youknow, I worked on this for
months and when I was finallyready to let the world know I
was doing this, of course, wheredo you go You go to LinkedIn.
You put something out there.
You let the world know.
That was terrifying for me tobe able to do that and have that
moment of exposure andvulnerability to tell people I'm
(05:27):
doing this because the what ifsstart.
What if I fail?
What if they think this issilly?
What if nobody is interested?
And the moment that I did that,so just to put it in
perspective, it was Monday NightFootball.
It was a Monday afternoon.
Huge Buffalo Bills fan.
They were playing.
I went out and drafted myLinkedIn spiel to tell the world
I was doing this.
(05:48):
I hit the button to post it andI left.
I went out and watched thefootball game and had dinner
with my family.
And when I came back, theresponse was overwhelming.
So yeah, I went fromterrifying, I can't believe I'm
doing this, I shouldn't do this,to wow, this might really work
because this is the responsethat I'm seeing once I got up
(06:09):
the nerve to tell people I wasgoing to go off and do it.
Kevin Yee (06:11):
Thank you so much for being so vulnerable and sharing
your thoughts during that timetoo.
It It really helps because I'msure there's other coaches or
other people going through verysimilar life situations of
leaving a secure job into doingtheir own thing.
Which leads me into the nextquestion.
What do you feel like thebiggest difference between
running your own business andworking a nine to five is like?
(06:33):
What do you feel like the maindifferences that you're
noticing?
Kristine Dias (06:36):
You wear all the hats.
So when you work a nine to fivejob, you have other people.
You have a marketingdepartment.
You have an IT department.
You have an accounting team.
You have people around you tolean on and to help with the
things that are required to runa successful business.
When you step out on your own,it's you.
(06:57):
You are the IT person.
You are the accounting team.
You are the marketingprofessional.
And you have to learn how to doall of those things yourself.
And the balance between doingthe work, right?
So you're out, you're doingyour business development.
Great.
It's working.
You get work comes in.
You then have to go off and dothat.
at work, right?
(07:17):
So you're supporting theclients by doing the actual job
itself that you're out to do,but you still have all of these
things in the background thatneed to be done and there's no
team there.
There's no back office, youknow, especially in the
beginning because you can'tafford that, right?
You can't afford the help.
So, you know, you have to learnhow to do all of those things
and it's challenging.
That balance of continuing tobuild a pipeline of work to come
(07:42):
in, but also doing the work asit comes in can be challenging
and under understanding when toscale, when to bring in help,
how to bring in help, when tolean on the network that you
have.
That's been huge for me.
Definitely, if you go out andlook for it, there is a huge
community of HR consultantcoaches, business coaches,
(08:04):
leadership coaches out therethat are experienced, fractional
support people that areexperiencing the same thing you
are.
So find them, right, and leanon them because that's a huge
help to be able to kind of buildthat network of support because
it's just you.
Kevin Yee (08:21):
You said something really interesting.
You're marketing, you are thesales, you are the accountant,
you are everything.
You're also the one, thejanitorial services probably
too, right?
You're everything.
And so what I'm really curiousis like, what are you noticing
when it comes to balancingeverything?
What are some things that arereally working for you?
(08:42):
What are some things that arenot so sexy behind the scenes
too?
Kristine Dias (08:46):
Yeah.
It's messy.
I mean, I won't lie.
It's not perfect.
And you really have to findyour own tool kit that works.
I'm a big fan of tools thathelp me manage my time and be
efficient with my time.
So, you know, I use a billingsystem that will automatically
generate invoices and send thoseout when they need to.
Time trackers, you know,finding tools to help you track
(09:08):
your time so you know where timeis going.
It's eye-opening in thebeginning because you think,
man, I'm being so efficientdoing all these things and if
you start tracking your time yousee these pockets of I'll call
you know dead space where you'rereally not productive because
you might be spinning on a newidea or you know that context
(09:28):
switching from client work toadmin work to marketing to
business development so beingable to track your time to
understand where you're you'refocusing and spending most of
your time is really helpful forme and again leaning on that
network so if I don't knowsomething and it is not my
specialty.
I have people.
(09:49):
I have resources.
Hey, what do you think aboutthis?
How should I go about doingthis proposal or this pitch for
this type of client?
I joke that I am in thebusiness of people for a reason.
I am not a numbers person.
No one wants me doing theirtaxes or doing their accounting.
So I go find folks that arespecialists at that and can then
(10:10):
kind of build up a community ofindividuals to help me when I
need that.
Kevin Yee (10:15):
Yeah, you mentioned this your support.
It sounds like you have a minicommunity of people that you
lean on.
Who are these kind of peopleand how did you meet them?
Kristine Dias (10:24):
Yeah, so networking is probably the
quickest answer to how I metthem.
Just being out in the communityand getting to know people.
There are community groups outthere that can help you connect
with some of those folks.
Just some examples.
So there's a group called FPP,Fractional People People, and
they specialize in bringingtogether HR our consultants and
(10:47):
coaches.
That's been hugely helpful forme.
You know, as far as when youthink about wearing those
different hats that kind ofbuild out a business leadership
team, marketing, finance,operations, networking has
probably been the best for me.
I go out seeking those types ofbusiness to business networking
opportunities to be introducedto or learn from individuals in
(11:12):
those specialties.
They're out there.
It's just a matter of askingthe right questions and finding
them.
And so I started asking peoplethat I already knew, do you know
anyone that is doing this?
I'm trying to build out anetwork of individuals in
certain areas, so I have a goodsupport group.
Is there anyone that you thinkI should talk to?
(11:33):
And it just snowballs fromthere.
You'd be surprised how manypeople will come out and say,
oh, yeah, I know so-and-so.
They're doing this.
Or I have someone I used towork with is now out on their
own doing fractional CFO work.
They might be grateful.
for you to talk to.
So being willing to go out andask those questions of the
network that you do have of whoyou should be speaking with.
Kevin Yee (11:54):
That's a beautiful thing that you've built up to
this network and I can see howimportant it is to you as well.
Let's go back to the coachingbusiness, right?
One thing I am curious is likethe marketing aspect, right?
So you did mention marketingearlier and so I'm kind of
curious about the differenttypes of marketing you're trying
so far and how are peopleusually finding you right now?
Kristine Dias (12:15):
Yeah, so you know I do a variety of things I hate
to sound like a broken recordhere but referrals in in the
community of people you alreadydo know has been huge for me at
least in the beginning peoplethat I've worked with finding
out that I'm going to go off anddo this is my my full-time
focus they either had a need orknew someone who had a need so I
(12:36):
was fortunate enough to havethose first clients come in
through individuals that I knewdirectly I am heavily involved
in the human resources communityin the city that I live in here
in Arizona.
So there's a lot of leveragethere.
I'm a big fan of LinkedIn.
I think for what I do and theprospects that I'm looking to
(13:01):
reach, that's a great avenue forthat.
I'll be the first to say I'mnot a salesperson.
I'm not pushy.
I've been on the receiving endof cold emails and all of those
things.
I was not a fan.
I don't want to be that person.
I want to I'm very authenticand genuine in the value that I
provide and it's not right foreveryone.
(13:22):
So being able to advertise in achannel like LinkedIn or social
media or on a website and beable to advertise how I work and
the value I can bring and theexpertise that I have, allowing
individuals to see that and beable to then tap into, I think
we need to talk, right?
And then being able to bringthat together.
(13:44):
I just want to be the personpeople think about when they
they think of this need right idon't want to push this on
anyone i want it to be we havenew managers we've we've
experienced a significant growthrecently we have all these new
people managers and then youknow and i want my name to be
the one they think of right myexperience yeah
Kevin Yee (14:05):
yeah it's a beautiful time we live in and especially
in the age of social media whereyou know you don't have to send
out like radio broadcasts orall these old school ways or
like flyers or anything likethat either.
Yeah, I'm
Kristine Dias (14:17):
not doing mailers.
Kevin Yee (14:20):
Or door knocking.
Kristine Dias (14:21):
Right, right.
Kevin Yee (14:24):
Yeah, and I'm kind of curious.
It sounds like a lot of yourbusiness is coming through
content marketing, largelyreferrals.
And so as you're doing yourmarketing, what sort of
challenges are you noticing whenit comes to finding clients
right now?
Kristine Dias (14:38):
So for me, it feels like market saturation,
honestly.
There's a lot of us out there.
There's a lot of individuals inthe same shoes that I'm
wearing, you know, coming out ofa corporate position, wanting
to focus on what they enjoy.
So there's a lot of noise inthe market as far as marketing
(14:59):
goes.
And I think just holding firmto who you are is really the
key.
You know, at the end of theday, individuals are engaging
with me because it's me, right?
We can all learn differentcoaching models.
We can all learn toolkits andhave play and those things but
at the end of the day it's thepeople interaction and how I
(15:21):
deliver that content how I teachhow I coach my personality my
method my communication styleall of those things is really
what is being purchased rightwhat I'm having someone engage
with and so yes it's saturatedand I do see that and I think
there's a lot of noise out therein the consulting world around
(15:45):
all the things you shouldn't bedoing and all the problems that
the professional and corporateworld has.
And I think if you just staytrue to your piece of how you
can help make that better, itcancels out a lot of that noise
and you can kind of focus onyour ideal client and those that
work best with you versustrying to do this, cast a wide
(16:08):
net and capture everyone, right?
Because you're not meant foreveryone and not everyone is
meant for you.
That's why there's a lot ofconversations around who's your
ideal client and how do you makesure you can find your ideal
client because that is a thing.
There are people out there thatare not necessarily a good
match for you because of styleor a variety of other things.
(16:28):
So challenges around findingthose individuals and cutting
through the denseness of what Ifeel is out there right now in
the consulting world.
Kevin Yee (16:39):
Yeah, it has me really interested in your kind
of unique approach aboutcoaching, if there's a unique
approach, but like is theresomething that you believe about
coaching that most othercoaches in your similar coaches
in your field that they woulddisagree with
Kristine Dias (16:54):
do
Kevin Yee (16:55):
you have any like polarizing beliefs or anything
like that I
Kristine Dias (16:59):
don't know if it's polarizing I'm a very
direct individual and thatdoesn't always resonate with
everyone I am known to give sometough love when it's needed but
it comes from a place ofkindness it comes from a place
of wanting to be better or helpsomeone be better not everyone
comes to coaching though fortough love so you know sometimes
(17:21):
that I don't know if that'spolarizing but it is a little
different I am kind of a I jokeit's the no BS version of you
know leadership development andsometimes there's some hard
truths that have to play intothat and how we move forward but
that's me and I will always beauthentic to who I am I think I
think there's a for a lot ofcoaches that start out there's a
(17:43):
certain sense of who we shouldbe be and if you move too far
away from who you really are thevalue of what you bring to the
table doesn't resonate and youhave to be who you are and
because that's going to comethrough in your day-to-day
conversation so if you'reselling a picture perfect
version of what you think youshould be and then the real life
interaction is different thenthere's a disconnect there so
(18:07):
hey i don't know that i haveanything polarizing other than
i'm just me and very you knowsometimes that's to the point
direct and sometimes i say noand sometimes you know the
answer isn't maybe one thateveryone wants to hear but in
the end it comes from a place ofwanting to make that individual
better and
Kevin Yee (18:27):
help them yeah I like that authentic no BS kind of
like I think sometimes whenpeople hear no BS they take it
as like ill intent but I'm gladthat you clarified that it's
coming from a place ofbetterment and improvement and
growing your clients as well onething I am interested in are
like is like I love hearing thedifferent business models that
(18:48):
are working for coaches atdifferent stages right and so it
seems like you do mostlyone-on-one but I know other
coaches have done like groupcoaching and all that if you're
comfortable sharing like youwalk me through the different
coaching modalities that you usefor the transformation for your
ideal clients
Kristine Dias (19:05):
yeah so we'll do one-on-one coaching I've
actually done quite a bit ofcohort type training development
for new leaders so goingthrough multi-week weekly
session.
So I've done some at six weeks,I've done some at eight weeks,
and it's a small cohort, six toeight people in that group.
We meet weekly for 90 minutes.
(19:25):
So just enough time to reallyget into a topic, but not so
much, you know, not a full daywhere I'm taking a full day away
from their work.
What I like about the weeklycohort group training
development model is we focus onone topic per week, and they
have the ability to go off andpractice that in the real world.
And then when we come back, wetalk talk about how it went,
(19:47):
what struggles, challenges theysaw before moving into the next
topic for that trainingdevelopment session.
It also creates that communitywithin that cohort as well.
And they are able to, one, hearthey're not alone in the
challenges that they'reexperiencing, but also can get
different perspectives andideas, honestly, from someone
(20:08):
other than me, right?
Someone that has lived throughwhat they're going through and
gives the opportunity for someof those experiences to be
shared.
So I'm huge fan of cohorttraining leadership development
especially for new managerscoming in that maybe need to
hear some experiences that theyhaven't seen yet so they're
prepared for when they do comecome across their desk or into
(20:29):
their office
Kevin Yee (20:30):
yeah that's really interesting that you're doing
the cohort model one of myfavorite models honestly too one
of the things i am also curiousabout you don't have to give
any hard numbers but if you'reopen to it i love to talk about
pricing strategy because i thinkthis is where most new coaches
kind of struggle the most andsince you're like when you're in
i would love to hear yourperspective on this
Speaker 02 (20:50):
yeah
Kevin Yee (20:51):
how do you structure your pricing because i've heard
different models some peoplecharge hourly some people do
retainers some people doproject-based value-based
outcome-based there's so manydifferent models which ones did
you kind of resonate to whenstarting a business
Kristine Dias (21:06):
that is probably the hardest thing for me is
understanding how to put valueon what you're providing The
short answer is I do stay awayfrom hourly based pricing.
I do tend to...
Kevin Yee (21:20):
That's a general sentiment.
Kristine Dias (21:22):
Yeah, that would be my recommendation to anyone
going out.
Stay away from hourly basedpricing because you do get into
this tracking of time and howmuch it becomes minimum, very
labor intensive for you to beable to track your time, but
also doesn't necessarily alwaystranslate to the value of the
outcome that you're providing.
And so I will do project basedpricing.
(21:43):
So the circumstance might beI'm going to deliver a cohort
training multi-week program to agroup of leaders within one
company.
I'm going to go into a companyand train this group of leaders.
That's a project with aspecific outcome.
I'll charge a rate for that.
And I typically will break itbetween content and facilitation
(22:06):
so that you can scale.
If they want to continue to addleaders, then you can scale
that pricing pretty easily ifyou're just tacking on
additional facilitation I willdo outcome or value-based
pricing for some things thatmaybe are more geared towards
just my expertise beingdelivered or providing an
(22:26):
outcome that the value is whatyou're providing, right?
The experience, the skill, theknowledge is what you're
providing to them.
So being able to, and that'stricky, being able to put a
dollar on something like that.
And it is trial and error.
I mean, I've asked these samequestions of other coaches
because it was definitely a weakpoint for me coming in is how
do I price so that there's thisfear of either you're going to
(22:49):
be too low and you're kind ofshortchanging yourself and
you're not in the mix of whereyou should be and providing a
dollar figure to that value.
And the bigger fear, honestly,is you're overpricing and people
decline, right?
And so now the work's notcoming in because you've priced
yourself out of the market.
And I will say that's neverhappened.
I've never had an experiencewhere I've had a client come
(23:10):
back and say, no, flat outbecause of a price that I put
on.
something.
They may come back and say,that's not really within our
budget.
Can we work to figure somethingout here?
So there may be some give andtake and some negotiation.
I've never had a client comeback and just flat out refuse on
pricing.
So just to give that sentimentout to those that are maybe
(23:32):
starting out and that have thatfear that I had that I might
price myself out.
And so you price lower becauseof that.
Never had that experience.
Kevin Yee (23:41):
Yeah.
Usually no is a really greatplace to throughout the
negotiations and stuff.
At least you know, like, okay,the out of bounds, like, okay.
Kristine Dias (23:52):
Right, right.
Sorry, I just want to add thispoint.
When you're in thoseconversations with a prospective
client, ask, do you have abudget in mind for this?
And if they do, they'll tellyou, you know, it might be a
range or they might, you know,not give you a straight number,
but if they have somethingspecific, they'll share it.
And so that's a good questionto ask when you're going through
that process.
Kevin Yee (24:12):
Yeah, and even if it's like a bigger...
like company deal or like b2eor b2b or something
discretionary spend and stufflike that getting an idea and
that really helps but what makesyour industry so interesting is
that it's not like you'reselling sales coaching or
marketing coaching where it'slike so tightly correlated with
(24:34):
the dollar and then the value ispretty obvious there you're
dealing with people and stuffand there's so many ways to
price anchor on like that valuetoo do you price it based off of
like, I don't know how much itcosts you to find new employees
for return or whatnot.
Kristine Dias (24:52):
Yeah.
So anyway, you can tie toproductivity, right?
So if it's turnover or, andthat's a big one in our
industry, if you can, if you cantie your value to reduction in
turnover, because that's time tofill positions, right?
The cost of interviewing andtraining and recruiting, all the
things that go into hiringsomeone, the onboarding and and
(25:15):
training of a new employee andthat on-ramp time, there's cost
there.
And so for those of us that arein a coaching position or
industry, being able to tie thevalue of what we do to employee
retention so that you're notincurring those costs related to
turnover.
Kevin Yee (25:35):
It's a really tough one, but very interesting to see
how you kind of do it as well.
Something also I'm reallyinterested in is like, you
mentioned something about trialand error earlier.
And so I'm kind of curious,like you seem like someone who
is very clear on theirboundaries.
You're not afraid to say no.
But what kind of boundaries orterms have you kind of had to
(25:56):
set in place with your business,either with clients, with your
time, with your pricing thatwere hard but necessary?
Kristine Dias (26:02):
Yeah.
So I yes, I'm very good withboundaries and I am comfortable
saying no, but I'm going to puta caveat on that when you are
starting your own business andit is that feast or famine of
being in a solopreneur mindset,saying no is very hard because
there's income attached to that,right?
(26:22):
There's clients attached tothat.
So I go back to that being verytrue to who you are and what
you want your business to be.
And so I'm still working onthis, but being clear on who
your ideal client is and workingand finding those individuals
(26:42):
that fit that model for you andI'll give you an example I will
push the boundaries on things Iwill say yes to that maybe are
outside of the traditionalleadership new manager type
coaching to help a company thatI feel passionate about that I
want to support and sometimes Ifall back into more of an HR
consultant role when thathappens and that might be around
(27:05):
putting HR programs in placeand being able to help them
build the structure to then gooff and hire those new managers
and get to that point but I knowSo I don't want to do your
payroll.
I'm not your benefitsadministrator.
I'm not looking to do thetactical day-to-day HR
(27:26):
compliance policy stuff.
There's nothing wrong withthat.
I just know that I don't wantto be in the business of doing
that on a regular basis.
And so I hold those boundaries.
And so if I have someone thatcomes to me and says, hey, can
you run a handbook for us?
Yes.
However, I think you'd be muchbetter off if I partnered with
you.
And that's where that networkof resources comes in.
(27:47):
I still have the ability tohave someone that I can then
refer to that individual.
I can still help them, but byhelping them, I'm providing
someone else for that service.
Kevin Yee (27:57):
Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
A great executive coachrecently asked me or told me was
like, you know, Kevin, you'repretty capable of a lot of
things.
And the question never is, canyou do it?
But it's like, one, should youdo it?
And do you actually want to doit?
A lot of answers is no.
Yeah.
Yes.
Kristine Dias (28:15):
Yeah.
Holding true to...
So for me, a big part of my whyI went out and did this, right?
We all know the find your why,Simon Sinek, right?
We all know that methodology.
For me, a big part of my whywas to work on the work that I
want to work on with who I wantto work with when I want to work
(28:35):
on it.
And so I have to hold true tothose things.
And if you get too far awayfrom that, then you're losing
the focus on why you you wentout on your own in the first
place.
So yeah, keeping that front ofmind has helped me.
Kevin Yee (28:49):
That's a great part about having your own business.
You set the rules.
So yeah,
Speaker 02 (28:54):
exactly.
Kevin Yee (28:55):
So let's talk about your future goals.
Like, cause I'm very, verycurious cause you're one year in
and I guess like, as you'rethinking about your business,
where do you want your coachingbusiness to take you in the next
few years?
Do you have any secret dreams,big ambitions?
Very curious about that.
Kristine Dias (29:10):
Yeah.
So you mentioned I'm, I'm ayear in, so very, very new still
in the infancy of this so mygoals really are to continue to
expand I've been very fortunateto have a great network of
referrals in these beginningstages and that's been wonderful
but I would really like to beable to grow my business outside
(29:34):
of that and expand bothindustry and geography honestly
a lot of my work has been localto Arizona that's where I am but
I would love to see that expandout farther than that and be
able to reach and helpindividuals outside of my
immediate network and area.
(29:55):
So that's kind of where myhead's at right now is just how
do I continue to grow and buildthis business and scale but
still hold true to that personaltouch.
My why of working on the thingsI want to, when I want to, with
who I want to, how do I holdtrue to that while scaling to
(30:17):
you know be able to reachadditional people
Kevin Yee (30:20):
I know it might be a bit early but have you thought
about hiring at all or like whenyou would hire I guess and yeah
Kristine Dias (30:27):
yeah so it probably is a little early I'm
not quite there yet but I dothink about it all the time and
I think more for me right now isthe question of do I want to do
I want to scale to the pointwhere I have to bring on staff
or do I want to keep my businessset a size and scope where I
can manage is just me, right?
(30:49):
And I don't know the answer tothat yet.
And I'll be perfectly candid.
I don't know.
There are days where I'm, Ithink, my gosh, it would be so
wonderful to have someonehandling all of this
administrative stuff.
And then there are other dayswhere the flexibility of being
able to have it just be me.
And I'm, I don't have theresponsibility.
I've been a people leader andhaving the responsibility of
(31:12):
others is big.
And it's significant.
It's not a decision to takelightly.
And so I just want to be surewhen I do decide to do that,
that it's the right decision forme.
Kevin Yee (31:25):
Yeah.
I mean, you were in thebusiness of like HR and all that
too.
So you know that.
Kristine Dias (31:31):
Yeah.
I know what comes with it whenhiring, doing that.
So yeah.
Kevin Yee (31:35):
If you did hire, would you, do you think you
would hire a contractor versuslike full-time staff?
I think
Kristine Dias (31:40):
so.
Yeah, I think so.
I think that for me, being ableto contract with individuals
that have certain specialtieswhen they're needed.
So that point in time, youknow, fill a need.
I certainly could see thatbeing of benefit.
I could also see there being abenefit as things continue to
grow to contract withindividuals that have a skill
(32:02):
set that I don't, even in theindustry of coaching or
leadership development.
And so, you know, I, you know,what I focus on and what I
enjoy, there are still specialthat are adjacent to that that
might benefit from leveragingsome folks in my network that I
could contract with to fill someof those gaps.
(32:23):
We'll see.
Yeah, to be determined.
It's probably too soon to tellat this point.
Kevin Yee (32:28):
Probably a little bit.
I'm just kind of curious aboutyour thoughts right now.
So that, yeah, I'm just reallycurious as someone your size,
like what is going on in yourmind, how you think about this
and all that too.
But thank you for yourtransparency as well.
I want to play game.
Speaker 02 (32:44):
It's
Kevin Yee (32:45):
called good investment, bad investment.
And so I'm very curious aboutwhat's your best business
investment for your coachingbusiness that you spent so far
and absolute worst one that youwish you got your money back
from.
Oh
Kristine Dias (32:59):
man, that's a good question.
So the immediate answer to thatis technology, which I know was
very broad, but you know, thebest investments that I have
made have been things that makemy life easier.
All the simple things, a zoomlicense.
DocuSign, being able to have abilling system, things that make
(33:20):
life easier for me.
And those are all just littletools.
They're not anything that'ssuper heavy investment.
But man, they can make yourlife so much easier.
You're not struggling throughdoing some of those things.
One that I've made that I wishI didn't.
I don't know that I wish Ididn't, but it goes back to one
(33:42):
of your earlier questions aboutboundaries and saying no.
Very early on, very early on, Idid have a client come to me
and say, you know, this isgreat, what you're doing is
great, and I think we'll have aneed for that in the future, but
you have an HR background, wereally need a handbook, could
you do a handbook for us?
And I was brand spanking new,and I thought, sure, right, it's
(34:07):
money coming in, I can do it,not a problem, and there are a
lot of tools and companies outthere that will sell handbook
templates that you can thencustomize to fit state locally
you know regulations and thingslike that and so I thought you
know I'm not an employmentattorney I want to make sure I'm
(34:28):
doing this right I want to makesure that I've got the right
language in there so yeah I wentout and purchased one of these
handbook template profiles andwhile it helped me I I went
through that process I stillleveraged an employment attorney
to make sure what I wasdelivered was accurate.
I wanted to make sure I wasdoing it right.
Could I have written thathandbook without that?
(34:50):
Yeah, especially with having alaw attorney look at it after.
And it fell outside of thescope of the things I really
wanted to go off and do.
So there was this point in timethat I had where I thought, I
shouldn't have done this.
Not because, I mean, I lovedthat client.
They're a great organizationand I'm happy that I was able to
(35:10):
help them, but it didn't fitthe scope of what I really
wanted my business this to be.
And yeah, fell into that, thatI call it the newbie reaction of
feast or famine and probablyshouldn't have.
So other than that, I haven'treally had any investments that,
you know, investments gonewrong.
(35:32):
I haven't had any of thoseexperiences yet.
Kevin Yee (35:35):
Yeah.
It's really interesting aboutthat experience too, because I
don't think resentment is aword, right?
Maybe it's a bit too strong,but I noticed even when I look
at my career or something, whenI was very new, if a client
needed help, I'd be like, ohyeah, let's do it.
(35:57):
But then over time, I justnoticed this building resentment
over time as well.
And so it's really interestingthat you brought up that
experience because it makes mereflect on all the mistakes I
made and stuff doing that aswell.
Kristine Dias (36:11):
Yeah, we want to fix, right?
We want to be fixers.
We want to be the problemsolvers and sometimes it's okay
to say that's not me here'ssomeone else that can help you
right you're still helping solvethe problem by you know
referring them to someone else
Kevin Yee (36:28):
yeah like we were talking earlier just because you
can't do it is it somethingthat you actually want
Speaker 02 (36:33):
to do right
Kevin Yee (36:35):
final advice from you I guess it wouldn't change it
wouldn't be setting you back toomuch but knock on wood I hope
this never happens to KMD adviceBut let's say something
happens.
It dissolves overnight.
You have to start overtomorrow.
No followers, no clients, norelational capital that you've
kind of built over the years.
(36:55):
But you have everything thatyou learned up until this point
until now.
What would you do in your first90 days?
What would those first 90 dayslook like for you if you had to
rebuild the business?
Kristine Dias (37:07):
If I had to rebuild from scratch?
I mean, for me, if I wasstarting from scratch, I think I
would get out and get to knowpeople and let them get to know
me and so building a follow alocal community following so I
think that's important too youknow I mentioned LinkedIn in the
beginning I'm a huge fan ofLinkedIn I think it has its
(37:29):
place but having authenticconnections out there of people
that you actually know or havebuilt relationships with is
important just having a numberof followers is not going to
help you right it needs to besomeone that you have had a
connection with and that knowsyou, you know them, and you've
built a relationship there.
(37:49):
And so I think if I werestarting from scratch, I would
start with building a community.
I mean, there's something to besaid for getting out to know
people, understand their painpoints, understand their needs,
and how you then can deliversomething that solves a problem
that they have.
And the only way that you canknow what value you have to
(38:13):
solve a problem that someoneelse is experiencing is to talk
to them and ask the questions.
Something that I share withleaders that I work with or
really anyone in this realm isbe curious, ask questions, don't
make assumptions that you knowall the answers because we
don't.
And so if you're having aconversation with someone, ask
(38:36):
questions to get to know themand fully understand and make
sure that you understand wherethey're coming from, what their
experiences are, what needs theyhave, what struggles they have.
So I think that I would startthere.
I think I would get out in thecommunity, join some different
groups, be able to haveconversations with individuals
(38:58):
to understand where those needsare and how I can help them.
Kevin Yee (39:03):
Last question.
How can people find you andconnect with you?
Kristine Dias (39:07):
Yeah, yeah.
So I have a website,KMDAdvisory.com.
I am out on LinkedIn.
Christine Diaz is out onLinkedIn, all the socials as
well.
So feel free to connect with meon LinkedIn, send me a direct
message.
I'd be happy to chat withanyone about anything leadership
(39:27):
development related and see ifthere's an opportunity for there
to be some value added thereand see if I can help them with
anything at all.
Kevin Yee (39:36):
Yeah, Christine, thank you so much for all the
wisdom and your experience thatyou've dropped today.
Davis Nguyen (39:42):
That's it.
for this episode of CareerCoaching Secrets.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, you can subscribe
to YouTube, Spotify, ApplePodcasts, or wherever you're
listening to this episode tocatch future episodes.
This conversation was broughtto you by Purple Circle, where
we help career coaches scaletheir business to seven and
eight figures without burningout.
To learn more about PurpleCircle, our community, and how
(40:03):
we can help you grow yourbusiness, visit
joinpurplecircle.com.
I am kind of a, I joke, it's the no BS version
of, you know, leadershipdevelopment.
And sometimes there's some hardtruths that have to play into
that and how we move forward.
But that's me.
And I will always be authenticto who I am, I think.
Davis Nguyen (00:16):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets, the podcast
where we talk with successfulcareer coaches on how they built
their success and the hardlessons they learned along the
way.
My name is Davis Nguyen, andI'm the founder of Purple
Circle, where we help careercoaches scale their business to
$100,000 years, $100,000 months,and even I'll see you next
time.
Kevin Yee (00:47):
Welcome to Career Coaching Secrets Podcast.
I'm Kevin, and today we arejoined by Christine Diaz.
She is the founder of KMDAdvisory.
She just recently fullytransitioned into her business
as of one year ago.
Welcome to the show, Christine.
Kristine Dias (01:04):
Thank you.
Glad to be here.
Thanks for having me.
Kevin Yee (01:07):
Well, one of the ways that I like to start off this
podcast, by the way, islistening to the origin story,
the lore.
And so let's start at thebeginning.
What was the moment that yourealized that you wanted to do
coaching and more importantly,turn it into a business?
Kristine Dias (01:23):
Yeah, of course.
So I have been in humanresources for just about 20
years in a variety of positions.
And my last corporate HR role,I was working as the vice
president of HR for a technologycompany here in Arizona.
And a big focus of my job wasto coach and develop new
(01:46):
leaders.
new managers and really enjoyedit.
And so when we were thrust intowhat I call the private equity
cycle, we were purchased by aprivate equity firm and kind of
went into that buying or beingbought cycle of that world.
You know, I knew at some pointmy time would come and I most
(02:07):
likely would be acquired and myposition would become redundant.
And that eventually did happen.
And so I took some time off,did some soul searching about
what I wanted next in my careerand determined, you know, I
really enjoyed working withmanagers who were new to people
management.
(02:27):
I had seen it working in a techcompany.
I was working with brilliantsoftware engineers.
So smart people knew theirstuff who then were put in
positions either by choicebecause they thought that they
needed to be a people manager toprogress in their career or
because we asked them to becausethey were so good technically
(02:48):
at their jobs that we wantedthem to lead a team.
And they struggled.
You know, they're fantastictechnically, but they struggled
with the people management partbecause no one taught them how.
And it wasn't necessarily, youknow, they knew that go have a
one-on-one meeting, go have aperformance review conversation.
They didn't know the nuances ofhow to build trust in a team,
(03:12):
how to create an environmentwhere risk was not just
tolerated, but wanted.
We wanted folks to try newthings and make mistakes and
have that be okay.
And how do you create thatenvironment where you, the
people manager, are then goingoff and creating problem
solvers, right?
So you now have this cohesiveteam of individuals that were
(03:36):
thriving in a collective unit.
So that's kind of where thiswas born.
I walked away from corporate HRwanting to do more of that work
and contribute and help newmanagers in that environment.
Kevin Yee (03:49):
Yeah.
I'm kind of curious, too, aboutthe journey of your soul
searching and all that.
Like, as you were thinkingabout going full time, what were
some of the thoughts orfeelings that you're kind of
noticing?
Were you scared?
Were you excited?
Oh, yeah.
Kristine Dias (04:04):
Terrified.
It's terrifying.
I had done consulting work in apast life, you know, but I was
doing it for a business.
I had the support, the name,the leverage of having a company
behind me so the scary partwasn't the work I knew the work
part the scary part was howvulnerable it does feel to go
(04:24):
out on your own and have it beyour name your reputation and no
one is around or behind younecessarily to lean on and so
that's scary it's a very lonelyvery scary vulnerable thing to
do so yeah I went through I wentthrough the roller coaster of
emotions of can I do this shouldI do this should I just go get
(04:44):
another job am I making amistake right so lean on the
support groups that you do have.
So for me, my family was huge.
I needed to know that my familybacked me and they did 100%.
Your network, my professionalnetwork came out in numbers I
couldn't even imagine.
It was very humbling to see andfeel the support of people that
(05:05):
I had worked with over thecourse of my career.
I joke when I finally, youknow, I worked on this for
months and when I was finallyready to let the world know I
was doing this, of course, wheredo you go You go to LinkedIn.
You put something out there.
You let the world know.
That was terrifying for me tobe able to do that and have that
moment of exposure andvulnerability to tell people I'm
(05:27):
doing this because the what ifsstart.
What if I fail?
What if they think this issilly?
What if nobody is interested?
And the moment that I did that,so just to put it in
perspective, it was Monday NightFootball.
It was a Monday afternoon.
Huge Buffalo Bills fan.
They were playing.
I went out and drafted myLinkedIn spiel to tell the world
I was doing this.
(05:48):
I hit the button to post it andI left.
I went out and watched thefootball game and had dinner
with my family.
And when I came back, theresponse was overwhelming.
So yeah, I went fromterrifying, I can't believe I'm
doing this, I shouldn't do this,to wow, this might really work
because this is the responsethat I'm seeing once I got up
(06:09):
the nerve to tell people I wasgoing to go off and do it.
Kevin Yee (06:11):
Thank you so much for being so vulnerable and sharing
your thoughts during that timetoo.
It It really helps because I'msure there's other coaches or
other people going through verysimilar life situations of
leaving a secure job into doingtheir own thing.
Which leads me into the nextquestion.
What do you feel like thebiggest difference between
running your own business andworking a nine to five is like?
(06:33):
What do you feel like the maindifferences that you're
noticing?
Kristine Dias (06:36):
You wear all the hats.
So when you work a nine to fivejob, you have other people.
You have a marketingdepartment.
You have an IT department.
You have an accounting team.
You have people around you tolean on and to help with the
things that are required to runa successful business.
When you step out on your own,it's you.
(06:57):
You are the IT person.
You are the accounting team.
You are the marketingprofessional.
And you have to learn how to doall of those things yourself.
And the balance between doingthe work, right?
So you're out, you're doingyour business development.
Great.
It's working.
You get work comes in.
You then have to go off and dothat.
at work, right?
(07:17):
So you're supporting theclients by doing the actual job
itself that you're out to do,but you still have all of these
things in the background thatneed to be done and there's no
team there.
There's no back office, youknow, especially in the
beginning because you can'tafford that, right?
You can't afford the help.
So, you know, you have to learnhow to do all of those things
and it's challenging.
That balance of continuing tobuild a pipeline of work to come
(07:42):
in, but also doing the work asit comes in can be challenging
and under understanding when toscale, when to bring in help,
how to bring in help, when tolean on the network that you
have.
That's been huge for me.
Definitely, if you go out andlook for it, there is a huge
community of HR consultantcoaches, business coaches,
(08:04):
leadership coaches out therethat are experienced, fractional
support people that areexperiencing the same thing you
are.
So find them, right, and leanon them because that's a huge
help to be able to kind of buildthat network of support because
it's just you.
Kevin Yee (08:21):
You said something really interesting.
You're marketing, you are thesales, you are the accountant,
you are everything.
You're also the one, thejanitorial services probably
too, right?
You're everything.
And so what I'm really curiousis like, what are you noticing
when it comes to balancingeverything?
What are some things that arereally working for you?
(08:42):
What are some things that arenot so sexy behind the scenes
too?
Kristine Dias (08:46):
Yeah.
It's messy.
I mean, I won't lie.
It's not perfect.
And you really have to findyour own tool kit that works.
I'm a big fan of tools thathelp me manage my time and be
efficient with my time.
So, you know, I use a billingsystem that will automatically
generate invoices and send thoseout when they need to.
Time trackers, you know,finding tools to help you track
(09:08):
your time so you know where timeis going.
It's eye-opening in thebeginning because you think,
man, I'm being so efficientdoing all these things and if
you start tracking your time yousee these pockets of I'll call
you know dead space where you'rereally not productive because
you might be spinning on a newidea or you know that context
(09:28):
switching from client work toadmin work to marketing to
business development so beingable to track your time to
understand where you're you'refocusing and spending most of
your time is really helpful forme and again leaning on that
network so if I don't knowsomething and it is not my
specialty.
I have people.
(09:49):
I have resources.
Hey, what do you think aboutthis?
How should I go about doingthis proposal or this pitch for
this type of client?
I joke that I am in thebusiness of people for a reason.
I am not a numbers person.
No one wants me doing theirtaxes or doing their accounting.
So I go find folks that arespecialists at that and can then
(10:10):
kind of build up a community ofindividuals to help me when I
need that.
Kevin Yee (10:15):
Yeah, you mentioned this your support.
It sounds like you have a minicommunity of people that you
lean on.
Who are these kind of peopleand how did you meet them?
Kristine Dias (10:24):
Yeah, so networking is probably the
quickest answer to how I metthem.
Just being out in the communityand getting to know people.
There are community groups outthere that can help you connect
with some of those folks.
Just some examples.
So there's a group called FPP,Fractional People People, and
they specialize in bringingtogether HR our consultants and
(10:47):
coaches.
That's been hugely helpful forme.
You know, as far as when youthink about wearing those
different hats that kind ofbuild out a business leadership
team, marketing, finance,operations, networking has
probably been the best for me.
I go out seeking those types ofbusiness to business networking
opportunities to be introducedto or learn from individuals in
(11:12):
those specialties.
They're out there.
It's just a matter of askingthe right questions and finding
them.
And so I started asking peoplethat I already knew, do you know
anyone that is doing this?
I'm trying to build out anetwork of individuals in
certain areas, so I have a goodsupport group.
Is there anyone that you thinkI should talk to?
(11:33):
And it just snowballs fromthere.
You'd be surprised how manypeople will come out and say,
oh, yeah, I know so-and-so.
They're doing this.
Or I have someone I used towork with is now out on their
own doing fractional CFO work.
They might be grateful.
for you to talk to.
So being willing to go out andask those questions of the
network that you do have of whoyou should be speaking with.
Kevin Yee (11:54):
That's a beautiful thing that you've built up to
this network and I can see howimportant it is to you as well.
Let's go back to the coachingbusiness, right?
One thing I am curious is likethe marketing aspect, right?
So you did mention marketingearlier and so I'm kind of
curious about the differenttypes of marketing you're trying
so far and how are peopleusually finding you right now?
Kristine Dias (12:15):
Yeah, so you know I do a variety of things I hate
to sound like a broken recordhere but referrals in in the
community of people you alreadydo know has been huge for me at
least in the beginning peoplethat I've worked with finding
out that I'm going to go off anddo this is my my full-time
focus they either had a need orknew someone who had a need so I
(12:36):
was fortunate enough to havethose first clients come in
through individuals that I knewdirectly I am heavily involved
in the human resources communityin the city that I live in here
in Arizona.
So there's a lot of leveragethere.
I'm a big fan of LinkedIn.
I think for what I do and theprospects that I'm looking to
(13:01):
reach, that's a great avenue forthat.
I'll be the first to say I'mnot a salesperson.
I'm not pushy.
I've been on the receiving endof cold emails and all of those
things.
I was not a fan.
I don't want to be that person.
I want to I'm very authenticand genuine in the value that I
provide and it's not right foreveryone.
(13:22):
So being able to advertise in achannel like LinkedIn or social
media or on a website and beable to advertise how I work and
the value I can bring and theexpertise that I have, allowing
individuals to see that and beable to then tap into, I think
we need to talk, right?
And then being able to bringthat together.
(13:44):
I just want to be the personpeople think about when they
they think of this need right idon't want to push this on
anyone i want it to be we havenew managers we've we've
experienced a significant growthrecently we have all these new
people managers and then youknow and i want my name to be
the one they think of right myexperience yeah
Kevin Yee (14:05):
yeah it's a beautiful time we live in and especially
in the age of social media whereyou know you don't have to send
out like radio broadcasts orall these old school ways or
like flyers or anything likethat either.
Yeah, I'm
Kristine Dias (14:17):
not doing mailers.
Kevin Yee (14:20):
Or door knocking.
Kristine Dias (14:21):
Right, right.
Kevin Yee (14:24):
Yeah, and I'm kind of curious.
It sounds like a lot of yourbusiness is coming through
content marketing, largelyreferrals.
And so as you're doing yourmarketing, what sort of
challenges are you noticing whenit comes to finding clients
right now?
Kristine Dias (14:38):
So for me, it feels like market saturation,
honestly.
There's a lot of us out there.
There's a lot of individuals inthe same shoes that I'm
wearing, you know, coming out ofa corporate position, wanting
to focus on what they enjoy.
So there's a lot of noise inthe market as far as marketing
(14:59):
goes.
And I think just holding firmto who you are is really the
key.
You know, at the end of theday, individuals are engaging
with me because it's me, right?
We can all learn differentcoaching models.
We can all learn toolkits andhave play and those things but
at the end of the day it's thepeople interaction and how I
(15:21):
deliver that content how I teachhow I coach my personality my
method my communication styleall of those things is really
what is being purchased rightwhat I'm having someone engage
with and so yes it's saturatedand I do see that and I think
there's a lot of noise out therein the consulting world around
(15:45):
all the things you shouldn't bedoing and all the problems that
the professional and corporateworld has.
And I think if you just staytrue to your piece of how you
can help make that better, itcancels out a lot of that noise
and you can kind of focus onyour ideal client and those that
work best with you versustrying to do this, cast a wide
(16:08):
net and capture everyone, right?
Because you're not meant foreveryone and not everyone is
meant for you.
That's why there's a lot ofconversations around who's your
ideal client and how do you makesure you can find your ideal
client because that is a thing.
There are people out there thatare not necessarily a good
match for you because of styleor a variety of other things.
(16:28):
So challenges around findingthose individuals and cutting
through the denseness of what Ifeel is out there right now in
the consulting world.
Kevin Yee (16:39):
Yeah, it has me really interested in your kind
of unique approach aboutcoaching, if there's a unique
approach, but like is theresomething that you believe about
coaching that most othercoaches in your similar coaches
in your field that they woulddisagree with
Kristine Dias (16:54):
do
Kevin Yee (16:55):
you have any like polarizing beliefs or anything
like that I
Kristine Dias (16:59):
don't know if it's polarizing I'm a very
direct individual and thatdoesn't always resonate with
everyone I am known to give sometough love when it's needed but
it comes from a place ofkindness it comes from a place
of wanting to be better or helpsomeone be better not everyone
comes to coaching though fortough love so you know sometimes
(17:21):
that I don't know if that'spolarizing but it is a little
different I am kind of a I jokeit's the no BS version of you
know leadership development andsometimes there's some hard
truths that have to play intothat and how we move forward but
that's me and I will always beauthentic to who I am I think I
think there's a for a lot ofcoaches that start out there's a
(17:43):
certain sense of who we shouldbe be and if you move too far
away from who you really are thevalue of what you bring to the
table doesn't resonate and youhave to be who you are and
because that's going to comethrough in your day-to-day
conversation so if you'reselling a picture perfect
version of what you think youshould be and then the real life
interaction is different thenthere's a disconnect there so
(18:07):
hey i don't know that i haveanything polarizing other than
i'm just me and very you knowsometimes that's to the point
direct and sometimes i say noand sometimes you know the
answer isn't maybe one thateveryone wants to hear but in
the end it comes from a place ofwanting to make that individual
better and
Kevin Yee (18:27):
help them yeah I like that authentic no BS kind of
like I think sometimes whenpeople hear no BS they take it
as like ill intent but I'm gladthat you clarified that it's
coming from a place ofbetterment and improvement and
growing your clients as well onething I am interested in are
like is like I love hearing thedifferent business models that
(18:48):
are working for coaches atdifferent stages right and so it
seems like you do mostlyone-on-one but I know other
coaches have done like groupcoaching and all that if you're
comfortable sharing like youwalk me through the different
coaching modalities that you usefor the transformation for your
ideal clients
Kristine Dias (19:05):
yeah so we'll do one-on-one coaching I've
actually done quite a bit ofcohort type training development
for new leaders so goingthrough multi-week weekly
session.
So I've done some at six weeks,I've done some at eight weeks,
and it's a small cohort, six toeight people in that group.
We meet weekly for 90 minutes.
(19:25):
So just enough time to reallyget into a topic, but not so
much, you know, not a full daywhere I'm taking a full day away
from their work.
What I like about the weeklycohort group training
development model is we focus onone topic per week, and they
have the ability to go off andpractice that in the real world.
And then when we come back, wetalk talk about how it went,
(19:47):
what struggles, challenges theysaw before moving into the next
topic for that trainingdevelopment session.
It also creates that communitywithin that cohort as well.
And they are able to, one, hearthey're not alone in the
challenges that they'reexperiencing, but also can get
different perspectives andideas, honestly, from someone
(20:08):
other than me, right?
Someone that has lived throughwhat they're going through and
gives the opportunity for someof those experiences to be
shared.
So I'm huge fan of cohorttraining leadership development
especially for new managerscoming in that maybe need to
hear some experiences that theyhaven't seen yet so they're
prepared for when they do comecome across their desk or into
(20:29):
their office
Kevin Yee (20:30):
yeah that's really interesting that you're doing
the cohort model one of myfavorite models honestly too one
of the things i am also curiousabout you don't have to give
any hard numbers but if you'reopen to it i love to talk about
pricing strategy because i thinkthis is where most new coaches
kind of struggle the most andsince you're like when you're in
i would love to hear yourperspective on this
Speaker 02 (20:50):
yeah
Kevin Yee (20:51):
how do you structure your pricing because i've heard
different models some peoplecharge hourly some people do
retainers some people doproject-based value-based
outcome-based there's so manydifferent models which ones did
you kind of resonate to whenstarting a business
Kristine Dias (21:06):
that is probably the hardest thing for me is
understanding how to put valueon what you're providing The
short answer is I do stay awayfrom hourly based pricing.
I do tend to...
Kevin Yee (21:20):
That's a general sentiment.
Kristine Dias (21:22):
Yeah, that would be my recommendation to anyone
going out.
Stay away from hourly basedpricing because you do get into
this tracking of time and howmuch it becomes minimum, very
labor intensive for you to beable to track your time, but
also doesn't necessarily alwaystranslate to the value of the
outcome that you're providing.
And so I will do project basedpricing.
(21:43):
So the circumstance might beI'm going to deliver a cohort
training multi-week program to agroup of leaders within one
company.
I'm going to go into a companyand train this group of leaders.
That's a project with aspecific outcome.
I'll charge a rate for that.
And I typically will break itbetween content and facilitation
(22:06):
so that you can scale.
If they want to continue to addleaders, then you can scale
that pricing pretty easily ifyou're just tacking on
additional facilitation I willdo outcome or value-based
pricing for some things thatmaybe are more geared towards
just my expertise beingdelivered or providing an
(22:26):
outcome that the value is whatyou're providing, right?
The experience, the skill, theknowledge is what you're
providing to them.
So being able to, and that'stricky, being able to put a
dollar on something like that.
And it is trial and error.
I mean, I've asked these samequestions of other coaches
because it was definitely a weakpoint for me coming in is how
do I price so that there's thisfear of either you're going to
(22:49):
be too low and you're kind ofshortchanging yourself and
you're not in the mix of whereyou should be and providing a
dollar figure to that value.
And the bigger fear, honestly,is you're overpricing and people
decline, right?
And so now the work's notcoming in because you've priced
yourself out of the market.
And I will say that's neverhappened.
I've never had an experiencewhere I've had a client come
(23:10):
back and say, no, flat outbecause of a price that I put
on.
something.
They may come back and say,that's not really within our
budget.
Can we work to figure somethingout here?
So there may be some give andtake and some negotiation.
I've never had a client comeback and just flat out refuse on
pricing.
So just to give that sentimentout to those that are maybe
(23:32):
starting out and that have thatfear that I had that I might
price myself out.
And so you price lower becauseof that.
Never had that experience.
Kevin Yee (23:41):
Yeah.
Usually no is a really greatplace to throughout the
negotiations and stuff.
At least you know, like, okay,the out of bounds, like, okay.
Kristine Dias (23:52):
Right, right.
Sorry, I just want to add thispoint.
When you're in thoseconversations with a prospective
client, ask, do you have abudget in mind for this?
And if they do, they'll tellyou, you know, it might be a
range or they might, you know,not give you a straight number,
but if they have somethingspecific, they'll share it.
And so that's a good questionto ask when you're going through
that process.
Kevin Yee (24:12):
Yeah, and even if it's like a bigger...
like company deal or like b2eor b2b or something
discretionary spend and stufflike that getting an idea and
that really helps but what makesyour industry so interesting is
that it's not like you'reselling sales coaching or
marketing coaching where it'slike so tightly correlated with
(24:34):
the dollar and then the value ispretty obvious there you're
dealing with people and stuffand there's so many ways to
price anchor on like that valuetoo do you price it based off of
like, I don't know how much itcosts you to find new employees
for return or whatnot.
Kristine Dias (24:52):
Yeah.
So anyway, you can tie toproductivity, right?
So if it's turnover or, andthat's a big one in our
industry, if you can, if you cantie your value to reduction in
turnover, because that's time tofill positions, right?
The cost of interviewing andtraining and recruiting, all the
things that go into hiringsomeone, the onboarding and and
(25:15):
training of a new employee andthat on-ramp time, there's cost
there.
And so for those of us that arein a coaching position or
industry, being able to tie thevalue of what we do to employee
retention so that you're notincurring those costs related to
turnover.
Kevin Yee (25:35):
It's a really tough one, but very interesting to see
how you kind of do it as well.
Something also I'm reallyinterested in is like, you
mentioned something about trialand error earlier.
And so I'm kind of curious,like you seem like someone who
is very clear on theirboundaries.
You're not afraid to say no.
But what kind of boundaries orterms have you kind of had to
(25:56):
set in place with your business,either with clients, with your
time, with your pricing thatwere hard but necessary?
Kristine Dias (26:02):
Yeah.
So I yes, I'm very good withboundaries and I am comfortable
saying no, but I'm going to puta caveat on that when you are
starting your own business andit is that feast or famine of
being in a solopreneur mindset,saying no is very hard because
there's income attached to that,right?
(26:22):
There's clients attached tothat.
So I go back to that being verytrue to who you are and what
you want your business to be.
And so I'm still working onthis, but being clear on who
your ideal client is and workingand finding those individuals
(26:42):
that fit that model for you andI'll give you an example I will
push the boundaries on things Iwill say yes to that maybe are
outside of the traditionalleadership new manager type
coaching to help a company thatI feel passionate about that I
want to support and sometimes Ifall back into more of an HR
consultant role when thathappens and that might be around
(27:05):
putting HR programs in placeand being able to help them
build the structure to then gooff and hire those new managers
and get to that point but I knowSo I don't want to do your
payroll.
I'm not your benefitsadministrator.
I'm not looking to do thetactical day-to-day HR
(27:26):
compliance policy stuff.
There's nothing wrong withthat.
I just know that I don't wantto be in the business of doing
that on a regular basis.
And so I hold those boundaries.
And so if I have someone thatcomes to me and says, hey, can
you run a handbook for us?
Yes.
However, I think you'd be muchbetter off if I partnered with
you.
And that's where that networkof resources comes in.
(27:47):
I still have the ability tohave someone that I can then
refer to that individual.
I can still help them, but byhelping them, I'm providing
someone else for that service.
Kevin Yee (27:57):
Yeah, I think it's really interesting.
A great executive coachrecently asked me or told me was
like, you know, Kevin, you'repretty capable of a lot of
things.
And the question never is, canyou do it?
But it's like, one, should youdo it?
And do you actually want to doit?
A lot of answers is no.
Yeah.
Yes.
Kristine Dias (28:15):
Yeah.
Holding true to...
So for me, a big part of my whyI went out and did this, right?
We all know the find your why,Simon Sinek, right?
We all know that methodology.
For me, a big part of my whywas to work on the work that I
want to work on with who I wantto work with when I want to work
(28:35):
on it.
And so I have to hold true tothose things.
And if you get too far awayfrom that, then you're losing
the focus on why you you wentout on your own in the first
place.
So yeah, keeping that front ofmind has helped me.
Kevin Yee (28:49):
That's a great part about having your own business.
You set the rules.
So yeah,
Speaker 02 (28:54):
exactly.
Kevin Yee (28:55):
So let's talk about your future goals.
Like, cause I'm very, verycurious cause you're one year in
and I guess like, as you'rethinking about your business,
where do you want your coachingbusiness to take you in the next
few years?
Do you have any secret dreams,big ambitions?
Very curious about that.
Kristine Dias (29:10):
Yeah.
So you mentioned I'm, I'm ayear in, so very, very new still
in the infancy of this so mygoals really are to continue to
expand I've been very fortunateto have a great network of
referrals in these beginningstages and that's been wonderful
but I would really like to beable to grow my business outside
(29:34):
of that and expand bothindustry and geography honestly
a lot of my work has been localto Arizona that's where I am but
I would love to see that expandout farther than that and be
able to reach and helpindividuals outside of my
immediate network and area.
(29:55):
So that's kind of where myhead's at right now is just how
do I continue to grow and buildthis business and scale but
still hold true to that personaltouch.
My why of working on the thingsI want to, when I want to, with
who I want to, how do I holdtrue to that while scaling to
(30:17):
you know be able to reachadditional people
Kevin Yee (30:20):
I know it might be a bit early but have you thought
about hiring at all or like whenyou would hire I guess and yeah
Kristine Dias (30:27):
yeah so it probably is a little early I'm
not quite there yet but I dothink about it all the time and
I think more for me right now isthe question of do I want to do
I want to scale to the pointwhere I have to bring on staff
or do I want to keep my businessset a size and scope where I
can manage is just me, right?
(30:49):
And I don't know the answer tothat yet.
And I'll be perfectly candid.
I don't know.
There are days where I'm, Ithink, my gosh, it would be so
wonderful to have someonehandling all of this
administrative stuff.
And then there are other dayswhere the flexibility of being
able to have it just be me.
And I'm, I don't have theresponsibility.
I've been a people leader andhaving the responsibility of
(31:12):
others is big.
And it's significant.
It's not a decision to takelightly.
And so I just want to be surewhen I do decide to do that,
that it's the right decision forme.
Kevin Yee (31:25):
Yeah.
I mean, you were in thebusiness of like HR and all that
too.
So you know that.
Kristine Dias (31:31):
Yeah.
I know what comes with it whenhiring, doing that.
So yeah.
Kevin Yee (31:35):
If you did hire, would you, do you think you
would hire a contractor versuslike full-time staff?
I think
Kristine Dias (31:40):
so.
Yeah, I think so.
I think that for me, being ableto contract with individuals
that have certain specialtieswhen they're needed.
So that point in time, youknow, fill a need.
I certainly could see thatbeing of benefit.
I could also see there being abenefit as things continue to
grow to contract withindividuals that have a skill
(32:02):
set that I don't, even in theindustry of coaching or
leadership development.
And so, you know, I, you know,what I focus on and what I
enjoy, there are still specialthat are adjacent to that that
might benefit from leveragingsome folks in my network that I
could contract with to fill someof those gaps.
(32:23):
We'll see.
Yeah, to be determined.
It's probably too soon to tellat this point.
Kevin Yee (32:28):
Probably a little bit.
I'm just kind of curious aboutyour thoughts right now.
So that, yeah, I'm just reallycurious as someone your size,
like what is going on in yourmind, how you think about this
and all that too.
But thank you for yourtransparency as well.
I want to play game.
Speaker 02 (32:44):
It's
Kevin Yee (32:45):
called good investment, bad investment.
And so I'm very curious aboutwhat's your best business
investment for your coachingbusiness that you spent so far
and absolute worst one that youwish you got your money back
from.
Oh
Kristine Dias (32:59):
man, that's a good question.
So the immediate answer to thatis technology, which I know was
very broad, but you know, thebest investments that I have
made have been things that makemy life easier.
All the simple things, a zoomlicense.
DocuSign, being able to have abilling system, things that make
(33:20):
life easier for me.
And those are all just littletools.
They're not anything that'ssuper heavy investment.
But man, they can make yourlife so much easier.
You're not struggling throughdoing some of those things.
One that I've made that I wishI didn't.
I don't know that I wish Ididn't, but it goes back to one
(33:42):
of your earlier questions aboutboundaries and saying no.
Very early on, very early on, Idid have a client come to me
and say, you know, this isgreat, what you're doing is
great, and I think we'll have aneed for that in the future, but
you have an HR background, wereally need a handbook, could
you do a handbook for us?
And I was brand spanking new,and I thought, sure, right, it's
(34:07):
money coming in, I can do it,not a problem, and there are a
lot of tools and companies outthere that will sell handbook
templates that you can thencustomize to fit state locally
you know regulations and thingslike that and so I thought you
know I'm not an employmentattorney I want to make sure I'm
(34:28):
doing this right I want to makesure that I've got the right
language in there so yeah I wentout and purchased one of these
handbook template profiles andwhile it helped me I I went
through that process I stillleveraged an employment attorney
to make sure what I wasdelivered was accurate.
I wanted to make sure I wasdoing it right.
Could I have written thathandbook without that?
(34:50):
Yeah, especially with having alaw attorney look at it after.
And it fell outside of thescope of the things I really
wanted to go off and do.
So there was this point in timethat I had where I thought, I
shouldn't have done this.
Not because, I mean, I lovedthat client.
They're a great organizationand I'm happy that I was able to
(35:10):
help them, but it didn't fitthe scope of what I really
wanted my business this to be.
And yeah, fell into that, thatI call it the newbie reaction of
feast or famine and probablyshouldn't have.
So other than that, I haven'treally had any investments that,
you know, investments gonewrong.
(35:32):
I haven't had any of thoseexperiences yet.
Kevin Yee (35:35):
Yeah.
It's really interesting aboutthat experience too, because I
don't think resentment is aword, right?
Maybe it's a bit too strong,but I noticed even when I look
at my career or something, whenI was very new, if a client
needed help, I'd be like, ohyeah, let's do it.
(35:57):
But then over time, I justnoticed this building resentment
over time as well.
And so it's really interestingthat you brought up that
experience because it makes mereflect on all the mistakes I
made and stuff doing that aswell.
Kristine Dias (36:11):
Yeah, we want to fix, right?
We want to be fixers.
We want to be the problemsolvers and sometimes it's okay
to say that's not me here'ssomeone else that can help you
right you're still helping solvethe problem by you know
referring them to someone else
Kevin Yee (36:28):
yeah like we were talking earlier just because you
can't do it is it somethingthat you actually want
Speaker 02 (36:33):
to do right
Kevin Yee (36:35):
final advice from you I guess it wouldn't change it
wouldn't be setting you back toomuch but knock on wood I hope
this never happens to KMD adviceBut let's say something
happens.
It dissolves overnight.
You have to start overtomorrow.
No followers, no clients, norelational capital that you've
kind of built over the years.
(36:55):
But you have everything thatyou learned up until this point
until now.
What would you do in your first90 days?
What would those first 90 dayslook like for you if you had to
rebuild the business?
Kristine Dias (37:07):
If I had to rebuild from scratch?
I mean, for me, if I wasstarting from scratch, I think I
would get out and get to knowpeople and let them get to know
me and so building a follow alocal community following so I
think that's important too youknow I mentioned LinkedIn in the
beginning I'm a huge fan ofLinkedIn I think it has its
(37:29):
place but having authenticconnections out there of people
that you actually know or havebuilt relationships with is
important just having a numberof followers is not going to
help you right it needs to besomeone that you have had a
connection with and that knowsyou, you know them, and you've
built a relationship there.
(37:49):
And so I think if I werestarting from scratch, I would
start with building a community.
I mean, there's something to besaid for getting out to know
people, understand their painpoints, understand their needs,
and how you then can deliversomething that solves a problem
that they have.
And the only way that you canknow what value you have to
(38:13):
solve a problem that someoneelse is experiencing is to talk
to them and ask the questions.
Something that I share withleaders that I work with or
really anyone in this realm isbe curious, ask questions, don't
make assumptions that you knowall the answers because we
don't.
And so if you're having aconversation with someone, ask
(38:36):
questions to get to know themand fully understand and make
sure that you understand wherethey're coming from, what their
experiences are, what needs theyhave, what struggles they have.
So I think that I would startthere.
I think I would get out in thecommunity, join some different
groups, be able to haveconversations with individuals
(38:58):
to understand where those needsare and how I can help them.
Kevin Yee (39:03):
Last question.
How can people find you andconnect with you?
Kristine Dias (39:07):
Yeah, yeah.
So I have a website,KMDAdvisory.com.
I am out on LinkedIn.
Christine Diaz is out onLinkedIn, all the socials as
well.
So feel free to connect with meon LinkedIn, send me a direct
message.
I'd be happy to chat withanyone about anything leadership
(39:27):
development related and see ifthere's an opportunity for there
to be some value added thereand see if I can help them with
anything at all.
Kevin Yee (39:36):
Yeah, Christine, thank you so much for all the
wisdom and your experience thatyou've dropped today.
Davis Nguyen (39:42):
That's it.
for this episode of CareerCoaching Secrets.
If you enjoyed thisconversation, you can subscribe
to YouTube, Spotify, ApplePodcasts, or wherever you're
listening to this episode tocatch future episodes.
This conversation was broughtto you by Purple Circle, where
we help career coaches scaletheir business to seven and
eight figures without burningout.
To learn more about PurpleCircle, our community, and how
(40:03):
we can help you grow yourbusiness, visit
joinpurplecircle.com.
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