Chris Dirkers - Working ON Your Business vs, Working IN Your Business (D2118)

Welcome to the Exit Coach radio show, the show for baby boomer business owners who are looking for cutting edge information as they plan their 3 to 10 year business succession and exit. Every week we interview top professional advisors for their best tips, strategies, and precautions so you can be well planned. And don't miss our one minute exit coach tip of the. on exit coachradio.com. And now here's your host, the exit coach Bill Black. Welcome, everyone, and thanks for listening. This segment of the show is brought to you by Hankin Patent Law and features Chris Dirkers, who's joining us from Action Coach Business coaching in Spokane, Washington. Chris, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Pleasure to have you on today, Chris. Before we get Started, we're gonna, I know we're going to talk about working on your business versus in your business, which is always a very popular topic. Before we get into that, we always like to get started by getting to know a little bit about our guests. Can you share a little bit about your background and how you got into this particular line of work? Sure, well, I didn't just wake up one day and decide to be a coach. Actually, I am a product of Coaching and that is I had a business and that business was more of an obsession than it was actually profitable. Uh, most like business, most business owners, I was a great technician and what happened is my wife came to me, Hey, Chris, um, we can either feed the family and we can make mortgage payments or you can continue with this obsession. And what I'd like to do is if you're going to continue with this, um, before we dissolve a marriage, and I take the kids, um, would you at least be open to talking to somebody that might be able to help you? And I thought that that was a great idea, um, and wanted to save the marriage, so I did, and that coach actually changed my life, and he showed me the difference in working in the business versus working on the business. That's an interesting phrase, and we've heard that a lot. Of course it was a very popular phrase from the the uh Eyth books, how to work on your business instead of in your business. Tell our listeners for their benefit, what does that mean exactly? What it meant for me was it meant that I could basically, as I said, most business owners are great technicians. They have a lot of entrepreneurial spirit and they have drive, but what they don't do is they don't really Plan their work and then work their plan. They become very reactionary in their business trying to put out fires on a daily basis trying to herd the cats as far as the employees or, you know, taking care of the problems that are out in the field, and what they overlook is they overlook the destination and the vision of why they started that business in the first place and actually where they were headed before they got distracted. Yeah, is that because you think they, they're just so overwhelmed with the day to day operations that sometimes it's. It's hard to think about the long term, and is that something that coaching helps them do is to, to take their head out of the, the, uh, the hurricane that they're involved in on a day to day basis and really look forward to where they're headed. Absolutely, coaching is very much just like in sports. How does a team get to being from going from a good team to a great team to getting to the Super Bowl? They don't do it without a coach and a lot of times they have Multiple coaches. Tiger Woods, the best golf player in the world, can outplay any one of his coaches, but the coaches give an outside third party perspective that is not emotionally involved in the business and can actually see the things that are happening in the business that the business owner cannot. In essence, when Tiger Woods was asked why does he have a coach if he can play better than his coach, he says, because my coach can see my swing. And I cannot. Yeah, and another, another thing to point out, I think too, Chris, is that Tiger doesn't take his coach out onto the golf tournament with him. He, he works with his coach offsite. Uh, in private time, and, uh, but he does spend a significant amount of time with a coach. But, uh, the point there is you need to take some time to, uh, work with someone outside of your day to day working business because you're, when you're on the, when you're playing the tournament, you are playing the tournament. It's, it's not time to have coaching at that point, right? That, that's correct. And, and let's face it. Um, the world of business and marketing and dynamics and advertising is changing constantly every day. Things are getting more complicated. We're constantly being bombarded with new things that we have to add in and evolve into our business, whether it's instituted by the government or whether it's instituted by law or whether it's instituted by new ways that people are coming to. via social media and online advertisement. So how do we keep all of that in our head and how do we keep marching our product along and evolving and that coach is what gives you that perspective because you can bounce off ideas with that coach, and they may have ideas that are total things that you haven't even thought of. And so a coach is not just a nice commodity or a luxury to have. It's actually a necessity nowadays. You know, it's a great point, and when you think about it, your coaches, it's very important when you select a coach to choose somebody who's staying on top of all these trends. What would you tell someone who says, yeah, I buy into that. I think I need a coach. What should they look for in a good business coach? Well, first of all, you have to find somebody who has passion. And drive and is in aligned with the same goals that you are aligned with, OK? The first thing is you, you really want to look at the coach, look at his background, see if he has a reputable background, and maybe even ask the coach for a couple of testimonials for people that he's worked with. Um, the other thing that you look from a coach is, is he a good listener? Is are you doing everything his way, or as he, is he actually listening to your plans and taking the business to where you want it to go versus where he wants it to go? Yeah, you know, I guess another thing to ask is, uh, do, do you as a coach, have a coach yourself because you need to be kept on top of things and you belong to a very large organization called Action Coach. Chris, tell us a little bit about Action Coach and what it's all about and why did you join it? Well, Action Coach is an international coaching firm. We're actually known as the number one business coaching firm in the world. Uh, we've maintained that title for over 9 years with Success magazine. Uh, we've won multiple Stevie's Awards for business excellence, um, and we basically have about 2000 plus coaches in 56 countries worldwide, and I do have coaches myself. As a matter of fact, action coach is about a 20. $40 to $250 million a year business. We coach about 20,000 businesses a year and so I can't do all that myself. I rely on the input and mentorship of other coaches, and I personally have 4 other coaches that I work with that mentor me in different areas in different fields, including my own practice. That's great because it allows you to have your really specialized area that you want to focus on and it's hard to be a A specialist in everything these days, so there's there's that many coaches involved now, do you all have some kind of a common. Uh, internet connection that you can say, hey, I've got a particular type of business here that has this, this unique problem. Who else can help me with this? Is that something you guys do is collaborate a lot? Absolutely. As a matter of fact, Action Coach, uh, is a, is a great, uh, it's a great company. It was formed by Brad Sugars and actually, um, we've just been ranked, uh, as I think the top, uh, I think we're number 56 and, uh, the, the top franchises in the world of. and that's because of the systems that Action Coach has. Brad Sugars has been very adamant about creating a support system which gives the coaches all of the teaching tools necessary to help the business owner, but also allows them to network and provides coaching for those coaches, so we're constantly growing, constantly improving our education, and then we can take that out into the field for our clients and that's why action coach, I believe, is so. Powerful in the field of coaching is because of those systems and processes that Brad's. Yeah, absolutely. You've got the collective knowledge of 2000 coaches are from around the world. They're going to be able to find you an answer somewhere in the situations that you're looking for. We're going to take a quick break, Chris, and when we when we come back, we're going to ask you to share a few stories and some tips, ideas and precautions for our listeners. So hang in there for just a second, we'll be right back. 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Many of their clients have been working and training with them for over 10 years. Ask for their free white paper entitled 10 Things that can get in the Way of Sales Success. Call Scott Bailey at 949-263-0640. That's 949-263-0640. Welcome back friends. Just a reminder that we've interviewed dozens of advisors on a wide variety of topics, and you will find all of their interviews and highlights online at Exacoachradio.com or on iTunes at iTunes.exacoachradio.com. And I'm talking with Chris Dirkers who's joining us from Spokane, Washington, and Chris, before the break. You talked about the fact that business owners have a lot of spirit and drive, but they really need someone to look at their swing, if you will, as if they were a golfer from the outside and help them coaching and the fact that Action Coach has over 2000 coaches and a wide variety of collaboration and experiences. Uh, can you share a couple stories with us about some clients that you've worked with and maybe what was their situation before they came to you and how did you help them? Certainly there was a particular carpet cleaning company, and I can actually use the name because he allowed me to, and that is called Zero Res, and the owner was Jeremy McGee and he came to me with a business that was basically making about 380. annual and had 3 trucks and what we did is we looked at what we had to do to expand the business and start to leverage his efforts. Now he was the quintessential technician working in the business and not on the business. The very first thing I did is I said, Jeremy, you need to buy another truck. Now these trucks are about $100,000 and Jeremy was a 26-year-old business owner and he It was like, OK, I trust you. I had a coach in wrestling, and he helped me to be a great wrestler, so I'm going to do that. And he took to coaching like a duck to water, and he already had great ideas and a lot of background that he that we worked on and put together. And when the pieces fell into place, we took that $380,000 business to $2.2 million in two years. OK. That's quite a lot of growth. Well, that's just one of the stories. So by coming in and helping him and you found someone, I think one of the, you'll agree that one of the first ingredients is for a business owner, are you coachable? Are you going to adapt to what we're talking to? Are you going to put it into action, otherwise we're both just wasting our time, right? That's absolutely correct. Coachability is the number one factor. Um, it's very Tough for a business owner to give up control, and we're as a coach, we don't ask them to give up control. We're actually asking them to accept input so that we can help empower them because most of that knowledge that we have Brad Sugar calls it business reeducation is things that we know we should be doing in business, but we're not currently doing them. And so the business coach, if the, if the client is coachable, allows to develop that and pull that out because after all we're we're in the education business and the word education comes from the Latin word edge of cotton, which means to draw out so you have to be open to letting a coach draw out your innermost potential. And take action then and really Use that advice to your benefit. So that's fantastic that you found someone that was coachable. You were what, what were some of the early recommendations that you made that really made a difference in that situation? Well, the main thing was getting over the fear, you know, we call our coaches look at fear as false evidence appearing real, and what we do is we confront the business owners will constantly have fears that are in front of them. Most of the time it's because they haven't planned and they're again reactionary, so. Getting them over their fears and getting them to take the first steps is the biggest part. Once they take the first step and they're able to be coached, then it's the strategies that the coach has and it's developed by working with his network and his all the education that he's put into coaching and the readings and everything, and then that knowledge. When accepted by the business owner and then like you said keyword put into action and then setting up in a system of accountability which tracks that uh accountability to the end that is where you get the results because. Thoughts without action or just wishes. Yeah, and, and again, they're hiring you for a specific reason. Uh, can you imagine if, uh, if Tiger Woods had his coach and his coach watched him for an hour or so and said, OK, here's what we're gonna do work on today, Tiger, and Tiger just said, no, let's not do that. I mean, that wouldn't be fun for either one of them and really a waste of time. So, a, a person has to be coachable and willing to uh to help. Um, put things into action that the coach comes up with. And so getting over the fear, um, I'm, I'm trying to grasp what was he afraid of? What was your business owner afraid of, do you think? He was afraid, afraid of letting go of the control. He was actually a technician and he was out in the vans going around actually doing some of the carpet cleaning because he wanted to stay in touch with the customers and he wanted to see what the other people were doing in the field. Once he was able to trust and we built enough systems and accountability to where he could trust his team, letting go, stepping back, buying the extra truck the truck. And not putting him in it, OK, not putting himself in it, but him going out and working on the business. In other words, let's look at where we can grow the business. Let's go out and find new accounts. Let's create a relationships, strategic alliances. Let's do all of the things that are going to bring more business and, and let's trust that our technicians have enough information systems. And um, are dedicated enough that the fulfillment is going to happen magically. and now, you know, he's gone from those 3 trucks to where he has over 8 trucks, and each one of those trucks are doing now what a single truck did in a excuse me, what 3 trucks did all year, each single truck is now doing that. So he's really moved himself from, you know, if you, if you draw out the org chart. Listeners out there and you're in every box, you don't have a business that you can transition or sell. You just have a crazy job description. We tell people that all the time. So with this, now he's in, now he's on the, now he's above it all in the owner line, and he has a business that someday he can transition out of if he wants to, or maybe even just go from overtime president to part-time CEO, which a lot of our listeners are looking to do as well. Um, Chris, great tips. Now, um, could you share with us, um, some, uh, ideas, uh, precautions or tips for our listeners? What would you suggest that they They think about when they're thinking about coaching. Well, the first thing I would say is go into coaching with an open mind, OK? Go into coaching with looking at coaching is an investment. It is not an expense. The number one thing that I see that holds most business owners back is they look at coaching and they think, oh gosh, another expense. No, coaching is an investment because if you have a good coach and you, you invest in the right coach. That coach is going to give you a return on an investment. As a matter of fact, a lot of studies say for every $1 spit in coaching, you get $500 in return. So that's an amazing ROI. You can't get that return anywhere. So think of coaching as an investment. Go in with an open mind and be willing to participate and stay involved and do what your coach asks because that's when the magic happens. And the last thing is. Be accountable. And when he says we're going to work on your business and get you from working in your business, do that. Great tips. Chris, thanks very much. How can people, our listeners get in touch with you and what do you have for them? Well, excellent, Bill. What I have is they can get in touch with me through my LinkedIn at www.linkedIn.com/Chris Dirkers, that's C H R I S. B I R K E R S um and say that you've heard about me on your show on the Bill Black Show. And what I'll do is I'll give you a free instant business strategy session or you can visit my website, take a free health check, uh, for your business. It's called a business health check at www.actioncoach.com. Forward slash Chris Terkers again, C H R I S V I R K E R S, or simply visit me at www.actioncoach NW for Northwest.com. And for our listeners, we will be posting this back onto our website. I exit coachradio.com and you'll find all of these links in the show notes for Chris. Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. It was really a pleasure to talk with you and uh I look forward to having you back on the show at some point in the future, and we'll get deeper into some of these topics. Thank you very much. It's been a delight. I've been talking with Chris Dirkers from Action Coach Business Coaching in Spokane, Washington. We're going to take a short break, so please stay tuned. You're listening to Exit Coachradio.com, the information station for age 50 plus business owners, where we're interviewing over 250 top advisors for their best tips, ideas, and precautions so you can be well planned. We upload new one minute tips every day. Exitcoachradio.com. Come listen for a minute. Thank you for listening to Exit Coach Radio.