Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I am your host, Kevin and I am, he used this word so much I gotta find I gotta I gotta hit the Saurus and find a better word because I’m delighted to share Kathleen Gouden with you, we’ve already gotten a chance to chat. I was almost gonna say I love her, I feel genuine affection for her. I’ve known her for you know, the sum total of about 35 minutes in my life, but I feel genuine affection toward her. She’s fantastic. I can’t wait to share her with you. Let me give you a little taste of an intro. Kathleen is the owner of the virtual assistant company. She started her business back in 1999, which feels like a lifetime ago and yesterday to me, but that’s neither here nor there. We way way before the pandemic began, they hit us in between before became quote unquote, hip to work from home, which I’m not sure how hip it is these days. But I’m doing it you’re doing it. And it’s we’re thriving. So I love that. Today, we’re going to explore a little bit, we only have 20 minutes or so. But we’re gonna explore a little bit about the why the where and the how she got her business started and how she is successful as she is today. Kathleen, also just to put this, as an aside, offers one to one coaching with other executive assistants that wish to start their own businesses and succeed. Kathleen, is lovely to get a chance to talk to you. I can’t wait to just ask you a question and then let you go. I’m so glad you’re here with me today.
Kathleen Gauden 1:22
Kevin, thank thank you very much. It’s it’s an honor to be with you during this time. And I appreciate your kind words, thank you.
Kevin Stafford 1:30
Of course I sometimes regular listeners will know I get overcome with delight and just genuine pleasure with these conversations and having already gotten to talk with you. I’m basically already overly enthusiastic, I’ll just be even more so by the time we’re done today. So forgive me if I begin to like wax eloquently about your life and your coaching and your profession. You.
Kathleen Gauden 1:49
Thank you, Kevin, of course. So
Kevin Stafford 1:52
let’s let’s go back not to the beginning, beginning because we don’t have that kind of time. But let’s go back to the beginning of your of your business and your coaching sort of kind of at the same time, how did you discover that coaching is something that maybe you already were doing something that you wanted to do something you wanted to send her in your professional life? How did you discover that about yourself? Did you have a key mentor or key conversation that kind of illuminated everything? How did that begin for you?
Kathleen Gauden 2:17
Well, Kevin, that’s a great question. And thank you for asking that I found early on in my career. When I way before I started the virtual assistant company, I have a very strong corporate background. And with that small town girl from Alpena, Michigan moving to San Diego, California, it I think I was 19 or so I was very enthralled and excited to start be start working in corporate America and supporting CEOs and the C suite executives. And with that, apparently somebody at some point saw or, you know, hoped maybe that they saw some leadership skills and me. And so my that role working in corporate America, it started to evolve where I started to be the team lead of all the other assistants within that company. And if there was challenges, or there was clicks way back when I can remember at a startup company called first virtual holdings in San Diego, maybe there was, I think, probably six or eight assistants at this great great startup company, HR was having some challenges with with the EAS. And so she had naturally reached out to me her name was Kathleen as well. And said you seem to have a good rapport with everyone. They like you can you kind of help coach them, mentor them. And that was before I even started my company. And because I like being of service and I genuinely love to help other people. If they are seeking help or mentoring. It just kind of evolved into the role over the course of years.
Kevin Stafford 4:08
I liked that you made that distinction there because there’s such a I mean, obviously you want the people who are seeking you other people who are contacting you for help. I mean there’s a certain degree of readiness that’s required or at least willingness to be to become ready that’s just required if coaching is really even going to work and I find that so many coaches are they are they have their antenna up at all times for that because they’re looking for that readiness that fits like it’s not you’re not just the right person for my coaching but it’s the right time for you you’re ready you’ve seen the the needs that you have and you know you want a coach to help you succeed and thrive you know, into your goals and then beyond that I just love that you have that that you that you learned that new that very, very early on it’s it speaks to how grounded your coaching is, at least to me.
Kathleen Gauden 4:53
Well, well thank you, Kevin. I I love being of service I volunteer at different or organizations when time allows and it brings me joy, as my wonderful husband always asked, does it bring you joy? Well, it does bring me joy to be able to help navigate and guide individuals or be a sounding board for you know, executive assistants administrative assistant, or our newest word over the years is virtual assistant, sometimes also called cheapest staff. So with that, you know, I like to share kind of like a 12 step version of my experience, my strength and my hope, and, and let other individuals learned from the pain points, I went through the mistakes that I went through that also I gained wisdom from, because let’s say if you were someone reaching out to me, Kevin, that that had an interest in my coaching style and vibed with me, I want you to be able to learn, I want you to be able to grow. And so I get very personal with my mentees or with those that are seeking coaching. And, and I always like to say, you know, check out my website, and see if that vibes with you, because you’ll look and you’ll go, wow, I really and I’ve had individuals book time, I really liked your vibe, I’m very spiritual. I mentioned nature, I enjoy, you know, taking my care of myself mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. But I’m overwhelmed in my current role. It’s, it’s, I’m stressed out, I don’t know how to speak up and set boundaries. So we talk about that. It’s, it’s kind of like I’ll say, I’m your kind of career coach meets life coach meets spiritual coach I, I offers suggestions, thoughts, feedback, and you take what you need, and we help navigate and, and without, with the people that I do, mentor and coach, I’m not a one and done like, Oh, you’re 15 minutes is up. If you want some more time or feedback book me again, I’m there for you, I’m there for you. Because I care. The people I work with, I respond quickly to they have my cell number. In You know, I do set boundaries. But when someone is in a crisis, or stressed out or has high anxiety, and there’s a lot of mental wellness needs to happen not only in our country, but the world, I want to be part of that solution. I don’t want to create more anxiety and stress for people I want, I want them to learn some tools on how to navigate those waters.
Kevin Stafford 7:35
So many, you said like a half dozen different things I want to talk like a bunch more about but in particular what you were you were speaking to there towards the end about how that role of a coach and there’s a lot of there’s a there’s there’s something of a sort of hybridization because there’s both like there’s all this preventative care, all of this, like equipping of the tools, teaching the techniques, I’m here for you, let’s talk things out, let’s hold space and like explore what might be happening and go forward together. And there’s also those, for lack of a better term, those triage moments where it’s just like, there is a an emergency or boredom or urgency to what’s needed, and your ability as a coach to be there for that as well. And to really not just coach someone in like a single element of their life, because I mean, we like to think of things as these little separate compartmentalized pockets. But really, we’re all the same person in all those places, trying to do all the same things. Having your coaching, be able to meet people where they are at and meet the needs that they have in the present moment, as well as going with them and exploring forward together. I feel like that’s such a dynamic aspect of good coaching that I think a lot of people can speak to, but I don’t think we realize how powerful that is to have someone who can be all of that for you in the context of alignment and boundaries. It’s not this, you know, sort of amorphous blob of a relationship, very well defined, while also still being very open and very exploring, I’m always fascinated with how beautifully dynamic that relationship is.
Kathleen Gauden 9:00
It is it’s truly a gift. And when I work with individuals, I I like to empower them. I don’t want to be there and be you know, play a codependent role, or something that’s not healthy or get to unmatched. So I do you know, I teach them some boundaries I teach. Again, if they’re willing, everybody that comes to me, highlights, you know, I have a form that they fill out a simple one not a complicated one, because we’re all so busy, right? But it’s like, what do you want to take away from a coaching call? Is it is it something about starting a business? Is it you know, learning how to ask for a raise with your W two employer? Is it learning how, you know, what do you need to convey in order to grow in your current role with perhaps a client or even an employer so so we kind of break pieces apart and I learned what’s very important to them. I listen I’ve read between the lines. And it’s not because I know everything, I have to give credit where credit’s due, I have a wonderful coach, I have an individual that is kind of a, I’ve done some NFT work with who happens to be tied into Unity churches, a reverend, I have, I have a therapist, my husband is a fantastic person to bounce things off of he’s, he’s a coach as well. Amongst other things, and I have people that I can go to, and I listen, and I learn and I believe in personal growth, you know, I can’t help you. If if I’m not running to the, you know, fullest and best capacity mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. I am constantly learning new tools. I’m listening to, you know, folks like Les Brown and different people that have podcast and motivational speakers and Reverend Michael Beckwith, and different people that I resonate with, I did a little bit of work with Reverend Michael. So I just got to toss that out there. So So I have a, you know, a range from that strong corporate executive assistant working for very large fortune 100 companies, to the Reverend Michael Beckwith to the world and Brian Tracy’s of the world. So, I’ve worked in many industries. So I share that with the people that I coach and mentor.
Kevin Stafford 11:25
I had, my first thought was every good coach I’ve ever met a practices what they preach, they always they always eat what they’re serving every single one without fail everyone, every coach has a coach. And then for some reason, I was reminded of these old commercials, and I might be dating myself a little bit. I remember this, just for men, it was like this, this hair growth thing or whatever, or that’s not just for it’s something it was some like prescription thing. Maybe it was Rogaine, I can’t remember some hair growth for male pattern baldness. And there was the president of the company, the CEO, who was up there saying not only am I the president, but I’m also a client. And he’s like showing off his head of hair and his before and after pictures. And for whatever reason I made to at staff at that, that’s the Aedes nominee, these kids. So it’s like, like that popped right into my head. It’s like, not only am I a coach, but I’ve I also I also practice what I preach. And I also have a coach myself. And it’s like, I find that to be universally true with every single good coach I’ve ever talked to. And it’s, it speaks to it speaks to the values, the the passion, and the commitment and of purpose. And just how in alignment are coaches like a coach is not going to be effective as a coach unless they are in alignment with themselves and working towards that alignment constantly. And so every coach I talk to is typically something bordering on like a personal development junkie, not like you know, they’re always very passionate about finding out like, what else are people doing? What else are people saying what other constructs and structures and systems and approaches are people doing? Let’s experiment with that? Let’s talk about that. Let’s try that out. And it’s just, it’s such a such a lively and alive profession, that it’s a big part of the reason why I love doing this podcast because I get to talk to people who are that kind of person, so lively and alive and really just invested in their own growth as an act of service. That’s something that you said to that wanted to comment on that I just, I love, love, love about great coaching is, every coach that I’ve talked to who is who’s really great, and it’s most of the ones I’ve gotten a chance to talk to here, they understand that self care is an act of service, they play they take care of themselves, so that they can be of better service to others. So they understand that they can’t neglect themselves and pretend like they can help others because the more you neglect yourself, the work the lesser, you’re going to show up for people the worst you’re gonna you’re gonna erode your own ability to be a great coach by not taking care of yourself. And every great coach knows that. And you’re I’m completely unsurprised that you immediately said exactly that.
Kathleen Gauden 13:44
Kevin, some great, great thoughts there in one way I have to chuckle with for those that I’ll share this, Kevin, I talked about time blocking before we started our interview. And then you mentioned, you know, a personal development junkie, and I’m the one that has to kind of time block if you will, to listen to a podcast or an audible book, or read a book that’s just for fun, not not a how to become a better or, you know, if you have this challenge, these are the steps. Sometimes I have to just take a break again from my mental and emotional well being and just have fun. So the things that we you also hit on and I’m a huge advocate about is taking care of yourself mentally, physically, spiritually. It’s like I was going to work out yesterday because I I love working out and my husband and I are very competitive with each other. But I noticed you know, he we did an elliptical yesterday. We have a little workout meditation room and I was hungry. I didn’t I had checked in with myself and I was like, I can’t go get on it for 45 minutes because I’m really hungry and lightheaded. So I had to go take five minutes and go get some protein, vegan plant based protein To drink, and then I got on it. And I felt great. But it’s just a reminder that even I need to check in with myself and go, Okay, what do I need right now? Right? So well put thank you for, for putting that out there again.
Kevin Stafford 15:13
Yeah, that’s I think it’s very important to shine a light on that. It’s, it’s so easy to skip on. Like, I mean, we’re so we’re often so rigorous in our service to others, and sometimes we don’t, we’re not as rigorous with how we take care and serve ourselves. Yes, yeah. And that’s like with sleep with diet with exercise with how we manage our time, it’s, there’s always that temptation to just let our awareness slip. And like shave off five minutes here, or, you know, skipping, you know, go to bed a half an hour later here, because you’re, uh, you know, into something else, or get up a half hour early to make up for the next day. And these little sanding off of the edges. Like, it’s important to let our awareness stay there and just like sit with ourselves, and really what we need right now. And definitely feeling kind of wait, what do I need right now? What can I do for myself? What? What is my body? What is my mind? What is my spirit asking me for right now? And maybe it’s asking in a quiet voice right now. But it’s gonna get louder until you address it?
Kathleen Gauden 16:02
Well, well put well put in, you know, what I share as well with people and I’m very transparent about I’m not perfect. There’s a lot of fantastic coaches and mentors out there. And in, but I’m human, you know, I do stick I do have a regimen. And sometimes I’m not, you know, super rigid about that, like The Hunger thing before working out. So it’s like, Oops, you know, no, I’m noticing that red flag. So I have to take five minutes. So I’m not perfect. But I’m constantly reminding myself, I have to take care of myself, or I can help other people successfully. And that’s what truly brings me joy. I really love helping other people.
Kevin Stafford 16:44
But let’s let’s talk about that for a couple minutes. I’m looking at the Zoom clock and realizing that I’m just like, I’m losing myself in such a lovely conversation. But I want to make sure we talk a little bit about like the specifics of your of your business these days, your coaching business, and I like to kind of ask this as a two parter, because I feel like it kind of gets at the whole operation. Who do you coach? And how do you coach them? The WHO being like, Who do you primarily focus on it’s fairly obvious, but you know, in particular industries that you tend to have a large client base in or that you’re particularly passionate about. And then the how being how you basically primarily coach today, obviously one to one is where most coaches get their start. But there’s only 24 hours in the day and you can’t spend every waking minute coaching and so one to one hits a cap so a lot of coaches expanded group coaching and masterminds and keynote speeches and, and team exercises and coursework and you know, books and all of the above etc, etc. So, these days, who do you coach and how do you coach them?
Kathleen Gauden 17:37
Excellent. So the individuals that I tend to coach tend to be the executive assistants, administrative assistants, it can be someone just starting out in that role and wanting know, you know, how do I succeed you can make a fantastic career, the executive assistant again called many names personal assistant, remote PA, admin assistant chief of staff, in sometimes even a project manager, though, that’s my crowd. That’s my followers. That’s my base. And the reason why is because I, I can identify, I can identify with them, I know what they go through. Even today, with us being more we as a people, you know, especially in the US, more miles say conscientious and working on being more thoughtful, respectful, you know, doesn’t matter what color race shape size you are, let’s be thoughtful and respectful. Though assistant still have challenges we we get treated sometimes a certain way and not appreciated. So it’s still very true today back in the day, and this is going to date me it was a secretary was the word and that Secretary managed one individual nowaday, we’re managing 234 a team of people. So it’s how do we navigate that we’ve really evolved? So those are the individuals whether they’re in a current role as a W two employee starting off, maybe part time, or how do I turn it into a virtual assistant business, I see a lot of, of EAs over the past assistants in general that that don’t now want to go into the office, they want to work from home, and that sounds glamorous and fun, but there’s some you know, I do get a little sticky about that. It’s like you want to have a nice background. You don’t want to be sitting probably in a restroom with a toilet door and you know, with your CEO of a company, so it’s like there is some you can’t change someone’s first impression. So we talk about that. The industries that I have worked in and that I identify with is a broad range. I work for the Department of Defense for six years is is a Contractor many years ago I’ve worked in, which is one of my favorite little niches is startup companies. Every day is a new adventure, your life changes by a text, a phone, call an email, a Slack, the priorities are ever shifting, I thrive in that environment. But you need to know how to do that in a healthy way. So that is another industry I take pride in. I’ve worked in biotech, I’ve worked in high tech, I’ve worked with Brian, Brian Tracy. So in the coach, author, speaker realm, the Michael backworth, I’ve worked in his realm. So I cover a broad range. And I always say, you know, with executive skills, and now we’re starting to really experiment many of us, and I’m going to say this, and some may cringe, but we need to be aware of the AI tools out there. So they can help us work smarter, not harder. What used to take me 30 minutes to create content for social media and thoughtful writing now can take me five minutes or less. So it’s about embracing those tools and not think that robots are taking over the world. So So those are the interest in industries that I work in those, you know, our EA assistant type skills are very transferable. That’s the beauty of it over any industry, because there’s always a need for us, you know, being emotionally mature, somebody that addresses personal growth, somebody that wants to stay and be aware of the AI tools of the world, because there’s always going to be something coming out quicker, faster, better, and we need to do our due diligence and learn, take the time to learn.
Kevin Stafford 21:46
Absolutely, I’m so I’m so glad you called that out. Because that’s really, I mean, it’s something that I’m podcaster a marketer myself, it’s like there’s, it’s just another tool, and like every new tool that’s really exciting, also comes with a threat, you know, and that’s, and that’s fine. It’s like I, I see these tools coming on, I see what AI is capable of doing right now. And it’s, it’s scary times. And it’s exciting times, it can be both and and I’m you know, I’ve been embracing it from the start. I’m finding it both fascinating and hilarious, some of the things that can help with and some of the things that it cannot help with. But it’s like it’s I think you’re the approach is spot on. And I love the way that you identify how transferable these kinds of skills are. I mean, obviously you focus on on the executive assistant, the virtual assistant, the Chief of Staff, but all the skills that you’re coaching and teaching and mentoring are so transferable to, I mean, honestly, just about every area of professional life, you might want to transfer them to and have success. And I feel like that’s I mean, that’s it speaks to the foundational nature of your coaching that you’re very specific, and that the skills that you teach, and the skills that you help people acquire are imminently transferable to wherever someone finds their life going, and wherever they want to take their professional life. And that’s just that’s so empowering.
Kathleen Gauden 22:59
Yes, yes, I agree. And then the other part that I will share with you, I’m in the Pacific Northwest. So the majority of of everything that I do is virtual, hence the name, the virtual assistant company. I am in the process of possibly, you know, kicking around the idea of having maybe a small because I’m like small groups versus large, but doing some kind of apprenticeship program. So and this could be focused towards individuals that wish to start a virtual assistant company, they’re part time or full time? And what does that look like? And how do you, you know, get an EIN? And how do you navigate business, because when you are someone like me, or you know, you are very small business, you’re wearing many hats, you’re doing your bookkeeping, you’re doing your marketing, you know, you got to increase your followers, you have to provide thoughtful and resourceful information. I mean, there’s so many things so so that is something that I’m kicking around, in considering, and that would probably be maybe a party of eight to 10 people, and that would be virtual, and it could be over six, eight weeks, I would record it. You could watch it at your leisure. So I’m always again, always thinking instead of one on one, which I thoroughly enjoy, what’s the next step that’s going to benefit a greater amount of people and potentially help them to grow. So that’s something that that I’m tossing out there and kind of working on content for.
Kevin Stafford 24:31
I love that love that I’ve always I’ve always fascinated with how the apprenticeship model evolves in the shapes that it takes in modern life. And I just I really do it’s that smaller group that like somewhere six to eight to 10. Somewhere around there. It seems like it’s almost the best way for group coaching to be really like maximally effective because it’s not too big a group that people begin to splinter off into smaller subgroups and kind of do their own thing, which can also be fine. It’s just a different form. But you get people kind of coaching each other as you’re coaching them and you get this Dynamic, this group dynamic that really elevates everybody else. It’s just, it’s so fascinating. And it’s there’s such a need for that kind of apprenticeship model, because like you said, there’s Oh, there’s so much to learn and so much to do, once you have it, it doesn’t seem like so much, but when you’re just starting out, it can be very, can be overwhelming, quite frankly, to kind of figure out how to begin and having someone there to help you to, like you can apprentice under and you can really learn all the things, the easier way not gonna call it the easy way. Cuz there’s still a lot of work to be done there. But it’s a heck of a lot easier than learning it all the hard way yourself on the cutting edge on the front lines where you know, making mistakes and figuring stuff out.
Kathleen Gauden 25:35
Yeah, and with that, I may also bring in a couple of guest speakers, whether that’s a bookkeeper or somebody for taxes and what you can potentially write off for your business. You know, my husband and I have a little joke, we both like luxury sports cars, we enjoy them, they’re fun to drive, I’ve always been a car enthusiast, it’s in my blood. But we don’t work on our car, we let an expert do it. So just like and you will identify this. I know a little bit about branding and marketing. And it’s interesting and appealing. But that’s not my expertise. So why not bring in somebody that’s an expert, and talk to this group of people that I’m going to be setting up and let them share their experience and thoughts. So it’s about you know, I like my hair, but I don’t cut my hair, I go to somebody that’s an expert at it. Right? So, so stay tuned on that, Kevin.
Kevin Stafford 26:29
Definitely. And speaking of stay tuned, this is a great time, it’s, I could talk with you for hours, quite frankly, I knew that was the case, I feel that again, I’m just gonna have to have you back on in like a couple months. And we’ll just keep we’ll just do this periodically. I love it in perpetuity. But before I let you go and speaking of all the things that might be coming up very soon, and staying tuned, where can people just learn more about you find out more about you who you are, what you do the virtual assisting company and everything else that you’re up to? And how can people best connect with you if they want to like reach out and see what you have to offer? And just maybe start a relationship with you like Where can people connect with you as well? So that’s a
Kathleen Gauden 27:03
great question. I always like to drive individuals to my website, the virtual assistant, and company.com. You can also connect with me or follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. And those social platforms are on my website. So it’s kind of like a one stop shop, if you go to my website, you’ll have my link to my other social platforms, you’ll just obviously kick click on the icon there that you wish to follow or connect with. And I also like to offer a one hour free coaching call to the first person that says that they heard me on Kevin’s podcast, if you shoot me an email, which you can do through my website, I will grant that individual a one hour coaching call. And we’ll keep you posted on that.
Kevin Stafford 27:54
Lovely Alright little link to the website in the show notes. And I’ll just I’ll let you go to the website. And if let the website take care of you from there. It’ll get you to everything you want to be. Follow wherever you prefer to follow. And stay tuned for what’s coming next from Kathleen and the virtual assistant company. And once again, I you know what, it’s the word that best suits my feeling. I am so delighted to have gotten to share some more time with you today. I’m already anticipating the next time they get to share time with you whatever the context happens to be whether it’s LinkedIn direct messages, or the next time we get to chat face to face via zoom. Kathleen, thank you for sharing some time with me today.
Kathleen Gauden 28:29
Thank you so much. It was my honor and pleasure. And you are a wonderful podcast. Gentleman, and I appreciate your time. And until next time. Have a wonderful week, everyone.
Kevin Stafford 28:41
Thank you. You know, I might steal that the podcast gentleman, maybe I’ll start a secondary podcast. On that note to the audience. Thank you so much for being here with us today and we’ll talk to you again very soon.
Kathleen Gauden 28:53
Okay, bye now.
