How Consistency Builds an Elite Coaching Practice with Mike Jones

What if the key to growing your coaching practice isn’t doing more, but doing one thing exceptionally well?

In this episode, Cam sits down with Mike Jones to explore how clarity of vision and a focused offering can accelerate growth in a coaching practice. Mike shares his journey from building and scaling multiple fitness businesses to becoming an EOS Implementer, highlighting how implementing EOS in his own companies shaped his path. They unpack why having a narrow, proven offering builds trust faster, how consistent content and relationship-building on LinkedIn fuel business development, and why long-term success comes from aligning your daily actions with a clear vision for your practice.  

Biography

Mike Jones is a Certified EOS Implementer and former entrepreneur who has built and scaled multiple businesses, including growing a multi-location fitness company and launching a successful COVID-era venture. With a decade of experience as an Integrator, Mike brings real-world operational insight into his coaching, helping leadership teams gain clarity, alignment, and traction using the EOS framework. He is passionate about helping entrepreneurs simplify their business and execute with discipline.

Links

Connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-jones-eos/ 

Learn more about Mike’s work with EOS: https://implementer.eosworldwide.com/mike-jones/ 

Use code AC20 for 20% off Ninety: https://ninety.io 

Join our free LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/16297012/ 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

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SPEAKER_01 0:52

Welcome to the Invictus Coach Lab, powered by Nike. I'm your host, Dr. Cam Law. Each week we explore the real fact tough conversations and breakthrough moments to drive coaching success. Let's jump into today's episode. All right, well, we've got Mike Jones on the show today. Super excited to be able to jump in. Mike's a professional EOS implementer, served on multiple tours with the Marine Corps. So thank you for your service. Appreciate that. Excited to hear a little bit more about that. And then we're also going to dive into just how Mike has utilized social media in his strategy for growing his coaching practice, primarily LinkedIn. So that's going to be a primary focus of the topic today. But before we jump in, Mike, I'd love to hear a little bit more about your entrepreneurial journey, about how you ended up into the role you're in now as a professional EOS implementer.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Hey, Cam. Yeah. So my entrepreneurial journey and what led me to become an EOS implementer is I implemented EOS with my company when I was launching my second company. So I got into the fitness space. I started the first CrossFit gym in St. Paul and the first CrossFit gym in Minneapolis and grew that business successfully to four locations pre-EOS. We had uh great timing where we couldn't really do anything wrong. The CrossFit was growing exponentially. So we were pretty good at what we were doing, but we just kind of grew along with it. And when we launched our second business, which was our own fitness concept, we wanted to grow fast. We wanted to be successful. And I read the book Traction while we were launching with my partner and pretty quickly saw that it had a blueprint and framework for how to operate in a way that we needed that we didn't have with my first business. And so we hired an implementer right when we were launching the business, which is a little early for most companies. Most companies are a little bit more established, but we hired an implementer immediately. We got lucky and found a new implementer. So he was a little bit cheaper what we could afford.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

And uh and that was the start of my EOS journey. And so I ended up I operated for another eight years uh full time, operated that business, grew rapidly, expanded to multiple markets, went through a lot of business challenges when COVID hit as well. And EOS didn't make running a business easy at all, but it made it so that I had the tools and a system to work through any challenge as it came up. So as I stepped down and moved on to the next thing, I launched another company that was a quick COVID-related company. It was a testing company that was very successful and very short-lived. Uh, I ran EOS with that and ultimately thought about what I loved doing when I was thinking about my next thing. And it really was working with people, helping them break through their challenges. And becoming an EOS implementer was always in the back of my mind. And uh I wanted to do it for a long time, but I couldn't until I was ready to go all in full time. And so after some things fell into place, I finally was, and I pulled the trigger and the rest is history.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Love that. What about? I mean, what role did you play in those organizations? I mean, in in EOS language, you have the visionary integrator. What role did you play and how did that impact your uh perception of the implementer and how you approach that now?

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, I was the integrator continuously every company that I ran EOS in. And so I was full-time integrator for uh my fitness company. We actually went back to my first company and self-implemented.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

And I phased myself out and had, you know, promoted a guy into the integrator seat, and we were able to successfully phase ourselves out of that business and sell it. And so running EOS as a self-implementing company while we were learning from our implementer worked. Um, and so I phased out of that and then I also acted as a fractional integrator for about a year with other companies. Uh, so I was I I've been a continuous integrator for almost exactly a decade prior to becoming an implementer.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah. Do you think uh that there are there probably are pros and cons or advantages, disadvantages of the, let's just take the stereotypical understanding of that type of role, right? Do you think that has led to a quote unquote superpower or advantage for you of coming from an integrator standpoint who was really in the lifeblood of the organization, right? Making it happen. Has that equipped you to be an implementer in uh ways that you maybe maybe wouldn't have had as if you were more of a visionary type role, or or does it really, does it not really matter?

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah, I think it, I think being in a practicing integrator for many years prior to becoming an implementer has been tremendous value. Because, you know, when you go into the room and start coaching teams, you're new at coaching teams, you're new at facilitation, and there's a lot to learn. But from the first session I ever did with a team, I've been in the seat of the visionary who is building their team and trying to bring on executive team members to fill their seats, maybe even trying to bring on an integrator. I've been in that seat. I've also been in the integrator seat, which we all know is the hardest job at the table. Uh, they have to pull everything together, they have to herd the cats, they have to keep things going on time, they have to be kind of a jerk sometimes. And so I have a lot of empathy for both of those seats. So yeah, I think it's extremely valuable. Uh from what I've seen with successful business coach implementers, it's not necessary, but it's a benefit. And so, yeah, I I leverage that experience every day in the room.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

And obviously, you're gonna tap into even the the uh assessment or or just you know scoring system that they have, you can start to have, you know, kind of both sides, right? Some visionary tendencies, some uh integrator tendencies. So that's that's a fascinating as we were talking. I just I will as I was thinking through, you know, you a lot of times you do have a certain stereotypical persona of what a business coach is. Um, and I think no matter what style or background or personality style you have, I think you can find your lane as as a business coach. So I appreciate you sharing a little bit on that. So let's talk right now. I mean, what are some of the current goals you're going through? You know, we're recording this in kind of December, so tail end of 2024. So coming in on annual season seems to be a pretty busy time for organizations. But what are some of the the goals that you've set kind of going into next year for your coaching practice?

SPEAKER_02 7:59

Going into planning my coaching practice, I just finished my first year as a full-time EOS implementer. So I did some coaching for the prior year, but this is this is the first year. And so I'm going into my second year, and I'm really sticking to my um EOS planning process. So I've got my 10-year plan, which is actually five years. So 2028, my goal is to have a $1 million a year business. And anybody who's done that kind of planning, the the long-term plan, you don't really need to know exactly how you're gonna do that. That's just your goal, your big, audacious goal, right? And then from there, I back into my three-year plan. I haven't reset because we go, I've got another month till the end of the year. So I'll reset my three-year plan in the next month. My original three-year plan is to get to a hundred session a year business at $7,000 a session. And it's real simple. What's my revenue? What's my profit? And then what are my, you know, what does it look like? And so that's my three-year plan. And so I'm just keeping it simple and I'll back into my one-year plan. So my first year, I did 11 new clients. So I did our first session in EOS is called the focus day. So I did 11 focus days, which is a very good, consistent growth rate. And my goal in the next year is to get to 20. And so simple, I want to do 100 sessions with 20 clients. So that'll require seven, eight, nine new clients, depending on if there's any churn and backing into all the things I need to do from a practice management, you know, administrative, yeah. How do I follow up? How do I provide all the back end mastery? How do I get better at facilitation? Keep getting better as a coach, and then business development, how do I go out and acquire new new clients? So just set simply assessing where I'm at, what I need to improve and what I need to work on to hit that simple goal.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

And yeah, you touched on kind of every single one of those core communities because they're they're really all interrelated. I think, especially when you're first starting out, you know, business development, like I land that first client, you know, and and survive through. Uh, and then as you start to go through, you start to think more about, okay, now I'm gonna figure out how how do I want to manage my practice? What's my tech stack? What's my you know offering? How am I gonna start to go and develop a vision? I love that you have that. You know where you're going. I think so many coaches get in and they just kind of go in, all right. Well, I got to get clients. And they they focus solely on business development, but you kind of have to understand where you're gonna go because then you can reverse engineer, like you've done, where you need to know, okay, and then that fuels your business development initiatives where you know, okay, I need to talk to X amount of people, which is gonna generate one client per month or per, you know, two clients per quarter or whatever you're gonna get to to your end goal. That allows you to have the content and data to understand what you need to do. And so, on the concept of business development, one of the things that I really wanted to dive into you uh with is understanding your strategy behind utilizing LinkedIn. I have used you as an example of someone to follow uh for other coaches that I've talked to. So shout out uh to you and and for anybody that does want somebody good to follow, a coach that sits out there grinding, doing great work, follow Mike Jones on on LinkedIn, uh EOS, you'll be able to see it's very obvious. But talk to me a little bit about your your strategy behind utilizing that because I've we've been connected for for a couple years now. So I've I've kind of seen the evolution of it. And it seems there has been a very strategic approach. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Yeah, absolutely. My LinkedIn and content strategy is about two years old. So I got lucky, quote unquote lucky, in the sense that I made the decision to start creating content prior to becoming a coach. Um, or rather prior to becoming an EOS implementer. It was when I was just getting started. I had a couple clients as an integrator, and I wasn't sure exactly what I was gonna do, but I bought into the concept of having consistent content out there to build your brand, all the things that we know about personal branding. And so I started posting on LinkedIn uh a little less than two years ago, and I've posted every day since I haven't missed a day. And that consistency or the discipline of just being committed to being there every day has allowed me to get better at creating content, created a system so that now it's gone from writing a post every day to spending two hours a week writing content, and my assistant takes care of all the back end, scheduling, graphics, everything. So I can just do the content and commenting and engaging with other people. And so that evolution has taken time. It's creating just like in each systems, it's it's improvement, systematize, delegate over and over. And I use it for a couple things. I use it from a broad building my personal brand, expressing myself, expressing my creativity because I like writing and I want to get better at it. So that's the high level. And then from a business development standpoint, it's putting my name out there in my network so that people who I connect with, who I'm building trust with, think of me a little bit more. It's really as simple as that. Because what I do, business coaching, implement EOS, is a very high trust thing that is not gonna be like your standard online coaches program type thing that people will sign up just based on seeing some of your content. I have to meet them, I likely have to be referred to them, and there has to be trust established before they're gonna sign on for a big engagement with me. So what it really is, is it's that consistent establishment of some trust building and just familiarity so that when I get put in front of someone, they are probably more likely to know who I am, know where I come from, just be like, oh yeah, Mike Jones, I know him. So that's really the core of it. And it all happens with just some consistency of being there with content.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Um my friend Jamie Mullikan always says this. I don't know if he's the one that that coined this. If so, props to him. Uh but he he always says that LinkedIn relationships are one in the comments, not in the inbox. And I love that because I think they're I can't tell you how many, and I think once you you do start to gain a little bit of a following, people, you know, as their business development people are doing their scrubs and finding people that are influencers on in an organization or decision makers or whatever the criteria is, you start to get a lot of inbox, you know, it messages in in your inbox of of soliciting a service or getting on a call to talk through their product offering or whatnot. And I don't think I've ever responded to a single one of those. It's it's kind of annoying. Um, and I just I I read it and then you know, then I know probably in three days I'm gonna get another one. And but it's just not a sustainable, scalable approach. However, those that have gone in and interacted with my content and they've kind of nurtured me, they've liked it, they've gone in and commented a couple times over the over a couple weeks or months. When they send me a message, I feel like I know them. And and I feel like there's it's it's a different approach. And it sounds like because I've seen you talk about this before where you are responding to every single comment that comes in, almost at least ideally trying to within a certain time frame. Because I know that also helps from the algorithm, but also I think nurtures that relationship along. Is that accurate?

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Yeah, that's exactly right. So the way to think about it is one, to treat LinkedIn like an in real life network. Meaning, just like you said, making individual connections with humans is what you're trying to do. And then it's an internet enabled. So the way to a simple way to do it is one, create your content. Put your ideas, your original ideas out there on a consistent basis, whether it's once a week, three times a week, five times a week, doesn't really matter. The other part is to interact with people, just like you would at a cocktail party and on LinkedIn, that is commenting on their stuff if you think it's interesting, and responding to people who comment on your stuff. And then from a, like you mentioned, DMs, you can and then taking that conversation offline, so to speak, would be DMs or going to text or email. And it's really as simple as that. If you treat it like I'm trying to add value for people, I'm trying to create relationships, that's how it works. And then doing it consistently over time looks like every day you're on LinkedIn, instead of just scrolling, you're commenting on all the interesting people in your relatively small network that you see, and you're responding to everything. And that alone will start yielding people that you become friends with, who you constant uh continuously interact with. So that's like your small circle of people that become your tribe, so to speak. And then other people, like you said, that enter your network, you uh build some trust and knowledge of each other, and then maybe you pass a referral, maybe you help them with something, maybe they help you with something, and then ultimately you get what you ultimately want, which is business.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Right. It's a very human-centered approach. I I love the way that you put that with treat it like a real, real life network. I mean, because it is, it's real people, and I think that's one of the things with LinkedIn. Uh I my I have a PhD and my research was on comment sections on Facebook. And I had somebody ask me, because I talked a little bit on LinkedIn about, you know, again, to your point, just being yourself and being a creative iteration and just sparking conversation. I think that's been a great angle for me. And as I've gone and started to share a little bit about, they said, you know, why do you like LinkedIn seems to be a little bit more civil in its nature? You know, you don't see a lot of incivility. And what's interesting, I think you have this, it's it's tied to somebody's personal brand. And that's how you really, I think they they have cut down there, there are bots, right? There are all sorts of you know things, but I think for the most part, you're interacting with a real person that's associated with a real business that has real opportunities for you to add value in in a number of ways, whether that's through a comment, further conversation, or actually them hiring you for coaching or consulting. And so one of the things, I mean, when you're when we're talking about content creation and providing value, right? Where let's talk through your process a little bit. I know you said you spend what two hours a week or something like that, where you're going in and developing that. What does that look like for you? Because I know there's a obviously a big push now. AI is everything, right? You use Chat GPT to write all your posts. And that this is my opinion, but it seems you can kind of tell something that has been written by Chat GPT, you know, and something like that. Where does that come in? Because obviously it's a very valuable tool that can help conceptualize. But at the end of the day, I I want to hear Mike's story and you want to hear Cam's story. That's what makes content unique. So, how does that work as you're going through and figuring out what to talk about and actually getting to the full content that you create?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Yeah. So my con or my content creation strategy has evolved, as I mentioned in the beginning, from sitting down in the morning, writing something, publishing, which was a great way to build the muscle of writing, to set periods of time where I block, you know, a two-hour period and I'm going to create eight posts in that two-hour period with I'm time constrained, I have to be efficient, I have to get it done. And that works well for me today, given that I've got a lot of sessions to do and need to, you know, prioritize my time. And so the way it looks is throughout the week, anytime I have a content idea, I'm just gonna take notes. Take note content ideas, content ideas, content ideas here and there. And when it comes time to start writing, I've got my list of content ideas. I've got some suggestions from my assistant who does all the back end support for content ideas, and I've got chat GPT uh to help with other ideas if I'm short. If I'm not short, if I'm not short on ideas, I'm just gonna start writing. And um, if I am short on ideas, I'll use chat GPT as thought starters. Yeah. I'll plu you know, plug in what I've been working on recently and get a list of thought starters and just use that to make it quicker for me to think of things, is the primary use of chat GPT for me for content ideas. And then I'm writing. I used a tool called Authored Up, which is a Instagram plugin. And it just opens up when you're typing your Instagram posts and you have a preview, because I like to have a preview of mobile because the appearance is very important. And I'll and I and I'll just start writing the draft. I'll create a draft and Uh that becomes the post. Chat GPT comes in because if I'm writing a draft about um, you know, today was the five things you're gonna mess up when you implement EOS. I'll ask ChatGPT, list me 10 things that you're gonna mess up when you implement EOS. And it's a specific EOS uh educated GPT.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

And and it'll create your list and it'll be a pretty thorough list. And I'll pull, I'll take what initially came to mind. It'll just speed up the process. So it doesn't make anything up for me, it just speeds up the process. And then I can write it, I'll use chat GPT if I have a sentence that I want to ask for a shorter version or a better version. Um, so it really just like amplifies yourself if you're done well. So everything I write is me written and it's improved by AI. Um I've got my I just write what you see on the LinkedIn post. That's all me. And then if there's a graphic, a carousel, or anything like that, my assistant's gonna make it in Canva. Uh, and I'm just gonna give him the summary, the outline, the content, he's gonna make it. So when I write that draft, I my job is done, and then I'm on to the next one. So I can do I can do eight posts in two hours. And then I also do video now, so I'll do like a 30-minute video session, which will probably yield at least four posts. And the way my content month looks, I do five days a week now. I take weekends off, so I don't have to do any engagement and just totally be I'm off social media on weekends.

SPEAKER_04 23:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

Um and five days a week looks like three new posts to repurpose posts. So a repurpose post is a post that did well in the past that is gonna get posted again.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

So you don't need to have a hundred percent new content. No, no good creators have a hundred percent new content. It's not the way to do it. What is actually the way to do it is take your high performing posts, repost those, and also think with your the new content you make, what is put is getting good engagement to get better and better. And so that's how I get a month's worth of content in a two-hour period on LinkedIn. So that's where I'm at now. And because we've gotten so efficient, last quarter we added Instagram and we're doing two Instagram videos a week, and all that comes from that same two-hour period. So it it's no time for me. Um, so that's it. Yeah, and so it's gone from you know 30 minutes every day to two hours a week, which is important.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

That's yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's a lot of time saved. And then when you really boil that down into the span of a whole week, two hours with the the the quality and really probably the quantity of potential engagement that you're getting with people is well worth the effort from a business development standpoint alone. But then also, like you mentioned, the reputation and just continuing to grow. I mean, I I do think there is something to be said about that as you do the work, you have high engagement, you do start to build a following, that does just naturally lead to more of a reputation that you have. Um, and so what would you say to a coach that maybe is newer to LinkedIn, you know, posts inconsistently, but wants to get into doing a little bit more? What what would you recommend starting? What what would be the the kind of action plan? Because obviously they're not gonna get to to your level overnight, right? But where can they start?

SPEAKER_02 25:49

The the biggest problem people have is relying on inspiration for their posts to drive their content, meaning when I get a great idea, I'm gonna start writing and create my post. That doesn't work for you. It doesn't work for really anybody. So a better way to do it is to commit to however many times per week that you can do. Meaning, I can post three times a week and assume that's three hours a week when you start. Can you do that? If yes, start with three times a week. If no, start with one time a week, whatever, whatever works for you. Commit to that and then schedule your time, block it out, start coming up with ideas throughout the week. So you're creating your idea list just kind of as you go and sit down, create your content, schedule it, and force yourself to stick to that to get the consistency down. So that's how I would start.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

And it's a three-part thing though. There's no point in starting to create content if you're not gonna do engagement, which is you gotta spend the time that you post three, let's say three times a week, you gotta post your post, and you have to have call it three to twenty people that are in your network, that are in your niche, that do something similar to you, that posts regularly, where you comment on their posts and you start building some relationships with people who are actually active, because otherwise you won't have any kind of engagement on your post ever. It'll never happen. And you got to start being available to respond to people's comments on your posts. And so that's it. That's how you get started. If you commit to it and you don't stop, you'll get better as you go. At least most people will. The problem is people start with too much. They'll be like, I'm gonna post every day, and they burn themselves out. That's most people. So don't do that. Do something reasonable and be consistent. That's my main way to get started.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

So when you go in from an engagement standpoint that that's outside of your content, you're actually engaging with other people's content. Is there some uh strategy behind figuring out who you're going after? Because I do see, and sometimes it's probably not the most intentional to go in and interact with other business coaches' information where that's probably who we're following or trying to resonate with their content, right? But we probably want to be a little bit more strategic of connecting with whether that's business owners in our community or other target market. Is is that how you would recommend somebody go after that?

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of different ways to approach it, especially in the type of business that you're in or type of work that you do. From a business coach perspective, you've got your target client. And so the obvious thing and the thing that you want to make sure you cover is you're if like for me, I work with small entrepreneurial companies, 10 to 250 employees in my market who are looking to make change. And so those people are all on LinkedIn, but most of them aren't actually posting content. So there's not really much to engage with there. So if there is someone who I know, then of course I can turn on a notification so that they, when they make a post, I'm gonna make sure I comment on their post. But in my line of work, those people are so infrequent that there's not much there. So for me, it is it is business coaches, it is people that are doing similar things to me, it's other business advisors. So it's think about the sphere of influence concept. So I've got my target client, they and I, they're not, they're too busy. They're business owners, they're too busy to be posting on LinkedIn. Uh then the my sphere of influence is all the people that interact with my target client, the fractional CFOs, the ELS implementers, the integrators, the accountants, the lawyers, those people who are active on LinkedIn, they're the best people for me to engage with. Meaning, if they're posting three days a week, if they're posting the same time as me, even better. I know they're on, they know I'm on, we can build a relationship and help drive impressions on our posts. So that's how I would look at it. Who's your target customer? If they're on LinkedIn, then by all means, yeah, be engaged with them. If they're not, who is their sphere of influence? Find those people who are active on LinkedIn and start engaging with them. And over time, it takes time. Over time, you'll build your crew of people who you engage with. And that's what I have. I've got 30 friends, let's say, we we comment on each other's stuff. It's not formal, it it's not even like an agreement, it just happens over time. And it it's great. And we're friends, we meet in real life, we do calls, it's like a whole thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah, that real world network that you're continuing offline, if you will. Yeah. What so I know you've mentioned a couple tools already, but but just kind of reiterate some of the tools that that you utilize, and we'll also link out to this in the show notes to where people can go through and and look at those. But talk through some of the different tools that you utilize from from a content creation and even deployment um aspect.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

To create the content, I use Authored Up. So Authored Up is a Google, it has a Google plugin, but it's a way to post on LinkedIn. And you can create your drafts there, you can schedule posts, you can see analytics. So that's my LinkedIn posting and scheduling tool. Uh, my my assistant and I we use Notion for all organization of our whole practice. So everything that we create, um, our to-dos, our meetings, notes, everything is in Notion. For my CRM, I use HubSpot. So that's from a prospect client standpoint. And let's see, what else? Chat GPT for I mean, I use Chat GPT pretty much all day, every day now.

SPEAKER_04 32:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Uh for questioning, things like that. And that's it. Oh, last thing, Canva. Canva for Canva for uh creating all the graphics, carousels, one pagers, cheat sheets, and that's it. It's as simple as that.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

And there's so many good pre-built templates that you can just go slap your logo on, make it feel unique, but not have to bear the burden of either hiring a designer or learning how to do that. You can go in and get high quality content, be able to utilize that and tap into some of those other tools to be able to get the content where it is. And so, man, I I I appreciate you sharing all those. And I really do appreciate your your intentionality behind that. You really tap into really most of the core competencies, they're all interrelated into how you do that from your practice management to obviously your business development initiatives, to really going after your vision and letting that guide the direction that you're going. And then you've really mastered that, I feel like, which is really one of the main reasons I I wanted to have this conversation because I truly think of you as a thought leader in that, um, in your in your own way. Uh in closing, I I always like to ask, you know, more outside of the social, social media and LinkedIn stuff, but um if you were looking back at rookie mic and you have all the experience, all the knowledge that you have currently, but giving advice to rookie mic just for starting out in business coaching, what advice would you you give him in and why?

SPEAKER_02 33:45

So talking back to rookie mic on business coaching, the first thing would be related to what is my offer? And I'm an EOS implementer, meaning I am a franchisee of EOS worldwide, and I use their system pure. I use their operating system pure. So I'm doing the same thing with every client, and of course, it goes in infinite directions because every client is unique. But that's the offer I use. It's a proven process that is killer. That's the first thing. So I don't have to worry about what my offer is. And so I first thing I would say is if you want to be a business coach, what is your offer? You need to be as clear and narrow as you possibly can. Because if you're not, you're gonna come off as watered down, uh, confusing to your prospects. And a really quick good example is my most recent client that I'm starting with next month. We did our initial call, and she wanted to implement EOS, and she had already met with another coach who was kind of kind of knows EOS, but also does other things. And we met, and I was like, all right, I asked, you know, we I asked her her questions, and then I say, all right, the next step is to do a 90-minute meeting where I'm gonna get your whole leadership team together, I'm gonna teach you the tools we use and the process. And we did the 90-minute meeting, and her she they all start, they signed up, and their reflection on me versus the other guy was the other guy was like, Yeah, we could do these EOS tools, but we could also do these other things, we could also do these other things. And they just wanted help with something.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

What do I do?

SPEAKER_02 35:37

Yeah, they want to be told what to do. Yeah, and they were confused, and he was wishy-washy, and it was just like it was not, they were not impressed. So that's just a small example of like you gotta have something that you can do great because it's super competitive out there. Um, if you're a business coach, you're probably charging a premium rate for your services. So you gotta be clear. So that's one thing. From a, okay, I know what I'm doing, I'm gonna build my practice thing. Looking back, one thing that's really important would be personal connections and building trust is what it's all about. And so, how do I build personal connections? For me, it's getting to know people, meeting with them one-on-one, um, spending time with them, doing things that are going to build the relationship over time. And that's not necessarily the most efficient use of time, right? Spending two hours on creating LinkedIn content is way more efficient, but that's not actually the highest impact. And so I always need to remember relationship building is a one-on-one thing and it happens over a period of time, and you have to put in the work and it takes time. And so that's a really important thing just to always remember is what are the things that are going to work to acquire your clients? If it is relationship and trust building over time, you have to do that. Get yourself out there, meet with people, even if it's inefficient, because that's worked for me and it continues to work for me. It's the thing that works best. Don't forget that. Um, the other thing is when you're building your practice, you're getting out there and you're meeting a lot of people. And the most important way or the best way to do that is to have a help first approach, which means when you and I meet Cam over a Zoom to catch up, probably once a quarter, we're gonna catch up, we're gonna have a fun conversation, but I'm gonna try not to leave the conversation without helping you with something.

SPEAKER_04 37:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Answering, uh, adding value in some way with a referral or a connection or let me help you talk through this issue. Uh, if I can help you with one thing, I've put good energy into the world, I've impacted you in a positive way, and I don't need to worry about asking for anything because it the universe will just start to provide what you need with that help first approach. That's really important. It's also hard to do when you're trying to build your business and get referrals, but you have to lean in and help first. And then the last thing is to take the things that you know that work. So for me, it's you know, give people traction books, have coffee meetings, do whatever, you know, do the things, go find speaking opportunities, all kind of like the list of things that are proven to work. There's many of them. So I should align the things that I like to do with that list of potential activities. Because if I like doing it, I'm gonna be way better at it. And so for me, it's when I meet with people, instead of doing coffee, I try to go for a walk. Or I try to, if if they're the type of person that likes to go do a sauna, we'll go do a sauna, right? Or we'll go do a bike ride or something like that. Because that's what I like to do, and I'm in my best when I'm doing that kind of thing. So keep that in mind. What do I like to do? And is it aligned with proven business development activities? So those are some things that I would tell myself.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Yeah, those are great. So many good uh lessons learned through probably lots of uh mistakes and trying different things, but I appreciate sharing all that. Those are those are great. What speaking of lessons learned, what is a lesson you're in the middle of learning right now? Um, if you had to just say personally, professionally, whatever, however, whatever you want to share, but what would be a lesson that you feel like you're right in the middle of learning?

SPEAKER_02 39:43

There's a lot of lessons I'm learning. So finishing, yo, first year of any business, first year of any solo practice, business coaching practice is about survival. I've effectively survived, so that's really important. Uh, moving into the delegation of my practice management to uh my assistant is something I'm going through right now, where I started out with just him taking over my LinkedIn content stuff, and that was great. That part's easy. Getting rid of, you know, delegating your scheduling, calendar, email can be a little scarier. Uh, I didn't do, I didn't have an assistant when I was running my my uh traditional businesses. So that's what I'm going through right now. It's going really well. I've freed up a ton of time, and all I have to do is lean into the leadership and management abilities that I teach my clients. So all I have to do is do what I teach people, and it all works. Doesn't make it easy, but it's actually been kind of easy once that I commit once I committed to it. Uh that's one thing I'm learning. Um another thing I'm learning is uh how to become masterful in the session room. So that's a long-term ongoing thing. But now that I've got consistent sessions every week, I'm really leaning into facilitation, coaching, tactics, strategies, philosophies. Uh so I'm reading a lot of books. I'm getting a lot of support from my fellow implementers. I'm leaning into that community. It's an 800-person community, so there's tons of resources. So yeah, I'm trying to be the best coach in the world. And it's a long, it's a long game. So I'm gonna I'm gonna do it though.

SPEAKER_01 41:26

We'd uh we would call that an ambitious coach. You are the definition of an ambitious coach. And uh, well, thank you so much for for sharing uh your insights, giving us a peek behind the curtain um of some of the strategies that that you have implemented in your own practice to to grow that and see the success that you had and know you're gonna have lots more success going in this next year because you have that consistency. I think that's one of the big takeaways for for me is that that consistency, figuring out what works for you and going on and executing on that and being consistent, you know, not letting that go and finding some excuse. But if I'm gonna post three times a week, I'm gonna find a way to post three times a week. I'm gonna set that, making that happen and getting into that discipline. Because I think that really is where a lot of the reward comes from that you've seen is that consistency. You develop that audience over time, they understand what they're gonna expect from it, and they look forward to that. And that's a great place to be. So speaking of, if people want to get in touch with you, I think we probably all know the answer to that. Uh, but where would be the best place to get in touch with you if people do have questions? They want to talk to you about whether that's coaching or or if maybe it is a coach that wants to to pick your brain on some more of this. Where can they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Yeah, link I'm very active on LinkedIn, as we discussed. So Mike Jones uh EOS on LinkedIn. And then my email is mike.jones at eosworldwide.com. So yeah, please contact me.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Well, thank you so much. And we appreciate you listening. I know this has been helpful for you. Um, thanks to Mike for sharing everything. If you are interested in learning more and finding some of the resources, we will link that out in the show notes for you to be able to go through, find, click through some of the tools that Mike mentioned and some other resources. And if you ever have any other questions and you want to talk through some of the business development initiatives or some of these other core competencies, or talk through where you're at in your coaching practice, feel free to reach out to me. Emails Cam at 90, the full word 90, cam at 90.io. More than happy to schedule some time to be able to talk with you if you are an ambitious coach or you want to be an ambitious coach. Let's dialogue on that. But thank you for listening. Hopefully, everyone has a good rest of their day. That's it for today's episode of the Ambitious Coach Lab. My hope is that something here helps you sharpen your craft and keep building a coaching practice you're proud of. Before we wrap, a quick thank you to our sponsor, Nike. If you're coaching Winter 15, how do you find a run your entire world in 19 early elevates? It all lives in one centralized place. The clarity keeps your clients aligned between sessions and makes every conversation you have with them more focused and more impactful. I've used 90 with over 500 leadership teams, and I can tell you it makes great companies better and great coaches even more effective. Feel free to use promo code AC20 for 20% off. Again, that's AC20 for 20% off. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I'm Cam. Cheering you on as you grow your ambitious coaching practice. We'll see you next time.