2202 - Collaboration that Counts: Transforming Business Value with Dan Coleman

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1:05With us right now, Dan Coleman. Dan, you're a leadership coach in business development, or I'd say business growth coach as well. Dan, it's great to have you. Nice to be here, Josh. Thanks for the invite and having me. You bet. Your website, dancolemancoach.com is your website. And before we talk about the work that you do in leadership, what are you currently geeking out on outside of work? Yeah, what a great question. My kids who are 14 and 15 are heavy into sports. So we're heavy, heavy, heavy into sports for parents out there, you know, travel teams and travel wrestling and tournaments and baseball and football starting.

1:53So the two things I'm really geeking out on my kids sports, which is awesome. And then a little bit of travel. We just returned from Costa Rica and we have a little place down there for years and we're doing remodeling and my kids are getting older so we get to do the fun stuff that Costa Rica offers now. As a sport parent, so you said what, wrestling, baseball and football was it? No. Yeah, my eldest is football and wrestling and my youngest is baseball and question mark. We're deciding if it's going to be football or wrestling, we'll see where he gravitates. Yeah. So as, as a parent, um, you know, and you've been doing this now for a little bit of time, you've got a, a, a second, uh, second, um, son getting into this space as well.

2:40Uh, do you, do you find that your emotions, like when you're watching it, you know, cause there's always the stereotype of the sport parent that can get a little too into it. Uh, you know, my, my older son did a lot of soccer and I mean, You did a ton of different stuff. Very little at the high school level. It kind of, you know, it was really, really active prior to that. But boy, I tell you, you see some parents that they get into it. How do you maintain balance without being one of those parents? Constant reminders from my family to not be that person. Yeah, I've probably slipped up two or three times over the years.

3:28But I also also like to think that, you know, having a little bit of EQ in these situations and reading the room and the coaches is probably an important piece to it as well. So we do the best we can and be gracious because we're all flawed humans at the end of the day. But that's my approach. Truly, truly. Well, Dan, tell us about the work that you do and who you serve and the outcomes you help create. Sure. Happy to do it, Josh. So I'm a business growth and leadership team coach. I work with SMB businesses and I work primarily with the leadership team. What that comes with is some one-on-one CEO type of coaching, even though I don't hold myself out as that type of coach.

4:12I refer out for that work. So I work with leadership teams to, frankly, implement a complete system that will drive the value of their company to be higher than it was before we started working together. there. So I do believe that as a business coach, despite systems and frameworks and, you know, culture and strategy, you know, all the stuff that these, a lot of teams need and are hungry for being facilitated by outside third party person like myself, I do believe that the number one business or number one KPI when CEOs hire a business coach is the value of their company. So my coaching practice for 11 years has evolved, and it will always evolve.

4:57That's kind of what we do as entrepreneurs, right, Josh, because I am an entrepreneur as well. It's evolved from just do this system for businesses, take the handcuffs off and do whatever the company needs to number one KPI driving value in a business. Uh, regarding the topic of leadership, uh, what are some of the kind of the key messages that, that you maybe find yourself talking more about these days than maybe you have in years past? Key topics around leadership, that storytelling is critical, that driving engagement and collaboration is really at the epicenter of building great teams. And then I'll throw a third one in there, that the critical building block of the best companies is literally the team.

5:54It's not one rock star person. It's not where I was talking with a new company that I'm working with the other day, and they're looking to hire their savior. You know, we're going to hire a great CMO to come in and save the day so we have more leads. It's really not what it's about. It's part of it. But at the end of the day, the fundamental building block of the best companies, in my experience, has been the team, starting with the leadership team, and then pushing that out. And literally, and I'm going to use the word obsession for a second, Josh. I don't think it's too strong. but literally obsessing about building a company that's a team of teams.

6:32And so what does that look like on a day-to-day basis? So if I'm a leader within an organization and I want to carry that level of obsession, how might that look? Well, understanding what your company needs, first of all, right? And it does, part of what I get to do with companies is implement a complete, holistic, bespoke operating system. You know, the term operating system has been popularized by so many different frameworks out in the universe these days, right? And they're all great in their own right, but the work that I get to do is putting a communication framework, this human energy management framework in the company through the leadership team as a starting point.

7:18Because if we don't do that, the pieces, the decisions, the energy tend to be disjointed and not going in the same direction, if you will. So number one is start to adopt some sort of operating system company-wide to get all of that human energy going in the same direction. Then the second part is really understanding what the company needs in terms of people. You know, go back to an org chart or accountability chart or matrix, whatever. What does your company need to get you to the next level in terms of for the greater good? And then next level, last level, getting really clear about what that seat needs to look like.

8:01Not just a handful of roles, Josh, but what's the mission of that person's seat? Why are we thinking about hiring them first in the first place? How do we track their success? What does winning look like? Those types of things. And so that's my formula with my teams. Yeah. And when you're engaging and you've worked with a number of organizations, what is the advantage to bringing in someone from the outside as opposed to a leader just kind of buckling down, reading a bunch of books and self-implementing? They're too close to it. Pretty simple. Now, I could follow up with a lot. They're just too close to it, right?

8:42So connecting and partnering with the right type of coach, an independent third party at the table that in an unbiased manner, hopefully, can point out flaws, areas of opportunity, weaknesses, strengths, and coordinate the activities so that we're working on the most important things. is whatever you're going to pay that coach, if it's the right coach, pay them 10 times more and they're still worth it type of thing. So every team needs a coach, Josh. Professional, high school, college teams, there's a reason for that, right? Because we get to help that team play the game of business at least a little bit better and in most cases, a lot better.

9:32and all the everything that I could I could keep talking but all the tactics and strategies about how we do that I'll just bucket them like this I believe great coaches have you know a process a model and then an endless toolkit of business tools to bring to the team so I believe in my experience and at this time I've worked with probably 90 companies approaching probably a thousand full-day workshop sessions type of thing so I'm just speaking from experience not trying to not trying to pontificate, right? But I believe the best coaches curate what that company needs and a little more, right? In the room.

10:12And sometimes you have to talk about things that are uncomfortable. So best coaches are curators of the best business practices. In my opinion. Yeah. So Dan, regarding your own business, you know, how have you, so, you know, Again, you're coming close to 100 clients that you've worked with. What does growth look like for you, and how have you sustained your own business success? Yeah, I appreciate that. So my own business success, maybe I should be, but I don't really market, per se. My business success has come from word of mouth and referrals and just having usually a number of clients or prospects that I can talk to at any given time.

10:55And I like to think, I like to think anyways, Josh, that comes from doing good work in the room, right? Providing value to companies. So, but as an entrepreneur, you know, entrepreneurs, I like to think are hungry for learning, playing that Simon Sinek infinite game, right? It's not a finite game. It's an infinite game of delivering value, becoming educated more every month and every quarter. And so the evolution of the type of work that I've done was one system. I did that other system for five years and it was terrific until it became too limiting and restricting for me. And so now I lean into another community and another type of approach with my clients that's very bespoke.

11:42And the latest thing, the latest, I guess, category is the fact, the silver tsunami. Josh, have you heard this term? The silver tsunami. The silver tsunami is the millions of companies that are going to want to get sold over the next seven to 10 years. Yeah. The baby boomers that are aging out. They want a succession plan, you know, for their family or to sell to their employees or be taken out by private equity or VC or whatever that looks like. And so the version of coaching that I do now really approaches that head on. because I do believe that if we can increase the value of a company, then that's a lot of the same work that we're doing to make the company healthier anyways.

12:32And so if we can make the company healthier through workshop sessions with the leadership team in a customized way, increasing the value of the company in a very targeted manner, then it gives that owner more options. Despite if they want to sell or not, it will give them more options downstream. So that's a bit of the messy overview of the evolution of the work that I get to do with teams. Yeah. Your website, Dan, is dancolemancoach.com. Also, you're a pretty good follow on LinkedIn. For a friend that's listening right now, obviously you share resources and so forth, but how do you engage with folks online?

13:11And I mean, ultimately, yes, I mean, there's, you know, certainly a client opportunity, but what resources might someone pursue after listening to this podcast conversation? Yeah, you can find me on LinkedIn. You can connect with me on my website as well. I have a newsletter that I curate every month. I try to keep it as small as possible. if you want to get on the newsletter, my newsletter, aka blog every month is very short. It's about a 60 second read. And it's something that I learned from my clients that month or that quarter. So it's all real time. Hey, this happened. Other people might want to know about that.

13:53So happy to sign people up for that very non-intrusive 60 second read. It's real time and that's pertinent information. Yeah. Website, dancolemancoach.com. Dan, again, leadership team coach, business growth coach. It's been great having you. Obviously, to our friend that's listening as well, you just click on the how it works button. And from there, you can learn a little bit more about that. And then certainly there's plenty, ample opportunity to engage with you there. Dan, thank you so much for the conversation. I appreciate you, Josh. Thank you so much.

14:33Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, please visit upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day. Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful leaders. And as I mentioned at the beginning of this program, if you're looking for introductions to partners, investors, influencers, and clients, I have had private conversations with over 2 ,000 leaders asking them where their best business comes from.

15:14I've got a free video that you can watch right now with no opt-in or email required where I'm going to share the exact steps necessary to be 100 % inbound in your industry over the next six to eight months with no spam, no ads, and no sales. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create eight figures in revenue for my own companies. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. Make sure to hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed.

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