Episode #1007: Dive into executive coaching with Steve Ramerini, CEO of COMPELCEOs, an organization which seeks to help CEOs and executive leaders achieve their full potential through intuitive questions and meaningful connections. Continue reading for insight into using prosperity and charity as the foundation for building impactful coaching relationships. As a bonus, you'll learn how to increase engagement during virtual meetings and coaching sessions.
About Steve Ramerini
Steve Ramerini operates as the founder and chief visionary officer of COMPELCEOs out of Long Island, New York. His coaching techniques used in peer-to-peer advisory groups seeks to help business leaders and executives from all walks of life excel in both their prosperity and personal goals. Steve encourages clients to investigate the reasoning behind their actions and take an alternative approach to their goals and aspirations. Throughout his career as both a banker and executive coach, Steve has impacted the lives of his clients by supporting their desire to learn, disrupt their own habits, and be an effective disruptor in the workplace.
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Key highlights
Steve’s influence on the lives of his clients
Timestamp 01:31
Steve is meeting with a client whose mother was also a former client of his. This client had taken over her mother’s business at the age of twenty-three and had been influenced by Steve’s coaching. This client is evidence of the immense amount of impact that Steve has had on her life. The client in this story tells Steve that she wants him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. Steve’s impactful relationships with his clients are put on display in the deep friendships he has with clients, fellow executive coaches, and business leaders.
How Steve began his journey to executive coaching
Timestamp 2:33
After a bank Steve worked for became acquired, Steve decided to take a leap into executive coaching. He states that he got to executive coaching by “making mistakes,” because at the time of his decision, he believed that he should have joined another bank. This leap of excellence led to him finding his passion leading advisory groups. Upon Steve’s entry into executive coaching, he explains that initially, people were only interested into the financial aspect of his services. He used this to gradually introduce advising topics related to other areas such as business growth and ownership.
COMPELCEOs
Timestamp 05:02
COMPELCEOs, an advisory group founded by Steve, contains different groups and programs to address each clients’ individual needs and thought processes. He encourages people through these programs to understand how they process ideas and confront these habits in new ways. Within COMPELCEOs, Steve has developed multiple programs for both large and small business leaders, aiding numerous clients in their business ventures.
Moving from consultation to coaching
Timestamp 6:53
Steve began his journey to coaching by taking an accounting class in high school. Through this class, and his college level courses, he realized accounting was not what he wanted to do. Steve states that his experience as a business owner in college inspired him to learn more about the financial side of businesses. He began his career as a banker, experiencing the dynamics of many corporations, and “tried to learn every step of the way.” Steve takes his experience from banking, in which he learned the overall position of his clients financially, into coaching where he addresses the client as a whole using these same techniques.
Steve’s first experiences with group coaching included bringing clients “up-to-speed” on their finances and financial strategies as he saw fit. When clients learned more about their financial stance, Steve was able to begin coaching them and helping them achieve their goals. An example Steve provides of the turning point from consultant to coach is his experience helping a nun whose facility was attempting to unionize. Steve was able to help her through that process and guide her in making the correct decisions for her organization.
Learning through experience
Timestamp 11:48
Steve’s most recent learnings come from experiences with the keynote speakers he works with at COMPELCEOS, as well as his experiences with fellow executive coaches. Steve states that he tries to “learn every day” so that he “can keep on improving” his skills. Steve discusses the importance of learning through today’s virtual meetings and adapting to current situations.
Steve’s introduction to Tech
Timestamp 14:39
Steve is introduced to Tech by a client from his banking career. During this meeting, he was introduced to the decision-making processes that many businessmen face and enjoyed hearing about their ambitions. He was inspired by the meeting and decided to join Tech as an associate. He used the skills he learned from these meetings in throughout his banking career which gradually led to his career in executive coaching. After the meeting, the bank Steve was associated with became acquired. It was at this point he decided to make the official move to coaching his own clients. Steve believed in his potential for success and chose to take an unlikely situation into a thriving coaching career.
How Steve uses his career in banking to help clients
Timestamp 19:01
While Steve used his career in banking as an introduction to executive coaching, Steve knew he had to stand out from the crowd and began asking his clients big questions such as, “Beyond banking, how can I help you?”. These questions allowed Steve to develop relationships with his clients and learn more about their needs as a business and individual. By retaining the information he learns from clients about their businesses and thought processes, he is able to meet each client where they are at and offer tailored coaching advise.
Learning through failure
Timestamp 20:36
Steve and Severin discuss the importance of failure in an individual’s journey to success. Steve believes that the more successful a person is, the more failures they have made on their journey. Severin points out that failure is necessary for development and requires this understanding of his clients.
A passion for prosperity and charity
Timestamp 21:45
When Severin asks what Steve’s “why” is, Steve states that he found his “why” through an intense self-introspection course. Steve believes that there is nothing in the world that cannot be overcome with more prosperity, success, abundance, and charity. He uses this belief as a motivating force in his coaching. Steve’s experience in group coaching is related to a “parish” where the target is to increase the prosperity of its clients and in turn produce more charity in hopes of creating a better world for others.
Developing relationships with clients
Timestamp 24:03
The relationships Steve makes with his clients affect them in both their business and personal lives. Steve talks about the time a client he began coaching after her mother passed on the family business to her. This client told him she wanted him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding. Steve also tells the story of an individual he coached through a process that resulted in a transaction. The joy that his client felt after receiving the transaction had a profound experience on Steve as he relates it to his “best day ever” as a coach. These thriving relationships that he develops with clients encourage Steve and help the client receive tailored and precise advice and coaching.
Using questions to challenge routine
Timestamp 25:34
Steve uses questions in his coaching sessions to get to the bottom of his clients’ needs and hang-ups. He often begins by asking his clients, “How can I help you?” Steve uses this question specifically to indicate that he cares about his clients’ businesses and well-being. This allows clients to open-up about their experience and in turn teaches Steve more about their business and goals. Steve also encourages clients to question their own thought process. Steve states that many clients attempt to approach situations in repeated mannerisms, and that it can be helpful for clients to learn how to look at situations in a new light.
Steve’s favorite quotes
Timestamp 29:22
Steve’s favorite quote from Andy Grove inspires him to keep pushing himself forward. He uses this quote as a reminder to be the best that he can be. Steve states that his involvement in his groups is reinforced by the belief that he can never be perfect, but he can in fact be excellent. This drive for excellence is also supported by additional quotes from George Will and a fellow client of his. These quotes inspire him to make difficult situations better and try to change his own habits for better outcomes.
Engaging conversations and laughter through Zoom
Timestamp 32:38
With the difficulty of Zoom and other virtual platforms, Steve and Severin discuss how they have been engaging their meetings in new ways to account for the differences that come with virtual meetings. Steve keeps his meetings going by allowing for more breaks and changes of topic to keep his employees and clients engaged in the conversation. Steve also allows room for laughter and jokes to increase the wellbeing of his audience. Severin tells the podcast audience of advice he received from a social worker for his article. He realized the importance of laughter and its increased need during the Covid-19 pandemic through this advice and has begun to implement it as needed in his meetings.
An example of learning from failures
Timestamp 37:29
Steve tells the podcast audience about how sometimes his desires for his clients go beyond their own desires for themselves. Steve addresses this conflict by encouraging clients to push themselves forward and seeking to understand why they are content with specific decisions. He now asks specific questions regarding these issues in his conversations with clients to get a better grasp of their ambitions and needs as a business. Because of this realization, Steve now is sure to make sure it is his clients’ goals that are being met, not his own goals for them.
Advancing technology in the workplace
Timestamp 38:26
Steve explains that the workplace for executive coaches has been changing because of the increased time constraints that his clients face. In response to this, Steve has an open-door policy where his clients can call him at any time, and he is always available through the use of modern technology. Being available and flexible have become major components in today’s coaching experience. With the use of technology, this need has become easier to meet when coaches are able to adapt in the necessary ways.
Steve’s passion for impacting others
Timestamp 40:44
A passion for impacting others in both his personal and business circles is what has made Steve a difference-maker and sustained him throughout his coaching career. Steve shares with the audience a story of the first time he met his daughter and how that impacted him professionally. From that moment on, Steve has made it a point to make a difference in the lives of those around him and the business structures he is a part of; not only his own fulfillment but for that of the next generation as well. Steve has a passion for watching his clients succeed and achieve based on the impact he has had on them. This passion is also how he measures his life. As a parent he seeks after the success of his children and as a coach he encourages his clients to achieve greater levels of prosperity.
Confidently fearless
Timestamp 45:05
For individuals seeking to join the executive coaching industry Steve recommends a confident and fearless attitude. He states that you must be a disruptor of the industry and disrupt your own personal perceptions and habits as well. Steve states that his greatest fear is not moving forward and retreating from the opportunity to make a difference in the lives around him. Steve is always striving to make an impact around him and take-action when others might be too afraid to do so.
Closing comments and ending quotes
Timestamp 47:32
Steve and Severin close the interview by revisiting the accomplishments of each other and their impact on each other’s lives. Severin closes the interview with two quotes: “Bad things happen. Life depends on how you deal with them,” – Larry Sidler, and “Live as if you’re going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you’re going to live forever,” -Gandhi.
Bonus content: navigating virtual meetings
Timestamp 50:24
Steve and Severin discuss virtual meetings and their challenges in the workplace. Steve mentions the types of breaks he has, as well as the roles he assigns his team to make the meetings flow and stay engaging. Severin adds to the discussion by sharing some of the roles that he requests for virtual meetings. Furthermore, they discuss their experience with The Owl, a virtual meeting platform. Steve adapted his meetings to better suit this platform and shares some additional insight on the decisions he has had to make regarding virtual meetings in his own business.
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