I would like to share a story about a couple of clients of mine, both old and new. A client from about seven years ago named Avi, owned an Oasis Senior Advisors franchise. Avi had hired a young lady named Melinda to be her marketing manager. Melinda and Avi worked well together and became very successful. Avi won the rising star of the year award at her first franchise conference for the most successful growing practice. When everybody asked her, “What are you doing?” She simply replied, “I hired a coach.” Avi later decided to sell that franchise.
One particular day, I called Avi just to see how she was doing and a woman named Candy answered the phone. I expressed, “I’m sorry, I’m looking for Avi.” She shares, “Oh, Avi no longer owns the company. I bought it from her. Who’s this?” I simply told her, “Coach Michael.” She replies, “Oh, Coach Michael. I know you. You worked with Avi.” “Yes.” She then shares, “She shared many good things about you. Could we sit down and talk about how you could be my coach?” “Absolutely.”
I obviously realized I had dialed the work number opposed to Avi’s cell number. However, sweet deal for me. One franchise, two different owner clients.
Fast forward; Candy has now been a client of mine for over four years. Of course, every year she attends the conference and comes back with an award. When everybody once again asked her, “What are you doing?” She simply replies, “I have a coach.”
Candy later referred a colleague named Heidi. Heidi is an elder law attorney who’s in the process of expanding her team. Heidi asked me one day on a coaching call, “Coach, do you know someone named Melinda who used to work with Avi? Because she knows you.” “Oh, yeah. I remember Melinda. That was quite some time ago.”
To make a long story short, Heidi hired Melinda of who now is her marketing manager. We were on the coaching call this past week with Melinda and Heidi both on the call together. When I said hello to Melinda, she simply said, “Coach, I’m here because of you.” I said, “Because of me?” “Absolutely, when Heidi and I were going through the interview process, she mentioned she had a coach. I asked who, she mentioned you. And I knew immediately in the fact that by Heidi hiring a coach to get better herself and in her business, that’s somebody I want to represent. It was a determining factor in my decision.”
I share this because I hear a lot of business owners say, “I can’t find the right people.” From me, you hear a lot about building a culture and proper branding for you to attract the right people that want to represent your organization. So how did Heidi land Melinda? Very simple. Heidi’s working on investing in herself to become her best to build a great organization. While Melinda has been down this road before with a successful entrepreneur that had a coach said, “If this woman has a coach, I want to be working for her.”
I want you to think of where you are in the cycle of your business. If you’re going at it alone, you may or may not be struggling. However, as people perceive you as an entrepreneur, business owner, executive, I don’t care what level of management you’re at. If you are investing in yourself, if you have a mentor, if you have a coach that is challenging you to do what it takes to become your best. When you have employees see that the owner of the organization is putting their money where their mouth is and working on being their best and they know it’s going to eventually filter down to them, those people want to be working for you.
So, think about it. If you don’t have a coach or a mentor, you might want to think about getting one because the talent pool out there is thin. A lot of owners like yourself are looking for good people. However, and most importantly remember this, the upper end of the talent pool is looking for good leaders to work for. Something to think about.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, professional speaker, and trainer. He is the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com