Now, broadcasting from the center of the universe and the Thrive15.com world business coach headquarters. Presenting the world’s only business school without the BS, with optometrist and entrepreneur Dr. Robert Zoellner, and former Small Business Administration’s Entrepreneur of the Year, in your ear, Clay Clark. It’s the Thrive Time Show, on Talk Radio 1170.
3, 2, 1, business coach boom.
Clay Clark: All right, all right and all right. Welcome back to the Thrive Time Show on your radio.
My name is Clay Clark, and as always, we are on a mission to help you get in a better financial position. Now, typically, we’re broadcasting from the box that rocks at the glorious Thrive15.com world headquarters, but today, we’re broadcasting off campus, at the man cave.
Robert, if you could describe the man cave … I’ve never heard of the man cave or been to the man cave, all I can say is that we are definitely always learning, earning, and burning and as a business coach, that is fun. But could you describe the accoutrements and the décor that are surrounding your magical microphone over there?
Robert Zoellner: I think the best way to describe the man cave is a hybrid of technology and barn wood.
Clay Clark: Wow, the hybrid of technology-
Robert Zoellner: The hybrid of … I mean, I’m looking around, and there’s just wood everywhere. There’s this very rustic, manly vibe. And then, I’m surrounded by screens and audio equipment, just everywhere. And so, from a male perspective, you’re getting the best of both worlds here. This is really incredible.
Clay Clark: Now, from a female perspective, basically you would … If you’re a female and you’re listening here, what you’d want to do is you’d want to come in here and you’d want to look around and then immediately, you would want to probably head for the hills. You’d probably want to run. You’d probably just want to say, “What is going on in here?”
But it is the man cave, it’s kinda like an underground bunker, kinda like a speakeasy, is how I’d describe it. Kinda like a speakeasy you might find in Austin, Texas or Chicago.
But today, what we’re talking about … We’re talking about a question that many of you have been emailing us in, over and over asking the same question. So what want to do is we want to make sure we answer all of your questions as soon as possible from business coach to business coach.
So here’s the question we had quite a bit here, is, “What exactly does a business coach do?” Again, people have been asking us “What exactly does a business coach do?” And, so, I’m gonna walk you through what a business coach does, why they do it, the value they should be bringing to the marketplace, the value they do bring to the marketplace if they’re successful, and here we go.
So first off, here’s a little fun factoid for you. Without outside mentorship, or without somebody showing you the proven path, according to Bloomberg, eight out of ten entrepreneurs who start a business fail within the first 18 months. That means a whopping 80% are crashing and burning.
Robert, you’ve coached with businesses all over the planet, you’ve met a lot of Thrivers out there who’ve reached out and said, “Hey, you know what, my business is headed to the toilet and I need somebody to help me.” In your mind, why do a lot of businesses fail without a business coach or a mentor to help them along the way?
Robert Zoellner: Well, I think one of the biggest reasons why, Clay, is because they have no one outside of themselves holding them accountable. Right? That’s one of the biggest values that a coach provides. Not only will they show you the proven path, show you the path that’s proven to grow their business, but they’ll hold you accountable to that path as well.
So many business owners, they tend to get lost in the details of business. They tend to drift away towards their goals, right? And the value of a coach is a coach calls you back to focus. “Hey, hey, what’s the most important thing to focus on right now?”
Clay Clark: And I will say this, as a business coach, to kind of pile on to what you said, when it comes to holding a customer accountable, there’s a certain casualness in … Casualness will always cause casualties in the world of business.
Robert Zoellner: That’s profound.
Clay Clark: And I’ve noticed this consistently, that when you’re working with a business owner, just on a very fundamental, very simple level … When we help them get to the top of Google … So let’s just do an example.
If you’re a Thriver out there and you want to go ahead and Google this, pull out your smartphone or tablet, and type in “Tulsa cookies”, okay? “Tulsa cookies”. And when you type in “Tulsa cookies”, you’re gonna find Barbee Cookies, right? One of our Thrive15.com business coach clients.
Let’s say you want to go ahead and type in … Here’s another example. Let’s say you Google “gluten-free cookies”. I want you to Google that term, and do a Google search for that, and guess what comes up. That’s Barbee Cookies.
And one more example. The other night, at the Oilers game, we set an attendance record for most tickets sold, and they are also a Thrive coaching client.
And in both of those cases, what happened was, is we were able to generate them leads as a result of doing what we call the three-legged marketing stool. Okay, the three-legged marketing stool.
So, one, is, in the case of the Oilers, we have a no-brainer ad that we’re running on Facebook. Just a phenomenal deal. Barbee Cookies, they have a deal where … It’s a free cookie for a first-time customer. You get one free cookie the first time you’re in. So they have a no-brainer offer, they’re marketing on social media. That’s way number one.
Way number with both of them is search engine optimization. So when you’re looking for these search terms related to what they do, they come up top.
And move number three is they have a thing called the Dream 100, where they market to their ideal and likely buyers consistently until they cry, buy, or die. So basically, they will come by your office and offer you samples, and they’ll offer you free tickets, maybe, to a game or … They want to get you engaged.
Now, in both of those cases, without the discipline and the accountability that they demonstrate, nothing would work. You know, Maya Angelou, the best-selling author said “Nothing works unless you do.” But in both cases, those two companies, Barbee Cookies as well as the Tulsa Oilers, they get done what they need to get done. We just showed them what they need to get done, and we helped them with their websites, we helped them with their branding.
When I say “helped”, we built the website, we built their branding. We built the logos. We built the marketing pieces. We launched the ads. We designed everything. We did the videography. We did the photography. We did the search engine optimization. There’s all these things that we did, right?
But at the end of the day, if we generate a lot of leads, Robert, for a Thriver, and they don’t hold themselves accountable to calling the leads or taking the action steps needed, nothing would get done. I mean, if Barbee Cookies didn’t actually hold her team accountable to producing the cookies that Tulsa came in every day to buy, she would not be opening her second location.
So I would say in the case of Barbee’s, as well as the Tulsa Oilers, what’s nice is that they wanted a coach, Robert, they wanted some accountability. They wanted to be shown the way, and they wanted to be held accountable to getting it done. And I just think that without a coach or an outside mentor, if you’re being honest … Probably not you, the Thriver, other Thrivers who are listening, I’m sure that you always get your stuff done. You never have a problem with drifting and slacking.
But in all sincerity, Robert, without an outside mentor or business coach, unfortunately, we find that the majority of small business owners that reach out to us … Before we begin that coaching relationship, they’ve just never been very consistent with doing some of the basic things like doing their opening checklist, or calling their sales leads.
Robert, why is that, in your mind?
Robert Zoellner: I think there’s a number of different reasons.