September 5, 2025 • 27 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast with Kevin Weir
What happens when fear of sales, fear of risk, and fear of decisions hold you back from your calling? In this episode of Cut The Tie, Thomas Helfrich sits down with Kevin Weir, business coach with ActionCOACH Business Coaching, to talk about cutting ties with false security, overcoming fear, and learning that success comes from clarity, commitment, and consistent execution.
About Kevin Weir:
Kevin Weir began his career through ROTC and the Army, expecting a 30–year military career. After the Cold War ended, he pivoted into corporate America—only to realize it wasn’t aligned with his purpose. Today, as a coach with ActionCOACH in Spokane, Washington, Kevin helps small and medium-sized business owners build companies that thrive without them. With a balance of teaching, motivation, and accountability, he empowers owners to break cycles of fear and excuses while scaling sustainably.
In this episode, Thomas and Kevin discuss:
- The three essentials of coaching
Why every business owner needs a teacher, a motivator, and a butt kicker. - Cutting ties with false security
How leaving behind “safe” W-2 jobs revealed the true illusion of stability. - Overcoming a fanatical fear of sales
The mindset shifts Kevin had to make to step into entrepreneurship. - The faith to trust the process
Why belief in yourself, your system, and your calling is the foundation of growth. - The lesson of decision-making
Why “you can never change your mind until you make it up the first time” transformed his coaching and his life.
Key Takeaways:
- False safety is still unsafe. A paycheck doesn’t guarantee stability.
- Fear is the biggest tie. You can’t scale until you face it head-on.
- Decisions create freedom. Indecision keeps you stuck in cycles.
- Coaching is an investment. For every dollar you put in, you should expect multiples back.
Connect with Kevin Weir:
🌐 Website: https://www.kevinweir.com
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinweir
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/actioncoachspokane
Connect with Thomas Helfrich:
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetiegroup
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfrich/
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
✉️ Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 InstantlyRelevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm your host, thomas Helfrich.
I am on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back, and you've gotto define your success on your
own terms first.
And if you don't do that,you're chasing someone else's
dream.
And today I'm joined by KevinWeir.
Kevin, how are you Doing good?
How are you doing?
I'm doing well.
I smell wonderful still, whichis great, excellent.
(00:23):
Take a moment, introduceyourself and what it is you do.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So I am a business coach with Action Coach Business
Coaching.
I'm based here in Spokane,Washington.
I work with small tomedium-sized business owners,
helping business owners achievetheir dreams of a business that
runs without them.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Love it.
You know we've been arguingwith the second Action Coach to
come on the show today.
All right, I love, I love yourguys's brand.
What you do, uh, we just likeit's the process driven.
You know we run the marketingfor a couple of guys there.
I it's.
It's really good stuff and anduh, and, because of how you guys
are set up, I can actuallybring as many of you of you on
because you're you're in acertain geographic area for the
(01:03):
most part.
So if you're in the Washingtonarea, listen up.
All right, we're going to startwith what I call the stalker
stage of the show.
Tell them how to get a hold ofyou so they can stalk you while
you're talking today.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, kevinweiractioncoachcom is my
website and I am Kevin WeirCoach on Facebook, on Twitter,
on LinkedIn, on Instagram.
(01:34):
So you name it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I am on just pretty much every single social media
platform.
It sounds like you're smart andyou bought the block, so to
speak, of your name.
So good, smart move.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I have a secret weapon.
Her name is Brittany.
She is my social media manager.
She does everything for me.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah Well, good job, brittany.
Two points, kevin.
You know there's a lot ofcoaches you are in a crowded
space, you know, and you guys inAction.
Coach itself has a really goodreputation, good brand and lots
of proof points Like the stuffyou guys have works, if you work
it.
Why did they pick you, though?
Give me the defining uniquecharacteristic of why people
(02:13):
should pick you, though, to betheir coach.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, first of all, you need somebody who's going to
be a combination.
There's three elements of greatcoaching.
One is knowledge You've got tobe a good teacher.
Number two, you've got to be anexcellent motivator.
And the third one is you've gotto be a butt kicker and see,
the trouble with coaches is, ifyou think about this, some
(02:36):
coaches are really good at oneor two areas and one of the
things I figured out is somebodyhas to be educated, but then we
have to motivate that personwhen they're in a down position
in their life.
But then you've got to holdthem accountable and basically
call people's BS on themselves,because people are experts at
(02:58):
creating their own excuses, notrealizing how full of cotton
candy they are.
Hello, hello.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Hello, in the old days I would have had to start
drinking by putting myself onmute, and so we just had a lull
there and if you were listening,you're like what happened?
Well, that was suspenseful.
I intentionally put myself onmute so you could have a pause.
What I was saying there was, asa coach.
You were spot on with sayingthat people make a fear and
excuse cycle.
I talk about this quite a bitand you make these reasonable
(03:52):
things.
I can't do this because, well,that is just not an excuse.
It might be valid, it might bewhatever, but at the end of the
day, if it's holding you backfrom what you need to go do,
then it's in the way and you gotto do something about it.
And to just keep accepting itis not acceptable.
And that's where a coach cancome and give you paths,
different ways to think, giveyou the confidence, take away
the scaries.
So I love that.
Tell me about your journey alittle bit, but before you do,
(04:16):
you have to define success.
So what does success mean toyou?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Success is achieving what your God-given calling is
in your life, and are youpursuing that on a constant,
never-ending basis?
And so here's the whole thing.
Is that success for somebody?
Everybody's going to lookdifferent in success, but true
(04:40):
success is what are you calledto in life?
What true success is is whatare you called to in life.
Are you progressing along thatpath and are you getting better
every single day of your life?
Here's the problem is is thatyou define success in a way that
doesn't align with what youwere called to do in life.
It's a false success.
(05:01):
You could have all the physicalpossessions in life, all of the
income and all of the success,but if you are completely
misaligned with what yourgod-given purpose or calling
life is, it's all fluff.
And so part of what I'm alwayslooking at with the person is
(05:22):
what do you want to be when yougrow up?
And when I ask that person, alot of people who are even
successful going.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I'm not sure well, it comes back to sometimes the
questions you had like inearlier life.
It's a lot of times aroundmoney or things, and as you get
older it's like you know, it'sthe legacy, what I want to be
known for, uh and, and like youdescribed it, it's it's hollow.
When you chase some otherdefinition of success that no
longer meets your needs, andyour definition of success will
(05:50):
certainly evolve over a journeyand, speaking of which, tell me
about you a little bit, and asyou define success for yourself,
what was the biggest tie you'vehad to cut to achieve?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
it.
Well, you know a lot of it.
I'll give you a quick history.
I graduated high school, wentto college, went in through ROTC
, went into the army and figuredI was going to do a 30-year
military career.
Well, the Cold War came to anend, and they basically said
here's a bunch of money go away.
So I went and got my MBA, and Igot into corporate America, and
(06:21):
I found out corporate Americasucked.
So one of the things, though, isI had a lot of opportunities to
take jobs that would have, youknow, put me out of my comfort
zone, but I didn't do it.
Why?
I had a fanatic fear of sales,and so what happened is that I
(06:42):
then was able to, through a longseries of events, I knew I was
called to help small businessowners.
Now here's what happened,though.
I got into career coaching.
I had all the clients providedfor me.
I'd walk in.
There's the blue slip on thebox new client, great, wonderful
, boom.
Well, here's what happened andtalk about cutting the ties is
(07:07):
that my company that I wascareer coaching for started
financially failing, and I wentout, and I was like, oh, I got
to look for another job.
So I went on back.
Then monstercom put my resumein and I get a message back from
Action Coach says would youlike to be interested in buying
(07:28):
a franchise?
And every single fear that cameup inside of me just screamed
out this is not safe.
You need to take something inlife and make sure it's safe for
you.
To take something in life andmake sure it's safe for you.
(07:49):
And so what happened is that Ilooked at this and I had that
fanatical fear of sales and Iremember sitting down with my
wife and I just told her.
I said I don't know if I can dothis, and my wife is my biggest
cheerleader and she knew deepdown inside me I could, in
essence, cut the tie of aconsistent job income.
(08:12):
And she said are you willing totake that risk?
Because I know you want to bethe provider of the family and
this is scary, but I alreadyknow who you are.
And so one of the things that Ireally had to dig deep into is
can I cut the tie of safety inorder to achieve a calling and a
(08:35):
dream that I knew, knew wasdeep down inside of me?
And that was not easy.
No, that's hard, and sometimeswe in life have to do things
that are scary, in order for usto achieve our call, our purpose
, our direction in life.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It.
I went through the same thing.
Many entrepreneurs go throughthat.
Uh, sometimes you're forcedinto it through layoffs or
whatever else.
But uh, what I found on theother side I'm curious if you
found this as well was thefalsity of secure that was with
the W-2 or with employment.
(09:15):
And what I found was likethat's actually no more secure
than me just figuring out andworking hard and driving through
and grinding through building abusiness, because it's more
secure once I know what I selland I know what I can do.
And I just got to go repeat andget kicked in the face a
hundred times for one person tosay yes, and you got it.
And so did you find the samething that you, you, you, we got
(09:37):
on your side, right?
Actually, this is more securethan that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
You know, it's interesting is that I wasn't
believing that the first 14, 15months of my business.
But once I had enough criticalmass and I started really
scaling my business up, then allof that satisfaction, the
realization of yeah, I can dothis.
So much about cutting the tie,is do you trust yourself and
(10:06):
what you're called to do to makeit happen?
And I think what happens is inpeople who don't want to cut the
ties, don't trust themselvesenough.
And so if you are going to goout there and said you know what
I'm tired of X, I'm tired, andI saw this so many times in
(10:27):
career coaching.
A lot of my clients were reallydissatisfied with their career
path, their career this, theircareer that, but they were never
brave enough or willing enoughto take that ultimate leap to
say dang it, I'm going to followa process.
It's a proven process and if Ijust execute it, it was too much
(10:47):
of that.
I like to stay in the safe zone.
The safe zone, even though it'sdysfunctional, makes me feel
warm and fuzzy, and yet in along-term situation it's the
death of you in many respects.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well it is.
You're trading truly the mostdiet lasts you have, which is
time for something you don'tenjoy doing, or what it produces
for you doesn't create enough.
It's the leaky bucket happinessphilosophy something you don't
enjoy doing, or or what itproduces for you doesn't create
enough.
You know, it's the leaky buckethappiness philosophy, like the
inputs way slower than theoutput of, and so you're unhappy
.
Uh, along your journey, uh, youknow, did you have, though, the
(11:20):
moment when you're like Ibelieve in myself, I've cut the
tie, I could do this?
Do you remember the actualmoment?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You know, I think what it was is that when I there
was always that nagging kind ofmaybe I should just go back to
corporate America and play itsafe.
But I still remember I wasabout 15 months into my business
and I went from about three.
(11:47):
I went from two clients to 11clients in about 75 day period
and probably shortly before thatthing hit I had seriously
considered you know what?
I can go back, I can get a job.
It's not what I would like todo, it's not what I'm called to
do, but it will pay the mortgageand feed the kids and all of
(12:12):
that stuff.
I also knew deep down insidethat would be one of the worst
decisions in my life and Itrusted God inside of me.
I trusted his calling for mylife.
I also trusted the process thatI knew would work if I stuck to
it.
And sure enough, bang.
(12:33):
But here's the thing Every oneof us is going to have
self-doubt when we cut the tie,or in the preparation of cutting
the tie, or in the you'vealready cut the tie and you want
to go backwards.
You, every single individual.
If you're telling me yeah, Icut the tie, I've never had any
problems like that, I'm going tocall a liar liar pants and fire
(12:53):
out on you.
You're going to want to go backto that comfort zone, but if
you, deep down inside, know I'mgoing to push through to achieve
what I've been called to do inlife, guess what?
Cutting the tie will be thebest thing you ever do.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, agreed, you're right, it's going to be rough.
And if it isn't rough, youhaven't taken enough risk.
I'd say it that way.
And if you feel like you don'tknow what you're doing and
you're thinking about quitting,you're not far enough along.
You haven't, you know.
And also, maybe you don't havethe, you still have fallbacks
once you kind of have a safetynets in place.
Um, the game changes once you'reon your own.
(13:28):
Yeah, and I know that because Ibuilt my company while working
somewhere, but I had the safetyand I have a really nice salary
and some other stuff.
But as soon as that ended, Iwas like, oh shit, there's
really no more excuses.
Yeah, and now I'm like reallyfocused, like a whole different
level.
And then you know you go throughthe, the evolution of a
business, and you're you almost,you almost have to close the
door or you're borrowing moneyfrom and you're doing stuff to
(13:51):
get through some times, and youget another level of focus and
it's like, like you, my outputcompared to you know, five years
ago is they're not on the sameplanet, like anyway.
So you, you go through this andI think you know is your in
your own journey, talking aboutgetting there?
That's a beautiful thing,because now you're like I'm
never going back, this is whatI'm doing, and you may change
(14:13):
your perspective.
I might do less clients, Imight do more, but you know what
you can do.
You can speak to it.
People can hear and feel thatconfidence, and getting clients
is probably a hell of a loteasier right now than it used to
be.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, after 23 years of doing this, you're still
going to have peaks and valleys.
Those are never going to end.
But the nice thing is, when youhit a valley you know it's not
permanent, you know that you'reprobably going to get back on
(14:43):
track, because that's what'sbeen transpiring.
And I think once you get intothat rhythm of life you know
it's kind of the whole up.
You know three steps forward,two steps to.
You know one and a half stepsback, two steps forward, maybe
one step back, but you know what, you're okay with that.
When you are in that sort ofsafe zone and you lose
(15:06):
everything, your mentality can'tfathom that loss.
But when you do proactively cutthe tie, you then go through
the ups and downs of basicallylife.
In that respect, as anentrepreneur, as a business
owner, guess what?
You're going to be okay.
It's like, okay, we've beenhere before, we'll get through
(15:29):
it again.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
What happens too, I think I find with a lot of
myself, others I've spoken toabout this is, in good times, in
the analogy of up four, three,back two.
When you hit a four, four, four, five, you expect it to stay
like not realizing early on, hey, that's really really good,
(15:52):
yeah.
And then when you take a two,three, step back, you're you
panic, yeah, and you're like,well, wait, like that, your
margin there was great, so tryto go, go do it again.
And so the point is tounderstand when it's really
going well, enjoy it.
Prepare for a winter that'sgoing to come, yeah, for a
winter that's going to come,yeah, save a little food, so to
speak, and I know that it'sgoing to go backwards, but those
are the times you can retool,refocus your personal brand a
little bit, your content.
(16:12):
You could do some things to getready for the next spring, if
you will, of your career.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Exactly, it's exactly the case.
And here's what happens is thelittle voice in your head will
try to crawl back in there andshare itself of doom and gloom.
Oh no, oh no.
Here we go.
You know you're never going to.
This is going to happen, that'sgoing to happen.
And and you have to basicallydamper the voice a little bit
(16:36):
better every single time.
But guess what?
And then you know, I, even youknow when the last downturn I
had, then the little voice saysoh no.
Voice says oh no.
And you're just like ah, shutup, you're fine.
10 years, 15 years ago, itwould be like oh no, oh no.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
A big difference for 10, 15 years ago.
Right now, you know you can'tlike in your guys' business, you
guys can't market reallyoutside of your zone, but you
can get referrals in fromoutside.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Well, that's exactly it.
And so most of my businesstoday is outside of the Spokane
area, strictly because I getreferrals.
You know, it's like the hey.
Can you help my friend inPortsmouth, new Hampshire?
Sure, I can, you know.
Can you help my friend inLubbock, texas?
Sure, of course I can.
And so that way, when you buildtrust with people who know that
(17:29):
you know what you're doing,it's a lot easier for them to
market you and create that sortof yeah you know what, as long
as I take care of people,they're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I actually often ask this question more about you,
but I'd like maybe to change thequestion just a little bit,
because you've been doing this along time, so I usually ask the
impact of your change.
It's been so long now.
At this point it is you, soit's not like it's a recency
thing.
So what's been the impact ofyour coaching, though?
On others?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, I'll give you a quick example.
So I coached a business forabout a year and a half two
years and they were consistentlydoing about 20% profit margins.
They were growing and theydecided they didn't need me
anymore.
Well, about I think it wasFriday of last week, I get an
(18:23):
email hey, can we get back oncoaching?
And so it's like, yeah, okay.
So I met with them a couple ofdays ago and they said well, you
know what?
We took a look at our bottomline.
We've been about break even andwe realized, when you, we are
coaching us, we were reallymaking it, we're having good
profits, we were moving forward.
And it's like, yeah, thatwasn't a good idea to quit
(18:46):
coaching.
And so that's what happens isthat your job as a coach is to
help these business ownersachieve what they want to
achieve, and a lot of them, justwithout that coaching support,
will fall back into bad habitsor that have basically stymied
(19:06):
them.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You know it's the analogy, but I hear those
stories because you hear it allthe time of oh, I did this and I
stopped doing it because it wasworking.
And you're like, okay, let'sjust start with.
Just think about that.
You're trying to save a fewpennies.
I said this actually thismorning in one of the interviews
with another action coach and Isaid people are so fast to go
spend 8K a month on a sales guy,but they'll pause at a $2,500 a
(19:31):
month coach that can transform,that allow them to get in a
position to hire 10 of themeffectively Exactly, or what you
just described.
We're making double commas nowand lots of zeros.
I don't need coaching anymore.
That's the equivalent ofsomebody who takes medicine to
fix a problem for high bloodpressure or something, and
they're like you know what?
My blood pressure is great, Iwant to stop taking this
(19:51):
medicine.
And they're like a month laterlike why is my head?
I don't get it?
Oh man, I should get back onthat medicine.
Duh, that's an inexpensiveresource for what you do for
value.
For $30,000 a year.
The Action Coach, for 30k ayear.
The action coaches is, if Iunderstand the brand, and I'm
not paid to say this.
But I love the brand becauseyou guys are paid to take that
(20:11):
30 000 and say, how do I go that300 000 to 3 million?
I would take them from 3 to 30and that's a no-brainer right,
absolute no-brainer.
Yeah, and it's not working.
Sure, dump it.
Fine, I get it, you're makingmoney.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Keep the guy around like, yeah, in coaching is an
investment, and that's somethingI have to constantly emphasize
with clients.
This is not a spend, it's aninvest and for every dollar you
put into coaching, you should begetting three to four dollars
back.
And that's the key.
And a lot of people don'tunderstand that when they start
(20:46):
switching the mindset back toexpense instead of investment,
it makes it easy for them to goI can cut the budget and then
all of a sudden, things startgoing downhill and a lot of them
forget that.
What got you?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
here, yeah, and well, listen, if you can't afford it,
you shouldn't do it.
But if you can afford to hiresomebody to do something, you
might want to consider bringingsomeone in to help you organize
in a way to really scale abusiness, to get out of owning a
job.
So I'll get out my hat.
So I think the impact that's agreat one.
So if you're out there andyou're thinking, oh, I could do
(21:19):
it myself, which is the otherlovely one I think you cannot
unless you've done it before.
If you've built a business andexited it probably similar
industries I would say go ahead.
You probably know enough.
Yeah, if you have not and thisis your first run you only know
what you've heard from others,but no one's actively managing
it with you.
You need someone to bring youthrough on it, and your
(21:40):
multiples are going to be muchhigher too.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm pitchingfor you.
I just love what you guys do.
So what do you?
What are you personally mostgrateful for right now?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I am personally most grateful for having a family who
loves me and supports me, evenin all the ups and downs.
I'm thankful for clients whohave trusted me over the years
to get them to do the thingsthat they know they should be
doing, but get them to do thethings that they know they
should be doing but are, and toteach them things that they've
no idea.
You know, I'm really gratefulfor the Action Coach system.
As I said, I've been doing thisfor 23 years now.
(22:18):
I guess I'm just also gratefulthat I have a Lord and Savior
that guides me every single dayand I'm just blessed beyond all
means and I'm so grateful andthis is one of the things you
look back and going wow, I havebeen blessed in this life and
many areas that you don't evenrealize until you think about it
(22:41):
.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, that's the function of gratefulness,
because you'll need to.
You'll need to be grateful.
Some things in times get hard.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Give me a lesson for the listener lesson for the
listener I, I one of my greatmentors of all times, a guy
named dr bernard holiday whofounded bernard holiday
associates, who was my firstcoaching job, and I was really
struggling one day and he wasretired.
He's 90 years old, living inSeattle, and I was struggling
with clients because I couldn'tget them to focus.
(23:11):
And I was talking with DrHalden and he said and I was
telling him a complaint, I can'tget these clients to make
decisions, they always want towaffle.
And he looks at me and his90-year-old British accent boy
he goes, mr Weird.
I said yes, dr Halden, he goes,mr Weird.
I said yes, dr Alden.
He said you can never changeyour mind until you make it up
(23:32):
the first time.
And that blew me away becausewe are so afraid of decisions
that we will avoid decisionsbecause in our mind a decision
(23:53):
is permanent.
No, you can never change yourmind until you make that first
decision.
Too many humans, all of usincluded, are afraid of making a
decision, so we put it off andwe put it off.
If you make a decision, you canchange it.
You have that ability.
But so many people freeze upbecause they're afraid of
actually making a decision,because they think it's in the
(24:15):
cement and it can never bechanged.
It can but make that decision.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
It's like you're talking to a wife right now
about what are we going to gofor dinner?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh, how true that is.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We're not going to go down that route.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I think Tony Robbins made a comment one time.
He said the power of life is inthe power of the decision.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
It is.
There was a question I shouldhave asked you today, though,
and I didn't.
What would that question havebeen, and how do you answer it?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know what I'm thinking.
What is it that makes mefanatical about what I do?
And I think the answer to thatis when you know you're called
to do something.
I'll give you a great story.
I was called out at church oneday by a pastor who said guys,
(25:12):
bless you to be a resource forsmall business owners in the
community where you live.
And that was caught I deep downinside.
I knew that was it, but I spent12 years avoiding it, and so in
doing that, I take a look atwhy do I do what I do?
Because there's such a deepcalling for me to get business
(25:34):
small to medium-sized businessowners to achieve their dreams
so that they can bless others.
It's not about me, it'sactually not about them.
It's the people that they'regoing to bless on their journey
of providing jobs, providingpurpose and providing charitable
(25:57):
offerings so that they haveenough money to give to people
to change their lives through anonprofit or whatever that looks
like.
People to change their livesthrough a nonprofit or whatever
that looks like.
And so to me it's all about isthat person going to be
successful, but what are theygoing to do to support and make
the world better?
So I'm multiplying my efforts.
(26:18):
If I have 15 clients and theycan hire additional 10 people,
and then they have enough netprofits to fund their
organizations of choice whichspread things around the world.
Guess what it's amazing whatthat means for me.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Thanks for coming on today.
I really appreciate it.
Kevin, who should get ahold ofyou and how should they do that?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Best way is my website kevinweiractioncoachcom.
You can also find me onFacebook Action Coach Spokane.
Would love to, or even onLinkedIn.
Action Coach Spokane.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for your timetoday, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Okay, thank you very much, tom.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And listen.
Everyone who made it this farin the show.
I appreciate you for listening,watching, and if this was your
first time here, I do hope it'sthe first of many.
And if you've been here before,thanks for coming back.
Get out there, go cut a tie towhatever's holding you back.
Define your success first,though, so
Welcome to the Cut the Tie podcast.
I'm your host, thomas Helfrich.
I am on a mission to help youcut the tie to whatever it is
holding you back, and you've gotto define your success on your
own terms first.
And if you don't do that,you're chasing someone else's
dream.
And today I'm joined by KevinWeir.
Kevin, how are you Doing good?
How are you doing?
I'm doing well.
I smell wonderful still, whichis great, excellent.
(00:23):
Take a moment, introduceyourself and what it is you do.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So I am a business coach with Action Coach Business
Coaching.
I'm based here in Spokane,Washington.
I work with small tomedium-sized business owners,
helping business owners achievetheir dreams of a business that
runs without them.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Love it.
You know we've been arguingwith the second Action Coach to
come on the show today.
All right, I love, I love yourguys's brand.
What you do, uh, we just likeit's the process driven.
You know we run the marketingfor a couple of guys there.
I it's.
It's really good stuff and anduh, and, because of how you guys
are set up, I can actuallybring as many of you of you on
because you're you're in acertain geographic area for the
(01:03):
most part.
So if you're in the Washingtonarea, listen up.
All right, we're going to startwith what I call the stalker
stage of the show.
Tell them how to get a hold ofyou so they can stalk you while
you're talking today.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, kevinweiractioncoachcom is my
website and I am Kevin WeirCoach on Facebook, on Twitter,
on LinkedIn, on Instagram.
(01:34):
So you name it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I am on just pretty much every single social media
platform.
It sounds like you're smart andyou bought the block, so to
speak, of your name.
So good, smart move.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
I have a secret weapon.
Her name is Brittany.
She is my social media manager.
She does everything for me.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah Well, good job, brittany.
Two points, kevin.
You know there's a lot ofcoaches you are in a crowded
space, you know, and you guys inAction.
Coach itself has a really goodreputation, good brand and lots
of proof points Like the stuffyou guys have works, if you work
it.
Why did they pick you, though?
Give me the defining uniquecharacteristic of why people
(02:13):
should pick you, though, to betheir coach.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, first of all, you need somebody who's going to
be a combination.
There's three elements of greatcoaching.
One is knowledge You've got tobe a good teacher.
Number two, you've got to be anexcellent motivator.
And the third one is you've gotto be a butt kicker and see,
the trouble with coaches is, ifyou think about this, some
(02:36):
coaches are really good at oneor two areas and one of the
things I figured out is somebodyhas to be educated, but then we
have to motivate that personwhen they're in a down position
in their life.
But then you've got to holdthem accountable and basically
call people's BS on themselves,because people are experts at
(02:58):
creating their own excuses, notrealizing how full of cotton
candy they are.
Hello, hello.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Hello, in the old days I would have had to start
drinking by putting myself onmute, and so we just had a lull
there and if you were listening,you're like what happened?
Well, that was suspenseful.
I intentionally put myself onmute so you could have a pause.
What I was saying there was, asa coach.
You were spot on with sayingthat people make a fear and
excuse cycle.
I talk about this quite a bitand you make these reasonable
(03:52):
things.
I can't do this because, well,that is just not an excuse.
It might be valid, it might bewhatever, but at the end of the
day, if it's holding you backfrom what you need to go do,
then it's in the way and you gotto do something about it.
And to just keep accepting itis not acceptable.
And that's where a coach cancome and give you paths,
different ways to think, giveyou the confidence, take away
the scaries.
So I love that.
Tell me about your journey alittle bit, but before you do,
(04:16):
you have to define success.
So what does success mean toyou?
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Success is achieving what your God-given calling is
in your life, and are youpursuing that on a constant,
never-ending basis?
And so here's the whole thing.
Is that success for somebody?
Everybody's going to lookdifferent in success, but true
(04:40):
success is what are you calledto in life?
What true success is is whatare you called to in life.
Are you progressing along thatpath and are you getting better
every single day of your life?
Here's the problem is is thatyou define success in a way that
doesn't align with what youwere called to do in life.
It's a false success.
(05:01):
You could have all the physicalpossessions in life, all of the
income and all of the success,but if you are completely
misaligned with what yourgod-given purpose or calling
life is, it's all fluff.
And so part of what I'm alwayslooking at with the person is
(05:22):
what do you want to be when yougrow up?
And when I ask that person, alot of people who are even
successful going.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
I'm not sure well, it comes back to sometimes the
questions you had like inearlier life.
It's a lot of times aroundmoney or things, and as you get
older it's like you know, it'sthe legacy, what I want to be
known for, uh and, and like youdescribed it, it's it's hollow.
When you chase some otherdefinition of success that no
longer meets your needs, andyour definition of success will
(05:50):
certainly evolve over a journeyand, speaking of which, tell me
about you a little bit, and asyou define success for yourself,
what was the biggest tie you'vehad to cut to achieve?
Speaker 2 (06:00):
it.
Well, you know a lot of it.
I'll give you a quick history.
I graduated high school, wentto college, went in through ROTC
, went into the army and figuredI was going to do a 30-year
military career.
Well, the Cold War came to anend, and they basically said
here's a bunch of money go away.
So I went and got my MBA, and Igot into corporate America, and
(06:21):
I found out corporate Americasucked.
So one of the things, though, isI had a lot of opportunities to
take jobs that would have, youknow, put me out of my comfort
zone, but I didn't do it.
Why?
I had a fanatic fear of sales,and so what happened is that I
(06:42):
then was able to, through a longseries of events, I knew I was
called to help small businessowners.
Now here's what happened,though.
I got into career coaching.
I had all the clients providedfor me.
I'd walk in.
There's the blue slip on thebox new client, great, wonderful
, boom.
Well, here's what happened andtalk about cutting the ties is
(07:07):
that my company that I wascareer coaching for started
financially failing, and I wentout, and I was like, oh, I got
to look for another job.
So I went on back.
Then monstercom put my resumein and I get a message back from
Action Coach says would youlike to be interested in buying
(07:28):
a franchise?
And every single fear that cameup inside of me just screamed
out this is not safe.
You need to take something inlife and make sure it's safe for
you.
To take something in life andmake sure it's safe for you.
(07:49):
And so what happened is that Ilooked at this and I had that
fanatical fear of sales and Iremember sitting down with my
wife and I just told her.
I said I don't know if I can dothis, and my wife is my biggest
cheerleader and she knew deepdown inside me I could, in
essence, cut the tie of aconsistent job income.
(08:12):
And she said are you willing totake that risk?
Because I know you want to bethe provider of the family and
this is scary, but I alreadyknow who you are.
And so one of the things that Ireally had to dig deep into is
can I cut the tie of safety inorder to achieve a calling and a
(08:35):
dream that I knew, knew wasdeep down inside of me?
And that was not easy.
No, that's hard, and sometimeswe in life have to do things
that are scary, in order for usto achieve our call, our purpose
, our direction in life.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
It.
I went through the same thing.
Many entrepreneurs go throughthat.
Uh, sometimes you're forcedinto it through layoffs or
whatever else.
But uh, what I found on theother side I'm curious if you
found this as well was thefalsity of secure that was with
the W-2 or with employment.
(09:15):
And what I found was likethat's actually no more secure
than me just figuring out andworking hard and driving through
and grinding through building abusiness, because it's more
secure once I know what I selland I know what I can do.
And I just got to go repeat andget kicked in the face a
hundred times for one person tosay yes, and you got it.
And so did you find the samething that you, you, you, we got
(09:37):
on your side, right?
Actually, this is more securethan that.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
You know, it's interesting is that I wasn't
believing that the first 14, 15months of my business.
But once I had enough criticalmass and I started really
scaling my business up, then allof that satisfaction, the
realization of yeah, I can dothis.
So much about cutting the tie,is do you trust yourself and
(10:06):
what you're called to do to makeit happen?
And I think what happens is inpeople who don't want to cut the
ties, don't trust themselvesenough.
And so if you are going to goout there and said you know what
I'm tired of X, I'm tired, andI saw this so many times in
(10:27):
career coaching.
A lot of my clients were reallydissatisfied with their career
path, their career this, theircareer that, but they were never
brave enough or willing enoughto take that ultimate leap to
say dang it, I'm going to followa process.
It's a proven process and if Ijust execute it, it was too much
(10:47):
of that.
I like to stay in the safe zone.
The safe zone, even though it'sdysfunctional, makes me feel
warm and fuzzy, and yet in along-term situation it's the
death of you in many respects.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Well it is.
You're trading truly the mostdiet lasts you have, which is
time for something you don'tenjoy doing, or what it produces
for you doesn't create enough.
It's the leaky bucket happinessphilosophy something you don't
enjoy doing, or or what itproduces for you doesn't create
enough.
You know, it's the leaky buckethappiness philosophy, like the
inputs way slower than theoutput of, and so you're unhappy
.
Uh, along your journey, uh, youknow, did you have, though, the
(11:20):
moment when you're like Ibelieve in myself, I've cut the
tie, I could do this?
Do you remember the actualmoment?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
You know, I think what it was is that when I there
was always that nagging kind ofmaybe I should just go back to
corporate America and play itsafe.
But I still remember I wasabout 15 months into my business
and I went from about three.
(11:47):
I went from two clients to 11clients in about 75 day period
and probably shortly before thatthing hit I had seriously
considered you know what?
I can go back, I can get a job.
It's not what I would like todo, it's not what I'm called to
do, but it will pay the mortgageand feed the kids and all of
(12:12):
that stuff.
I also knew deep down insidethat would be one of the worst
decisions in my life and Itrusted God inside of me.
I trusted his calling for mylife.
I also trusted the process thatI knew would work if I stuck to
it.
And sure enough, bang.
(12:33):
But here's the thing Every oneof us is going to have
self-doubt when we cut the tie,or in the preparation of cutting
the tie, or in the you'vealready cut the tie and you want
to go backwards.
You, every single individual.
If you're telling me yeah, Icut the tie, I've never had any
problems like that, I'm going tocall a liar liar pants and fire
(12:53):
out on you.
You're going to want to go backto that comfort zone, but if
you, deep down inside, know I'mgoing to push through to achieve
what I've been called to do inlife, guess what?
Cutting the tie will be thebest thing you ever do.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
Yeah, agreed, you're right, it's going to be rough.
And if it isn't rough, youhaven't taken enough risk.
I'd say it that way.
And if you feel like you don'tknow what you're doing and
you're thinking about quitting,you're not far enough along.
You haven't, you know.
And also, maybe you don't havethe, you still have fallbacks
once you kind of have a safetynets in place.
Um, the game changes once you'reon your own.
(13:28):
Yeah, and I know that because Ibuilt my company while working
somewhere, but I had the safetyand I have a really nice salary
and some other stuff.
But as soon as that ended, Iwas like, oh shit, there's
really no more excuses.
Yeah, and now I'm like reallyfocused, like a whole different
level.
And then you know you go throughthe, the evolution of a
business, and you're you almost,you almost have to close the
door or you're borrowing moneyfrom and you're doing stuff to
(13:51):
get through some times, and youget another level of focus and
it's like, like you, my outputcompared to you know, five years
ago is they're not on the sameplanet, like anyway.
So you, you go through this andI think you know is your in
your own journey, talking aboutgetting there?
That's a beautiful thing,because now you're like I'm
never going back, this is whatI'm doing, and you may change
(14:13):
your perspective.
I might do less clients, Imight do more, but you know what
you can do.
You can speak to it.
People can hear and feel thatconfidence, and getting clients
is probably a hell of a loteasier right now than it used to
be.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, after 23 years of doing this, you're still
going to have peaks and valleys.
Those are never going to end.
But the nice thing is, when youhit a valley you know it's not
permanent, you know that you'reprobably going to get back on
(14:43):
track, because that's what'sbeen transpiring.
And I think once you get intothat rhythm of life you know
it's kind of the whole up.
You know three steps forward,two steps to.
You know one and a half stepsback, two steps forward, maybe
one step back, but you know what, you're okay with that.
When you are in that sort ofsafe zone and you lose
(15:06):
everything, your mentality can'tfathom that loss.
But when you do proactively cutthe tie, you then go through
the ups and downs of basicallylife.
In that respect, as anentrepreneur, as a business
owner, guess what?
You're going to be okay.
It's like, okay, we've beenhere before, we'll get through
(15:29):
it again.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
What happens too, I think I find with a lot of
myself, others I've spoken toabout this is, in good times, in
the analogy of up four, three,back two.
When you hit a four, four, four, five, you expect it to stay
like not realizing early on, hey, that's really really good,
(15:52):
yeah.
And then when you take a two,three, step back, you're you
panic, yeah, and you're like,well, wait, like that, your
margin there was great, so tryto go, go do it again.
And so the point is tounderstand when it's really
going well, enjoy it.
Prepare for a winter that'sgoing to come, yeah, for a
winter that's going to come,yeah, save a little food, so to
speak, and I know that it'sgoing to go backwards, but those
are the times you can retool,refocus your personal brand a
little bit, your content.
(16:12):
You could do some things to getready for the next spring, if
you will, of your career.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Exactly, it's exactly the case.
And here's what happens is thelittle voice in your head will
try to crawl back in there andshare itself of doom and gloom.
Oh no, oh no.
Here we go.
You know you're never going to.
This is going to happen, that'sgoing to happen.
And and you have to basicallydamper the voice a little bit
(16:36):
better every single time.
But guess what?
And then you know, I, even youknow when the last downturn I
had, then the little voice saysoh no.
Voice says oh no.
And you're just like ah, shutup, you're fine.
10 years, 15 years ago, itwould be like oh no, oh no.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
A big difference for 10, 15 years ago.
Right now, you know you can'tlike in your guys' business, you
guys can't market reallyoutside of your zone, but you
can get referrals in fromoutside.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Well, that's exactly it.
And so most of my businesstoday is outside of the Spokane
area, strictly because I getreferrals.
You know, it's like the hey.
Can you help my friend inPortsmouth, new Hampshire?
Sure, I can, you know.
Can you help my friend inLubbock, texas?
Sure, of course I can.
And so that way, when you buildtrust with people who know that
(17:29):
you know what you're doing,it's a lot easier for them to
market you and create that sortof yeah you know what, as long
as I take care of people,they're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
I actually often ask this question more about you,
but I'd like maybe to change thequestion just a little bit,
because you've been doing this along time, so I usually ask the
impact of your change.
It's been so long now.
At this point it is you, soit's not like it's a recency
thing.
So what's been the impact ofyour coaching, though?
On others?
Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yes, I'll give you a quick example.
So I coached a business forabout a year and a half two
years and they were consistentlydoing about 20% profit margins.
They were growing and theydecided they didn't need me
anymore.
Well, about I think it wasFriday of last week, I get an
(18:23):
email hey, can we get back oncoaching?
And so it's like, yeah, okay.
So I met with them a couple ofdays ago and they said well, you
know what?
We took a look at our bottomline.
We've been about break even andwe realized, when you, we are
coaching us, we were reallymaking it, we're having good
profits, we were moving forward.
And it's like, yeah, thatwasn't a good idea to quit
(18:46):
coaching.
And so that's what happens isthat your job as a coach is to
help these business ownersachieve what they want to
achieve, and a lot of them, justwithout that coaching support,
will fall back into bad habitsor that have basically stymied
(19:06):
them.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
You know it's the analogy, but I hear those
stories because you hear it allthe time of oh, I did this and I
stopped doing it because it wasworking.
And you're like, okay, let'sjust start with.
Just think about that.
You're trying to save a fewpennies.
I said this actually thismorning in one of the interviews
with another action coach and Isaid people are so fast to go
spend 8K a month on a sales guy,but they'll pause at a $2,500 a
(19:31):
month coach that can transform,that allow them to get in a
position to hire 10 of themeffectively Exactly, or what you
just described.
We're making double commas nowand lots of zeros.
I don't need coaching anymore.
That's the equivalent ofsomebody who takes medicine to
fix a problem for high bloodpressure or something, and
they're like you know what?
My blood pressure is great, Iwant to stop taking this
(19:51):
medicine.
And they're like a month laterlike why is my head?
I don't get it?
Oh man, I should get back onthat medicine.
Duh, that's an inexpensiveresource for what you do for
value.
For $30,000 a year.
The Action Coach, for 30k ayear.
The action coaches is, if Iunderstand the brand, and I'm
not paid to say this.
But I love the brand becauseyou guys are paid to take that
(20:11):
30 000 and say, how do I go that300 000 to 3 million?
I would take them from 3 to 30and that's a no-brainer right,
absolute no-brainer.
Yeah, and it's not working.
Sure, dump it.
Fine, I get it, you're makingmoney.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Keep the guy around like, yeah, in coaching is an
investment, and that's somethingI have to constantly emphasize
with clients.
This is not a spend, it's aninvest and for every dollar you
put into coaching, you should begetting three to four dollars
back.
And that's the key.
And a lot of people don'tunderstand that when they start
(20:46):
switching the mindset back toexpense instead of investment,
it makes it easy for them to goI can cut the budget and then
all of a sudden, things startgoing downhill and a lot of them
forget that.
What got you?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
here, yeah, and well, listen, if you can't afford it,
you shouldn't do it.
But if you can afford to hiresomebody to do something, you
might want to consider bringingsomeone in to help you organize
in a way to really scale abusiness, to get out of owning a
job.
So I'll get out my hat.
So I think the impact that's agreat one.
So if you're out there andyou're thinking, oh, I could do
(21:19):
it myself, which is the otherlovely one I think you cannot
unless you've done it before.
If you've built a business andexited it probably similar
industries I would say go ahead.
You probably know enough.
Yeah, if you have not and thisis your first run you only know
what you've heard from others,but no one's actively managing
it with you.
You need someone to bring youthrough on it, and your
(21:40):
multiples are going to be muchhigher too.
Yeah, absolutely, I'm pitchingfor you.
I just love what you guys do.
So what do you?
What are you personally mostgrateful for right now?
Speaker 2 (21:57):
I am personally most grateful for having a family who
loves me and supports me, evenin all the ups and downs.
I'm thankful for clients whohave trusted me over the years
to get them to do the thingsthat they know they should be
doing, but get them to do thethings that they know they
should be doing but are, and toteach them things that they've
no idea.
You know, I'm really gratefulfor the Action Coach system.
As I said, I've been doing thisfor 23 years now.
(22:18):
I guess I'm just also gratefulthat I have a Lord and Savior
that guides me every single dayand I'm just blessed beyond all
means and I'm so grateful andthis is one of the things you
look back and going wow, I havebeen blessed in this life and
many areas that you don't evenrealize until you think about it
(22:41):
.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
Yeah, that's the function of gratefulness,
because you'll need to.
You'll need to be grateful.
Some things in times get hard.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Give me a lesson for the listener lesson for the
listener I, I one of my greatmentors of all times, a guy
named dr bernard holiday whofounded bernard holiday
associates, who was my firstcoaching job, and I was really
struggling one day and he wasretired.
He's 90 years old, living inSeattle, and I was struggling
with clients because I couldn'tget them to focus.
(23:11):
And I was talking with DrHalden and he said and I was
telling him a complaint, I can'tget these clients to make
decisions, they always want towaffle.
And he looks at me and his90-year-old British accent boy
he goes, mr Weird.
I said yes, dr Halden, he goes,mr Weird.
I said yes, dr Alden.
He said you can never changeyour mind until you make it up
(23:32):
the first time.
And that blew me away becausewe are so afraid of decisions
that we will avoid decisionsbecause in our mind a decision
(23:53):
is permanent.
No, you can never change yourmind until you make that first
decision.
Too many humans, all of usincluded, are afraid of making a
decision, so we put it off andwe put it off.
If you make a decision, you canchange it.
You have that ability.
But so many people freeze upbecause they're afraid of
actually making a decision,because they think it's in the
(24:15):
cement and it can never bechanged.
It can but make that decision.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
It's like you're talking to a wife right now
about what are we going to gofor dinner?
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Oh, how true that is.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
We're not going to go down that route.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I think Tony Robbins made a comment one time.
He said the power of life is inthe power of the decision.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
It is.
There was a question I shouldhave asked you today, though,
and I didn't.
What would that question havebeen, and how do you answer it?
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know what I'm thinking.
What is it that makes mefanatical about what I do?
And I think the answer to thatis when you know you're called
to do something.
I'll give you a great story.
I was called out at church oneday by a pastor who said guys,
(25:12):
bless you to be a resource forsmall business owners in the
community where you live.
And that was caught I deep downinside.
I knew that was it, but I spent12 years avoiding it, and so in
doing that, I take a look atwhy do I do what I do?
Because there's such a deepcalling for me to get business
(25:34):
small to medium-sized businessowners to achieve their dreams
so that they can bless others.
It's not about me, it'sactually not about them.
It's the people that they'regoing to bless on their journey
of providing jobs, providingpurpose and providing charitable
(25:57):
offerings so that they haveenough money to give to people
to change their lives through anonprofit or whatever that looks
like.
People to change their livesthrough a nonprofit or whatever
that looks like.
And so to me it's all about isthat person going to be
successful, but what are theygoing to do to support and make
the world better?
So I'm multiplying my efforts.
(26:18):
If I have 15 clients and theycan hire additional 10 people,
and then they have enough netprofits to fund their
organizations of choice whichspread things around the world.
Guess what it's amazing whatthat means for me.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Thanks for coming on today.
I really appreciate it.
Kevin, who should get ahold ofyou and how should they do that?
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Best way is my website kevinweiractioncoachcom.
You can also find me onFacebook Action Coach Spokane.
Would love to, or even onLinkedIn.
Action Coach Spokane.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for your timetoday, Kevin.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Okay, thank you very much, tom.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
And listen.
Everyone who made it this farin the show.
I appreciate you for listening,watching, and if this was your
first time here, I do hope it'sthe first of many.
And if you've been here before,thanks for coming back.
Get out there, go cut a tie towhatever's holding you back.
Define your success first,though, so
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