Jack Sharry: Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us on this week’s edition of Wealth Tech On Deck. As our audience knows, I like speaking with people who are thoughtful and constructive as they shake things up. Our guest today has been shaking things up for a long time. I can count the number of years I’ve known Steven Mayo in decades.  Steven has been an entrepreneur and an intrapreneur. Whether it’s from the outside in or the inside out, he’s always looking ahead for what’s next to how he can advance the discourse to empower colleagues and clients and to make positive change at the individual and organizational level. Over the past many years, Steven has been actively working with executives as a coach and his supporting midlife transitions.  His coaching is around bolstering executive leadership. Helping Entrepreneurs scale their business or professionals in transition. He refers to himself as a coaching meta, and we’re gonna talk about, find out what that means in just a moment. Steven, welcome to WealthTech on Deck. It’s, uh, great to have you here.

Steven Miyao: I look forward to the conversation. Thanks, Jack for having me.

Jack Sharry: So Steven, I know your coaching philosophy is around helping your, uh, your clients have careers supporting the lives they want, not the other way around. And I know you help clients align goals with values while building resilience and empowering individuals to lead with confidence and adaptability. As I mentioned, you refer to yourself as a coaching meta. Please fill us in. What does that mean?

Steven Miyao: Yeah, so I was looking for a name and I’ve stumbled upon this old poly word, which is what Sanskrit was written in the past in India. And uh, meta is actually stands for goodwill, compassion, and Benevolence. And it’s the qualities that are also essential not only in personal growth, but also in how to navigate your career. And leadership journey. So I really like that. And so I incorporate that in what I do because that’s what I wanna transfer to my clients.

Jack Sharry: Cool. Well, I’m gonna dig into this some more, but before we do that, I think might be useful for our, for our audience to know a little bit about your, uh, career journey. So let’s take a little walk down memory lane if we could. We’ve done all sorts of interesting work. We’ve bumped in each other around the industry multiple times over multiple decades. Please fill us in on where your career journey has. . Taken you now and, uh, a little bit more about how it that evolved along the way?

Steven Miyao: Yeah, so I started my first company at 27. I obviously didn’t know anything about the business, but I thought I knew everything. I started a strategic consulting firm, and of course, no CEO of any global asset manager or wealth manager was gonna hire a 27-year-old kid. Right? So my strategy was that I was going to. Create this Trojan horse to get into these organization. And that was at the time the internet, right? Because I knew this much more than the big firms in the industry, and I created something that was called the 20 Best Websites, and I ranked. All of the asset management websites and uh, you know, I had Vanguard and Fidelity and, you know, cap Group and all the big firms in there. And then I invited them to come to a round table and because they all wanted to know about what the other people were doing, I. I got in with the 20 largest companies, right? And so very quickly we transitioned that into being more of a general consulting firm and really moving into more of the strategy aspects for distribution. Product development, et cetera. And then in oh 7, 0 8, of course, the big financial crisis, all my clients were down 40 to 60%. Nobody was hiring any consultants. I had a young baby and was married, and I thought I was gonna go bankrupt, not gonna be able to get a job again. Luckily I didn’t go bankrupt, but it forced me to pivot my business. Because I was like, my entire life savings in this company, I almost went bankrupt. I almost didn’t get a job again. Uh, I would’ve been on the streets, maybe not on the streets, but like, you know, you know, know what I’m saying? So I pivoted the company and built a data business out of it. So we built a market share product that really focused on helping the distribution aspect and asset and wealth manners to understand. The analytics behind it, and we then later on sold that to, to DST. They obviously, uh, were acquired by SC and I I, I ran multiple global divisions for them. Had a great time playing the corporate gig, but I was also very happy when that chapter ended.

Jack Sharry: We’ve talked about that.

Steven Miyao: As you probably can appreciate, you know, there’s, it’s great to get a paycheck. It’s not always great to, you know, have a really, really busy job and have a lot of. Employees depending on you. And then also being part of a big machine, of course, generally enjoyed that, but left that world and went back to the star.

Jack Sharry: So Steven, one of the things I’ve always observed from afar, and I’ll be honest, I’ve never quite known what you were doing, but I was amazed with alacrity with which you did whatever it was. And I knew it was something around the internet. Chris is way back when, when the internet, no one knew what that was exactly. And I wouldn’t figure they should be figuring that out. So I good to know that that was . Your entree. I should share a story. By the way, I, I was in a very different business. I too started a consultancy under the age of 30 and the first thing I did in starting that, this is a long time ago, the first thing I did was read a book and like the first sentence of the book, I. On how to be a consultant is, I think what I bought the first sentence said, never hire a consultant under 30. So I, I knew I was doomed, but I guess like you, we didn’t know any better. So there we were. But I’m curious to know, as you were in those early days, one of the things I’ve, I’ve noticed, and I, and it continues to stay of course, as the, uh, the craftiness with which, and I say that as a high compliment, the craft with which you, uh, sort of figure out how you might be able to, uh. Move forward and help the other. So talk a little bit about that. ’cause that’s frankly a part of the expression, it’s a pretty ballsy move to be a 27-year-old telling people how to run the internet when they were in the early days of trying to figure that out. So talk about that. What was that like back then? I’m curious.

Steven Miyao: I think part of it is because, you know, I had a very non-traditional life. And so as a high school kid, I struggled severely, and I didn’t know this at the time, but I had pretty bad A DHD and learning disabilities. And so that of course affected how I was learning, right? Sure. And so I didn’t have a good high school degree. And then I started at a very small college out in New Jersey, got straight A’s and then transferred to a larger school, to NYU. Went to the business school there. And I think I. That, that coming from a non-traditional background, right. It sort of forced me to, to do my own thing, right? Yep. Yeah. And then also because I was an immigrant, right? So I, I came from, I was living in Germany before in Japan. I didn’t have a visa to get a, a work visa. And so it was not so easy to get into the large companies. Yes. So the McKinseys and the Morgan Stanleys, you know, and the Goldmans, which were like the hot companies at the time, right. Didn’t hire me. And so I got into a smaller consulting firm and I think that that sort of set me up for being a little bit crafty. Right. Because I was not able to do that traditional round. Right. And then, yeah, probably also, you know, I mean I, I enjoyed working at that first consulting firm, but. I always enjoyed working for myself more.

Jack Sharry: Yes.

Steven Miyao: Yeah. Maybe it’s because I’m unemployable. I don’t know what it is. But , that then forces you to have to do things a little bit different.

Jack Sharry: Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. There’s a lot of parallels here for another time. You and I’ve, I’ve talked to, I’ve been on your podcast. I’m glad to have you on mine. And we both have a, a non-traditional route that’s maybe a further comment along those lines and maybe. Bring things forward from your DST and and what happened next days. So you’ve always had to think differently. And I noticed just looking at your LinkedIn profile and resume, it seemed to be just instead of being in financial services, it seemed to shift to healthcare. So talk about that, how you’ve applied that craftiness, because I think it’s. One of the, uh, unsung attributes that one might wanna have if one wants to be successful is to think outside the box. So talk about that.

Steven Miyao: Yeah. I’m always interested in innovation and I’m always interested in what’s new and I’m not afraid of it. And so, you know, the same way I leaned into the internet, I also very much leaned into ai. So. I don’t know when it was maybe like 10, 12 years ago, people were talking about AI coming on and people were talking about Bitcoin really becoming big. Right? And so I remember studying both and trying to understand, you know, how Bitcoin works and all of that. And it just didn’t attract me as much as what AI did ’cause I thought AI really will. We’ll be a total game changer and we’ll change everything that we do. And so I very much lean into that. And then when I quit my corporate job, I wanted to go back into the startup world and I felt like, what? What industry needs the most disruption? And I found that I. Healthcare was probably one of the most, definitely the largest industry in the country and is super dysfunctional from a structural standpoint as well as like, you know, just all of the people that are making money of it, that are not actually adding to the health of the patients, which is what these companies really should be doing, right? And so I jumped into that and I, I combined by innovation with really my passion for disrupting an industry. And that’s how I went into healthcare, and that’s my first. Foray into that was a precision health company where we took all the data from the patient and analyzed that data and then provided very specific recommendations for the physicians to then work with the patients. Later on, I started a company that specifically focused on the disparities in healthcare, sold that company to a larger entity, and then did a few other stints, startups, some more successful than others, but it was an interesting experience, and as you know, the start of life is an interesting life, but it’s very hard work and uh, it doesn’t always pay off. And so more and more I realized that I needed to enjoy the journey and I needed to do it for the work rather than for the outcome. Yes, and that’s very hard to do in most startups because startup life is just not fun. There are parts of the fund. Oh, sure, sure. But generally it’s just really hard work.

Jack Sharry: Yeah.

Steven Miyao: And so that’s when I started to really pivot into, into coaching because from the consulting days back when, you know, when we started first knowing each other, a lot of my clients relied on my advice. And so once I, I left that, they reached out to me and asked me to help them. And so that’s really how I got into coaching. So I’ve been doing that for like over. Five, six years now and really full-time in the last year and yeah. Enjoying that part.

Jack Sharry: Yeah. So let’s dig into that. By the way, this is wonderful background ’cause I’ve always been an observer of what you’re doing and always interested ’cause it was. Again, outside the box in terms of your thinking and what you did and also the areas that you focused on. And we had lost touch, I guess it was when you were in your healthcare phase and and startup phase that, and then recently we, we reconnected. So talk a little bit about what you’re doing now. Who do you work with? What do you do? What sorts of issues and opportunities do address? So maybe some examples of the things that you’re working on as we speak.

Steven Miyao: Yeah, so I mostly work with executives, a lot of executives from financial services. That’s, you know, where I know most of the people and people know me. And most of the clients really are struggling with multiple things, right? So they have these big careers that are very busy and demanding. They often still care for their children in one way or the other. And they also are taking care of their parents. Aging parents and life just gets to a point where it’s just not bearable anymore, and they’re missing out on a lot of things in life that they otherwise could have done. And so they come to me and they say, Hey, Steven, help me. I. Redefine what my second act or the back nine of my career will be. And yeah, in that sense, I’m, I’m helping them redefine their purpose and once they understand what their purpose is and why they wanna do what they wanna do, then I can help them pivot into an area that enables them to really live the life that they wanna live. Right. And as you said, gotcha. That the choice really is to understand what my life is supposed to be. Then I find a career that supports that life rather than the other way around.

Jack Sharry: Gotcha. So gimme some examples of some, some of the work that you do, the kinds of conversations they have with, I’m curious as to what sorts of things that you’re helping people sort out. And it sounds to me like it’s a natural fit given your background. Uh, just talk about the rewards that you’re experiencing and they’re experiencing.

Steven Miyao: I mean, first of all, let me start with the rewards, right? Like it’s the older I’m getting, the more important it is for me to see other people succeed than myself. You know, we talked about that in your life as well, right? It’s just so gratifying when you can, when you see the impact that you have on others. Mm-hmm. And in the work that I do, it is really life changing for them and that’s really inspiring and that gets me up. You know, every morning, so how do I help people? Most people are stuck in the hamster wheel and they’re running and running and running, and they don’t even know why they’re running. Oftentimes it’s because of the expectations that they have on themselves, but these expectations are often driven by society. By their parents, by their peers. And so it’s a bigger car, it’s a bigger house, it’s the private jet, it’s the yacht, et cetera. And once they start realizing that none of these things actually are making them happy because they have a lot of these things already, and just bigger and better is not going to do it for them, they’re able to get off that hamster wheel and they say, this is not what I want. You know, what I want actually is I wanna spend time with my family. I wanna build stronger relationships with my friends. I wanna support my community, things that are beyond them, but really give them warmth and happiness, and yes, absolutely, they still wanna work, you know, because these are all individuals that are highly successful and really good at what they do. And what they do is not just what is the technical knowledge of their industry. So a lot of those skills are very much transferrable, right? So networking is one of the most important things, right? It’s who you know and the relationships that you build with people, and those are all transferrable skills. And so I helped ’em understand what of the skills that they have are transferable. And then based on what they really want to do, then helping them actually build a plan and then execute on that plan. So I’ll give you a few examples of some of my clients or what they came up with, right? So it ranges from being very extreme to being subtle. So, so one of my clients, he had always this passion for, for helping the poor, and so he wanted to feed people, right? And so he’s been talking about this for a really long time, and he never did anything about it. So I said to him like, you know, why don’t you, why don’t you do an experiment? Why don’t you find the volunteer organization where you can do this on the weekend? And you see what it’s like. And so he started doing that and it has transformed him. And every weekend he’s out there actually feeding volunteers and it’s totally lightened him up. He still has his day job as a big executive, a large, uh, um, asset management company. But this has transformed. Who he is, a more subtle one, right, is an executive that I work with who was an asset management executive, and she realized that asset management was not the area that she wanted to be in anymore. She wanted to be much closer to clients. So then she pivoted over to working on the wealth side and working with actual individual clients. Now managing a big division of that company, but her goal has changed and now she’s helping individuals and that’s really helping her. So it is, doesn’t have to be a drastic pivot, but it’s important that they understand what their why is and then are able to execute on that and create a new career, uh, out of it.

Jack Sharry: Talk a little bit, if you will, about your process. I mean, what does that look like? How do you make that determination? How does the conversation go? Not well, obviously, without giving anything away, but just curious how you arrive at this. The change.

Steven Miyao: Yeah, so one of the key exercises that I love doing. It’s a concept called the Zone of Genius, and I didn’t come up with this. Most of the, the techniques that I’m using are aboard and stone from all the best that they are. Right. As a good consultant I spend. Years of honing my craft and figuring out what people have done, and then I, I put it together. And that’s really what the unique part is, is, is the curation of that and putting it together and then individualizing it for people. But the zone of genius is the way you can think about it, that there are four quadrants. Right in the bottom quadrant is the easy one is work that we don’t enjoy doing that we’re not good at. We all know what that is. Right above that is work that we’re very good at, but we don’t really enjoy and that’s a lot of work that we get a lot of. Right. More and more people give us that work because we’re just very good at it, but we don’t enjoy it. And then on the other side of the quadrant is work that we enjoy, but we’re not that good at. And so oftentimes we start our day with that kind of work ’cause it’s enjoyable, right? We’re not very effective at it, but you know, we enjoy doing it. But then there is the last quadrant, which is the zone of genius. And that combines what we’re good at with what we’re really passionate about. So we wanna identify what that is. And I have an exercise or multiple exercises that both ask my client’s, peers, family, friends, people that they reported to about those specific things. Um, as well as giving them also reflection exercises to, for them to think about it. And a combination of that enables them to see . What is that zone of genius for them? And so that’s like an example of one of the exercises that I, I, I really like doing with my clients.

Jack Sharry: Very good. Very good. Interesting. So where do you wanna take this thing? It’s, I noticed you’ve been getting much more active from your own marketing standpoint. Looks like that’s going well. I’m noticing you’ve got the podcast I’m seeing much more on, on social media. So talk a little bit about where you are, where you want to get and uh, how you’re gonna get there.

Steven Miyao: Yeah, so I love the podcast. I think similar to your experience with the podcast, I get to talk to a lot of really interesting people. I had you on it, right? And what I enjoy is that I get to really understand who that person is. Yep. Because I, I talk about things that are intimate and important to them that are their motivations, motivations, their drivers, the lessons that they’ve learned over their career. And so every conversation is very inspiring to me, and I hope that it’s inspiring to others. Mm-hmm. And so I hope that this is a way for, for people to hear about what I do, but more importantly, I hope it inspires them as much as it inspires me. I have a blog that I write similarly. I don’t write it for others as much as I’m writing it for myself. These are all reflections that I have about life and I. Becoming better and improving what we’re doing. And uh, yeah, those are the, the two main ways that I’m, I’m getting the word out. And so far it’s been, been a fun and, and really good experience. And yeah, I hope that that’ll continue and I, I’ll be able to do this hopefully for a really long time.

Jack Sharry: That’s great. That’s great. You know, it’s, uh, I can’t remember if I’ve shared this with you when we were on the podcast, but, uh, I follow a Harvard Business School professor. Her name is Francis Fre, and she has something she calls the trust triangle. They’ll share that with you if I haven’t already. But, uh, basically she talks about authenticity as sort of the starting point. It’s a triangle. So the next stop on the triangle is empathy, which is so much about listening. And then the third is, she calls it logic, I call a narrative, but the idea of storytelling around all that, kind of what we’re doing right here. And one, but one of the things she, she pointed out, I love your comments on this. She, uh, pointed out there’s a TED talk for those listening, wanna check her out. She’s got a website and. Blog and books and also a, a podcast and very much worth listening to a lot around organizational development or organizational leadership. But in any event, I’m very adaptable to anything at this point. But one of the things she talks about that I’m fascinated by is that the more authentic one is as a podcaster, you just sort of highlighted that that’s what you do. That’s what I try to do. The more authentic they’re on the other side. In other words, it sort of elicits authenticity ’cause uh, authenticity begets authenticity, and that’s been my experience. But I’d love to hear that from you. I’m not surprised that you get people to share their stories with that as an approach, but talk about that if you would.

Steven Miyao: Yeah. I think authenticity is, is absolutely important specifically in today’s world, right? In social media, it’s so much about look how great I am. Look at all these amazing things that I’m doing. Right. So it’s, it’s highly curated content about all the amazing things that other people are doing. Yep. And so I think that people are really craving to hear where people are struggling. Yep. Because the reality is we all struggle. The reality is for none of us, this is easy. Life is not easy. And so, so I think through authenticity, you hear the real stories. And the real stories are the ones that really inspire us. You know, we’re not inspired by things that don’t seem real or by, by these super humans, because we’re not, we know that we’re not superhuman. That’s why I like to have these conversations that are real and authentic.

Jack Sharry: I hear you loud, clear birds of a feather. Anything we’ve, before we look to wrap up, anything we, uh, haven’t covered you wanna make sure our audience knows about?

Steven Miyao: Yeah, I mean, I think that it’s great that you have this forum. Where you interview people and there needs to be more of these kind of conversations, I think, in our industry specifically. Mm-hmm. Right? And so thank you for having this podcast and sharing it, you know, with your clients and, and you know, and everyone on, on LinkedIn. So I appreciate that. And, uh, you know, I try to do the same with my podcast, the midlife remix as well.

Jack Sharry: Yeah, that’s great. You say that one more time for those that may wanna tune into the podcast.  The name where they can find it.

Steven Miyao: Yeah, you can find it on YouTube or, uh, Spotify or um, apple Music. It’s called the Midlife Remix. And yeah, you should be able to find or look me up on LinkedIn.

Jack Sharry: Cool. Steve, a couple more things before we part. Any key takeaways you wanna share with our audience? We’ve covered a lot, but, uh, anything, anything you may have, uh, wanna reinforce or, uh, zone in on?

Steven Miyao: I mean, I think the only thing to say is that a lot of us are going through this midlife. Whatever midlife is. Mm-hmm. Right? So, so some people feel like they’re in their forties and that’s their midlife and technically probably that’s more correct. I didn’t think that I was in my midlife when I was in my forties. But then, you know, then you’re in your fifties or sixties and you still like, you feel like in your midlife and whenever that point comes where you say to yourself, is this really it? Mm-hmm. It’s important for you to take a break and, and really think about what it is that you wanna do. Identify what your why is, and then pivot if you need to. And, uh, for inspirations, you’re gonna listen to the podcast, listen to all those people that, that have done it. But I encourage everyone of doing it because there’s just a lot more out there that can benefit from your contribution to the world. Mm-hmm . And so go for it. Don’t get stuck. Get unstuck and live the life that you want to live.

Jack Sharry: Cool. So our last question, always one of my favorites. What do you do outside of work that you’re excited or passionate about that people might find to be interesting or surprising?

Steven Miyao: So I love learning new things and so there are a number of things that I do. So. As part of my morning ritual, I exercise. Not surprising, probably I meditate. Maybe also not surprising, but I also started learning Portuguese, which is a really hard language, and I’m in my fifties and learning something new, uh, specifically a language is not easy and Portuguese is probably one of the harder ones that I could have picked. But it is amazing that you know, when you do things on a daily basis that at some point, even your old brain is starting to remember stuff, right? So it’s really good for my memory. And then I started picking up how to surf, right? So also physically trying to do something new. I don’t look as graceful as the young kids do, but I’m able to get on the board. I’m able to catch some waves and really enjoy just being out there. And also I think something that has changed since I’ve gotten older is that I no longer care. You know how well I do or not. I’m just happy that I’m still able, yes. Physically able to do it. And so yeah. There’s a couple things that I do that, I dunno if they’re surprising, but hopefully fun for people.

Jack Sharry: Yeah. Yeah. That’s great Steven, thank you. Really enjoyed our conversation and, uh, as I turn to our audience to say thanks to you. Thanks for tuning in. If you have enjoyed our podcast, please rate, review, subscribe and share what we’re doing here at Wealth Tech On Deck. Uh, we’re available wherever, get your podcast. You should also check us out on our dedicated website, wealthtechondeck.com. All of our episodes are there, along with blogs and curated content for many of the folks around the industry. Steven, this has been great. Really enjoyed our conversation.

Steven Miyao: Thanks so much, Jack.

Jack Sharry: Thank you.