June 24, 2026 – Lead Anyway Greg Hoover and Human Advantage Helen Wada

Intro 1 0:04
Broadcasting from AM and FM stations around the country. Welcome to the Small Business Administration Award-winning School for Startups Radio, where we talk all things small business and entrepreneurship. Now here is your host, the guy that believes anyone can be a successful entrepreneur, because entrepreneurship is not about creativity, risk, or passion. Jim Beach.

Jim Beach 0:25
Hello, everyone. Welcome to another exciting edition of School for Startups Radio. I can’t wait to introduce two great guests today. First up, we have Greg Hoover. He has done some amazing things in his career and is now sharing with others, giving back in leadership exercises and helping people become great leaders. He is obsessed with two things: intentionality and action, and I love that combo. After that, Helen Wada is with us, calling in from London. We’re going to talk about the human advantage, self-esteem, and she plays the quick 10, and so it’s always fun when we have a game or a guest with the quick 10. Greg played the quick 10 also, but it was not included in this interview. You’ll have to catch it in three or four days, so make sure you come back to hear Glenn’s. I’d be Greg’s answers to those great questions as well. Anyway, thanks so much for being with us. We’re gonna get started in about 10 seconds. Thanks a lot. We are back, and again, thank you so much for being with us. You know, when I started my very first business, I had no idea that I was going to have to do so many things, like cleaning the toilets and leading people and HR, and all of these things, and I had no idea how to do that. I’d never been a leader before, and I had to make it up on the spot. We are excited to welcome someone to the show who could help us through those sorts of situations. Please welcome Greg Hoover to the show. He is the founder of Third Star Consulting and author of a new book called Lead Anyway: Ordinary You, Extraordinary Impact. Greg has had C-suite positions: CEO, President, COO, Chief Marketing Officer, across a variety of industries, including transportation, logistics, tech, mobility, financial services, real estate, higher education, and nonprofits. He has led a billion dollars in revenue for his clients. Wow, pretty impressive. Greg, welcome to the show. How you doing?

Helen Wada 2:34
I’m terrific, Jim. Thanks for having me. It’s great to be here.

Jim Beach 2:37
Tell us about the book Lead. Oh, anyway, what do you mean? Anyway, that’s an interesting title choice.

Greg Hoover 2:46
Yeah, that’s, and typically the first question that I get, and the premise of the book is that you don’t need a title, you don’t need a role, you don’t need a specific setting to lead that all of us lead, and you may not think you’re a leader, but lead anyway. Leadership to me is having a circle of impact or influence, and we all have that. So, lead anyway is just a challenge that we can all make our area of the world better, and our relationships, and the people around us, and whether that’s career related or personal, that’s what that’s all about,

Jim Beach 3:23
really. Because I’ve got a lot of people that I don’t think could lead, I wouldn’t follow them

Greg Hoover 3:28
well. I mean, it’s to me, it’s kind of simple, fundamental stuff. I say, if I hold the door open for you today, walking into a restaurant, I feel like I’m leading, you know, I’m offering you kindness, I’m offering you support and some empathy, and that to me is that the root of leadership is is being able to connect with other people and offer them something that creates value in their world. So I feel like every one of us has an opportunity. We may not be speakers, we may not be in a role where we’re quote unquote leading others or directing their efforts, but we all have value that we can add wherever we’re at, and that, that to me, is at the root of leadership.

Jim Beach 4:11
Okay. Well, I certainly agree with that example. I don’t know that I would call that leadership. Isn’t that just kindness? How does that impact me as you’re holding the door for me so politely, I don’t, I don’t know that I’ve been led. I just have been given a nice.. you were just nice to me.

Greg Hoover 4:30
Yeah, maybe, maybe not. You know, I tell a story, I think it’s in the book. I like to walk, and I walk in my neighborhood, you know, three, four miles a day, and I was that guy that, whenever I would walk, if you come up to somebody, I’d kind of look down, or I might cross the street just to avoid interaction. And when I was in the midst of publishing the book, I kind of challenged myself. I didn’t think that was very leader-like. And so one day, I was walking up the street, I was about five blocks from my house, and there was a home that the yard just always looked spectacular. And the woman was out working in her flower beds, and I was on the sidewalk, probably 30 3040 feet away, and I said, “Hey, I just want to let you know, I walk by your home every day, and your yard looks terrific, you just do a really nice job. And she, she stood up, and she turned and looked at me, and I thought she was going to burst into tears, and she said, “You know, I just.. I can’t thank you enough. She said, I’ve had a really lousy week, and sometimes you just like that people notice, and she said, I spent a lot of time out here, and I appreciate that you noticed that, and I, you know, that to me, we don’t always know the circumstances that we’re involved in, or the things going on kind of behind the scenes, and but to me, that’s leadership, that’s an opportunity to make things around you better, and to improve her world might have an impact, might not, but it’s just one way that potentially we can help others.

Jim Beach 5:49
Do most people believe that they could be a leader? Your first chapter in the book is called Who Me. I love that question. What percent actually think that are consider themselves leaders, you know. I feel like that’s a real challenge to a lot of people. They’re gonna go, ‘I’m not a leader, I’m just here to do my job and go home.

Greg Hoover 6:10
Yeah, and I think that’s that’s the issue, right? I think societally, culturally, certainly professionally, we’ve kind of conditioned people that way. You know, you’re you’re not in charge, you’re not a director, you’re not a manager, you’re not the CEO, and I think that’s part of the issue, and from my side, that’s part of the challenge in writing the book, is listen, every single one of us has something we can influence, we have something that we can make better, that we, that we can create value for, and participate with, and in, and that makes you a leader. If you know one of the things I talk about is when, when people ask this question, what does lead anyway mean? And my, my parallel is, if you’re walking down the street and see a house on fire, you know the lead anyway person is the person that looks for a hose rather than listens to see if a fire truck’s coming. You know, it’s taking action, it’s being intentional, and I think I think we’ve conditioned people. Well, I’m not the captain, I’m not the starter, I’m not the senior, I’m not the principal, I’m not the teacher, so I can’t lead. And you know, part of the goal here is to let people know, no, you do have impact and you have influence, and with little intentionality you can make a difference.

Jim Beach 7:21
Okay, I’m getting confused, Greg. I’m pretty sure I thought that when you see a house on fire, you’re supposed to get your camera, your phone out, and start videoing. Moral responsibility is to video it, so it can be on TikTok.

Greg Hoover 7:35
Yeah, get it online ASAP, right? Yeah, step

Jim Beach 7:41
backwards. What is leadership? Can you define it for us? What does leadership really mean?

Greg Hoover 7:47
I think it’s having impact to me. Leadership is having impact and making a difference, and so that’s that kind of gets back to what we talked about in terms of being a leader, you know, it’s not being in charge of the meeting, it’s I would argue that any participant in a meeting can can lead in that meeting, whether they’re the quote unquote leader of the meeting or not. It’s having impact, it’s having influence, it’s making a difference. And so again, I use, I use the word intentional a lot, but to me it’s about being intentional and taking action, and there’s how many settings a day are we all in that intentional action can make a difference and make that a better situation, rather than just sitting back and saying, oh, I wonder how this is going to turn out, and so I feel like leadership is having impact.

Jim Beach 8:37
Okay, I like that definition, that works very well for me, and in that sense, opening the door is 100% in the definition, so I buy that. How do I start with myself first? How do I lead myself first?

Greg Hoover 8:56
Well, I come back to that word again, intentional. You know what, when I wake up today, what’s my intention for the day? And I think it starts with that, right? Like, I want to have a positive impact. What, what’s going on for me today? And where can I make a difference? And it’s, you know, one of the things that comes up a lot is we think of leadership as, you know, I threw the Super Bowl winning touchdown pass in overtime, or I hit a home run in the bottom. We think of that as leadership, not me, you know, not me, no, for sure, not me, but, but it’s not in leadership. I mean, that’s a moment that, that is maybe an end result of your leadership, but you know the guy that threw that touchdown pass has taken 1000s of snaps, and you know, woke up today and decided I’m going to do the extra work today, and there’s a young man from the high school I graduated from who just recently was an amazing athlete in high school, went. Went to Purdue on a full scholarship for baseball, was drafted when he graduated from college by the Marlins, and labored in the minor leagues for eight years, and just, I think, was about a month ago, was called up for the first time in his life at age 30, and pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays, and pitched the perfect inning his first time out, and you know, was that a moment of leadership coming in and pitching that inning, probably, but it wasn’t built that day. You know, he’s he’s thrown 1000s of pitches going back to when he was a nine or a 10 year old and worked hard every day and put in the work, and so you know leadership of himself in that moment is what am I going to do today to be better, and it’s not always easy, you know, it’s not always something that just comes straight to mind, but I believe it’s leading ourselves is about a being honest, right, what are our abilities and skills, and what do we need to work on, but b waking up that morning with an intention that here’s here’s what I’m going to do today, where I think I can make a difference,

Jim Beach 11:00
all right, so it’s just like entrepreneurship, you have to put your hand up and say, me, me, I’m going to be the one, right? That’s what it means,

Greg Hoover 11:07
100% 100% I think it’s, it’s, it’s all about intention and action, and you know, don’t sit back, don’t wait for the perfect circumstances, don’t wait for permission. If you see a place you can make a difference, take action.

Jim Beach 11:20
All right, and then how does that lead into leading another person?

Greg Hoover 11:25
Well, I think it’s almost a natural progression, right, because as you become that person, you know whether it’s in an athletic sport or in a business, we all know people that we think of as leaders, and it’s not because they’re the head of that meeting, or the head of that department, or the captain of that team. It’s because of their actions, right? They show up, and you know, athletically, maybe they’re at practice early, or they stay late, or they do the extra work. In business, it’s, you know, the person that’s always two minutes early to the meeting, and nobody, nobody has to wait on them to get anything done. They participate, they volunteer, and I think by doing that you instantly raise your level of influence with those around you. Those are the people that we all naturally want to follow, that we look to. I don’t know if guidance is the right word, but that for examples, you know, those are the those are the people we look at. And so by doing that and taking action and being intentional about your influence, it’s just natural that as you do that, people are going to gravitate to that, and now now you, you almost instantly have influence expanded with the people that are around you that see those actions and start to have credibility with those folks.

Jim Beach 12:40
All right, can you define the basket of skills that I need? So, in chapter five, we talk about building real-world leadership skills. Can we talk about what those skills are? And then I want to point out one of the reasons I just love this book is that at the end you have a 30 day kick start your leadership plan, which sounds to me like action and do things on day one, and I love that, because so many of us need a plan. What are the skills that I need to work on? Being first at the meeting every day, is it going up to my coworkers and saying, here’s how you could do your job better? Frank,

Greg Hoover 13:20
yeah, I wouldn’t. I don’t know that I’d start there.

Jim Beach 13:26
That’s a good way to get to

Greg Hoover 13:27
me. Yeah, right. It comes down to the two words that I, they use all the time when it comes to this philosophy is intentionality and taking action, right. And so there’s a whole host of things. Part of what I love about the plan at the back of the book is it’s just daily a little thing, and you know that gets back to, we talked about what can you do every day to lead, and that’s that’s what that’s intended to do, and it’s simple stuff, right? Like, you know, wake up today and think about X, you know, literally wake up today and think about, no, that’s a given, but we know just something, something in any given day, you know, one of the things that we talked about in there is just actions, so yeah, like I think it’s in week two where we talk about the small things, yeah, one of the things is a ride five minutes early, you know, maybe ask a question if you’re in a meeting and something is is not clear to you, you know, ask a question, acts ask something that you think clarifies the situation, taking responsibility for action, you know, that’s that’s a way that you can lead, so I feel like it’s it’s all about thinking about in the moment, you know. One of the things that we talk about in the section at the back is start is what are your values like, what do you believe in, and what makes you tick every day, like what what makes you want to get up and go to work, because that’s kind of where the whole thing starts. How do you. Talk to and about yourself. What is success for you? I think most people think success is the next promotion or a raise or a title, and it may not be that for you. For you, success might be, you know, being able to spend time with my family, you know, being able to do something that I love on weekends, and so it’s really to me about the small and specific things on any given day, and as you develop that, as you work through that plan, then it all of a sudden becomes, it just becomes second nature, and part of how you can, how you can improve your skills in that regard on almost a daily basis.

Jim Beach 15:45
What about communication? What communication skills should I work on?

Greg Hoover 15:50
Simplicity and clarity. One of the things we do in my, when I do company workshops, is everybody’s familiar with the telephone game, right? And you know, you, you give out a.. I do it in two parts. I give out a complex instruction, might be two or three sentences. We get as many people on the line as we can, and then we pass that along. And in that setting, it almost never comes back to bear resemblance to what we started with. But then we play the game a second way, and we limit.. we limit the communication link to three or four people, and we can’t have an instruction that’s longer than five words, and what happens is we get to the end and it’s, it’s clear as a bell. Well, what’s the lesson there? You know, the lesson is the tighter the chain of command and the simpler the instruction, the more likely we are to get it right. And so, for me, communications at the root, and it comes back to being cleared, you know. One of the things we talk about with companies is it’s typically not a talent problem, you know. If you, if you’re having issues, it’s not because you don’t have good people, it’s not because they don’t care. It’s probably a clarity and alignment situation. It might be too complex, you know. One of the things I see as I consult is a lot of businesses today think more complex is better, and I just don’t think there’s anything further from the truth. You know, I would rather that we’re 100% clear and we execute at an 80% level than I would that we spend that last 20% trying to attain perfection, because I think there’s not enough ROI in that last 20% and so it really does come down to communication, and that, that to me, is all about clarity and simplicity and alignment.

Jim Beach 17:28
Let’s change the topic, if you don’t mind a little bit. Greg, tell us about building your consulting practice, so you’re about what, two or three years into it now. Prior to that, your most recent positions were in the storage and moving space with several different companies. I love that business. There’s a lot of money to be made in storage and moving. Talk to me about building a coaching practice, though. What’d you do first?

Greg Hoover 18:00
The first, the first thing is, you just got to be out there, and you know what, one of the questions I saw in prep for your show today was, you know, what, what’s the simple step, and I think you just have to be out there, you know, people have to know what you’re doing, and so for me it was, I had a reputation in the industry, people, people had known me, and I’d been in mobility specifically for 25 years, 30 years, and so people have to know what you’re doing and have to know that you’re there, and, and you have to be out there, you know, quote unquote out there, and so for me it was just, it was just making the rounds and letting people know what I was doing, and I don’t like the term networking, that sounds kind of canned to me, but you know, relationships and talking to people, and so I think you just have to be aggressively out there, and people know what you’re doing, and talk about what that looks like, you know, kind of getting back to the principles we talked about. I think there’s a tendency to say, “Oh, I’m out here as a consultant now, people will hire me. And you know, the famous old line, if you want to communicate something to someone, if you tell them once, you’ve told them. If you tell them three times, they, they might know what it is, and if you tell them five times they get it, and I think you just have to be repetitive and be out there and make people aware of what you’re offering and what you’re doing, and I think that’s no matter what it is, right? If you’re, if you’re starting up a business, what are you producing, and do people know that you’re producing it, and do they know what’s good about it? And so it just comes down to communicating, and really over communicating, and again, simplicity and clarity, you know, what, what am I out here doing, and how does that, how does that work? The mechanics, the mechanics were tough for me, you know, get, you know, QuickBooks and all the scheduling and aspects of that until you get to a point where you can get some, some help, a virtual assistant or. Or an assistant to help with that, but, but I think even beyond that, you just got to be out and let people know what’s going on,

Jim Beach 20:07
all right. Do you do that with Chamber of Commerce events, or is this an online action you’re doing? How are you letting people know?

Greg Hoover 20:15
Yeah, for me it was just I participated in a lot of business groups, speaking of Chamber of Commerce, or you know, business, oh, like Vistage groups, or you know, where people are at. I participated in events, you know, I would go out to there were there a lot of regional mobility councils, and I’d participate in those. It’s getting on the phone, it’s, you know, if you most of us, when you reach the point, you know, where I’ve been in this industry for that long, we’ve got a pretty good rolodex of people that we know, and so a lot of it was just getting on the phone and calling people and saying, hey, here’s what I’m doing, and you know of any place I should be, and I think it’s just being out there and taking action,

Jim Beach 21:01
okay. what did you.. how long did it take to get your first customer? How long do you think that that process should take?

Greg Hoover 21:09
Well, I think it should take a lot longer than it did for me. I was.. I was really lucky. I started off and everybody said, you know, you need to really plan on six months to a year before you, before you generate good revenue and get this thing rolling, and I had my first fractional client within, I think, about two weeks, and you know that gave me a good base to work from, and and then from there, just on the on the consulting side, projects just kind of morphed and showed up, and again, I don’t think it was accidental. I wasn’t particularly advertising or having campaigns. I didn’t really have that kind of product, but just staying active and being out there and letting people know what was going on. And then, you know, the book I published, the book last August, I think it was, and that that started leading into a whole other segment, right? You know, people, people who read the book said this is really interesting. What do you do to help us develop that? So that led to the development of corporate workshops, some individual one on one workshops, and that kind of started taking its own route, and that’s led into I do a lot more public speaking now, and it’s kind of led down that path. So I was, I was probably more fortunate than most, just in the fact that I pretty much, from from the jump, had a revenue ramp and was able to work from that.

Jim Beach 22:37
Okay. And what about today? Are you marketing today? Do you have ads that you’re running? What’s the formula now to keep it going?

Greg Hoover 22:46
Yeah, it’s just communication. I’ve got a list, you know, a couple of email lists, depending on the segment that I’m working, and I just stay in contact with those folks on the on the speaking side, you know. I work with lead sources and try and stay in touch with organizations. I’ve got a couple of.. there’s an agent I work with on the collegiate side that books college speakers, and I just do a lot of networking on my own. One of the things you probably can tell from our, from our conversation this morning, I love sports, and a lot of, a lot of my management style and philosophy is driven by that. I was an assistant college baseball coach for three years, and so I kind of, I kind of manage and work professionally similar to athletics, and so kind of, I, for me, I guess, no surprise, that’s led, I do a lot of work now with athletic departments, or coaching staffs or teams, I’ve done several presentations for, you know, high schools have me in to speak to their coaches, and so it’s just staying active in those circles and those markets, and again, kind of back to the fundamental, you know, letting athletic directors know that I’m out here and this is what I do, letting business departments at colleges know this is out here, and that I’m available to speak, and it’s, you know, I marketing was a big part of my background. I would spend, I think, four years as the chief marketing officer for Atlas Van Lines, and I’ve just always.. I get back to the thing I’ve talked about relentlessly during your show. I just think it comes back to simplicity, and if I, if I execute at a simple level and keep it fundamental, but I’m doing it every day, I just feel like that that drives results.

Jim Beach 24:29
I think the everyday component is so important. I have quite a few friends that are consultants, and they, they boom and bust, you know, they get a project, work really hard, forget marketing for a month or two to get the project done, and then have nothing following that, you know, yeah, jump back into the marketing to get back into the game, and I think that I think that’s, I think,

Greg Hoover 24:49
I think that’s one of the challenges of having an individual consulting practice, right, because you get, you get into these large projects that take up a lot of your time. Everybody’s always over scope, everybody’s always, you know, looking from, for more than is defined, but that’s one of the challenges, is you get wrapped up, and if you’re, if your plate’s full, and you’re driving revenue on the client side, you know, you might not necessarily, I think, today there’s a lot we can do, whether it’s with virtual assistants or with AI, there’s a lot of marketing that you can self generate, but yeah, I think that’s one of the challenges, and, and the other side is as an individual principle, or as an individual practice, you know, I have this project, and I know it’s on the books for four months, when I get to, when I get to the end of four months, do they need me for another two months, or am I looking for new business, and so that’s kind of this constant game, and that’s part of, in my specific case, part of what I like about the speaking and the workshop work is, you know, it kind of gives you a couple different venues where you can be filling revenue gaps and kind of planning through that, because there’s very deficit, very definitely on the consulting side, a cyclic, cyclical aspect to it.

Jim Beach 25:59
Yes, very true. Wow, Greg, we blew through 25 minutes in a heartbeat. There, that was fast. How do we get in touch with you? Find out more. Get a copy of the book.

Greg Hoover 26:09
Terrific, the book is available on Amazon. Lead anyway, ordinary you, extraordinary, extraordinary impact by Greg L. Hoover. I can be reached at Greg L. Hoover at Third star.net and that is also my website, Third star.net And would love to hear from your listeners.

Jim Beach 26:29
Fantastic, Greg. Thank you so much for being with us. Great job. Congratulations on the book, and we’d love to have you back. Thanks a lot.

Greg Hoover 26:35
I appreciate it, Jim. Thank you very much.

Jim Beach 26:37
And we will be right back, you. well,

Intro 2 26:54
that’s a, that’s a, that’s a wonderful question. Oh my gosh, I love the opportunity to do this. Thank you, Jim. Wow, that’s that’s that’s a great one. You know, that is a phenomenal question. That’s a great question, and I don’t have a great answer. That’s a great question. Oh, that is such a loaded question. And that’s actually a really good question. School for Startups Radio.

Jim Beach 27:17
We are back, and again, thank you so much for being with us today. Very excited to introduce another great guest. Please welcome Helen Wada to the show. She is an incredible resource for all of us trying to become better humans and to use our abilities to a greater level. She is the founder of the Human Advantaged and is an experienced executive coach and commercial leader. She is the best-selling author of a book called Human Wise: How to Lead from Within and Sell with Confidence. Helen, welcome to the show. How are you doing today?

Helen Wada 27:55
Jim, thank you so much for that warm welcome. I’m great, thank you. I’m in London. People can probably tell from my accent. I’m a brick, and I’m sat in Wimbledon. We were just talking before the show. The tennis is due to start in a couple of weeks, and the sun is shining, so I’m doing right

Jim Beach 28:14
all right. Who thinks going to win Wimbledon this year? Do you have a favorite?

Helen Wada 28:20
I think I think Sinner is going to win, but I’m not sure.

Jim Beach 28:24
Yeah, I think it’s going to be interesting this year with some of the players being out and stuff. It’s already been a weird year in tennis, I think. So,

Helen Wada 28:32
yes, yeah, no, it really hasn’t. And it was with Queens, actually, just this last week. Um, Emma Radekana even came back to the final in Queens, which I think was a surprise for many after her challenges over the last couple of years.

Jim Beach 28:45
Yes. Tell us about the book, Human Wise: How to Lead from Within and Sell with Confidence. What were you hoping to achieve with the book? Tell us about

Helen Wada 28:53
it. Thanks, Jim. For me, I have a real passion for building a more human working world. What did I hope to achieve with human wise? I was formerly a global client leader at KPMG. I was in sales. I never wanted to be in sales, but that’s where I ended up and landed, and was actually great at what I did. And people would ask me, why are you good at what you do, and truth was, I never knew that you mentioned I’m an executive coach and a good coach, that’s a good question. And I unpicked it, I said, Why am I good at what I do? Why can I lead from within and sell with confidence? And the answer for me was that I’d been trained as a coach, the human skills that I had acquired through all my coach training, through the work that I’d done through the somatic work, the embodied work to be able to sit in a boardroom and get curious, offer challenge to clients without fear of ruining the relationship, and for me that was a golden thread between human-centered leadership and. Commercial growth, and so my hope with Human Wise is to really put forward a new way of leading a way that links coaching skills with commercial success, and so delighted to bring it into the world, published in March, and I hope it will benefit many others in the commercial world that I work with.

Jim Beach 30:22
Well, it is five star rated on that Amazon place. So, congratulations, been very well received. And you have amazing testimonials, including from people like Dr. Marshall Goldsmith and people like that. So, very, very impressive. Can we go through some of the key learning points in the book, and actually, dive in a little bit. For example, you talk in the book about how to show up. What do you mean by that? I always like to wear blue jeans and a T-shirt.

Helen Wada 30:53
Have you got some slacks with that as well? How you show up for me, it’s the center point of the book. Actually, it’s the first chapter, as you mentioned. For me, when you’re looking to either sell yourself or sell your business, number one is knowing who you really are, and I think in today’s fast-paced commercial world we rarely take time to take a step back and think, Who am I, really? What’s important to me? What are my values? What are my beliefs, and actually, why am I good at what I do? And I found through my career, you know, I shifted the experiences that I had, I grew and I developed, and unless we pause to think how are we going to show up, people on the other side of our conversations can’t get who we are, and so it’s not just about what you wear. I do believe that what you wear actually plays a part, because actually you’re trying to come across as professional and incredible in what you do, but for me it’s far broader than that. It’s far deeper than that. It’s about how you show up within yourself. I talk about that, the great quote by Aristotle: knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. And so for me, it’s taking time to look inside of yourself, what’s important to me? What do I believe in, and then how do I show up, not just for myself, but for others around me?

Jim Beach 32:28
Sounds like you’re almost talking about emotional intelligence. And then the next chapter is understanding others, which is the second piece of the emotional intelligence. First, you have to understand yourself, and then you can look at others better. Is that correct?

Helen Wada 32:41
Yeah, that’s absolutely correct. And I was having a conversation just this lunchtime. Actually, you know, how I have a firm belief that, you know, in business we need to understand others around us, whether that’s whether you’re leading a team, whether it’s developing relationships with new customers, with partners, with suppliers, if we want to truly understand where others are coming from, we need to first start with ourselves, and you’re absolutely right, it comes down to that emotional intelligence piece, and if we want to truly understand what is on the mind of others, you know, from a professional standpoint, from a personal standpoint, you know, you and I talked about our cares, what we like, what we don’t like, but actually understanding that for ourselves first, I think, is a prerequisite to them saying, okay, if that matters to me, what might matter to them. So that’s the switch from how you show up to understanding others.

Jim Beach 33:36
How do I learn about myself and find out what my bad traits are?

Helen Wada 33:42
I great question. I think there’s a couple of ways you can do it. I think for many of us, we kind of know sometimes what our bad traits are. It’s how we build the muscles to shift, know what we, what we struggle with, and maybe what some of those bad traits might be, you know, whether that’s pushing things you don’t want to do to the end of the day or the end of the week, or maybe when I first started as a coach, I’d ask multiple questions, that wasn’t a great trait, but how do you train yourself? So I think number one, it’s taking time to just self reflect, but also I truly believe in 360 feedback, that’s like asking your teams, your clients, you know, why do you like working with me, positive, but actually, what else do you need from me? What is it that I do? And I think the more honest and transparent we can be about how we are and how we show up, the more we can learn about ourselves,

Jim Beach 34:44
very, very true.

Helen Wada 34:45
I don’t know, does that? How does that fit? You know, I don’t.. I’m curious, did that sit with you? How have you learned in the past?

Jim Beach 34:55
Well, I know that I have a temper, and I could explode sometimes. And so I try very hard to take a breath and walk away and not engage, but you know, I have certainly had some horrible things that I have done, yelling at secretaries and stuff like that. One time I went to lunch and came back, and one of the secretaries had been on the phone with Visa, and it cost me $600,000 and I yelled at her, “You’re taking the food out of my baby’s mouth. So, you know, I have that problem. I know I have that, so my response is, whenever I feel that coming, I just try to walk away, take a breath, and move, just remove myself from the situation. Is that the right thing to do?

Helen Wada 35:52
Yeah, and I advocate that. I talk about that a lot in the book, in terms of noticing it, so raising awareness is number one. You know, I’ve been sat in meetings, and we’ve all been there. You know, you’re sat in a meeting, and you’re, you know, you’re fired up about something, and your mind starts going at a million miles an hour, and maybe you can’t think straight, or you know, you’re fearful of saying something you might regret in the future. And, and for me, and I talk about this in the book, is the power of the pause, Jim? You know, in terms of just taking a moment, sometimes you might be able to walk away, sometimes you can’t walk away, but in those moments just take a pause, whether that’s picking up a pen, uncrossing your legs, find something that works for you to just shift the dial in the moment, and I think that can be hugely powerful.

Jim Beach 36:42
I also, when I’m mad over email, I try to write the email, and then I send it to myself, and then look at it six hours later before I send it. I hope I can do that more. That’s certainly just writing the email helps get it out of the system, and then I can reflect later if I still want to say something so mean in print that will last forever.

Helen Wada 37:05
Yeah, yeah, I really think that’s important, and it’s raising awareness, because once you’re aware that that is a risk for you and your behaviors, your natural tendencies, then you can do something about it, and that’s what I always talk about when we’re coaching, is that awareness is number one, and then you can build that mindset muscle, you know that chapter three is about mindset, and we’ll sort of come on to that about book, you know, what do we need to do with our mindset to be in the right place and engaging with those we’re talking to.

Jim Beach 37:38
Well, what should the mindset be? How should I control my mind, and what should my mindset, or my goal for my mindset? What should that be?

Helen Wada 37:48
I talk about in the book, I talk about a commercial focus with a coaching approach. We’re talking about growing a business now and leading others in a human way. For me, we do need to keep a commercial focus in the conversations that we’re having, because I believe in the world around us, there’s so much wasted time in meetings and conversations that actually, you know, that in the diary for an hour, when really you could take 30 minutes, or even 15 or five, if you’re really focused, when you’re developing business, it’s about what is the commercial focus of this conversation. This isn’t just a chat, this isn’t just a coffee, but why the two or three or four of us meeting together, having that commercial focus in your mind. But then the flip side of that, and I talk about an infinity loop in the book, because it’s not one or the other, it’s flowing between the commercial focus and a coaching approach, the coaching approach is that mindset the coach brings to conversations. It’s about being open, it’s about being curious, it’s about challenging and being client-centered. One of the founding principles of being a coach is we put our clients right at the heart of the conversation, and that’s what I advocate in human rights. No matter who you’re talking to, have your focus in mind, but always put the other person at the heart of the conversation. Get curious what’s important to them and why. How can you help them? And then where’s your thinking, and how can you challenge that thinking to help create their own insight and move their thinking forward? So, in answer to your, what does the mindset look like for me? It’s that balance of commercial focus and a coaching approach together, and going that infinity

Jim Beach 39:38
during a coaching session. How much time should the coach talk versus the coachee, the learner? How much is it, 5050 or should the coach talk 80% of the time, so that the other person can learn?

Helen Wada 39:54
Great question. Do you know what the reason I love coaching, Jim? Is because in a coaching session I don’t talk very much at all. You may well have got from our conversations already that I’m a talker, I love to interact with people, I love networking, and but actually the reason that I love coaching so much is that I actually shut up. So in a coaching session I may speak 10% of time because my role as an executive coach is to facilitate the thinking of my clients. When I’m running group coaching programs, there’s obviously a little bit more I’ll be talking about principles and things like that, but when I’m truly coaching one to one, it’s my listening muscles that go into gear, and my speaking muscles kind of shut up, which my husband would probably say is a good..

Jim Beach 40:52
what do most of your clients need help with? If there were several buckets, is it self-esteem or lying, or what are most people need from their coach.

Helen Wada 41:07
It really varies, Jim. A lot of it is confidence. So, I have a fundamental belief that everything resides within us, but what the clients I have, I work with some really super senior leaders, and you would be amazed that actually many of them have a lack of confidence or lack of self-belief. So that’s number one. Number two is dealing with difficult organizational dynamics. What I mean by that, you know, the politics of an organization, how they navigate people, and how they lead in the best way possible, and ultimately be authentic to themselves. So it’s kind of working with those things that are really pertinent to them selves as a leader, but they don’t want to talk to others about that, they want to explore in a confidential space to effectively develop themselves and ultimately grow their own businesses, because human-wise, how to lead from within and sell with confidence. I really work at the intersection of business growth and personal growth, so a lot of people come to me because they want to develop their business, they’re not that confident in selling either themselves or their business, and they come to me because how can they do that better and work on mindset as much as anything.

Jim Beach 42:38
Let’s switch the topic a little bit, please. Helen, how do you build a successful coaching practice? Go back in time and tell us how you got started and what you’ve done to set you apart from others. Please,

Helen Wada 42:51
great question, Jen. What did I do to build the human advantage? Number one is I had the idea, so it was 2021 when I was at KPMG, I was really focused on a human-centered leadership and how can we help professional experts to become more confident in sales and winning work. So it was about having the idea, it was about having the bravery to step out and build something new. I started with building a brand from the outset, so it wasn’t just about me, it was about focusing on my core beliefs of what matters and what I could offer to others, and that’s really the genesis of how the human advantage was born, and I really just started by having conversations, I had conversations with my clients, I wasn’t under any competing clauses, because I was doing something completely different to KTMG, and I was like talking to people, I was just getting out there and saying, hey, you know, I’ve got this idea, what do you think, and the more I spoke to people, the more conversations I had, the more I listened, the more my ideas formed in terms of what could this be, and that’s really where the human advantage started.

Jim Beach 44:13
Okay, but keep going. Do you rely on marketing and putting out ads? Is it totally word of mouth,

Helen Wada 44:21
so at the moment, in terms of where I started, I started with my network, so in terms of actually getting those first clients into the into the business, actually I started with my network, and the more I told people about what I did, what we could offer, people said, well, I would, you know, actually that would be really of interest to me, and I started with a one to one coaching, so I started small. I started with what I knew and what I could do, and that was one to one coaching. I kind of said to myself, “Okay, Helen, right, what can you do to bring some money in whilst you build the business of the group coaching up the commercial coaching for. Grants that I now run today. I didn’t have those when I set up in 2020 and actually, what I didn’t say was actually this was through a health blitz. So I left the corporate world in 2021 to set up a human advantage, and actually was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. The firm was incredibly good to me, and they said, ‘Let’s forget you’ve resigned, come back, but I was navigating some quite serious health issues at the same time as kind of curating the ideas for the business. So 2021 was a bit of a burnout year for me, and so when I got to 2022 and I was like, right, okay, what am I going to do? I’ve got an email address, I’ve got an empty inbox. How often do we have an empty inbox, and I was like, actually, I need to build from the ground up, and that’s when I started to have the conversations, and then my first one to one coaching clients started coming in, and then I was able to give myself some breathing space and get creative to think, okay, what is it that I’m trying to offer, and how can I create something that people will find a value, and that’s really where the commercial coaching programs came in, and that was before the book. So that all came before the book, and it was creating space and time to think about what was important and why.

Jim Beach 46:16
How do you build self-esteem if someone, a child of yours, an employee of yours, has really low self-esteem. What do you do

Helen Wada 46:25
for me? I start with what makes you feel good. So I start with where you feel good, and when are you at your best, and bringing some of that positive inquiry to them. I also support them to think about what steps can we take that then drive motivation. We all often talk about motivation before action, and then people kind of wallow. It’s, I don’t have the motivation, therefore I don’t act. For me, it’s about actually what can you do as one small step, and then from that build the motivation to do more, and I think it’s starting small.

Jim Beach 47:05
Okay, and are there any exercises that I can do? How I agree with starting small, but what do I do as a small first step?

Helen Wada 47:15
What can you do as his first small step? So think about, since you’ve got low self-esteem, if you’re like not feeling great about yourself, it’s like, okay, start with a pen and piece of paper, right? Start with a blank piece of paper and ask yourself, what am I good at, you know? And write this down, what am I actually good at? And by starting to write things down, the act of putting pens of paper actually start to build up a picture of what am I good at. Go back to what we were just talking about earlier. Ask the people that you work with, ask your family, your friends. You know, how do you think of me? What are words that you think of come to mind when, when you think of me, and what I bring in the value to others, so for me it really is those simple steps to just remind ourselves of why I’m good at what I do and who I am. That’s, you know, I’ve had times where, you know, I’m sitting low and setting up the business is hard, you know, running your own business is hard, and I have to take a step back and say, actually remind myself, why am I doing this? Why is it important? What are my values, and how does this show up in my conversations? And you know what, if that doesn’t work, and you’re struggling, go and find a friend, go and have a walk, go and have a conversation with somebody that you know and you love, and that they love you, because actually it’s taking yourself out of that situation can really help.

Jim Beach 48:50
All right, great information, Helen. And I love this book, I love the idea of it, and I think the coaches out there will really bet that from this I heard that you were willing to play our little game, the quick 10.

Helen Wada 49:03
Yeah, go on, go for it. See what we can do

Jim Beach 49:06
before we start. I have to find out, are you currently sober?

Helen Wada 49:11
Absolutely, it’s 6o’clock in the afternoon.

Jim Beach 49:14
Well, a lot of people start drinking at five, you know. Five is when you’re allowed to drink.

Helen Wada 49:19
No, I’ve got a glass of water here, but nothing more than that. Geronimo say,

Jim Beach 49:24
okay. The reason we need to know if you’re sober or not is because we need to find out. Do you want to accept the standard wager? The standard wager,

Helen Wada 49:34
I will accept the standard wager.

Jim Beach 49:36
Excellent, I love it. I love it. All right, number one, your favorite creativity hack,

Helen Wada 49:43
post-it notes.

Jim Beach 49:46
What do you do with them?

Helen Wada 49:48
I write things on them, I put them on the wall, I move them about, I use them as my thinking partner to just get ideas out of my head and. On the paper, it’s how I started the book. People often say, “How did you start to write a book? I said, “Basically, with post-it notes,

Jim Beach 50:07
that works, I understand. Number two, favorite bootstrapping trick

Helen Wada 50:13
goes back to what we were talking about. Start small, start with what you know to get the cash to flow.

Jim Beach 50:20
Number three, name your top passions.

Helen Wada 50:24
Number one, travel to family, three friends, four humanity, and five preaching for commercial success.

Jim Beach 50:35
Number four, the first three steps in starting a business are

Helen Wada 50:41
be brave, believe in yourself, and get out there and have conversations.

Jim Beach 50:48
Number five, the best way to get your first real customer

Helen Wada 50:52
is use your network.

Jim Beach 50:54
Number six, your dreamiest technology

Helen Wada 50:58
is Claude AI. At the moment, my newfound best friend.

Jim Beach 51:03
Number seven, best entrepreneurial advice:

Helen Wada 51:07
don’t be in a rush, build your brand and offer first. Believe in it.

Jim Beach 51:13
Number eight, worst entrepreneurial mistake.

Helen Wada 51:16
Oh my goodness, saying yes to something that I shouldn’t have done, trying to cram in all of my brilliant content into 30 minutes online. Disaster, never again. Say no.

Jim Beach 51:28
Number nine. Name your favorite entrepreneur and why?

Helen Wada 51:32
Lady called Sarah Davies in the UK, founder of Crafters Companion. She’s on the Dragon’s Den and the host of Mind your business podcast. She’s a brilliant entrepreneur and just a great human being, which is what I’m all about.

Jim Beach 51:47
Number 10, favorite superhero

Helen Wada 51:50
has to be Wonder Woman, blend of fieriness, worry of strength, but with compassion and empathy too, and that’s what I’m all about.

Jim Beach 51:58
Number 11, Team Harry or team William,

Helen Wada 52:03
team William.

Jim Beach 52:04
Yeah, me too, all the way. All right. While we calculate your score, find out the winner of the wager. Helen, how do we find out more about you? Follow you online, get tickets to Wimbledon at your house, all of that, please.

Helen Wada 52:14
There’s always a room in Wimbledon for anybody who wants to reach out. Helen Wadder, W A D A, founder of Human Advantage. The best way to find me is on LinkedIn, but you can also look at the website www dot the human advantage.co.uk There you’ll find links to buy the book, links to all the 65 podcast episodes that I think I’ve recorded now, also by the name of Human Wise, all about making the human advantage your commercial advantage. So, I’d love to hear from anybody if this conversation resonates. And let’s keep business going one conversation at a time.

Jim Beach 52:56
Fantastic. I’ve just kind of waited. Oh, I’ve just been giving.. oh, this is so sad, Helen. I’m so sorry. You got a 94 which is an excellent score, but you have to have a 95 to win the wager. Apparently, Meghan Markle was one of our judges, and she didn’t like some of your answers, and so that’s what happened to 94 But anyway, we always play for a Tesla, so I’ll look forward to receiving a Tesla soon.

Helen Wada 53:20
Well, I absolutely will look at something like that. I’m not cool, so I can promise that, but you know, I’ll send you a little something in the post, Jim.

Jim Beach 53:30
All right, as long as it’s a Tesla, that’ll be great. Thank you so much for being with us. Great stuff.

Helen Wada 53:38
Lovely to meet you, Jim. Take care. All the best.

Jim Beach 53:41
And to you, we are out of time, but greatly appreciative that you are here with us. Thank you so much. We will be back, you know, with tomorrow