Jeremy Gustafson With Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for high velocity radio.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:13] Lee Kantor here, another episode of High Velocity Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Jeremy Gustafson and he is with intelligent leadership executive coaching. Welcome, Jeremy.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:00:26] Thanks, Lee. Nice to see you again.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about Ilic. How are you serving, folks?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:00:35] Right. So our primary focus is in leadership coaching, so we do stay focused, although we do coach people at different levels. So C-suite and VP directors, but also my favorite group to work with our emerging leaders or people making or thinking about making a change in their career, either a wholesale change or moving up within their existing organization or similar.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:59] Now have you always been involved in coaching or is this kind of a second act for your career?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:01:05] A bit of a second act, but I would say this in my twenty five years in business, largely leading marketing and creative firms. A huge part of my job and the part I enjoyed the most was coaching and mentoring the talent both acquisition, development and retention when it made sense, but also coaching people to to help them move on if that was the right time for them as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:31] Now is there a kind of a story you can share about where coaching made a difference in your career? Whether it’s you coaching someone and taking them to a new level? Or are you being coached yourself to help you grow?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:01:42] I think I think both have occurred many times. The one that strikes me in terms of being coached was as a young executive, always feeling I had to know the right answer. Always tiptoeing around that and and having the the CEO of our holding firm say to me one day it’s OK to say, I don’t know. And those simple words I don’t know were so powerful and liberating and showing vulnerability, although I didn’t know what that was at the time, turns out to be one of the one of the key aspects of coaching and being coached. As far as as a coach in my last two years with I always have joined just about two years. It’ll be two years in coming up here in June. I would say the marked difference and those that are experienced huge growth versus more modest growth is is the decision to be vulnerable and really, truly look at themselves and and work work the system and our processes and the philosophy. And, you know, each each journey is unique and different, but that vulnerability concept is one that I see as the key to success.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:53] Now how have you seen the coaching profession evolve at the beginning of your career? It was probably only for a handful of folks, maybe the highest of the high performers, and now it seems like it’s trickling down to more and more people in the organization and they get to benefit right.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:03:09] And part of what we do when a leader decides they’re perhaps wanting, wanting a coach to help become a better leader is, you know, they kind of they go public with that statement within their organization. And that engenders again shows vulnerability, but engenders a lot of pride within the ranks. Our leader wants to be better, and ultimately there’s interest that picks up and wants a higher level leader or manager goes through this. They will often ask us to come in and do one to one or even some group coaching, as well as leadership workshops. So it’s definitely trickled down. And like I said, my favorite group to work with these days have been that those emerging leaders because they’re just so ready and eager for the help. And it’s it’s really rewarding to see the growth and see what they’ve gone in. And now that I’ve been in the coaching practice long enough to keep up with some of the folks that I’ve worked with. I can say that it’s really made a huge difference in their career paths.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:08] Now can you talk about the decision you made? You were. You’ve had a career that, as you mentioned, was very robust and and touched a lot of different people and a lot of different places. And then at some point you said, you know what? I’m going to go out on my own as a coach. And then from that point, you could have just been Jeremy, the coach sharing what you’ve learned based on all your history and your work history and your career. But you said, No, I’m going to partner with the Intelligent Leadership Executive Coaching Program, and I want to kind of use their methodology and use their tools to help me be better at this coaching thing. What was the thought process there? Did you consider going out on your own or were you always looking for a partner in this regard?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:04:54] You know, I did consider and in fact, I received two life coaching certifications prior to joining Alec and getting the master coach certification through them. So I did have some of that behind me and I was doing some coaching. What I like about ILC is that we’re all independent business. On Earth, there’s, I think, 13 of us now, it’s a fairly elite group at this point, two years in all of which have robust business, military and other lifetime backgrounds and experiences. But I wanted to be in business for myself, but I really enjoy the time with the clients, right? Finding clients, developing clients, coaching clients. And I’ve never been a big fan of the back office kinds of stuff. I’m kind of a marketer, strategic guy by trade. And so the fact that I’ve got a group that that really does handle a lot of the business aspects, administrate administrative aspects behind us, as well as, of course, the whole program, the philosophy, the process and the tools and the training that we’ve received. So it’s it was an interesting decision. I knew I wanted to be in business for myself after working really across four firms, either startups or roll ups, all of which recap successfully, I felt it was as part of that team. I really felt like it was time for me to be at the helm and. You know, and run my own business and enjoy the things that come from that flexibility, decision making, the responsibility and accountability and so on.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:31] Now you mentioned that you’re really enjoying working with emerging leaders. Did that? Was that kind of your first move of, hey, I’m going to work with emerging leaders? Or was that something that you kind of discovered over time after kind of working with the different, different groups of people?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:06:48] Now that’s developed a little bit. Given my, my startup and roll up experience, I was fairly certain and you can’t know what you don’t know at the time. You enter a new gig that I would be working with a lot of executives, startups that mid stage startups, you know, at this stage, you’ve got some funding. It’s time to grow. And you know, they may have not received a lot of leadership training that might be brilliant technologists, brilliant strategists or brilliant creative people, but the leadership side might be a little bit underdeveloped in their case, just based on where they’ve been and what they’ve done. And so that really was where I saw my focus to begin with. But as that developed and talking with those folks as they’re bringing people on, you know, and putting them in their first management or leadership role, I prefer the word leadership over management, but both are necessary. They saw the need for coaching and development and really giving those folks the confidence, but also giving those leaders the confidence that their people are being trained in some of the best practices of leadership. And it’s been proven across now about 10000 executives over 10 years through the ILC parent.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:59] Now, when you’re working with these emerging leaders, you mentioned earlier the importance of vulnerability, maybe a little humility, and a lot of those folks didn’t get to where they are at that this moment by being humble and vulnerable in their minds, they got there because they were the smartest person in the room or they had stumbled upon something brilliant. How do you kind of open them up to the power of being vulnerable?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:08:27] Well, you know, we we use a variety of fairly comprehensive assessments at the front end. Sometimes even pre engagement just to show people, you know, a little bit of a baseline where they are. And one of the things that we look at are natural abilities across nine different leadership traits. You’re born with these, these gifts and some are, you know, more developed and we’re all a mix of those. But also, we take a look at the maturity levels and those and often we see high natural ability, but without the corresponding maturity level. And I think once folks see that and I talk, get them talking about examples. And that’s what a coach will do. We don’t tell folks what to do. We get them talking, thinking and feeling their way through the process themselves. The vulnerability generally starts to emerge because most folks are surprised by some of the results in these assessments, but none of them deny. On my watch have denied. Yeah, that’s not me. They’ve always said, Yep, yep, that’s that’s me. That sounds right. And they’re admitting this to themselves in the mirror. As a coach, we basically act as a mirror for their own self discovery. And so it’s really wonderful to see how the system, the philosophy, the tools and the coaching experience brings that out in these folks. And you’re right, they did not get there by being humble or showing humility, and many of them feel that those are weaknesses. And as we know, servant leadership is probably the most one of the most powerful things in life, let alone business.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:02] Now for you personally, this transition into coaching, I would imagine there has to be some challenge in that. Having a career of somebody who has achieved all that you’ve achieved and rolled up your sleeves and made things happen and and, you know, created something out of nothing. A lot of times and then now you’re being the mirror and now you’re being the sherpa to help someone else succeed. Was that transition difficult or or did part of what I helped you with is kind of retrain yourself to be more of the person? That’s a guide rather than the doer?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:10:38] I think more the latter, although I would tell you in getting into this business, I always did see myself developing a practice that was it may go beyond me, right? So a leadership practice under the ILC umbrella that you know where we were developing strategies for companies and which I’ve done my whole life. But if we don’t coach folks, you can hand them a new strategy and they’ll just fall back into their old gifts. And so I’m able to do some of that and work with different people in different roles. But as far as that, yeah, it was. I learned something new personally in every session and certainly in every journey with each person I coach about myself and about leadership, which has been a really phenomenal thing. So anything that I may have been missing from that side I found in in wonderful new gifts.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:34] So now you mentioned earlier that you had a story to share about a client that I guess was reentering the workforce, that they are transitioning into a new adventure. Can you share a little bit? Obviously, don’t name the name, but maybe the lesson behind the journey?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:11:53] Yeah, it was really powerful. And this is someone I had worked with in the past, in fact, was my client and one of my marketing agencies has been watching my practice grow and we’ve stayed in touch over the years. But he was ready to after sabbatical and COVID and things, he was ready to reenter the workforce. He had a fortunate situation where all that was was OK for him and he really wanted some coaching and I think something was gnawing at him about that. And as we got into it and we took a look, indeed what I mentioned earlier, some of his natural abilities as a creative marketing person to the artist side, the thinker side and the creative side were were very high natural abilities, but very low maturity because he had spent 19 years in a marketing role inside a Fortune 50 company where he had to be a driver in an arbitrator most of the time. So while those weren’t clear runaway natural abilities, he’s pretty strong across the board, but those were lower than the ones I mentioned. His maturity levels through the roof on those things. But what that did was he really got to see himself as who he, you know, who he really was and and the things that he said as he went into these interviews and he was interviewing with CEOs of startups that were, you know, three or four hundred people growing fast, high pressure as well as, you know, some of the some of the large, you know, big four consulting firms and such. So a variety. But he said, as I go through this process and to work with you, I’m thinking completely differently. That being out of my comfort zone may actually be my true comfort zone, meaning his, you know, playing to his natural abilities.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:13:33] He said his confidence was through the roof, and he knew at that point that he could just go take a safe job in a similar corporate marketing role. He said, I know, I know I want more and that I can do it. And he said, it really it really does work so well. We went down a leadership path because he’s run fairly large teams, you know, 40, 50, 60 people at times as a leader, being in that role in a corporation, you know it. He didn’t have a need to flex those creative muscles so much. But so as he went through these, he said he could hear our discussions in his interviews and he could see these people through some of the lenses that we had put him through. And he knew he had much higher confidence of who he might gel with versus not as he went through these interviews, and a lot of them were panels. Of course, he’d interview at his level five, six seven, folks. And so it really pushed him to think very differently by getting to know himself a lot better after. Twenty five years in the workforce, he’s still just getting to know himself, so in a way, he was emerging as a, you know, a creative and an artist talent within himself. But that was that was extremely rewarding and he ultimately did landed an excellent job. And I stay in touch with my clients. And after his first month or six weeks or so, he’s got a very objective view of of this new role and where he fits in and how and and where he can take it. So it was really interesting to see that that change in somebody who had been in a certain role for so long.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:22] Right. He had seen himself a certain way and you were able to kind of open his eyes to a new way. And once you see something, it’s hard to unsee it. And then that became kind of the truth that he really believed. It resonated and he he got the belief that maybe he needed that nudge to trust what probably he felt in his gut all along.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:15:44] Exactly. He knew something was there. He just wasn’t sure quite what it was. So we were able to we were able to help him help him determine that through. Like I said, comprehensive tools and processes and exercise. It’s getting down to that core purpose. And what does he really want to really hard question to answer? I say that from personal experience and and watching people go through it as well. But once they do, like you said, it’s very hard to unsee something once. Once you see it about yourself

Lee Kantor: [00:16:14] Now, is there any advice you can give the listener right now, something that’s actionable that they could do right this second today that could help them open their eyes to maybe what is possible?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:16:28] Sure. I mean, if someone’s thinking about that, you know, obviously talking with a coach and most of us, including me, we’ll do complimentary coaching sessions to see if there’s a fit and help people understand the processes and things like that better. So, you know, if they invest, you know, thirty forty five minutes in a conversation like that, they may have a better idea if that’s a path that they would want to pursue. And if so, what kind of coach, right? Whether it’s life, leadership, nutrition, there’s a I don’t know how many now, but there are a lot of coaches and a lot of types of coaches out there right now. But yeah, if they’ve got questions, there are a lot of quality organizations and a lot of a lot of quality coaches that I know would be willing to to talk with them to give them a better idea of what that could do for them. But I think if I could just say one thing, I think if they ask themselves, you know, what am I really good at? What do I really want to be doing and what do I really want, right? I think a lot of people are rethinking those things based on what we’ve all been through the past couple of years, and I’ve seen it. And as as they do that, you know, there are a lot of people are are surprising themselves with changes that they’re making in their life, in their careers.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:50] Yeah, I think a lot of times people are now not settling their, you know, kind of going for that brass ring and they’re not waiting. Maybe till the end they were taking action sooner and having a coach by your side can really accelerate things and smooth down that learning curve.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:18:09] Yeah, that’s the key. There is just really, truly accelerate that and the work I did with the with the gentleman I was speaking about. You know, I think we probably had 12 or 14 sessions over a nine or 10 week period, which was about the length of his his job search, which is about pretty normal. And we compacted those up front and and truly move through this stuff. You can’t compress it. Not always. Things emerge on their own timeline, right? Not everybody’s ready to admit things right away, but there was a natural path for each person.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:45] Well, Jeremy, if there’s somebody out there that wants to learn more about your practice, what is the? Is there a website? Is there a way to get a hold of you to take advantage of that complimentary first session?

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:18:56] Yes, we go to my website, which is Gustafson coaching, Gustafsson coaching. And there you can book a meeting. I’ve got my calendar set up. Anyone can grab time on there. And it says complimentary session. Maybe do an assessment. Give them a better idea and see if see if it warrants further discussion.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:22] Good stuff, well, thank you so much for sharing your story today, you’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jeremy Gustafson: [00:19:28] Thanks, Lee. Great to talk with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:30] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on high velocity radio.