Coaching and Mastering a Field of Study

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In this episode, Dan interviews Carl Gould, life and business coach, Founder and Chief Discovery Officer of 7 Stage Advisors, a coaching and consulting company. Carl started his entrepreneurial journey with a landscaping company, grew the business and sold it. Then grew a construction business with coaching as a side hustle, and a couple of years before selling the company, started his actual coaching business. Tune in as they talk about how franchising his coaching and consulting business led him to consolidate the client acquisition, and how selling both companies and moving into coaching has been a his greatest move.

Carl’s Interview Show Notes:

Sore Thumb Tough Decision:

  • 01:34 – Carl’s sore thumb tough decision and his lessons learned
    • Franchising coaching and consulting business with traditional coaching model
    • Franchise because it was his target and as a marketing exercise that would give him access to the forms where the ceos or franchisors congregate  
    • When he franchised the company he was stuck with old coaching model that is very tough to sell that led them to a very slow holt
    • Pivoted and changed that
  • 03:39 – What Carl could have done before taking franchising decision
    • Look at the ability of a franchisee; ability and speed for them to sell their services
    • He was banking on his ability to recruit new business owners to get the consulting services, faster than their ability to sell; too much risk in the model
  • 04:37 – Trying to find people to run the consulting business?
    • He would have done the process differently
    • Would have been fine if they would have out recruited the franchisees  and the ability to sell on their own
    • Would have had enough people in the mix
  • 05:36 – What Carl did to fix it when realized it wasn’t working
    • Consolidated the client acquisition
  • 06:28 – Team’s thoughts when Carl started to pivot
    • Administrative team internally liked it because they had more control on the overall process
    • Consulting team liked it because they wouldn’t do something that they didn’t like to do
    • Challenge with people doing the sales; their work had increased and it was all on them

Positive Outcome:

  • 07:28 – Carl’s tough decision with a positive outcome and his lessons learned
    • Selling both landscaping and constructing company, and deciding for coaching
    • Hired a coach for his company in 1996 and loved the process
    • When he was in the construction company in the 90’s, had a coaching side hustle
    • When started his own coaching business, already had 10 years of coaching experience
  • 09:04 – What Carl likes most about the consulting side
    • Likes helping people understand where they are now, where they want to go and how to get there
    • Loves hard coaching and how it is to master as a field of study “A lot of people can get into coaching, but it is hard to be good”
    • Dan > Doesn’t like consulting. Doesn’t like the most when trying to help somebody through teaching or showing different options and then they don’t take action
    • “Not everything is for everybody” “Enjoy what your doing when want to make money”
  • 11:59 – Strategies Carl uses when facing tough decisions
    • Basic evidence procedure to know whether it is worth it or not: Tools, treasure, talent and time
    • Do I have the tools?
    • Do I have the treasure?
    • Is there talent to be leveraged?
    • Do I have the time to commit to this?
  • 15:16 – Need help with passive real estate investments? Go to HandfordCapital.com

The Trifecta:

Key Takeaways from Carl Gould :

  • “A lot of people can get into coaching, but it is hard to be good”
  • “Enjoy what your doing when want to make money”
  • Use basic evidence procedures such as tools, treasure, talent and time to know whether a decision is  worth it or not

Mentioned resources by Carl Gould: