Business Coach : Get Back On Your Feet
-First couple of years of my marriage, I’m just saying, “Hello! How are you doing?” to my wife. And she thinks I’m mad at her. So it’s that kind of trying to tone it down from this obnoxiousness to normal. And sports was huge for me. Baseball coaches. I had a wrassling coach. Here my wrassling coach, his father-in-law actually was the president of BOK–
CLAY CLARK: Oh, wow.
-And he was a big wrestler.
CLAY CLARK: That’s bank of Oklahoma, right?
-Bank of Oklahoma. Yeah. He was dean of the school of OSU and ORU and TU– just all over the place. He was a bit of a business coach to me.
But my wrestling coach was there when I came out of my coma while the funeral of my brother was going on. He was a huge, huge milestone and a rock for me to come on.
-How would you define what a business coach is in your mind? What is a business coach? How’s is that different from just a guy you know? Because I think we all have like a neighbor that might give us advice whether it’s good or not. We all probably have somebody. How was a business coach?
-Especially our poor broke brother-in-law that knows all the answers. A mentor has had to learn to navigate through pain. Every one of us have got to walk through this valley of the shadow of death and get to a point where we fear no evil. That’s part of it. And so a mentor is somebody that’s gone through that painful place, and they don’t feel like they’re an outcast because of it. It’s just part of life, and they’ve learned to navigate it.
And then a mentor is different from somebody that just wants to instruct or say– well, I know all this, and some I’m going to tell the world! A mentor– this is very important, Clay, and this is my own perspective– says you know what? I want you to succeed. I want to take the extra effort. I’ll tell you stuff. You may write down notes. But you know what? I love you enough that I’m going to kick you in the butt and make sure you succeed. I’m going to hold you accountable. I care about your future. It’s not just about me caring about me getting to share my wisdom, but I care about your success.
-Visually, it’s easy for me to look at it. I’m kind of a visual guy. For me, I look at it as a mentor has gone to the top of the mountain. He’s already been there. And he wants to come on down and walk you through and show you how to get up there. It’s tough struggling as you’re getting up the mountain, but he’s been there.
And I feel like a lot of people, they’ve never been to the top of the mountain, and they’re over here, away lost in the forest, trying to give you tips. And I think you’ve got to find someone who’s been to the top. And you talked about how this person might kick your butt a little bit, so I wanted it to read this to you and get your reaction to it.
Isaiah Thomas, National Basketball Association Hall of Fame player– not supertall guy, did phenomenally well on the court, Hall of Fame player– he says, “The biggest difference is in the leadership. It was better for us at Indiana. We had more coaches and mentors to help us. A lot of young players today suffer from lack of direction.”
And that was in reference to his coach, Bobby Knight, who was just intense. Why are you so passionate about being that kind of mentor for business owners today? You coach companies all around the world, all across the country. Why are you so passionate about helping entrepreneurs grow and not just sitting back and focusing on yourself?
-Several things– and I don’t know how many things are going to out here. I’m just in the moment. Number one, because it’s in my DNA. I am a coach. And so whether it’s sports and having my kids come up, or whether it’s businesses and turning them around– just yesterday, I’m talking with this organization, and we’re getting them out of 13 years of all this revenue but no profit, and we’re cranking out 15% profit. It’s not near as satisfactory as I want. So I’m coaching them through the process. I love it. I come alive with it.
The second thing here, besides it being part of my DNA, is who I am. When I feel the most alive is when I’m doing that.
CLAY CLARK: When you’re helping others, you feel the best.
-When I’m helping others in this mentorship process, here. The second thing, here– and this is something really very important, Clay. I don’t know whether this goes on your film or not, but mentorship is the only thing that works! I’ve had hundreds and thousands of students in my seminars and college classes and lectures going– that’s great! That’s awesome! I’m charged up! And they go nowhere.