How to Build a Million Dollar Coaching Business and Make Any Competition Irrelevant with Dino Gomez: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Marketing Against the Grain. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to build a million-dollar coaching business and make any competition irrelevant. To drop these value bombs, I am brought to Dino Gomez and to EO Fire Studios. Dino started his business at 23 and has since gone on to do multiple millions online. He is a Two Comma Club award winner and founder of Coaching Launch and the Seven Figure Visionary masterminds.

0:36In today's value bombs, Fire Nation are having the mindset that you need to make the right decision, the best way to start an online coaching business, and that there's never a perfect time. Nobody will appoint you as an expert and so much more, Fire Nation. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Dino and our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions.

1:09Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Many EO Fire listeners have launched non-food franchises and Franbridge Consulting has guided them. Franbridge's founder and frequent EO Fire guest, John Ostenson, has done more placements than any other in the country and his service is free. sign up for a consultation with John or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising at FranBridgeConsulting.com. Dino, say what's up to Fire Nation and what is something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with?

1:51Hey, John. Yeah, well, first off, thanks so much for having me on today. I'm super excited to dive into today's episode. And yeah, something that most people overlook when it comes to becoming successful, I would say mindset. And the reason I want to say this is because we hear so much, right? It's who you surround yourself with. It's who your mentors are. It's kind of sometimes luck of the cards. It's your strategy. We hear a lot about that. And all that stuff is absolutely accurate. but nonetheless, I think your mindset is so crucial and here is why, right? Is that your mindset, naturally when you decide I'm gonna become an entrepreneur, when you take that leap, I'm leaving my nine to five job, you are instantly in the 1 % and I'm talking not 1 % of the wealthy, maybe perhaps on your way but you're instantly in the 1 % in the sense that you are going against the grain of society, right?

2:51Society is teaching us to get good grades, go to a good college, get a good job, save for retirement, all of those types of things. And as soon as you decide, no, I'm going to go and be that 1 % that decides to create something, to be an entrepreneur, to build a business, to impact people, as soon as you decide to do that, you're going against all the programming in the world. You're going against what is taught to us as a culture. And so it's going to be challenging. and to give you a little bit of background a funny story here like I started off just out of college you know working for a direct direct response marketing firm and at six months in I realized cubicle life is not for me all right and and so I go one day and I'm preparing to give my two weeks notice and I sit down with our our boss of the company really nice guy great guy but nonetheless I give him my two weeks notice and he sits there and tries to convince me why not to become an entrepreneur.

3:49And John, this is funny, but he's like, he's like, first off, do you know, you know, your chances of succeeding are very low. He's like, you're gonna, you know, you're gonna, you're end up working more than you currently do. He's like, and he even went so far as to say, he's like, you're gonna, you're gonna gain weight because when you work from home, the fridge is right there. I mean, he was pulling out, right? I mean, he was pulling out every single card possible to convince me not to go out on my own. And, and, and also just talking with friends and family, right? Like my parents supported this decision.

4:19And but nonetheless, you know, you still talk to friends. They're like, dude, you're lucky to have a job. Like, why would you risk it? And and and so it's just, you know, you're in that one percent as soon as you decide I want to become an entrepreneur. So you have to have the mindset that you're making the right decision and you have to be prepared to go and kind of battle what everybody is is telling you you should be doing otherwise, which is, you know, you know, to go the safe route. And so I think mindset is crucial because you're going to have bad weeks. You're going to have bad months of business.

4:51You know, business fluctuates and you got to be able to power through and you got to still have that core belief that, hey, I'm going to make it through and it's going to be awesome. Fire Nation, we're talking today about how to build a million dollar coaching business and make any competition irrelevant. And Dino, I want to get right into the tactics, into the strategies. So let's be quick on this next part. But I do want to know the why. Like, why did you start an online coaching business? It stems from the fact that I've just always loved helping people. I'm going to be frank here, John. I'm five foot five on a good day.

5:25And but I always loved basketball. I was always good at basketball. In high school, I played, you know, you know, for our team. Dude, Muggsy Bogues was five, too. Come on. Right, right. So, you know, it was always a dream. I loved, you know, I love sports. But nonetheless, right. I wasn't going to be a college athlete. wasn't going to become professional. And in my sophomore year, the head coach of the women's varsity basketball team came to me and was like, hey, Dino, you know, we have an opportunity, I think, for you to become a, you know, a secondary head coach of the women's varsity team. Would you like that opportunity?

6:02Because he already saw the cards weren't there for me to, you know, become a ever be a starter or move on to the next level. And so I started coaching the women's varsity basketball team and I loved it. And from that point on, I kind of realized that I just love helping people. And so as I kind of got into internet marketing and things of that nature, I really, what I enjoyed most was when I was teaching, when I was training and just to see the ripple effect of how it impacted others. It's just really what, you know, kind of lights me up. And so ever since, you know, it's a huge industry as well.

6:38So I saw the potential there to make great money also impact others. And so that's really why I got into it is just following my passion. Now we're getting into the tactics, Fire Nation. Let's do this. So what is specifically the best way to start an online business? Because Dino, you've done some things right. You've done some things wrong. Show us the good ways. Tell us how to avoid the bad ways. How do we start an online coaching business the right way? Yep. Well, I've definitely done plenty of things wrong. I I will start by saying that. But the main thing, is I'm going to go a little bit back to mindset, is that I waited, John, about four years too long to start my online coaching business.

7:19And here's why. I thought I might need a degree, a certification. I thought somebody was going to pop out of a bush and be like, you know, you're officially now an expert. You're a guru. You're now qualified to coach and teach others. And so I waited too long. And the fact is, right, you don't need credentials. You don't need an online degree and nobody's ever going to come knocking on your door saying, hey, you're now good enough to coach and give advice to others. And and so the first thing is that is that realization that like, hey, you know, you become a coach as soon as you appoint yourself good enough to help others.

7:55And so that's a huge mindset breakthrough is that is that concept right there. Now, the best way to start an online coaching business, there's a lot of different ways that you can do it. There's a lot of different traffic channels and social media networks and things of that nature that can help you kind of build your audience and get going. I firmly believe you should start with organic, which is basically non-paid advertising in terms of where you build your audience. And really what you want to do is figure out where your target market is spending the most time. What social media platform are they spending the most time?

8:31and and from there you you want to cultivate and start building uh spending time on that particular uh social media network you want to start building your audience you want to start giving value main thing you want to do right is figure out what problems you want to do a lot of research what problems does my target audience have and what can i do to help them solve that problem. So it the right way to build a coaching business is not what is what do I love to do? It's it's a combination of what do I love to do, but also how does that tie into solving the needs that the market actually has? And because when you can solve a problem, then, you know, you're always going to be in demand.

9:13And so I see a lot of people chasing things that they love to do, which is an important component for longevity but you also need to make sure there's still a demand there. So it really starts with market research and then this is what we'll get into in a little bit here that I'm really excited about, John, is how do you differentiate yourself which a lot of people don't spend time thinking about. They just dive into their online business and they haven't spent two seconds to go, how am I different from everybody else who's out there currently? in the industry. It's so true. And Fire Nation, I really hope you're taking a lot away from what Dino just shared, but I really hope you're taking away what problems can you solve for a specific person and how can you create the best solution for that?

10:02And guess what? You may not be able to create the best solution for a specific problem because there's an amazing solution out there right now and you know you can't create a better one for it. That's when you need to niche. So how can aspiring coaches niche down, Dino? How can they define their niche? Huge one, huge one, right? How do you define your niche? It's actually one of the main questions that we get from aspiring coaches. It's like, okay, I know I love helping people, but how do I choose my niche? And so one of the things we have aspiring coaches do is what we call the personality matrix.

10:43All right. And basically what this is, and this is a very tactical thing that everybody listening can do, you know, at home or when they have a moment is basically what you want to do is take a piece of paper, a Google Doc, and you want to draw a line down the middle of the piece of paper. And on the left, you want to talk about all of your accomplishments in life. All right. Here's things I've accomplished. I went to college. I launched my business. I got married. I had kids, I traveled the world, all of the different things you've accomplished on the left-hand column. On the right-hand column, you then want to list all of the ways that you think your friends and family would describe you.

11:20All right. And these are just personal attributes, friendly, outgoing, let's see, courageous. It could be also specific to how tall you are. It can be all these different things, but your personal attributes on the right hand side. And so what you end up having with this personality matrix is you have your accomplishments on the left hand side. You have all the ways people would describe you on the right hand side. And this might be like, well, that person is a podcaster. They're a Facebook ads expert. They are an entrepreneur. They are a dad. They're a mom. Those are all the attributes on the right hand side.

11:59Then what you do is you look and you try and cross reference potential, potential like opportunities between the left hand side and the right hand side. And what ends up happening, John, is that you create your niche by realizing how you what accomplishments you've had and and what and then what attributes you have the way somebody would describe you. So, for example, on the left hand side, when I was doing this myself, because I was trying to figure out, okay, where's my first coaching niche? I listed on the left-hand side my accomplishments. Okay, I got these amazing results with Facebook advertising.

12:35I have an agency. I'm an entrepreneur. I graduated college. I got married. I listed all that. And then I'm like, okay, how would people describe me on the right-hand side? I'm like, okay, well, they would describe me as short, outgoing, friendly. And I started listing those things on the right-hand side. They would describe me as actually an SEO expert because I got started online doing search engine optimization, which is ranking yourself at the top of Google. And so I started listing those things out and then I started cross-referencing. And as I started cross-referencing, I came up with all these different ideas.

13:14It was like, okay, well, on the left-hand side, I got an accomplishment as I got married. On the right-hand side, an attribute somebody would describe me as is they're like, you know, well, Dino is short. And so I was like, okay, can I perhaps be a relationship coach to help other short men, you know, you know, find their their dream partner, right? I was like, that's a potential niche for me. I did another cross reference on the left hand side. I was like, okay, I'm amazing at Facebook advertising. On the right hand side, people describe me as a SEO expert. So I was like, what if I teach people, I teach SEO experts how to run Facebook ads?

13:56And so when that happened, when I did this personality matrix, and we've done this for thousands of clients, and it's incredible what comes away when you do this, you don't realize how this uncovers, first off, your accomplishments and then who you can serve. But when I did this, that's the one that really clicked for me that resonated was I can teach SEO experts who are used to relying on Google traffic how to also run Facebook ads. And by doing that, I created this niche. And so I launched a Facebook ads coaching program about 30 years after Facebook ads became popular. And it grew into a multi-million dollar coaching program because I was very specific.

14:42This was not just another Facebook ads course generic to anybody. This was a Facebook ads program for SEO experts. And so that is the power of the personality matrix is that when you do this cross-referencing, you'll figure out, okay, here's what I've accomplished that I'm qualified to teach. And then here is a very specific audience that can relate to me that I can niche down into. Fire Nation, I hope you're understanding the power of the niche and the power of just defining your niche and understanding what that could look like and what that could be. And by the way, when you define a niche and find a niche and get down into that niche, that's not where you're going to be forever.

15:27It's not like you're sentencing yourself to that specific small niche for the rest of your life. That's where you get initial traction, momentum, experience, raving fans, and then you grow from there. And we have so much coming on Fire Nation. as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. I remember searching for the perfect CRM when I first launched Entrepreneurs on Fire, and it's tough to know which platform is going to be right for you and your business. Being in major startup mode, I wanted to choose a CRM that could keep up with my big growth goals. If this sounds like you, then take it from me, from marketing and sales to supporting content to everything in between, HubSpot's all-on-one customer platform has startups covered.

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17:51Franbridge is hands down the premier source for the best opportunities in the franchise world, including both active and passive opportunities from tiny homes to youth soccer, industrial hoses to pets, senior care to mental health and more. John has served as an Inc. 500 franchisor and is a multi-brand franchisee himself, and he does more placements than any other in the country. Sign up for a free consultation call with John today, or get a free copy of his book, Non-Food Franchising, at FranBridgeConsulting.com. That's FranBridgeConsulting.com. So Dino, you teased us with this a little bit earlier, but I want to talk right now about differentiating ourselves from our competition.

18:32how do online coaches do that yeah yeah so this is a huge one um and again i feel like not enough people spend time before they hop into creating their online or offline business about how they're going to be different from their competitors right they they love something they're like okay i'm gonna get started on this but have you really sat down and been like why would somebody choose me over the competition and it's interesting john actually to this day you can still ask majority of business owners, how are you different from their competition? And they can't articulate it in one sentence. So true.

19:07Right. And it's it's it's a bummer because, gosh, is it powerful? So excited to dive into this. So first off, I want to recognize you, John, because think about I know that you spent time doing this big time, right? Like you're like, I'm not just going to launch another podcast. No, can't do it. You're like, OK, what is missing in the podcast game so I can be different. And you're like, there's not a seven day a week podcast. Right. And boom, you entered the market with this, this new style of podcasting. Hey, it's going to happen seven days a week. You're going to have content on the weekends as well as during the week.

19:38And real quick to cut in, I was like, because I knew I was not going to be a good podcast host when I started. I knew my podcast wasn't going to be that good or me that great. So guess what? I had to be different. I had to be unique. I had to frankly be the only. Exactly. And I mean, you're just crushing it, man. And I've just loved your journey. Thanks, Dino. But yeah, but you did that, right? These are the little things that make the big differences, right? So here's a couple tactical, tangible ways for you to differentiate yourself. Number one, what are your core beliefs? And what is your brand?

20:09And when I was starting out, I was like, brand, I don't like the whole branding thing that seemed very like corporate top level, like, no, you don't need to have a brand when you're starting out. It makes a huge difference, right let me give you guys an example here let's let's let's uh let's talk about gary vanderstruck for a second he came out with a very interesting brand he if he was his brand was be authentically yourself i remember watching his interviews and watching him on youtube and he was dropping cuss words and he was doing wearing a t-shirt and he wasn't wearing a suit and he was going against everything that we were taught was supposed to be out of you know how to present yourself as successful but he was being himself and that is branding right there and so uh One of the ways that you can brand yourself or otherwise differentiate yourself from your competition is what are your core values?

20:56What do you stand for? And then making that known. So in other words, making sure that's part of your marketing, baking that in so that people understand what you agree with and what you disagree with. So one of the ways you can do that, right, is by presentation of yourself. But also another way, right, is, you know, for example, our company, we partner with a different nonprofit every single year. This year, we're profiting with a nonprofit that is specific to supporting women who have been victim to domestic violence. And we incorporate that into our marketing. We let people know, hey, not only if you hop on board and work with us as a client, do we have these results?

21:39And are we going to help you in this fashion? but you're also contributing to this particular charity. And that's just our core values. That's our mission. That's our brand. That's what we stand for. That's what we believe in. And so we make sure people know that. And so instantly, right away, people go, you know what, I either like or dislike what their, you know, the nonprofit, the charity that they're supporting. And if they like it, it instantly makes us a little bit different right from the get-go with nothing else done. So core beliefs brand, number one, very simple to do, but makes a huge difference, right?

22:12Number two is what I like to call, again, this is niching down, but in particular, I call this, John, the relatability factor. All right, so how can you make yourself relatable to your target audience? All right, and the example I love giving here is I'm a huge stand-up comedy. I love stand-up comedy. And so if you think about stand-up comedians, right? There's a ton of them. All right. Why is it that we like one stand-up comic rather than another? We can relate to them. We can relate. That's it. Right. Right. Their jokes are funny because we understand them because we've lived that. We've been there.

22:53Right. So for me, right, I love Kevin Hart because his first tour was all about what it's like to be. It was called I'm a grown little man. It was like what it's like to be short as a grown man. Right. I laughed at all of his short jokes. Like my wife and I, we have - How tall is your wife? She's like 5 '3", 5 '4". So we kind of shoulder to shoulder. Okay. Shoulder to shoulder, cheek to cheek. I got it. Yeah. And so, I mean, we have stools all over our house, right? So we can reach stuff in like the top shelf, right? And so why is Kevin Hart my favorite comedian? Because I understand his jokes because I relate to him.

23:25So when you think about your marketing, right? What can you do to make yourself relatable to your audience, right? You don't have to be the world's best. All right, you can teach people internet marketing and people will relate to you because you're also a mom, because you're also a dad, because there's so many different factors because you're also a veteran. We have a client that came to us. They're like, I want to start a coaching business. I just don't know how I'm going to carve out a niche. And we went through the personality matrix. I found out, I didn't know, he is a army veteran and served in Iraq for several years.

23:59And I was It's like, okay, well, this is your niche. Teach internet marketing to military veterans, right? And that's the personality matrix right there. He doesn't have to be the world's best internet marketer, but the relatability factor is that other veterans are going to choose him and want to go to him because they respect what he's been through. They relate to his history. And let me actually kind of even add one more thing to that. It's because Fire Nation, they know that, hey, if this person can do this, who's been where I've been, who's done what I've done, this person who's has my life experience can do this and be successful.

24:32I can too. That's where the relatability comes in. That's where the power comes in. So Dino, we're going to leave a little bit for Fire Nation to uncover when they, you know, want to dive deeper into your content. So share one more thing with us on this topic, and then we'll move on. Third one I'll share here is, and I'll make this one shorter, is your methodology to get results. All right. And so, you know, some people teach that, hey, you should become an Instagram influencer. Other people are like, you should grow a YouTube channel. Some folks are like, you should podcast. You can become unique and differentiate yourself from your competitors by saying, hey, I'm going to get you this result by using this different methodology.

25:14for us in the coaching industry our unique methodology is that we help you create a profit ladder and in particular at the top of this profit ladder which basically means you have subsequent courses for people to graduate to and kind of up level into at the very top we teach people hey you should create a mastermind and bring in multiple resources to add a ton of value to your to your audience and build this community at the top and it should be a mastermind And so we help a lot of coaches that go from starting off as one v one coaching or low ticket coaching. And then we say, hey, when you tack on this mastermind, your profitability is going to go up.

25:52Your impact is going to go up as well because you can serve more clients. So your methodology is how you get people results is another way to differentiate yourself. Fire Nation, as you can tell, Dino is a wealth of knowledge in this area. Yeah. I mean, you know, this is the thing you need to understand when you find somebody that's an expert in their niche. You've got to follow them and you've got to learn more from them. You've got to consume their content. So, Dino, what I want to do here is give you this chance to kind of take the mic for a second and share the one big takeaway you want to make sure our listeners get from everything that we talked about here today.