Lesson: How to Select a Business Coach?

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it. Hey there, I hope you're having a fantastic week. This week, what I'd like to talk to you about is picking the right coach for you. So I've been doing this for about 17 years from now, and not every coach is right for every person.

0:53We're not right for everybody. We're right for a lot of people, but we're not right for everybody. That's why we have multiple coaches on the team, because we can help find the right fit for a coach. but there's certain things that you need to do if you're out there looking for a coach. So one of the questions I often get is, do I need a coach? Well, my answer to it is usually you don't need a coach, but why do all professional athletes have a coach? Why do all professional musicians have a coach? Why do all professional actors have a coach? Why do all professionals have a coach? The reason is because they want to be better.

1:39They want to be the best they can be. They want to excel. And it's worth it to them to get that outside perspective. It's worth it to them to get somebody outside looking in that can help them. The other thing that I often say is, well, you don't need a coach, but what if your competitor gets a coach? you know, they're going to push ahead at a rate that's going to outpace you. They're going to leave you behind because coaching squishes down the time that it takes to achieve your goals. That's what that's one of the outcomes of coaching.

2:23So I think it's important that we all agree that, hey, you do need a coach. You should have a coach or at least you should have won a coach. Now, what's the right coaching for you? What's the right level of coaching for you? That's what we need to determine. You know, that might be a book. It might be$20 investing in yourself. That's a great way to get started in coaching. It might be a group program. It might be a course. It might be a class. It might be a YouTube video. It might be something. But whatever it is, I think we can agree that to be the best you can be, you do need somebody outside looking in helping you guiding you along the way so so how do you go and invest in a coach I always say that people buy things differently or invest differently depending on their sort of bent their personality their behavior profile and so one of the things you want to look for in investing in anything is is your style and what the strengths are of that style and what are the the weaknesses of that style so how would you buy a car are you the kind of person who just goes out and says hey i need a vehicle and i'm going to get it and so you just go on the lot and you just buy it are you that person well you know maybe there's some ways to defend against that that would keep you from making a mistake are you the kind of person that needs a lot of research, that needs a lot of data.

3:56Well, maybe you need to have somebody help you along the way that's going to move you along a little bit faster. Are you the kind of person who would never buy anything except through a friend? Well, if you're that kind of person, then maybe you need a little bit of help with the research and the details. And are you the kind of person that likes to analyze everything and you don't need all the details but you like all the details you and and you have a little bit of a hard time making a decision well you're probably gonna want to get some help making decisions so I just think it's helpful to understand who you are before you go looking for coach because if you understand that now if you would like some help with that we have some assessments that that will help you figure out what your behavioral profile is and help you make a good decision we're happy to do that that's a separate thing than you know investing in an actual coaching program that's just doing a little bit of self-discovery and finding out there's a lot of tools online for that as well but you probably know already how you like to invest in things or how you like to buy things.

5:11But I do have a few tips or a few guidelines that I think will help you in really buying anything, but certainly in investing in coaching. Because you've likely never done that before. And if you have, we do run into some people along the way who say, well, I had a coach before and it didn't actually work. Well, that's okay. Maybe it just wasn't a good fit or maybe it was the wrong timing. So I do have a few guidelines for you. The first thing is, what are the specific outcomes you want? Do you want more money? If you want more money, how much do you want? And when do you want it? And what would be those sort of things?

5:54How much? Or do you want more time? Is it that you're chained to your business and you want more time? Or do you want a better team? Or do you want all three? Whatever are the outcomes that you want. You want to be specific before you go and look for a coach. So that's one of my guidelines. Figure out what you want before you get in there. Maybe you want all of those things. With business coaching, we work on time, team, or money. So figure out specifically what you'd like the outcomes of that to be. And we can have a bit of a chat with you to figure out whether that's in the cards or not. Number two, what do you need?

6:37So the first one is what do you want? Second is what do you need? Do you need accountability? Do you already know what to do, but you need some accountability? Do you need knowledge? Well, likely you do because in order to be better, we have to know more. So you likely need some kind of extended knowledge. Does the coach have that kind of knowledge? do you need skills do you need do you need somebody just to talk to i had a client one time hire me his dad had died and he had a mentor that worked with his dad who was 90 something years old and he was like look this thing just doesn't he just not up enough on what's going on he's a great mentor but i just need somebody i come up with these ideas all the time for my business or i'm working on something i just want some input on it.

7:26I want to talk it out with somebody. But yeah, and I said, sure, I can do that. So, you know, what is it that you need? He needed a confidant. He needed somebody that he could talk to. He needed what we do, which is to be an unreasonable friend. The third thing I want you to do is a gut check. I want to know, are you serious about reaching your goals? Are you really serious? Are you willing to do the work that it takes to achieve the goals? Because if you're not, you know, coaching is a two-way street. If you're not, it's not going to work out, okay? Because we can give you guidance. We can help you with a plan, but you have to execute the plan.

8:13Number four, I think part of a good guideline is to ask your sphere of influence. Ask your friends. Ask your other business associates. Ask them about what they do. Ask them about coaches. Ask them about who they've used over the years for coaches. I know, you know, I personally still have a business coach. I have a mind coach. I have a physical fitness coach. I have coaches everywhere. so depending on what you need and want will determine the kind of coach that you get another guideline that I have for you is to check out the coach and check out their business you know we have a website you're welcome to go out there north carolina business coach is the easiest way to get there you know how many years have they been in business what kind of results have they gotten what kind of testimonials they got.

9:08You can look online. You can meet with them in person. There's all kinds of ways to check out the coaches and what kind of results they're getting. Another question I would ask is, can I get an ROI on my investment? That's one thing I look at when I'm determining fit? Is the business at a point, does it have several employees? Is it at a point where we can get enough improvement in cash flow to more than offset the investment in coaching? Because I essentially believe that coaching should be free. An investment is where you make more off of what you put in and so you get more out of your money than you put in.

9:57It's a pretty simple thing. Do you get a return on that investment? Most people say they do. We've got some stats on that that are super interesting.

10:11Anyway, number seven is do a test drive. We call it a strategy session. Yes, you have to do some things at a time. Yes, you have to fill out a questionnaire to give us some background information. So when in the strategy session, we can actually talk about strategies. We can talk about the goals, where you want to go. We can talk about where you are now. And then we can work on helping you have a mini plan to achieve those goals. So what's the test drive? Book a test drive. If you'd like to do that with us, it's free. It's easy. You do have to do some pre-work. All you got to do is hit the strategy session button on our website.

10:56The last thing I would say is do you like the person you're interviewing to be a coach? Do you get along? Is there a fit? Will it be fun? So can you get an ROI? Can you get your money back? And will it be fun? Those are the kind of things that I look at when it comes to selecting a client and what you should look at when selecting a coach. So if we can be of assistance in helping you with that, I've got good insight. We're happy to do a free strategy session with you. Jason or I, either one, are happy to do those. We'd love to do it. So just reach out on the website, northcarolinabusiness.coach, and check us out.

11:39It's also the other longer version of the URL for the website is in the show notes. You can click on that. And we'd be happy to sit down and chat with you. So if you don't have a coach, we'd love to chat with you. If you already have a coach and would like a second opinion, then we'd like to chat with you about that as well. So at what level you need a coach, that's what the strategy session is for. So I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week. I hope you've had a fantastic last week. And I will look forward to talking to you next week on Epic Entrepreneurs. Until then, all the best. hey thanks for listening to the epic entrepreneurs podcast here's three things that you can do number one remember to subscribe to the podcast it takes very little effort on your part it's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs plus you you guys know how it works the more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you.

12:45Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach. It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.