Kat Ramirez
Who holds you accountable? Who do you report to every month or quarter? When it is time to look back at your business goals? Find out why you need a business coach to help keep you accountable to your business plan, your business success, and your business growth. Having a business coach is just like having a personal trainer, they're going to push you and challenge you to be the best that you can be. I'm Kat Ramirez, your host of Stand Out and Grow. building your business is really, really hard. And knowing what marketing and advertising tools you need to help you become successful is extremely confusing. After 30 years of working with thousands of businesses, I am here to help you. I want to help you understand the programs that are available to you so that you can stand out, survive, succeed and grow. So let's get started.
This is Episode Three of stand out and grow. Boo. Yeah. I want to welcome today's guest who is an Amazon best selling author. He is also a national public speaker, trainer, community leader and the CEO of Positive Polarity. Today, he will talk to you about why hiring a business coach can and will take your business to the next level.
Please join me as I welcome a Dave Molenda
Welcome, Dave. Good morning. How are you?
Dave Molenda 1:38
I am doing great. Thank you for joining us today for sure. Thanks for those kind words.
Kat 1:44
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, Dave, I just you know, so to get everybody familiar with you today. Can you give us a little background about you, but I want to hear one specific thing sure about you. Okay, okay, that maybe other people don't know about you even your close relationship? Because I want you to open up a little bit. I always wear
Dave 2:05
funky socks. Why? Because I learned early on to somehow people need to remember you.
Kat 2:14
Oh, that's awesome. But how many times do people look at your feet?
Dave 2:18
Like why you make sure that you have that? So? No, it's I think that from a business coach perspective. I've run into a lot of coaches, consultants, and whatever the words work for you, right. And it's interesting because most of the people that I've seen are types that have learned it but haven't done it.
Okay, so I started a company in the early 90s with me as the only employee. And then when I sold it in 2013, we had 22 people on our team sales just under 10 million annual sales. So that's my that's what I do use that experience that I had to grow that that's how I help other people's businesses grow.
Kat 3:06
Okay, so that's what got you into the coaching business. Yep.
Dave 3:09
So I think about it this way if I needed surgery done if you needed surgery done for something, whatever. Would you want somebody that's done it 100 times or read about it? 100 times?
Kat 3:20
No, absolutely. I would want someone who's done it for sure.
Dave 3:23
Right? So the same way in the coaching world is I want to find somebody or people ask me Have you done this before? And I say yeah, I've done this for 25 years in my own company, again, when it was me growing it to 22 people in 10 million in sales. So that's probably the easiest way to discern what a good coach is if they've done it before because I can tell you how to do it. But I've never done it before. I can tell you, I can walk you through how to do a backflip, but I've never done one what it's not going to work.
Kat 3:56
Okay. No, that's it. I think that's awesome. So you're looking for a business coach, that's usually my first discussion with somebody is make sure that you're comfortable that they've done what you're asking them to do.
Okay, so we're going to back up, Dave, because you've just made a statement that I think is valid, but I don't think a lot of people think it. You said if you're looking for business culture, okay. So I personally am not looking for a business coach or why she would or should someone look for a business?
Dave 4:30
I mean, most people don't think about it until they're in deep trouble. Okay. I mean, companies are going along. That's why I wrote my book and called it growing on purpose because the vast majority of people that I run into grow by mistake, okay. Okay.
So, the first thing is, is if your company you can have some growth, is it the growth that you want? Is it the right kind of growth? Is it profitable growth? What do you do when you need outside? Look, get your business? Okay, what do you do? I mean, when you want somebody to look at because of your soul into it every day when you want somebody an outside viewpoint? What do you do?
Kat 5:11
Yeah, I think I do probably what you also do on an on another perspective is I go to my peers, or I'll talk to people, I'll talk to other entrepreneurs or business people and kind of like, ask them, right, kind of, in a question way of, hey, if you were in this situation, what would you do without telling them? I'm in that?
Dave 5:31
Exactly. Now, my neighbors in that situation that me? Right, and that's where I think a lot of people go to, and you're hoping that the advice that you're getting is solid, right? I mean, the reality is, is that Michael Jordan needed a coach. I don't know why. But the guy was probably, in my mind, the best basketball player ever. He needed a coach. And so Phil Jackson was his coach, and they were times that he helped him with his blind spots. There were times that he helped him with self-awareness.
There were times that Michael Jordan got benched because he was not being a team player. as a, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, where do we go, that's what a coach typically will do is help come alongside that person. And sometimes it's a lifelong relationship. And sometimes it's I just need help with this glitch in my step, so to speak. And then you get that help, and then you move on.
Kat 6:35
Okay. I am okay. So you just made a really, really good valid point. I love it because I looked at golf. Okay. And I know for a fact that most golfers do have a coach.
Dave 6:46
Yeah. So do you who helps you with your swing?
Kat 6:48
Right? Me? Nobody, I do need to golf.
Dave 6:53
I mean, that's the thing is who in even if you go to the extent of videotape your swing, right, and you're looking at your swing, it's your swing, do you think it's perfect, right? Now, that's where some somebody from the outside takes a look at it and realizes that that swing is not perfect. It's not bad, right? It's just that we can if we tweak this little piece, it's going to help you get another 10 yards, 15 yards out of your drive. It might make it straight or whatever it is that you're struggling.
Kat 7:27
What a great analogy. There you go.
Dave
I love it. I love it.
Kat 7:31
No, because I think people can relate to that because I'm just about it. Everybody out there, or at least business professionals or somebody who are sports-minded, especially the driven age. Right. And so I think that's a great analogy. I think people can relate to that. Okay, so I guess my other question to you would be is Michael Jordan be, you know, Bill Gates, whoever, we're all really, really busy church. So how do we fit in a business coach? You know, world time star?
Dave 7:57
Absolutely. That's a great question. It depends, you make time for what's important. Number one. So if your swing, is that important to you, and your golf game, is that important, you'll make time for it. There's, it depends on your level of commitment, it depends on how bad your swing is. I mean, if it's really bad, where you need regular maintenance on it, that's one thing.
Coaching a lot of times tends to be more as needed type, you know, of training. So I have people that I meet with every week, people that I meet with once a month, I have people that call me as needed, I've had people that my first meeting with somebody is always complimentary to see if I can even help them. So in your golf swing analogy, I would meet with you and review your swing, I might not be able to help you.
So I tell people right there, this is, you know, this isn't anything I can help you with, or we fix things. I mean, I fix things in one meeting didn't charge somebody and they went on their way. And they made their behavioral modifications. And they were happy. So it depends on what level of commitment you have, and how much time you're, quite frankly, how much time you have.
Kat 9:16
Okay, and I think that's probably something a lot of people out here want to know, because of flexibility, especially with the busy schedule. Sure, but I agree with you is, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, myself, you have to make the time period, correct. You know, just like I, you know, have made a commitment to work out I make the time for because it's my commitment. Right. Okay. And so this leads into my next question to you is, you know, what kind of Allah accountability do you have in place, you know, how do you hold people accountable that are also leaders? Sure, you know, they're, their VIP?
Dave 9:57
Well, it's funny the leaders tend to have, they want their team to be held accountable, whether to themselves to somebody else. So we understand the importance of accountability. Yet, when it comes to us, we tend to say, Do as I say, not as I do, right, right. And that's where it becomes really difficult because coaching almost feels like a handicap. Like entrepreneurs are like, I don't need that I know everything, right? I don't need I'm fine, you know, as they're limping along, right. So that's where I think it becomes important to understand that piece that we all need a coach we all need, we all need help at certain times.
And it comes down a lot of times, my next book is actually called what blind spots because I'm working on that right now. Because there are so many business leaders that the biggest blind spot is them thinking they don't have one. And so we as a coach is outside people, the entrepreneurs, those business professionals that you say, Hey, I got a question about this. They're trying, they're going to help you with a blind spot. And so that's where I think it really comes full circle, where if you think your team needs a coach, chances are pretty good that you're going to need some outside influence, call it a coach, consultant, whatever you want to call it.
Kat 11:23
Okay, so with the accountability part, I'm really going to dig in for a day with for sure. is, are you setting the goals? Are they setting the goals? And then are you touching base? What once a quarter once your mind? Or you know? Because I mean, I'm an old salesperson, and up, you know, I know how I would do it. But I'm just curious how it works
Dave 11:43
So think about your sales days, who was you who held you accountable to let's just say you wanted to have you set a goal you've set $1 goal for sales, or you set a performance goal? How many contacts or whatever goal you set up? who held you to that goal?
Kat 12:02
Oh, my God, I was in corporate America, I was micromanagement. vape. Right?
Dave 12:05
Exactly. They made sure why do you think they did that? I think has their bottom line matter. And the stockholders had to report to the stockholders. So obviously, holding people accountable is very important. Somehow that gets lost when we start our own business, right? Or when we take off in a different direction, that kind of fizzles away. So why that happens? Like I said, entrepreneurs don't really like to be held accountable. Right.
So the accountability side, it can be depending on the situation it Can I have some that it's like I said, I meet weekly with that. Yep. Okay. And some goals, they set some goals, I set some goals we set together, you know, I mean, so when I do my communication, training, 10 tips to better communicate, one of them is about interrupting people. So one simple little thing is, you know, working on not interrupting, especially a customer, I mean, it's, it's bad enough to interrupt somebody in, in general, but when you're literally interrupting a customer or prospect, and you don't know you're doing it, you know, we work on that, and then we'll see change and change.
You know, depending on what research you look at, it takes about a month of solid practice to get into that habit. I mean, you just said that. One of your videos, you talked about getting back into working out. So how many times will you have to do it before it becomes second nature?
Kat 13:42
Right, right. And you know, what, you made a really, really good point, because
I don't have anybody to hold myself accountable. And I think if anything at the end of the day, but businesses struggling to pay for this service, to hold them accountable, so that they see the movement, because I know the power of that because I was a sales manager. And it is effective, and it does work.
So if anybody if somebody was going to inquire about hiring a business coach, what are the things that you would advise them to look for so that it's a good fit for?
Dave 14:16
Absolutely, I mean, the good fit, a lot of it comes down to feeling comfortable with somebody, if we don't trust somebody, we're not going to open up. So you have to be able to trust the person that you're going to have a coach you. Right. If again, back to our analogy, if you know, I'm not a golf coach, but if I looked at your swing, and I knew nothing about what I was talking about, you probably wouldn't trust me with any advice. I mean, the little bit of golf that I've done in my life, it's so funny. There's always in the golf course, there's always somebody that can tell you what you're doing wrong. Some people do they walk up to you, they don't even know you. Hey, you know, you got a glitch in your swing or whatever, right? Everybody's a golf instructor. So everybody thinks their coach in that situation.
So, I forgot the question.
Kat 15:10
What are the things to help them?
Dave 15:14
Oh, yeah, good. Yeah, that's a good day. Yeah, I got you. Thanks, either. I get lost easy. I mean, the good fit starts with who you need to gel with them personally, you need to have that trust factor. And like I started off before, you need to be able to know that they've done what you're asking them to do. If I never golf before, how good would I really understand your golf swing? Right?
So those are really the three main things that I look at. And if you don't connect with somebody, that's why, you know, talk to multiple people find out who connects Well, with who, because if there isn't a connection, and there's no trust, you will not have success in coaching.
Kat 15:57
Right. And I would think some other things is to, for them to do their own due diligence to vet it and vet them out or, and maybe ask for references or, you know, yeah, the problem with references is like, nobody wants to be used as a reference for Okay, so they don't want to, I mean, like, for me, I have confidentiality agreements with every client that I have. So if you said the name, a customer, I can't do that. Because we have confidentiality agreements. And I always think it's odd, because you look at some websites, and they've done work with all these companies and things like that. I don't do that. Because the people that I work with, they're, they're not really want to broadcast to the world, because like I said, entrepreneurs in general, will not be super proud and excited to say I have a coach.
Dave
Yeah, well, I mean, they kind of keep it on the Qt. So no, you know what I can, I can relate to that. Because it is such a personal choice, and it's so proprietary to you and your business, I can totally relate. And I get that. And I and I can appreciate that you have this disclosure with people because that is very, very high on mine because I wouldn't want people to parade who I was working with.
So the then around that, are there any credentials that they should be looking for things like that, you know, there's a lot of different things out there that you can get certified in the heart to me, 30 years of growing a business is what I use, okay, you know, I have certification in different things around disc and driving forces, and I have certification and behaviors and in EQ. It just balances out somebody, if you can't sit with somebody and have a conversation I always ask at the end of every meeting, are you Do you feel better now? Are you better off now than you were when you came in? Okay, if you? And if the answer is yes, then success happens? If the answer's no, then we're not done. in half, you know, we're not really done.
I mean, you don't leave the doctor's office, usually worse, they have a remedy, they have something that they want you to do. Same with your golf coach, she would he or she would have somebody or something that they would want you to do. And if it, it would be awkward to have your golf swing tape to have the person look at it. And then they say, Okay, thanks for common. And you're like, what do you want me to work out? Oh, well, nothing. I mean, it just kind of natural.
Kat 18:30
Right? Right. No, that makes sense. It makes perfect sense. So realistically, Dave, what can an entrepreneur or business owner expect the results? What kind of results? Can they expect? Real? list? Sure.
Dave 18:42
Yeah, if they're so based on the amount of investment that they invest time and effort and money, if there's not a three to five, up to 10-time return on the investment, then why are we doing this? Okay? You know, so let's say you're talking about sales training. And let's say that there's a sales coaching situation. And there's somebody struggling to let's just simple simplify, ask for an order. You know, they do a great job of presenting information, they do a great job of gathering information, and then they struggle with how to kind of close the deal.
Well, if it costs, I don't know, we'll pick a number of thousand dollars to fix that. If you're not going to make five to $10,000, because of that fixed minimum, then, was it really worth it? Gotcha. Right. So let's say you've spent $10,000, to get that fixed, and you got 5000. In return, you really wouldn't do that. Right? So Motorola did a great study, and they realized that for every dollar that they invested in sales training, they got $19. back. Okay, so they're 19 two, one ROI.
So the reality is, is if I gave how many, if you gave, you gave me $1, and I gave you 19? back? How are you doing that all the time, right? I mean, you'd be like, hey, let's do that every day. You know, and, and that's where I think this really the coaching needs to be looked at from a return on investment. Sometimes it's hard. Yep.
Again, like we talked about it, with her coaching you on some soft skills, interrupting or listening skills, something like that, it's going to be difficult to tie that back into a return on your investment, right. the vast majority of people that I work with are able to say, since I've been working with you, our sales are profit or margin, whatever, our growth has gone up by x, okay.
And I would think because your whole premise is to hold people accountable, set goals, and then shoot for them. So I can see where it's a win, win-win, I mean, and if you're not getting the win-win-win, then obviously, someone's not doing their part, or it's a bad fit, right.
And so my current in my previous life, I did on my own construction supply company, we had two coaches that we've worked with, and both of them expected a big pile of money upfront. Right. And unfortunately, one of them, they guaranteed the results. They said we and it happened to be $11,000 was the investment and they said you give us $11,000 upfront, and we will make sure that this and this happen. Okay. And if it doesn't happen, we'll give you your money back. So I mean, right? You can't go wrong with that. Well, we didn't read the fine print. And it was unfortunate because there was a list of things that my team needed to do. And they didn't do it. So when we went back because we didn't get the return that we expected. We said, Hey, we this didn't work, where's our money? They pointed us to this little paragraph that showed them how they got out of it. So it was two experiences that were a really bad taste for me.
So I made sure I make sure now that I don't want money upfront. I mean, there's I don't do that. Right. Because Where do you go? And I mean, you don't do that in most places. Oh, you just lost her track. Exactly. And how do you regain that whole thing? So So for me, it's a whole lot easier to just charge as I go forward?
Kat
Yeah, no, that makes complete sense. And that's awesome. Okay, so the typical timeline for business coaching, I think you've already kind of pointed out it very short with us. Yeah.
Dave 22:39
I mean, if you're not willing to invest an hour or two, a month minimum? Yep. Then it's probably not going to work for you. Okay, and then I'm just going to get to the big question raise or the big line? Are you ready? Oh, my gosh, hold on. So I'm ready.
So what is the cost? I mean, because you know, there are small businesses, big businesses, what is it cost to get a coach and the cool part is, Kat is that I have, I do work for people that are one or two people in the company. And I know, because I have one person in my company, I know what I can afford. And so I don't have sprint, I don't have a spreadsheet laid out of what things cost, I have an hourly rate that I charge, and basically, they shut the spigot off whenever they want.
So you're customizing to each. And they're about you. I don't have one. I mean, we have customer service training, like we have customer service training boot camps. We have disc assessments, we have certain things like that. But if you're looking at it from a coaching perspective, I mean, it's like you said, I mean, how much do you want to invest in your golf swing? If I said it's $25,000? And you'd be like, Yeah, no, thanks. Right? Right, you're done, right. But if I said, hey, it's X number of dollars an hour and you can spread this out, we can do this monthly, we can do a quarterly whatever is comfortable for you.
You know, that's how I choose to do it. So and I'm not saying it's right or wrong, the other ways that are out there to do it. I just full disclosure to people let them know that there You don't owe me anything, right. Oh, and that's the other piece for me, is if you are not happy with what's happening, then you don't have to pay. Right, right. I mean, I just leave it out there I The last thing I would want is for somebody to begrudgingly paying because you have a contract. So if it's not working, if you're not seeing the return on your investment, and you don't want to continue it, we can cancel it at any time. It just makes it so much easier.
Kat 24:46
Okay, so for any of the people that listen to this podcast, Dave, I want to offer them something the hundreds of thousands of people that are listening. Yeah. Oh my gosh, I want to offer them something Pacifica Lee from you. So what is it that you're going to offer our audience that you can live with so that we can put it on our website and it only exclusive to them so
that we can live with? Wow, okay, so now you got me thinking. I mean, again, for, for the typical group, it's offered an entrepreneur, for the business owner for a C suite for a sales professional, whatever. I mean, the first meeting is always free. So what, let's just make an assumption that we work out something and you're interested in taking it to the next step.
The next step, typically for us is to provide a disc assessment because I want to understand the makeup of the people that I'm communicating with. So for your group, what we would do, and for the next X number of days, we will provide a free $209 disc assessment. Okay, so a disc assessment available to anybody listening.
If you go on our website adBidtise.com, we're going to have the podcasts and you guys can connect and click on the link, it'll connect you straight to Dave, and you can get that for two.
Dave
909 bucks show and we will also do the debrief because you get 60 pages. Okay, so imagine 60 pages about Kat? Yeah, you're looking at this guy, what, it's easier to put it away than it is to deal. Right. Right. So we would then spend some time with you on the phone and debrief that go through it. See what's important to you. I mean, they're 94 95% accurate, right?
So when you read about yourself, a lot of times, the common reply that I get is somebody just you know, that's not me, and I get a couple of those. But if you're doing everything, if nothing's you that there's you got, you need to talk to people around you. Because they're like, That's you. Okay, so But yeah, so phase one would be the assessment and the discussion. So by the time you're done with me, you haven't invested any money and you have really solid value, but only for your listeners.
Kat 27:08
Awesome, great. Well, I love it. And I hope they love it too. So Dave, tell everybody how they can get ahold of you. And your website, right?
Well, besides that, don't you want to send them to your website? Don't you want them to read on a while?
Dave
Yeah, so I mean, if you have any interest in Amazon number one bestseller growing on purpose, you can go to my website, which is Positive Polarity calm or you can shoot me an email at dave@positivepolarity.com and we'll be happy to help.
Kat 27:39
Awesome and Dave's contact information will also be on our website. In case you guys missed this day. Thank you for joining us. I learned a lot I hope everybody else learned a lot.
Dave 27:52
Oh hundred and how many thousand? I can't remember what the number was. You said, man. I'm like, Wow, that's awesome. And hopefully how many links are we going to? One? Just one. Okay, just one today. Well, thank you for inviting me.
Kat 28:06
Yes. Thanks, Dave.
If you have listened to the standout and grow podcast recently, you have heard that we just launched a marketing consultant certification program. This 12-month program will give you the tools knowledge and competence you need to run your own marketing consultation business to generate your passive income today, we are excited to offer a 40% discount to the first 25 participants. So go reserve your spot today at www dot Catherine ramirez.net thank you so much for listening to this episode of the stand out and grow. Check out all the notes and links at WWW dot stand out in grow. Dead calm. Please let me know what you want to learn more about. I look forward to bringing you more content to help your business. Stand out, survive succeed and grow. Until next time you got this
For a limited time, Dave is offering a Free Disc Assessment to anyone who listens to this podcast. Please reach out to him for your Free Assessment valued at $250.00
Dave Molenda, CEO of Positive Polarity
Dave@positivepolarity.com 414-322-2358 www.positivepolarity.com www.calendly.com/positivepolarity
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