Introduction

This is the first episode of "The Business Coach Unplugged Podcast".  I tell you a little bit about myself, who the podcast is for, and why you should listen. Learn more about us at: www.businesscoachchicago.com    

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
In the business world, it's dog eat dog,
and you need every bit of competitive ads
you can possibly get. Whether you're a salesperson
an entrepreneur,
a small business owner or corporate executive
you've landed on the podcast that gives you
that edge.
And more.
This is a business coach

(00:24):
pot gas.
Exploring the strategies, tactics and mindset shifts needed
to elevate your business and leave leadership skills
to new heights.
Your host has walked the walk. He's coached
thousands of clients to remarkable
and rub shoulders with legends like Tony Robbins,

(00:44):
Ken Blanchard, Jack Can,
and Brian Tracy.
It's practical advice,
inspiring stories the occasional dose of tough love,
helping you to overcome challenges and seize opportunities.
This
this coach unplugged podcast.
And now your host, owner of potential in

(01:05):
motion, coaching you to the as of what's
possible,
Tom Kelly.
Welcome to the business coach on Unplugged Podcast,
Tom your host, Tom Kelly. Welcome to the
first episode.
This has been a long time coming, and
I'm excited to get started and to give
you a little context. I'd like to start
off by telling you a little bit about
myself and what this podcast is about.

(01:25):
I've been a business coach now for 22
years. I started a company called potential in
motion in 2002.
Really for 2 reasons. Number 1, I had
always wanted started business, and I had kind
of very
entrepreneurial thought process as I was growing up.
And the other reason was really out of
necessity
You see in, late 2001 early 2002. I

(01:46):
lost my job. I was working as a
director of business development for a tech company
at the time.
And, back then if you recall, we had
September eleventh and the dot combo bubble burst
at about the same time.
And,
my company I was working for. Went from
12000 employees to 3000 employees in about 6
months.
And the team I worked on, 52 person

(02:06):
sales team selling
cable and Dsl modems went from 52 people,
down to 8 people, then we went from
8 people down to 3 people, a and
you really don't need a director business development
if you only have 2 salespeople. So I
was let go in the beginning of 2002.
And then I started... To really consider what
I wanted to do going forward with the
rest of my life.

(02:26):
There was really no jobs in the text
space at the time.
I was getting offers for about a third
of what I was making, so that really
wasn't an option for me. So I decided
I wanted to pivot and start my own
business. And after about 6 months,
of really kind some soul searching, doing some
research and things like that. I decided to
start a coaching business. And the reason I
decided that,

(02:47):
was really, I figured out that business consulting
was going to grow
by about 40 percent in the next decade.
And as I dug into that a little
bit, I stumbled upon this little niche called
business coaching. And I felt that it was
really a good fit, you know, for me
in my background,
you know, having spent 10 years in sales
and marketing,
I really thought I could help, you know,
small business owners salespeople people and entrepreneurs get

(03:09):
started with their businesses.
So I signed it for some coach training
and started... Some people right out of the
gate pro bon.
And right away, I started having successful it.
A lot of the clients that I was
working with at the time, coaching We're giving
me great feedback. In fact, 1 of the
clients I started with right out of the
gate that I was coaching Pro bon,
3 sessions in, quit his job. And he

(03:30):
called me. And said hey, Guess what I
did? He's like, I quit my job, and
I was freaking out because I was like,
wow. What do you mean I I don't
even know what I'm doing yet. And he
was telling me that I was gonna help
him start a business. And as it turns
out, I helped him start a graphic design
business,
which he made very successful.
And I was off and running. So I
started the business in June of 2002,

(03:52):
and my goal was to replace my income
within a year, And I told myself and
I told my wife that I would do
this for a year and if I was
able to
recreate that income. I would continue to, you
know, keep going in the coaching business. And
if I wasn't, I would go out and
get a real job. And I did have
some trials and tribulation, you know, getting the
the business off the ground, which I'll explain
a little bit later.

(04:13):
But I was able to be successful and
I I hit my goal actually, the day
before it was due, and so that started
my 22 year career as a a business
coach.
As I grew the business through the years,
I kinda got the itch to get back
into the corporate world.
And in 2007,
I started to embark on that journey of
going after large Fortune 500 companies as as

(04:36):
clients.
And as I was doing that, oddly enough,
I ran into salesperson for the Ken Blanchard
company
at a networking event. And as I was
talking to this person, I was like, oh,
Ken Blanchard, the 1 minute manager guy, like,
he wrote a bunch bunch of books. Right?
And he's like, yeah, yeah. We do leadership
things and stuff like that. And I said
well, what do you do there? And he
says, well, we sell. I'm coaching and training

(04:58):
into the Fortune 500 space.
And we had an interesting conversation. Long story
short, He connected me with their coaching,
coaching division, and I talked to some people
there. And after a couple conversations, they extended
me an offer to be a sub contractor
for them as an executive coach,
So I've been working with Ken Blanchard since
2007.
And once that happened is sort of what

(05:19):
my appetite for that, I started scratching head
and said to myself well, hey.
If Ken Blanchard coaches, I bet you people
like Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins and Jack
Can, then those people have coaches as well.
So I started doing some research, and I
was a big Brian Tracy fran, you know,
growing up in sales,
learning sales from 1 of the masters himself.
I I start... Looking around there, and I

(05:40):
went up on his website. And I noticed
that he was selling his products through
Nightingale Conan, but which happens to be located
here in Chicago where I live. So I
picked up the the phone 1 day and
and dial the 800 number and asked them,
hey. Do you have any coaches over there.
And they said, well, yeah, We have a
director of coaching here. And so I said,
great put him on the phone,
and I spoke with him and Said, hey,

(06:02):
I literally live a couple miles from your
office. I'd love to take you to lunch.
And so we set up a lunch for
that Friday, and I met with him. And
after that lunch, they hired me as a
sales coach. So I have also been working
with Brian Tracy as a sales coach.
And then in 2012,
as I continue to grow my practice.
I sort of stumbled upon an opportunity to,

(06:23):
work for Tony Robbins. I had met someone
that worked for him as a coach.
And I just joking Said, hey, how do
I get that gig? And she said, well,
hey, it's it's pretty hard. You have to
be referred in and you have to go
through extensive interview process.
And she's like, but if you're interested, I'll
give you a call next time that we're
doing that. And so about 6 months later,
she called me. She said, hey. Give me

(06:43):
your resume. I'll throw your hat in the
name or throw your name in the hat.
And so I did, and I got a
call shortly later from the director of coaching
over there market. His name. And Mark said
to me he goes, hey, look, I I
think you're really over qualified for what we're
looking for here. However, you have a ton
of business coaching experience. This And we really
wanna get into the business coaching space. And

(07:04):
so I was hired there to really help
them kinda spear that effort and get into
the business coaching space. So I worked for
Tony Robbins for 3 and a half years,
and I learned a ton from him,
from 2012
to about, middle 2015.
And then in 2018,
through Brian Tracy, I actually had the pleasure
of meeting Jack Can and Jack Can hired
me to be a business coach for him

(07:25):
as well. So... I've worked for some of
the biggest names in the coaching industry, and
it wasn't my intention to do so, but
just through networking and connecting the dots over
the years.
I've been able to do that and the
main driver for that was not to add
more business, although that's, by byproduct of that
was... But just to learn from the the
pioneers in the industry, and I certainly have

(07:46):
done that and Been able to bring those
lessons back to my clients throughout the year.
In addition to that,
I'm also a motivational speaker and a a
leadership trainer. In fact, 1 of my passions
is speaking, and I've used that throughout the
years as a way to grow my business.
In fact,
really feel for any business owner. It's probably
the best way to grow your business.
And I've also, you know, through being exposed

(08:08):
to coaching for Ken Blanchard,
I got a lot of exposure to their,
you know, top notch leadership training.
And I've also, you know, being a channel
partner for them for about 5 or 6
years now where I bring those training programs
into small medium businesses anywhere from, you know,
10 employees up to 2500 employees. So I
also do that as well. Programs so who

(08:29):
is this podcast for really?
So, you know, my focus over the last
22 years has been coaching salespeople, entrepreneurs, business
owners as well as corporate managers and executives.
And that's really who this podcast is for.
In addition to that, it's really for anyone
that wants to improve their sales,
communication and leadership skills. So if you fall
into 1 of those buckets,

(08:50):
you're probably gonna get a lot of value
hopefully out of the podcast here and in
So why should you listen to the podcast?
I always tell my clients that I learn
more from them than I teach them, and
I've literally coached thousands of people.
Over the last 22 years, And I've learned
a ton about business and leadership and sales,
influencing skills. And those are all the things
that I'll be sharing in the podcast.

(09:13):
Really the goal the podcast is the same
of the goal of my business.
I always tell my clients that there's 3
things I'll do for you as a coach.
Number 1, and most people come to coaching
with some kind of problem or issue they
wanna solve. So I'll certainly self... Help you
solve your problems.
Number 2, my second goal is to help
you create some problem. And what I mean
by that is you solve your problems and

(09:34):
start to evolve as a leader, whether you're
leading a small business or a large fortune
500 company.
That's gonna open up more opportunities and more
doors for you and more challenges that you're
gonna have to overcome. And that's really what
coaching is about is helping people develop their
skill set and go to the next level.
So I'll certainly help you do that.
And my real hope here though is the
third thing and that I always tell my

(09:54):
clients is really what I'm here to do
is help you reach your potential.
Not only as a business owner and a
business
leader, but as a human being. So through
the podcast, if I can share what I've
learned over the last 22 years, with my
audience and help them reach their potential as
leaders and as human beings than I've been
successful.
I also feel really right now that we're

(10:15):
in a place in our... In our world
in our country really,
where we have a crisis of leadership. And
so if I can share some of my
knowledge and inspire people to come better our
leaders and run better businesses,
then this will impact and have a ripple
effect on our world. So if I can
do that, then this has really been successful.
And, you know, my father once told me
that smart people learn from their own mistakes,

(10:36):
but wise people learn from the mistakes of
others.
So if you're looking for a place, to
take your business to the next level and
the fast forward of your growth as a
leader.
Then you're probably gonna find a home here.
So now that you know a little bit
more about me and why I started this
podcast. Let's jump in.
1 of the key things that I've learned
over the last 22 years is that running
a business isn't easy. In fact, I always

(10:58):
tell my clients that running the business isn't
easy if it was everyone would do it.
And while that may seem obvious to many
of you, especially if you're already running a
business or if you work in the corporate
world to most people it's not.
I think for most people, they see, you
know, they look at things from a afar,
and it looks like, you know, people make
it easier. They have that overnight success. And
really, that's not the case. And I I
can certainly relate to this when I first

(11:19):
started my business.
You know, I came from a sales background.
It was pretty easy for me to go
out and sell and and build my business,
and that's 1 of the challenges I think
many of my clients have is just being
able to grow their business. And understand sales
and marketing and how to get to the
next level. But I was really good at
that out of the gate. And I was
able to start to land some clients pretty
quickly.
But I realized about 6 months in, how

(11:41):
hard it was. I remember looking back,
you know, at my financial situation into... Thousand
2, and I have made a whopping 3000
dollars in the entirety
of 2002, and you can imagine what that
feels like coming from 2 you know, a
successful job running a 52 person sales team,
working in Corporate America, especially in the tech
field that pretty well paid.

(12:02):
I was starting to get a little bit
depressed it that time has started to doubt
myself, which I think a lot of people
do when they run a business. And I
remember just joking... My wife 1 day. I
said, hey, I figured out that 10 x
my business,
and she got outside. And she's, like, really,
what how is that? And I, well, I'm
gonna get a job at Starbucks
with I'll even get some health care with
that as well.
So I was kinda laughing about it because
I'm like hey, I could go get a

(12:23):
job as a barista and make 30 grand
a year,
and have a much easier time of it
than it was now. So I realized right
out of the gate that for me, it
was a challenge to start a business and
to get it successful and luckily for me,
though
through some encouragement from my wife, you know,
I kept moving forward, and I ended up
hitting my goal
the night before it was due.

(12:44):
Actually, in 2003,
I started with those 3 clients and by
April of that year it ramped up to
30 clients.
And by the time I hit the end
of June, I had hit my goal. I
had been able to replicate my income, and
so therefore, I kept going in the business,
and I'm still here today 22 years later.
That's not the case for everyone, though. I
mean, a lot of businesses go out of
business And if you look at the statistics.

(13:05):
It's it's not easy run into business. It's
not easy being successful.
And, you know, no time was harder and
than I think than Covid,
and all the time I've been coaching, you
know, during that time.
It was probably the toughest for everyone in
business.
I think just in our society in general,
no matter whether you're running a business or
if you were an employee of a business,
you know, we had some really hard times

(13:26):
for a couple of years there. In fact,
I remember back in the beginning of 20
20.
The economy was doing really well. And most
of my clients were were booming their businesses
were growing, they were having a lot of
success.
And then all of a sudden at the
end of February beginning to March,
all these countries started to shut down, and
a lot of businesses
not only were shut down, but they weren't

(13:47):
allowed to leave their homes. And I remember
1 of my clients at the time,
a gentleman in Australia.
He had called me
for a session that week and and he
was kind of an alarm state. He said,
look, Tom,
Australia shut us down. I can't leave the
house. I'm a personal trainer. I train people
in the gym. I also train people in
their homes.

(14:07):
And I'm not and I leave my house,
so I can't train anyone. So right now,
I'm out of business. It's like, I have
no idea how long my business is gonna
be shut down. And and what to do
about it. And I have no way to
feed my family right now. And there was
a lot of my clients in that situation.
And 1 of the things that you know,
I pride myself on as a coach is
helping people solve the problems,

(14:28):
and it was certainly a a tough challenging
time right then, but I knew at that
time, you Probably the biggest thing that you
can do is a business owner and a
leader, if you wanna be successful is have
the right mindset.
And the best way to get the right
mindset or 1 way to get the right
mindset is to act ask great questions.
So I started asking my clients and I
asked this particular person,

(14:48):
The question, what's the opportunity. Right And it
was really interesting the reactions I got because
people really got angry at me for asking
that question.
Because here we are in a situation where
due to No fault, of their own,
their business was shut down. They weren't able
to make money. They weren't able to leave
the home
in their house,
of And here I am trying to be

(15:09):
positive and ask, hey, what's the opportunity?
And so some people started swearing at me
and getting angry with me. And and once
I calmed them down and help them shift
their said a little bit.
I really showed him I said, look, you
know, a lot of businesses. In fact, most
successful businesses were started in very, very trying
times and some of the most successful businesses
in the world actually were started during times

(15:31):
like the great depression.
When everyone thought that you know, there was
no opportunity. There was massive opportunity. So I
started asking that question. What's the opportunity?
And, you what was interesting
is in this particular case? I asked my
client I said, hey,
has the demand for your product changed?
Says what do you mean? I said well

(15:51):
do people still wanna get personal training? Do
they wanna stay in shape and he's like,
absolutely. And I said, well, is that more
so today than it was yesterday or less?
And He said, well, actually, it's more, you
know, people are terrified of getting Covid. They
wanna stay in shape. They wanna get healthy.
So I said, so if I'm understanding you,
there's more demand for your product today than
yesterday.

(16:11):
He said, yeah, I think so. Absolutely. And
I said so really, all we need to
do is figure out how do we meet
that demand without you leave leaving your house?
And I said, so again, what's the opportunity?
And he said, well gee if I could
figure out a way to train these people
without leaving my house,
then I could continue with my business.
And so the obvious thing that came out,

(16:32):
you know, we're on a Zoom call at
the time
So said, how how about you train them
over Zoom?
He said, wow, that's a great idea. So
I said, great. Here's your homework assignment. For
next week, what I want you to do,
is I want you to call your clients
and tell them that you would love to
coach them over Zoom if they're open to
it and see where that goes. Is So
he said, great. So we hung up the

(16:53):
phone, Got off the Zoom call.
And the next morning he called me back,
and he said, hey, Tom. I got some
great news. He said, so not only did
I call my clients, but all of them
are on board, they all wanna continue working
with me. And actually,
all their spouses and some of their kids
and neighbors wanna do it as well. So
he actually doubled his business in 24 hours.

(17:15):
Just by asking that question, what's the opportunity?
And what's interesting is that as he, you
know, continued to grow his business through that
Covid time when he was locked down,
He actually kept asking himself that question,
and he started to build this business in
ways he never thought possible. He put up
a website. He started recording pre recorded work
out routines. He started some group coaching things.

(17:38):
He also has a result of the increase
in this income. Out bought a new house.
And next to the house is a big
barn that he converted into a personal training
center and workout facility,
And then when Covid was done, he had
people come to him. And he also had
a website where he launched training
where people could, you know, buy training in
packages if they just wanted to watch their

(18:00):
recordings or if they wanted live training, they
could do that with them live as well.
And he 4 or 5 x his business
in about 6 months.
Boarding So when times are hard,
there's great opportunities.
And really, the lesson here is this. Is
number 1.
The choke cold in any business is the
mindset and the skill set of the leader
of that business.

(18:21):
So if your business isn't going were you,
want it to go? You have to look
inward? You have to really look at yourself
and say, hey. Do I have the right
mindset right now to go to the next
level? And do I the right skill set
or do I to work on developing myself
so my business can go to the the
next level. Your business and your leadership will
be a direct reflection of where you're at
with those things.
Need Number 2, great leaders ask great questions

(18:43):
and great questions really direct the focus of
your mind.
And as I said earlier, 1 of the
great ways to direct your mindset and to
have a great mindset is to ask great
empowering questions.
So as a business leader, the key to
your success is really being resourceful,
and the best way to be resources by
having a superior mindset.
And 1 way that you create a superior

(19:04):
mindset is ask yourself great questions.
1 of the things I've learned from Tony
Robbins when we're working for him was that
any result you create in life and business
comes down to 2 things.
80 percent is mindset. The other 20 percent
is your... Strategy or the how to piece.
And what I find interesting is a business,
an executive coach is that most people come
to me for the strategy piece
they wanna know the how to piece? How

(19:26):
do I do this? How do I become
a better leader? How do I grow my
business? How do I start a business?
But the reality is that's the easy part.
There's all sorts of how to books and
resources and mentors and things that can teach
you. The strategy or the how to part?
The key is the mindset.
What is your psychology? What is your mindset?
And we'll talk a lot of a lot

(19:47):
about mindset as we move forward. But I
wanna give you today a resource that I
can help you with that. 1 of the
best resources that I use with my clients.
It's 1 of my favorite books actually.
Is a book called change your questions change
your life.
And it's by an author, Mer Adams.
And this book actually was shared with me
quite a while ago, it was probably a
good decade ago.

(20:08):
And someone share with this with me and
say hey, you you would love this book.
It's a great story. It's actually a story
about an executive
who's working in the Fortune 500 space, and
he is reporting to the Ceo of a
company,
and he's failing miserably as a leader. In
fact, his team is producing the worst results
in the company.
So he goes to the Ceo and he

(20:29):
resign his position. He says, hey, I wanna
resign. I'm not doing well here. My team
isn't performing, and I'm I wanna resign.
And the Ceo says, look, I'm not gonna
accept your resignation. What I'd like you to
do instead is work my coach for 6
months.
And at the end of that time, if
you wanna... Quit your job, I will, you
know, take a resignation then. So the Ceo
convince him to work with this coach. And

(20:49):
the coach teaches in this process called question
thinking. Quit
And through this process, he implements us with
his team and long story short, he turns
things around and complete goes from the worst
in the company to number 1 in the
company in over 6 month period. And it's
kind of a great story and there's some
great tools in this book, but what what's
was interesting is after I read this, I
was a little bit skeptical.

(21:10):
And I said, hey, I wonder if this
would really work.
So 1 of the things I did, I
was coaching someone in the Fortune 500 space
at the time, a large big big box
retailer.
And the person I was working with actually
had just taken over a new district.
There was 10 stores in the district and
the district had had.
4 different district managers in the last decade,

(21:30):
and the best they'd ever done in that
time was 50 third out of a hundred
and 4 or so districts.
And so when this guy
took over the,
he was working with me as his coach,
he hired me to coach him.
And 1 of the things that I said
was I said, hey, you should check out
this book.
So he read the book and he ended
up giving it to his 10 store leaders.

(21:50):
And in 6 months, they went from number
53 in the company to number 2 in
the company.
At that point, at the end of our
process together. I said, what was the biggest
thing that we did together that helped you
get there? And he said it was that
book?
And so I've been recommending this book ever
since. In fact, over the years. 1 of
the people I recommended the book too

(22:11):
actually said to me
hey. I bet you know, Mary Lee Adams
would love to hear about all the success
you've had with the book here, and I
said, yeah. I bet she would. And he
goes, well, hey, I happen know where she's
a friend of mine.
And so I actually got an introduction to
the author and she's been a friend of
mine for quite a long time now. So
Highly recommend the book.
It's great to get started with... If you
wanna change your mindset.

(22:32):
And understand how to ask better questions to
change your mindset, it's a great resource. And
I'm sure we'll talk more in depth about
mindset in some of the following episodes But
in the meantime, you can access a number
of free resources that will help you improve
your business as well as your leadership on
my website at WWW
dot business coach chicago dot com.
Also feel free to connect connect with me

(22:52):
on Linkedin. I'd love to connect with you
and chat with you there. And thank you
for listening. I hope this first,
Podcast episode was great here, And if you
enjoyed the podcast.
Please click the subscribe button, leave a review,
and of course,
invite your friends to listen in as well.
I'm Tom Kelly until next time, enjoy your
week.

(23:13):
You've been listening to the business coach unplug
podcast.
On this highly useful podcast for people in
the business world. You get the absolute top
notch info from an ant absolute pro on
how to elevate your business and your leadership
skills.
Tom Kelly owns potential in motion, coaching you
to the edge of what's possible.

(23:34):
He's also a professional speaker and leadership trainer.
He's worked with some of the biggest names
in the coaching business. Tony Robbins, Ken Blanchard,
Jack Can Brian Tracy to sign up for
a complimentary coaching session and to access some
great free resources, hit the website at business
coach
chicago dot com.

(23:54):
Your success is not just a possibility.
It's a certainty.
See you next time. On the business coach
unplugged podcast.