THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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My First Year Review

I just finished my first year building my business coaching practice. It was filled with highs and lows, here are some of my key learnings.

What I do - I help entrepreneurs get what they want from their businesses by coaching their leadership teams using a simple set of tools called the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS®).

Here’s my overall numbers for the year (note - VTH = initial call with a prospect, 90 MM is the session we do with prospects before they become paying cients):

Overall my year went great - I acquired clients a little faster than the average and felt consistent traction. Like any new business though, there were lots of ups and downs. This is my fourth business, and it’s honestly been as many ups and downs as any of the businesses I’ve started - more in some ways.

The most challenging part of this kind of business is building a new network of people who know you as [fill in the role]. For me, I’d built a pretty good network over the years as a local fitness entrepreneur who transitioned into other entrepreneurial ventures when COVID hit. Being someone who coaches other business owners was not part of that story, so I’ve been becoming that person in the eyes of my network for the past year.

The other most challenging part I’ve noticed is the large gaps between activity that can very easily mess with your mindset. In my case - I added just less than one new client per month - I was actually pretty close to one a month so let’s just call it that.

One client a month, meant two sales presentations (90s), and four initial sales calls (VTH) per month. That means on a good month I’d only get in front of one prospect each week. And since things don’t happen smoothly, rather in spurts, I could go weeks without any prospect calls and over a month without doing any sales presentations.

Those kinds of gaps were brutal, and they make you question whether you’re good enough. Out of 52 Mondays in this first year, I’d guess I had at least half, or 26 of them, where I woke up worried I wasn’t going to find enough people to talk to to meet my goals for the week.

The other biggest challenge was simply not feeling good enough to do the work required. My work requires doing three things really well:

1. Teacher - I teach leadership teams a set of tools they use in operating their business

2. Facilitator - I facilitate their all-day planning sessions

3. Coach - I coach them through the journey and help them progress faster

While I have a great deal of experience sitting on and running leadership teams that use the EOS® system, I didn’t have much experience facilitating the sessions and coaching teams. Jumping into things, the learning curve is steep - and I often questioned whether I was going to be good enough to be great at this.

The above challenges made the first year overall feel extremely challenging. I was also keenly aware that progress was occurring for me according to plan - ahead of plan honestly. So I rarely felt panic or real worry that it wasn’t going to work.

At this point I can say my fourth business, My business coaching practice, is going to be successful. All four of my businesses have worked now that I think of it. What happens to them in the long run is a different story - and this one is no different.

With smart planning, the right amount of energy, and consistent work - it can be whatever I want it to be.

Here are some learnings from my first year.

1. Biz Dev is a grind - 10 new clients meant thousands of phone calls, meetings, coffees, and networking events. Referrals come after getting clients.

2. Know your numbers - You can see above I kept detailed records of all my activities throughout the year, and reviewed them every week to measure progress. Those numbers drive my behavior.

3. Get good at picking up the phone - Calls are the most efficient way to connect with people. It’s also becoming a lost art so it’s easier to stand out if you just call people.

4. Fill your gaps - Knowing the phone wasn’t a strength of mine, I joined a weekly role playing call every week for six months until I landed my 10th client. It was very uncomfortable and it made me better.

5. Personal branding works - I’ve been creating content consistently for 2 years now. I’ve gotten clients directly from LI, and more importantly - when I go to events people already “know me” before they know me.

6. Have a crystal clear offer - I chose to use an offer that’s been proven in the marketplace for decades. One reason it works is that it’s very clear who it’s for and what the process is.

7. Action kills anxiety - When selling a high-ticket high-trust service like mine, 1 new client per month is really good. The times in between can feel like an eternity, so being very clear about what activities I’m doing each week was critical to keep anxiety manageable.

8. It’s critical to find a community - It gets really lonely building a solo practice. Being part of multiple peer groups and having a community of colleagues I can lean on was absolutely critical.

9. Don’t reinvent the wheel - Even if you’re making up your own offer, most parts of your sales and delivery process have been figured out before you - find things that work, and follow those to simplify your process.

10. Repetition kills imposter syndrome - You won’t be great until you’ve done thousands of hours of reps, and the only way to do get there is to start getting reps in as fast as possible. Get in the reps however you can.

11. Know how to zoom out - Getting caught into the minutia of each week’s ups and downs makes it hard to see the big picture. A practice like mine takes 3 solid years to build - having long-term planning to review and guide you will help zoom out periodically.

12. Celebrate wins - Because it takes so long to build, it’s easy to blow past all the milestones in the first few years. That’s ignoring the reality that the journey is what it’s all about - so stop and celebrate all the little wins you pass along the way.

Talk to you next week,

Mike