The Connection Company

Category: Relationships

  • Group Coaching Built Around Real Connection and Business Growth

    Group Coaching Built Around Real Connection and Business Growth

    Most professionals understand, at some level, that relationships drive opportunity. The challenge is rarely knowing that. The challenge is building the skills, habits, and confidence to actually do it consistently, in a way that feels genuine rather than forced.

    Group coaching gives you a structured environment to develop those skills alongside other people who are working on the same things. You learn from the coach. You learn from each other. You practice, get feedback, stay accountable, and build the kind of professional community that makes showing up to networking events feel less like a chore and more like something you are actually good at.

    At The Connection Company, our group coaching program is called Strive Circle, and it is built around one core principle: that the professionals who build the strongest networks and the most sustainable businesses are the ones who have genuinely learned how to connect.

    What Is Group Coaching?

    Group coaching is a structured coaching format in which a coach works with multiple participants simultaneously around shared goals. Unlike one-on-one coaching, which focuses entirely on one person, group coaching brings together people with similar challenges or aspirations to learn, reflect, and grow together.

    Participants benefit from the coach’s guidance and expertise, but also from something equally valuable: the perspectives, experiences, and accountability of the other people in the room. When someone in the group navigates a challenge you recognize, their experience teaches you something. When you share your own, the group helps you think through it more clearly than you could alone.

    Group coaching programs typically involve structured sessions that cover specific skills or themes, guided discussion and reflection, peer feedback, and accountability between sessions. The format works particularly well for skill-building and behavior change because the group dynamic reinforces consistency in a way that individual effort often cannot.

    At The Connection Company, group coaching takes that foundation and focuses it specifically on what we know makes the most difference for professionals: building authentic relationships, developing networking confidence, and turning connection into real business opportunity.

    Meet Strive Circle

    Strive Circle is The Connection Company’s group coaching program, designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners who are ready to build stronger networking skills and more intentional professional relationships.

    The program runs as a six-session journey that covers the full arc of relationship-building: from how you introduce and present yourself, to how you have conversations that actually go somewhere, to how you follow up, maintain connections over time, and develop the kind of professional community that generates referrals and real business opportunity.

    Sessions are structured but conversational, combining coaching on specific skills with group discussion, real-world practice, and accountability check-ins. Participants leave each session with something specific to implement before the next one, which keeps the learning connected to their actual professional lives rather than staying abstract.

    The group format is intentional. Practicing relationship-building skills in isolation does not work. Strive Circle gives participants a real community of people who are working on the same habits, which makes the accountability concrete and the relationships that develop within the program genuinely useful outside of it.

    Who Is Group Coaching For?

    Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

    Professionals who know that their next client, partner, or opportunity is likely to come through a relationship rather than an ad, but who have not built the consistent networking habits that would make that a reliable reality. Strive Circle is particularly valuable for entrepreneurs who are excellent at their work but have found the relationship-building side of business development harder to systematize.

    Professionals Who Want to Become Better Networkers

    People who attend networking events but rarely feel like anything comes of them. Who exchange cards but do not follow up. Who know they should be building stronger professional relationships but are not sure where to start or how to make it feel natural. Strive Circle provides both the skills and the repetition that make networking feel less like performance and more like genuine connection.

    People Who Want Accountability and Community

    Learning a skill is easier when you are doing it alongside other people who are working on the same thing. Strive Circle gives participants a built-in accountability structure and a professional community that extends well beyond the program itself.

    Benefits of Group Coaching

    Stronger Networking Confidence

    The skills that make networking feel natural are learnable. Strive Circle builds them through structured practice and real feedback rather than generic advice.

    Peer Learning and Multiple Perspectives

    The group brings together people from different 

    industries and backgrounds. The diversity of experience makes each session richer than any one-on-one conversation could be.

    Built-in Accountability

    Knowing that other people in the group are implementing the same things you are, and that you will check in at the next session, changes how consistently you follow through.

    A professional community you actually want to be part of. The relationships that form within Strive Circle tend to be among the most useful professional connections participants develop. The shared experience of the program creates a foundation of trust that takes much longer to build in most networking environments.

    Real Business Application

    The focus throughout is on skills and habits that translate directly into professional results: better conversations, stronger follow-up, more intentional relationship-building, and greater confidence in networking situations that used to feel draining.

    How the Group Coaching Program Works

    1. Start With a Connection Call. Before joining Strive Circle, you will have a brief conversation with The Connection Company to discuss your goals, where you are currently getting stuck with networking or relationship-building, and whether the program is the right fit for your situation.

    2. Join the Group. Strive Circle runs in small groups, which keeps the sessions focused and gives every participant enough space to engage meaningfully rather than getting lost in a crowd.

    3. Attend Group Coaching Sessions. The program covers six sessions, each focused on a specific aspect of professional relationship-building. Sessions combine coaching, discussion, practice, and accountability in a format that is structured enough to stay productive and conversational enough to feel genuine.

    4. Implement Between Sessions. Each session ends with clear, specific actions to take before the next one. The real development happens in the space between sessions, where you are applying what you have learned in actual professional situations.

    5. Build Your Network Within the Group. The relationships you build with other Strive Circle participants are part of the program’s value. The community that develops within the group is intentional, not incidental.

    Group Coaching vs. One-on-One Coaching

    Both formats develop real skills. The right choice depends on what you need most right now. One-on-one coaching gives you fully individualized attention, a private space for honest conversation, and a coaching agenda built entirely around your specific situation. It is the stronger fit when your challenges are highly personal, when confidentiality is important, or when you need a highly customized development path. You can learn more about our individual coaching program if that sounds like the better fit.

    Group coaching adds the dimension of peer learning, shared accountability, and professional community. For people specifically working on networking and relationship-building skills, the group format has a built-in advantage: you practice the skills with real people, get feedback from multiple perspectives, and build relationships as part of the process rather than as a separate outcome.

    Many people find that group coaching is the right entry point, and one-on-one coaching becomes a useful complement as they go deeper into specific challenges.

    Group Coaching in Los Angeles and Beyond

    Strive Circle serves professionals in Los Angeles and virtually, which means the program is accessible regardless of where you are based. Los Angeles has a particularly active professional community across industries including entertainment, technology, real estate, creative services, and entrepreneurship, and many Strive Circle participants come from and build relationships within that community.

    Virtual participation keeps the program available to professionals who are not in LA or whose schedules make in-person sessions difficult to maintain consistently.

    Ready to See If Strive Circle Is Right for You?

    If you are ready to build stronger networking skills, develop more intentional professional relationships, and do it alongside a group of people who are working on the same things, Strive 

    Circle may be exactly what you are looking for.

    The first step is a Connection Call, where you can talk through your goals, where you are currently getting stuck, and whether the program is the right fit.

    Book Your Free Connection Call

    Frequently Asked Questions About Group Coaching

    What is group coaching?

    Group coaching is a structured coaching format in which a coach works with multiple participants simultaneously around shared goals. Participants benefit from the coach’s expertise and from the perspectives and accountability of the other people in the group.

    How does group coaching work?

    At The Connection Company, group coaching runs through the Strive Circle program: a six-session journey covering networking skills, professional relationship-building, follow-up, and accountability. Sessions are structured, conversational, and focused on real-world implementation.

    What are the benefits of group coaching?

    Stronger networking confidence, peer learning from multiple perspectives, built-in accountability, a professional community, and practical skills that apply directly to business development and relationship-building.

    Who is Strive Circle designed for?

    Entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals who want to build stronger networking habits and more intentional professional relationships in a structured, accountable group environment.

    Is group coaching good for entrepreneurs?

    Yes. Strive Circle is particularly well suited to entrepreneurs and business owners who understand that their growth depends on relationships but have struggled to build consistent, effective networking habits.

    How is group coaching different from one-on-one coaching?

    One-on-one coaching provides fully individualized attention and a private, highly customized coaching experience. Group coaching adds peer learning, shared accountability, and professional community. Both formats develop real skills; the right choice depends on your situation and goals.

    Is group coaching available online?

    Yes. Strive Circle is available both in-person in Los Angeles and virtually for participants in other locations.

    How much does group coaching cost?

    Pricing details are best discussed during a Connection Call, where we can talk through the program, your goals, and what the investment looks like for your situation.

    Book Your Free Connection Call

  • Executive Coaching for Stronger, More Connected Leaders

    Executive Coaching for Stronger, More Connected Leaders

    The higher you go in a leadership role, the fewer people around you will tell you what they actually think. Teams look to you for direction. Peers are often in competition. Boards want results. In that environment, it is easy to develop blind spots you cannot see, communication habits you cannot hear, and relationship patterns that quietly limit your effectiveness without anyone pointing them out.

    Executive coaching changes that dynamic. It gives leaders a dedicated space to think more clearly, communicate more effectively, and build the kinds of professional relationships that create lasting influence rather than short-term compliance.

    At The Connection Company, we work with executives, founders, and senior leaders who are ready to lead with greater intention, and who understand that the quality of their relationships is inseparable from the quality of their leadership.

    Book Your Free Connection Call

    What Is Executive Coaching?

    Executive coaching is individualized professional development designed to help leaders grow in the areas that matter most at the senior level: communication, self-awareness, decision-making, accountability, leadership presence, and professional relationships.

    It is not consulting. An executive coach does not hand you a strategic plan or tell you what decisions to make. The work is more foundational than that. It is about developing the leadership capacity that makes every decision, conversation, and relationship more effective over time.

    The best executive coaches help leaders identify blind spots, strengthen communication, and turn insight into consistent action: not just once, but as an ongoing leadership practice.

    What Does an Executive Coach Do?

    An executive coach works with you one-on-one, over a sustained period, to help you develop as a leader in ways that are specific to your situation, your goals, and the challenges you are actually navigating.

    In practice, that means providing an outside perspective that people inside your organization often cannot offer, creating a structured space for reflection and honest feedback, holding you accountable to the commitments and changes you have identified, helping you communicate more effectively across different audiences and situations, supporting your development of stronger professional relationships, and helping you recognize and work through the patterns that are limiting your leadership.

    The work stays connected to your real leadership environment: the meetings, conversations, decisions, and relationships that are actually in front of you, rather than operating in an abstract coaching context.

    Who Is Executive Coaching For?

    CEOs and Founders

    The chief executive role is uniquely isolating. You are responsible for the direction of the organization and the culture around you, but the number of people who will give you genuinely honest feedback is small. Executive coaching provides that outside perspective alongside a consistent accountability structure. It is particularly valuable for founders navigating the transition from building a business to leading a larger organization, managing a growing team, or developing more strategic relationships with investors, partners, and clients.

    C-Suite and Senior Executives

    C-level leaders face the dual challenge of performing at the highest level of their function while contributing to organizational leadership as a whole. Communication, executive presence, team relationships, and the ability to influence across boundaries all become increasingly important the higher the role. Executive coaching helps senior leaders refine how they show up, how they communicate, and how they build the organizational trust that makes their work more effective.

    Entrepreneurs and Business Owners

    Entrepreneurs often have deep expertise in their field and limited experience leading at scale. As a business grows, the leadership requirements change faster than most people expect. Executive coaching helps entrepreneurs develop the communication and relationship-building skills that allow them to lead effectively, not just to perform well in the technical sense. See also our 1-on-1 coaching program for professionals building these skills at any stage.

    Senior and Emerging Leaders

    Not every leader who needs executive coaching holds a corner office. Leaders stepping into significantly larger responsibilities, managing teams for the first time at scale, or preparing for executive roles often benefit most from coaching at exactly this inflection point, before the habits that limit them at the next level have fully calcified.

    What Executive Coaching Can Help With

    Leadership Confidence

    Confidence at the executive level is less about bravado and more about clarity. Leaders who know what they stand for, how they want to lead, and how they come across in high-stakes situations are more effective and more trusted. Executive coaching helps leaders develop that clarity and translate it into consistent, intentional behavior.

    Executive Communication

    How you communicate as a leader shapes how your team thinks, how your clients trust you, and how your peers engage with you. Executive coaching addresses communication at multiple levels: how you frame vision and direction, how you give feedback, how you navigate difficult conversations, how you listen, and how you adjust your approach across different audiences and contexts.

    Relationship Building

    This is one of the areas where The Connection Company’s approach differs most from conventional executive coaching. Effective leadership is fundamentally relational. The executives who create lasting impact do so not just through decisions or strategy, but through the quality of the relationships they build: internally with their teams and boards, and externally with clients, partners, and professional communities.

    We help leaders build intentional, authentic professional relationships through genuine presence, listening skills, and follow-through, not through scripted networking tactics.

    Accountability

    Having someone outside your organization who knows your priorities and will ask you directly about them changes how consistently you follow through. Executive coaching provides that accountability in a structure that is both challenging and genuinely supportive.

    Executive Presence

    Executive presence is not about performance. It is about how clearly your values, confidence, and leadership come through in the way you communicate and engage. Coaching helps leaders develop the kind of presence that builds credibility and trust without requiring them to perform a version of leadership that is not authentically theirs.

    Team Leadership

    How you relate to your team — how you communicate expectations, how you handle disagreement, how much trust you generate, how you develop the people around you — is one of the highest-leverage elements of leadership. Executive coaching addresses the relational and communication dimensions of team leadership directly.

    Executive Coaching Built Around Connection

    Most executive coaching providers position their work around performance, productivity, or leadership excellence. Those are real outcomes, and we care about them too.

    But The Connection Company’s approach is built on a conviction that is central to everything we do: the most effective leaders are the ones who know how to connect: with their teams, their peers, their clients, and their broader professional communities.

    That means developing the capacity to establish trust quickly and maintain it over time, communicate authentically across different relationships and contexts, build meaningful professional networks that generate real opportunity, listen in ways that make people feel genuinely heard, and create influence through relationship rather than through authority alone.

    This is not soft-skills coaching. It is leadership development that treats connection as a core competency, because in our experience, it is.

    How Our Executive Coaching Process Works

    1. Start With a Connection Call We begin with a conversation about your role, your goals, the challenges you are facing, and what you want to be different. This is as much about fit as it is about information, because coaching only works when the relationship works.

    2. Identify Your Highest-Priority Areas Based on our initial conversations, we identify the areas that will have the most meaningful impact: communication, relationships, confidence, accountability, team leadership, or other priorities specific to your situation.

    3. Establish a Coaching Focus We build a coaching focus around your actual leadership environment rather than applying a generic program. The work is tailored to where you are and what you are navigating right now.

    4. Apply Coaching to Real Leadership Situations The most valuable coaching happens in direct connection with your real work. Meetings, difficult conversations, relationship decisions, team dynamics — these become the material we work with, not a separate track from your actual leadership.

    5. Review Progress and Maintain Accountability Coaching creates momentum when insights are turned into consistent behavior. We review what is changing, what is not, and how to keep making progress as your leadership context evolves.

    Executive Coaching in Los Angeles

    The Connection Company works with executives and business leaders throughout the Los Angeles area, from startups in Culver City and Santa Monica to established firms across the broader LA business community. In-person and virtual coaching options are available, making it possible to maintain a consistent coaching relationship regardless of location or schedule.

    Los Angeles has a uniquely diverse executive landscape spanning entertainment, technology, real estate, healthcare, finance, creative industries, and professional services. Our coaching draws on deep experience working within this community and understanding the specific relationship dynamics and professional networks that matter here.

    Benefits of Executive Coaching

    Leaders who engage seriously with executive coaching typically develop greater self-awareness about how they lead and how they come across, stronger communication across different audiences and situations, more intentional and durable professional relationships, increased accountability to their priorities and commitments, greater clarity about what kind of leader they want to be, improved ability to navigate difficult conversations and team dynamics, stronger networking habits and greater professional visibility, and more effective decision-making in high-stakes situations.

    These outcomes are not guaranteed, and the value of coaching is directly related to the quality of engagement. What we can offer is a structured, experienced, relationship-centered process that gives those outcomes the best possible conditions to develop.

    Ready to Strengthen How You Lead?

    Executive coaching is a significant investment of time and attention. It is also one of the highest-leverage things a leader can do, because the improvements it generates show up across every conversation, relationship, and decision.

    If you are ready to explore what this kind of work could look like for you, the first step is a conversation.

    Book Your Free Connection Call

    Executive Coaching FAQs

    What is executive coaching?

    Executive coaching is a one-on-one professional development process for leaders at the executive or senior level. It focuses on developing leadership effectiveness through areas such as communication, self-awareness, professional relationships, accountability, and executive presence.

    What does an executive coach do?

    An executive coach provides an outside perspective, structured reflection, accountability, and practical skill-building. Rather than telling leaders what to do, a coach helps them develop the clarity, communication, and relationship skills to lead more effectively in their actual environment.

    Who should hire an executive coach?

    CEOs, founders, C-suite executives, business owners, and senior leaders who want to lead more intentionally and effectively. Executive coaching is particularly valuable during transitions: a new role, a growing organization, a shift in leadership responsibilities, or a period of significant change.

    What are the benefits of executive coaching?

    Stronger communication, greater self-awareness, improved professional relationships, better accountability, clearer leadership priorities, and more effective team leadership are among the most commonly cited benefits. Results depend significantly on the quality of engagement.

    How is executive coaching different from leadership coaching?

    Executive coaching typically serves leaders at the senior and C-suite level and addresses executive-level responsibilities including organizational leadership, board relationships, and high-stakes communication. Leadership coaching can serve leaders at multiple levels with a broader focus on developing leadership behaviors and skills.

    Can executive coaching help entrepreneurs?

    Yes. Entrepreneurs who are scaling their businesses, managing growing teams, or developing more strategic professional relationships often find executive coaching directly relevant to where they are. Our 1-on-1 coaching program is a good starting point for exploring what that looks like.

    Do you offer executive coaching in Los Angeles?

    Yes. We work with executives and business leaders throughout the Los Angeles area, with both in-person and virtual options available.

    Is executive coaching available virtually?

    Yes. Coaching is available in-person in Los Angeles and virtually for leaders regardless of location.

    How much does executive coaching cost?

    Pricing depends on the scope, format, and duration of the engagement. The best way to understand what the investment looks like for your situation is to start with a connection call, where we can discuss your goals and what kind of support would be most relevant.

    Book Your Free Connection Call

  • Networking for Small Business Owners: Building Relationships That Grow Your Business

    Networking for Small Business Owners: Building Relationships That Grow Your Business

    Here is a frustrating pattern that plays out for a lot of small business owners: you are posting consistently on Instagram, running ads when you can afford to, and relying on occasional word of mouth to fill the gaps. Meanwhile, someone in your industry is getting a steady stream of referrals and collaborative opportunities that seem to come from nowhere. But it is not nowhere. It is their network.

    Social media has its place. Ads can work. But a strong referral network built on real relationships tends to outperform both of them over time, especially for small businesses. The clients who come through a trusted introduction convert faster, complain less, and stay longer. And unlike an ad campaign, a good relationship keeps generating returns for years.

    The challenge is that most small business owners were not taught how to build that kind of network intentionally. They show up to the occasional event, hand out business cards, and hope something sticks. It rarely does, at least not in the way that actually grows a business. But with a clearer approach, it can.

    Why Networking Matters More for Small Businesses Than Big Ones

    Large companies have marketing departments, brand recognition, and institutional trust working in their favor. Small business owners have something different and, in many ways, more powerful: they are the brand.

    When someone hires a small business owner, they are not just buying a product or service. They are buying into the person behind it, their judgment, their values, their way of working. That means the relationships you build are not just a nice addition to your business strategy. 

    They are the strategy. The more people who know you, trust you, and have seen your work firsthand, the more your business grows, often without a single dollar spent on advertising.

    This is also why understanding what networking actually is shifts things for small business owners who have been doing it reluctantly. It is not about working a room or collecting contacts. It is about building the kind of mutual trust and goodwill that makes people want to recommend you before they are even asked.

    Where to Network in Los Angeles

    Los Angeles has one of the most diverse and active small business communities in the country, which means the opportunities to build meaningful professional relationships are genuinely abundant, if you know where to look.

    Chambers of commerce and local business organizations are a natural starting point. The Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce hosts regular events across industries, as does the Valley Industry and Commerce Association for professionals in the San Fernando Valley. These tend to draw a broad mix of business owners and are particularly useful if you are looking to build relationships across sectors rather than staying within your own industry.

    Industry-specific meetups tend to produce stronger connections because the common ground is already there. Los Angeles has a deep concentration of professionals in entertainment, technology, real estate, creative services, health and wellness, legal, and financial services, and virtually every one of those industries has active networking communities both in-person and online. Searching Meetup.com or LinkedIn Events for your specific field will surface more options than most people realize.

    Community-based events are often underrated. Neighborhood business associations, local BNI chapters, and community-focused organizations like CreativeMornings LA create environments where the stakes feel lower and the relationships tend to develop more organically. For small business owners who find large formal events draining, these smaller gatherings can be a much better fit.

    Online groups round out the picture. LinkedIn local groups and industry-specific Facebook communities for LA entrepreneurs have become genuinely useful spaces for building visibility and relationships, particularly for business owners whose work is largely virtual or who find in-person events difficult to attend consistently.

    How to Network Without It Feeling Like Sales

    The reason networking feels uncomfortable for a lot of small business owners is that they approach it with a conversion mindset. They walk into a room thinking about who might become a client, and that energy tends to be readable. People can tell when they are being assessed for their potential value, and it makes them pull back.

    The reframe that changes everything is this: go in curious, not strategic. Your only job at any networking event is to have a few genuine conversations and learn something about the people you meet. What are they working on? What is challenging for them right now? What do they care about outside of work?

    This is not a tactic. It is just how relationships actually start. The business outcomes, when they come, tend to follow naturally from having built something real. And because you are not trying to sell anything in the moment, the conversation feels like a conversation rather than a pitch, which is when people actually open up.

    For small business owners who want to develop this skill in a structured, personalized way, 1-on-1 business coaching can be a valuable investment. Having a dedicated space to work on how you present yourself, initiate conversations, and build rapport intentionally tends to produce faster results than figuring it out through trial and error alone. You can explore what that looks like through our 1:1 coaching program.

    How to Turn Conversations Into Referrals Organically

    Referrals do not come from asking for them at the end of a first conversation. They come from being someone that people genuinely want to recommend, which takes a little time but is entirely buildable.

    A few things accelerate it. First, make referrals yourself. When you connect two people in your network because you genuinely think it would benefit both of them, you demonstrate that you think generously and that your recommendations carry real thought behind them. People reciprocate that kind of behavior naturally.

    Second, stay visible without being loud about it. Showing up consistently at the same events, engaging meaningfully with people’s work on LinkedIn, and occasionally checking in with contacts for no particular reason keeps you present in people’s minds. Referrals almost always go to whoever comes to mind first when an opportunity arises.

    Third, be specific about what you do and who you help. Not in a scripted elevator pitch way, but clearly enough that when the right conversation happens in your absence, the person who knows you can accurately describe what you do. Vague descriptions do not travel well. Specific ones do.

    Los Angeles rewards this kind of long-game relationship building particularly well. The city is large but many of its professional communities are surprisingly small and deeply interconnected. A reputation for being generous, reliable, and genuinely good at what you do spreads faster than most people expect.

    Build Stronger Relationships That Drive Real Opportunities

    Success in business is built on meaningful relationships, strategic introductions, and the ability to communicate your value clearly. At The Connection Company, we help professionals, teams, and organizations strengthen their networking skills, build authentic connections, and create opportunities that lead to lasting growth. Through workshops, events, and training programs, our goal is to help individuals become more confident, intentional, and effective in how they connect with others.

    If you know networking could grow your business but are not sure where to start, let’s figure it out together. Reach out here and we can talk through what that looks like for you.

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