In this transformational episode, Shirin Danesh shares how she helps managers and leaders who are frustrated by their 9-to-5 to achieve more in work and in life. If you’re frustrated by your job and wonder if starting a business could be right for you, you won’t want to miss this episode.
You will discover:
– How to grow your professional network before you need it
– How to know if you have what it takes to start your own successful business
– The difference between a professional, a manager, and a leader
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast, and here with us today from the other side of the world and the future itself is the one and only. Shirin Danesh, who’s an executive leadership coach helping CEOs and senior leaders get through their hardest professional challenges. Her mission is to equip our future leaders with the right mindset and best practices in business, enabling them to design and build a better future. She’s also the author of the book, level up from unseen manager to sought after leader, and she’s here with us today. Well, Sharon, I’m so excited to have you on the show. Thanks for being with us. I think at the time of this recording, he says, 7:30am on a Saturday, which is crazy, but you’re here with a big smile on your face. We’re ready to go. So on this show, we focus a lot on founders, and I know for a fact that we’ve got a number of what I would call pre founders listening today. They’re in that what I call the disillusioned, I’m sorry, the dissatisfied employee stage, and they’re successful executives, leaders, pastors, but they’re wondering, is there more, right? There’s got to be more than this. How would you help them answer that question?
Shirin Danesh
Absolutely, there is a lot more than what we can imagine in our nine to five and that was actually the basis of work that I do. And you know it’s coming from this Lilith fire inside you that you are in nine to five, and you think, you know, there must be something more out there. But because you’re so dedicated to what you’re doing, to the success of your company, serving your clients, taking care of your employees. You always think, is this, it is this is all but there’s a lot more. And most of work that I do is actually for people that they are they have that fire, and they are thinking, When I grow up, what I want to be doing. And these are seasoned professionals that they have a scar barrel. They have everything that is, you know, needed to run a successful business, except one thing, knowing when to jump and when is the safe time to jump, because, as we go into our corporate life and as we grow there, the dynamic there is very different to the entrepreneurship and being involved. Well, yes, so that is the core of what I do.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that because it’s so true. In fact, when folks get into that startup entrepreneur stage was COVID. Stage two, the big question is, like, what did I get myself into? Like, what have I done? So I want to unpack this a little bit, because I couldn’t agree more. But the before we get to, before we get to some of that, I want to hit this assumption that if you’re in a nine to five, the only way to connect with, you know, with your true passion, make a big impact is to quit your nine to five. Would you agree with that?
Shirin Danesh
Not necessarily. We do have entrepreneurs that they are in a larger organizations, that they are known for, creating movements, create, bringing new change, significant change in the organizations, most of the time are under name of transformation, which is a significant change in the organization, or sometimes under name of ventures, which is a branch off of a core business, and they will start something. In fact, one of the key things that I will help people to understand, is it the right thing for me to move out and do my own thing, or is it, am I that person? Is that I’ll ask them and help them to dig in and look back at their career and say, Have you brought something new to your company? Have you, did you lobby with a lot of other senior leaders executive in the organization. Did you sell an idea internally to, for example, roll out this new software to partnership with someone that is not main partner of the business? Yeah? So no, there is actually the if they have it in them, they have already demonstrated the signs of that throughout their career in their jobs.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that is unbelievably helpful, because just because you’re a dissatisfied employee doesn’t mean you should start a new business, right? You might just have a bad boss, you might just be at the wrong stage in your career, at a certain company, in the right wrong position. And I love that, because it’s so true. The hallmarks of success that you will need can be seen in the rear view mirror. And this is great questions. I love those. So let’s assume that they have, they’ve, they’ve been selling ideas since they were a kid on the playground with a pocket full of candy, but they’ve been doing the nine to five thing for a while. They want to make a leap. I. Um, what should they do before they make that leap?
Shirin Danesh
First is a self assessment. Then, is my assessment. All right, the self assessment part is that what I mentioned is that looking at, have you done anything significantly different? Have you been a cause of a change. All right, that’s that shows that you have that drive in. And the other thing that I would check is that eliminate all the external pains that, okay, that’s not, you know, external pain is the fire within, and I really am meant to do something bigger and on my own, sure. So now let’s come and do a what I call basically where you are, the assessment as a leader, all right, as a person that can start something on your own. So the leadership visibility assessment, when we do is a very simple thing, if there’s a lot of overlap between successful entrepreneur and successful leader, and it looks at the five areas, what five aspects that you will look at, and does an assessment to say, Okay, where am I if I’m doing really poorly? Let’s see, what are the actions if I’m doing great, well done. I have it in me, and I can do it, and I should do it, and then we take it from the assessment obviously.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, one of the things I noticed is I took your assessment, which is phenomenal, by the way, and there’s lots of online for anyone listening. There’s lots of online assessments that have like, three questions and then pretend to know everything about your life. This is not one of those. It’s a really, really powerful, very thorough assessment. I’d highly recommend it. As I was going through the assessment for myself, I was, I was surprised at how much there was around kind of personal purpose and values and why? Why is that such an important part of becoming a more visible leader?
Shirin Danesh
Firstly is you know yourself, so you know who you are and what you who you’re about, what you’re about. Second part is for others to know who they’re going to get behind. So it’s there’s a saying that is very true, both in corporate leadership and in entrepreneurship is that if you, if you want to stand out, you need to stand for something. And a lot of that we start with, okay, what is your passion? What is your skill set? What are you good at? But then when it gets to purpose, is where you go beyond your circle of me, me, me, and what I’m good at and what I can do is, okay, what can I do for others? What do I bring to this world? And it’s really, truly, when you get to the concept of leadership, before that you are either a good professional or a good manager, doing a job well, moving needle on metrics, being able to create results, deliver on what you’ve promised. These are great, but they are management skills. When it gets to the leadership and self leadership, I will use this to interchangeably, but it’s really truly the same traits is that you go beyond yourself. What do I do for others? What do I leave behind? My biggest thing in the world is that we leave this planet better than how we found it. Yeah, that’s why it’s really important. And people on a level and caliber that we want to work people’s bullshit detectors on, people would know who is real, who has done the hard work, who is, you know, behind her or his words, and they will get behind that or away from it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I want to talk about it’s like you’re reading my notes. I want to talk about a really interesting subset of that. And I think this would surprise folks, but there’s a lot of really well meaning professionals that jump into, you know, coaching or consulting or advising, or, you know, these areas of my world, and they trip people’s BS meters, and they don’t even know that they’re doing it. And the reason I’ve found that it happens is to be an effective executive, you generally have to be good at quite a number of things, right? You have to be good at leading people. You have to be good at working with others. You gotta be good at problem solving to like, really be effective. And so these highly effective executives will kind of step out on their own, and they’ll think, you know, I can do all of these things. I can help the average person with all of these things. I’d love to help them, but in doing so, they don’t really help anyone all that well. And so why is it important to focus on just a few areas and apply your strengths in those areas, as opposed to trying to help everyone with everything?
Shirin Danesh
Well, it’s the basic of business. So if you think of the basic. Thick of businesses. It starts with what customer group, segment, what a specific problem you are solving for, and then comes in the middle, your value prop and your solution and how you’re going to go about it. So the for someone that is just starting, if you’re not as an entrepreneur, if you’re not acquiring an already established business you’re building from scratch. So your coaching, your consulting, your mentoring, because these are very different types of helping your customers client, you need to be very specific. So for me, for a while, I was with CX or chief, whatever Officer of organizations. But because my background is technology and finance, and particularly FinTech, I started to narrow it down, and I just help these groups. And it’s actually counterintuitive with Scott, that’s why people would think if I say, Oh, I’ll help every CXR, then I’m doing a great job. It shows how great I am. But it’s actually opposite. The narrower you are, the better you are able to serve those groups. And it’s very simple, because your language, your case studies, your content, are really relevant to that group, yes, and then it really, um, hits the spot, really, in terms,
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s so true, it’s scary though, right? Like saying you’re like, dialing that down. And I’ve found there’s a lot of head games that come into that, right? We think if I, if I only do that like that’s such a small thing, how could I possibly make a living on it? But I’ve found that’s not the case. So why is it that when you narrowed things down, the world actually tends to become a bigger place?
Shirin Danesh
The, this is a fallacy. It’s, it’s, it’s an illusion that there’s not enough. Firstly, for if it’s only a coaching practice or a consulting practice with one to 10 people, there’s only a certain number of people that we can serve. You’re a scale architect, so you know numbers inside ad, and what is the right number or typical number? But the answer your question, why? Because it’s a counter intuitive things. We have other things in life that are very similar to that. And I talk about this, people that they have a lot of friends feel loneliers lonelier. So the reason for people think I need to cast a very wide net to be able to get more is that it’s a it’s an illusion. Yeah, the more specific you are in the business with your target customer and the problem that you solve and the problem that you don’t solve. For example, we don’t solve for the coaches that we work. We will, they will go through the program, which is the goal, is becoming head huntable, or you becoming launch ready. And then we go through a year of branding and content creation. But after that, we don’t do anything such as providing them with another talent, or any of those ones, that’s not a problem that we solve, yeah. So knowing what you solve for whom is key.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So I’ve got one more question, and this is it’s almost a little offensive to people when they come in, but I really think it’s true, and I think you’ll agree with me. So starting out again, particularly my world, I do a lot with coaches who are starting out, consultants who are starting out, and I have found that one of the biggest advantages for a new coach, getting off the ground has nothing to do with their knowledge as a coach, and virtually everything to do with their network and how easily they can leverage that network. And so I’ve seen brilliant coaches, just unreal business minds out of business in less than a year because they they didn’t have a network to apply all of that. So would you agree in the the role of a network? And if so, what are some things that you’ve seen folks do successfully to build that network before going solo?
Shirin Danesh
Amazing question. I spent a lot of time to learn about networking, and now we are teaching it, and it’s voice applicable to corporate leaders and the ones that they will transition out and set it out. Your most important thing is your network, but how to grow it and how to nurture it? That’s the difficult question, because networking is such a big word. You know? It’s like entrepreneurship, okay, um, how is it that some people will be able to use create that network and use it and see it as a. Really an asset that grows alongside their career or their business. That’s the essence of what we do and we should do, and that’s what they don’t teach you. They don’t teach you when you’re a job, and they don’t teach you when you are transitioning out to set up your business. The key element of that is to connect with people on individual one on one, not in group setting. Yes, that’s the core element of networking and being able to build those relationships. So then when you need it, you’ll be able to tap into it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So true. We just had a call with our scale architects, and one of the things I said on the call was, there’s, there’s nothing that trumps coffee. It’s neither one on one. There’s just no better for this world, this type of service, I’ve just, I’ve seen too many things come and go. There’s nothing that beats coffee. So Sharon, there’s a question that I have for you I ask all my guests. I’m very interested to see what you have to say. What would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all. What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Shirin Danesh
I’m a time bender, all right, that means I have this ability that I can expand something that is going well, or shorten something to get to the goal that we have. And I wish most people knew that for getting to where you want to go, you don’t need to wait the years that is typically needed for it. You can find people that they are currently in those positions, and find out how they operate, and just get yourself to those positions a lot quicker than what you think. I wish people would know that you don’t need to go through every single steps that is traditionally needed, not for your job, not for your business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Wow. So you’ve got a book out level up from unseen manager to sought after leader. Where can folks get a copy of it and how can they find more out about the work that you do?
Shirin Danesh
Absolutely. So the book is obviously on Amazon, but also on my website, and I also live on LinkedIn, literally, and that’s the only account that no one else is managing. I’m managing that, and there’s a link on my LinkedIn, definitely for downloading it. And the key thing about the book, Scott is that the book is actually an action book. My clients are futuristic, caring and driven people, so it’s not a fluffy book. Once they go through it, they’re like the concept, the why of it, and then the actions. So they have to take the actions.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, head on over to Shirindinesh.com, find her on LinkedIn. We’ll put both of those links in the show notes so you don’t have to go searching and Shirin, thank you so much for being on the show. It’s just a privilege and honor having you here. For those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean 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 Shirin Danesh
Shirin Danesh is an Executive Leadership Coach who helps CEOs and senior leaders navigate their most complex professional challenges. She specializes in product and program delivery using the Agile framework and lean practices. She has experience in portfolios of products, product lines (a collection of interrelated products), and single-product ventures. She connects enterprise strategy, investment, products, and teams to create a forward-thinking, human organization. Her mission is to equip our future leaders with the right mindset and best business practices, enabling them to design and build a better future.
Want to learn more about Shirin Danesh’s work at shirindanesh.com? Check out her website at https://shirindanesh.com/
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