I coach these founders on the fundamental building blocks of setting up their company for success. During our sessions, I share wartime stories of companies in similar stages as theirs and what worked / didn’t work for them.
I then hold each founder accountable on finishing their actions, working towards their goals, achieving balance in their lives to not burn out while building, and reaching Product-Market Fit.
The fundamental building blocks to nail include:
This is my philosophy around my coaching and how I think about the relationship I have with each of my coachees. Please read it and see if it resonates with you.
Being a founder or executive can be lonely. Because you are responsible for many people, there is a natural filter you inevitably turn on when you communicate with your team.
In order to avoid panicking the rest of your team, you believe there are problems you have to wrestle with by yourself. And maybe you have cofounders— but they also have problems to deal with in their own departments, and therefore they are stretched thin already.
My coaching approach says you shouldn’t have to wrestle with these problems alone. I now serve as your equal thought partner to help you unpack your most seemingly-impossible dilemmas.
By working in partnership, I agree to challenge you to take the problems you have been handed and determine the best course of steps to proactively solve them. And you agree to do the work, complete the actions you say you’ll do, and be open to thinking in patterns that differ from your normal way of problem-solving.
Most of the time, the problems we face today are not new. I bring a unique coaching perspective not only as a former COO and experienced operator, but as the former Chief of Staff to Matt Mochary.
During my time as a CoS, I was privileged to sit in on the majority of Matt’s coaching sessions with companies like Canva, Loom, Vendr, Brex, Coinbase, and many more. As a result, I have had the chance to pattern-match, study the anatomy of what makes a company function smoothly, and which solutions work (and which that don’t.)
During our sessions, when appropriate, I share the lessons and frameworks I learned in an anonymized way while observing these golden nuggets of coaching sessions. This is because I think it’s easier for you to learn from others’ mistakes, rather than re-making the same mistakes they made already.
By working together, you remain committed to listening to the stories I share with you with an open mind. You, of course, still get to consider whether these stories are applicable to you or not.
I believe the best way for folks to improve is by exercising their action muscle. The more intentional you are as a CEO, the better you will perform - even if the action you decide to take is to “take no action.” You methodically decided to do this, rather than simply letting it happen.
In our coaching sessions, the question I will ask you most frequently is, “Is there an action item here?” I feel borderline religious about this question to the point where I have a post-it note on my laptop with this question (and have a feeling you’ll begin to ask yourself - and others around you - this question constantly.)
You can read more about why next actions are so important here in my write up on bias towards action.
I will ask you during our coaching session to share specific examples of issues you are working through. But during that process, I will also help you identify themes that occur in your life. I believe that many of the problems we unpack as CEOs and leaders are symptoms rather than the root problem. It’s not enough to just cover issues: we should be holistic in addressing problems from a first-principles perspective.
For example, if you are unpacking a problem around conflict between team members, I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the company culture, about you as a CEO and the example you set for your team, and how you might behave outside of your company. Like the various muscles in your body, your behavior is also all interconnected.
Therefore, we will diagnose the actual issue together, staying open-minded and curious on what it might be, and peel back the figurative layers of the onion together until we arrive to the fundamental root of the problem.
I take pride in always showing up to all of our coaching sessions prepared, and expect you to do the same. Our time is best used when we are both ready to jump in.
Additionally, as an operator, I believe in flexible structure. There are some coaches who work better in an ad hoc format without a real agenda; there are others who love having the same structure over and over again to create stability and predictability. I know coaches who use both formats, and respect them and their methods.
When we coach together, we have a structure by which we’ll unpack the agenda. You’ll also have your dedicated coaching hub, so you can add in any issues and topics you want to cover before our session begins. I think there is power in documentation, so you’ll never have to think, “That session was great — … but what did we cover? I already forget.” Everything we discuss, go over, and unpack will be available to you, along with all the write-ups and action items I suggest.
I love hearing from people who are interested in connecting with me! Please use this form if you’d like to contact me about working together in a coaching capacity.
In order to do my best work and be fully attentive to each person I work with, I only take a maximum of ten coachees at a time.
As a result, I am particularly selective with who I choose to work with.
You and I will be a great fit if…
If this sounds like you, let’s meet and see if we’re a mutual fit. Even if we don’t work together, I have a list of coaches I admire and respect who I happily make referrals to all the time.
If you’re a CEO or part of the Executive Leadership Team, many people report to you. Theoretically, they perform better because of it. But you likely report to no one — or, you feel like there isn’t anyone that can serve as your true thought partner with your best interest in mind.
When you work with a coach like me, I become your thought partner and have your best interest in mind. I will simultaneously encourage you while challenging your assumptions and thoughts when appropriate. I offer a safe place for you to tell me how you really feel about your company and team with zero fear of backlash. And finally, I give you no-BS, tactical advice that is immediately applicable.
My monthly retainer is either $10k for two (2) coaching sessions on average each month, or $7k for meeting once a month on average. I offer special pricing for coaching 1-1 with multiple execs or founders.
Sometimes we’ll meet more often when you need it; other times, if either of us have conflict, we might skip. The retainer stays the same, no matter what.
The retainer fee also means you can reach out to me any time via email or text, and I will always do my best to answer any questions you have. I purposefully remain selective of how many coachees I take on, so that I can offer this flexibility and availability to my coachees.
Finally, my coachees tend to love meeting each other. Many of you are in the same predicaments as other founders I work with, and being an exec can feel lonely. One of my favorite things to do is introduce you to people you would love meeting and vice versa. Being a leader at a startup shouldn’t have to feel lonely.
First, many of the concepts I teach are captured in the Mochary Method Curriculum. Please feel free to use it with your team. It is open-sourced.
Additionally, for anything not captured/co-authored in the Curriculum link above, I enjoy documenting tactical advice here.
Finally, I’m always discovering new write-ups to create through my time working with ambitious founders. My tactical advice page is ever-evolving with write-ups, posts, and templates you can use with your team. All of it is open-sourced.
Read my Coaching Philosophy here.
Regina Gerbeaux (@_rpgbx) is the executive coach to some of the fastest scaling startups in the world. She is also a founder currently interested in the food delivery and logistics space.
Regina was the first person trained by Matt Mochary (executive coach to the CEOs of Coinbase, Brex, and many more) in the Mochary Method Curriculum.
Her tactical templates and operational write-ups have been referenced and used by fast-scaling companies, including BioRender, CoreDB, dYdX, and many more.
