#198: Donald Miller Returns—The Simple Framework that Will Revolutionize the Way You Coach Small Businesses
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on Bobby Richard and i'm James sweating. Are you looking for a proven way to help others grow their small business but feel like you're lacking the plan? Many small business owners out they are actually struggle with creating the clear growth strategy. You often because they don't have a solid framework to guide them.

And today, we're going to give you that framework because we're joined by no other than Donald Miller. He has returned done is the creator of the small business by plane certification inside the coach builder platform. And this certification watched you through Donald's entire airplane metaphor. You've had to say that on the pod guest, which you may recognize from the book how to grow your small business. And today's episode, dawn, is going to explain how the flight plan certification will give you a step by step framework to build a business that set for long term growth and success.

So if you've had success in your own business and you're wanting to help code others to grow and scale their small business by the end of this episode, you'll have a clear understanding of how this certification will give you the tools and knowledge you need to coach small business owners to grow their business all that more right after this.

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Great to be back us. It's so great. Two weeks ago, we unpacked all of the steps that you need to take your expertise and elevated into a coaching.

But unlocking just all the know the mental lift that IT takes getting past would ultimately is a huge identity transformation. So we did all that fantastic episode. Now i'm going to start diving into there's actually frameworks if you feel like, hey, I love all this, i'm ready to jump in.

I don't quite know what I can offer or I feel like I can offer this, but when i'm unpacking and developing my product letter, what else could I offer clients that gives an extreme value? One of those that we provide inside of the coach boat platform is the small business fight planes certification that you have crafted. Its breaks down all of the pieces of the airplane. And i'd love to use today's conversation to really just deep dive into a yes and talk about a this is the value that this certification is going to allow you to offer to your customer for the coaches out there listening yeah but .

I I find there's two sort of insecurity will that many coaches have. One is we're not going to get my next client yeah and the next is a what do I teach that client? I'm very good relationships, have a lot of startup wisdom, uh, a lot of best practices.

I've always been able to offer a great deal value. I need practical frameworks though that I can walk people through so that i'll have to spend so much time preparing and educating myself. And I have plugged and play solutions.

So the way I solve those two problems, how do I get client is with the coach builder community. So if you join coach builder, you get A C R M that helps you get clients really, really fast. Uh, you also get a community of other coaches, uh, so that you can earn best practices from them.

And um you know we've have coaches coach after coaches coach. We ve just had a coach in the studio today who made his money back in four weeks simultaneous investment yeah yeah and it's it's actually a common story that we hear all the time. So that's the coach bullier side. Then you get inside of coachbuilder growing in coaching business and you wonder, well, what kind of coaching business. So that's where you have certifications, certifications in small business coaching.

We are going to add one new thought leader, new york times best selling thought later every quarter with A A business book or a mindset book we want to get in the parenting, coaching, physical trainers, all sorts of people who do sort of one and one sharing of wisdom and exchange for money. yeah. And so how to grow your small business is the book that I wrote about how to grow a small business.

Go figure. And IT IT breaks down a business like an airplane. You know, the cocky is leadership.

The right engine is marketing left in the sales products or your your wings, your overhead Operations as you, the body airplane cash flows, the fuel tag. Just tell me, understand those six parts of the airplane keep IT in the air. yes.

And the business works the same way. If you can just master these six parts of a business, you can keep IT in the air and keep IT from crashing. It's been we just got I don't know how many we've got.

We just got a big trophy for IT from the posher. It's done really well and um coaches now can go in and say, have you like this book? Let me actually help you implement this into your business.

You can do that as a fractional C O O, where you come in and you help them Operate their business. I would recommend fifty, two hundred thousand dollars a year as a fractional COO. Or you can go into workshops.

You can teach the content and masterminds all sorts of ways to actually distribute the product, the coaching product, to small business owners after you get the certification. And so I did this because I can't personally work the thirty million small businesses in america. Yeah, I can't personally work with them, but I can haven't .

get up the cloning technology.

The coaches, our coaches can go in and do go in and work with small businesses all the time and really help them out. And the nice thing is it's really easy.

It's a plugged and play Operating system that you help a small business install into their business so that the chaos is and they start making more money with less time and less frustration, less turn over, higher retention, a more satisfied clients, Better products, Better optics on your cash flow, all stuff. May something like you need a harvard degree to do that you don't IT. It's just very, very simple and very easy. They just need a coach to help them understand that and keep them accountable to actually .

apply yeah this is me repeating that coach that was the one thing he said is yeah everything that you have laid out because he specifically was talking about how he's used this .

framework with his coaching cause. In judge was the coach testimony. He started the coach builder program. He said in April, four weeks later, four weeks, yeah, he was already making the amount of money per month that he paid in. So IT wasn't just he made his money back. He had retainer clients that we're making him that much money every single month and he will grow from there.

And he was saying everything .

is simple like that, what that is and that he didn't he didn't have to develop all of these frameworks in these tools. He could just end time with class. He could just coach, yeah.

He also didn't have to sell, because when you join coach before you get a syria. So he had the lee generators that he need, he said he had dozens and dozens of people fill out the lead generation, and then he was able to call them. And the very first call was a coaching call.

Instead of him trying to convince them of what he does, they already knew that because they've gotten the assessment, which is ugly generator and in a bunch of emails after. So by the time he got on the call, they are he trusted who who he was that he had some competency and deliver value. So IT basically was just call him.

he take in order. They know we have money .

and just like, okay yeah, time 还有 down。

One of the steps that you talk about in coach builder, step one is creating a menu of products. And we know for for a listener out there that's wanting to either build a coaching business from the ground up or grow or scale their coaching business and expand IT with some additional products, we would love to hear a little bit about what are some of the products that you are inside of this flight plan certification that could, uh, someone listening to build grow the country. Well.

small business flight plan is an Operating system for any small business. That's what IT is. And we just call the flight plane with we is the metaphor of the airplane that explained earlier.

You can teach that in if if you're certified, you teach today workshop yeah i'd charge we can tell you how much to charge because that makes you a franchise. The great thing about that is yeah, all sorts of freedom in charge, whatever you want. We are weren't dictating what you charge.

So you can charge two hundred fifty box to twenty five hundred box a person to go through a workshop. So you know you get ten people in a room, twenty people in a room, you charge him to go through a two day workshop where you're actually explaining how a business works. We actually give you the keynote deck so you're clicking through something that we give you ah so actually are you're doing a expressing a button and talking about what's on the screen.

And then if you want, you can press another button and I come on the screen and do that free. So I actually come on the screen and we filmed, we recorded may say, here's self leadership works here, sell marketing works, here's self sales works. You can actually use me to teach that or you can skip that slide and you teach IT yourself or you can actually let them watch that slide.

They're only about seven, eight minutes each slide that i'm on and then take questions or break them up in the small groups by the end of IT. They've got a really fantastic course on how to run a small business. Now that's the workshop. If they say we really love this, but we need to be held accountable. And we may have questions not just now but every month for the rest of the year, but we would call that a retainer client.

And if you're going into their facility and meeting with their leadership team once a month and then you're taken middle management to launch and you're taking the sales directors, and hey, let me just let's dive deep into your sales process and how it's working with your sales team. And by the way, here's my phone number. You call me anytime that's fifty thousand to one hundred thousand thousand, you're retainer and you're actually acting as A C O O chief Operating officer, which you are very qualified to do after you understand the content and have taken a certification.

You may not feel that way now, but listen, read the book, take certification. Just do IT once and you're in you you want to have any ack of competency or confidence after that, you know. So now we've got the workshop.

We've the fractional COO. Now let's say you're already taking clients, small business clients. You already have one or one clients. They're paying you eight hundred, two hundred box a month, something like that.

You can actually go to them and say, hey, i'd like to spend our next six months going through the six parts of the airplane and Donald, but category your small business and then you share your screen. You click through the actual keynote presentation, there are six parts to IT. You do that once a month, let's say you meet with them twice a month, you click through leadership, you given some assignment.

And then two weeks later, you don't click through anything, but you actually read over their assignments, go through them, do some Q N A, keep accountable to do IT. So now we have six months worth of content to cover. You know, one of things that's hard about when you have a business coach, i've had a few and sometimes just so hey, what's been trouble in? Yeah and that's how we're starting IT.

I feel like that point. I'm responsible to lead this. And I really what I really want them to say is, hey, don, you're running a business and it's a it's a fifteen million dollar business.

Would you like for you to go to thirty? Well, yes, okay. Well, let me put you on a content and cricket and plan to get you from for fifteen to thirty.

And by the way, what would that be worth to you? What would you pay me if I could get you IT from fifty and thirty? Well, i'd say mean, I guess i'd pay two and a half three million or, well, know, today's a good day because you yeah right yeah.

So now you they're realizing the incredible value that you're giving me. So that's the one on one coaching monthly products. And then there's masterminds so you can actually charge you for the small business flight plan one year.

Masterminds, we want to take every business in this room, and we want to grow IT by what you think is possible. So what do you think is possible? Twenty percent, fifty percent and one hundred percent.

Let's establish in goals. All right now everybody has got their goal. All right. We're going to start with leadership and then you go through that over a year and you charge you know, I would charge at least ten thousand dollars for that mastermind.

So if you have twenty people in each maaster mine, that's a two hundred thousand or a revenue stream for you right there. So you know those are the three main ways to do IT. You also get the my business report, business assessment where you get an a filler link to link to free product, but it's a link that you send to people, they fill out of my business assessment and they get a report.

Will they get the report and you get the same report? So now you can call them and say, hi, IT looks like you haven't some trouble with sales. Why did you join my mastermind or want you come to this workshop? Or why did you actually hired me as A C O O? They've already self diagnose their problem.

That's that's ninety percent of sales, by the way, is just convincing them they have a problem you can solve that's done. So now you're on the call and all you're doing at this point is negotiating Price saying what I charged this that that sounds like it's gonna within our budget. Okay, let's go and you can close the deal.

So IT, IT makes being a business coach. Now coach builder is not just for business coaches, but IT makes being a business coach very easy. And now you can deliver a content that actually works, frameworks that actually work in a workshop in a maaster mine and one on one coaching.

And you can even do this as a keynote break out at anybody's conference. There's a keynote deck that we give you. You do IT ah you have people scan the Q R co and now you got a room full of qualified leads. So it's it's really a wonderful sort of business in a box system if you want to be a business coach.

And the one thing too, I I I want to shut out is that like down was saying, we have all of those videos have done breaking down in the keynote, the frameworks, the concept, everything that's involved with running your business like an airplane. The other side of IT, too, is that there is what we call .

presenter video. So it's done done your modeling well, that's the at every slide you just watch me do IT, then you turn around and do IT yeah and my favorite clients, you know, the favorite coaches that I have the one to, they used to show me talking, but now they are like, I can do .

that but everyone has got the freedom to where they and wants to hear .

from you. Yeah, you're their friend. Yeah you know, i'm glad they read my books. S, and they like them. You're the real hero here. You you're the one on the ground in the room and you actually care about them, you know their kids names, you know they're struggling with no, I just want to give you some frameworks that you can use with your friends.

The observatories podcast, hosted by natly gingrich, is brought to you by the hub spot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals every week on the authority, you're going to discover actionable strategies to move your business forward and transformational stories of powerhouse business owners who value Operations just like you.

Because we know if the Operation side of our business is a mess, putting out fires is always going to take priority. You're not going to have room for creative innovation. You're not going to have a room for fun, visibility or even networking with peers.

In a recent episode titled the leadership, sebastian navy talks with Operation strategist alison cafe, where he breaks down how overwhelming leaders need to step back from daily Operations to focus on strategic decisions. And to do that, you need the structure sabbatical. And he also gives you steps on how Operators can create systems to support this. So if you're a leader looking to empower your team and drive growth, go listen to the ops authority wherever you get your podcast.

And now back to the show down for our .

listeners right now who have been, let's say, long time listeners, long time followers. They are familiar with the framework. Ks, they've been here and you teach and talk about these.

They've implemented them into their own business. yes. Now they are wanting to coach others. What would you say to them is kind of the value of of of getting certified in this? Uh, how can I equip them?

Well, you know, are informal tag line that we don't put anywhere is, uh, we help you make a living changing life. Yeah, we help you change lives for living. That's that's the whole idea.

If we can help you change people's lives for a living, we have succeeded at our mission. And so that's why you want to join the coach builder membership programme. And if you want to be a business coach, that's why you want to get small business fight plants certified.

You know when people aren't worried about their business because it's growing. I I just want you to just think about this for a second. If somebody owns a business and that business is going under, what does that do to their children? What's or the house? Is their children growing up when mom, dad can't really focus on the table because they are not going to be able?

To me, that's almost more the mission than the business itself is everything that the business feeds, including sanity and peace at home and those children, you know, when you're able to make payroll and you're able to put away some money for a retirement and you're able to afford life insurance and you're able to afford closed on your kids bacon, that family vacation every year changes you as a mama or dead. And the coaches that we alive with that do best in our program, our coaches who yeah they like business coaching, but that's not why they're in IT. They're in IT because they love people and they care about the quality of their lives.

And if that's your mission, that's our mission and we'd love the partner with you. We're not here that people get rich being coaches and people get rich using my frameworks. Somebody is with me for twenty minutes and always talking about making more money. I get a little exhausted, you know I mean, money y's great if IT buys you something. And what IT needs to buy you is more time with the people that you love and that's that's over anymore yeah.

and you've experiences in your own life. I mean, this book was written based off of the transformation. You know that.

yeah, I was never a working holic, but he would never say that. But when we had a daughter, as an older dad, I knew the importance of being home by five and being present. And i'm very proud to tell you that if you SAT down with my wife instead, easy home by five, he would say, no, he's home by four.

yes. And the phone lands on the the little desk by the front door where the car keys go. And I pick IT up at nine o'clock at night, and my wife and I lay in bed together, and we look at our phones.

And from four to nine, i'm not thinking about what yeah and I just think that's possible for a lot more people and um and a coach can listen. Then I can happen unless you got your leadership right, unless you optimized your products, unless your marketing is coming along, unless your sales team knows what they are doing, unless your cash flows being managed well, unless your Operations are being managed. You handle the six parts of an airplane and your business no longer owns you. Now there are times when there's a crisis ah how 这 but those times aren't very often if things are being .

runwell and if they do come up.

you're able to resolve that problem and more quickly and to be able to to listen a coach you can call to say, hey, i'm dealing with this. I want to sleep last night and your coach says, are we're going to have an emergency session? In fact, let me come over the house and let me let me walk through some steps on how to let somebody go, or let me walk through some steps on how to take this person, actually move them over here because I don't think you need to let go think they need to be over here, but you need to hire this. Let's write a job description and let's let's get this new higher in here and let's that's just you're not alone in your own troubles and yeah, yeah, yeah like coach, that's what I love.

So for everybody out there who who is leaning and and feels like were speaking directly to them, what's that first step? Where can they go to jump in to start that journey?

Coach builder 点 com。 When you got a coach builder 点 com， you basically fill out some information you'll get with somebody on our team. We'll explain how the program works.

You'll join coach builder. There's an investment we are going to put you with a human being who is a small group coach and their job is to kiss you back. That investment fast.

Yeah and we celebrate that around here. So there's a lot of programs where convent to buy and then we never want to again. You have a human being in your life for one year after you buy this program. I mean, that would be a very uncomfortable conversation if IT never worked, right?

Yeah, yes. Yeah, yeah. Specially if you're considered checking in with them.

Yeah, yeah. exactly. Like, still isn't work for James. So now we stay in your life and other coaches stay in your life.

We have a very high retention rate year after year after year because the program works very well for most people. If you think maybe you could work for you, IT probably will. But let's just have a conversation. So go to code put to a com, you fill out a form and we will start talking.

that's great. Well done. You know this and our audience of this that the every episode we have a plan of action where we take away just that, that one key piece from the conversation that our audience can immediately take and implement to grow their business and become a Better business on, in this case, Better coach or become a coach. Yeah, what would you select out of today's conversation to be that plan of action?

I would say if you were a competent coach, if you could actually help somebody with worklife baLance, help them make more money, help them spend more time with their family, just for you personally write down the three biggest things that would change about that client's life. If you are competent, you know they'd be a Better dad. They may be a Better mom.

Their kids could go to a Better school, just only want three, right? And then take those three, really meditate on them. And those those three things not in your life, in your clients life, that will be your y that's gonna your motivator.

And when you look at that, you just, okay, I want to, that's what I want that's powerful for my client's life, and that's why i'm going to do this. If that becomes your motivation, you cannot fail. So and go for the .

man done. Dana and I .

just love.

and I think that so what IT is for so many coaches that are in our community and that when that we work with is just this passion to make an impact, to make a difference in their clients lives, it's that transformation. Yeah, it's what IT makes possible for them and that heart behind this. So we absolutely we hear that story time after time again.

That's a part of what we do. That's why we do what we do and what thills that, that you have created this this flight plan Operating system that you talked about and now the certification that can to clip others to do the same thing in our clients lives as well. So thank you for joining us for this podcast. And that is in for this episode of the business made simple, where we are obsessed with helping you grow your small business and become a Better business owner and become potentially small business flight plan certified coach as well. We will see you next week.