Friday, July 31, 2015

Coaches Corner~Complaints

Today's blog is brought to on the behalf of Michael Estes, my good friend. Michael Estes recently posted on Facebook that with all the negativities surrounding the posting on Facebook, he likes to give his friends a greeting or something positive everyday. As I was thinking about that, I realized that there may be negativity on Facebook. And I also realized that I sort of tune most of it out and just simply scroll on by it. Then, it became clear that the negativity is not limited to Facebook. Many people who are not even on Facebook lament all the ills of the world.

You see, I have brain-washed myself into thinking the world is perfect the way it is and that it is only my thinking that may make it seem otherwise. And I think the same is true of most other people. After all, the Bible said that when God made the world, he said, "It is good." And maybe good is not perfect, but perfect is good enough for me.

Let's talk about the areas where there are complaints. In as an extraordinary coach, you probably hear these complaints. You probably have some of these complaints yourself. But I think as an extraordinary coach, it is also important for you to make sure that your mind is dialed in for solutions. You see, your clients know what they don't know and they know what they know. However, they don't know what they don't know and this is where you come in. I developed this solution this morning while I was thinking of something positive to do. Let's talk about the areas where there are many complaints by many people. And these complaints exist with no solution in sight. The people that complain about these things, they simply find some sort of joy or perverted pleasure in making the complaints.

Let's talk about the number one complaint. I think the number one place that people complain is about politics. Now, granted, we all have a story and all our complaints are nothing more than stories. Because in reality, a politician's job is difficult. No matter what he does, there are people that know nothing about what he does and they second guess his decisions. They complain about his decisions, understanding full well that not everybody who he's responsible to has voted for him. It's a balancing act for a politician to satisfy the people that voted him in, while at the same time serving the needs of the people that didn't. Without a doubt, a politician's job is difficult. And I would be the last person to complain about a politician. That's not to say I don't have an opinion on things, because I do. That is to say that my opinion is handled in the ballot box and maybe in a discussion here or there. But you will never find me complaining about any politician.

The minimum wage is another area that gets a lot of press. Many people complain about what the minimum wage ought to be and how the wages are to be raised. They don't give a thought to the fact that the person who owns the business would be taking money out of his pocket to increase the minimum wage. They think that the person working has a vested interest to increase the minimum wage, when in point of fact, they don't. The people who want the minimum wage raised, they say that what they make is not a living wage. They pay no attention to the fact that it is not meant to be a living wage and their employer is not obligated to give them a living wage. The employer is in business and he's in business to make money. So really, he only pays you as much as he can or as little as he can to keep you on the job. If he can get you to do it for less, I suggest that he would. And at the end of the day, if you are not satisfied with the wages that you're making, you are free to choose something else to do. You are free to choose another job. These thoughts do not enter the mind of the person that's complaining about the minimum wage, but it's true nonetheless. That's not to say that I'm  insensitive about people being able to make a living wage, because I am. I can tell you that I didn't always make the money that I make now.

And finally, which is really the reason that I thought about this solution. People complain about policemen. People complain about policemen and how brutal the policemen are. Policemen are tasked to keep law and to keep order. The difficult thing is that most of the people that are complaining have no respect for law and order. They simply want to do their own bidding and stop everybody else from theirs. They don't want to be controlled by the police. They don't want to honor police. They don't want to obey the law. The Bible says that, "The law is not for the just. The law is for the lawbreaker." I recently got stopped by a policeman. I pulled over. I was speeding. I took my ticket and I went home. Plain and simple.

So, let's take the political mayhem, let's take the low unemployment rates, and let's take the police and let's combine those things to see if we can be a little solution-oriented. Because as you remember, in the beginning of this blog, I talked about being solution-oriented. I talked about how as an extraordinary coach, you may provide solutions to people. And I want to talk about a solution here. But before I talk about a solution here, I'll revisit one of my other blogs that basically said, "If you have a skillset for a particular service or product, that may not mean that you belong in business." So, even though you are an exceptional coach, you may find yourself coaching some to get out of business. You may be coaching some to find themselves, to find a job, because they have the skillset to run a business.

So, where would they go? Anyone complaining about the police that does not have a job or is making minimum wage can eliminate those problems by simply applying for a job as a policeman. Anyone who thinks that the police are doing a terrible job would do themselves a much better turn if they decided to be a policeman and they do a better job.

It is ever so easy to complain about what someone else is doing when you are not walking in their shoes. I had a good friend that says, "You should not criticize a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes." And there's two reasons for that. First of all, you have his shoes. And then of course, you are a mile from him. Apply that to the police if you will. But I just thought I would try to introduce a little humor in this blog, because it started to get cumbersome. Too profound for me.

So, if you are complaining about the policemen and if you don't have the income that you want, why don't you strike a match and light up the darkness? Why don't you become solution-oriented? As an extraordinary coach, advise your clients, should they be unemployed or should they be making less money than they want, sign up to be a policeman. And perhaps they can do a better job than the policemen that they are complaining about. Unless of course, they don't want a better job. Unless of course, they would just be happy complaining about the policemen. Now you as an extraordinary coach will make this plain to your clients. You as an extraordinary coach, as you have conversations that are not with your clients, but conversations that are enriching nonetheless, it would behoove you to keep in mind that when you complain about the police, and you don't have a job, and you don't have any income, you my friend are leaving money on the table.

Now, once again, I want to give credit to my good friend Michael Estes for inspiring this thought. And if this blog has inspired any thoughts for you or has given you any satisfaction whatsoever, please by all means, pass this blog on to somebody else that it might help. And I end this blog, just like I enjoy ending all of my blogs, which is for you to have a good time until the next time.

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Coaches Corner~Wages

You can thank my nephew for this short blog I'm doing today. I really care a lot about my nephew. His name is Ron Jenkins. You can look him up on Facebook, or Google him if you want to. My nephew was lamenting the fact that people at this particular business made $15 an hour, and the CEO made over $4000 per hour. Ron was lamenting this because one of the things that he addressed was that it takes way more than $15 an hour to live. You know, I agree that it takes more than $15 an hour to live.

He also went on to talk about how the CEO doesn't need to make as much money as he makes. That nobody needs that much money to live. These are all good points. You see, I love my nephew. I have a special place in my heart for my nephew, and that's why I'm doing this blog, because I want him to know some things that I didn't know.

One of the things that you do as an extraordinary coach is that you bring people to that place where they realize some things. Sometimes you get a breakdown in communication. Sometimes you get a breakdown in relationship, but that breakdown is always followed by a breakthrough. The breakthrough about which I want to talk today is what you don't know that you don't know. There are so many things that you are passionate about, so many things that you care about, and this is true for your clients as well. Much of the passion and much of the care may be misplaced.

Granted, we should all care about other human beings and how well they're living. There's no doubt that that's important, and that's also important to me. However, more important than that are certain principles that more human beings are not familiar with. The CEO of a business is not that concerned about what it takes you to live. He is more concerned about how to make his business work.

Truth is, most employers want to pay the wage earner just enough so that the wage earner will not quit. Now the government has gotten into the act and established certain things as the minimum wages  because if it was left to business people, many of them would pay you much less than what you're making now. The law of the jungle, the seedtime and harvest principle, as it were, dictates that you will be compensated proportionally for what you bring to the marketplace.

Now if you bring jobs for thousands of people, of course you expect to make more than somebody who doesn't bring jobs for thousands of people. If you cure cancer, you're going to make more than somebody who doesn't cure cancer. We must realize that the amount of money that you make, and the amount of money that it takes you to live comfortably is not related. What is related is the amount of money that you make and the value that you bring.

I'm doing this blog because hopefully my nephew, who's a very sharp young man, will catch hold of this and realize that to criticize a CEO who makes over $4000 per hour might not be the best path for making more money yourself. The simplest path for getting more is to bring more value. The simplest path for you making more money is not to ask for more money, or to have the employer sympathize with you because it takes you so much more to live than what you're making, but it is to make yourself more valuable.

It's easy to jump on the bandwagon when a lot of people are on that bandwagon, talking about how the minimum wage ought to be increased. Well, if you want to talk about what it takes you to live, then nobody should make $4000 per hour. You and I know that people do make $4000 an hour. On the flip side of that, you as an extraordinary coach must force yourself to command the value that you bring. Just because it only takes you a few hundred dollars a month to live is no reason why you should only charge a few hundred dollars. You must be present to the fact that you've got to bring value, or you shake everything up.

The balance of nature says that when you bring X you are compensated for X. I want to thank you for even bothering to read this blog, because this blog is specifically in honor of my nephew Ron Jenkins, who has a big heart, who loves people, who wants to help everyone. The biggest help that we can give people who make $15 an hour is to tell them that you don't have to work the job for $15 an hour. You can find a job that pays more, or you could bring more value to the marketplace. By bringing more value to the marketplace, you will get more. It is a law. It's a law that's more true than anything the government could come up with.

Now if this blog has blessed you, or helped you in any way, please, by all means, share it. If not, share it anyway and start following me on my blog. As I like to end all my blogs, I say to you, have a good time until next time.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Coaches Corner~Farming

Seedtime and harvest is a very misunderstood phenomenal. Though it is misunderstood there's no doubt that life operates on a seedtime and harvest principle. You get something based on what you put in. We have talked about how delivering content like webinars, and like PDFs with information on them, we've talked about how they impact your business, and how that is one component of giving, and that if you want to be successful in business, hugely successful, then you have to start giving and maybe there is a good place to start. Many of the people that are identified as phenomenal wage earners, phenomenal money earners, were not trying to accrue wealth when they started out. Henry Ford was not trying to become filthy rich, Anthony Robins  was not trying to become filthy rich, Bill Gates was not trying to become filthy rich. The list goes on and on. Those people who have become filthy rich though, they often offer you the ability to become successful by doing what they did. They often tell you that you can achieve wealth by doing step one, two, three, and four.

There are some steps that you can take to enhance your wealth, to enhance reaching the people, to enhance the seed that you are sowing. If you are sowing seeds simply to achieve wealth, you maybe on the wrong train, and of course that's just my opinion, you can accept it, or not accept it. Consider how you've been chasing wealth so far, and consider how unsuccessful you have been. Consider how many network marketing companies you have signed up in, and consider how they have not panned out  Pay attention to the reason that you signed up in these network marketing companies, and you signed up in these companies because someone promised you wealth. I was just recently introduced to a lady named Byron Katie, and Byron Katie has sold me completely on the fact, that whether or not you are wealthy depends on your mindset. It is how you leverage the power of your mind that determines how much wealth you have.

My story is simply this, you cannot sit in front of your computer, look at some PowerPoint slides speaking to your microphone, prepare a webinar and think that is going to change your life, because it is not. Many people do that and webinars now have become one of the prime tools that people use to sell on the internet. Only the really, really great presenters manage to do that. Because one thing that you need to do on a webinar is you need to establish rapport, you need to do things that's going to get the persons interactive with you while on the webinar, and when you only have a voice, and some slides well, that's a bit difficult to do. The point of this blog is to encourage you to use your imagination in the seed that you're planting. I'm encouraging you to pay attention to the adage that says, "watch what everybody else is doing, and then do the opposite of what they do, and you will achieve success."

Where is your heart? What do you care about? What is important to you in your life? This wealth, the financial success that you are seeking, once you achieve this financial success, what are you going to do with it? When you achieve the financial success, what you choose to do with your money, basically tells you where your heart is. For instance, as I get further and further up the financial food chain, I will have more and more to say about how your insides impact your outside. I will be talking about things like how Jim Carrey stated that he wishes that everyone had financial wealth so they will know that it's not really about that. Understand that your life is about how you feel. No matter what else it is that you're doing, if you're not feeling phenomenal, then you're not going to consider your life a success.

This is evidenced by many people with 7, 8-figure bank accounts that have jumped off of bridges, that have taken pills, that have just simply not been happy. Now that you know that it is not achieving wealth that you're after, spend some time and think about what it is that you would do with the wealth. As you decide what to do with the wealth, then the mechanics of achieving wealth, or the technical steps involved in getting what you want out of the public, then that becomes an issue and that's where I am. The majority of products sold on the internet as I said is sold by webinars, but your webinar is not going to sell anything if you're just simply speaking into a microphone, and showing people slides.

There is this new phenomenon called the Videomar . What the Videomar does is that Videomar places you in the frame with your slides. From it's inception, when you create your webinar you create your slides with an extra bit of space with just a place where the presenter can actually show their image. Where they are actually looking at you, and speaking to you and you are looking at them in their eyes and as you respond to them, you know that you're responding to a real person. You know that the person that you're responding to, actually cares about what they're saying because you'll be able to see them, you'll be able to look them right in the eye. This Videomar is not inexpensive, but when you consider the seedtime and harvest principle, continuing to sow inexpensive seed will get you inexpensive harvests. The product that you are selling on the internet, can be worth upwards of $1,000, $2,000.

In order for you to sell that kind of product, you have to plant that kind of seed. Planting that kind of seed means, that you will more than likely have to spend money to prepare your webinar. The gurus who tell you how simple it is to do a webinar, they already have the wealth that you're seeking. They already have something they're carrying the torch for. Take what they say with a grain of salt.

This blog is intended to sell you as an Extraordinary Coach on the fact that if you don't have something to plant seed, then you will never get a harvest. Being an Extraordinary Coach is one thing, but getting the message out that you are an Extraordinary Coach is something else. If you do not choose to invest in yourself, to invest in the type of webinar services that you use to sell your services, then sadly you will not achieve the success that you are looking for. Finally, if you are simply looking for a success because you want to spend the money, you are never going to get it. You have to develop a passion, you have to develop a call, there must be something that you want to do with the money.

I hope that this blog has gotten you thinking about what you're pursuing, and why you are pursuing it, because that's the reason I do these blogs. As an Extraordinary coach, it is my job to bring thoughts to your mind that you would have never thought of before. You may have never heard of the concept that I gave you this morning, and of course if you've never heard of it you wouldn't go looking for it, and that falls into the realm  of, you don't know what you don't know. That's what you bring to your clients, and that is what I bring to you, an outside objective opinion.

If this has helped you this morning, if this has got you on the right track, why don't you do me a big favor and share it with someone that you care about, someone that can benefit from it, and by all means start to follow my blog. Like I always say at the end of this blogs, you have yourself a good time, until the next time.  


Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Coaches Corner~VStream



I am not typically characterized as a person who curses the darkness rather than light a match. I am never considered a person that criticizes. However, as an extraordinary coach, I'm always looking for teaching moments, or opportunities to share ideas that may benefit people. If you are an extraordinary coach, you may like what I have to say in this particular blog.

I want to talk a little bit about television in this blog. From time to time you hear people decry the value of television. Some of those people are extraordinary coaches, and I am one of those people who sometimes refer to the television as a sewer line, because it never gives you anything good. Well, television does give you something good. What it gives you depends on who you are and what you are watching on television. I specifically want to talk today about a technology that allows you to receive every single thing that's broadcast on the airwaves. The company that sponsors this bit of technology is called VStream, and I have one of these VStream boxes. The reason I want to talk about that today is to help extraordinary coaches organize their time and get more out of themselves than what they're now presently getting.

With the invention of the DVR, you can record shows that you want to see and watch them when you want to watch them. The DVR is part of the delivery of a cable network. Cable networks charge phenomenal fees on a monthly basis, and sometimes it can be a fee that you can't justify to yourself. You cannot deny that everyone watches television. Even if you are evolved enough that you don't watch television, all of your clients watch television, despite what they say.

I'm reminded of this scene in a movie I enjoy watching called Pulp Fiction. There was a scene where Vincent, the John Travolta character, is having a conversation with Jules, the Samuel L. Jackson character. Jules says to Vincent, in an effort to get him to understand who Mia is, and what Mia's importance is, he asks Vincent, or rather he tells Vincent that Mia was once in a pilot. Vincent says, "So, what's a pilot?" Jules goes on to tell him that a pilot is when you make television shows. He says, "You know television shows?" He said, "No, I don't watch TV." He said it arrogantly, like watching TV is beneath him. Jules says, "Well that's true, but you know there is this box called a television, and you have heard of that, right?" My point's made in this instance because these guys were gangsters. Everyone watches television.

Like certain other products, television, as a network marketing platform, might not be the best plan. You see, the attraction of network marketing is the numbers of people and the income that you get when you do the multiplication. This company, VStream has come up with a good idea, because really and truly, everyone wants a television, and everyone would enjoy having more choices to watch on television.

From time to time since I've bought one of these boxes, I've gotten communications from VStream, where they are outlining to me how to market the product. Where they're telling me how to build the business. While that has an importance in my life, it's not very important in my life. For their business model. I'm not really sure what it is, but if their business model doesn't include improving the product, then they might be missing the boat. Put it to you this way. All the marketing in the world might not get an inferior product that's also new on the market. A phenomenal product, something that allows you to watch more television or allows you to have more choices on television, that product in itself is very, very attractive to a lot of people. However, marketing concepts are pretty simple. They're not all that elaborate, and you can do different things, but the bottom line is you want to put eyeballs on your product. You want to get people to know about your product so they'll come to buy it from you.

The VStream people may have missed the boat. Rather than demonstrate elaborate marketing schemes, or tell people how to recruit others to sell their product, I suggest that they improve the product. You see, I have one of those products, and I can tell you while you do have a lot more choices about programs that you watch on television, this product is not user friendly. I would be remiss if I were to introduce any of my friends to this product. I know that by doing this blog, I'm putting it on some people's radar, but I'm not going to endorse the product until it improves. I can only hope that VStream will run across this blog and get the idea to improve the product. In fact, I have told my wife that they may have released the product prematurely. The product may not be ready for prime time yet, and the reason it's not ready for prime time yet, is that it is not simple to use. It is not easy to watch the program that you are accustomed to watching, and that's what it needs to be if it wants to have broad appeal.

As an extraordinary coach, you can benefit from this product, because you can plan the time that you watch television, and you have favorite television programs, and you can get them all on this box any time that you want them. Can you imagine being able to craft your day, being able to mark every hour of your 24 hours, doing exactly what you want to do? You can even watch television programs that are no longer being broadcast, like Boston Legal. I like Boston Legal, so I've planned my time around, whenever I get ready to watch Boston Legal, if I want to watch it at 3:00 in the morning, I can do it. If I want to watch it at 8:00 at night, I do it. This VStream product is an exceptional product, but these VStream people, they need to streamline a little bit better than what it is now. If you go to VStream, tell them so. Tell them to improve the product, because if they improve this product, everyone benefits. Everyone benefits because you can watch TV when you want to, and you don't have to make any sacrifices when you pick up this product.

f this has helped you in any way, or it will help somebody that you know, I want to encourage you to pass this blog onto them. By all means, continue following me. On the other hand, I come to the end of this blog, and I say to you what I say at the end of all my blogs, which is, have yourself a good time until the next time.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Coaches Corner~Conclusions



It is very important to remind yourself of who you are on a regular basis. You must repeat words to yourself that reinforce the person that you are. I was going to say that reinforce the person that you want to be but in order to be authentic with what I'm saying, I have to say repeat words that reinforce the person that you are. Inevitably, when obstacles arise, you can get thrown by them or you can overcome them. When things in your life happen that you hadn't really expected and you have to deal with them, it is these words that you have been speaking to yourself over the years that's going to make the difference.

The things that have an impact on you, when someone says them to you, are things that you have already been saying to yourself. If you have been telling yourself that you are a phenomenal coach, when someone says that you are a phenomenal coach, you'll believe that. If on the other hand you have been saying to yourself that bad things always happen to you, then when someone else says that to you, it'll resonate with what you have already said. If you say things like obstacles have stopped you, then obstacles will stop you.

The reason that I bring this up is just recently I had the opportunity to be thwarted in my desires. I was negotiating a business deal with another businessman, and it seemed that we had a deal but then later it seemed that we didn't. Our negotiations stalled when the businessperson told me that he did not want to sign a contract with me. Signing a contract happens a lot in my business and for me, contracts are always negotiable. If someone comes to me with a contract and I don't particularly care for the contract, then I say, "Can we make a change here? Can we make a change there?"

What I didn't know that I didn't know was that everyone is not accustomed to doing contracts, and contracts sometime inflict fear in the mind of the person who is about to sign the contract. The mistake that I made in the particular instance I'm talking about is my associate's refusal to sign the contract did not mean he didn't want to do business. Oh, he wanted to do business all right and I should have known that he wanted to do business because when we first met, we were extolling each other's virtues almost instantly. We saw our association as a perfect match. I was very surprised when he told me that he did not want to sign the contract.

Contracts are pretty standard and it's okay to work without a contract, and in this case I decided to work without a contract because of the type of business that we're doing, a contract is neither here nor there. Any business arrangement can be managed with a case-by-case scenario and that is exactly what he wanted, but when he told me he did not want to sign my contract, I jumped to conclusions. I assumed he did not want to work with me. I assumed that there was some reason that I didn't know about why he was telling me he didn't want to sign the contract.

Whatever the reasons were for not wanting to sign the contract, does not impact our business relationship. As an extraordinary coach, remind your clients that it is very easy to jump to conclusions and get the wrong idea. It is much more cumbersome to stop, think, listen, and make a better decision. In this case, I'm taking my own advice and I'm glad I made a return phone call to the person in question and I'm glad that we are going to do business together. We're going to do business together and as my client, if you are my client, you will reap the benefits of my association with this new-found business associate.

If this blog has helped you, then by all means pass it on to someone that you know or care about. I end all my blogs the same way I end every blog, and that is to have a good time until the next time.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Coaches Corner~Easy



I was out mowing my lawn this morning, and was thinking about how easy it is to do that nowadays. I was thinking about how just a few short years ago, I agonized over cutting my lawn and edging the grass and was making it a really, really big deal. Now I do it effortlessly and I wonder what all the trouble was about, when I had the problems doing it. I really had problems thinking about it because the work in itself is still just as it always has been and I now find it easy. Being an Extraordinary Coach I'm always thinking about ways to learn something, ways to teach something, ways to impact the lives of my clients, and to impact the lives of the coaches that read this blog. I got to thinking, there are probably lots of things, lots of other things that I would do if it were easy to do. Edging my grass didn't seem easy to do a short time ago and now it does, so it wasn't a huge leap for me to start thinking that many of those things that I think are difficult to do, they're only difficult because I think them so.

This mind that I have been given, that you have been given, is a fantastic tool. You may have heard the expression, with the right tool, any job seems easy, well, with the right tool, any job does seem easy. When that tool is your mind, let me tell you, the way that you set it makes all the difference in the world. As you think about the way a sail on a ship is set, how the wind is only blowing in one direction, but ships are going in every direction. The reason that is, is because how the sail is set. There's one wind coming from one direction, and you have ships going East, West, North and South. The same is true of the circumstances in your life, the very same thing is true of the deeds that you want to do. All the work, the activities that you want to do can be made to be easy, simply by thinking of them that way.

It was while mowing my grass, stopping momentarily and musing about the revelation that I just received, that I receive another revelation. Working in the technology industry using computers, and using websites and all that sort of technology, every now and then you get to a place where you wonder, if I can do this. You may want a particular thing to happen on your side, or a particular interaction between your client and you, and you're thinking, "now can I do that very easily?"   Well, really? As far as technology is concerned since you're only pushing buttons on a computer, everything is easy. Everything is easy whether you're pushing buttons on a computer, or whether you're picking up a hundred pound weight, it is only difficult in your mind.

Then I came up with this excellent revelation that I'm going to share with you. I stopped what I was doing, ran in to my Facebook wall and posted it because it was so phenomenal. I have decided, that I am no longer going to ask if something is easy to do because I know it's easy to do. I'm just simply going to ask if there is any way at all to do it, and if there is any way at all to do it, then I will use my mind to make it seem easy. No longer will you hear me utter the fact, that life is difficult. No longer will you hear me say things like relationships are tenuous at best. Those statements will cease coming out of my mouth. That's not to say that my life is perfect, that's not to say that I have everything that I want, everything that I need. What that is to say is, I have decided that I'm going to use my mind to take everything that I have and make it phenomenal. I encourage you to do the same, take everything that you have and make it phenomenal.

Even when your clients don't respond in the way that you are encouraging them to respond, if your clients don't do what you suggest that they do, never ever think that it is difficult. Never ever paint yourself as being victimized by the fact that your clients seem to be ignoring you. In order to do that we reintroduce the tool, of the looking good being right. Get "looking good being right" out of your life. Get that phrase out of your world, it has no place there. You don't care about looking good or being right, and you don't care about making your client wrong. You simply ask your client the second tool that we use which is the, "what's working, what's not working, what's missing and what's next." When you are approaching on that standpoint, the right and the wrong goes away.

I've given you some tools as how to manage some consequentials as a result of making the decision that it is all easy to do, and if it's not you can use your mind to make it easy, but don't miss the fact that that this is what this blog is all about. This blog is entitled easy, and it's entitled easy for a reason. You decide to make it easy by using your mind. Make it easy by using your mind. What do you think your mind is for?

If this blog has blessed you and I know that it has, or anyone you know can be blessed by this blog, please by all means pass it on to them. Until the next time, you have yourself a good time.  

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Coaches Corner~Unforgiveness 2



Strengthening your forgiveness muscle is paramount in all cases. Whatever kind of emotional healing we need as human beings is rooted somewhere in forgiveness. If it's not forgiving ourselves, it's forgiving someone who hurts us. Forgiveness, like love, is our constant companion. In fact, forgiveness is an extension of love. Keep in mind that there are basically two emotions. One is love and one is fear. Forgiveness, as I said, is an outgrowth of love. Unforgiveness is an outgrowth of fear.

I recently saw a television program that really got me to thinking about how that all applies. The reason this might be important is that you are an extraordinary coach, and as an extraordinary coach, certain concepts you can do best by embracing, and the knowledge that your clientele may be experiencing some of these maladies like unforgiveness, should always be in the back of your mind.

The particular episode of this program I'm talking about involved a young man who was erroneously accused of two crimes. One crime was murder, and it was a heinous crime had he committed it. In fact, it was heinous even though he didn't commit it, but the person that did commit it committed a heinous crime. The other crime was being a child molester. Talking a little bit about the child molestation, the specifics of his case was that as a 17 year old boy he had sex with a 16 year old girl and was caught by the father. In an effort to avoid punishments from her father, she said she was raped. Now I know this topic is a little deep for a blog about coaches, but it begs a certain question: what sort of things do we have in our minds that impact everything else that we do? Stuff like this could be one of them.

As it turned out, the young man was innocent of the charge of murder. He didn't do it. And he was innocent of the child molestation as well. The woman who was involved in trying the case as a lawyer, went to the church in this community where this all happened and she tried to have them feel guilty for what happened. As part of her talk that she was able to address the congregation, she said that "you thought him a murderer and he wasn't. You thought him a child molester and he wasn't."

The point of this blog is that even if he was a murderer, even if he was a child molester, we are called to forgive him. By not forgiving him if he is guilty, we don't garner any great place in history because we didn't forgive a guilty person. Forgiving a guilty person is precisely why forgiveness was invented.  By being wrong about him one way or the other, it makes sense to err on the side of caution. For your own well-being, for your own emotional health, you must become accustomed to forgiving. We as humans can justify all sorts of things, and believe it or not, we can even justify being unforgiving.

I want to point out that being unforgiving is nobody's friend. You can qualify it by saying that you will forgive but you won't forget. That statement, the words make sense and the words are understandable, but the truth is if you udder the statement "you can forgive but not forget," you haven't forgiven at all. As an extraordinary coach, let me urge you to always be on the lookout for things you can be forgiving about and to always be able to detect unforgiveness in your clients. It is my belief that no matter what else one does in life, if they are harboring any unforgiveness for any reason, they're not going to experience true healing.

As with this blog, I say to you: Has it helped you? Has it given you a new thought? Has it benefited you? Then I urge you to share it with someone you care about. I end this blog the way I end all of them, which is simply: have a good time until next time.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Coaches Corner~Expectations


Feel free to call it mystical. You may call it spiritual. You can even call it magical if you want to. There's something to the verse in the Bible that says: Death and life are in the power of the tongue. There's another verse in the Bible that says that: We can call those things that be not, as though they were. When you consider those things, it just makes sense to speak, "Yea and amen" in every situation. It just seems to make sense that you only say those things that you want to be true. Certainly you can make fun of yourself, but do not belittle yourself or speak less than the best of yourself. Recently I had the opportunity to say something that came true. The something that I said was a good thing. I have a piece of equipment that was broken. Shall we say malfunctioning. I had no idea how to fix it so I got in touch with the manufacturer, sent them a picture of it, and told them what my challenge was. It never occurred to me that this thing would not be fixed.

I couldn't see myself not getting what I want in this instance. I always say that I get what I want. A lot of times I do. The times that I don't get what I want I simply forget those times so that I can say 100% of the time I get what I want. They told me some intervention to do to fix this equipment. I'm not that good at fixing equipment. Fixing equipment is not something that floats my boat or gets me excited. I always find a way to get equipment fixed. Here I was making a last ditch attempt to get this piece of equipment fixed. Once again, never even considering the possibility that it would not get fixed. I had one friend try to do what the manufacturer suggested and it didn't work. I had another friend try to do what the manufacturer suggested and that didn't work either. There was none of the anxiety of the past or trepidation that I've had in the past when I didn't get what I want, when things didn't work out for me. My testimony is that I always get what I want.

As an extraordinary coach that needs to be your testimony. As an extraordinary coach you expect your clients to do well. You expect to get clients. You expect your life to work. You continually expect these things. On the rare occasion that it does not happen the way you expect it to happen, then you simply forget about that. Take your mind off of it and keep your mind on what you want the results to be. Back to my story. In walks Chad Romig. Chad Romig is a real estate guy. As a real estate guy, I thought that perhaps he might have experience in fixing things since people who are in real estate have to pay attention to houses. They have skills and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. I ask him to take a look at this piece of equipment. He looked at it, eyeballed it, and thought that he could do something with it. He said that he'd have to take it home for the weekend, or that he would bring the tool that he has at home back to where we were the following Monday.

We were at a workspace. I didn't want to do without the piece of equipment all weekend, but I could have. I didn't want to keep the piece of equipment until Monday. I suggested that he takes the piece of equipment home. He then says to me that he may have the tool downstairs in his pickup truck. He wasn't sure. I said, "Don't be surprised if it's in there, because I usually get what I want". When I said that, I didn't have any idea what that was going to look like, but I know that saying things usually gets you things. Off he goes down in his truck and he brings up a tool that he thinks is going to work. The tool has an attachment to it. It looks like the attachment won't fit my piece of equipment. I suggest, "Why don't you take the attachment off and simply put the tool itself on my piece of equipment". Lo and behold it did. My piece of equipment was now functioning perfectly, it was functioning just like it did when it was new. I owe it all to Chad Romig.

Only part of the credit goes to Chad Romig, because I have the good sense to speak positive things. I want to encourage you to speak positive things. You never know what's going to happen. I never know what's going to happen. You hold out for the results that you want and most of the time if not all of the time, you get the results that you've been holding out for. As an extraordinary coach I cannot tell you how valuable it is to have a reputation for getting things done for your clients. How valuable is it to you to have your clients tell people that every goal that you set, every aim that you pursue, their extraordinary coach makes it happen for them? That's what this blog is about. This blog is about expectation. This blog is about speaking the right words. This blog is about how I was able to get my piece of equipment fixed simply by speaking the right words.

Would it have happened if I didn't speak those words? I don't know. I don't care. I can tell you that I did speak those words and that it did happen for me. I'm encouraging you to do the same thing in your extraordinary coach practice. If you have learned anything from this blog, if this blog has given you any great ideas or even given you goosebumps because it felt so good, I want to invite you to share it with someone you know. Share it with your family. Share it with your friends. As I like to end all of my blogs: Until the next time, have a good time.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Coaches Corner~Ills


This is not a religious blog, and religions is not restricted to the walls of the church. I feel compelled to speak to this because as an extraordinary coach you may be a Christian or you may be coaching Christians, and some light needs to be shed on a particular arena.

What has happened is the Christian has allowed themselves to fall into the anger place when they see what looks to them as victimization. Understand that as Christians, if we believe the Bible, we know that if God is for us, then who can be against us? That's not just a rhetorical question. That is an approach that we as Christians need to take. Too often, Christians fall into the trap that other members of society fall into and cause themselves to feel victimized. In my view, Christians really have no reason to feel victimized because we are the champions in God.

When I first became a Christian, my pastor used to say something along the lines of that point of view when he did his altar call. For those of you not familiar with an altar call, that's at the end of the service when you extend an invitation for members of the congregation to come forth and give their lives to Jesus. I participated in that once, and probably all the Christians I know did the very same thing.

What my pastor used to state was that he was talking about being a champion in God. He would say things like "I'm not talking about a weak-kneed, milquetoast, pamsy wamsy, weenie sort of Christian. I'm talking about a champion." When you see a Christian that's on their knees, they're not on their knees because they're getting weak like some people might think. We're on our knees because we're getting strong. As far as we're concerned, our belief in God guides us, leads us, and makes us able to navigate the world that we live in.

The reason I'm even having this blog is that I just saw a graphic on Facebook where someone was lamenting the different treatment that Tim Tebow got versus the treatment that Caitlyn Jenner is receiving. Quite naturally, those of us that are believers, we make take a little issue with what is going on in the realm of the sexual identity of people, but we have to realize that God still loves those people. We have to realize that God is love and he doesn't need us to be mean to people in order to show people how much he loves them.

One thing that is not clear, and that is how to approach what we look at in the world as being a difficult situation. How can we go forth and cherish the name of Jesus and promote God's love without being critical of others. I must say it's a fine line that we have to walk, but there is a way to do it. All the urges that we have to retaliate, we don't need to retaliate. We don't need to fight back because God has our back. If you believe God has your back, you have no reason to be angry at anything.

As an extraordinary coach, you show how you feel about social ills by voting. By voting, I don't mean telling someone else how terrible their choice is and I don't mean criticizing anyone at all. Certainly you're free to speak your mind, but if you know that a person has a particular issue with your point of view, then there's no reason for you to offer your point of view in cases where only an argument would result. You want to show who you are. You want to let your actions speak so loudly that people can only hear your actions. You don't need to cram anything down anyone's throat and you don't need to defend yourself.

I can't be clear enough about that. As a coach, whether you get it or not, what you say is a big deal. Just like children hear their parents and don't do what their parents say, you better believe that they hear what their parents say. In the Bible, it is suggested that we raise a child up in the way they should go, and when they're old, they won't depart from it. Now you as a parent might not see how the child is behaving or how the child is listening to what you say, but the world of God said that the child would.

A similar thing happens in the marketplace when we are communicating with people who don't believe like we do. I'm talking about Christianity now but this belief, divergent beliefs, is not restricted to Christianity. Christianity is just a vehicle I use because that's what is closest to me. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. I think that while everybody believes that, in practice everybody doesn't do that. Until you begin to believe, until you begin to do what you say you believe, or until you begin to walk in what you say you understand, you don't really understand it.

I must admit, it feels good when you tell somebody how it is. It feels great when you take somebody's inventory and end your inventory with a statement, "Now ... " and exclamation point. But that only makes you feel good. Making you feel good is not what the Christian walk is all about. The Christian walk admonishes us that if we don't help anybody, don't hurt them. The scripture says to be careful tossing your pearls before swine. It's easy for us to take that attitude when we don't think anybody is listening to us, but the scripture also says be as harmless as a dove and as wise as a serpent.


Let's make sure that we don't use social media to rub people's nose in it. Make sure we don't use our ability to communicate to try to make others feel bad. The word of God also says love your enemy. The word of God says forgive those who spitefully use you. Your attitude, if you want to be a Christian, might be best if you eliminate all the fear and hate that can be in a person's heart. Because believe me, it is fear that's driving most of the inequities of our earth.

Now I know you might have felt like you were in church today. You weren't in church. In a way, though, church is the entire world, the entire marketplace, so I guess you maybe were in church. I certainly hope that this blog benefited you. If that stops you from reading this blog in the future, man, it sure was nice having you onboard. If not, you can count on me using my Christian walk in everything that I am to help my life, which eventually helps the life of those around me. As always, if this blog has helped you or given you any ideas, please share it with someone that you care about. Until the next time, have yourself a good time.

Friday, July 17, 2015

Coaches Corner~Massive Efforts



Tony Robbins had it right. Years ago, when I listened to Tony Robbins' tape series entitled "Live with Passion," he listed as one of the things that led to success as massive action. It is only now I'm getting present to exactly what he meant by massive action. You see, only a small percentage of the business community is going to utilize any product or business or service. No matter what it is that you sell, only a small percentage of people will buy it.

Even in the music industry, if you sold 1 million records, they consider you to be sort of a success, but keep in mind that 1 million records is only a portion of the 300 million adults in the United States alone, let alone the rest of the world. Anything that you sell will only be bought by a small percentage of people. Depending on how big a slice you want of the market, you are going to have to put forth that much of an effort.

Now, multi-tasking is really what this blog is all about because some people think they can do 2 businesses. They can do businesses that relate to each other but what they don't realize is by diluting their effort, they are diluting their results, and as I just said, since only a small percentage of people are going to buy anything given what you're selling, diluting your efforts is the last thing that you want to do. If you want to be successful, you have got to, to coin a phrase, put your shoulder to the wheel and you have got to give it everything that you've got.

When you want to market your business, your product or your service, you have to be marketing it 24 hours a day. If you dilute your marketing efforts and try to market more than one thing, you will be met with failure. That's precisely why the era of network marketing is going away. Network marketing found its attraction in telling people that they're in business for themselves but not by themselves, even though they're in business by themselves. They tell you it doesn't take you very much to start your business and it tells you that it doesn't take very much of your life to make your business successful. You can just do this on a part-time basis. That is very, very misleading. Anything that you want to be successful at, doing it part-time is just not one of your choices. You have to commit to what you are doing 150% if there is such a thing as 150%.

I was made aware of this as I was walking across the street, thinking about a new product I had just bought, this television box that allows you to see thousands and thousands of channels. The people know that everyone watches television and so this is an appealing part. Probably many people would want to buy it so they offer it to you as a network marketing product and tell you that you can sell it part-time. You can't sell anything part-time. If you are a business owner or if you are an extraordinary coach, you've got to commit to being a coach. You've got to being a coach full-time. Being a coach part-time doesn't work and what you are doing the rest of the time is not going to be hugely successful either. You want to be an extraordinary coach? Jump in with both feet but don't jump in prematurely.

Later, I'll do a blog about how to decide when is the right time to jump, and you can consult that blog to find out when it's the right time, but as long as you have one foot on the pier and one foot on the boat, you're going to just be stuck right there because when that boat takes off, you're going to have to either get on the boat or get on the pier. Remember the point of this blog: you cannot do anything part-time. You must put forth massive effort and the reason you must put forth massive effort is that only a small percentage of your efforts will result in success. The good news is, only a small percent has to result in success because the small percent that has to result in success will connect with another person just like you that is putting forth massive effort.

If this blog has helped you at all, please, by all means, pass it on to your friends, your family, your acquaintances, and like I like to end all of my blogs, do me a big favor and have a good time until the next time.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Coaches Corner~Spouses

Courting relationships, like spousal relationships can be quite tedious in nature. As an Extraordinary Coach, we must be careful not to allow our own thinking to get in the way of our progress. We can form certain groups of thoughts around a particular person, and characterize that person as troublesome. By doing that, we put ourselves at the mercy of whatever trouble they wanted to issue to us that day. Recently, I had a change of status, I had a change of mind about my own spouse, and that's why I now realize that much of the difficulties I have experienced, have been a result of my own thinking.

You may have clients that you think are bothersome, you may have clients that you would rather not interact with. I want to suggest to you that that is purely your thinking that is doing that to you, because when you get right down to it, no one is born to do your bidding. No one is born to do the things that you want them to do, and you were not born to do the things that anyone else wants you to do. We simply exist in this space, and having relationships with ourselves that are successful, will allow us to have successful relationships with others. We must not allow our own thinking to get in our way.

I had recently planned a trip, and had scheduled a flight to go to a certain place. I was happy with the trip I had scheduled, however, my spouse wanted to get involved in making a change. Now she realized that money is important, and she realized that economics play a big part in our lives. She was trying to save me some money by finding me another flight, same day, same destination, same everything but just a different flight at a substantial savings. I immediately found myself thinking that she was being controlling. I found myself going back to that place where I used to live where I was unhappy, where I felt trapped. The reason I felt that way was for no other reason than it was in my head, and I had a vested interest to feel that way. I wanted to feel like a victim.  The truth is my wife love me and is always trying to help.

At that moment I had an instant state change and I realized that much of the misery that I had experienced in my relationship was due to me and the way that I was thinking. The same can be true of you. When you consider that the life that you live, you experience through your thinking and through your heart, you will come to realize yourself, that much of what you have experienced has been your choice. You simply need to reconcile the fact that for some reason you want to feel powerful, or for some reason you want to feel weak.

As an Extraordinary Coach, if you are not present to these particular ideas in yourself, if you can't really get in touch with the fact that what I'm saying is true, then you won't believe that it is true of your clients, and you will be less of an Extraordinary Coach than you want.  There is lots of merit to what I am saying. If you want to embrace it, and understand it, you will be a much better coach, you will be a much more Extraordinary Coach.

If you have not heard these ideas before, fear not, there are many other ideas that you have not heard before because as I have said on countless occasions, you don't know what you don't know. I hope that you understand that even as you react to what you are reading, it is your own mind that's doing it to you. What I'm saying is not offensive, what I'm saying is not difficult, what I'm saying is not even true or untrue. What I am saying is something for you to think about.

Remember, if this blog has helped you, or given you any great ideas at all, then please share it with someone you care about, or someone in your family, maybe even your spouse it maybe a revelation to them. Until next time, do me a favor and have a good time.  

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Coaches Corner~Experiential


There's a couple of different strategies to becoming an extraordinary coach. There's a couple of different strategies that you can use once you become an extraordinary coach. There's most definitely a secret though, to success.

I recently attended a conference in San Francisco, and this conference was about how to grow your business. What I discovered in this conference was a wonderful little sandwich shop across the street. It was a two-day conference, and the first day of the conference on our break, I went to the sandwich shop and got a nice sandwich and liked it a lot.

The second day of the conference when I came to the hotel, what did I do? Even though I wasn't staying in the hotel I went to this very sandwich shop and got another sandwich, a different sandwich, but from the same shop. It seems this sandwich shop had become a habit. In only two days this sandwich shop became an important part of my life.

If this conference had lasted one week, there's no doubt in my mind that every morning I would have gone to that same sandwich shop and ordered me a sandwich. As an extraordinary coach, what I'm suggesting that you become someone's habit. The way to become someone's habit is to deliver something of quality, something that they enjoy, something that they want. The something that you deliver must be something that you are good at and something that's in your skillset. Something that you do effortlessly.

I'm not saying that you need to ascribe to the group that advocates people pleasing, but I am saying that you must find a way to leverage what you are good at so that it is a positive experience for someone. While not all habits are constructive, at the beginning they all are. Despite your aversion to certain habits like cigarette smoking or self destructive behavior, these behaviors do not begin because they're unpleasant, they begin because they're pleasant.

You want to begin as though you're pleasant. As an extraordinary coach you sometimes have to tell your clients things that they don't want to hear at the time, but an extraordinary coach has to find a way to have a client do things that they don't want to do so that they can become the person that they want to become. While the takeaway from this workshop was exceptional, one, unintended takeaway was to become someone's habit.

What is it that you do that people love? Make sure that every interaction with you, every experience someone has with you, is something that they want to repeat. After a while they will come to repeat it whether it feels good or not, as long as it has a good outcome for them. The longer that they practice the habit the better they are at continuing the habit. The longer that they practice the habit the better that you're going to be as an extraordinary coach to bring them the outcome that they so desire.

Make sure your desire for them and their outcome is genuine. Make sure it is authentic. The crux of this blog is, become someone's habit. Who would think that I would get such an unintended consequence from going to a sandwich shop right across the street from the hotel? As I say in all my blogs have a good time, until the next time. If this blog has helped you please, pass it on to someone you know, someone you like, or someone maybe even in your family.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Coaches Corner~Content

Providing content for your tribe is critical. The seed time and harvest principle dictates that you must give before you can get. As an extraordinary coach, you have got to get accustomed to the idea of giving. One way to give is by doing video. One way to give is by producing valuable content. Deciding what is valuable content ought not be left to you because you will be surprised by what has value to other people that you might consider common knowledge. Things that are common knowledge come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and not knowing what you don't know is your biggest enemy in deciding what people want to know of what you know already.

Recently, I found myself at a millionaire mind intensive training for coaches. The facilitator is a very bright young man named Taki Moore and he was talking about the difference being in the front of the camera and being behind the camera. As you may now, I have a marketing company called Crave the Spotlight, and I'm also a business coach. I'm also an extraordinary business coach. The point he wanted to make was you get paid very well for being in the front of the camera but not so well for being behind the camera, although being behind the camera is an important place. It's an important skill that someone needs to have.

This weekend, I got the revelation that being behind the camera is no longer going to be a priority for me. Editing my video is no longer going to be a priority for me. From this day forward, as I get videos produced, I will have someone else do that particular part of my marketing efforts. I want to point out to you that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts, and 80% of my results come from 20% of the time I spend in the front of the camera. Evaluate the things that you are doing, and after you evaluate the things that you are doing, let's put them on front street and do a lot more of those things. I hope I've done a good job of selling you in this blog that it is important to produce valuable media, and it is important that some of that media be video.

Finally, I want to share with you that as an extraordinary coach, you can never be sure as to what is valuable and what's not, so I urge you to do more videos, and as you do more videos, find someone else to do the work behind the camera no matter how much you like doing it. You may think it's an added expense. You may think it's something that you don't want to pay for, but I can assure you, as you set the tone for being an extraordinary coach, and as you set the tone for planting the seed, that's going to lead people to know you, like you, and trust you, the money that you pay for in video editing will be money that is well-spent.

I end this blog like I end all of my blogs, which is have a good time until next time. Finally, if this blog has helped you, or if it might help someone you know or someone in your family, I urge you by all means to pass this blog on.

Monday, July 13, 2015

Coaches Corner~Commitment

I am an extraordinary coach as are you, and I could just as easily be your client. My blog today is going to talk a little bit about the power of the mind, and if you've read this blog before, you know I'm very, very big on the power of the mind. When I say the power of the mind, I am alluding to the mind's power to create the life that you want, to create the emotions in you that occur as a result of the things you do in your life.

I'm talking about when you are totally committed to something, your subconscious mind along with some other forces that I don't clearly understand, does everything it needs to to make what you want come to pass. It is irrefutable that what you think about, you bring about, so let's get into the meat of this particular blog.

I am committed to exercising on my exercise machine which is a Gazelle every day. Mentally, that's what I think about. When I'm not on it, I anticipate getting on it and it has become second nature to me. Recently, I had an occasion to skip a day on my Gazelle. I decided that it was more beneficial to spend some time with my wife that day than it was for me to do anything else. As it turned out, I missed one day on my Gazelle. I had committed to helping a man the next day which would require me to miss two days of my Gazelle. While I was spending the time with my wife, I was thinking about the fact that I hadn't exercised and was agonizing over it a little bit because as I said, I wanted it to be a big part of my life.

What to do? Here I am now, I am committed to getting up very, very early to go pick up my friend, which means that if I get up that early, I won't have time to do the Gazelle. Now, I could have gone to bed earlier and woke up earlier, but that would have meant that I did something that I didn't want to do, which is a different blog. For the purposes of this one, I was committed to taking him, which means that I was going to get up earlier the next morning.

I got up earlier the next morning, I got a text from him that said, "Don't pick me up today. I am not feeling very well." I was up early enough that I could have gone to pick him up but since I wasn't going to go pick him up, I was able to exercise. I was able to use my Gazelle. Now, you might think that it was all a coincidence and you are free to think that it's all a coincidence. I don't believe in coincidences. I believe that all of the thoughts and desires of everybody in the world interact to form the basis of what we know as the world.

I believe that what you think about, you bring about, and that what you want shows up, and that everything that happens to you in your life, you deserve it. I believe that everything that happens to you in your life, you have drawn into your life by the predominant thoughts that you have. Each time I have a situation like one I just described to you, I get ingrained in that line of thinking one more time.

To make matters even more, more interesting, I think that I'm flowing with Holy Ghost. I think that I'm in that flow where God wants his people, even though I'm not a church guy. On the way into the office that same morning, I was driving along and once again I'm thinking, "The car pool lane is nearly empty. Maybe I should move over in the car pool lane," and then I decided, "No, I'll stay where I am," and seconds later, a highway patrolman drives by in the car pool lane who surely would have given me a ticket if I was over there.

When you think about having read this blog, think of it this way, that what you think about you bring about, and you must be vigilant in controlling what you think about. You must be vigilant in deciding what you want and what you want for your clients. As an extraordinary coach, it's going to benefit you to embrace this philosophy I'm sharing with you, and it's going to benefit your clients as well. Make sure that whatever words come out of your mouth, it's something that you want. Spend your time thinking about the things that you want and not the things that you don't.

I submit to you, if you will embrace these principles, if you will take to heart these principles, you will find your life improving, you will find your practice improving, and my goodness, you will find that you have become the extraordinary coach that you have been looking forward to becoming.

I end this blog just like all the blogs I end, and I say have a good time until next time. If this blog has helped you or given you any ideas or benefited you in any way, please send it to somebody. Share it with somebody.


Friday, July 10, 2015

Coaches Corner~Breakdown


Professional boxers will tell you that you can have a good plan when you go into a fight, you could decide that you're going to start with a right and you're going to finish with a left, you're going to throw an uppercut there and you're going to throw a right cross there and all of that's well and good. You are told that when you throw your left, you are leaving yourself open for the opponents right, you duck and you avoid the right. All of this strategy is great and you understand it very well when your coach is giving it to you as you, an extraordinary coach might be giving coaching tips to your business owner.
All of that changes when the boxer get stung really hard. When a boxer gets punched in the face when he is not expecting it, when he gets his mouth busted into without expecting it, when he experiences pain, a lot of pain then all the planning will go to pot. He will forget everything that he has been told. He'll forget about the right cross, he'll forget about the uppercut because now he is in pain. The greatest boxer of them all realizes that this pain is going to come and they anticipate this pain and they are able to maintain their plan, they are able to maintain their fight plan and they go on to become great winners, great victors. People like Muhammad Ali, like Sugar Ray Leonard and like Larry Homes, like George Foreman. All of this people were able to maintain their composure after getting their bell rung really hard. 
Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with a client. An actual fact, this client was also my coach in certain instances and her and I were talking about a subject that's near and dear to my heart and actually she thinks about it sometime. Many of us coaches are filled with platitudes like what you think about you bring about. The person who needs love the most often appears to deserve it the least. Platitudes like that come out of our mouth at a drop of a hat and we think that they are truth. 
We all know that it is the inside of a person that counts and not so much their outer beauty which is another platitude. In comes my business partner and she is sharing something with me that's close to my heart and although I know not to be defensive and I know that the only way to get better is to be ready for constructive criticism; When I got some constructive criticism, I wanted to fight. I forgot about all those platitudes that I speak on a regular basis. I forgot about the idea that if you want to get something that nobody else has, then you have to do something that nobody else does. It completely left my consciousness that in order for me to do incredible things in life, I have to overcome incredible obstacles because it is not going to be given to me.
I must tell you I was ready to throw in the towel.  Not only was I ready to throw in the towel, I was ready to drive over to her place and put my hands around her neck and strangle her. Have you ever felt that way? If you have never felt that way, you probably haven't encountered your greatest struggle. You probably haven't crossed the line yet to be an extraordinary coach, because when you are an extraordinary coach you take your client places where they don't necessarily want to go.
You take your clients to that deep place where they’re most uncomfortable. If your clients are sitting listening to you and agreeing with everything that you suggest to them, you better believe that you haven't gotten there yet and if you haven't gotten there yet and you are committed to being an extraordinary coach, you will get there and I'm here to tell you be ready for that bust in your mouth when it comes. Be ready for that surprising bit of pain when it comes. Know that you can endure this pain and know that on the other side of the pain you will come out a better coach and your client will be a better business person as a result.
Forget the fact that you have gotten busted in the mouth or you have experience pain because pain is a change agent. Pain is an indication of breakdown and in coaching the only breakthroughs occur on the other side of a breakdown. I hope this blog has helped you. I hope you have picked up a couple of pointers from this blog and I hope that you are moving one step closer to being an extraordinary coach. If it has helped you, I urge you share this blog with your friends, your family members and even some of your clients and by all means do come by and read this blog again and as I like to end all of my blogs, I end this one the very same way with inviting you to have a good time until the next time.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Coaches Corner~Business

As an extraordinary coach, you may want to be present to the fact that a skill set to be a coach is different from a skill set to be in the coaching business. Coaching, like many other skills and talents that a person can have, is a good thing. Running a business is something completely different. There are payrolls. There are employees. There are standard operating procedures. There are management of employees. When you're talking about running a business, running a business is a different skill set from being an extraordinary coach. Part of your job as an extraordinary coach, is to make people present to the fact that you got a whole different set of skills that you need to own and run a business, than you need to perform a task. Take my friend Bill. Bill makes the best biscuits in the world. Bill's been making biscuits for many, many years. People have always loved his biscuits and everybody has always wanted him to open a restaurant. Bill would be mistaken to open a restaurant. He'd be more useful if he could find somebody that owned a restaurant, and then make biscuits for them.

Let's talk about a guy that everybody knows, Colonel Sanders. Colonel Sanders has a business called Kentucky Fried Chicken. K.F.C's been around for a lot of years. When he wanted to start his business, he first had to find somebody to buy into the fact that he could cook great tasting chicken, and he could cook great tasting chicken. He went around to over 1,000 restaurants before he found someone willing to take a chance on his chicken recipes. He knew his chicken was good because all of his friends told him so. He was ecstatic when he found out that this restaurant  would serve his chicken, but that's only part of the story. People tell that story as a way to get you motivated, as a way to help you overcome obstacles, but that really is only part of the story. The K.F.C franchise, as you know it now, is a far cry from what Colonel Harlan Sanders had in mind when he went around trying to find someone to use his chicken, to get the recipe out to let people know how good his chicken was.

If you are an extraordinary coach, and you could be just like I am, you too must be present to the fact that maybe as simple as you requiring someone else to run your business, someone to schedule your clients, someone to collect the money, someone to pay the over-head. A good example of what I'm talking about is physicians, particularly surgeons. When I was a registered nurse, some years ago, I was really touched, moved, and inspired as I interacted with the surgeons. Before they were going to perform surgery, particularly the Heart Surgeons, they would be walking around the ICU, walking around the recovery room, and they would be really excited. You could see them as they opened and closed their fists walking around, as they were hyperventilating because they were getting ready to hold someone's heart in their hands. That is what surgeons do. As far as the scheduling of the surgery, as far as making sure that the room was sterile, as far as making sure that the family knew where to go and sit down, as far as making sure that the nurses were available to take care of the patients once they came out of surgery, the surgeon had nothing to do with that.

No matter how good a surgeon is, those are not places that he finds himself. He doesn't need a skill of running a business. What he needs more than anything, is an outside, objective opinion to tell him what it's going to take to be a world class surgeon. That outside objective opinion, that may come from you, will advise him to hire a business manger. That's why there exists a thing as a business manager. Someone needs to manage your business no matter what kind of business you are in. That includes the coaching business. The purpose of this blog is, just because you know how to do something and your skill is phenomenal, does not mean that you need to go into business doing that. Just because you're a good cook, just because you're a good speaker, just because you're a good coach, that doesn't dictate that you want to start a business of your own. As you begin to counsel your clients on being an entrepreneur, as you begin to, maybe even, counsel some coaches about how to be a good coach, stay present to the fact that running a business takes an entirely different skill set from being a technician. Michael Gerber, and his break-through book called, The E-Myth, talks about that particular distinction.
The distinction of being a business person and the distinction of being good at a particular skill does not need to be confused, does not need to be mixed up. If this gives you an idea, if this helps you go into business, fantastic. If this stops you from going into business, fantastic. Count the costs. Pay attention to what is needed if you want to be a business man. Being a business man is different from being a good salesman. If you got a skill to do anything at all, remember it takes an entirely different skill to be a business man. I end this blog like I enjoy ending all of my blogs, by telling you to have a good time until the next time, and if it has blessed you or helped you in any way, or given you any good ideas, by all means, share it with your friends and/or your family.