What if the best thing a coach could do is shut up longer? Carly Anderson, a 28-year coaching veteran who trained in Australia's first certification program, joins Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave to discuss why structure creates freedom in coaching.

Carly explains why coaches default to proving expertise instead of trusting the process. When coaches stay quiet longer, clients discover wisdom they did not know they had. She shares the example of a CEO who spent 10 months listening before making any changes to his organization.

The conversation also explores how AI will filter authentic coaches from those who use technology as a crutch. Carly believes the human presence remains essential for helping clients implement what they learn.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/carly-anderson-on-why-structure-creates-freedom-in-coaching/

Most coaches quit within two years without a single paying client. Tim Brownson explains why.

After 21 years in coaching and 13 years helping coaches build practices, Tim has seen the patterns. Training programs teach coaching skills but ignore business fundamentals. New coaches create websites filled with jargon like "holding space" and "creating alignment" that mean nothing to potential clients.

Tim's advice: stop hiding behind your laptop. Get to networking events. Give talks. Run workshops. One in-person event produces more clients than months of Instagram posts.

He also pushes coaches to embrace AI now. Tim uses it two to three hours daily and refuses to take clients who avoid it. The technology will transform coaching, and early adopters will have the advantage.

Hosts Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave explore these themes with Tim on The Coaching Edge Podcast.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/tim-brownson-why-most-coaches-fail-at-marketing-and-how-to-fix-it/

Your ability to lead others depends on how well you lead yourself. DeAnna Murphy, Chief People Officer at Thriven with 2,500+ hours of executive coaching experience, joins Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave to break down the fundamentals of self-leadership.

DeAnna shares the four levels of leadership model and explains why psychological safety is your responsibility, not your boss's. She introduces practical tools including the "story you're telling" coaching question and the three agreements that build trust in any relationship.

The conversation gets personal when DeAnna reveals how she wasted six months in frustrating meetings before taking responsibility for her own needs. Her breakthrough moment offers a lesson every coach and leader needs to hear.

Whether you coach executives or lead teams, this episode delivers frameworks you can apply immediately.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/deanna-murphy-why-self-leadership-is-the-foundation-every-leader-needs/

Former Second City instructor Meridith Grundei teaches leaders how to become unforgettable presenters through storytelling.

In this conversation with Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave, Meridith shares practical frameworks for presentation skills and communication. She explains why structure frees you to speak naturally, how to find stories using a timeline exercise, and why focusing on your audience removes the pressure of performing.

One standout insight: Meridith describes helping a client sell an AI tool using a personal story about his son learning to climb stairs. The audience remembered him because they felt connection, not because they remembered the product features.

Whether you coach executives, lead teams, or speak from stages, this episode delivers specific techniques for telling stories that create lasting impact.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/how-meridith-grundei-helps-leaders-tell-stories-that-create-connection-and-get-remembered/

In this special year-end episode of The Coaching Edge Podcast, co-hosts Dr. Steve Jeffs and Erwin de Grave reflect on launching the show in 2025, the unexpected depth that emerged from “coffee-style” conversations, and the recurring theme that coaching impact comes less from doing more and more from presence, patience, and responsiveness. They revisit a core insight heard repeatedly across guests: tools and methodologies matter—but what matters more is who the coach is in the moment, and how coach and client co-create outcomes from what’s emerging.

From the business side of C-squared (Coach + CEO), they underline the importance of clear structure—enough to get moving, like steering a ship that must first be in motion—while still leaving space for creativity. They clarify distinct roles many coaches blur: the coach delivering, the CEO building systems, and the business owner focused on profit and return. They also tackle the “selling” tension coaches often face, reframing it from a transactional exchange into a celebrated investment in outcomes, shifting from selling sessions to selling a journey from Point A to Point B.

Looking ahead to 2026, they explore AI as a tool (not a replacement for human connection), predict a renewed emphasis on mastery of basics (black-belt-level fundamentals), and call for greater professionalization and community in coaching—less lone-wolf, more connected learning and shared wisdom. The episode closes with a powerful reflection practice: not just reflecting on the year, but reflecting on your reflection—“As I read this, I notice…”—as a way to carry forward real learning into what’s next.

Watch the full episode: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/master-the-basics-build-the-system-what-coaching-needs-next/

In this episode of The Coaching Edge Podcast, Erwin de Grave and Dr. Steve Jeffs sit down with actor, director, and leadership coach Andrew McMasters, founder of ImprovMindset and author of Listening Without Agenda. Andrew shares how 25 years of running a theatre company and performing improv became an unexpected training ground for helping leaders show up more authentically at work.

He explains how improv—“spontaneous theatre” with no script, set, or costume—mirrors real life and leadership. Andrew introduces the improv principle of “yes, and” not as blind agreement, but as a way of accepting reality and building from it instead of shutting ideas down. He links this to divergent and convergent thinking in teams: first exploring possibilities, then analyzing, then aligning on concrete action. Leaders who confuse these modes, he warns, end up blocking creativity and stifling contributions.

A big focus of the conversation is authentic presence. Andrew describes how many technically brilliant people are promoted into leadership but don’t yet know how to communicate, coach others, or bring their full selves into the room. Drawing on acting training, he invites leaders to bring more of who they are—how they are with friends, at home, or at a football game—into their professional role. Leadership, he says, is about fostering others’ growth and modeling the behavior you want to see, from putting your phone away in meetings to being willing to be vulnerable and tell real stories.

Andrew also dives into listening without agenda, the core of his book. He walks through three layers of listening:

• Clarifying the data (“Did I hear you correctly?”),
• Reflecting the emotional impact, and
• Surfacing underlying values (“This sounds like what you really care about…”).

From supporting neurodivergent team members with external focus, to inviting multilingual colleagues to use their native language to express themselves more fully, Andrew shows how deeper listening transforms connection and trust. He even shares crisis and conflict examples where matching someone’s emotional intensity builds rapport instead of escalation.

The episode closes with practical practices for leaders: using check-ins and check-outs to align teams, leveraging AI as a structural aid (not a replacement for human intention), and adopting an improv mindset in moments of crisis—stop wasting energy on blame and instead ask, “Okay, this is reality. Now what?” It’s a rich, practical conversation for any coach or leader who wants to be more present, more human, and more effective

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/leading-like-an-improviser-listening-without-agenda-and-making-others-look-good/

In this episode of The Coaching Edge Podcast, Erwin de Grave and Dr. Steve Jeffs sit down with Dr. Anita Kishore, an executive coach for analytically minded leaders. With a background spanning a PhD in chemistry, pharma, consulting, and global health, Anita shares how she moved from hard science into the deeply human world of coaching — and why those worlds are far more connected than many leaders think.

Anita explores what happens when brilliant, data-driven executives hit the limits of analysis. She explains why most decisions are, at their core, emotional, and how ignoring emotion doesn’t make us more analytical — it just makes our decision-making incomplete. She describes her work with “overthinkers” and analytical executives who want to become more inspirational leaders by integrating intellect and emotion, leading with both head and heart.

The conversation dives into practical tools for leaders:

• How to notice what you’re feeling in high-stake meetings without losing focus.
• Using a simple “inner narration” technique in your notes to stay grounded and present.
• Expanding your emotional vocabulary beyond the three “corporate-approved” feelings of happy, disappointed, and frustrated.
• Helping teams feel safe to express emotions without everyone rushing in to “fix” or rescue.

Anita also talks about decision-making when the data is incomplete, the realities of risk for senior leaders, and why emotional information is still data. Looking ahead, she shares her thoughts on AI’s role in leadership and coaching, and her hope for workplaces that combine psychological safety with real intellectual rigor.

If you work with technical, scientific, or highly analytical leaders — or you are one — this episode offers a grounded, practical roadmap for becoming both more effective and more human as a leader.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/when-data-isnt-enough-anita-kishore-on-leading-with-both-head-and-heart/

In this episode of The Coaching Edge Podcast, hosts Erwin de Grave and Dr. Steve Jeffs sit down with Kay Adams, a psychotherapist, journal therapist, and founder of the Center for Journal Therapy. From her early days as a lifelong journaler and journalism major to discovering, almost by accident, that journaling could become her life’s work, Kay shares the story of a 40-year career at the intersection of writing, psychology, and healing.

Kay explains how a simple request from friends to “teach a journaling workshop” led her to codify 21 different journaling techniques, and later to develop the Journal Ladder—a structured hierarchy of writing methods designed to support safety, pacing, and containment, especially for people with trauma. She describes working in psychiatric hospitals with women diagnosed with what is now called dissociative identity disorder, and how she realized that unstructured free writing could unintentionally retraumatize them. Her answer was to design more guided approaches using tools like sentence stems (“Right now I feel…”, “Today the most important thing is…”) to help clients self-regulate on the page.

The conversation also explores who tends to be drawn to journaling, and how gender patterns show up differently. While many women privately process their emotions in journals and hesitate to share their writing, Kay noticed that men often prefer to talk first—and, once they do write, they’re surprisingly eager to read their work aloud. Underneath these differences, she emphasizes, we’re all dealing with the same human struggles; journaling just gives each person a way to externalize and clarify what’s going on inside.

One of the most practical ideas in this episode is the power of the five-minute sprint: writing fast for just five minutes about a realization, conflict, or problem. For busy coaches, leaders, and entrepreneurs, Kay frames this as a simple act of self-permission—five minutes of presence with yourself. Paired with a short reflection write (“As I read this, I notice…”), it becomes a powerful tool for insight, action planning, and tracking growth over time.

Kay also touches on AI as an ally rather than a threat to journaling. She suggests using AI to generate writing prompts—“Give me 10 (or 30) journal prompts about the conflict I’m having with my team leader”—as a way to expand perspective and deepen self-exploration. For professionals who support others—coaches, therapists, and facilitators—she points to the Therapeutic Writing Institute, a three-year training program she designed for those who want to build a practice around expressive and therapeutic writing.

If you’ve ever thought, “I don’t have time to journal” or “I don’t know what to write,” this episode offers both reassurance and a toolkit. Journaling doesn’t have to be elaborate or perfect; it can simply be five minutes, a few prompts, and the willingness to meet yourself on the page.

Watch the full episode here: https://thecoachingedgepodcast.com/five-minute-journaling-how-kay-adams-turns-writing-into-everyday-therapy/