In this compelling episode of Relationships With Men, host Cliff from Cliff’s List sits down with executive behavioral coach Debbie Longo to explore the complex world of male relationships—from dating to long-term commitment and everything in between. They dive into communication dynamics, emotional intelligence, and the behavioral patterns that shape how men connect with others. Debbie shares insights from over two decades of coaching experience, offering both men and women strategies to build stronger, healthier relationships.
Whether you're navigating dating challenges, improving a partnership, or trying to better understand the men in your life, this episode delivers actionable takeaways and real-life stories that will shift your perspective.
What You’ll Learn:
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Hi guys, it's Cliff from Cliff's List and I have
a special guest tonight, Debbie Longo, who's
going to be sharing with us her advice and tips
and all her ideas about how men can be more successful
with women. Debbie, maybe you can take a few
minutes and introduce yourself, tell the guys
a little bit about who you are, what you do,
and I guess why they should want to have some
advice from you. Thank you very much. I appreciate
it. My name is Debbie. I'm an executive behavioral
coach. And I have done a lot of different types
of coaching for the past 25 years that I've been
in this business. I thought that the executive
coaching, helping business owners and executives,
bosses would be good because during COVID, I
saw a lot of companies go out of business. And
these companies did not have to go bankrupt or
lose all their money. When I saw that, I said
to myself, there's something that I have to do
to help these companies. The way that I teach
it, it doesn't matter what's going on in your
environment, in your surroundings. in your workplace.
The main thing is that my behavior and my attitude
and the way that I act at work from the CEO all
the way down to the janitor is going to affect
my workplace. And that will either increase sales
and profits or decrease. And depending on how
you look at it. I can use COVID, I could use
a recession, anything that is going to throw
off a company or is going to make a drastic change,
a drastic shift in something. I can learn that
I can't be affected by these things. And if I
am vulnerable to that, then that's going to affect
my company. and not only is everybody going to
go down with me, then I'm going to have nothing.
I knew all this from all this time of being a
coach. So I thought to myself, I can help people
to learn so this type of thing doesn't happen
to them ever again. I started my executive Coaching
business and I focused it on How does your behavior?
How does everybody's behavior in the workplace?
affect everybody so the bosses or the executives
behavior is going to affect the way that the
employees work and vice versa so One of the things
that I've been focusing on and I just did two
podcasts on this this week is respect in the
workplace. For an example, if my boss respects
me as an employee, then I'm going to respect
my boss back. But if my boss thinks that he can
control me and he can tell me what I should be
doing. even if it's not part of my job duties
or it's not something that I normally do and
ask me to do extra work and not get paid, then
that is not a fair boss, a work environment that
I want to work in. And when those types of things
happen, right away, the negativity goes down.
I don't want to go to work because I don't know.
when the next shoe is going to drop. If I go
into work, what's going to happen today? I don't
want to be that employee. It starts with the
boss. It starts with the executive. That is really
what I teach. So I have consultations, I have
workshops, I have lectures, all different things
that I do that are free. And I will make a detailed
plan for you about how you can be a hundred times
more successful than you are now in your company
and you have no idea that you can be that. You
have no idea that you could even get to this
type of level. It's up to the boss or the business
owner to say, I want to take this chance and
I want to see if this is really going to work
because you don't know if it's going to work.
until you actually see it. I wanna be able to
teach executives, business owners that there
is a healthy way of running a company, running
a business. And everybody will be positive. So
right now, think about in your company, is everybody
negative? Think about it and really be honest
with yourself. or like an inventory kind of thing.
You just go to work, go about your day, see all
the employees, what they're doing, how they're
acting, what they're saying. And then at the
end of the day, you'll take a piece of paper
and write everything down that you see as negative.
If you're really honest with yourself, you really
can see that, then there is a change there that's
possible. But that's going to depend on the business
owner and how much he really wants to face that
fact that there's negativity, disrespect, all
these different things. Maybe you can tell me
how you apply this to helping guys, because that's
really more my focus is not so much on the business
side. It's more on helping guys in their personal
lives with women. Maybe you can give us some
insight into how Some of your coaching is affects
that and and what sort of issues you have to
deal with in here he could go on the internet
and search What are? things setbacks Negative
things that men say this world is very judgmental
and a lot of times people will say a woman Says
this because they're a woman the man acts this
way because he's a man and that's not true Doesn't
have anything to do with gender has to do with
your personality and the way you think So if
I'm a man and I'm gonna go to the look this up
on the internet I'm gonna see all these things
Big ego and I wanna check and see if I'm really
any of these things. Nine times out of ten, they're
going to be negative things. If I don't write
negative or positive, just things that people
say that a man is or qualities in any way that
you really want to phrase it, where you're focusing
towards a man, more focusing towards a gender.
Now, you could look at that list and you could
say, am I really these Crossing off the things
that I'm not on the list and then know if I want
to go find a woman The first thing I want to
do is get rid of all that negativity so that
little list that I find on the internet is really
going to give me like a little guide of how I
am or How I think depends on what I put in and
that could be like a starting point Because sometimes,
but it's been my experience that from working
with people that a lot of people cannot see where
they need improvement. So they're not just going
to blurt it out. They might say, I don't think
there's any problems. Maybe there was a problem
today and tomorrow there won't be. And then once
I get rid of that negativity, And like I said,
I can help with this. I'm just explaining it
very briefly. Then I can build my confidence.
I don't want to build confidence with an ego.
I want to build confidence by raising self -esteem.
And I could use this to find women. I could use
it in the business world. It doesn't matter where
I use it. And that's a whole process. This is
not something where I just say it one day I'm
this way. The next day I say it and everything
is fine. That's not it to get to where it's really
genuine in my heart that I have very high self
-esteem and I can be very positive and if I come
across rejection, so maybe I go out on a date
and a woman doesn't like me or she cancels last
minute. I should be able to handle anything that
comes to me. It doesn't matter what it is with
no problems at all. I say, and then I walk away.
And to get to that point where that is like high
self -esteem, to get to that point is a long
process. Here's the big secret. It's not only
going to happen in relationships, it's going
to happen everywhere I go, whatever I do. business,
personal, love life, family. I do regular life
coaching and we do the four parts of the person's
life, which is family work, love life, wife or
whatever your spouse is. That is the main thing
that I want to look at. in a hundred different
forms, it's really just getting rid of negativity.
But there are so many examples of that. So I
think like, wow, some people are really in love
and they've been married for so long and they've
never had a lot of problems. And then some people
can't even get a date or they can't find somebody
even to maintain a long term relationship with.
And why is that? Well, there's a big difference
between somebody who is positive and they know
in their minds and their heart 100 % that they're
going to find somebody and somebody who's negative
or on the fence, positive one day, negative another
day, and then says they're not going to be sure.
So whatever I say, I'm putting it out to the
universe. And that's going to go if I want to
date. That's gonna go to all the women. And a
woman comes up to me and she's gonna think, I
don't know if he wants to go out with me. Let's
say you're at like a function, a social event,
because I'm putting out that energy that I'm
not really sure if I want somebody. I don't know
if I can do this. i've failed in long term relationships
in the past and i have all this in my head and
i'm thinking all this and that woman comes to
me and she can literally read my mind and she'll
just walk away. So these are some of the things
that these can get complex. And very detailed
but i'm just giving you a basic overview there
are reasons why some people are successful and
some people are. Yeah, there's reasons for that.
It's not just luck Interesting. Is there ways
that you have learned that you can influence
how these things turn out? Make sure they're
on the positive direction I can get a coach Self
-help is popular the internet books podcast social
media and If I do that that will kind of get
my feet wet a little bit might get the wheels
turning in my head. I could maybe go onto YouTube
and in the search put in talks or information
about how men are successful with getting women.
And then I could find information that way. It
will help most likely a little bit, but I want
to have a long -term solution. I want to have
a permanent solution. To me, that's a temporary
solution because I'll say, well, I have this
problem. I agree with this person that I just
heard on YouTube and I'm similar to them and
they fixed it this way. So I think that'll work.
And if you do that, it will work. But then something
else is going to come up. So I want to find out
what is the route to all of these things that
are going on. my head all the negativity and
Now I want to know what the root is to that so
I had a palm tree and The guy wouldn't cut the
stump and I said why he said because there's
a water line under there That stump is gonna
grow back We have to kill the root and if we
don't then the palm tree will grow back I had
two big trees in my backyard, but the roots had
to be grinded because if they weren't then the
tree was going to grow back. I want to be able
to get to the root of the 100 excuses that I
make all the time, every day, all the negativity,
all the reasons why I can't do something, all
the excuses. It's everybody else's fault. It's
not my fault. Look at this girl. She did this
to me. She made me this way. She's the reason
why I can't be in a relationship. Listen to what
I'm saying. See if you can relate to anything
that I've said so far and see if any of this
makes sense to you. You could take your own inventory.
Just like I said in my intro with the businesses
that I do, you could do the same thing and think
about what excuses are you making? What are all
your negative thoughts? because I want to find
out what the root of those thoughts are. Where
are they coming from? And that is a very long
process for most people. Most people might not
be, they might get it right away and then it's
all gone, but that's not really my experience.
Nine times out of 10, it's a very long process.
And then I teach away that that stays away. and
never comes back. That's going to be something
that I'm going to be doing every day, because
sometimes things get ingrained in our brain.
Did you ever hear of, if you delete something
on the computer, it's not deleted? There are
ways to get that back. By doing self work or
coach permanently deleting, All of that stuff,
all that negativity, all those excuses, all those
thoughts, all those behaviors. I'm permanently
deleting that from my brain, but they could come
back. I have formed a habit in my brain and that
cannot be erased. It's unfortunate, but it can't.
That's just the way that the human brain works.
So you, uh, I guess. mostly guys, I guess to
to this path in order to Help them find success
with whatever their problems are whether it is
with women in relationships or business or anything
else It sounds like it's about the behavior It's
about the negativity. It's about being positive.
It's about all these things So everything else
the relationship the job the family the way I
talk to my neighbor The person that I talk to
when I go to Home Depot to look at new kitchen
counters When I call my friends on the phone
or I hang out with them socially all of that
is all outside forces That means nothing I'm
gonna take that and I'm gonna put it aside. I
don't want to think of it I'm focusing on myself,
my behavior, how I'm thinking. And that's what
I'm doing all of the time, every single day for
the rest of my life. You're doing it now, but
you're doing it with negativity because you've
trained your brain, because I wasn't born to
think negative all the time and make excuses
and start yelling and screaming at everybody
and have bad relationships. I wasn't born like
that. So at some point in my life, I trained
my brain to be like that and I could do the work.
I could erase everything, but I need to be vigilant.
This is a plan. That's something that I'm going
to be working on every day for the rest of my
life. And then when I fix that and I'm a different
person now, then all of those outside forces.
The person that I'm talking to at Home Depot
about the counter, my neighbor, my spouse, all
these different things, all of those outside
forces, I'm looking at them now from a completely
different set of eyes because now I'm a completely
different person. So whereas before it was this
guy's fault, I'm that way because of this person,
because of this woman or whoever I'm with. Or
my children. So a lot of people that I've worked
with that have had this type of issues. You could
see what relates to you basically. You could
kind of take out the outside forces and the environment
or whatever that I'm saying and insert your own.
So now when I change and I do this behavior personality
change. Now all of I go about my day. I work,
maybe going on a date, doing social things. Now
I look at all of these things completely differently
because I changed and my behavior changed. This
stuff that I have been said since the beginning
of this podcast, this is all factual, backed
up by data and statistics. None of this is a
theory. It used to be. But it's not anymore.
So you could take one sentence from this podcast
and put it on the Internet and put it in the
search and say, show me a statistic for Debbie
said that negativity is going to make my ego
bigger or something like that. And you could
put that in the search, whatever you get out
of this. And then you put give me a statistic
and it'll pop up because this is all proven.
None of this is a theory and none of this should
really be a surprise to anybody. I personally
think that a lot of people know everything I
just said. But do they do something about it?
That's completely up to them. If they want to
continue to live a life of horror and negativity
and fear and dishonesty. all these different
things, then that's up to the individual. I don't
want to be that way. The person might be listening
to this podcast because they really don't want
to be that way. Maybe this podcast is something
that they put in the search on YouTube, positive
thinking. Maybe they want to change, but the
people that don't want to change. and listen
to this podcast and turn it off after two minutes
and say, oh, that's not me. And then they go
back to their life. Those are the people that
I can't help. I can't do anything with those
people. And they're going to go do their own
thing, live their life. They're going to swim
in their negativity and they will be the same
person that they will always be. They'll just
be basically struggling every day. I can only
help the people that really want it and that
would listen to this podcast and they would say,
oh, this sounds interesting. I don't know what
it's about. Probably never heard of it. I'm not
really sure if it's going to work, but it's worth
it to give it a try. Why? Because my life is
sheer misery. I can't find anybody to be with.
My life is all negative. I go on dates the women
don't show up people don't respond to me when
I try to reach out to women on social media and
I've had failed relationships in the past and
I don't know why I am this way and That's the
person can that can be help but a person that
blately comes out and says This is not me I'm
not interested in hearing about this. I can't
relate to this and I'm fine the way that I am.
Those are the people that I can help because
I want everybody to change and I want everybody
to be positive and I want everybody to have great
relationships. This will be a better world, but
that's not reality. Maybe you can give us an
example of someone that you coached that went
through a transformation and you can just sort
of tell us a little bit about that. So there
was a man that I knew and he started dating like
really young, like 12 years old. And I met him
when he was in like 30 early thirties and he
was bouncing back and forth from woman to woman
and He wasn't sure what he wanted to do. He just
kept switching. One day he wanted to get married.
The next day he didn't want to even go out with
anybody. But he was just switching back and forth,
like literally to like a different person for
like 20 years for a very long time. Like he was
going to spend his whole life undecided. I mean,
it's like just a waste. So then he got sick and
tired of being sick and tired because he didn't
want to keep doing this for 20 years. So he was
stuck in this circle. Then he liked some women.
Then he changed the type of woman that he liked.
First, he liked skinny women. Then he liked medium
size women. Then it was women with blonde hair
and brown hair. So every way he kept switching
all different ways. And then he calls me or I
actually met him through somebody and he knew
me but he didn't even know anything about like
coaching. He just knew me from somebody and then
we figured he would ask. So he says, all of these
things are happening and we go on for this conversation
like one hour long conversation when he's telling
me all these different things that he's been
doing for the past 20 years. And he says, I'm
sick and tired of being sick and tired. I don't
want to do this anymore. I don't want to act
this way. I don't want to think this way. I know
deep in my heart, I want to find a nice woman
and I know the type of woman that I want. And
I want to get married and have a stable relationship
with this woman. And he says, why can't I do
that? And I said, that's because of all of this
junk that you have in your brain of all of this
switching back and forth with all these different
types of people. And I want somebody one day,
the next day, I don't want the person. All of
that indecisiveness is creating negativity. So
is blocking him from being his true self and
him from saying, I really want to meet somebody
and I know who the person is. All of that stuff
is blocking him finding that person. So now he's
got to get rid of all of that. If I have a garden
in my backyard and there's all weeds, are my
plants going to grow? It's like if it's a vegetable
garden, it's going to be difficult for those
weeds to grow. So I have to pull out the weeds.
then maybe put some weed killer down or something.
Then I have to turn the dirt just so my vegetable
garden can grow. But I let it get to that point.
I had a vegetable garden there. Why would I let
it get to that point? So that's what I'm saying.
We did work and stuff and it was a long time,
a few years or whatever it was, but he got over
it and he got through that. And as soon as he
got through that, he immediately met the woman
of his dreams, the woman that he wanted to meet
because it was just going to come. It was just
a matter of time, but he needs to get through
all those weeds that was in his brain that was
blocking him. So it sounds like he would found
him the path through the weeds. I'm just using
the weeds as an analogy because every. Person
is different So it's really going to come down
to if I'm coaching somebody whether it's life
coach business coach. I've done it all and from
there I make a plan about how I can help you
and I give you all of that information and You
don't give me any money All you would do is just
sit on the phone with me and talk and we would
fill out some Like a survey or whatever. And
then from there, I give you the plan and that's
up to you whether you want to take action or
not. Cause I'm just going to say once you see
the plan, you'll know. Well, it sounds like you've
got a very interesting program. Maybe you can
tell the people listening to this a little bit
about where they can find out more about what
you offer. If you're, you're coaching you, if
you have any products or whatever. I'm sure they're
all waiting to find out more about where they
can learn about you. I'm doing executive coaching
now. I do all types of coaching. I do life coaching
also, but my website is life in bloom and why
.net and the company is life in bloom because
it started off as a life coach company. But then,
like I said, after COVID, I switched to executive
coaching. So if you go onto that website, lifeinbloomny
.net, you're going to see executive coaching
on there. You can get in touch with me that way.
I have social media. I do any type of coaching.
I have my phone number on my website, my email,
social media. There's a lot of ways. Well, that's
great. I really appreciate you taking the time
with me this evening. I think for the right people,
this is going to be a very enlightening conversation,
and hopefully it'll help out some people that
maybe didn't expect it from this direction. So
again, I want to thank you for having spent the
time with me, and hopefully we'll talk again
another time soon. Thank you very much. I really
appreciate it. Thanks a lot.