A common question we receive is – What’s the difference between consulting and coaching?
On the podcast to answer the question is executive coach Shane Arthur to talk through the differences (and why they matter for your career), plus:
- Shane’s approach to coaching executives
- Top mistakes young professionals make
- Keys to accelerate your professional development
- & more!
Relevant Links
- Connect with Shane on LinkedIn
- Schedule a call with Shane’s team
- Learn about business coaching with Management Consulted
- Explore free resources to break into consulting?
Partner Links
Transcription
MC
Strategy Simplified, have we got a treat for you today. Today’s conversation is between Jenny Rae and Shane Arthur. Shane works with hundreds of executives a year to help remove roadblocks in their way from unlocking their full potential. In this light hearted conversation, Jenny Rae and Shane dive into the differences between consulting and coaching. In addition, Shane shares how he works with executives to unlock their potential, and about top mistakes that young leaders and executives are making. If you’re curious about working with Shane, there’s a link in the show notes where you can learn more about what that looks like. All right, let’s get right into the conversation between Jenny Rae and Shane Arthur.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Shane, welcome to Strategy Simplified, we’re really excited to have you on the podcast today. And number one, we need to just get to know you. So can you share a little bit about your background? And we’re not going to get into the depth of who you are, like we are a little bit later in the conversation, but just give us some of the highlights we can frame your background in the context of the rest of this broader conversation.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, great. Thanks. Good to be here. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, pretty normal childhood, went to college at UVA, because it rained when we visited William & Mary, and it was sunny the next week in UVA. So that’s where we went, finished that, fell in love, college sweetheart, married her. We have two kids now, little girl that’s seven and a little boy, that’s five. I went on staff with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, which was a group we were involved with, when we were students there and was a great fit. And so I got to do work at Old Dominion University down in Norfolk for a good while, and then moved into management roles for the next 12 years, founded a new region and leading that, so long history of working with great leaders and helping them grow. And then about five years ago, made a transition and started an executive coaching firm, which I now run.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I want to know all about your leap into consulting. And specifically, you kind of talked about the difference between consulting and coaching, which we’ll unpack a little bit later. But when you’re trying to decide out of all of your experience, right, you’ve worked with not just people but with organizations, how did you decide on focusing on the coaching piece? Can you just walk through the journey into the leap?
Shane Arthur
Yes, had kids, traveling too much. The next promotion was right around the corner, and I was ready for something else, had a great free weekend at the beach with some good friends and everybody went to bed except for me and my friend, Jason, he went to Duke and got his MBA with my wife. It’s how we know them. And he kind of did his consulting thing on me just asked all the questions. So what do you do? And I started answering the question. He said, No, no, drop the Christian thing. What do you do all day? What are your best stories? What are your best deliverables from the past five years? What do you tell your donors? And he did that for two hours. And we finished and he said, I’ve got two thoughts. One, you’ll never work for anybody else again. You had too much autonomy working for this organization. That’s not normal. And to I don’t know if you know what it is, but you’re an executive coach just waiting to get started.
I’d never heard of it before. I was, you know, had moved up a couple of levels. But I was nowhere near the senior level that would be higher in those types of folks in 8—I think this is 17 or 18 when we had this conversation. He said to me, Shane, it sounds like you’ve spent 18 years in four different roles. And you fashioned your week so that at least 20 hours of every week was us sitting across the table from a talented leader helping them be better at their job. It’s like yeah, it isn’t that normal. He laughed. He’s like, it’s not normal. It’s just your story.
There’s a whole industry that’s grown up around supporting executives and I think you’d be excellent at it. So that’s where the seed was planted. Two months later, I asked if I could coach him. And he let me coach him for free just every other, but set up outside of an organization, right? And then probably three months later, I found another client that I was excited to work with same question, can I coach you for free. And then two months after that, I signed my first client. And it’s been a bit of a ride since then.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
So I want to know what it was like moving from the structure, even though you had a lot of autonomy of an organization, to building your own consulting practice, what is something that you didn’t know how to do that you had to learn how to do?
Shane Arthur
I didn’t know how to sell? I think I think when I started it, I’m grateful we reached out to some friends that we kind of guessed, maybe had executive coaches. And they did. They all gave us 30 minutes and all of them introduced me to their coaches who all gave me 30 minutes, that’s a kindness that really met us when we started this journey. And every single person said, Shane, you’re probably a really great coach, your experience is incredible. You’ve never sold a thing a day in your life, you got to figure that piece out. And that’s really what made this possible. That consistent response from three different total strangers, after hearing my story for 30 minutes. So I put my face down and studied selling for almost two years. And it was amazing.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Will you unpack that a little bit? The studying of selling, yes, it’s a common thing. Right, inside consulting firms, you’re not selling the executive coaching piece, you’re not selling a recurring contract with a person, you’re selling a value proposition with an organization. But many people battled to leap through the transition from doing the analyst or the consulting job, which is solving the problems and operating the day to day and, and figuring out what needs to happen to the kind of more people-influencing side of the job and in sales. So what did you learn? What did you learn from studying selling? I feel like so many of us could gain something from that.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, what my major takeaway was, you have to figure out how you sell best, there’s no right way to sell, there’s just a right way for you. And I lean introverted, I like deep conversations. I don’t like surface level conversations. We’re not very good at them. But I kept reading books, and I kept learning and I finally read the right language that helped me realize my problem was, I’m really good at delivering value. And I think that’s how people hire people, right? Like, I get on sales calls with folks. And they’re trying to figure out if we’re the right fit, they’re asking all these exploratory questions, but they’re not delivering any value. Super confusing to me, I don’t understand that type of sale.
And what I learned through my process was just to deliver value. So when I hop on a call, usually with the referral, my business is almost entirely based on referrals. I get through three minutes of pleasantries, and I just start coaching. I just asked, So are we on the call today, and it just goes where it goes. And they get to experience value, they get a phone call with coaching. And if they love it, they want more. And if they don’t, we’re probably not a good fit. But I learned to move quickly to delivering value, rather than trying to sell like trying to pitch, I was with somebody today who was in sales, great meeting in his office. And he’s like, so what’s your close? I think there’s there’s no close, like you just experienced who I am. And either you’ll call me next week or you won’t, either one is fine. And he was blown away. Because he’s in sales. And he’s used to really heavy closes, it’s just not what I do. I don’t enjoy it. It doesn’t work with who I am.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
So tell us a little bit about what unpacking this and discovering this meant for your business? How has it grown? Where are you now? What’s the next mountain for you?
Shane Arthur
Yeah, great question. I like working with a small handful of very talented people. I’ve got two young kids and my wife runs a charter school here in town, which is a big job. And I didn’t want crazy hours, right? I didn’t step into this for that. And so one of the first things that my coach helped me understand was, what type of business do I want to build. And eventually, we came up with this idea that I always want to work with between 8 and 12 clients. That’s the right number for me. I love high attention. I love being in touch with people. I love texts between phone calls about questions, that was the right range for me. What she figured out was once I got 12 and went to the 13th that’s when I had to raise my prices. So that’s what I’ve done for three years.
Pretty big jumps. If as long as there are 12 people I’m working with when the 13th is ready for a proposal, there’s a pretty big more markup. And then I keep working with the 12, they get six months at the old rate, obviously, there are people that I’ve been working with for a long time, that’s worked really well, for me, it’s allowed my business to grow. I’ve been surprised that the higher price points get me into better rooms. I didn’t know that, you know, I came from the nonprofit world, I thought the rates were already reasonably high. And so now to hear from people, oh, that’s really reasonable is not the answer, I expect. But I’m starting to get it more and more with with some of the rooms that I’m getting into, and some of the people that I’m getting to meet.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
You know, Shane, we have you on the podcast for a couple of different reasons today. One, because I just think that you have a really interesting business story and we love to highlight business stories. So I feel like we’re getting some great insights here. But another is that you and I had a conversation at the end of last year about the difference between coaching and consulting. And I imagine it’s probably a part of your narrative when you’re explaining to people who work with both in their businesses, what the difference is. So can you explain just a little bit about how you talk your people through what the difference is between what you do and what they might experience with consultants? Because I think that would help our audience understand a little bit more.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, I’m not stepping on toes. I appreciate the name of your company here. My general answer is consulting has to do with transferring knowledge about something from one person to another in a setting that looks a lot like a one-on-one conversation, often, coaching has to do with drawing things out of people. So I coach people in every industry you can come up with. It is easier for me to coach people in pharmaceuticals, because I know nothing about pharmaceuticals. And so anything that comes out on the call is going to come from my client, I actually have to be a little careful when I coach people that are in the nonprofit space.
Because every once in a while, I have the answer for the problem that they’re dealing with. And I’ve used the language probably since the call you and I had to be able to say, hey, just so you know, I’m putting on my consultant hat real quick, because there’s an answer to this question about how to do it well, but that’s not generally what I do. Generally, what I do is drawing things out of people. My sense is, I work with some really great leaders, and they know all the things and they just have to they just have to find them. And I don’t think they’re in my head. I think they’re inside of their head. I’m just trying to get it out of them.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love that. Can you talk, without obviously sharing names, just about the you know, the demographics and the type of leaders that you’re working with. Like, are they are they executives? Do they own their own companies? Are they younger? Do they have families like talk about some of the things that are the nature of who they are, and then also some of the conversations that you have that maybe surprised you from the beginning? I’m imagining, for example, and I don’t know if this is true, so you debunk it if it’s not, but that you thought originally, these conversations were going to be about work and about growing in work and about advancing in work. And maybe they weren’t all about that. So anyhow, just share a little bit about who these people are, who these mystery 12 magical people are that get the privilege of working with you.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, almost everybody comes to me with some kind of professional challenge. They just made a big move, they feel like they need to make a big move, they’re stuck. And it does, it goes deeper. You never quite know when it’s gonna happen. It could be the third call or the fifth call, but all of a sudden, we’re talking about their childhood, and some kind of real serious thing that happened that is impacting the way they’re leading professionally today. I enjoy helping people connect dots between who they are and how they’re operating. I think that’s a big missing component to the way that we think about developing leaders these days.
Most of who my clients are people who lean entrepreneurial. A number of them have smaller one or two people firms. And then a number of them have grown things that have 100 or 200 employees. But they almost always have a decent bit of autonomy. They’re usually people who operate maybe with a board above them. And don’t do as much when I started, I was landing with some clients that were a little bit more, in larger firms. And that hasn’t lasted as well. I found that my sweet spot has more to do with people who are in charge, who are CEOs, usually smaller privately held companies. And then a handful of executive directors that that run things for nonprofits or foundations. And they bring all kinds of things. I have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s not a remedial type of coaching. It’s certainly not an accountability relationship.
You know, whatever we talk about in this call. Two weeks later, we get through the pleasantries, and I just say Jenny Rae, what do you want to talk about today? If people get to bring anything, and it’s always a surprise, what comes up, it could be a major personnel issue, it could be a big fight with the spouse, it could be, I heard about a school board the other day where somebody was trying to get fired, and my client was right in the middle of it, and it’s like, okay, that’s what you needed today. I’m ready. Let’s go. Tell me the story. And then I’m just trying to find out what’s going on? Are they stuck? Why are leaders that are this great, stuck on something? And how can we get them out of it?
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
How does somebody know when it’s time to hire you?
Shane Arthur
It’s almost entirely referrals, right? I don’t do a lot of marketing in any way. Most of my referrals come from usually clients who are already working with me, and they referrals usually come to people that are close to them, distant referrals don’t work with me at all. Usually, when clients are referred to me, they’ve already heard stories about me from their friend, and something will happen, and my client will hear something and say, I think it’s time to call Shane. And it’s that simple. I’m not somebody who chases goals. I am drawn to transition; I’m really interested in change. And so when people are at moments of big change, that’s usually when they get introduced to me.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. Tell me one thing that’s a downside of your new world that you kind of didn’t think would be there, right. You know, I think that sometimes the underbelly of things, and I’ll give you an example for mine, maybe give you a little bit of time to think about this question. Actually, a lack of structure was really hard for me, because I didn’t know when I was done. I didn’t know how much was enough. And so my first couple of months, now I started working from home, it’s been 15 years, I’ve had a role. You know, a lot of autonomy, kind of, as you’ve mentioned, but moving from a structured environment where somebody else was not micromanaging me, but they were at least setting deadlines, or there was a meeting to work toward, that just didn’t exist anymore, right.
And actually, it was part of what drew me to it because the lid was off. I could make 10x what I made before, I could do it in as little time as I wanted, but I just didn’t know when I was finished. Like could I get away with not working long nights, could I get away with not working weekends? So I’m not saying that that would be at all the same thing for you. But for me, that’s often the downside that, you know, when people say I’m drawn to entrepreneurship, I’m like, just be careful. Because there’s, this boundary setting that you maybe didn’t learn that you’re either going to have to learn or it’s going to break other parts of your life.
Shane Arthur
Yep, that’s entirely true for me. Your mind gets going, right. Like when you build something that you love, you love it, you love thinking about it. And so I’m, you know, building shutdown routines before I go pick my little girl up from school so that I’m not thinking about things and I’m ready to put my attention on her. The thing that came up when you started, the question had to do with trying to be too much for everybody. Like when I worked for a larger organization, I knew all the people to send people to right when we got too far towards HR, quick introduction, right? Now, it’s trickier. I kinda like being the guy with the answers. And so it took a couple of years to recognize I play an attorney sometimes on these calls.
And that’s a problem. So kind of building my own set of referrals. Knowing, yep, we’re outside of the bounds of what I’m really great at. Let me introduce you to somebody who I think can help you. And I found that that’s super normal. All of my clients, whenever they run into a problem, their first thought is who can help me with this. And I grew up in a middle class background where we learned how can you do stuff without paying people, right? Like that was the that’s been a shift that’s been happening for me. So yeah, that was one of the things that I noticed pretty early on.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Well, shifting from your own learnings and some of the challenges, which, by the way, I think that’s super insightful, and a challenge that consultants have to, because they always want to sell some more work, right. And we know that given enough time and resources, we’re good at sourcing the problem. But, you know, how do you under promise and over deliver when you get paid to over promise and under deliver sometimes, you know, ultimately, like, it kind of comes down to the dollars and cents of that. So there’s some boundary setting and some maturity that comes in. But my other question is not about you, but about the folks that you work with, right? Like, what’s a mistake that a lot of these young executives make, that you either help them avoid as they’re about to make it or you help them unwin after they’ve made it or you help them repattern something that they’re kind of making?
Shane Arthur
Yeah, so almost all of my clients fit two adjectives. One is talented, which is not a surprise, the other is kind. And I find that kind and talented people end up saying yes to too many things. They’re often not chasing just more money, they’re often chasing more impact. They’re often thinking, oh, there’s another opportunity for me to take care of somebody, I’d love to do that. I was on the phone this morning with a guy who needed to have that conversation. Not a client, but somebody I’ve worked with in the past. He reached out and said, hey, can I get an hour?
Of course, right, we hop on the phone, and he starts listing all these new things that he spun up since we had spoken last. He’s like Shane, I think I’m doing too much. But I love it all. I love people that have that many ideas, that are so interested in solving real problems in this world, that they need help recognizing what are the big ones, or one of the ones that they’re so well suited to solve, and what are ones that they just said yes to because they’re kind and they’re talented, and they’re probably the best person in the room to solve that problem. It’s not actually what makes their heart beat. It’s not what they want to be known for 20 years from now.
I know enough of his story to know that he needed to have two conversations with one person that he’s very close to. And he was hesitating to have them. And so I basically just spoke his words out loud for him. And he was able to say, yeah, that’s the phone call I need to make. So I don’t know if he’s made it yet, I hope we’ll set a meeting pretty soon. Because so often people have relationships that intermingle, right. I think, in my prior life, I was used to having relationships that kind of went ran in one direction. And now finding that friends and work and church and the neighborhood like, they all kind of run together at some point. And I love that, I love having an integrated life. But it does create some challenges when you have that level of partnership with people. And that’s what happened in this, we were trying to talk about a business opportunity. But there was a relationship thing going on, that he was nervous about. Just scared to say it out loud. So that’s the kind of stuff that I love to help people uncover.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. Now, as you’ve been talking, I feel like I can’t picture the age of your clients. And that might be because they’re 20, 30, 40 and 50. But like, how old are these people that you’re working, with these kind and talented people that are leading organizations, right or have some kind of autonomy where they are. Are they like 50 or 60? Are they kind of, you know, in that age group, or just tell me a little bit more about who these folks are?
Shane Arthur
Yeah, almost all of my clients are between their late 30s and the early 50s. I’m 42, will be 43 and a couple of weeks and there’s kind of a range on either side of that it feels like. Most of my clients have kids, some of them. And that’s a big part of the conversation. I think when I started this, the coaching industry tells you to get paid up front, either 6 or 12 months at a time and helps people be committed, right? But the reality is, it just helps your cash flow to get all that money upfront.
What that did for me was it made me play with older people, like I had more and more clients who just had more assets or ability to write checks of that nature. And so I was having more conversations with people three years ago about Shane, I’ve got one year left with my son at home, help me make it the best ever. Whereas now more and more clients are, you know, my daughter’s four, help me think about how to operate when I’m not sleeping through the night or you know, things like that. But it does feel a little bit more like we’re not playing catch up anymore. I feel like I’m catching people much more in in the heat of a very real battle all day for their time, right?
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Yeah, absolutely.
Shane Arthur
The folks who are closer to 40, in my world, at least, are juggling all the things, right, marriage, kids, aging parents. Whereas previously, when I was working with folks who were, in their later 50s, or even some early 60 clients, like they were in a different season, they’re a little bit more reflective, they’ve got a little bit more space to breathe. Still love those folks, but I find that more and more clients now are, they’re younger, they’re in the middle of juggling all these things.
I don’t think we’ve seen that before. I don’t quite understand demographics very well. But it does feel like we’re reaching a peak stage in our career. Plus, people are having children later. Often, our parents had us later. So they’re dealing with their own health concerns a little sooner than I ever remember. You know, I went to college with four very healthy grandparents. That’s not going to be my kids story. So I do feel like there’s a lot of stuff that people are juggling all at once right now in this generation.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
That’s good. And so you talked about making a strategic business decision that then opened up access, right, you moved from the six month billing to a monthly billing process. And, all of a sudden, right, the accessibility of that age group dropped and became more available to you. Now you and I had a conversation recently about the fact that your main focus in the future was just same clients price increase, and I loved it, because that was one of my main learnings from consulting. And I remember walking into my second project ever at Bain. And it was a client who had a policy called a no walk rule, it was basically discount until you get the client that was right. And we came in, and we’re like, Huh, we get that you studied economics, and that there is this pricing elasticity and if you reduce your price, you’re going to get more clients, it’s just that you don’t always get more profit that way, and you definitely don’t build the business that you want.
And so we made a proposal to them that they actually stopped discounting at all, and they I mean, they almost fell off their boardroom chairs. But we ran some analysis for them, it was helpful to have the analysis in our back pocket, little whippersnappers trying to change, you know, a 40 year business practice. And in the first month of their trial, they lost no customers, right. And for me, it became it became a pattern that I saw, I worked on 11 projects, and I was at Bain, 10 different industries, and almost every client wanting to discount as their primary tool for client acquisition. And the answer was almost always raise your prices, add more value. And so anyhow, you know, when you and I have had this off pod conversation, I loved that you knew that, that you knew that that was kind of, you know, the pattern of the way forward, that’s been always a big value proposition for us, you want cheaper, go somewhere else, you want the best, come to us.
And that’s how I’ve built this organization, that’s one of our core values, and one of the ways that we’ve focused, but we also talked about how there is something about growing volume that you have to think about too, right? So talk to me a little bit about what you’re working on now, or how you’re thinking about that, you know, kind of we we had that conversation and then, you know, are there any moves that you’ve made that are making, not what you do, but the concepts and the leadership that you have in this space accessible to other people?
Shane Arthur
Coaching is a wild space. What coaching was pre-COVID looked a lot like coaching looked in the 60s, right? It exploded. And now it’sa wild industry. And because of doing it and exposure to people, I get into lots of conversations with folks that are just a little earlier in their career, right 25, 30, maybe 35? Or what I’m doing is just not accessible to them. Yeah, they’re not going to make the choices to hire me. But I found that it’s really hard to tell, right, who are the coaches that can help you, and I know lots of people in the industry and I love to send referrals, but I did realize that it wasn’t a sales issue. It wasn’t that I wasn’t helpful to them, right? Like I love having these calls. I love getting in DMS with people on LinkedIn and just tell me “What’s going on? What are you thinking?” and you know, I love when people have thoughts based on one of my posts and want to ask me some questions.
But I kind of got tired of only being able to help them for a little bit. Right, if they weren’t going to be clients, then there’s a reality there with my time. And so eventually, really based on the conversation that you and I had really recently, I reached out to some people that I worked with for almost 10 years, people that I’ve been developing and coaching that whole time. And just said “Hey, you want to try something with me? You want to see what’s out there at a much lower price point, much more accessible price point? But some really great coaching, people that have been shaped and molded by me so I can stand behind their work really easily. And It’s still a slow, highly intuitive coaching, like there’s no, there’s no rulebook, there’s no manuals for them either, there’s no worksheets for you to fill out. It’s the same style of coaching.
But the more accessible and so we’re testing that out. We launched it on LinkedIn, in the last week, and we’ve had some people sign up for calls so far, just to see if it’s a good fit for them. It’s really fun to think about, you know, my previous experience was developing leaders in the nonprofit world. And so now the chance to try on the same hat again, almost to develop leaders all over again and see, just to see what’s possible. I do think people are yearning for development. I’m hearing from my clients about how younger folks are asking for more and more development. And they’re not used to that, right. They’re not they’re not unkind people, but they’re not used to putting so much of their energy into developing their people. And so, yeah, too, I love that yearning, and I feel like I had that, and it was strange. I felt like when I was asking for mentors, 20 years ago, people were thrilled to help me with that, because nobody was asking. Now everybody’s asking.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
So good.
Shane Arthur
Such a good chance to step into that a little bit. It’s been really fun. It’s been a, it’s been a neat little turn, even very recently, we’re talking about the last six weeks.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Well, I want to wrap up with two final things. The first is if you can just give us any sage advice, a lot of our listeners are as young as 17 or 18, making a decision on colleges they’re gonna go to, some of them are in their 50s and 60s, they’re building businesses or exiting or building a second career around consulting or something related to that. So obviously, a huge and wide spectrum, but just what are what are one or two pieces of recommendation from getting to be in the privileged space of working, you know, in touching people’s hearts and their businesses and their families that you would recommend to the listeners? And then after that, I’ll wrap up with a couple fun questions.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, two pieces of advice would be number one, there’s people in your life that know you really, really well. They care deeply about you. And they’re always weighing how much of their thoughts about you to share with you. You should ask more, you should look at your circle of people that are closest to you and put aside time and tell them you’d love some real feedback from them about who you are, as a leader, what your character is, like how they could see you growing. People build beliefs about you. And I’m so regularly finishing a coaching call and say, “Who can you go talk to about this, that knows you so much better than I do that can really speak to these things?” Second thought is we are dying for lack of alone time. Our calendars are so full with meetings and tasks.
Anytime I get on a call with a new person, and I’m trying to let them know that I know them, I say so on a given workday. How other than being in the bathroom? How many minutes a day, do you think you’re alone? There’s something powerful about having some space to think. And we’re just filling ourselves with so much. I’m a huge podcast fan. And I’m regularly asking clients to not listen to podcasts for a week to keep taking their walks, but to leave their Airpods and their phones at home. Just see what happens. I remember walking around as a 20-year-old without things in my ears. That was normal to just have space to think. We need that more and more than ever.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. Well, let me wrap up by asking just a few fun questions. So the first one is either your favorite game from childhood or the favorite game that you’re playing with your kids right now. It can be an imaginary game that you made up for a game that all of us would know, answer however you want.
Shane Arthur
I love it. So the big turn in our house—ours are five and seven—and we did Ticket to Ride Jr. for a number of years. And my seven-year-old was at the store the other day and saw that there was an adult version and so we’ve brought home the adult version, which she is in love with and our five-year-old is almost there, he is fighting to understand the rules. But we are actively playing the four of us usually with my little boy on a team. But that is the current hit game in our house.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Wow I love it, that we’re big Ticket to Ride fans, but we’ve only done the Jr. edition so don’t tell my kids that there’s an adult version.
Shane Arthur
We’re all travelers too. So there’s also every continent basically.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Yeah, exactly. It’s not abnormal for my kids to be like, Kenya, we should probably go there. Bulgaria, like that’s the place we should go.
Shane Arthur
Then you book a flight.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
And we go, yeah. The second thing is that not normal, Shane, we should talk about that maybe? The second thing is, tell me about a dream car you have. I don’t know if you’re driving it, I don’t know if you already owned it when you’re 18. Or if it’s something that you want to own or just drive one day, but what’s the dream car?
Shane Arthur
So I’ve always wanted a Jeep Wrangler.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
That’s such a child of the 80s things.
Shane Arthur
Yeah, it was so cool. And I’m very careful. Like I have a careful mind. And I think I always saw people riding around with those with the top off like, where’s the top? Like, couldn’t somebody break in and steal stuff? Like I have all these questions about safety. And as I get older, I’m recognizing, I’m a pretty big guy. I don’t really fit in Jeeps very well. But I do see a day in the future where a Jeep Wrangler shows up it feels a little frivolous and very fun. That comes to mind.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. Yeah, maybe rent one in Hawaii or something like that and see whether it’s your gym, you know, try it on for a week. I don’t know, that doesn’t seem your style, you’re more of a dive into the deep end kind of guy. The last one is, and I will provide some context for this question, my husband, on a boat on Sunday wore a Hawaiian shirt, rainbow shorts, loafers and socks. It was a very concerning outfit choice for me. I took—there’s photographic evidence of this. Do you ever have fashion commentary in your house? If so, what is happening behind that fashion commentary?
Shane Arthur
There is occasionally a comment from my beloved wife about how frequently I wear shorts, when it is terribly cold. I will regularly check the weather and as long as the first digit is not a three, I will usually lean towards shorts and a hoodie as my running around town kind of outfit. And that is humorous around my household.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. And then one final last one as a bonus question. What’s a fun place that you would love to go that you haven’t been yet, still on your list?
Shane Arthur
Haven’t been yet? It’s a good question. I’m very drawn to spending time in Scandinavia. I’ve been there a few times.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
Me too. In shorts, right?
Shane Arthur
I would think so, we go in the summer. So it would be shorts for me. I think we’d be fine. Yeah, that comes to mind. We spent a little time in Italy a few years ago and that was the first time we traveled overseas. And I thought, oh, I could live here permanently. So you know, I’d like to see a little bit more of the continent, I think.
MC: Jenny Rae Le Roux
I love it. Thank you so much, Shane, for your time today. Thanks for sharing your vision, your story and a little bit of your background. It was really fun for me and we’re glad to have you on the podcast. Hope you’ll come on again. Love to, super fun, appreciate you.
MC
I hope you enjoyed this conversation between Jenny Rae and Shane as much as I did. As I mentioned at the top of the show, there’s a link in the show notes where you can go to learn more if you’re interested in learning how Shane works with executives. In addition, we’d love to hear what you’re thinking about the show right now. Feel free to send us an email [email protected] or fill out the survey linked in the show notes. We’ll catch you again on another episode of Strategy Simplified very soon. Cheers.