Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show MBA2723 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Find A Business Coach? About this episode How do you find a business coach who truly fits your goals? Gustav sent this question, and Omar dives into why some entrepreneurs seem to fast-track their success while others get stuck following advice that just doesn’t quite fit. If you’re wondering where to start or how to avoid costly mistakes, this episode has the answers you need. In this episode, Omar walks you through practical steps to identify, find, and vet a business coach who has actually been where you want to go. He shares some personal stories and key things to watch for so you don’t waste time or confidence on the wrong coach. From attending industry events to leveraging your existing network, you’ll learn exactly how to take action and pick the right guide for your business journey. If you want to make sure you’re choosing the right coach, hit the play button at the top of the page. This actionable lesson will help start your search the smart way! To submit your questions, visit 100mba.net/q. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Today's episode is supported by Cash App. When it comes to Bitcoin, you may be surprised to learn that it was invented way back in 2008. But you still haven't made the jump to Bitcoin yet? Cash App makes it easy. When you buy Bitcoin on Cash App, they hold real Bitcoin for you, one to one, and you can withdraw it anytime. It works more like real money and less like something locked in an account. No extra steps, no restrictions, just access and control when you need it. With Cash App, you can actually do that. For a limited time, new customers can get $10 added to their balance. Just use code BITCOIN10 when you sign up. And don't forget this part: send at least $5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank.
0:45 Speaker 00 Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast. Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. How do you find the right business coach?
1:30 Speaker 00 I got asked this question from one of our listeners, Gustav, and it's an important one, because the right business coach can speed up your success. And the wrong one can waste a lot of your time, your money, your momentum, and can actually make you less confident, can really kill your self-esteem. Today, I'm going to show you exactly how to find the right coach for your goals. Not some generic advice that you can't use, or is going to make you get scammed, but real, practical advice, a real approach that I've used in my own businesses to find the right coach. In fact, I'm going to show you how I found a coach that helped me build and scale my software company so that I can get acquired. That's exactly what happened.
2:12 Speaker 00 I built my software company, Webinar Ninja, and was able to get acquired in 2024.
2:22 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
2:36 Speaker 00 We read every single review. Seriously, it's how we know what's helping and what to dive deeper in on the next episode. So if you've got 20 seconds, leave a quick review and tell me what you want more of. I'd love to hear from you.
2:50 Speaker 00 Let's start with rule number one. They must have done what you want to do. That's the single most important rule when choosing a business coach. You've got to find someone who's already accomplished what you want to accomplish. Not someone who knows business, not someone who talks big online, who has a huge following, and that's it. Not someone that sounds inspiring, someone who's actually done the thing that you want to do. Real experience, real scars, real wins, real results, because they're not giving you theory. People like this, they're giving you lived experience. That's the difference between a coach and a guru. Someone that walks the walk, and someone who just talks
3:32 Speaker 00 the talk. When Nicole and I were building our software company, Women are Ninja, we started in 2014, we were aiming for a very specific outcome. We wanted to grow the company. We wanted to scale sustainably. And eventually, we wanted to get acquired. We wanted somebody to buy our business. That meant we needed someone who actually built and sold companies in the space that we're in, SaaS, software as a service. Enter Dan Martel. We joined his coaching program. Why? Because he built and sold three SaaS companies before. When he was coaching us, he wasn't guessing. He wasn't giving us theory. He didn't give us fortune cookie advice. He literally walked us through the exact path that he went through
4:14 Speaker 00 three times. How he grew his revenue, how he built his systems, how he built his team out, how he was able to recruit the right people, and how to prepare for an acquisition. He showed us how to make our company sellable. He had lived it. He has done it several times. So we wanted to do the same. So it's natural to want to hire somebody that can help you up the mountain. That's what a coach should be, a Sherpa who has climbed your mountain, not just any mountain. I love this example because a Sherpa has gone up and down this mountain so many times, they know exactly what to look out for, what pitfalls there are, what mistakes to avoid, what are some things you're gonna need, the tools you're
4:54 Speaker 00 gonna need, the people you're gonna need, the resources, all that stuff. So you need to find a Sherpa that works for you and your goals. I want to reiterate this, I want to reinforce this, you don't hire a Sherpa who's read a book about your mountain, right? You hire someone who's actually climbed your mountain multiple times if possible, because they know, they know the shortcuts, the danger zones, the weather patterns, right? The weather patterns are going on in the mountain, where people quit, right? Where people actually don't make it, where people push, where people die on the mountain. I love this metaphor because a business coach is the same. They should see the path ahead of you far more clearly than you do, not because they're smarter, but because they've walked it before.
5:38 Speaker 00 Okay, it's like seeing a show or an episode of a show three or four times and you're watching it again, you know exactly what's gonna happen next, you know how it's gonna end, you know all the jokes in between. You just know, not because you're smarter or you're wittier, but because you've seen this before, you've seen this episode. Now, a word of caution, this is critical. A great coach will guide you, a great coach will give you perspective, a great coach will highlight blind spots, a great coach will share their experiences, but they will not make decisions for you. Why? Because you must live with the consequences of those decisions, not them. If they make a decision for you and it goes wrong, they're not gonna suffer the consequences, you will. If a coach
6:22 Speaker 00 tells you to fire this person, or to launch this offer, or to invest in this idea, or to pivot the business in some way, they don't own the outcome, you do. Your job is to listen, to absorb, and decide. Their job is to advise. And if they're a really good coach, they're gonna help you have the tools and the frameworks to be able to make the right decision. They're gonna teach you how to make decisions. If you're expecting someone to magically build your business for you, you're looking for a parent, not a coach. Today's episode is supported by Rosetta Stone. I absolutely love Rosetta Stone because it's helping me learn Italian faster than I can ever imagine. Why do I want to learn Italian? Well, who doesn't love Italy?
7:05 Speaker 00 But of course, Nicole's family is Italian and I love to have some quick Italian conversations with her mom. And Rosetta Stone just came out with Rosetta Stone Sapphire, their biggest launch in over a decade. One of the coolest features is chat missions, which turns conversation practice into a game. With chat missions, you're put in interactive scenarios and given three objectives. A mission to accomplish, like asking how much something costs, ordering a cold brew coffee, or getting a Wi-Fi password. Along the way, you get real-time corrections and feedback to help you sound more natural and confident. It's a supportive way to build confidence before putting your language skills to use in real life. I've been using Rosetta Stone for over two years and I actually can have some small Italian conversations with Nicole's mom now.
7:50 Speaker 00 Just the other day, she asked me, "When are you traveling?" And I said, "Dopo domani mattina," which means "after tomorrow morning." She was incredibly impressed I was able to answer in Italian. How could you put a price tag on a happy mother-in-law? If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire. The $100 on BGA show listeners can get 20% off the Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. This gets you access to Rosetta Stone Sapphire in 25 languages. Support for today's episode comes from Square. You probably know Square is the thing you tap your card on at your favorite coffee shop, restaurant, salon, or local store. But for the person running that business, Square is a whole lot more than a way to get paid. Square brings the tools you need to run and grow your business together in one system.
8:34 Speaker 00 From payments on appointments, to staff, inventory, sales, and customer relationships. Whether you're selling lattes, cutting hair, detailing cars, running a restaurant, or starting something new. Square keeps your business tools working together so you can focus less on managing the moving parts and more on what's next. And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/mba. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E.com/go/mba. Visit Square to get started because running a business is complicated enough. Your tools don't have to be.
9:09 Speaker 00 Now, how do you actually find a coach? Well, you go where the industry gathers. The best coaches aren't sitting on Instagram waiting for you to DM them. They're at conferences, they're at events, they're at masterminds, they're at industry gatherings. When I was running Webinar Ninja, the conferences I attended were like SaaS Talk and MicroConf, and they were full of real founders building what I was building. And the best way to find a coach is to ask other entrepreneurs. Who coached you? Who helped you grow? Who changed the game for you? Who made you see things differently? That's exactly what happened to me. I went to a conference called SaaS Talk. I met up with an old friend named Rob Rossin, who's the founder of Time Doctor, big SaaS company.
9:52 Speaker 00 At the time, he was a few steps ahead of me, and he knew I was looking for a coach. He was looking, I was looking for a way to scale my business, and he recommended Dan Martel. He was part of his program. So I thought, oh, if it was good enough for Rob, maybe I should have a call with Dan and see if it's a good fit for me. The point I'm making here is that these conversations mostly don't happen online. They happen in the lobbies of the hotel, in the hallways, in the mixers, in, you know, the booths where all the sponsors are, and you're just walking around, meeting people. So get out there. Now, in between conferences, and just to get you started, you can go on social media. It works. You might discover someone through their own content. But content is just the trailer to the movie, right?
10:34 Speaker 00 You need to still watch the movie, meaning you need to research their background. You need to look for real accomplishments. Have they done what you want to do? Or do they just have a big following online? Are they just giving platitudes with no real examples or experiences? Is all their content just generic hypey motivation? Or do they actually tell real stories from their past, from their journey? Ask yourself, what have they actually built? Have they done anything close to what you want to do? A lot of coaches online haven't built anything except their coaching business. That's not who you want leading you. That's not who you want to invest in. The third method I recommend is asking your existing network.
11:18 Speaker 00 Have access to people that you probably have forgotten about or people you're not even looking at like your customers, like your suppliers, like your investors, like your vendors. I can go on and on your partners, your account managers over at AWS and Stripe, your business friends that you see on the regular. These people are tapped into worlds you're not. I've met some of the best people, including advisors through random introductions from vendors or customers, people that work in these companies like Stripe and AWS, Amazon Web Services. They know a lot of people. They know everybody in the industry. They know the leaders in the industry, the thought leaders. They invite them to their own conferences.
11:59 Speaker 00 So most likely, the person that's emailing you invoices can help you out. Like I say, business is a contact sport. The more contacts you have, the more contacts you make, the more success you'll have. Now, let's talk about the vetting process. Once you find a coach, you need to vet them like a pro. Do not hire after one call. Don't hire them because you like their vibe, or because they're famous, or because they sound legit, or you feel so enamored and lucky that they DM'd you on social media. Instead, have as many conversations as you can. This could be over email. This could be over Zoom. This could be on a phone call. I would say at least two conversations. You're entering a long-term relationship.
12:42 Speaker 00 Treat it like one. Ask for some case studies, real stories, real success stories. If they're pro, they will have plenty of them. If they're not pro, they'll get offended and say, no, thank you. And you don't want to work with them anyway. They just filter themselves out. Great. For example, when Nicole and I got on a call with the MRCL, he willingly gave some testimonials, also some case studies, some real numbers of the growth the companies had that were in his cohort and his coaching. And he also shared exactly what we wanted to see. People that were able to exit their company after being in his coaching program. Also, make sure your goals match their experience.
13:24 Speaker 00 Don't hire a coach who grew a coaching business if you're building a SaaS product, don't hire ecommerce coach if you're building a membership, don't hire an investor turned guru if they never bootstrapped. Lastly, and most importantly, see if they can teach. Not everyone who's succeeded can teach how they succeeded. I've seen founders who built billion dollar companies, but couldn't explain how they did it if their life depended on it. They just can't, they're not that kind of person. Teaching is a skill and if they don't have that skill, they can't transfer their knowledge to you. If they can't clearly articulate their frameworks and their methods and their decision making, it's going to be really hard for you to get any value. So just run the other way.
14:09 Speaker 00 A business coach can be a game changer for you. I know from experience, but only if they have been where you're going. They have a track record, they can actually teach, they're ready to teach you and you are ready to be coached. You're willing to own decisions. Whatever those decisions you need to make, you have to own them and you're willing to do the work. It's not going to work if you don't do the work. A coach is not a shortcut. It's more of a compass or a guiding light. They don't walk the path for you. They point the way, they say, hey, go this way. This is the way I went. This is what you're going to find. If this episode gave you any clarity on how to choose the right coach, share with someone who's in the same boat,
14:54 Speaker 00 somebody that might be your study buddy, somebody you want to maybe be coached together with. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Finding the right coach is going to take some time. It might take weeks, it might take months and that's okay because the wrong coach can derail your progress for years. And when you find someone who has lived the journey that you want to take and teaches you from experience, not from ego or from just selling you a spot in their program, that's when coaching becomes really priceless. I wish you well in this process. And if you've got a question for Q and A Wednesday, go ahead and DM me on social media. You can follow me on Instagram and just send me a DM, @omarzenhom on Instagram. I'll try to get to it as soon as I can and answer your question
15:38 Speaker 00 and make sure that I help you along your path.
15:44 Speaker 00 If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically, and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
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