Everything You Need To Know About Business Coaches

Dan Austin: [0:02] Welcome to the collecting keys Friday focus. Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of the collecting keys Friday focus. These are the episodes where Mike and I just take a minute to do a deep dive on a specific topic or talk about something that's top of mind for us in our business. Today, I will be your host, Dan Austin, and I wanna follow-up as we have been doing quite a bit lately on an episode that just dropped this last Wednesday where Mike and I had a bit of a conversation around business coaches, and what we're doing in that realm, and some of the benefits, and downfalls, and all that sort of stuff. So I just thought it would be actually kind of a cool topic to actually discuss, because Mike and I have used various levels of coaching and group masterminds to get to our level, where we're at, and to help accelerate some of our growth, and really just solve problems, and help us kinda work through things. I'll first start by saying, there's several different types of business coaches. So you'll see and hear people, almost like it's an ego thing, saying, oh, I've got my business coach, or I've got this, I've got that. I would say there is a group coach, or a group like mastermind, like we run the InstaInvestor, which is more of a group coaching program, which is a great way to accelerate your learning and education, especially around a topic, a system, or something that you're trying to implement. Then there is the mindset coach, you all have heard many real estate investors talk about their mindset coach.

Dan Austin: [1:26] And Mike and I, we're not, that's not really where we're at in our life, and and things that we're trying to do. And I almost think a mindset coach is somewhat of a luxury item, that once you've cracked the code in your business, or once you've made some level of success, then you get the luxury of having a mindset coach, which sometimes is almost like a therapy session, and the things that you talk to them about, and it's helping, it's like a 1% thing, it's helping you break through things that are holding you back. Now some people, I guess, go and get a mindset style coach, or a leadership coach, or whatever you wanna call them, executive coach, they get those early on in their career, and that helps them crack the code to success. But I would say, more often than not, for the average person, the mindset coach is not what's going to get you to a level of success, it's what's going to take you from being successful to really successful. And then there's what I would call more of a technical coach, and I don't wanna say that like they're teaching you something technical, but for our coach that we hired, although he does a lot of mindset work with us, he's also a person, he's he's a true business coach, and he's teaching us and showing us how to scale our business.

Dan Austin: [2:39] It doesn't matter what our business is, if it was real estate, if it was construction, he in fact, he has tons of different coaching clients that he uses across many different industries. He has business experience himself, and what we really liked about him was really his experience around systematizing a business so that it can scale, and so that you can sell it, and so that you don't have to be working in it twenty four seven all the time, which is where Mike and I were at. We were in a kind of a scale trap. We were having trouble scaling our business without us just working in it twenty four seven, and we knew that we would want to be able to exit the business at some point in time, whether we exit three years, five years, or not, we wanted that ability to build something super valuable, and that's where he had his experience. And so that's really what I wanna talk about today, because that's most of my experience with coaching, and where I think a lot of our listeners are, you know, in in in that part of their business where they're maybe not quite ready for a mindset, but they are definitely ready for a coach to to kinda kick them in the ass, and help keep them moving forward.

Dan Austin: [3:41] So to start, I wanted to talk about the three reasons why people want coaching. Because you know, for me, I might have been a skeptic a few years ago, like, why do you need that? Like, just bust your ass and do better. Well, the first and the most important, I think, reason why you would get a coach is because it's going to... The coach will help you get to the same place you may have gotten without them, but you get there a hell of a lot faster. Right? So they can help accelerate the growth, they can help accelerate your learning, and that goes for group coaching programs as well, where you have somebody providing you with some sort of technical education on a specific topic, and then that group around you is there for support, that gets you there so much faster than if you would've gone alone. So that's one of my biggest pitches to any type of coaching. The second is you get that third person's perspective, that third person's point of view when you're trying to solve problems in your business, when you're trying to get to that next level, when you're when you're running into challenges with employees, whatever. So you get that like third party perspective. And for entrepreneurs, a lot of times, we're leading our companies, we don't have that perspective from anyone else, because we are the leader of our company. You know, Mike and I, fortunately, can bounce ideas and thoughts off each other, but a lot of times, on certain topics, we can get so invested into the challenge that we both start thinking a lot alike. So it's really nice having that third person perspective to come in and say, you know what, both of you guys are looking at it like idiots. You need to look at it through this lens. Or supporting us and saying, you know what, You know your business really well, and I I can get on board with that solution to the problem you're trying to solve.

Dan Austin: [5:10] And it's just great, feels good to have that person, and then their perspective. And then lastly, if they're a good coach, you get access to their network, and that is so valuable. If they're a good coach, they're going to coach other really great clients, but more importantly, they're just going to know a lot of other people, and they're going to be a connector. So not only are they gonna help you solve problems, but they can actually find people for you to help solve those problems in your business where you're lacking. They might know a pocket CFO that kicks ass, and and you're having trouble, you know, know, managing your finances. So, hey, I've got a pocket CFO over here that can help you, or hey, I have a property manager over here that I can help you, they're kick ass, and I trust them. And so if you need somebody to help scale your property management area, here you go. They can be that connector, that conduit to you for success. So those are the three reasons why I would say it's worth looking at getting a coach. Now, if you do choose to get a coach, here's a few things that you should not do when you're being coached by somebody. First, I would say, don't think for one minute that the coach is there to do work for you, or to do things and just give you stuff. That's not what they're there for. Honestly, like, if that's what you think, you're gonna be in the wrong... You're gonna you're gonna get off on the wrong foot. They're there to kinda guide you and give you context to what you're doing, and then you need to dig in and do the work.

Dan Austin: [6:29] Because at the end the day, it's your business, and if you're not willing to do the work on your business, then nobody else is going to be either. So don't expect that coach just to give you something that's like, here's this business in a box, and it just works perfectly. Even if they're giving you something from a technical aspect on on how to run your business, like, here's a framework I've used, you still have to put your business in it, and you still have to adapt it, and adjust it to your business, and work with that coach to do that. Secondly, and I wouldn't sign up for a coach at all, if you're not being willing to commit for that time period to that coach. So for us, with our coach, we committed to twelve months. And so we're paying him for twelve months of support. How the relationship goes on beyond that, that's up to us, and up to him if he chooses to keep us as clients, and vice versa. But what I will say is that, if you're like super pumped and motivated, and you think you can get three months out of it, don't sign up to be with this coach for twelve months, because you're wasting your money, and more importantly, you're wasting their time. Because coaches, they're successful based on their client's success. So they will fire you just as quickly, because they don't want you just to pay them to not be successful.

Dan Austin: [7:30] Right? They'll fire you before you can fail, because that's their reputation. So don't hire a coach if you can't be committed and invested in everything that you do within your business for twelve months, or whatever that commitment time frame is with them. Again, they are successful when you're successful, and they have a business of making people successful. If that wasn't the case, they won't be in business very long. And then lastly, on the things not to do, don't just accept everything your coach says as the gospel, as the bible. Listen to it, and then be inquisitive and question it. Understand why they're telling you something. Understand what's really the true fundamental basis of this element of coaching. I'm not saying argue with them and fight them on things, but I think for me, what I've recognized the benefit is, is not just taking things and accepting them, and just trying to implement them, because it's so much harder if I don't understand where they're coming from. And so I like to understand, ask the question of, why am I implementing this? Give me an example of where you're seeing us falling short in this category, and that this will help us and accelerate it. Because oftentimes, by doing that, you can adapt their coaching, and adapt those ideas and concepts, or whatever it is, to your business, and actually make it even better, and have this feedback loop from you to your coach on how to really start iterating on growing your business. If they're just like, hey, you need this, you need that, do that, do that, and you just do it, you don't ask questions, you don't really provide feedback, you're just gonna get the basic framework of whatever it is they're giving you. So be really inquisitive the whole time, and spend time engaging with them in conversation when you're getting that coaching, it's just so valuable.

Dan Austin: [9:09] So I've given you three things why you should do coaching, talked about what not to do when you get a coach, now just I'll close this out with saying some of the benefits, and and actual tangible things of why, and and how Mike are engaging with our coach. So the big thing that we recognized when hiring our coach was really that first reason I gave you, was we know how to get to where we're going, roughly, and it's maybe a flip of a coin that we'll get there, but likely, you know, we we'd make it there, but it's... It was gonna take us two, three years time to get there, we realized that. And we did not wanna wait that long, and we wanted to really start focusing on our growth and our business scaling, and and hammer it hardcore, and we committed ourselves to like, okay, this is our new business plan, and we shut everything else out. We literally, if it wasn't on that path for us, we closed it out all new other business ventures, things that were maybe producing income, but weren't really weren't really passions for us, or weren't on that path to the success we were building. We just... We cleaned off the table, we shut it off, and we kinda committed to each other. We're shiny object guys, we're deal junkies, and it's been hard for us, but we had to because we knew that it was worth committing to this time with our coach and this business plan. So we wanted to get there faster. The other problem we were having was scaling and understanding how to systematize our business.

Dan Austin: [10:29] So when you're operating a business, and then you're trying to build SOPs, and you're trying to hire people, and you're trying to fill roles you don't even really know exactly what they need to do right away, and all these things that are going on as a business owner, it was really hard to scale without having, you know, without bursting at the sides, because we don't have proper systems. And our business coach, Steve, he is a systems guy, that's what I said earlier, that's one of the reasons why we hired him, and he is helping us build systems. We didn't have anything, I mean, Mike and I were basically just solopreneurs, lifestyle guys, that we had these great visions, we just didn't know how to get there, and so really, taking that and building everything down to job profiles, roles and responsibility, key performance indicators for each position in our company, that basic piece, all the way to understanding that we need to be able to systematize everything, so that when we are building this thing to sell, that a potential buyer would come in and say, oh, I see you have this entire business that runs on its own, you know, obviously with leaders and employees in place, but essentially, me as a buyer, I don't have to come in and operate this, this is more valuable to me.

Dan Austin: [11:39] So that was the huge piece for us to understand, okay, now it makes sense, not just because it's easier for us to to run a business when it's systematized, it's easier for us to find that buyer that our business fits in with. Now again, there's no plan necessary to sell the business, but we're building it as if we were, because we understand that's where the value is to us as owners within the equity of the business, on top of all the cash flow our business produces. So, I'll stop jabbering there, I hope this was somewhat valuable to you, as far as like, what are we even talking about when we're talking about coaches, why do we have a coach, is it right for me, what what do I need to do to engage with a coach, all that sort of stuff. If you have questions, just hit me up on Instagram, give me a DM, investor man Dan, happy to answer those questions for you. If you wanna actually look at the group coaching program that we have, the Insta investor, go ahead to go to collectthekeyspodcast.com, click on the top right, become an Insta investor, and you'll see there to book a call with us. Just book a call, we'd love to chat with you about it, see how we can help scale your business, or accelerate the growth of your business, or just get you started in real estate investing, and off market space like like we do. So anyhow, hope you enjoyed this. Please like, follow, and share any of our stuff. That's how we keep the show growing. If you know somebody out there looking for a business coach, just share them this little podcast with them.

Dan Austin: [12:57] That's again how how we grow this pod. So I would really appreciate that, and I will catch you all next week. See you. Thanks for listening to this collecting keys Friday focus. Be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.