In this purpose-filled episode, Craig Colvett, Co-Founder of Coach360 and owner of CoachCraig.io, shares how he focuses on helping people effectuate change to better themselves with the help of a life coach.

You will discover:

– The importance of the non-financial aspects of retirement or exit-planning
– Whether or not you are ready for a life coach
– How to identify the next chapter or even book in the story of your life.

Episode Transcript

Scott Ritzheimer

Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach and I am here with yet another unbelievable life and leadership coach. And that is the one the only Craig Colvett. Now, like I mentioned, he’s a life and leadership coach, he is from Denver, Colorado. And throughout his two decades of experience in the financial sector, Craig has established a reputation for helping people with all of the non financial elements of retirement, including finding your purpose, finding your mental health fun, ensuring that you have a plan for social interaction seems so simple, but we miss it so often. Craig also founded Coach 360. It’s a coaching service company that offers financial advisors a platform to bring to their clients to help make their retirement offerings more well rounded. Well, Greg, so excited to have you here. I can’t wait to dive into what I think is going to be a brilliant conversation. Before we get there. I’d love to hear just a little bit, you add some color to this, what were you doing before getting into life coaching? And how did that lead you to make the leap?

Craig Colvett

Yeah, great question. Thanks for having me, and really excited to be here as well. So prior to this, I would say it was completely unrelated. But actually, there were probably more connections that folks realized. So I was in financial sales. I was an external sales rep, as you mentioned, based here out of Denver, Colorado. So I would meet with financial advisors, so I got to know their business very well. And it was more investment focused, and markets and economy and that sort of thing. And then a couple of things happen. So unrelated, but the timing was certainly not coincidental. So number one, I started to have kids. And so I had three young boys, seven and twin five year olds. And the other thing that happened was the pandemic. And so a couple of things, as any parent can probably attest to having kids definitely changes you and starts to reshape how you view the world. And so that was at play for me. And this was while I was still in financial services. And then the pandemic happened, and what I recognize what became front and center that a lot of people probably recognized, unfortunately, so was that a lot of people were struggling part of that was exacerbated by the pandemic, but some of it may have had nothing to do with it. But we saw it firsthand on the news, reading stories seeing in the local news. And there’s just a lot of challenges that people were facing day to day. And so my recognition there and awareness made me realize that with the remaining time that I have here on Earth, I basically wanted to help people in a more direct and really specific way. And so I found coaching, and realize the versatility and flexibility that provide to me allowing me to build my own client roster based off of what I felt was a good fit. And so there was a lot of connection. So I’ll just end on this. With sales, there’s a personal connection that needs to be there. People need to buy from the person need to understand that the person cares about what they’re doing. And that’s a commonality with sales and coaching is that people want to feel that you care. And once they do, they’ll start to open up to you.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, yeah, that is so true. So I want to explore this a little bit. Because you do life coaching, you do leadership coaching, particularly on the life coach side, if you look back over some past clients, that really, really you took off, through you catalyzed by your work, right, it was just the right fit at the right time. How would you say? What are some of the prerequisites if there are any? Or how does someone know if they’re ready for a Life Coach?

Craig Colvett

That’s a great question. And it’s one that robably is a little bit of, you have to check in to see if you really are ready. Because one of the real when I talk to prospects who are interested or intrigued, maybe by working with a coach, one of the things they truly need to be ready for is to look for answers to questions they may not want to be asking themselves. Right. So one of the questions that we as coaches could pose is, what question do you not want me to ask you right now, you need to be prepared to be vulnerable, need to explore what’s actually going on from a curiosity level, meaning you don’t have any preconceived answers. Even if you think you know, right, I’m here, I’m successful, I’m good. You need to be able to answer questions, honestly, you need to realize you may not like the answers, you might say, you know, I’ve been doing something for the past five, 710 1114 years. And I actually don’t like it at all. But I’m too scared to move on. So being able to ask and answer some of those questions in a genuine way. maintain integrity with yourself, you lie to yourself if you really want to come out the other side, and be a better version than who you are today. And so that’s a big part of it right is the willingness to take that risk because it is that there is risk even with oneself, even if there’s nobody else involved, answering questions about oneself that you may not like the answer to is scary, and especially for people, again, who have been in a spot in a position career personally, whatever it is, if they’ve been there for a bit, and they’ve realized, oh, gosh, I kind of miss that a little bit. That can be a problem, I found that myself, I realized I was in a spot that I was there for probably the wrong reasons at that point in time. And thankfully, somebody shoved me out.

Scott Ritzheimer

And, and so, if you’re, if you’re looking at, let’s say, you, maybe you’re like, oh, I don’t know if I’m quite ready for that. But I want to be ready for that. How does someone know if you talked about trust earlier, right. And these are things that, that you want to make sure there’s a relationship of trust with a coach, otherwise, you’re not going to really be able to step into answering those questions, it can create a barrier. Right. So what are some things to look for? When you’re looking for a life coach to to establish or maybe even measure that trust?

Craig Colvett

Yeah, that’s it’s a great question. I think, folks, especially as a folks who know themselves, well, you tend to know when you have good rapport with somebody, and when somebody’s being genuine with you. So sort of credentials aside. Not that people shouldn’t be credentialed as a coach, they can be they don’t have to be by the way, there is a certification out, there’s different levels of it. But you don’t generally don’t have to have a certification to be a coach. But you find somebody you have a good rapport with, what you feel like is an authentic version of the person you’re seeking. One thing about a coach, people tend to miss this, because we sometimes can attach, we think of sports coaches, right. And sports coaches are generally prescriptive, or you’re dribbling the wrong way, the way you’re holding that golf club is not correct, a life coach and any version there, that can be a career coach, relationship, coach, divorce coach, etc. They aren’t there to prescribe what you the client need to do. So that’s an important part is, it’s really a self exploratory role. They’re the objective party. So you’ll know fairly quickly, do I jive with this person? Sometimes having similar backgrounds helps, right? Maybe if somebody came from sales or was in finance, or as a parent as well, you get some commonality there, you can relate to it. It’s not a requirement, but it helps. And so there’s some different ways that you can look for but I tell people go off of your feel. What is your gut telling you about this person? Do they seem like they’re trying to sell you a bill of goods? Or do they seem like they just want to get to know you and help you along? With your journey?

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, yeah, that is so good. So I want to, I want to look because you bring up and it’s in your interest and sort of your story here, you came out of the financial world, and realize there’s a whole lot of non financial stuff that’s really driving the show here. So the kind of diving in, in particular, to the world of kind of founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, that that transition into retirement tends to be a really, really, it’s a big one for anybody, but it’s a really, really big one for business owners, because what are they going to do with their business? Are they going to sell it? Are they going to transition to other layer of leadership? And one of the things that I found that, that catches a lot of them off guard is this really, really big question that hits them square in the chest. And that is who am I? If I am not my business, right? If my purpose is not my business, mission, vision and values, if those two are now going to be separate? What’s left of me? So have you bumped into that DC? Founders leaders asking that question? And how do you help them to begin to process it?

Craig Colvett

Have I seen people ask that question? Yes. And that’s another one that sometimes people simply don’t want to answer. Because it scares the heck out of them do the example I use a lot is with athletes, right? And not because they’re any bigger or better than any one of us, but because from a public perspective, they’re very visible, right? So it’s very easy to see the transitions, you see some athletes that transition very well. And you see some that, quite frankly, just have a really difficult time because that’s who they are for their whole life. Right? That’s who they are pick on Tiger Woods, for example, is still going. But who is he if he’s not a golfer? Who is Michael Jordan, if he’s not a basketball player? And so those are difficult questions that again, back to your earlier question. You need to be prepared to answer because you’re going to have to answer it. But you really need to find our to write what’s the next chapter. And so one way that I try to get people to think about this, instead of saying, oh my gosh, I have to figure this out. It’s no I get to figure this out. Right? Because if they’re in that spot to your to your question right there moving on to something else. And that in and of itself is fabulous, what an opportunity. You build something that has its own sustainability It’s up and running out. It’s all let’s call it on cruise control. And now you’re in a position to write a next could be a chapter could be a whole new book, you could be doing something completely different. The guy that comes up for me because I’m a fan of him personally, is Arnold. Right? He’s had really distinct chapters, and arguably three distinct books written about himself that he’s chose. And so that’s the opportunity, right, the guy ran for governor after a successful acting career, and after a successful bodybuilding career, so it’s really about getting folks, I like to call it a pivot. Right? You’re here just rotate 90 degrees, what does it look like now? What opportunity is being given to you, because of what’s at play here. And if you are considering retirement, maybe throw away the word, maybe just throw away the word I think people attach meaning to it, that we haven’t necessarily thought about that much. Because if you live or retire, it generally means to back away from something. Or what if you back away from one thing, but move full force towards something else, you know, and so that’s what I want to get people to wrap their head around is, this is just another opportunity, just like they’ve overcome a lot of opportunities within the business. It’s another opportunity just a little bit more personally focused than just business focused.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, I want a second, and there’s so much significance in that very simple statement. But one of the best things I found you can do, and I think you’re saying the same thing is, you don’t want to move from something you want to move to something. And yes, find your part to find that thing that excites you find that thing that gets you out of bed. The next morning, I remember, the first time I heard it, it was just staggering. And I can’t quote the statistics Exactly. But within the first nine months of exit, or leaving their business, the incidence rate of major health issues, major marital issues, major life issues for founders and owners is astronomical, because it just all comes crashing down, they’re not moving from something to something, they’re just kind of, they just find themselves lost. There’s only so much golf you can play, right? There’s only so much time that the grandkids want you around, there’s only so many trips, you can go galavanting on. And so we don’t want to deal with this stuff. We don’t want to wait until it happens to deal with it. Right? We don’t want to be right in the middle of it because you get more into those half twos than you get to. So if we’re looking at someone in that position, who gets to start thinking about some of these things, who gets to ask some of these hard questions early. From a life coaches perspective, what should founders and owners be thinking about when they’re thinking about their exit?

Craig Colvett

I think to your your question, because I’ve done plenty of conversations around the retirement focus, and people tend to attach sort of the 60 ish age range to it. And I see, throw that right out, throw the age thing right out, let’s start thinking about where you are right now, and your overall trajectory. So they should start thinking about it, irrespective of their age. And here’s why. If you wait, let’s just say, hypothetically, let’s go with a traditional retire at 65, you get the health coverage, blah, blah, blah. If you wait until then, maybe you would have done something differently sooner, by IE change careers, maybe you would have started putting more time into something to prepare for this adjustment. And so maybe you would have chosen a different career path, a different organization, maybe you would have started that business that you thought about doing, but kept this stability and security of a corporate job. And so some of these things people should start thinking about now, because let’s state the obvious, right, you get one run through this. And so if you just keep waiting, because you’re gonna get that pension, if you stick around for five more years, you’re also sacrificing something at that point, too. Right. And so these are just questions that people should, and there’s no right or wrong answer. If people want to retire at 65 and go play golf and be with the grandkids, they can just know that it doesn’t have to be that because somebody else said that’s what they do. And they like, I think that’s a part of it is starting to craft like, for example, you and I who are far from retirement in the traditional sense. But what are we doing right now? Where’s our overall level of fulfillment of purpose of well being of happiness? Where is that now? And why is it not maxed out? Who cares about when you’re 65? If you’re going to spend for the next 25 years? I like in what you do? Is that what you want? And so the next part is I just want to retrain the brain. The thought process is to get away from some of what, whether it’s Western society, whether it’s the United States of kind of plugged in is where we should go by a certain point and say, Where are you right now? What’s missing? Right, what’s missing? How can we get there? This gap filled. And that’s the part I want to get people to focus on again, is sort of a, let’s do a quick pause, let’s scan our horizon and look around and go. Okay, where would some improvements benefit me the most?

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah. Yeah, that’s so good, I want to shift focus is slightly because one of the things that I love about founders is that there’s so much work that we can do to help them. But there’s so much work that they can do to help their employees and their leaders within their organization. And you talked about COVID, and how that really rattled a lot of really the fabric of our society, a lot of just what we’ve kind of anchored ourselves on. So how can how can business leaders really help their people through this either? Is it helping them find life coaches? Is it helping them to, to dive into some of these questions? How can they get engaged and help out?

Craig Colvett

Yeah, that’s a great question. And the one that I press hard on business leaders to think about, right, because something that a real injustice that’s done broadly, is we tend to think of people while they’re at work. And then when they’re at home, as if they’re two different people. And they’re not, it’s the same human being any of us can attest, when we have something heavy going on in our personal life, how that feels at work. It’s tough, it’s difficult. So to me, as companies look to gain again, let’s think about it strictly in the number sense, more productivity, something that happens when an employee feels a pull towards an organization, you get more out of them, you get more creativity, you get more energy, you get more willingness to collaborate all of it. And so yeah, I think corporations very much should look at the human being and say, is there more we can provide them than simply covering their annual wellness check. And that’s not to knock that, it’s to say there’s a better mousetrap that can be built? I think about this all the time, right? If we look around us at some of whatever we use, whether it’s video conferencing, whether it’s lighting, whether it’s our phone, mouse, whatever. It’s not that the old one was broken, it’s that there was room for improvement. And that’s what I think from a leadership level, there’s just an opportunity for improvement. Think about how your employees will show up for you and your organization, if you empower them for their overall well being. If they’re having challenges as a parent, as a spouse, and you provided support, how would their view of your organization change? How would their view of you personally change if they said, Wow, he or she recognized? I’m not just Scott. I’m Scott, who is a brother, sister, Father, daughter, etc. I’m a whole human being. And I think that’s the part I really encourage folks to go after is, you know, let’s be honest, turnover is not good. Lowly engaged, employees are not good. That’s not what we seek. And so I say, if you truly care about the business that you’ve created, and the mission that it’s on, then you need to get your people fully engaged. And one way to do that is to show them I see you, I know who you are. I know you’re struggling to take care of your mother right now. How can I help support that? It’s not just the days off? It might be? Here’s a 30 minute webinar over lunch next Friday. Jump on, listen to it. Nobody ever said after they learn more information. They didn’t know. Wow, what a waste. never said that. Right. They said, Well, I’m grateful for having the knowledge. Now I can choose our and if I use it,

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that’s so true. So here’s the question, I like to ask all my guests. And it’s what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? Well, what’s that one thing that you wish you could just bottle up and let everyone listening or watching today know?

Craig Colvett

As you can see, as I gaze out the window here, I’m like, what’s good secret? One, one thing for me that has been really powerful is Brene. Brown talks about this a lot. But I didn’t, I didn’t know who she was. And this was a thing for her until after I personally recognized it. The power and vulnerability and connection, and realizing that when I was younger, I was very intentional about the facade that I put up, about how I displayed myself to my colleagues, to my bosses, et cetera, always wanting to be perceived as a position of strength. And I’ve realized the power of vulnerability, especially as a man, especially as a man, it can be intimidating to do that, and especially in certain fields. But there’s a lot of power in the connections that that can be developed. The first step is really the willingness and openness to be vulnerable with other human beings and realize it’s an opportunity for additional connection. Yeah.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, that’s so good. And life coaches can be a huge stepping stone to making that happen and facilitator. So just a second, I want to make sure folks know how they can get in touch with you hear more about the work and go deeper. Before we get there, though, I’d love to hear from you. Take off your life coach hat for a moment, put on your entrepreneur CEO hat and talk to us what’s the next stage of growth look like for you and your business? And what challenge we have to overcome to get there?

Craig Colvett

I appreciate the question. So I really think about this to me, I don’t even know sometimes folks will use a baseball analogy to talk about sort of where your overall trajectory of the business is. I’m not even sure if the game has started yet. I think that’s how early we are in the coaching round. So coaching is just a really powerful way for people to explore any topic, so that really what successful people you ask the question at the beginning, successful people that work with coaches are of a growth mindset, the topic is irrelevant, it doesn’t matter. You can want to get better at tying your shoes, if you want to grow in an area, a coach is a great person to partner with on that front. So I think about the different ways and you asked a question about from a leadership level, how they take more integrated into the business, I think that’s the part is to remove some of the stigma, people who want to seek help, again, because there could be some stigma around there. So I think is trying to get that barrier, much lower to the point that’s off existent. But really expand outside the financial advisor community. As you noted earlier in the intro, for the most part, we are financial advisor focused, but again, that has to do more with where I came from, to where I think we can go. But I think from a again, from a human level, from a business level, combine the two, there’s obviously a lot of overlap. I just feel like a lot of businesses can bring Well, being folks, they can be coaches, they can be pure psychotherapist, they can be personal trainers, like all of it’s tied together, right? We’re all one person, our mental, physical, emotional well being off sits on us. And so that’s the part is I guess, maybe this is another answer to your question, then I’ll wire it up. But stop thinking that there really are segments to us as people. Oh, how’s your physical well being? No, it’s your well being. It’s physical, mental, and emotional. all rolled into one. Yeah. And recognizing they’re all connected. Right? Anytime we’ve had a stressor going on in our life, we generally feel it physically. We feel it mentally we feel it emotionally. Right. It’s all connected. And so I think it’s the other part is getting folks to recognize the power that they have. And the power in bringing in somebody, anybody doesn’t have to be a coach necessarily bring in other people to help support you in your journey. And you might be able to reciprocate that back to them as well.

Scott Ritzheimer

Yeah, yeah, that’s a good. So there’s some folks out there listening, and it’s just, it’s just the right person, right, Tyler? They’re hanging on every word, you say? How can they find more out about the coaching that you do? And what would next steps be?

Craig Colvett

Absolutely, yeah. So coach360.io is the website, you can get some flavor for what we’re up to there, as you said, we retirement heavy, but not exclusive. As I just mentioned in my previous comments, right, people are dealing with all kinds of things at any given time, we never know what that is. So I want I want folks that think of sort of like when you go into a restaurant, they have a variety of options. And based off of how you’re feeling that day, you get to pick and choose what’s going to best serve you. And that’s really where coach 360 comes into play as we can handle just about anything that folks are going through. So they can go on to the website, they can read some of the articles that have been written by our coaches, they can get a better flavor for the business and what we seek to achieve. I guess the one part I would just add is the financial advisor is really the connector. Right? They’re really there just to make the intro. A really, it’s about you, the end client, and again, an area that you want to grow through. So if that’s retirement, if it’s financial, if it’s parenting, if it’s something with your spouse, if it’s your health, and well being your social support, etc. We’re really there to support that in whatever way the person needs. So they’re welcome to jump on the website, they can connect with me there. LinkedIn as well. I tried to put out some regular content, both original but sometimes I just steal it from others because there’s some really smart folks in the world doing some real good. And that’s what we seek to really raise the tide and bring everybody up with us.

Scott Ritzheimer

Fantastic. Well, Craig, thanks so much for being here. Everyone head on over to coach360.io We’ll drop the link in the show notes so you can get to directly and for those of you watching or listening you know that your time and attention in the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.

Contact Craig Colvett

Craig Colvett is a life and leadership coach from Denver, Colorado. Through his two decades of experience in the financial sector, Craig has established a reputation for helping people with all of the non-financial elements of retirement, including finding their purpose, improving their mental health, and ensuring they have a plan for social interaction. Craig founded Coach360. It is a coaching service company offering financial advisors a platform to bring to their clients to help make their retirement offerings more well-rounded.

Want to learn more about Craig Colvett’s work at Coach360? Check out his website at coach360.io

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