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The Art of Finishing Strong – Live With Purpose, Passion, and Promise

Scott Couchenour is the Founder and Life Coach at Serving Strong Enterprises, where he coaches business owners over 50 on both personal and organizational empowerment. With over three decades of business experience, Scott uses his insights to assist entrepreneurs in gaining clarity and devising strategies that produce both immediate and long-lasting outcomes by identifying their goals, overcoming obstacles, and prioritizing their objectives. As host of the Serve Strong Finish Strong podcast, he uses the platform to cater to business owners in their 40s and 50s to help them design and execute a meaningful future.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

[02:26] Scott Couchenour shares what his life is like now
[03:58] How Scott got into coaching people on business and life strategies
[06:35] What does being “relationally rich” mean, and why is it essential?
[12:07] Scott explains life stages and quarters and what the differences are between them
[19:24] Scott‘s approach to coaching people and how he personalizes the process
[25:59] Identifying opportunities and working them into your overall system and strategy
[28:29] How Scott structures the coaching methodology
[31:39] The rich experience of small group collaboration
[37:38] How Scott implements “service over sales” into his coaching strategy

In this episode…

Life can significantly transform as you enter your 50s, and your perspective and goals may shift. It’s beneficial to have someone in your corner who can assist you in creating a strategic plan by identifying what you envision for your life, legacy, and purpose. With guidance, you can realign your direction and achieve a revised set of objectives. So who can you turn to when you need help developing a systematic and consistent lifestyle map that aligns with your values?

As a seasoned businessman, Scott Couchenour is helping people navigate through life’s changes. Having gone through a circumstance that completely turned his life upside-down, he understood how invaluable it would have been to have someone guide him through that process — a coach to get him over the hurdles. Since life after 50 becomes more of a cycle of growth and recognizing opportunities you might otherwise miss, having a coach who can deliver a system, help you focus, and devise a pathway for goal achievement is priceless. Additionally, he notes that continuous learning and development are essential to iterating your mission, and small group collaborations with others from diverse backgrounds and perspectives can offer valuable ideas for personal growth.

In this episode of the Quiet Light Podcast, Pat Yates sits down with Scott Couchenour, Founder and Life Coach at Serving Strong Enterprises, to discuss how entering your 50s can shift your perspective and necessitate reevaluating life. Scott discusses why being rationally rich is essential, how your stage of life impacts your outlook, why small group collaboration reaps rewards, and how a coach can help you realize your later-in-life mission.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:07

Hey folks, it’s the Quiet Light Podcast where we share relentlessly honest insights, actionable tips, and entrepreneurial stories that will help founders identify and reach their goals.

Pat Yates 0:32

Hello, and welcome to the Quiet Light Podcast. I’m Pat Yates appreciate you joining me today we have a great conversation with Scott Couchenour. Scott has the business servingstrong.com. And it’s really an interesting approach he talks about if you’re over 50, talking about your fourth quarter as he would call it, your next life and how you want that to be in business or whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish in life. It’s really interesting, because I’m in his wheelhouse, which I’m not really excited about admitting I was wishing I’d be like late third quarter, but he is classifying me as a fourth-quarter personnel, which it makes me depressed a little bit, but I’m still going to do a good podcast with him. And we’re going to talk about the things that people are trying to position their lives to be able to be different. It really applies to me, because I’ve been thinking about this a lot how everything that I do fits into a lifestyle of being married long term and having children and what my next time will be, I found it really fascinating that he talks about how you need a business coach, not If you should decide one like you get an attorney, if it’s legal, you get an accountant, if it’s financial, and this you variable may need and most people need to think about how they can improve their business life, and then they will roll over their personal life. I’m really excited to talk to Scott about this. So let’s get right to it. Scott, how are we doing today? It’s great to have you in the Quiet Light Podcast.

Scott Couchenour 1:49

I’m doing great. And it’s great to be here with you, Pat.

Pat Yates 1:52

Yeah, I’m really excited about this. It’s interesting, because you hit on something, if we had a 20-something podcast guy here, he’d be out of his mind today, if I had Ethan Alexander who’s like a guy he tacos with on the road all the time, he’s one of my favorite guys to travel with, he wouldn’t have any idea we’re talking about today gonna have to be his dad or somebody. So it’s really exciting to get in here and talk about something that’s actionable for us old guys. I’m excited. So Scott, I know that you have a great business. And you’ve got a great story of background and actually even better story trying to prepare people. But I’d love to hear about you and your family where you’re from, give us an idea of all about you.

Scott Couchenour 2:26

Sure, sure I have been married 38 years, we have two grown married children who have given us three grandkids, two of them live close, the other one is about two and a half hours away. So we do a lot of FaceTime. They range from four and a half down to one. And we’re loving life that way, we live in Ohio. I grew up here never really moved away from home, I’m one of five children, I’m the fourth of five children never felt the need to moving and get into the adventure. I’m very consistent that way. I’ve been loving Ohio. Yeah, I’ve been married 38 years to a lady who is incredibly organized, incredibly detailed, and just loving life. I can’t believe it’s been this long that we’ve been married.

Pat Yates 3:22

It’s really funny that you say that because you and I go on a lot of lines very similar. I’ve been married 33 years, I have three children of which we’re hoping for those grandchildren, I have one that’s married and two that are in relationships. So I think we’re similarly aligned in this. And it’s funny how in reflection, you see all those things, and now your life is about different goals. And that’s what we’re going to talk about. That’s the exciting part is that you’re gonna dive deep into it. So I know that what we want to talk a little bit about is your business Serving Strong. And I know there’s a real background of that a lot of dynamics want to go into, but maybe just give the listeners an overview about Serving Strong,

Scott Couchenour 3:58

Serving Strong, I started that back in November of 2007. I had been doing some coaching up to that point. It has a thread in my previous employment. Being the youngest brother of the I have three older brothers and one younger sister. We were all in our family business at the time. We’ll talk about that moment, I’m sure. But someone had the idea. Let’s look into life coaching as a benefit for our employees. And being the youngest brother, I was tasked with the responsibility. So I started researching life coaching, fell in love with the dynamic because it’s so powerful. It can be very powerful between coach and client that I hired my own coach. And then I became certified as a coach and that coach for a while but then in November 2007 started this Serving Strong Enterprises. And the intent there at that moment was coaching pastors to avoid burnout. That was the right original beginning. And I just kept doing that on the side for many, many years. And then when we closed our family business, went into it full-time. And so it’s basically, I’m a fourth quarter coach, life and business, I cover both sides. And Serving Strong is here to help the person who is generally in their mid to late 50s, who is beginning to have these ideas or thoughts or questions, whatever it is about life and the extent of life, and legacy and meaning and purpose. So we address that. And we create a strategic way to go about life. So I help my clients create strategic plans, personal strategic plans.

Pat Yates 5:50

It’s really amazing, because when I was reading a site, and I spent some time researching this and thinking a lot on it, because I’m basically your age client. And I’m probably someone that looks a lot of the things. So what’s interesting, when I looked down the five things you talked about, you have them, and I’m sure you talk passionately about them and I wanted to go down I mean, you can address them in different ways. One is to be physically fit. Another was to be emotionally healthy, another is financially free, vocationally aligned, I pretty much understand all those, but there was one that really struck me the way that you said it, which is relationally rich, I find that an interesting term because I’m sure it’s not on the surfaces easiest something to understand what that is, maybe jump off by explaining what that would be, because I’m really curious myself.

Scott Couchenour 6:35

Yeah, relationally rich is the phase based on the fact that we don’t live life in a vacuum. And we are built for community, that’s part of the core values of Serving Strong is that we really do need one another. And so as we enter our 60s and our 70s, an interesting dynamic will take place. And that is that the number of people we know, will get smaller and smaller. And as that happens, how deeply are you connected to a small group of people that you can do life with? And in essence, finish life with? Relationally rich is having, here’s a good way to describe it. A couple of ways. One is, it’s 2:30 in the morning, and you’re really, really in need of someone helping you do something. I don’t know what it is, just fill in the blank. Do you have someone that you would call? And would they be willing to come and get out of bed and come and help you in the middle of the night? That’s one thing. A second thing is, in general, not everybody gets buried in a coffin these days. But the idea that, do you have six pallbearers in mind six people in your life who would carry your casket, the depth of relationships with people who are close and very dear to us, we absolutely need that. We have to have that. And that, to me is a definition of being relationally rich, doing real life with people as we face the things that we face in our fourth quarter. If I’ve got a friend and my friend, his mother passes away, will I walk with him through that loss? Yes, that’s being relationally rich. That’s what it looks like.

Pat Yates 8:56

That’s really amazing. And you know what, you have an interesting perspective that some may not have in this kind of situation, you probably worked with a lot of people that may have been, when you started 2007 2010 2011, the world was a little different. So people had different goals and different ideas work are working remotely. And then all of a sudden you have this weird line that people are always going to talk about the cutting point when COVID happened in the world changed and everybody was remote and all these places. Stress added a lot of things added. Have you seen a shift in the dynamic? Are people needing this more after maybe going through all of that versus when you first started the business?

Scott Couchenour 9:31

I’ll tell you what I’ve noticed. Let’s talk in terms of pre-COVID, post-COVID. Pre-COVID we needed it. We all talked about it. It was very important. And leading up to COVID, we also had this rise in technology and rise and social media and rise of looking at a small screen and scrolling. COVID created an accelerant to our basic need for relationship. I think it’s not that COVID caused something COVID accelerated what is already a basic need that we all have. And we were awakened to mileage varies by person, but we were awaken to, it’s time to be authentic, it’s time to be real. I do a lot of stuff on LinkedIn, I live on LinkedIn and have some great relationships that I have yet to meet face to face. But what I’ve noticed is the power pose is going away. The real nature of life is coming across a post, there is a hunger for authenticity, there is a hunger for depth of relationship. And when you can meet someone that you’ve only known online for several years, it becomes a very powerful event. That’s my take on it. I think we all have, what is standard across the board is, we all need each other. We need a close group of friends to do life with, COVID accelerated and brought to the forefront just how important those relationships really are.

Pat Yates 11:24

That’s great. Again, I’m with Scott Couchenour with Serving Strong. So Scott, tell us a little bit about Serving Strong, I ran over the bullets that you had on the fantastic fourth quarter a little bit as an overview, but I’m sure you want to dive deeper on. And by the way, I’m trying to be in the last two minutes, my third quarter, I really don’t want to say I’m in the fourth quarter yet. So I’m gonna deny that I’m in that fourth quarter right now. But I’d love for you to explain because when I first read it, I thought it was q4 stuff advice you could do on q4 when I first looked at it, like, oh, these are marketing ideas for q4. But then I read into it went, wow, that’s interesting. But now I feel really old. So tell me a little bit about the philosophy behind the company and what you do when you’re talking to clients?

Scott Couchenour 12:07

Sure. I’ll take you back to the end of 2021 when I had an awakening to what I was doing in my business. And so I hired a branding coach. And she helped, we spent four months together. And she helped to show me just how eclectic I was all over the map from a marketing standpoint. Out of those conversations came this passion, this identity that I had inside of me, and that was to help at that time, when we started talking about this originally, my brand new coach and I, we started talking about the Gen X generation, which, I will claim to the rest of my life, even though I was born in 1965, which is kind of the cut off, 64, 65, 66, I’m a Gen X crowd. I’m not a baby boomer, I don’t want to be a baby boomer. To me, that’s old. But great people that don’t get me wrong. The Gen X thing then morphed into me looking at the average life expectancy of a US male, a male in the United States, at that time was 78 and a half years is the average life expectancy of a male in the United States females couple of years older. So I got to thinking in terms of math, I love math, and I was looking at okay, so your first quarter is your first 20 years. That’s your learning quarter. That’s where you’re being nurtured. You’re going to school you graduate. Now you’re in your 20s. 20s and 30s is your second quarter. You build in the second quarter, you build your life, your career, your family, your 20s in your 30s this is where you start to have kids, you start to build a family, in your third quarter, your 40s and 50s, I call that the reaping quarter, you start to reap some of the things you sowed in your second quarter, there’s kind of a hill that you kind of go over. Right. And in fact, when I was growing up, I don’t know if this is true of you. But when you turn 40 the phrase was lordy lordy, Luke, who’s 40 and if you had those creative friends, you would come back you come home from work and there’d be all these black balloons in the front yard and all these TED, these tombstones and all that for your 40th birthday. Right? And the phrase is welcome to the over the hill gang right over the hill. That was always a phrase when I remember growing up. The truth is, and let’s pause hear in the third quarter for a second. So you’re in your 40s, or your 50s you are listening to this. We were raised to think there was one hill that over the hill means one hill that we are now over the rest of life is a decline. And what I have discovered, as I’ve focused on my coaching, and strategic plans, my research has shown that I found is that there is a second hill, there is a second strength. In fact, there’s a book out there called From Strength To Strength, which I highly recommend to anybody who is wrestling with this, this all there is kind of thing. There is a second hill a second strength. The first is fluid intelligence. This is where we have a lot of energy, not a lot of wisdom, but a lot of energy. And we’ll throw a bunch of stuff on the wall, and we’ll see what sticks and we’ll make it happen. But that begins to wane in our mid-30s. But there’s a second hill or second energy that begins to build. And that’s crystallized intelligence, where we have a lot more wisdom. Yes, there is decline. Yes, I can’t run the marathon like I did in my mid-30s. As I’m reaching 60, I would have to train totally different as because of stages of life. But in the third quarter, we’re wrestling with the decline of one curve. And I’m here to change the narrative, there is another curve, there is another thing that we can embrace. And actually, my belief is the fourth quarter is the best quarter possible, because in generalities, I will mention some of the dynamics, as you reach the end of your 50s and you come into your 60s, a number of dynamics are happening, some good, some not so good. Your debt is generally down, your income is generally up, your expenses are generally down. Your wisdom is through the roof, your experiences, the things that you have learned. And in this lifetime, we are more likely to live longer, because of the emphasis on health, the emphasis on dieting and eating right and exercise. So when you combine the availability of time, and the awareness of legacy, I think, and I’m going to make this true of my life, make the fourth quarter, the most impactful ever. And so that, yeah, I’m over one hill. But I’m not done. The people I talk with the clients that I work with, they have no intention of retirement, the word retirement is just a title of a fund. And that’s why in one of the six hallmarks, we’re talking about vocational alignment. It’s an alignment of what you do with your abilities, and with your wisdom in a different stage of life.

Pat Yates 18:28

That’s really amazing. So I mean, I think, Scott, when you talk about that, when you talk about the alignment that you would need in that kind of situation. It’s really interesting that, I use different terms, I talk about lifestyle businesses, which is essentially similar that if your goal is to be living in South Florida all year and doing as much recreational stuff as you can but have a business that you run 10, 15, 20 hours a week, in that provides enough income that your lifestyle or your hope for your life can be sustained in a little more simple way, that you’re more fulfilled personally than you are professionally. Are you at that balance? Is there more than probably in your 20s 30s and 40s? So how do you suggest people approach that? I mean, some people have to be tied to an office, others are very fortunate that maybe they have a business that can run with them. I mean, you talk to a lot of people, how do you usually approach that with a client?

Scott Couchenour 19:24

Well, I think you mentioned it, the goal with people who have a goal in mind, that leads to this whole idea of being strategic and if we’re not strategic, especially as we enter the fourth quarter, the ramifications are enormous. The first thing what I do with a client is okay, who are you? I talked about the big 10 the person ability skills, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, core values and that sort of thing. And there’s 10, out of that group of 10, we build a purpose statement. And this is, no matter where they’re at in life, if they’re tied to a nine-to-five desk job that seems like it’s going nowhere, we still take a look at who are you? And then we build a purpose statement out of who they are. If I’m allowed to live for the next 20, 30 years, what is my purpose? Why? Why would I still be alive? And then that leads to a vision statement, which is what the world looks like and what you look like if you’re true to that purpose over the long haul. That leads to a mission statement. A mission statement is just basically, this is how we’re going to go about the vision and mission has goals and goals have actions. So regardless of where you’re at today, if you’ve got a strategy, you can begin living life in what I call 90-day sprints. It’s a 90-day sprint, lifestyle, and iterative process, where if I know my purpose, and I’ve got a vision, and I’ve got a mission, and I’m working on a couple of goals, through certain actions for a 90 day period, at the end of that 90 day period, I will pause. And I will say okay, what do I know now that I didn’t know when I started this sprint? And how can I take that information and go back through my purpose, vision, mission goals, and iterate, and then do another 90-day sprint. What I’ve noticed in that sort of life, in that process, is that it’s like a quarterback, all right, you just did a set of downs head upon quarterback is sitting on the sidelines, got the headphones on looking at the surface tablet, communicating to the offensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator can see the field from a different perspective, right? They saying 68 needs to be double-teamed. 44 is watching where you’re throwing, so quit looking where you’re gonna throw. And so now the quarterback has gained knowledge and goes back out on the next set of downs smarter than the previous set of downs. That’s what this process is, when we get a strategic plan on paper for the very first time, it’s like a lump of clay on a potter’s wheel. And we start working that clay 90-day sprint after another. And what happens is their vision starts to come closer and closer with every sprint. So it’s not a linear thing, in like, for example, I’ve got a 10-year plan right now to build a community of people doing this. Right and I’m on Sprint number two, actually sprint number one of 40 Sprint’s 40, 90-day sprints is 10 years, and I’ve got a very clear vision of what that community will look like, I’ll be a chairman of the board, there will be 5000 plus members, all these details. I just completed month one of this first sprint, and already, I’m further ahead than I thought it would be. Because when you focus on something, when you focus on where you’re headed it grabs a hold of you, it’s part of who you are, and you cannot talk about it. And when you cannot talk about it, you attract the right people and you repel the right people. And you see opportunities. There’s a principle out there called the red car principle. When we’re working on a strategy, a red car principle takes place. And that is if I were if you and I were meeting at a coffee shop, and I asked you how many red cars did you see on the way here, you would probably say what probably I saw a few maybe the odds are I would have seen some. But if I just said before we met that on your way to the coffee shop, when we meet, I’m going to give you $50 for every red card that you saw. Then we get together and I say how many red cards do you see, you would get hand me a piece of paper and say it would be eight of them. You owe me eight times four, 50, whatever that is, because you are focused on purpose. Looking for red cars, you’re not just noticing them. But there’s an incentive. There’s a plan in place. And so not only are you just kind of driving casually, but you’re driving looking for red cars and tallying. That’s what takes place when we have a strategy when you enter your fourth quarter strategically and improving in things like your emotional health and your physical fitness and your relational richness and vocational alignment and financial freedom. That focus helps you to notice opportunities that otherwise would slip right past you. And you grab a hold of opportunities when you’re strategic, you asked me to talk about this. This is what I live.

Pat Yates 25:06

No, it makes a lot of sense. And what’s interesting is, the more that I listened to what you said, it’s like in your 20s 30s and 40s, and especially how the world used to be, you take a job and you look at your future and you say, I have to go into the office, I have to be at this place, I have to do this, we’ll take vacations when we can now it’s more like, well, this is what I want to do. I’d like to go for two weeks to go to Texas and play golf or go out of the country and do something and I’m gonna work a little bit but whenever I can, that’s sort of the lifestyle that people would end up wanting, especially when they get like as an empty nester, I found a lot of time I’ve been coaching high school basketball, I’ve been doing things for my son, there were a lot of activities that we had, and you sort of have to fill that time, which gives you an interesting opportunity. I’m sure that people coming in at up with a lot more time on their hands. So is structuring their day and opportunities and how they approach the day part of that too.

Scott Couchenour 25:59

Well, it can be, you’re alluding to a system. And what I’ve discovered in working with clients is I’m very systematic. I’m the project manager of my clients dreams. All right, so I love consistent strategy and consistent detail. Not all people like that, especially business owners. Don’t give me the details, give me the highlights. What’s the bottom line? So I’ve discovered that there is a continuum of systems on one is utter chaos. And the other is OCD. Neither of which does anybody any good. Every one of us fits somewhere on a level of systems where there’s not too much system, not too little, just the right amount of systems. So a systematic lifestyle, for one may look totally different from another person. Here’s the difference, though. You are living strategically, you are living by design. If you face something, if an opportunity comes along, and you don’t have a strategy to run it through, you’re either going to miss the opportunity, or it’s gonna take you a lot longer to process that opportunity. Because you don’t know how it’s going to impact you relationally physically, vocationally, financially, spiritually. But when you have a strategy and an opportunity comes along, you can simply filter that opportunity through where you’re already headed. And you can decide very quickly at the bottom line, this opportunity will get me further faster to where I’m going, or this opportunity is a distraction or and there’s a third option, this is an opportunity, maybe not for now, so we’ll throw it on the parking board. So it’s either now’s the time, this opportunity is never going to work for me, or this opportunity might work. Let’s hold off to it. But you know that when you’re strategic when you’re living life by design, you know that.

Pat Yates 28:02

What’s interesting is it’s not just a fourth-quarter thing, it could be people’s life all the time when you condition someone to do it, but it’s great advice. So I know we’ve talked a lot about the philosophy around the business. Let’s talk a little bit more hard about Serving Strong and again, we’re with Scott Couchenour with Serving Strong. So Scott, if someone comes in and wants to work with you, hypothetically, how do you structure the business? How do they pay? Is there a length of contract, tell us about how they work with Serving Strong?

Scott Couchenour 28:29

Well, the first thing is we enter a three-month contract, and roughly six sessions. By the fourth session, we will have a strategic plan document in place. After that fourth session, then my clients will simulate a mini sprint where they will take action and check in for four weeks. And then we do a final review at the end of that, when we’re completed with that, then I will support them for the rest of their life. And one main element of that support is a community that I am currently building so you get your strategic plan, you’re starting to work it you are now entering life into a 90-day sprint cycle of life. And the support that I give is how are things going, weekly check-ins and a lot of support. I’m hoping to create, on the hoping, I am creating a community where everybody in the community is actually working their fourth quarter strategic plan and they’re living life and contributing to others and receiving advice from other members. But within that, I offer a private one-on-one coaching at a three month period, three months renewable if they would like and down the road we’ll have some group coaching opportunities for the make a little more economic. But it think of it as a one-two thing, the first stage is let’s get your strategic plan document and let’s get you working on that. And then that’s yours to, it’s built to live with you the rest of your life, we build in a measure of iteration so that you’re always learning and developing after every sprint. The second phase is that support that ongoing support.

Pat Yates 30:33

That is really great. I mean, obviously, they get a chance to be able to talk with you and lean on you for a lot of different things, to be able to join, it’s obviously not very, very, very difficult. So your goal was to have 500? Or what was the number, again, of how many people you want to have that you’re gonna be mentoring about one time?

Scott Couchenour 30:49

Well, at least 5000 in 10 years, which the whole mechanism with coaches, and facilitators all working, as we scale, we will bring in more coaches and bring in more facilitators to handle those small groups and those one-on-ones, then we will do events with subject matter experts from all six Hallmark professions.

Pat Yates 31:15

It’s really, really amazing. Again, Scott Couchenour, Serving Strong, when you come in and work, how often I mean, when you’re adding people they get collaborate together, they just collaborating with you, I mean, are there opportunities to collaborate with others and be able to learn sort of like a, I don’t want to use the word mastermind as the way it is, but sort of an opportunity to be able to network with other entrepreneurs.

Scott Couchenour 31:39

Absolutely. Entrepreneurs, and housewives and pastors. And what I’ve noticed is when I’ve done some small groups, what I’ve noticed is, we do a thing called feed-forward where one member says this is what I’m working on. And then all the other members give one piece of advice. And the recipient, all they do is say thank you. And then you move to the next person do the same thing, then the next person. So a group of five, you will hear any number of suggestions that you will receive from the other four members. But you will also hear members giving advice to other members. And listen, and I’ve noticed that that’s a very rich process, this feed-forward exercise where you might hear Suzy tell Jimmy, a piece of advice for where Jimmy’s headed, and you’ll think, I could use that myself. And I’ve had business owners receive advice from a housewife. And a housewife receive advice from a coach and a coach receive advice from a truck driver. And it’s fascinating because you get the perspective from all different viewpoints of life, different ways we were raised. And it’s a much richer experience. And that’s what I’m building and creating that kind of community. It leads to a relational richness.

Pat Yates 33:14

That’s really, really awesome. So Scott listen, one thing I want you to be able to do is obviously talk about your company. And personally, you’re obviously an amazing guy, family guy, all these things just add up to be able to have a great time working with you. And I think that people that look at this sometimes don’t admit they need this kind of conversation, but it actually helps because it’s for so many thoughts. So Serving Strong is obviously a great business, you’ve had a great background, I know it came from a little strife and owning a business and yourself and some of those things tend to form the opinion of where people go in their life. So I wanted to wrap it up, maybe if there’s anything else you want to tell people about Serving Strong, maybe how your background sort of ate it, and you’ve been able to do this, but what else do people know about Serving Strong and you?

Scott Couchenour 33:55

Well, Serving Strong income is birthed out of an experience a hero’s journey, if you will. I spent 24 years as a COO in our family business, business my dad started we designed to build churches across America. And then 2008 happened in the economy, which we didn’t see it at the time. But it shifted the way churches decided who was going to build their buildings. But it took us five years to really do something the board of directors elected me to become CEO to reinvent our company, which I did. And we were moving in that direction. But the five-year slide that we experienced, made us vulnerable from a cash flow standpoint to one project that had to start in June of 2015. Rather than it starting the pastor had been having an affair and that news came out in June of 2015. That was the last nail in the coffin. I had to close the business. It was a devastating time because I had attached my identity to what I did. And what I did was gone. My identity was gone. I didn’t know who I was. I wrestled for too long spent too much time and energy and money, trying to figure out what I was going to do next. Hit the wall, like I said, got a brand new coach got really serious about what I was doing. And now I feel like I’m in sinus rhythm, I’m moving up ups and downs, but generally upward. And that has now become a metaphor for what I do with my clients, I have determined that I would be the partner I wish I’d had in July of 2015. Because I would have gone further faster with deeper understanding. And if there’s anybody listening here thinking, I’m not going to hire a coach, because that’s admitting defeat, coaching is usually associated with counseling, therapy, all of which are really good benefits. But the stigma is that I’m broken and I need to be fixed. So I’m going to hire a coach. That’s not the truth. What I say is, do you have a CPA? Well, yes. Do you have an attorney? Yes. Do you have a wealth advisor? Yes. Well, why did you hire them? Well, because they know things I don’t know, they give me perspective on my life, that I can’t see myself. Well, that’s just what a coach does. You are strategically bringing in a second set of eyes into your advice circle. And a strategic is on purpose. It’s not admitting defeat, it’s actually, it’s a decision of courage to bring a coach. Now, whether I’m the coach or not, I think coaching will benefit anybody who embarks on it. And that’s what Serving Strong is, it’s a coaching business that becomes the second set of eyes that helps you go further faster with deeper understanding.

Pat Yates 36:49

That really makes a lot of sense. I mean, it is kind of interesting, you put a perspective there that I didn’t really think about, like, entrepreneurs may think in their mind, why don’t need a business coach, I don’t understand business, I’m already doing business, I have a successful business, but they don’t know what they don’t know from the personal side of how those things mount up. And if you go through stress, better ways to manage and people to talk to. So I think it was really amazing how you put it from an attorney standpoint, account standpoint, you didn’t need somebody else that can help clean your house in other areas. It’s really, really amazing. Scott, we really appreciate you being on the Quiet Light Podcast, it’s really amazing. So tell people how they can reach out how they can find you? And also one other questions, so you don’t necessarily have to go into the monetary side of it. But how do people, what did they do when they come to you, you said you have a three-month plan, you have different plans, are there other things that they can leverage, if they’re coming in to work with you at Serving Strong.

Scott Couchenour 37:38

The main thing that I do is service over sales. Okay, and I can say that till I’m blue in the face, you have to believe that it starts with a conversation. I want to help someone whether they, my approach was service over sales is that every conversation I have with people, I’m already assuming that they’re paying me $100,000 for coaching, and I treat them that way. If that turns into a transaction, great, if not, I will have served someone. That to me is of greater value. And ironically, as I serve, then business comes to me, as I serve opportunities open up, I don’t do it for that reason, I do it from a core value of service. So it starts with a conversation, it starts with just tell me a little bit about what’s going on in your life where you’re headed, where you would like to go. And that half hour, 45 minutes could be all you need. If not, we talk about the parameters, the particulars. And we go into a number of things we go as deep as you want to go. But by the end of that call, you know that there is hope. And there is a way to create a plan that puts a lid on regrets and leaves the lid off of freedom. So you can find me at servingstrong.com you could email me at [email protected]. And I’m all over LinkedIn if you just search Serving Strong or search Scott Couchenour, you’ll find me

Pat Yates 37:45

That’s great. So we’re gonna spell it because it’s a little different spelling Couchenour, Scott Couchenour. It’s been amazing having you on the podcast today. We’ll have all the LinkedIn stuff. We’ll make sure that’s on the podcast so people can reach out to you. We really appreciate your time today. I think what you’re doing is amazing. And it’s really, really needed because as I’ve gone through this, some of these thoughts have come to my head or exactly what you’re teaching.

Scott Couchenour 39:50

I appreciate it. Pat, it’s been a great joy to be on here talking with you.

Pat Yates 39:54

Thanks again. Appreciate you, Scott.

Outro 39:59

Today’s podcast was produced by Rise25 and the Quiet Light content team. If you have a suggestion for a future podcast subject or guest, email us at [email protected]. Be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.