Business RadioX ®

Executive Leadership Coach Brooke Dinse McCarrison

by

BrookeDinseMcCarrison
Coach The Coach
Executive Leadership Coach Brooke Dinse McCarrison
Loading
/

BrookeDinseMcCarrisonBrooke Dinse McCarrison is a leadership professional with over a decade of management, training and team building experience.

Her experience includes teaching English and Spanish classes to factory workers, working with foster children and their families, supporting lawyers at a mid-sized law firm, and administering insurance policies, managing teams, and leading operations at a global insurance company.

She is the founder and coach of Brooke Dinse McCarrison Coaching.

Her coaching programs aim to help emerging leaders and experienced executives reconnect with their purpose to inspire teams, achieve success with meaningful impact, and find fulfillment at work and in life. Brooke earned her CPC through iPEC and is also a certified ELI-MP.

Connect with Brooke on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Performance reviews
  • Hiring the right people
  • Keeping the right people
  • Having the right mindset
  • Perspective in the workplace

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXAmbassador.com to learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us Brooke Dinse McCarrison with Brooke Brooke Dinse McCarrison coaching. Welcome, Brooke

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:00:45] Haley. Thank you so much for having me on today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:48] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to tell us about your coaching practice. I know you focus on executive leadership. Talk about that a little bit.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:00:57] Yeah. Thank you. Yes. I help both emerging leaders and seasoned executives really just connect in with their true purpose so that they can find their real spark and use that to have the impact they want to have to help their teams grow in meaningful ways. And just really, you know, have a have a career that’s that’s fulfilling and a life that’s fulfilling as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:24] So what’s your back story? Were you always a coach or is this something you got into a little later in your career?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:01:31] Yeah, definitely. Definitely something I got into later in my career. I have a bit of a winding road when it comes to my career journey. I, I taught factory workers for a while, English and Spanish language courses, and through that experience, really got to see firsthand how frustrating it can be when you can’t communicate effectively as a team. And then I work with foster kids in Chicago for a while and helping their families navigate through crisis situations and through that system was extremely Eye-Opening for me. And then I worked at a law firm and and helped paralegals and legal assistance and lawyers move through high stress situations there, and then eventually found myself as working for an insurance company and moving into led a team of operations folks at that insurance company through a lot of change and a lot of growth. So, yeah, it was a winding road, but ultimately the thread that ran through it for me was the difference between what can happen when a team of people is led by a really inspirational and purposeful leader and when they’re not. And so knowing that difference and getting to be in that seat for a while, I really I really learned that I that that’s where my my genius’s I want to help leaders grow into the best version of the leader they could possibly be so that they can lift everybody up around them.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:12] Now, on this journey. Did you have an opportunity to be coached yourself?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:03:18] Yes, definitely. So I I was coached really quite a bit. I found coaching to be extremely helpful to me in my own personal development and my development specifically as a leader. And it was actually crucial for me to really have that kind of support in order to develop the skill set that I really needed to be an effective and inspirational leader. So not only did I receive the help through coaching in that regard, it also helped me to come to realize that that coaching was really the work I’m meant to do in my life as well. And so it helped me make that that transition, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:01] So for the folks who have never been coached before, what is some of the kind of unexpected benefits of working with a coach that you found that might help persuade them to try coaching?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:04:13] Yeah, I love that question. So I think a lot of people, they have familiarity with coaching around, say, maybe a sports coach, which I was an athlete in high school and college. So I definitely know what that’s all about. Or or they think of it as something. Once you get into the professional development space, they think of it as something that maybe only really top level executives have access to or should take advantage of. And I think I think the most unexpected thing that I found in the power of coaching is that really it can help you amplify what you’re already doing and what you’re already experiencing to a level you never even thought possible. And so I think it comes in it comes in to be this extremely helpful thing at whatever stage of your career you’re in, but also whatever stage of fulfillment you’re in as well, because it can help you when you’re really in quite a bit of challenge and struggle and maybe moving into something new for the very first time, like your very first leadership role, for example. It can help you there, but it can also help you at times when you’re kind of just coasting. Right. You’ve got kind of got this thing down. You’ve figured out what’s going on, but, you know, you’re not operating at your optimal level. And and that’s the. Driving you crazy to some extent, right, you’re not getting the kind of level of joy and happiness and fulfillment out of your life that you really know you’re you’re capable of and you want more of. And so coaching can really help in those situations, too.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:47] Now, do you think coaching is better suited for that kind of achiever mindset person that people that want more that aren’t satisfied with where they’re at as opposed to that kind of remedial way of dealing with people and saying, hey, I need you to fix these things to really up level something from basic to, you know, better rather than from good to great.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:06:12] Yeah, that’s such a great question. I love it. So I think that I think they’re both good places to receive coaching and coaching can really help you benefit. The critical piece. Is the person seeking out the coaching really wanting to make a change? Right. So so whether you are feeling like you’re at just the very beginning base level of your skills in a certain area or your understanding or your clarity or your knowing in a certain area or whether you think you’ve moved quite a ways along, but you want to just amplify it and get better, get even better. The critical pieces, you wanting to make a change. And I think if if if that commitment and that dedication is there, it doesn’t really matter what level you’re at. It just matters that you’re ready to show up and you’re ready to be open to looking at things differently and trying different things to find what your next best step is to take that that step toward raising your bar right to the next to the next point.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:21] Now, when you’re working with leaders, do you find that a lot of times the leader has that kind of. Special, something within themselves, but sometimes they get bogged down with some of the I don’t want to downplay it in terms of calling it minutia, but some of the kind of the nuts and bolts of the job and less of the inspirational kind of classic leadership that you would see in movies, part of the job.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:07:49] Yes, absolutely. You have me laughing on that one because that one rings very true for me. Right. I am remembering when I first stepped into a leadership position and I had so much hopeful optimism and so much of my own momentum built up, wanting to be the leader that I’d seen in movies are the leaders I’ve been lucky enough to have in real life, too. And I wanted to be like those people. Right. I wanted to give that gift really to my team. And it does not take long once you step into that role and it doesn’t really matter what level it’s at, whether it’s your first time being a leader, whether you’ve been doing it for years, but your role has shifted or you’ve changed companies, it does not take long for those feelings to come to spiral into the overwhelm the because there is so much, especially as you move your way up the ladder, so to speak, there’s so much to pay attention to. And and depending on where your team is at, depending on where your companies that depending on what resources you have available to you, what level of talent you have on your team, all of those things come into play to really equate to a leader is responsible for a lot of things and the buck stops with you. And so it needs to get done one way or the other. And so I think a lot of leaders find themselves taking on a lot of, like you said, the minutia or the the to do list just gets longer and longer and longer. The the number of emails they need to respond to in their email just becomes crushingly overwhelming. And it can be so easy to lose sight of those things that you were once focused on in order to bring that inspiration and motivation both to yourself and to your team.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:39] Now, do you find that most people have kind of that leadership quality within them and they just need to have it coaxed out? Or do you believe some people are just kind of born with the charisma and the skills of the leader?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:09:54] I love that question so much. So I I definitely think that there are folks who are born with the quote unquote leadership qualities. But I truly believe that there is a leader inside of all of us and we’re actually always leading all the time. It’s just whether we’re leading actively or whether we’re leading passively. And so gaining self awareness around how you’re currently showing up, how you’re being perceived, how that’s affecting the way in which you move through the world and the people who you interact with move through the world and then really taking that self-awareness and making intentional choices about how you move forward from there. I think anyone has the ability to do that. And I also think that leadership in large part is a learned skill set and it’s oftentimes a skill set that is not so. It’s not taught in the same kind of way that teaching someone how to do a job well is taught right. And so a lot of times people find themselves just quote unquote, falling into leadership roles or getting promoted into them because they’ve been in a company for a long time or they’ve been an exceptional performer in in the role that they were responsible for before. And then they’re kind of just left to figure it out as a leader. And I think that’s where it’s really important to find the right kind of support, to be able to have someone in the ring with you to help you develop that skill set based on where you are right now and what your next best steps forward are, because I think anybody has the ability to be an amazing leader. It’s just about what how you want to lead.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:43] Now, let’s talk about your specific practice. What is the typical kind of point of entry for a client of yours? What’s the pain that they’re having? Where it’s the right move is to call Brooke in her team.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:11:56] Yeah, thank you for that question. So it’s a couple of things. I have folks who come to me who are first time leaders, right. They’re moving from being that exceptional individual contributor and they’re taking on their first leadership role. And they’re either anticipating starting doing that or they’ve gotten into it and they’re realizing, whoa, hold on a minute, this is a different pool and the water is a lot deeper over here. So I got to figure this out. And they and they realize that having someone in their corner to help them. Troubleshoot their help, guide them through that and help them work through it is exactly what they need, right? Right at that time. So that’s that’s some of the folks. The other I would say the majority of the other folks who come to me, it’s actually two things. One is they they know they are capable of so much more as a leader. They they’ve proven that to themselves and to other people in other roles that they’ve had or at other companies that they’ve been at. But they find themselves in a truly toxic work situation. And it’s just not the right fit. It’s not working. And so they’ve been they’ve really been through the fire. Right. Just and really gone into survival mode, trying to make sure that they can salvage something out of the situation. And that’s a really hard place to try to figure stuff out from and to motivate yourself from. And so they seek out the coaching in order to help them do that, in order to help them move through it and move move past it. And then I’d say the third group is folks who are our leaders. They know they’re good at it. They’re getting by. Their team is doing OK, they’re doing OK, but OK is not good enough for them. And they just really want to magnify the the impact that they’re having and show up in a in a more purposeful way.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:52] So now you mentioned working with emerging leaders or even experienced leaders that are having some difficulty. Is there an industry that you work in that you feel more comfortable in or the kind of industry agnostic?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:14:07] Yeah, great question. So I think my most recent and and longest tenure experience before becoming a coach was in the insurance industry. And I definitely had a lot of clients who coach and clients who who are in the insurance industry as well. So I’m really well versed in that and feel comfortable there. But my client base really spans all industries and it spans nonprofit and and corporate environment. There’s there’s leaders in every realm. Right. And so it really just the details are less important than the experience that the leader is going through at that time. And we can quickly get up to speed related to the specifics and then just spend our time diving deep into exactly what’s going on for that individual. And then I can customize a plan for them from there based on what they most want and what they know, how quickly they want to get there.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:10] Now, are you finding that the corporations that you’re working with are more open to coaching number one for themselves, but also to deploying it for their other employees, like maybe deeper in their bench than they had previously, that maybe, like you said earlier, that at one time this was only for a select handful of, you know, high performers to get even better. But now it’s becoming accepted as a this is a nice kind of part of our corporate culture to really upscale as many people as we can.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:15:44] Yes, I think I think the answer to that question is, is both is true. Right. I have seen a lot more examples recently of companies wanting to invest more, seeing the benefit that coaching can bring to everyone within their organization at all levels, not just at those really high senior levels or the emerging leader levels. And so the organizations that recognize it as a benefit are starting to build it in to more more concretely into their offerings. And then they’ve also got other other spaces where it still hasn’t permeated yet. Right. And I think the. Either way, whether it’s something that’s offered through someone’s company or organization or it’s it’s opt or it’s someone saying, OK, this isn’t offered through my company or organization, I’m going to go seek it out myself. I think that more and more individuals are finding that they they’re getting more nuanced in what exactly and being able to tell what exactly it what kind of support they really need at that time. And so I think more and more we’re going to see the employees and the leaders within companies kind of pushing for a more customization when it comes to the support that they’re receiving. Because I can’t tell you how many times I went on training sessions when I was in my leadership roles. And they were amazing and they were wonderful. I learned so much. I came out of there so invigorated and ready to go. And then within 20 minutes of getting back to my desk and reading all of the emails that I needed to catch up on or being informed of fire, I needed to be put out. It’s like all of that just went out the window. Right. And so I think that more and more we’re starting to see kind of driven by the individuals within companies saying we need some ability to customize this year for ourselves and pick the things, the kind of support that works best for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:41] Now, any advice for that new coach that’s trying to transition from maybe a corporate gig to coaching? Is there any kind of dos and don’ts that you can share?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:17:52] Oh, good question. Well, I think. I would say, you know, the first thing that comes up is just just follow your heart, right? And that sounds, I think, kind of high level and easy. But when it comes to when to do it, the right time to do it, how you do it, who you most want to work with, I think it really comes down to getting very clear in your heart and in your gut because you’re going to do a really good job of figuring out all the mundane stuff, going through all the thoughts and all the strategy and all the planning and all of that. But but really stay connected with your heart and with your gut around, you know, timing when when the right timing is for you to transition from one to the other and who you most want to work with and what you most want to help them with. Because I think at the end of the day, that’s what it will really come down to, is that’s where your passion is going to lie. That’s where your genius is going to lie and everything else, all the technical and practical pieces you can lay on top of that great advice.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] Now, if somebody wants to learn more about you and your team and your practice, what is the website? What’s the best way to get a hold of you?

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:19:08] Yeah, so they can get a hold of me at my website. It’s Brooke Demsey McCrossin dot com. And that’s d i n s e m c c a r r s o n dot com. And then and it’s Brooke with an E or you can find me on LinkedIn. Same place, Brookton, Zema, Kerrison.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:30] Well, Brooke, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Brooke Dinse McCarrison: [00:19:36] Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure getting to talk with you. And yeah, I really appreciate the time.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:42] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach Radio.

Dan Rothfeld With Mainland

by

Franchise Marketing Radio
Franchise Marketing Radio
Dan Rothfeld With Mainland
Loading
/

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

DanRothfeldBusiness growth expert Dan Rothfeld was just appointed president of Mainland, a 100+ brand, franchise-focused content marketing agency, to help the fast-growing agency expand into new segments, including personal finance, real estate, travel, restaurant tech and education tech.

Rothfeld is bringing his wealth of experience in business growth to Mainland, where he hopes to leverage the agency’s unique content marketing strategy and technologies to scale the company rapidly over the next five years.

Rothfeld first made a name for himself in the business world at Spherion, a pioneer in the staffing- and workforce-solutions industry, where he established a global network of professional niche staffing businesses, including IT, legal, finance and accounting.

In the years that followed, Rothfeld became one of the most sought-after business-growth experts in any industry, helping lead two businesses, including the massive hospitality franchise Choice Hotels International, to successful IPOs. Rothfeld has also helped lead businesses in different verticals to successful private equity exits.

Rothfeld has also helped brands in segments as diverse as legal services (US Legal Support) and drone technology and software (Measure UAS), reinvigorate their development strategies and dramatically increase their revenues. Rothfeld is an accomplished investor in franchising, real estate and even Broadway musicals.

Connect with Dan on LinkedIn.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio, brought to you by SEO Samba, comprehensive, high performing marketing solutions for mature and emerging franchise brands. To supercharge your franchise marketing, go to seosambo.com. That’s seosamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us Dan Rothfeld with Mainland. Welcome.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:00:40] Hi Lee, thanks so much. Pleasure to be here.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:44] Well, I’m excited to hear what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about mainland, how you serve in folks.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:00:49] So Mainland initially started out about close to about 15 years ago. Now, gentlemen, founder of the company is a gentleman by the name of Nick Powles and their original kind of focus area was in Franchise Marketing Radio. And today we serve about 120 different franchise brands and virtually every business vertical that you can possibly imagine. And essentially we’re providing them with digital marketing, services, media. We leverage technology, particularly through a couple of digital channels that we have created that allow us to be able to provide much more targeted type of a result back to our clientele, leveraging off the digital channel, as well as the data and analytics that we can generate as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:48] So now so since its inception, it was always focused on serving franchise clients.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:01:54] Yep, the last 14 years have been predominantly focused, actually entirely focused on service servicing the franchise community. And now with the advent of some of these digital channels that I mentioned, we’re now starting to branch out into areas like real estate, personal finance, restaurant technology and a couple of other business verticals as well, including travel, the travel industry as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] Now, by specializing primarily on franchises as your work helping that franchisor get found by potential franchisees, is it helping the local franchisees get more local businesses? The combination of all of that,

Dan Rothfeld: [00:02:39] Let’s see all the above. The primary focus has always started out in the development arena. So it is, as you mentioned, trying to connect up prospects that might be interested in that franchise concept. And then also, as that franchisee becomes part of that system and gets on board and working along with the franchise store and the franchisee to provide, you know, certain certain marketing tactics to make that franchisee much more successful.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:14] Now, is there anything that you could share with our listener that maybe there is an emerging franchise that is just getting started? Maybe they got some traction locally. Now they’re saying, hey, I think that this can scale. I think we can do this in other markets. Is there kind of some dos and don’ts that you’ve learned over, you know, dealing with hundreds of brands?

Dan Rothfeld: [00:03:36] Well, predominantly, what you want to be focused on is make sure that your efforts to have an up and coming franchise are part it’s essentially leveraging the founder’s story. Why did the founder think that this was an interesting business to develop on their own? And then as that business grew and evolved and became something that could be created into more of a franchise concept in which that business, you know, basically becomes almost business in a box, all the the issues that a prospective franchisee might face entering into that type of a business or that industry have already sort of been factored in. And, you know, there’s a very high success rate, which is obviously what people want when they’re buying into a franchise. We want to leverage the fact of why the founder decided to enter into that business and whether it’s lifestyle or whether it’s, you know, as a result of a particular opportunity and leverage that franchise story, because that will resonate with prospective franchisees that might have an interest in that type of a business.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:55] Now, that’s an interesting tact, my background in marketing. So that to me really is at the heart of of marketing and advertising is you have to kind of attack the heart first before the brain. And it sounds like that you are an agreement from that standpoint that the Y has to be there, the mission, whatever kind of the overarching emotional goal was, has to maybe be at the forefront and then still back it up by the facts of its replicable and it scales. And we have everything in a box that that’s secondary. I mean, those are must haves, but they’re secondary in the storytelling of the brand.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:05:31] Yes. So, you know, within mainland, one of the primary premises that we always talk about internally with our staff and we certainly talk about it with the franchise franchise or is that we work with is it’s called, you know, why? Why you why now? And it is, you know, building upon that story of why that person decided to get involved in that business, you know, what was happening in that person’s life, because at the end of the day, people sell brands, brands that don’t sell brands. So it really does start, in fact, with the person story or the founders story. And then, yes, to your point, you know, clearly the the investment, the franchise investment obviously has to be there. But what drives people to get into a business or to get into a franchise is always there’s always something beyond the dollars and cents as to why a person decides to make that type of an investment.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:44] Now, having done this for a minute or so, has the reasons people buy a franchise kind of changed, you know, as we enter hopefully a post pandemic era?

Dan Rothfeld: [00:06:57] I would say that, you know, generally speaking, I think well, I’ll say this as it relates to our current dynamics, is people are are, you know, looking for an opportunity to control the agenda as opposed to letting the agenda control them. And I think that there is certainly a fair amount of frustration out there and just a a potential interest in doing something besides, you know, more of a nine to five or a traditional corporate type of a role. And certainly the pandemic has, if anything, just increased that desire and that feeling out there, generally speaking. So it’s just, you know, really about the individual and their ability of being able to control their life and wanting to do something that they get fulfillment out of and perhaps change the balance of their lifestyle. Those are generally where people start out in their look to is to, you know, to ask the question, is there something else out there in life besides just, you know, punching in at night and clocking out at 5:00.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:21] Now, do you think that any of that is also coming from the fact that, like, interest rates are so low and that traditional retirement, some of the things that you would invest in a traditional retirement aren’t there? And you’re going to have to add some more level of risk into your kind of financial future as you exit maybe that that corporate gig or that enterprise career that you had for a period of time, that now you have to kind of take more of these kind of swings in order to maintain a lifestyle.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:08:53] I think for a certainly there’s a certain type of demographic where that resonates for sure. And I also think that once again, that’s looking at things in a very opportunistic type of way, coming off of something that kind of certainly has started off to be and maybe even still is to a certain extent a negative in terms of the pandemic. But leveraging the fact of, you know, current economics and current situations to look at it in a very, you know, business or financial type of a way that, you know, this perhaps to something for us to take advantage of because of how things have essentially set themselves up right now as it relates to economics and finances for sure.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:45] Now, is there any are you seeing kind of the demographic of a potential franchisee getting younger, our younger folks kind of choosing this path as opposed to, you know, maybe, like you said, get that nine to five or I’m just a cog in the machine and then I work my way up. And if they go with the franchise rather than they have a little more say in control of their destiny,

Dan Rothfeld: [00:10:09] You know, certainly, you know, if you go back and you look at the research as it relates to, you know, GenZE and the millennial generation, they’re certainly much more focused in on lifestyle. And so, once again, franchising as an opportunity is something that may appeal more to that demographic for certain reasons than than other generations.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:37] So you are are you seeing, like, more like parent child kind of combos where maybe the parents funding some of this for the kids to get them going in a career rather than them kind of going out and getting that corporate gig?

Dan Rothfeld: [00:10:51] Yes. And actually, to be honest, that’s something that I’ve personally seen, you know, throughout my franchising career. At one time, I was chief operating officer and chief revenue officer for a company called Choice Hotels International. And there was a lot of generational, you know, tie in where, you know, the older generation made the initial investment. And then it became very much of a sort of a, you know, family type of a business where they were, you know, originally investing in one property and then cultivated that business and ultimately allowed them the flexibility of being able to purchase and or build other hotels. And then as their children came of age and expressed an interest and they would bring them into the business as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:53] Now, are you seeing more? A professional franchise owners were they’re building kind of portfolios of complementary brands and they’re kind of looking at a market a little differently because once they have that customer acquired, then they can kind of share them among several brands. Or is that a trend that you’re seeing?

Dan Rothfeld: [00:12:14] Yes. And again, it’s it’s a trend for sure, but it’s been a trend that’s actually played out for quite some time, particularly, again, if I look back into the hotel industry and a choice, we have or had 15 different brands that we, you know, operated and sold and, you know, the part of the business model in that type of industry saturation. So particularly a choice where it was, you know, a limited service, limited service type of a hotel product. Investors and developers would buy a piece of property, let’s say, right off of cloverleaf of an interstate, and they would build that property and then they might choose to open up maybe even one or two or in some cases even three other properties on the other parts of that cloverleaf that were all different brands, but yet still owned by the same ownership and developer.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:26] So you’re seeing some of that. The evolution of that is that’s now trickling into other kind of sectors,

Dan Rothfeld: [00:13:33] Home services, the restaurant industry. That’s definitely something that you’re seeing out there

Lee Kantor: [00:13:41] Now when an emerging firm or franchise partners with mainland, what does that look like? Are they coming to you with maybe they got burned before they weren’t happy with their previous kind of marketing help? Or are they coming to you as saying, hey, look, we this is our best guess on how this is working and we need an expert to help shape our direction. Like what is kind of your relationship with your clients?

Dan Rothfeld: [00:14:05] Yeah, it really it’s very dependent upon the franchise laws. So in some instances it’s an upstart and they’re looking for that type of relationship. They didn’t have to have that when they were just kind of a standalone, you know, operating unit. Now that they’re are starting to explore the franchise concept, they need somebody that they can work with that will assist them in creating market generation for prospects that might be interested in that brand, or it could be a inexperienced or a, you know, existing brand that may have had a previous relationship. And that relationship has not evolved. And, you know, that’s one of the things that we definitely strive for in our business, is to make sure that we’re not standing still because business doesn’t stand still. So the ability of being able to, you know, understand how demographics are changing, how technology is changing, how storytelling because, you know, at the at its crux, that’s what marketing is all about, storytelling. How is that changing and how can we help that brand tell its story, you know, in a more constructive or better way that’s going to resonate with the demographics that that they’re trying to capture. And, you know, once again, I think for us as our own brand, we’re we tend to look at things as one. We are telling a story, but we’re trying to to try to create a emotional attachment with that prospect versus just strictly looking at this as a franchise business investment and an economic investment. And that’s what we try and center our messaging around.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:11] Can you share a story? Don’t name the name of the brand, but maybe give the back story of they were struggling with this, they started working with Mainland and then we helped them get to this new level.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:16:24] Well, there’s quite a few, right,

Lee Kantor: [00:16:26] But I want to talk about one that’s memorable in the sense that they had a hard problem and that they really were kind of, you know, they were had a real challenge and we were able to be creative and solve their problem.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:16:39] Yeah, well, one that just kind of comes to mind because it’s a conversation we were just having recently, which is once again, the messaging that their current marketing firm was using was much more focused in on the numbers of the franchise, you know, the the franchise investment that a, you know, prospective owner would make, not necessarily focusing on the value and the story behind that franchise. And we had the ability of being able to change that messaging, not only that, that almost immediately have an impact on the quality of the prospect that we were able to provide to that franchise, but also the sheer numbers of people who were interested in it, as well as I think telling it, telling the story better so that people understood what the franchise opportunity was and then consequently having the ability of being able to create an environment in which that franchise owner could be much more successful at selling that franchise concept internally or organically versus having to leverage a, you know, a broker type relationship or the broker community to do that. And also, you know, trying to leverage the resources that that franchise or kind of already brought to the table, but might not have been communicated where where people, you know, totally understood that.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:30] So do you see a lot where the franchise owner kind of has gold right around it and they don’t see it? Like maybe they take it for granted or they don’t see the value that maybe something on your team could see and say, oh, man, that’s right in front of you. Why aren’t they doing more of this

Dan Rothfeld: [00:18:44] All the time? We do. We do. We just in this past week, we did three different brand assessments. And what you find out and I think this is the case, whether you’re a mom and pop business or whether you’re a portfolio company like, you know, like a choice or, you know, some of the other larger portfolio companies out there that have multiple brands. Sometimes you get so busy in working in your business, you don’t really take the time to step back and work on your business because you’re so focused in on sort of the day to day. You don’t kind of take account or do an inventory of what you may already have that you’re really not taking advantage of. And particularly that’s where the brand assessment process is that we do with our clients is incredibly beneficial.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:38] Well, Dan, thank you so much for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to get a hold of you and have a conversation with you or somebody on the team, what is the website

Dan Rothfeld: [00:19:48] You can go to? It’s Hello, Mainland Dotcom, and certainly feel free to reach out to me or Nick, and we’d be happy to have a conversation with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:59] Good stuff. Thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dan Rothfeld: [00:20:03] Hey, you bet. Thanks so much for the time. I appreciate

Lee Kantor: [00:20:05] It. All right. This is Lee Kantor Wilson. Next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

 

Kuʻuleilehua Manoa With Monat

by

Oahu Business Radio
Oahu Business Radio
Kuʻuleilehua Manoa With Monat
Loading
/

FacilityAXS-Ambassador-Image

Kuʻuleilehua Manoa with Monat, is born and raised in Kailua, Oʻahu and a graduate of James B Castle High. She is a Polynesian mama of 5 babies and expecting their 6th.

In just under a year she was able to replace her income in the financial industry and now runs an online vegan beauty business with her babies by her side.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Why should more moms do a business from home
  • What makes Monat different
  • How have you impacted your community or given back
  • What is your favorite part about this business

Tori Kaplan With Truist

by

Atlanta Business Radio
Atlanta Business Radio
Tori Kaplan With Truist
Loading
/

Tori Kaplan is Head of Corporate Responsibility (CSR) at Truist Financial Corporation, a purpose-driven organization and the seventh-largest commercial bank in the United States.

In her role, she partners with the company’s executive, business, and strategy leaders to develop, formalize, and promote Truist’s Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives to align with the bank’s purpose to inspire and build better lives and communities.

As Head of CSR, Kaplan analyzes external trends and benchmarks to inform near- and long-term goals; builds relationships with internal and external partners to advance Truist’s ESG efforts; connects with investors and stakeholders to provide counsel on Truist’s ESG strategies; and works across the enterprise to ensure corporate responsibility practices are embedded throughout the business.

She also leads Truist’s volunteerism efforts, annual workplace giving campaign, and collaborates across the organization on ongoing community initiatives to further embed CSR and ESG into Truist’s overall priorities.

Previously, Kaplan was head of Corporate Responsibility at SunTrust, where she spearheaded the organization’s first Corporate Responsibility report and led external reporting efforts to position the bank’s corporate responsibility policies and programs.

Prior to SunTrust, Kaplan led the Corporate Social Responsibility team at CSX for 13 years, where she was instrumental in developing industry-leading CSR, corporate philanthropy, stakeholder engagement, and crisis response programs and initiatives.

Kaplan leads Truist’s Climate Risk Management and ESG Working Group, which provides oversight and counsel on the organization’s CSR and ESG practices, and is a member of the Ethics, Business Practices, & Culture committee.

Additionally, she serves in several industry organizations, including the Ernst & Young Sustainability Group in Atlanta, the Georgia Tech Sustainability Advisory Council, and the Bank Sustainability Roundtable.

For fun, Kaplan, a foodie and former chef, enjoys inventing new culinary delights with her 11-year-old daughter to share with family and friends.

Connect with Tori on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Highlights of Truist’s CSR and ESG progress over the past year
  • How Truist is building better communities in the Atlanta area
  • What financial literacy programs Truist offers that people in the Atlanta area can take advantage of
  • How Truist is advancing DEI within your own organization
  • What Truist sees as its role in the fight against climate change
  • How Truist is holding itself accountable to the company’s ESG commitments

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’s payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter

Alicia Cramer With AC Intl

by

aliciacramerhead
Coach The Coach
Alicia Cramer With AC Intl
Loading
/

aliciacramerlogo

aliciacramerheadAlicia Cramer is a renowned mindset expert, an author, coach, consultant, and a serial entrepreneur.

Having worked with hundreds of private clients for well over a decade – from startups to owners of multi-million-dollar companies, Alicia has an intimate understanding of the mindset pitfalls that affect entrepreneurs.

Her clients include successful business professionals, executives, and entrepreneurs who are driven to take their personal and professional success to the next level.

Connect with Alicia on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How does our subconscious mental programming affect the results we get in life and business?
  • Where do our self-imposed limitations come from?
  • How do we change the subconscious beliefs that are holding us back?

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXAmbassador.com to learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today we have with us Alicia Kramer with AC International. Welcome, Alicia.

Alicia Cramer: [00:00:43] Thank you so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to tell us about your practice. How are you serving, folks?

Alicia Cramer: [00:00:50] Sure, well, I’ve been doing this for over a decade now. I had actually started as a local brick and mortar hypnotherapy practice when I lived in Wisconsin. I’m in Arizona now, so I’ve I’ve officially snowboarded. And my background is very much in working at the subconscious level of the mind. What ended up happening was I’ve always been an aspiring entrepreneur. I failed numerous times before starting my hypnotherapy practice, and I decided I was going to finally do it right. And when clients were coming into work with me, the clients that I was getting, like so, so fired up about working with were all business owners. And I knew I was on to something. So I actually started to transition away from the local brick and mortar hypnotherapy practice to working internationally with clients as a business mindset coach. And as they say, the rest is kind of history. Of course, that is a very, very, very short version of a long story. But now to this very day, I absolutely love working with High-Performance entrepreneurs when and we all have minds that stuff. But when I am working with a client and I can hear those limiting beliefs come up, you know, my I just I have to help them shift that stuff. And my clients just, you know, they just create such amazing things. And it’s so fun to be on that journey with them.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:35] Well, before we get too deep into things, tell us a little bit about your let’s define some terms like business mindset. What is in your mind like a business mindset as opposed to just a mindset?

Alicia Cramer: [00:02:49] Well, mindset is really a general term, so you can have a negative mindset and be a pessimistic person, you can be a positive and optimistic person in a very general sense. That is mindset. Now, when we’re talking more specifically about business mindset, there are certain beliefs that we as entrepreneurs tend to develop that help us to grow our businesses, to help us achieve more success and business mindset is I mean, that encompasses so much. I have clients that might be struggling with, you know, maybe some old limiting beliefs about money. I have clients that might be reaching for a new level of success personally and professionally that they’ve never experienced before. And when that when our mind has no frame of reference for that new level, we need to do certain things to start to create that known reality at the subconscious level of the mind, because it’s kind of like saying. You know, I want to be. A pilot, but you have no frame of reference as far as flying a plane is concerned, there are certain things that you need to go through a certain mental stages that you need to go through before you’ll even begin the process of learning how to fly a plane, much less developing the proficiency as the type of pilot that you truly want to be.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:40] Now, do you think that most people have a mindset that is, I would imagine, sort of three different areas? They could be. One is neutral where it’s doing no harm, no foul, and it’s just existing. One is positive where they’re it’s it’s helpful and one is negative where it’s kind of sabotaging. Do you find that that people are among those three or they kind of going in and out of all three of those?

Alicia Cramer: [00:05:09] Well, we all are. We all have a mixed bag so we can all look at our own lives. And there are some things that are working. There are some things that just we don’t really we’re not interested in. It’s a non-issue for us. And we all have things that we want to change. So when I’m working with clients, we spend a lot of time focusing on where you’re going, what do you want to create? And as we are reaching for those higher levels within ourselves, we are going to encounter our old limiting beliefs when we bump up against those things. That is the time that we want to look at them and we want to change them. So there’s no I mean, we can all say we know people who are maybe stuck in kind of a victime mindset type of thing. And that’s obviously not a very empowering state to be in. And we all know people are more happy and optimistic. And again, those are very general terms because not everyone is one hundred percent negative or one hundred percent positive. And even some of the most successful people that I know and that I work with who by other people’s standards, it’s like, wow, I could only you know, only in my wildest dreams could I have that level of success or confidence. Believe me, they still have stuff that they are working through. It is always an ongoing process of shifting our limitations and up leveling.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:45] Now, do you find that your clients are people who are frustrated and want to get out of that frustration? Or are they kind of high achievers who are just trying to achieve more?

Alicia Cramer: [00:06:56] So it’s a little bit of both, and I and what I mean by that is. Most people do not. Invest in anything unless there is a need within them that needs to be filled, so oftentimes my clients are already fairly successful individuals they’ve achieved. Quite a bit of success, but they feel like they are getting in their own way, they know that they want more, they feel called for more and they are feeling that they’re bumping up against their old stuff. So. It’s just part of the process, I think, you know, most people, when they are really high on life and they’re really in the flow and they’re really in the zone, that’s not the time where they’re going to say, boy, I really need some coaching. I really need some help. You know, that’s when they might be doing OK even or even be doing pretty good. But they can feel there’s some kind of internal resistance. They’re bumping up against some type of self-imposed limitation. And that’s typically when they’ll come into my world.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:16] And then in order to kind of even be aware of it, they have to have some level of self-awareness where they can say, hey, maybe to the outside world it looks like I’m killing it, but I’m very frustrated and I think I could be doing more.

Alicia Cramer: [00:08:30] Absolutely. Absolutely. And we all know of someone who has a bad habit. Maybe maybe they smoke cigarets, maybe they they don’t eat very well and we see what it is doing to them. But they’re not self aware in that sense where they may know this isn’t good for me. I don’t like the way that I feel, but they haven’t really reached that place of internal conviction where now I’m committed to do something about it. I’m committed to change this. That is a sense of self awareness. We we have to get to that place within ourself where we recognize this can change. I’ve had enough. I’m fed up. Enough is enough. Now let’s do something about it.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:17] So once they have that, when that light bulb goes on and it clicks, how does the part of the solution say, well, maybe I should call Leesha?

Alicia Cramer: [00:09:30] So often times people and maybe I’m not interpreting your question correctly, so feel free if you want.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:37] Well, let me clarify before we get started, is that OK? Say, I have this kind of angst and I feel like that things are out of alignment. That’s one level of awareness now, another level of awareness is to then say, let me seek out a solution. Right. So then in the macro sense, I’m going to say I need help. So I’m going to be vulnerable and raise my hand and say I need help and then I have to choose you. So how does the kind of that path lead them to you? Are you are they kind of getting a referral from you? Like, how are they finding you in the world?

Alicia Cramer: [00:10:16] So I’ve had a lot of clients find me just by searching online. They’re searching for a mindset coach or they’re searching for business hypnosis. I’ve been interviewed by Forbes, so people have found me through that article. I have been interviewed on a lot of different podcasts and radio shows. Sometimes people find me that way. I have a YouTube channel that I’ve had for many, many, many years that has some different hypnosis and meditations and things like that for business owners to deal with some of their mindset stuff. And so a lot of people find me that way. And then, of course, a lot of people are referrals from other clients. So once somebody has. Then working with me oftentimes. They know someone else who could benefit, and there is that vulnerability piece and. The more successful oftentimes somebody becomes, the more vulnerability there often is with raising their hand and saying, hey, I got a problem, I’m struggling, I need some help. And that’s why I offer a very confidential environment, a safe place. The more successful somebody becomes, the more there’s kind of like this, this social. Peace, right? We don’t want people to know that we’ve got. Unresolved stuff and. We have to honor that, we have to respect that and creating that safe confidential space for somebody where they can safely feel vulnerable because we are really working with some of those deeper level insecurities. And that’s why many in many cases, they have not been addressed yet. The things that we are sometimes the most ashamed of are the very things that are holding us back from that next level of success for us. But we have to be willing to deal with them at some point if we really, truly want to grow.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:32] So how do you change those kind of subconscious beliefs if they’re subconscious? So by definition, they’re not overtly conscious.

Alicia Cramer: [00:12:43] Well, the. Irony is. When it comes up and so let me just clarify by saying there is the unconscious, which is the stuff we’re completely oblivious about, and then there is the subconscious, and that’s like our our conditioning. That’s our programing. And it’s it’s kind of running the the script of our life, so to speak. But we do bump up against things as we are going through life so that when we hear it all the time, we hear, you know, you’re on autopilot. Well, that basically just means that your subconscious mind is conditioned to do certain things, like you get in your car and you drive to your office and sometimes you won’t even remember what took place on that drive. And yet you arrived there safely. And that is because the subconscious mind has been conditioned to know what to do, knows how to drive the car, knows how to operate that machinery. It knows what turns to make and when to put the blinker on. And when we see somebody who is in our car off to the side, we know how to be alert and aware. So the subconscious mind is conditioned with all that stuff.

Alicia Cramer: [00:14:06] Now, we may not be aware that that is taking place because our conscious mind might be thinking about how we have to do all of these things later today or this conversation. We’re not looking forward to having with an employee or a client or whatever. But it is it’s it is not so oblivious, whereas we can see it if we are going through life and we’re recognizing and feeling frustrated, I’m feeling anxiety about this thing in my life or in my business. The programing, the conditioning is at the subconscious level of the mind, but once we’ve bumped up against it, once we’ve been triggered, we’re not oblivious. We know that something is there and we can see with more clarity what that is when we actually take the time to look at it objectively. And once we’ve done that, then we can use any number of different techniques to shift that programing at that subconscious level and create new, more empowering beliefs and habits and a different self-image, for instance, in certain circumstances that supports the changes that we are choosing to make now.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:29] Have you found that when you’re dealing with the subconscious and subconscious beliefs specifically, that it’s difficult for an individual to do this on their own, that they do need kind of a third party to help kind of make them aware and then give them the tools and resources to, you know, kind of get to this new level.

Alicia Cramer: [00:15:51] It can be very helpful. So one of the things I always explain to my clients is. You can do it yourself, you can. But there is definitely an advantage to having someone. Be there to help guide you through the process, because we can’t always see what’s right in front of us and we certainly can’t see objectively when we’re stuck in a disempowering story, our limitations can seem so incredibly justifiable. We have so many years of evidence to show us where see, it just doesn’t work. That just doesn’t change. That’s just the way that person is. And we get so stuck in that story that the thoughts that can actually help to break us out of that can not occur to us. There’s there’s just if we’re talking about energy and I love to talk about energy and about the sum of those kind of universal principles, like the law of vibration. If somebody is in the problem, we feel it right, we feel the physical sensation of the heaviness and the negativity, you can feel what frustration feels like, you can feel what disempowerment feels like when we are in that state. The solution is not in that vibrational space. The solution is on a higher vibrational plane, so to speak, even the vibration of relief, the feeling, the physical feeling of relief is different than when you’re feeling disempowered. So to be able to see something that could give us relief doesn’t appear to us when we’re so focused on the problem, so focused on our disempowerment, so focused on our old story. So having someone who is objective and can hold that higher vibrational space for us makes a huge difference. And that’s why so many people gravitate towards mentors and towards coaches, because that individual is able to hold that space for us and help point out things that we can’t see when we are so immersed in our problem.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:23] And isn’t it also another benefit of working with somebody else? Just the speed that it will take less time when there’s another person kind of holding you accountable, making you aware of things that maybe you have a subconscious bias against and just being there and helping you change those those maybe negative habits or beliefs, doesn’t that kind of accelerate the process? I would imagine it would take much less time having a third party sit there and see things that are obvious to them that may not be so obvious to the client.

Alicia Cramer: [00:19:00] Absolutely. On a practical level, look at somebody who is learning a sport. If you tried to teach yourself baseball by reading books or even watching maybe a couple of videos, like some tutorials versus working with an experienced baseball player who you can see and feel that the subtle nuances in the way that they perform, doing the various activities that are essential pieces of that sport, is going to rapidly accelerate your ability to learn how to play baseball. Now, on a very practical level, we see it all around us

Lee Kantor: [00:19:48] Now in your work. Can you share a story? Don’t name names, but maybe explain the backstory of what this client was going through, where they were having struggles, that you were able to kind of come in and help them get to a new level.

Alicia Cramer: [00:20:01] Sure, so I’ll use one example that’s coming to mind is a particular client who owns a an equipment company and is doing quite well and in expansive mode, the company is growing and had a situation where an employee had. Gotten into the company bank account and had essentially basically sold over one hundred and over one hundred thousand dollars and there was a lot of trauma there, a lot of trauma around and fear around money. And. I mean, a lot of us could only imagine I personally have not had an experience quite like that, but we could all you know, we can all imagine what it. Could feel like to be in that type of situation where that money is gone and he wasn’t getting it back and many years had gone by or not years, but months had gone by, and he knew that he had to do something because the fear and the trauma were very adversely affecting him. And we worked through that relatively quickly to get some very, very immediate, immediate relief. And then it was a process of continuing to build upon that new mindset that that feeling of confidence with money, because there are so many triggers there, even having a conversation with a bank, what would trigger his old anxiety and that particular client work with me for many, many, many, many years. And the growth has been incredibly phenomenal, going from one one location that was in growth mode to now he has multiple locations and just continues to to reach for new elevated levels of success. And I mean, that’s what’s possible when we let go of our fears, our doubts or insecurities, our limiting beliefs, the things that we’re feeling called to do become possible for us.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:24] Well, good stuff. And congratulations on all the success. If there is someone out there that wants to get a hold of you and learn more about your practice, maybe get on your calendar. What’s the website?

Alicia Cramer: [00:22:35] Website is Aleesha Cramer Dotcom, that is Adelheid CIA, CCRA a MVR dotcom, there is a button that you can click to schedule a complimentary consultation and I am absolutely happy to support any one of it is one of those things where we want it to be of value. So even if it’s not the right fit to continue on working together one on one, it I always guarantee you will get value out of it. Whether that is a mindset shift or helping point you in the right direction.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:17] Well, we should thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Alicia Cramer: [00:23:21] Oh, thank you so much for having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:23:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Coach the Coach radio.

 

Shep Hyken With Shepard Presentations

by

shephyken
Coach The Coach
Shep Hyken With Shepard Presentations
Loading
/

shephykenlogo2

shephykenShep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Shep works with companies and organizations that want to build loyal relationships with their customers and employees.

His articles have been read in hundreds of publications, and he is the author of 7 books and his newest book I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again will be released September 21, 2021.

He is also the creator of The Customer Focus™, a customer service training program that helps clients develop a customer service culture and loyalty mindset.

Connect with Shep on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • Customer service and customer experience
  • How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXAmbassador.com to learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us show Piken with Shepard presentations. Welcome, Shep.

Shep Hyken: [00:00:43] Hey, it’s great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, as our listeners probably know, you’re kind of a customer service customer experience guru out there. And you are a super fan of that, those kind of worlds. And I believe it’s one of those places where companies don’t invest enough energy and resources in. So talk about a little bit how you came to specialize in that area and why it was so important to you.

Shep Hyken: [00:01:15] Sure. Well, when I was a kid, I had my first business, and that was a birthday party magic show business. And I remember coming home after my first magic show. It was after school. They paid me sixteen dollars. I was just a little 12 year old kid and my mom said, go write a thank you note. And that was my first customer service lesson. Aside from just trying to do a great job, it’s like remember to say thank you. And my dad said next week you need to call the parents, thank them again and ask them how you like the show. And I go, Oh, that’s a great idea. Goes well, you need to find out what tricks they liked. And then after a while you’ll notice there’s a pattern tricks they like, tricks they don’t even talk about. Get rid of the ones they don’t talk about and replace them with ones they will. And that’ll make your show better. And I had no idea that’s called asking for feedback and then process improvement. So all of these things are being taught to me as a kid. And when I finally went to college, graduated college, and I’ve been working for a business actually a little bit through high school and college, like summer jobs and that type of thing. While I was in between magic shows and I realized, you know, I could make a living getting up in front of people and talking about this because I think there’s a need for it. And that’s where it all started. And it morphed into something really, really big and great, at least for me, because this turns out to be one of the hottest topics that any company is focused on right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:38] Now, it seems that in business there’s kind of things that come in style and come out of style. And customer service, I think should always be in style and customer experience should always be in style. But periodically there’s an emphasis on, you know, let’s get new clients. And it’s all about, you know, leads and Legian and business development rather than kind of just nurturing the folks that already like you. Why do you think that is?

Shep Hyken: [00:03:08] Well, I mean, any company that’s starting out the you can’t do anything without a customer. I mean, that’s why you’re in business, is if you don’t have customers, you’re not going to stay in business. Only Janet and Biz Dev become really, really important. I think there’s plenty of stats out there that will show again and again that churn is bad. Your goal is keep the customers you currently have and continue to grow in the other areas. It’s far less expensive to retain a good customer than it is to go out and find a new customer to replace him or her. So or that company, depending upon the type of business you’re in. So I don’t know if I just think that sometimes there is a fire that’s under somebody say, oh my gosh, we need to increase sales because we’re not going to do well, that’s fine. But why do you need to increase sales? Is it because you’re losing customers at such a rate? And what’s causing those customers to leave? I love it. The other day I was talking to a client and he said we have his churn rate is like one hundred and seven percent. And I said, I explain that to me. What does that mean? Are you losing one hundred and seven percent goes, no, we’re keeping a hundred percent of our customers and gaining seven percent new ones every quarter. And I went, wow. So your growth is you’re at like twenty five to thirty percent growth for the year. Yeah. With no negative churn, that’s almost impossible. How are you doing it. We’ve got a good product, but we have amazing people. And when I hear you go, it’s the experience that keeps the customers coming back because they can get what this guy sells from many, many other companies.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:56] Now there is I’m seeing a lot of talk and a lot of energy put into community and building community. How does community building impact or maybe magnify some of the work you’re doing when it comes to customer service or customer relationships?

Shep Hyken: [00:05:14] Sure. And I love these questions and I’m not sure you’re pulling them from are. The latest book I’ve written is titled I’ll Be Back How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. And that’s one of the pieces we talk about. And I talked about this in a book. Oh, gosh. Almost at eight. Years ago, but when you hang your hat on something this important to others, they want to be with you. So you may be a local company that gets involved in local charities. You may be a national or international organization that gets involved in huge charities. I remember when I was doing a lot of work with Ace Hardware, they were involved with the Children’s Miracle Network. And I said, you know, I’ve got this book I’ve written. It features you as as a central role model. I’m going to let everybody know that if they buy the book, we’re going to donate a small portion of the proceeds to your favorite charity, the charity, the Children’s Miracle Network. You know what happened? People started buying more books. There’s a reason people love Richard Branson’s Virgin, you know, that whole line of his company. And that is because they have Virgin Unite, which is the charitable arm of what they do. You know, it’s the more you give, the more you get. It’s the law of reciprocity. And companies that will involve themselves in the community and in charities and in causes will draw customers to them. And that emotional connection makes them loyal.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:41] Now, when companies are kind of leaning into this community, sometimes it’s uncomfortable because it’s a little untethered where the community wants to do things to benefit the community. That may not be a perfect alignment with the company and but the company really can’t control the community too much or else it becomes just, you know, not as much community as it is, is just for the company. So how do you create that balance?

Shep Hyken: [00:07:13] Boy, I think I know what you say. You know, the here’s here’s the thing about charity or giving back. You can tell it’s very easy to tell when it’s fake. It’s easy. I shouldn’t say it’s easy to tell, but but companies are caught when it’s not genuine. And I believe that if you can’t deliver a genuine experience, if the kind of company you are is one that is not to be trusted, does it matter what cause you’re involved and your customers aren’t going to trust you? Is that the angle you’re hitting at here?

Lee Kantor: [00:07:51] Well, I think maybe we’re saying two different things. One thing is serving your local community and helping charities and non-profits and things like that. Another thing is for community. I mean, for companies to have a kind of a community within themselves, like take like Harley Davidson has a community of Harley super fans. I got that those super fans help the brand of Harley because they’re super fans. But Harley can’t kind of tell them how to live their life either. You know, it’s a kind of a give and take when it comes to a I

Shep Hyken: [00:08:27] Like what you’re saying. I believe the so I believe that community of Harley Davidson motorcycle riders, those are called customers. And you’re right, when a customer leaves your store and they band together and they create their own groups and they love your product, you know, the company I think Harley’s done a great job of promoting that. It’s an amazing experience. And they’ve created this huge fanbase. You know, Harley wasn’t always like that in many, many years ago. They were. And then they went into this lull. And the reason is, is they started to design motorcycles that didn’t sound as big and allowed as they are today. They were making them more like the streamlined BMW that you hear at home and the engine and people started to buy other brands. And Harley said, what’s going on? And they said, you obviously didn’t pay attention to your customers are. And it’s a beautiful story because Harley said if we go back to what we had and we create the motorcycle that you want, the one that shakes, rattles as loud as big, are you going to start buying them again? And the customer said, yes, we will. And it put them back on track. And they became one of the most and still are one of the most successful and iconic brands in the world because they have a community of customers they engage with and they listen to. So I thought the community you are talking about is giving back to the community, which, by the way, Harley does a lot of that as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:09:57] Right. I think that this is an end conversation now that or I think you should be doing both, you know, locally and and then kind of in a macro sense for your brand to be that belove that people are on their own kind of celebrating it together. I think you’re winning if that’s happening.

Shep Hyken: [00:10:15] Oh, yeah. One hundred percent.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:17] Now, are you finding in your clients they come to you when they aspire to have that kind of a dynamic community among their customers or they have a problem where something’s not working. We need help to come in and fix something.

Shep Hyken: [00:10:34] So that’s a great question. I would say that eighty to eighty five percent of my clients are just crushing it out there. And the reason they’re hiring me is not to get better, but to sustain what they have and keep people motivated and moving in the right direction. We work with a lot of clients that like, hey, we help us create a more customer focused culture. And when I get into it, I’m going, you know what? They’re there. But the map isn’t the plan isn’t as direct as it needs to be. I always say you can’t be successful. Well, you can by accident. But it’s very it’s not very often that that happens. You can’t be successful. Typically by accident. You have to plan. And that plan means a very focused approach to many different disciplines within business. My area happens to be customer service and experience. And so when we sit down with a client, often they’re actually doing pretty darn well. We’re just helping to refine it or helping them sustain it. Now, I love the turnarounds. I love the we’ve got a problem. Can you help us? And we get into it. We realize we may not be able to help them because their leadership isn’t on board at the level they need to be. And we’ve actually walked away from a client because we felt like there were three main leaders and one of them was not engaged at all. And I said, until that guy joins the two of you, we don’t have a chance of making this work. You’re going to spend a lot of money. You’re not you’re going to love me while I’m here. You’re not going to like me when it’s over because nothing’s going to happen without the three of you being in alignment. And they thank me for that. And guess what? I walked and eventually came back. So that works, I know I’m getting a little bit off off the topic here, running down the rabbit hole, if you will, but I think that’s an important point to make.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:21] Now, is there any low hanging fruit that companies can take advantage of without hiring you? Is there some things that are like we just kind of look at them and go, why aren’t you doing these? The ABC? This is just kind of basics here.

Shep Hyken: [00:12:35] Yeah. So I’ll just share. I love to be hired and I love it when my trainers are hired or when people buy my books and all that. But everything that I talk about, I have written about and actually probably produced a video on it. Go to YouTube, Shepp TV.com, you’re going to see six hundred videos. There’s so much content there. Go through it, find the video that you like that you want, that you feel resonates with what you’re trying to achieve with your company. And by the way, you’re probably going to find fifty or one hundred of them. Don’t show them all at once. Take one once a week, every couple of weeks. There’s very short show it, talk about it and talk about what you’re going to do as a result of hearing this. What’s one idea that you can take action on? And there it is. There’s free consultation and free training right there. So but if you’re if if I’m a company and say what can I do right away is to recognize it starts with the culture. So I need to define what that culture is. In one sentence, the Ritz Carlton says, we’re ladies and gentlemen, serving. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a great statement that kind of summarize what we’re trying to achieve, communicated to everybody, get everybody properly trained, whether you do it yourself or hire an outside firm to do it. Make sure your leadership and your managers and your supervisors are treating people internally the way you want customers treated. That’s a big one, because what happens on the inside is felt on the outside. If it’s working, let people know they’re doing a good job. So celebrate it with them and compliment them. If it’s not working, help get them into alignment in such a way that’s not so much a critique and and making people upset or concerned or nervous for their jobs, but gives them the learning opportunity to fit in where you want them to fit in. So those are some ideas and they sound very simple and almost common sense like. But no one simple is not easy and common sense is not so common.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:31] Now, your latest book, I’ll be back. How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and again is that book about how to kind of reactivate old customers or to get your customers to be super loyal so that they’re just, you know, they’re not shopping. They’re just kind of buying from you over and over and over.

Shep Hyken: [00:14:50] Right. When I love that. And I believe it’s a little bit of both because I do believe the acquisition of the customer is not really what this book is about, but retention of the customer is what it’s all about. We want to measure how well we’ve done and I talk about this in the book. We talk about the most important measurement in business. And a lot of people think, well, customer satisfaction see set and net promoter score the likely that they would promote you and recommend you to friends and family members. But I say those are great and we should get those measurements because it helps us understand if we’re doing a good job or not or the opportunities to improve our or not. But we’re measuring history. Based on your last experience, were you happy? Well, that was yesterday. I want to know about tomorrow. Is the customer going to come back? So what is the typical behavior of what I would deem a loyal customer or the repeat customer that I say that’s the kind of customer I want. Some of the if I cut hair and somebody is going to come in once a month for a haircut, that’s our regular customer. If they come in once a quarter, I have to wonder, is there something somewhere else or going, is there something we did wrong? I want to try to get my customers into the cadence of what we would call a routine regular repeat customer. Now, once they’re in that cadence, I can work on the loyalty. I want to make sure that the reasons they’re coming back to me are the reasons that would want them to come back, that that would get them to come back, even if a competitor moved next door or perhaps a competitor ran a sale and dropped their price a little bit lower than me, I want to make price less relevant and I want a bullet proof myself from the competition.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:25] Now, do you have any advice for people who say, I’m not getting any referrals, how how do I become more referable?

Shep Hyken: [00:16:35] So you’re not getting any referrals? First of all, one reason may be, are you good enough to get referrals? Number two, are you going about getting referrals the right way? And there’s many different ways to go about it. But, you know, we talk about how do you get reviews? How do you get somebody to write about a yelp or any kind of a review? And the answer is do such a good job that they want to and ask them. So you’re familiar with the net promoter score? Yes, sure. OK, for those that aren’t on a scale of zero to 10, what’s the likelihood that you’d recommend me or recommend our company and nine or 10 or promotors seven or eight? You don’t know where they are. They’re passives. And then anybody less than that is a detractor. But if somebody gives you a nine or 10 and they say they’re willing to promote, just don’t say thank you very much. I’m glad you are happy, you know, depending upon the business you’re in. And a lot of people who are listening to the show might feel like, oh, this is exactly right for me. If they give you a nine or 10 pick up, say thank you very much. And by the way, who are the people that you would recommend me to? Would it be possible for you to make a referral or an introduction or can I get their name and number so I can call them? You’ve got to actively go after that type of business.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:53] And and so that should just be built into how you do business, is that kind of a system that’s going to generate real referrals? Because if they if they raise their hand and say that you’re worthy of referring, then you’re kind of holding them to that.

Shep Hyken: [00:18:07] Right? You’re saying, OK, if you feel that way, do you have anybody you’re thinking about? Who could I call? You know, I don’t care what business. Well, a lot of different businesses would do go about it a different way. If going one to one with customers is your way or clients or whatever you want to call them is your way of getting business. What better way than to have a warm introduction that allows that relationship to start a completely different way than me calling you and saying, Hey, Lee, you don’t know me. My name Shep, and I’m pretty sure you need what I have to sell. But so here it it. I mean, you see what I’m talking about? It’s that relationship. Once again, we go back to this idea of Bonnie Raitt wrote that song. Let’s give them something to talk about. That’s what you want. You want to create this experience that gets people talking about you and makes them want to come back.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:00] And those experiences don’t happen by accident. Like you said, these are things that you have to kind of orchestrate and deliver on.

Shep Hyken: [00:19:07] The chances of business being successful again and again by accident is very minimal. So let’s not leave it to chance. Let’s create the right process, the right steps, the right follow through, the right training, and let’s get everybody pointing in the same direction, working toward the same goal. And that is to make our customers so happy that they’ll not only referrers, but come back again and again.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:32] Well, Shep, thank you so much for sharing your story today. If somebody wants to connect with you and have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what’s the website

Shep Hyken: [00:19:42] Go to hiken dot com h y e n dot com. And depending on when you’re listening to this, if you are preorder the book, if you preorder it, we’ve got some special gifts for you. If you go to the website, I’ll be back book dot com or just go to Amazon, get the book there. So thanks for having me on your show me. I really appreciate it.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:06] Well, you’re doing important work and we appreciate you, Shep Hiken Shepard presentations. Check out his new book. I’ll be back. How to get customers to come back again and again. And this website is Hiken, Dotcom, Wiki and Dotcom. Thank you again.

Shep Hyken: [00:20:22] My pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:23] All right. This is Lee Kantor Rousselle. Next time on Coach the Coach Radio.

 

John Francis With Next Level Franchise Inc.

by

Franchise Marketing Radio
Franchise Marketing Radio
John Francis With Next Level Franchise Inc.
Loading
/

Brought To You By SeoSamba . . . Comprehensive, High Performing Marketing Solutions For Mature And Emerging Franchise Brands . . . To Supercharge Your Franchise Marketing, Go To seosamba.com.

francis-signature-optimized

johnfrancisJohn Francis, the CEO and Founder of Johnny Franchise, is not your average Franchise Advisor, Speaker, or Consultant. He has over 30 years of real-world, first-hand experience in franchising businesses, having been a Franchisor, Franchisee, and Supplier, with multiple brands. With more wins than losses, His goal is to help others achieve meaningful success that benefits everyone.

He helps franchisor executives and franchise owners reduce risks and improve results by providing level-headed expertise.

His approach is to take the time to get familiar and connect with his clients. He likes to know the situation and context and personalities involved in any business. He is known for being a good listener, and asking good questions, then offering thoughtful advice and typically a range of options for his clients to consider as possibilities. He likes to help other people do their job better, rather than doing the work for them – more of a coach or advisor.

Connect with John on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Working with franchise brands
  • Working with the franchisees

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Welcome to Franchise Marketing Radio, brought to you by SEO Samba comprehensive high performing marketing solutions for mature and emerging franchise brands. To supercharge your franchise marketing, go to seosamba.com. That’s seosamba.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Franchise Marketing Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today, we have with us John Francis or as you may know him, Johnny franchise with next level franchise. Welcome, John.

John Francis: [00:00:46] Yeah, thank you. I’m good. Good to be here, Lee. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] Well, before we get too far into things, for those who don’t know, tell us a little bit about next level franchise. How are you serving folks?

John Francis: [00:00:58] Sure. Well, next level franchise is just me. I’m an independent consultant. I used to call myself a reluctant consultant, but I think since covid, I gave up the reluctant part of it and I’ve been a little more proactive and done a little more promotion of myself. But next level franchise is really who I am and what I like to do with clients. I work independently, usually as more of an advisor than than than a consultant in franchising. Consultants sometimes get confused with brokers or what I call matchmakers, people selling franchises. I don’t do that. I’ve done that work and it’s not my thing. So I’m more of an adviser sometimes called a coach. I oftentimes wind up on a board, a board of advisors or board of directors. That seems to be something I’ve got a niche for. And I just like to help people take their franchise business to the next level, whether it’s a franchise or who is growing fast or growing slower or struggling with some other challenge or a franchisee who is kind of stuck somehow or not seeing the results they expected, or we’re trying to get to the multiunit or multibrand or whatever it might be. And even suppliers I work with supplier companies who are trying to figure out how to how to do what they do better and get get into the franchise community, which, you know, there’s there’s a lot of different ways of doing things. And so I just try to help people when I think I can and I try to add value and and I’m pretty straightforward, no nonsense kind of guy in most cases. You know, I get to the point where it’s either not a fit or I don’t think I can help. And I’m glad to get out of the way and and try to use my network. I’ve got a great network and I’ve been around franchising forever. So if I can’t help you, I probably know someone who can. So I like to be a resource to to people.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:53] So and this show, we talk to a lot of franchise owners and a lot of emerging franchise owners as well. Can you maybe share a little advice for those folks who are trying to either, you know, kind of create that escape velocity for a new franchise to help them maybe not make some of the mistakes that you’ve seen being made over the years?

John Francis: [00:03:17] Well, you know, I could talk for hours on just that, but I’ll give you a couple of highlights. Obviously, we only have a few minutes. But so the fundamental truth in franchising is there are no new mistakes in franchise. I think someone I heard that recently and I think it’s good advice and everything that you’re going through as an emerging brand, a lot of other people have done the same thing and gone through the same kind of issues and challenges and frustrations. Now, things move a little faster these days than they did, say, 10 or 15 or 20 years ago. You know, technology has certainly accelerated a lot of things and changed a lot of dynamics, but a lot of the same issues are the same thing. I see them over and over and over. So so the advice there is don’t be afraid to ask for help. And whether it’s me or hundreds of other people out there who do want to help. You know, there’s lots of lots of places to go to get get the help. You don’t have to struggle alone. Franchising is kind of fun in that most people like to really share what’s worked for them because you’re not seen as a competitor. If I’ve got a tire, a tire franchise and you’ve got a dry cleaning franchise, we don’t see each other really as competitors, even though we’re we’re selling franchises, but it’s not the same. So a lot of the stuff and a lot of the experience in franchising is freely shared because, you know, when franchising does well, that that helps all of us. So it’s unique that way.

John Francis: [00:04:39] So don’t be afraid to get help, I guess, is number one and keep asking for help, because there are a lot of people out there with a lot of ideas and some may fit better than others at certain phases of your growth. So don’t be afraid to to build your network and surround yourself with other resources and people who might have good information to share. Number two is the most critical part is, you know, those first five franchisees in a brand really set the pace for the rest of them. And I know this is kind of a cliche, but those first few franchisees really, they can make or break your life in terms of level of frustration, you know, down the road. So be a selective as you can, be as careful as you can and make sure that those people are the right fit and the right people and properly qualified and have the resources. Sources and follow the system and do all the things they’re supposed to do, because if if your first few are successful, that will really set the pace for the rest of the brand. And if your first few really struggle, you’re going to have a lot of other challenges later on down the road. So you’ve got to be ready to franchise and then you’ve got to be prepared for the people factor, because that’s just the nature of franchising. It’s all relationships and people, and that means challenges. So be careful and seek for a lot of help. I don’t know if that may be too generic, but but those are what’s coming to mind right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:07] Now, how are you helping your clients kind of deal with this maybe once in a generation disruption of covid?

John Francis: [00:06:18] Very good question. And I’ll tell you, I see it in a variety of ways. For some brands, this covid thing has been wonderful. It’s actually helped them push them to do things differently and find a lot of efficiencies that they didn’t know they had. So a lot of cases, it’s it’s been good. In some of my clients, it’s been terrible and it’s really being shut down and forced to shut down. It had a huge economic impact. And, you know, a lot of other factors were impacted, just people’s attitudes and psyche and everything. So how are they dealing with it? I think it’s a matter of if you’re an established brand and you’ve got franchisees, if you survived it and you’re at the side now, we’re most optimistic. We’re mostly over the hard part of it. But the. You know, you have to have had adapted your brand and what is happening now is, is with what I’ve seen called the great resignation, a lot of people who are employees out there are sick and tired of working for somebody else. And usually that is a good indicator for franchise because those people want to take control of their situation and they’re more more interested in a franchise investment than some other kind of startup. And so generally, franchising, I believe, is picking up kind of everywhere I look, people are seeing leads and and success and the rebound is kind of happening.

John Francis: [00:07:38] So you should be seeing that. If you’re not seeing that, you should understand why and what what’s missing or what what needs to change. I’m seeing a lot of momentum out there right now. And one of my clients just this morning, we were talking and they’re having a record year. And this is a brand that was was affected negatively by a covid. But it’s come back and it’s come back well. And they did some things while they were down with covid. They retooled their development process and the franchise sales and everything around it. And they’re seeing record sales. It’s working. So they were they did the right things at the right time for the right reasons. And now it’s it’s starting to pay off. So so I guess the answer is with covid, it’s going to force some change, try to figure out where that change really is important and what can you do about it to turn it into an advantage for your brand and for your franchisees. If if you have them, you’ve got to take care of them first. I think that’s critical

Lee Kantor: [00:08:38] Now for the franchise owners that are going to market. Are you since you’ve been doing this for a minute, have you seen an evolution on how franchise owners, especially emerging franchise stores, attract franchisees? Has the methods of attracting franchisees changed dramatically throughout the years you’ve been doing this like or the same kind of things working like they were 10

John Francis: [00:09:04] Years ago changed? Well, yeah, I think society has changed. And so, of course, maybe it’s maybe I’m looking at it from too far of a term, too wide of a term. But I think people get in the business these days for a different reason and maybe with different expectations. And maybe it’s just the nature of the pace of things have certainly sped up, but. You know, a lot of people looking at franchises, part of part of the fun of of awarding or selling franchises is getting into their heads as to why. Why do you want to do this now? Why now? Why this brand? Why do you want to be a franchisee and having those kind of conversations? I’m hearing different answers in the old days, I guess, or in the past it was, well, I’m sick of my job or, you know, I inherited some money and I want to do something different or whatever their circumstances where now I see it as people have more just raw ambition. They want to do it because they think they’re they’re capable of doing it. They’re not motivated externally. Something didn’t happen to them. Now it’s something internal where they want to do it for themselves. So I think there’s maybe kind of a shift in motivation. And I think that’s real. I think it’s good, frankly, because those people, if they’re self starters and self-motivated, you know, they’re probably going to hopefully going to stick with it and make the commitment to be successful and do whatever it takes, which is better than something that changed that happened to you. And of course, life goes on. Things are going to change again, and maybe that changes your motivation. So I think if that answers the question, the motivation of the franchisee buyers has shifted a little bit. I think you still see a lot of things out there. But in a general sense, I see more people coming at it for their own reasons, internally motivated, which I think is probably a good thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:55] Now, are you seeing more? I call them kind of professional franchisees, ones who are like kind of building a portfolio of complementary brands and they really are kind of building empires rather than that person that may be retired and then says, OK, now I’m going to open this thing and then maybe it’ll grow to a couple more. Are you seeing kind of a shift in that type of person being attracted to franchising?

John Francis: [00:11:20] Yeah, I see it. I see a lot of stuff out there. I see a lot of people that that think it’s easier than it is. You know, they it looks easy on paper and it sounds easy when someone’s telling their story. I mean, I tell my story and it probably sounds easy, but it’s never easy. And so what I think what happens is I see a trend. I guess like everyone, the multiunit multibrand franchisees, they’re all over the place, especially in food categories. You know, that’s kind of common. But I see it in other industries and service and retail and even B2B models. But I think it’s it’s just never as easy as it looks. And I think the reality is a lot of people come at it. Maybe they read a book or they see a magazine or they hear somebody on some interview like this, I suppose, and they think, well, I’m going to go do that. And how hard can it be? I’ve already done this, so I should be able to do that. And I’m here to tell you it’s just not that easy. And I’m more comfortable, I guess, seeing people expand and go deeper into a particular brand. If you’re already got a unit and you like the company and you’re doing well with that business, I would say go deeper and add more units in the same brand. And even if it’s different geography, you’re more likely to have success than you are to switch and go to a separate brand, a second different concept, unless there’s some other strategic reason that I’m seeing more meaningful success when people stick with a particular brand and go deep into that brand.

John Francis: [00:12:53] I’d rather see you have 10 or 15 units in one brand. Even if they’re across three or four states, then you have three or four brands and have two or three or four of each one. You’re going to drive yourself nuts. I mean, I understand diversification and geographic and, you know, minimizing risk and all the rest and leveraging your infrastructure and all the same. But I see more success with people who stick with a particular brand than than going into the multibrand route. I mean, it just it’s a it’s another level of complexity when you add a different a different brand. So I see more of that. And I guess my my my frustration is that I think people come at underestimating the commitment, the time and the energy and the likelihood of success. I think they think it’s a lot easier, a lot faster and more likely they’re going to make it. And when they get to reality, it costs more, it takes longer and it’s much more difficult. And and they probably wish they wouldn’t have done that in the end. So I think it’s unusual when someone is successful at that level. And I wish most people would understand that it’s probably a risk. You shouldn’t really you know, you should very carefully consider those things before you do them.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:07] Now, can you share a story? You don’t have to name the brand name, but a franchise that you worked with that maybe were struggling, maybe explain where they were struggling and how you were able to come in and help take them to a new level.

John Francis: [00:14:21] Yeah, I can think of several, I guess let me think of one that’s maybe universal. Here’s a story about a brand that was this might be good for an emerging brand. I think, you know, there’s an awful lot of emerging brands out there, and I guess there always are. And that’s a good thing. I think there’s always room for another good one. Right. This brand was doing their thing and they were doing pretty well. The system was up and running and I think they were over one hundred units at the time. But it was a small unit level economics. So these are smaller businesses, but nice business, good people, good brand. They’re rolling along and we got inside of their stuff. And I came on as an advisor and started looking through things and ask them questions. And one of the first things we recognized is they did not have an ad fund, a brand advertising firm. And we’re going through their numbers and again, we’re allocating the resources and trying to figure out what’s where’s the where’s the bottleneck here? And I said, well, you’ve got an ad, where’s your ad fund? And they’re like, well, no, we don’t have one. And it became very clear that that was an opportunity that they just needed to pursue. They couldn’t ignore it anymore. I said, well, if you if you had an ad funded network like this and we kind of did a blueprint of how it might make a difference, and sure enough, it it made a huge difference for that brand. So they it was very difficult. This was not easy. It took a lot of planning, a lot of effort and a lot of, I’ll say politicking because, you know, you’re making a big change. Right? It was in the agreements, but nobody had really thought much about it.

John Francis: [00:15:57] So they very carefully rolled out an ad that fund. And I think it was like one percent or two percent or some kind of dollars. They came up with a formula that that seemed appropriate and reasonable. Anyway, a few years later, it has made a big impact on that brand. So, number one, the franchisees learned they could afford it. It really wasn’t it wasn’t any material impact to them. It created efficiency in their buying, which which everybody enjoyed. And it really streamlined the advertising campaigns and the quality of the materials and the systems that they could accommodate because now they had a budget they could plan for. And really what it did for that franchise is alleviated a lot of their cash flow issues because they were paying for staff and managing that and it just was a disaster. So adding the ad fund early in a brand. So the lesson is, I think if you’re out there and you’ve got maybe 20 or 30 units you’ve got in your agreement, we have the right to activate an ad funded if you have it yet. I would really consider it now. Do it before you wish you had done it. This brand had waited probably two or three years too late, and it was more difficult because they waited that long. They did it and it worked. But I think it would have been a little easier and it would have had a lot more benefit had they done that sort of on time, I would say earlier than than they had done so. So that’s one one good example that I think is applicable to a lot of startup early stage franchise orders.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:30] Now, you mentioned the variety of kind of places in the life cycle of a franchise where you insert yourself or where you can be useful. Is there a favorite place? Do you have a sweet spot? Do you prefer them to be brand new and not have kind of unlearned things? Or do you have prefer them to be kind of have a really kind of got over the hump?

John Francis: [00:17:50] I like it when they’re really in trouble. Frankly, the more complicated and I don’t want to say desperate, but I’ll just say motivated that the owners are. You know, when they really struggled, something went wrong here. We used to feel good about this. We used to have whatever momentum and growth and now we’re struggling. Now we have new competitors. Now we have different issues internally. You know, we’ve outgrown ourselves and we need a different approach. So I like honestly, I like to help brands that really have complicated problems because then it’s worth fixing. I can I can go in there and do my thing and they’ll pay for it because it’s it’s valuable when it I generally don’t engage one on one with early stage brands because they they can’t afford to pay anything. They’re already struggling to make ends meet. And I’m not a development sales guy, so I don’t need any kind of commission structure. I’m not interested in that. You know, I like to do my thing and really help them do their work. So sometimes I’ll work with early stage. I mean, I’ve got a few clients now that are early stage brands that are are trying to figure it out. But they you know, I guess they’ve impressed me enough that they’re willing to listen and do some of the things we we come up with. Right. If they’re not willing to implement new ideas, what’s the point of bringing them new ideas? So so I’ll work with really anybody when they’re ready to make changes. I guess the qualifier for me is, are they good people? They have integrity. They’re they’ve got you know, I I’m not going to bother with people that they don’t have integrity and then can they afford it in a meaningful way and not just the dollars, but can they do what we talk about doing? Because if they’re not going to bother and if I just keep bringing ideas and they keep rejecting them, then that’s no fun for anybody. I don’t need to waste my time or theirs, so. I guess I don’t know if that answers your question, but that’s that’s what I’m thinking about.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:47] Well, if there is a franchise or out there that is struggling and, you know, is frustrated, what is the best way to get a hold of you to have a more substantive conversation with you?

John Francis: [00:19:59] Yeah, thank you. My my website is Johnny franchise dot com. There are a lot of information there. I’ll throw out my phone number. I don’t mind. People call me all the time at six one two eight six eight zero seven four or five. I answer the phone when I’m available and if not, leave me a message. But I’ll talk to anyone for a few minutes and try to point them in the right direction. And I can ask questions to get people thinking really quickly. I’m pretty good at assessing the overall situation. If I think I can help, I’ll try. And if I don’t think I can help, I’ll generally give them two or three good ideas that might be a better fit. So find me on the website. I’m out all the social media and you know, I don’t mind a phone call or text or whatever. Whatever is easy, I guess. Don’t be afraid to reach out. I mean, this is this is I’ve discovered my purpose in life, I think is to help people get their franchise business right. I don’t want to own it. I don’t want to work there. I don’t want a job or I don’t need to buy anything. I don’t need to sell anything. I just like to help people get where they’re going.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:08] All right. Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

John Francis: [00:21:14] Thank you, Lee. I appreciate the opportunity to share my story and share some ideas. I really do appreciate it. Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:21] All right. That was John Francis Johnny franchise dotcom. That’s Joe H and then Y franchise dot com. To learn more, this is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Franchise Marketing Radio.

 

Dolly Stearns With AlignUp Coaching

by

Dollystearns
Coach The Coach
Dolly Stearns With AlignUp Coaching
Loading
/

alignup

DollystearnsAlmost 20 years ago, with a willing but inexperienced heart, Dolly Stearns began her entrepreneurial journey. Many years, ups, downs, and a few scraping bottom experiences later, she can sincerely say, “I’ve been there, I know, and you’re not alone.”

It doesn’t have to be the uphill, agonizing journey of the lonely. Your work and your life can be inspirational, invitational, and successful – at the same time.

As a person with responsibilities, you have goals. You want to reach them faster, and you want to do it with balance.

Whether you’re a leader, entrepreneur, chief child wrangler, or all of the above, she can help.

Like combing the beach for the perfect shell, it’s faster with two, and as a Success Coach, she partners with her clients to figure out the stuck and get out of the muck.

Let her experience accelerate your success. AlignUp your business, relationships, life, and priorities. Schedule your FREE Discovery Call and Coaching Session here.

Connect with Dolly on Facebook, and LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How can a client bust through the noise in their head to move to success
  • Clear away the Stuck to make room for Success
  • How relevant is the internal dialogue to someone’s success
  • The story isn’t as important as how you want the story to end

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no-cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXambassador.com to learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one. Today we have with us Dolly Stearns with AlignUp coaching. Welcome, Dolly.

Dolly Stearns: [00:00:43] Thanks so much for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] Well, before we get too far into things, tell us about a lineup coaching, how you serve in folks.

Dolly Stearns: [00:00:50] I am a specializing in working with leaders, entrepreneurs, teams, those who are wanting to move from stock to success faster and also hit their goals and do it with balance, which seems to be a hot ticket right now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:04] So what’s your back story? How’d you get into coaching?

Dolly Stearns: [00:01:07] Oh, my gosh. I have had an almost 20 year career in direct sales and have the the blessing, an opportunity to work with some amazing coaches throughout that time and just got inspired with how they helped to motivate and make things clear for me. And I thought, oh, my goodness, could I do this in a broader way and serve more people by transitioning into becoming a successful leadership coach? And so this has been one of the most rewarding periods of my life working with clients in this way.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:39] So talk about what it’s like to work with you. What is the challenge that this individual was having, like like you mentioned, being stuck? Are they just frustrated? Like, what are some of the symptoms of stuff like what is stuck look like for someone? Yes.

Dolly Stearns: [00:01:54] What does stuck look like? That is a fantastic question. So the theme that I’m hearing right now is that so many people are trying to juggle not just their business, because we know life isn’t just about our business. We have other habits that we’re wearing. So being a parent, being a spouse, having endeavors outside of work, and how do we make all of those things work and come together and serve our bigger vision for our life? And so stuck is looking like, oh my gosh, I feel like I’m putting all of my eggs in this basket and I have nothing left to bring to the table for family and friends and this bigger idea of what I want my life to be like. So how do I balance that and still be successful in the areas that are important to me? So stucks seems to be the big word that I’m hearing right now. And it does look different for everybody.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] So now when you were coaching and then when you say, you know what, I’m going to be a coach, that mental shift of, you know, taking on that responsibility. How did you kind of go about coming up with this? I don’t know if it’s a philosophy or if it’s a strategy or some of the tenets of how you’re going to deliver this coaching. Like how did you build the coaching program?

Dolly Stearns: [00:03:12] That is a fantastic question. So I think a lot of it taking from my own experience. So initially started working with a lot of women because that was the field that I was working in and especially coming into the pandemic where people were having to put multiple hats on. Kids are at home, families at home. And so using that as the launching pad to really acknowledge and validate what it was that they had going on with trying to be all things to all people. So as I was stepping into really focusing on full time coaching, I thought, what is the thing that people feel like they’re not getting right now? One of them was I feel like I’m not being able to be successful in any lane. And so really stepping up to be that person to acknowledge what it was that they were struggling with, to let them know that I was hearing them, because that was something I felt as a single mom for so long trying to build a business. It’s like I don’t have any connection. Nobody’s hearing what’s really going on with me. So bringing that into my coaching and making sure that that’s the very first thing that we cover is, oh, my gosh, I hear you. And while my experience may not be exactly like yours, it makes total sense that you’re having this feeling of feeling stuck or you’re having this feeling of feeling frustrated. And so by doing that acknowledgment at the front and making sure that they really know that I am hearing what’s going on with them, it really paves the way for us to do some significant work together to find out what’s important to them and help move them closer to that goal.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:44] Do you find that a lot of times your clients are kind of self sabotaging themselves or they’re not aiming high enough? They’re kind of settling like, what are you? Is there a threat of kind of common challenges that you see when you’re working with folks?

Dolly Stearns: [00:04:58] So self sabotage? That is definitely something that I’m hearing. And it’s it’s not even so much that they’re making conscious decisions to do that. It’s really unconscious. There’s a dialog that’s often happening in their head. That’s it’s almost like poking the balloon and watching the air come out of these goals that they have because the voice can be so loud in their head. I refer to it kind of like having Darth Vader in one side of your head telling, you know, this is too big. Nope. You shouldn’t go after that. Here, let me show you all the evidence of why this isn’t going to work or you’re not good enough. And so I focus on supporting them to tune in more to the sage, that Yoda part of their head. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but it really does make such a difference. And to be able to almost put imagery and be able to label it helps them to start differentiating it, especially demurrage differentiating it from who they are. So now it’s oh my gosh, this saboteur in my head is saying X, Y, Z versus this is who I am.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:01] And then once that kind of aha moment happens, then things become a lot clearer. Right. Then the next step becomes a lot more obvious.

Dolly Stearns: [00:06:10] Yes. And we we often when I’m working with a client, check in with their older, wiser selves. So when we are in those moments of stockroom, my gosh, I don’t know the choice to make or it seems like I have so many options, then it becomes OK. So if you were to sit down with your older, wiser self at the end of your life and have a conversation about what’s important about this moment right now, what would your elder wiser self say? And most often we know and sometimes it’s that we know, but we’re afraid to act. And so we again go back to that elder wise yourself. What are they going to say is important about what you need to do right now? And I operate from the position that my client really knows the best answer for themselves most of the time. It’s not that they don’t know what to do. There’s something in the middle. And so by really touching base that they’re elder wise herself, it helps them to get unstuck and start moving forward. There’s a lot of clarity that happens around that

Lee Kantor: [00:07:09] Now when a person is kind of looking at it from the perspective of how they want the story to end. And I’m guessing that’s what that elder wiser self is telling them. Right. Like, if you want to achieve this, this is how the story can end if you want to to end this way. Then they know kind of then they can see what the end looks like and then they can see what the step before the end looks like, and then it kind of draws a path for them where they are today to start kind of working towards that end goal.

Dolly Stearns: [00:07:41] Absolutely. And it’s it’s kind of like the carrot versus the stick. So if you can identify how you want the story to end, it does you set it, it pulls them forward, which is a whole different energy than the stick, which is, you know, the pushing and trying to get away from the thing that’s going to be painful. And so, you know, the stick will work. It’ll get you to where you want to go. But the peace and the happiness in the balance that somebody is looking for along the way may not happen. Whereas if we’re operating from this being pulled to this amazing thing, hold to how we want the story to end. You can have both the goal and the achievement and the mastery and the peace and the joy and the balance along the way. And who doesn’t want that as their journey?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:27] I think everybody wants that. But there sometimes for folks there’s a fear or something they’re afraid of that might be causing kind of this paralysis where they’re afraid to take that next move. And that next move might be a scary next move, then. It could be difficult, but it could be something that they can it’ll kind of reveal that maybe that isn’t really what they want or that they feel deep down that they’re not good enough to to take that next step. Like fear kind of rears its head in a lot of different ways for a lot of different people. And it prevents them from taking the action. They they say they want to. At least

Dolly Stearns: [00:09:05] That’s true. Absolutely. And so the question becomes, you know, if you don’t move forward with this. Right. So we want to look at all the pieces. So if you don’t move forward, what’s the cost like really? What’s the cost to you? And are you OK with that? Because sometimes we’re like, all right, well, maybe it wasn’t as important. And then the other side of the coin is what are going to be the benefits? And sometimes it’s as simple as the ones they’ve identified. The cost is higher than I want to pay. I can see the benefits are going to be amazing. Then the question can become, what do you need to believe in order to move just just a moment forward, just the next best step. What do you need to believe? And and so sometimes we’re taking little incremental steps. It’s not always about the big leaps. It’s about those incremental steps. And how can you how can you be confident and knowing that this next step is going to take you to the next thing and the next thing and also be OK with if you need to take the side road? Because sometimes that happens, like how many of us have set a goal for ourselves? And then we’re like about halfway there. We’re like, I don’t know if this is exactly the way I want it to look. And so what do we need to be OK with to take a little bit of a detour? I know I’ve experienced that in my life and with so many of my clients, they’ve experienced that as well. So what do we need to believe and and what do we need to know to be OK with with making the side step?

Lee Kantor: [00:10:31] Yeah, one of my favorite books is called The Obstacle is the Way. And a lot of people try to spend their life avoiding obstacles. But if you just realize that obstacles are just part of your journey and that going around them are over or under them or through them is just part of the journey and not kind of use them as an excuse or as an insurmountable hurdle, you’ll find that the journey you did, like you said, just take that next step. What are you going to do in one second from now? Just incrementally, just improve a little bit and then, you know, amazing things can happen.

Dolly Stearns: [00:11:06] Yes, yes, and another word that comes up a lot between stuff is stress, right? So I’m feeling stressed about this decision or stress about this thing that’s happened. And the thing is, and this is such a bigger concept, even I have to sit with it for a minute, is that stress is created either by thinking of things that are coming, the potential things that are coming or things that have happened. It’s really not about being in the moment. So if we can just recognize that really, yes, we can pre plan for things that are coming, but we’re really just in this moment. So how do we want to experience this moment and those obstacles that could happen? Absolutely they could. But if we’re going to make up stories, why don’t we make up some good ones, too, as opposed to the oh, my gosh, this obstacle is going to be so big I can’t surmount it. Yes, that could be true. And what’s the and what are some other possibilities now?

Lee Kantor: [00:12:02] Do you find that? I don’t know if this is just a human nature thing, but when people imagine a future, a lot of times they go negative and they think about all the negative ramifications of it and they don’t kind of play out all the positive outcomes. Is that something that you see in folks who work with.

Dolly Stearns: [00:12:23] Yes, I. I think you’ve hit it on the head with that is that human nature thing. And I think that goes back to caveman days where, oh my gosh, if I wasn’t planning on this worst case scenario, I would get eaten by the lion kind of a thing that Bush wrestling over there. It’s got to be something bad on the other side of it. And I don’t think that we’ve necessarily developed over time sometimes to recognize that that rustling of the bushes. Yes, it could be the lion. It could also be a lot of other things. And so I think it’s a protection mechanism and that can make life feel hard. It can make our life experience hard, not just for ourselves, but the people who are closest to us. And it feels like a struggle. And so I think one of the things that I love doing is exploring all the possibilities, not even all of the possibilities, because we don’t know what all the possibilities are. But inviting somebody to go, OK, yes, this could be it. And what else could it be and what else could it be? And when I have a client who gets stuck, it’s one of my favorite things to do is to say, I want you to think of the most ridiculous thing that this could mean, because that really helps to get us unstuck. And then we lighten the mood and we’re laughing and exploring all of the possibilities and not evaluating it. Is that really possible? But just what could it be? And it really creating this large list of possibilities and then choosing the one or two that allows us to move forward as opposed to. Well, it’s got to be the worst case scenario. It could and it could be something else

Lee Kantor: [00:14:04] Now in your practice. How important is kind of building this community of entrepreneurs and leaders, is that part of what you offer the people that you work with it? This is kind of a safe place for folks that are like minded to get together and really help each other get to the to get to a new level.

Dolly Stearns: [00:14:26] Yes, actually. So I do a lot of one on one work and I also do a lot of group work. And I love the group work because we have so much more in common than not. And so it does provide that safe space of knowing that, oh my gosh, somebody else might be experiencing this. And then everybody gets to bring their collective wisdom to the table in a safe environment where things are held sacred and they can be just 10 percent more vulnerable and that 10 percent more vulnerable is how relationships and trust is built. And so I love the collaboration because I learned in the process as well, and I am the consummate student, but it just it creates a connection and a thread where I think we’re not feeling so isolated. And as entrepreneurs and leaders, often it can feel isolating, like we’re on this path by ourselves instead of bringing people together in a group where they’re recognizing, oh my gosh, somebody else is walking the same road as I am or somebody who’s done through this thing and they’re on the other side. And what’s the wisdom that I can take from what they have going on? So I think there’s a time and place for both one on one and for group collaboration, and it’s exciting for both of those pieces.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:41] Now, if somebody wants to learn more and have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what is the website

Dolly Stearns: [00:15:50] They can go to w w w a line up Alija, end up now dot com. And if they put forward slash free, they can set up a 90 minute discovery and coaching call with me. I’d love to collaborate.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:06] Wow. That’s very generous. 90 minutes to really kind of dig in there and see if there’s some help you can give somebody or to just see if it’s a right fit. That’s very generous.

Dolly Stearns: [00:16:17] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:19] Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today

Dolly Stearns: [00:16:22] And appreciate the time with you. My pleasure.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:26] And one more time, it’s a line up now. Dot com is a website, allegan up, A.W. dot com. And if you do slash for free, you can get on Dollis calendar. Thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Dolly Stearns: [00:16:43] Thanks, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:44] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach Radio.

 

Thomas Strehle With Focal Point Coaching and Training

by

Thomasstrehle
Coach The Coach
Thomas Strehle With Focal Point Coaching and Training
Loading
/

FocalPointlogoFeb2017-7735557

ThomasstrehleThomas Strehle is a seasoned and experienced leader, with demonstrated successful impact at every level. He has served in a myriad of leadership roles during a distinguished career in both corporate and military sectors with demonstrated success in building world class teams and helping to strengthen individual leadership capabilities.

In the corporate sector, Tom has held executive leadership assignments in both Business and Human Resources to include Head of College Relations and Head of Global Staffing at Raychem Corp; HR Director and Director of Facilities and Engineering at Genentech (Fortune’s 2006 #1 Company); Vice President of HR at Charles Schwab and Company; Head of HR for Williams-Sonoma stores; Vice President of HR at Campbell Soup Company; and SVP/Head of HR for Commercial at US Trust (a premier wealth management company) and VP of HR at Beam Suntory.

During Tom’s 10 year tenure at Beam Suntory, he held every senior HR leadership role supporting all commercial and support functions, to include Head of HR for Beam Suntory International out of Madrid, Spain. Tom also served as CHRO/SVP HR at Moen/Global Plumbing Group/Fortune Brands and has led Global/Internal Communications functions and Diversity and Inclusion initiatives in all of his senior roles.

A graduate of West Point, Tom served on military active duty for 12 years and in the reserves for an additional 12 years. He served in such premier assignments as Aide-de-Camp to the Commander of the elite U.S. Army Berlin Brigade; Commander and Senior Staff officer in the 82nd Airborne Division; and as a leadership instructor at the United States Military and United States Air Force Academies.

As a reservist, he acted as the West Coast liaison officer overseeing West Point admissions for over 10 years working closely with candidates, the Academies, and the Congressional and Senatorial offices across California. He is also qualified as a US Army Ranger and a Master Paratrooper.

Tom served as a leadership instructor at West Point and the United States Air Force Academy for over 15 years and brings a unique combination of cutting-edge leadership philosophy and corporate experience to the table.

Tom is currently a High-Performance Business and Executive Coach at Focal Point.

Tom holds a BS degree from West Point; an MA in Public Relations from the University of Florida; and an MBA from Webster University and is a proud member of the National Cherokee Indian Historical Society and The LGBTQ community.

Tom has served on the Advisory Board for Instant Autographs.

Connect with Tom on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode

  • How does someone determine if they would benefit from a coach, and what kind of benefit can they expect coaching to produce

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for Coach the Coach Radio brought to you by the Business RadioX ambassador program, the no-cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to BRXambassador.com to learn more. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:33] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a good one. Today we have on the show Thomas Strehle with focal point coaching and training. Welcome, Thomas

Thomas Strehle: [00:00:44] Lee. How are you? It’s great to be with you today.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about so-called focal point coaching and training. How you serving folks?

Thomas Strehle: [00:00:55] You know, Focal Points starts with Brian Tracey, who’s our founder, who I would encourage our listeners to Google him. Very interesting guy, world class motivational speaker over 80 books. And what I really like about Focal Point is, you know, our mission is to change the world through business leadership and training. And we have a metaphorical pebble on the pond where we like to impact the world through clients, then their families, you know, the businesses with which they’re operating in the communities. And it kind of permeates from there. So we have a very engaged clientele and a very engaged list of coaches. And I’m really proud to be a franchise owner for focal points. Fantastic.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:40] So now what’s your back story? How did you get involved in a focal point? Like what were you doing prior to Focal Point?

Thomas Strehle: [00:01:48] Well, it’s you know, it’s interesting. I’ve had the fortunate opportunity in my life to serve in the military. So I’m a retired lieutenant colonel. I then served 30 years in global, mostly HRR positions in business with some terrific companies and, you know, with some terrific leaders. And, you know, at the end of that 30 years in the corporate world, I wanted to go off and do the fun part of what I used to do and H.R., which is to influence leaders, have an impact on businesses. And I’ve just been able to, you know, I think capitalize on all of that kind of lifelong experience and working with some really, really outstanding clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:31] Now, when you were in H.R., you said you spent quite a few years in H.R. was coaching an executive coaching and leadership coaching with that kind of a thing when you started or did it start to become a thing maybe towards the tail end of your career? Where was coaching kind of seen from the perspective?

Thomas Strehle: [00:02:50] You know, it’s a great question. And I would even say going back to my days as a lieutenant in the military, were you always influencing leaders? And I mean, that’s really what coaching is about. It’s not providing a solution. It’s having, you know, the individual kind of analyze the situation and come up with the solution for themselves. You know, just I’d like to just describe a couple of the people that I’ve had a chance to work with that I have believe I have influenced significantly through my both the military and the corporate career. I mean, I’ve, you know, had a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who I was on his staff and I believe provided a lot of input to his leadership. The current leader of the of so. Com, which is the Special Operations Command, as somebody that I’ve kind of mentored throughout throughout the evolution of his growth into a four star general back to kind of the corporate sector. You know, I’ve been a senior leader on the staff of the current CEOs of Constellation Brands, Beams, Country and Bank of America. And I’ve also been on the staff of the guy who, again, you can Google and I won’t mention his name, but he’s the current chief of, you know, chairman of the board of Apple. So all of these individuals I described, these kind of cool, high powered individuals is only to say that it was a journey, a different journey with each of them. And, you know, part of it was them influencing me and my leadership style, certainly. But almost in every case, I was in a position to help influence something about how they developed and about the decisions they were making to impact their business. And just very, very fulfilling. I mean, I was I’ve kind of been coaching my whole life, to be honest with you.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:42] So now when you’re working with folks, is it something that you believe that everybody has this kind of leadership within them and it just needs a little coaxing to come out? Or is it something that you believe that people are kind of born leaders and that those are the people that you really got to maximize their talents?

Thomas Strehle: [00:05:04] You know, that’s that’s really a great question. When, as you’re describing this, I’m thinking of, you know, Vince Lombardi, who said leaders are made, they are not boring. And I like to always go back to, you know, a lot of coaching organizations. They’ll kind of take on anybody. One thing I like about Focal Point is just as the clients are very selective about who they pick to work with at focal point. We’re very selective on who we pick to work with as well, and, you know, there’s this kind of adage in the coaching business that you try and focus and identify, you know, during my certification, it’s like, OK, straight to figure out who is your ideal client. And when I look at my list of people I’m either currently coaching or I’ve recently coached, you know, I’ve got everything from a professional sports agent, multiple CEOs, entrepreneurs of very small businesses who just have an idea. And they’re working through this idea to figure out how to bring their business to life. Startup companies. I’ve worked with a bunch of small business owners in the Boca Raton area who are actually just looking at the cycle of their business. Where is their cycle and the evolution? Are they in a growth cycle or are they in a stagnant cycle? And how can I help them kind of get through all that? I also work with individual leaders and teams.

Thomas Strehle: [00:06:34] So I’ve got individuals who are saying, man, you know, I just can’t get my team motivated and I can’t get them to communicate. And then maybe their teams are struggling. And especially in this environment, on the work from home, it’s just there are some incredibly new components to the whole leadership challenge. That’s very interesting. You know, and then again, just again, maybe a couple of examples on the military side. You know, I served the Z to camp for the commander of Berlin and this was back. I’m dating myself a little bit, but during the Cold War, when the wall was still up. So we had lots of challenges around soldiers and motivation and being on an island in the middle of the, you know, the Cold War and also served. You know, this is an interesting one. I think about it. I had a chance to serve as the head of riot control for the second airborne division at a presidential election. And this was a few presidents ago, not a recent one. And I as I watched things unfold on January six, I thought, man, the challenges, the leadership challenges that those guys have on the ground are much different than I faced back, you know, back a while back. So it’s just, you know, many problems remain the same and many, many things change. So it’s just a very dynamic time.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:58] Now, can you talk about the decision that you went through when you were leaving corporate and you were kind of starting this new act in your career? Why did you just kind of say, you know what, Thomas has lived a wonderful life, a very life with a lot of diverse experiences. I’m going to do it. The Thomas method of doing coaching. But you decided instead to buy a franchise, the focal point franchise. What was kind of the thought process there of going it alone rather than kind of joining forces with focal point?

Thomas Strehle: [00:08:34] You know, that’s that’s another great question. Lee and I had had a few iterations through my career where I did did coaching on my own, which was a fantastic experience. But when I looked at focal point, what focal point provides me, first of all, is all of the philosophy that Brian Tracy philosophy and all of the tools and resources that I need to bring the best product to the client. I mean, literally, you could present me with any any issue. And if I’m not an expert or haven’t been exposed to that in my personal career, I can tap either one of our two hundred focal point coaches to help me or look at a library of of resources available on uncertain topics. And, you know, it’s just it’s a terrific foundation to do that. Further to your question on the whole franchise. But, you know, I came down to Florida where I had a second home, and my my idea was to buy a franchise I hadn’t really focused on on being a coach. And I looked at many of the different. I thought, you know what, I want to do something different after this. Thirty years of corporate life. So I looked at everything from fast food to pets.

Thomas Strehle: [00:09:55] I’ve got two beautiful weimaraners, big dog lover. So I thought, wouldn’t that be cool to do something you’d really enjoy? The focal point opportunity just kept passing by my way. And and then I thought about what do you really enjoy doing? And that is influencing people. I like to joke that in my my career I was always the first stop was the complaint department, you know, in about about 10 percent of what I did was being able to do the true coaching, sitting with executives, influencing the business. And I thought. You know what? There’s a reason focal point keeps crossing my path. This is an opportunity to have the power of a structure and an organization behind me, but also to tap my my strengths and my experience and what I’ve done, you know, and I continue to learn from focal point. And that’s that’s the neat thing. So I’m not out there as a coach, just kind of winging it and going straightly. Did this. This might work. He did that. This might work. I’ve got the power of just a tremendous amount of experience behind me and the philosophy and the tools to help me with my clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:09] Well, walk me through what it looks like when you’re beginning a relationship with a new client. Like what is the pain that they’re having? Are they frustrated? Have they never had a coach before? Or are they like like what’s usually that point of entry when you start working with them and then walk me walk me through what that kind of maybe initial conversation or first few kind of action points are?

Thomas Strehle: [00:11:33] You know, we have a I probably would spend normally I would have probably four different conversations with the client before we would mutually agree to work together. We spend a lot of time getting to know the client. What other challenges, what are their financial goals? What what is their team like? How does their team operate? How do they communicate? And then we we really look at the client herself for himself, for example, if there a small business owner don’t know what are their long term plans. So do they want to divest of the business eventually? Do they want a growth model? What cycle in the business cycle are they in? And we can go through, like I say, probably starting with a very casual conversation. Then we take it to the next step where we’ll do a phone call to kind of get to know each other more. Then I do what we call Strategic Business Review, where it will be an in-depth, probably a 90 minute conversation with that with that leader or business owner to really get to know them in depth. And we’ll get into very, you know, ask in that second, third and fourth question to kind of peel back the onion on on on what it is about this client that that I feel that I can contribute. That’s going to to be a success. One of the things I know many of our listeners have probably heard of, you know, some of the behavioral assessments and many of you have probably taken, you know, the meeti, the Myers Briggs or the predictive index at focal point.

Thomas Strehle: [00:13:17] We use a talent insights assessment, which is called The Desk. And I love the desk because the business really allows us to get to know the person. So once that once the client is signed on to your question and maybe what are the first steps, I would then ask the client to take this risk assessment, which is about a 30 minute online assessment and the depending on which iteration of it. For example, we’ve got a very, very quality aspect of the deaths that surround emotional intelligence, which is so important, such a great important characteristic of leaders and business owners. You know, the report is about I don’t know, I’ve seen reports that are, you know, a couple of hundred pages, which is just overwhelming. But then I distill that down and try and further get to understand, you know, what are the behavioral drivers and motivators of the leader and what what is their level of emotional intelligence by using a behavioral assessment. This will then help me to get a better understanding of the client, what their needs are. But most importantly, how are they wired as an individual? And again, it’s just a window of insight into how I can help them as a coach to meet their fundamental needs and improve whatever areas they’re looking to improve.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:54] Now, how much self-awareness does it require for someone to really benefit from coaching, because it sounds like if I was working in a company and my boss said, hey, you need a coach, my frame of mind may not be in the right place in order to take advantage of that opportunity. Does it take a level of humbleness, a level of vulnerability to even be open to getting a coach or benefiting from a coach?

Thomas Strehle: [00:15:25] You know, that is an absolutely critical factor. I mean, I get clients all the time, and as an H.R. senior, H.R. leader and CSIRO, we often encouraged and presented opportunities for employees to get coached. It really depends on the individual, some of them are completely resistant. Some are absolutely enamored that you’re investing money and getting them developmental opportunities. I’ll be honest, if I had somebody that called me today and said, you know, you know, Tom, my you know, I just had my review and I’ve been ordered to get coaching to improve, you know, X, Y and Z, I would certainly have an intake conversation with this individual. But it’s very likely that I would not accept this person as a coaching client, because I’ve I really have been in this movie before, both as a role and as a leader and as, you know, an executive coach where the person is just going through the motions and if they’re not committed to coaching. And one of the things, again, I think that’s unique, a focal point. You know, we actually take them through, call it a forum, but we ask them to sign a commitment that they’re going to do the prep, for example, that they’re going to take the assessments, that they’re going to commit to the times, that they have a schedule.

Thomas Strehle: [00:16:59] Because to your to your point, I mean, it’s exactly right on. There are many people in the corporate world, they’re saying, you know, Mary or Jim, you know, we’re requiring you to get a coach. Those are generally not good candidates for coaching. And I’ll be honest from the selfish part of me, because I’m doing this because now I want some sense of satisfaction out of what I’m doing. If somebody is just going through the motions, I mean, I had a recent client that was just going through the motions and I was like, you know what? You’re not getting your money’s worth because because you don’t want to be coached. And I’m fine to sit here on a call and just chat with you and have a have a have a good ole time. But, you know, it’s our sessions are demanding that we require homework and preparation and insight, you know, and we require a degree of humility and and self-awareness in order to have a successful coaching relationship.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:00] Now, if you were giving advice to anybody that maybe was in your shoes focal point and they’re, you know, they’re exiting kind of their corporate life with their enterprise life and they’re entering this new world of coaching, is there any kind of dos and don’ts when you’re making the leap into a coaching practice that you can share?

Thomas Strehle: [00:18:20] Well, I think, you know, I’m coaching is a challenging career and there’s a lot of competitors, first of all, there’s a lot of independent coaches, there are a lot of coaching franchise type of models. And I would say, one, there really has to be a passion around it from your end. And and I think it really you know, it’s really helpful if you’ve had experience coaching before. This is not a profession, you know, as as easy as it may be described sometimes as well. You know, you can just sit down and use your experience to help somebody Coach the Coach through. You know, we were a lot of different hats. And in our certification, we’re always told, you know, don’t be a psych psychologist or psychiatrist or psychologist or, you know, don’t be you’re not a life coach. You’re more of a business coach and a career coach. And you know what? Inevitably, you end up kind of being all of the above, because if you have a strong relationship with the client, you know, you’re going to talk about what they do in their in their off time. You’re going to encourage them to balance their lifestyle. We even have an assessment that I give as part of this intake that I talked about, you know, where we try and understand what are the important motivators outside of the office in terms of their personal relationships and in terms of their physical fitness. And because all of these things really are part of the whole person concept. So, you know, I guess the advice I would give is make sure you’ve really explored it. You understand the not only the satisfaction pieces, but the implications of it. You know, we’re not here to give advice. We’re here to help people develop their own solutions to real issues that are that have implications on their personal life, their family, their business and employees and their communities. So make sure you understand the full plethora of of responsibility that you have before you dove into this as a profession.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:31] Well, Thomas, if there’s anyone out there that wants to learn more about your practice and get on your calendar, what is the website are the best way to reach you?

Thomas Strehle: [00:20:42] Yeah, I’m at you know, my website is Thomas Strelley, that’s to show him as Astarita Ellie Dot focal point poaching dot com or by email is T straley just my first initial Strelley at focal point coaching dot com and I’d be happy to talk to anyone that is exploring. Coaching is an opportunity or someone that has heard something I’ve said and will be interested in exploring whether coaching is right for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:16] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you, Leigh.

Thomas Strehle: [00:21:21] It’s fantastic. And I appreciate you guys this program and the emphasis you put on a very important aspect of growing businesses and people.

Lee Kantor: [00:21:31] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach Radio.

 

Our Mission

We help local business leaders get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, their community, and their profession.

We support and celebrate business by sharing positive business stories that traditional media ignores. Some media leans left. Some media leans right. We lean business.

Sponsor a Show

Build Relationships and Grow Your Business. Click here for more details.

Partner With Us

Discover More Here

Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy

Connect with us

Want to keep up with the latest in pro-business news across the network? Follow us on social media for the latest stories!

Business RadioX® Headquarters
1000 Abernathy Rd. NE
Building 400, Suite L-10
Sandy Springs, GA 30328