Becoming a coach of the future - Intro to A.I. with Eben Pagan

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Hustle Daily. Today, we'll be breaking down how to be a coach in the future, introduction to AI. To drop these value bombs, I brought Evan Pagan into EO Fire Studios. Evan is a husband, father, investor, art collector, and coach. He started his online business in 2001 from his bedroom with just a computer, selling an ebook of dating advice. He built this company to 80 full-time employees and$30 million in sales, 100 % virtually with no office.

0:39In 2007, he offered his first course on how to grow a business and brought it to over$10 million per year. He called it Altitude. He's been interviewed by Tony Robbins, Larry King, and others like JLD to find opportunity and build a successful company. And today at Foundation, we'll talk about what really works when it comes to coaching. We'll talk about how much coaches actually make. And even more importantly, how coaching should actually work. And Fire Nation, we'll talk more about this at the end of the episode, but Eben has an amazing program that he's offering for a very limited time, futurecoach.com slash fire, futurecoach.com slash fire.

1:21So when your mind gets blown, make sure to go there to learn more. And we'll be diving in as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business. Join my friend, Donna Miller, each week as he shares value bombs on topics like the secret to making better marketing decisions. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Belay has spent over a decade helping thousands of leaders increase efficiency and productivity by leveraging flexible staffing solutions, download Belay's delegation guide, and learn six specific things that busy leaders must start delegating today.

2:06Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the guide and get started. Eben, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? And hey, John, let's see i would say that most people they wouldn't know that the more successful you become the better it makes you as a person to the point where if you become the most successful you can physically with your health emotionally with your relationships mentally with learning with business with money, if you reach peak, peak success, that this can make you into the absolute best person that you could possibly be.

2:55Fire Nation, I think you can tell why I brought Eben on the mic a couple times already. This guy gets to the point, he drops value bombs in a very concise, succinct way. And we're going to have a great conversation. And one thing I want you to know, Eben, is that I'm always honest with Fire Nation. And the harsh reality is that most people fail at business, period. So I want you to share the secret to succeeding in building a business that actually works. I grew up out in the woods of Oregon. I was very poor and I had no frames of reference for rich, successful, wealthy people. And successful people, rich people were kind of bad people.

3:39And I know this is common for a lot of us. And, um, you don't realize when you're in that state or when you're growing up and, you know, people are fighting about money, you don't realize that you actually have to become very generous. You have to create a huge amount of value in the world in order to be successful. And when you're coming from a scarcity mentality, it's how do I get something for myself? But it really isn't that it's really about getting out there and talking to people and asking them what their big challenges and frustrations are and what their wants and aspirations are and kind of getting out like a microscope to understand the needs of others.

4:16And the more you understand the needs of others, and then you get really good at helping people get their needs fulfilled, the more successful you can be. The more successful you can be at creating products and services, the more successful you can be at building businesses, at creating marketing, everything. Now, one thing that you've identified, and this is all the way back to 2001, which I went in depth about during the introduction, you've identified some critical keys to success when it comes to running a business specifically in an online environment so you've already mentioned a couple of those right now but let's go deeper into a couple more what are those well this is a new world i mean i've been working online i haven't had an office in over 20 years and i've had up to you know 80 people working for me although my my team's a little bit smaller and leaner right now and so a lot of people think oh I want to work from home, you know, or I want to work virtually or telecommute, this would be so much better.

5:11Uh, it comes with its own challenges. It's actually harder to be productive when you're at home. So one of the things you have to do is really take control of your own time, your attention. You have to get good at creating rituals and routines and habits and putting up boundaries, you know, because when you have the, the quote unquote dream life, nobody feels sorry for you, you know, and no one's going to show up at your door every morning and say, hey, you need to really organize your life. You need to make sure you're productive today and so forth. So if you get the chance, you know, to start a business or to work from home or to be a coach, take it very seriously.

5:50You have to run it like a business and you have to take your own self control, your own self discipline, and again, your own creation of rituals and habits very, very seriously. So that's one secret. And another secret is to learn, to just put as much time as you possibly can in everyday learning. Um, you know, the old one about, you know, if you had, uh, an hour to chop down a tree, you know, what would you do? And right. You'd spend most of the time sharpening your ax and then you'd go to work chopping, chopping down the tree. So the whole world of knowledge is available to us right now. Okay.

6:26You can go and learn anything rapidly. And now we have generative AI, which can teach you at another like 10 to a hundred times as fast. So make sure that you're learning. And then I'd say the third thing is do lots of experiments. Your success is in direct proportion to the number of experiments that you can do every day. And by an experiment, I don't mean just like try something random. I mean, actually think through what is something that I could do a test. I could run an ad. I can measure the ad. I could talk to 10 clients and try this new script. And I could go and actually do something that's measurable, but do more experiments.

7:07I mean, that's what we've got to do. We've got to do more experiments. We've got to get more disciplined. We've got to understand ourselves and our clients better. We've got to learn and we've got to do more experiments so that we can do more rapid iteration and evolve faster. These, I think these would be kind of keys that most people wouldn't be thinking about, but they're direct lines to success. Evan, a lot of people do the opposite, but you became a coach after becoming an entrepreneur, a successful entrepreneur and investor. Why? Yeah. You know, it's funny, John, you know this. When people say I'm a coach, sometimes that means, well, I don't, you know, don't have any work right now.

7:46Exactly. And sometimes it means, oh, your business career maybe didn't work out. So now you're a coach, right? So these can be connotations. And that's not what it is. For me, what it is is 25 years ago or so, I started learning about coaching. I started studying the great coaches like Tony Robbins and Thomas Leonard and just some of the really absolute spectacular coaches. And the more I learned from them, the more I used what I was learning in everything that I did. I used it in my business. I did it with my team. I use it when I was teaching. I used it with, you know, companies I invested in.

8:22And I just always thought of it as just something that you learn how to do. And then you kind of do it for free with everything else that you do. But then maybe six or seven years ago, as I was thinking about the through line of my whole life, I realized, gosh, this coaching thing, I've just been doing this as part of everything. It's the most consistent thing, I guess, that I've done that I really enjoy that I get a lot of fulfillment from. And so I started teaching a program to train coaches. I've had maybe 10 ,000 coaches go through all my high-end courses over the last 10 or 15 years. And as soon as I identified and I realized like, oh, yeah, I'm a coach.

8:57I love coaching. I just turned my fulfillment level up. It's something where I know I'm going to be a coach for the rest of my life. Yeah, it's just it's super fulfilling. It's and my success. I'd say like my all-around feeling of success as a person. My business is still successful. And I just feel like I'm making a more sustainable difference in the world, right? One that it keeps growing me. It forces me to be my best self. And I love helping coaches because coaches are the kinds of people who like to make a difference in the world. Fire Nation, Evan's dropping value bombs. He's not going to stop.

9:33And we are going to keep going as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, the holidays are near. And I know you're rocking your year-end goals. it's crunch time. And if you're ready to hit your revenue targets and finish the year strong, then I've got the perfect tool to help you fill your pipeline, nurture prospects, and close deals. Meet the new HubSpot Sales Hub. The HubSpot Sales Hub supercharges your sales process so you can find, track, and close deals all in one powerful, easy-to-use platform. What's great about HubSpot Sales Hub is that it gives you all your data, tools, and team in one place.

10:08You can even prospect smarter in the new prospecting workspace, which makes connecting with customers easier than ever. And while HubSpot's sales hub is great alone, it's even better when united by HubSpot's smart CRM. Leads don't slip through the cracks. Data is connected across marketing sales and operations, and teams can better measure their impact on the bottom line. Stop sticking to the same old strategies and start closing more deals with HubSpot sales hub. Make the switch to HubSpot sales hub at hubspot.com slash sales. Kate and I love home-cooked meals and a company we tried out while looking for quick and easy options is HelloFresh.

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11:18Go to hellofresh.com slash 50EOF and use code 50EOF for 50 % off plus free shipping. That's 50 % off plus free shipping when you visit hellofresh.com slash 50EOF and use code 50EOF. Two things I'm always looking to improve, efficiency and productivity. Luckily, there are many ways you can improve these things. Maybe you've automated with AI or hacked your morning routine to get more done in a day. While productivity tips and tricks can help, the best way to increase efficiency and productivity is to work on what you're best at and delegate the rest. Not sure how? Belay can help. After over a decade spent helping thousands of leaders increase efficiency and productivity by leveraging flexible staffing solutions, Belay is an expert in all things delegation.

12:09Belay's exceptional virtual assistants, accounting professionals, and social media managers can take care of the details so you can focus on the most productive ways to use your time. To see where you could benefit from delegating, Belay is offering a free download of their delegation guide. They outline six specific things that busy leaders must start delegating to take their leadership and results to the next level. Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E-2-5-5-1-2-3 to download the guide and get started. Delegate to Belay so you can focus on what matters most. Evan, you have a program called Future Coach.

12:43But before we dive into specifics around that, I want to take a step back for Fire Nation and define exactly what a coach is and how coaching should actually work. One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they think about becoming a coach or coaching is that they think that the coach is someone who tells the client what to do. And in fact, this creates a lot of problems for coaches because they get all self-conscious and they get nervous. They have imposter syndrome. Who am I to coach? Who am I to tell people what to do? then when you go learn what it actually means to be a coach you realize oh holy cow i was totally wrong about what this is because the coach isn't the one telling the client what to do the coach is the one asking the client what do you think you should do because it turns out clients actually know most of the time what they should do but they're not doing it and then act as a facilitator and as a support so that the client can actually do it do we have time for like a two or three minute story?

13:45A hundred percent love stories. Okay. So I, about 10 years ago when my daughter was born, it's actually, you know, about eight or nine years ago. So she was just about two years old and we were starting to do traveling. And we, we traveled for about seven to eight months a year for three or four years, which is another great benefit of being a coach and a teacher. So one of the first places we went, we went to London because my wife used to live there and we stayed in an Airbnb. Okay. And so my daughter's two, we walk in, there's a huge staircase. You know, it's one of those like double level staircases and it's these wooden shiny stairs that are slippery.

14:21And I'm horrified because my daughter has never seen stairs in her life. She didn't grow up with them. I'm thinking she's going to break her neck. So we're walking her up and down the stairs, holding her arm, like grabbing her by the arm and holding it up above her head and kind of walking her up and down. I was piling all the suitcases in front of the staircase to prevent her from going on it. Um, the next morning we wake up and I used to wake up, you know, every day and go for a walk and play with her. And so she, she wants to go play on the stairs and I'm like, Oh no, what am I going to do?

14:46And then finally I accept it and I realized, okay, so do you want to go learn how to climb stairs, honey? And she said, yeah, yeah, dad, I want to go. And I said, okay. So we walked over and as I surveyed the situation, I realized, man, I could do this one of a couple of ways. I could just grab her by the arm and kind of keep pulling her up and down the stairs, but she's never going to learn how to balance herself. So then I grabbed the banister. I leaned down with my other hand and I put it down about a foot off the ground and she puts her little hand right on mine. And I didn't close my hand around hers.

15:16I just made a little platform that she could lean on if she, if she needed it. And then she started to climb and she put one foot in front of the other up this staircase. And she, she would only push on my hand a little bit if she needed the balance because she was trying to figure it out. You know, she was trying to figure out how she could balance. Now, for me, it was very awkward because I had to hold onto the banister and kind of duck down and I didn't have my hand on her. So if she slipped, you know, I'd have to quickly jump and, you know, catch her. It was harrowing to get to the top of the steps, but we got to the top and she, she had done most of it.

15:47She only leaned on me a little bit. And when we got there, she's like, I want to go back down again. So now we're just climbing up and down these stairs and I'm, you know, terrified. So after, I don't know, you know, a half hour of or something. Finally, we're satisfied and we finish up and, you know, she's all proud of herself. And I'm like, wow, look at that. She kind of learned how to do it. But I knew in that moment that I had learned something very deep and important about what it meant to be a coach. And so now I define coaching as offering the support to someone as they're going through a transition.

16:19So supporting another person through a change, a transition or a transformation. And I define support as the minimal support so that they can do it themselves. Because as a coach, you're not doing it for them, right? The coach is the guide. The client is the one that needs to learn the skill, get the understanding, build the self-esteem. Ideally, what you want is to finish up the coaching package and the client says, I did it. And you say, you did it. You know, that's my distinction. Wow, Fire Nation. I just heard a click in my mind and I virtually heard tens of thousands of clicks in a lot of your minds as you're like, I get it.

17:01I understand from that story what Eben is talking about. So I love that great visual. And one thing that I've done that my audience loves Eben is for 121 months in a row now, I published a monthly income report, just transparent, showing every dollar we make, every dollar we spend, all the jazz. So my audience knows I love talking dollars and cents. So I want to put you on the spot. How much do coaches actually make? Well, this is a good one. You know, maybe 10 years ago, the ICF, the International Coach Federation did a study and it came out and they surveyed all the life coaches in their network.

17:44And it came back that on average life coaches were earning$214 per session. And I remember when all of us in the industry saw that, we said, whoa, look at that. On average, life coaches were earning$214 per session. And it changed everything. It changed the self-esteem of coaches because then everyone realized, oh my gosh, I'm legit. Right? Coaches get paid the way professionals get paid. But then a Harvard Business Review article came out that showed that executive coaches, the high-end business coaches, they earn between$200 and$3 ,500 per hour with a$500 an hour median. This is the research.

18:26So$200 to$500 an hour is the average for working coaches, a lot more than most people think. Fire Nation, again, I'm feeling like some people's heads are popping off, some clickings happening because you're realizing this is real. This isn't going anywhere. And you specifically, Eben, have a program called Future Coach. Let's talk about this program, who it's for, and why Fire Nation should be excited about it. Well, I believe, and I mean this in my heart, John, I believe that every human being should learn coaching, right? We should all learn the coaching skills because it's a new skill set. Okay.

19:07And it, you know, a lot of people think, well, is coaching like therapy? It's not. See therapy comes from the medical model where someone's broken or wounded or sick, and they need to get healed or get fixed. Whereas coaching comes from the sports world. It's a totally different paradigm. It's about reaching your potential, right? It's about hitting, hitting the goal and facilitating the success of another person, it's a new set of skills and everyone needs to learn these. More importantly though, it's also a killer business right now because as everyone's waking up to self-help and personal development and kind of accelerated growth, the first thing that they realize, especially successful people is, wow, a coach can really help accelerate me and help me succeed better, faster.

19:53Some of my most successful friends, John, have two, three, four, five coaches. They're the ones that really get it. I mean, coaches changed my life. I'm sure you've had coaches that changed your life. And so my wife, who's the best coach that I know, actually, she and I have a six week course called the future coach for either already successful coaches who want to scale and get more clients or professionals, entrepreneurs, people who are interested in learning skills and launching their coaching business. And so over six weeks, we target your coaching niche. You learn our coaching models. We've got a whole suite of a dozen new automated AI tools.

20:30We've built some amazing technology around generative intelligence to really just accelerate all your marketing, your client getting. And it's an intensive program. Again, six weeks long, you get classes that are available optional every single day. Plus you get all my best courses on marketing and a whole bunch of great bonuses and so forth. So if you're interested in learning to be a coach or you're a coach and you want to up your skills, get more clients, Build your confidence. The future coach is the way to do it. Fire Nation, Eben is an entrepreneur on fire. He has been doing this for over two decades now.

21:06And I know that this is something that he is incredibly excited about because we've talked about it offline. You need to learn more, Fire Nation. futurecoach.com slash fire. futurecoach.com slash fire. That's where you need to go to learn more. It doesn't matter when you're listening to this, there's going to be something there for you. So even if this is in 2030 or beyond, I know there's going to be some amazing redirect to something awesome of value. But if you're listening to this anytime soon after we release this episode, futurecoach.com slash fire is where you can go to take advantage of everything that future coach is going to be offering.

21:47Eben, give us one final takeaway that you really want to make sure our audience gets from our conversation today. Well, we didn't really talk about it, but if you haven't rolled up your sleeves and started really paying attention and building skills with generative AI, right now is the moment. Okay, this is it. If you missed crypto, if you missed the internet, you know, if you missed plastic, whatever, don't miss this one because this is way bigger than all of them put together. It's a very important thing for people, for professionals, for entrepreneurs, for coaches to just be using it and practicing because this is going to explode faster.

22:30It's gonna have more of an impact than anything ever has and we're all alive for it right now. There's a lot of unpredictability, but just learn this, okay? Whatever direction it goes, we all need to have these skills. Fire Nation, get excited. And I know there's a couple of you right now that are saying, dang it, I did miss plastic. Well, guess what? Don't miss this. Because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with EP and JLD today, so keep up the heat, Fire Nation. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Eben, E-B-E-N, in the search bar.

23:04The show notes page will pop right up. But don't forget your direct call to action, futurecoach.com slash fire. Eben, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, brother, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Eben for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs are great at three things, productivity, discipline, and focus. That's why I created the Mastery Journal so that you can master productivity, discipline, and focus in 100 days. And we're talking step-by-step.

23:40visit themasteryjournal.com and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Business Made Simple, hosted by Donald Miller, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Business Made Simple takes the mystery out of growing your business. Join my friend, Donald Miller, each week as he shares value bombs on topics like the secret to making better marketing decisions. Listen to Business Made Simple wherever you get your podcasts. Belay has spent over a decade helping thousands of leaders increase efficiency and productivity by leveraging flexible staffing solutions.

24:17Download Belay's delegation guide and learn six specific things that busy leaders must start delegating today. Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the guide and get started.