There are so many reasons you might want to work with a business coach in your animal, equine or pet-based business. Business coaches can be an incredible resource when you have a problem or a project you want to manage, but there are a few big things you need to consider prior to hiring a business coach. Join Cara and Kim as they discuss a few very important steps you should take before, during and after deciding to hire a business coach.

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Welcome to The Business Animal podcast. Saddle up for a

gallop to the top of the animal industry. Where you'll learn how

to tame your wild business beast with tips, techniques, and tools

that will take overwhelm to obedience school, and have you

wagging your tail with joy. And now your hosts Kim Beer and Cara

Taylor Swift.

Hey there business animals. It's Kim with

Be More Business

and Cara with Fast Horse photography. Hey,

Kim.

Hey, Cara. Long time no see.

I know. Before we get started, we need

to announce our new podcast to everyone out there. I'm not sure

that folks know yet. Do you want to say a little something about

our new adventure? Absolutely.

I got to tell you, we recorded an episode this

morning we recorded episode two, which I think by the time this

one drops will either be out or coming out very shortly. And let

me tell you it was a blast to sit with my friends, Phyllis and

Cara and talk about our adventures. We have a lot of fun

adventures in life. And we do like to share them. This is a

podcast where there's a nice technical learning piece of it.

There's some inspiration, and also some behind the scenes

tomfoolery. That happens so please join us over at Cowgirls

with Cameras. And be sure to have an open mind for having

some laughter in your life. We hope you enjoy some of the

antics we get into. If nothing else, you can get tickled at the

fact we get tickled at ourselves. So...

That's right.

Yeah, definitely join us for Cowgirls with

Cameras. It is a twice a month podcast versus a weekly one. So

I just want to give you the heads up on that.

Awesome. So Kim, what are we talking about

today on The Business Animal podcast,

We are talking about business coaches today on

The Business Animal podcast. So I know that there are once

people out there, see if you see if you resonate with this, you

look around your business, and you think I could do this so

much better, there are things that I want to do that I just

don't seem to have time for or that aren't aren't coming easily

to me. There are other parts of my business that feel like

they're a real challenge. And you would I would like to figure

out how to solve that challenge. So it's not so challenging.

There are parts of my business that I really have maybe an

attitude about that are a little bit stressful. And and I'm

getting a little upset with I mean, if you answer yes, if you

have frustrations or challenges or high end goals that you want

to reach like you've set the dollar figure that you want to

attain for the year and it's still fairly early in the year.

So we haven't all dashed our hopes for that yet. If you want

to attain that dollar figure that you want to get to or

exceed it, then there are people that can help you. And you may

have even toyed with the idea of hiring a business coach or

hiring a business consultants, coaches and consultants are kind

of two different things. Consultants are people who will

help you with a strategy. And they can tell you what to do,

they definitely give you advice, whereas a coach is going to help

you attain your goal. In other words, they hold you

accountable, they offer you avenues to remove the barriers

that are stopping you from achieving whatever goal it is

that consultant can help you with. Today, we're going to be

talking about that second batch of people, the coaches. Who are

behind you to help you achieve whatever it is that you set out

to do, whether it's to solve a problem, clear up a frustration,

or attain a specific goal in your business. So there's a lot

of reasons that you might want to hire one of these people.

Don't you agree, Cara?

Absolutely, the two big reasons for me that

I would consider hiring a business coach would be if I

have a problem or a project that I need to get through. And I

need some support for that, and maybe some guidance, but also if

I've got a measurable goal, and I want to know that I want to

reach something that I'm working towards, and I it's got to be

something measurable that they can work with me on so that I

can see the end results.

Absolutely. There are some steps if you've been

considering this or if you have hired a business coach and maybe

didn't have the best experience. There are some things that we

have as suggestions that will help you walk this path a little

bit easier and find the right coach for you. And then

definitely set your relationship in that coaching relationship up

for success. So our big three for this episode are first of

all to do your homework before you hire the coach. So we're

going to talk a little bit about some ideas that You can look at

and a couple of red flags that might pop up that will tell you

that maybe this is not the coach for you, as well as green flags

that would pop up that say this is the coach for you. The second

of the big three is to get super clear about the scope of the

coaching, like it needs to have parameters, it needs to have

bumper rails, entrepreneurship is a very connected train of

many different moving cars. So you need to be careful because

where you're working at or focused on may actually be

affected by several other areas of your business that are

outside the scope of the coaching. So you need to be

very, very clear about that. And then the final of the big three

is you need to make the commitment, right. If you're

going to hire someone to help you attain this goal, then you

need to make the commitment to attaining that goal and take

their advice seriously, even if it sounds silly or off or you

don't necessarily wholeheartedly agree with it. If you've done

number one, hopefully that wouldn't be a problem. But if

you've bought into this and you feel it's the right program for

you, then you need to make the commitment to see it through.

Because sometimes coaching takes a while to be able to really

play out the benefits. So let's dig into the first one about

hiring or finding out what coach you want to hire. And again, do

your homework. So don't just look on the internet for a

business coach. And then say that's, that's a personal hire,

or look at who's trending on Facebook, or on podcasts or

wherever you would happen to find coaches who's the trending

speaker on the tradeshow circuit that you're on is another thing

that you can get into pretty quickly. So make sure you do

your homework, ask for references, interview them, look

at their program really deeply to see if it aligns with you and

what you're doing. So Cara, what are your thoughts around what

you should look for when you're hiring a coach?

So I've always been someone that's been

super cautious and going into hiring a coach and a little

skeptical about that. So what I tried to be super careful. And I

like to look for those red flags and do a ton of homework. So the

truth is, is that with COVID, and with people, a lot of people

leaving those nine to five traditional jobs, there are a

lot of little put in quotations, like storefronts popping up

where you've got people that are advertising themselves as

coaches in for one type of coach or another. It is an unregulated

industry, correct me if I'm wrong Kim, but the truth is, is

that you've got a lot of people out...

It's not regulated.

Yeah, so there's a lot of people out

Are you looking to bring awareness to your equine based

there that are calling themselves coaches that maybe

haven't spent a lot of time actually learning and doing the

work to be a coach so it can get a bad name. So you've really got

to do your homework. And you've got to look for those red flags

that Kim started talking about, I highly recommend talking to

more than one potential coach, you know, you really want to

find someone that you feel is a good fit. So meet with them,

talk to them find out you know what their background is, or

have they participated in an accredited coaching program? Do

they have certificates, do they have something behind that

title, I feel like word of mouth is a great way to learn about

potential coaches. I mean, if you've had someone else in your

industry that's worked with a coach and has nothing but great

things to say about them or can tell you about them, that might

be a great place to start too. And if there's a way you can dip

your toe in the water by, you know, looking at maybe they have

an online workshop, or they have YouTube videos, I mean, Kim, you

have a whole YouTube channel where you're helping people in

guiding people free of cost, you know, so people can get on and

they can dip their toe in the water before they actually pay a

coach and start working with a coach and determine if it's a

good fit. And if they have information, even things like

Instagram reels you know where they're providing education, or

the longer form videos, just any way that you can get some

information about them before making a formal commitment. I

also like to ask people, so what were you doing before you

started coaching, this might be an interesting way for you to

learn a little bit more about their background, you know,

where are they working in industry that is in alignment

with what you're doing already. So they have a lot of background

in that area that they can bring to a coaching program with you?

Is there a place where you can read up on their work and what

they specialize in before booking them or before getting

on a call with them? Maybe they've written a book or they

product or service? Or create a unique way for your audience to

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some knowledge in? Those are the big things that I think about

Kim, I know you have a lot to add to this, you have so much

more experience in terms of coaching. So what do you think

when you're looking for red flags?

about those?

So I want to talk about some red flag green flags

with coaching programs and coaching businesses that I've

seen out in the industry. And yeah, I'd work with a lot of

coaches, I have a lot of coaches as clients. And I do like the

list that you have here accredited coaching programs. So

one of the things that you need to look into when you look into

the accredited coaching program that accredited the coach are

considering is you need to look into what are the requirements

for that. So my certification is an equine Gestaltest, which

gives me as a coach that is a two year investment of time. It

has weekly classes every single week we attend a class that is

an hour long, there's homework, there's a midterm, there's a

final you have to prove professional liability insurance

before you get your certification, you are subject

to an ethics and review board on your practice. If one of your

clients has a complaint about you, there's a board that you

have to go see that's part of that organization. I mean, it's

in depth. And then then on top of that there's five in depth

live trainings and a few virtual trainings that I had to go

through where I had to prove in front of the person who

certified me that I was capable of executing the program

correctly. And in a learning environment where I could feel

where I could make a mistake, but not do something damaging.

So by the time you exit that program, you've got some chops.

Now I have most of a degree in psychology. And I was actually

set to get a master's in psychology to get my LPC and

when I looked at the difference between what the master's

program that I would have been in involved and the education I

would have got. And the education that I got from the

Gestalt program that I certified from, I got more out of the

Gestalt program, there was more learning more experience more

hands on than the master's degree that I would have

attained from the university that I was looking at. So some

accredited programs are awesome. There are also other accredited

programs out there that take a Saturday afternoon to complete.

So you need to look and do your research on the accreditation

behind that person. And if that person is accredited by a

organization with one of those two day workshops, I'm not

saying don't use that coach, because that coach may be super

talented in many other ways and just got the certification to

kind of check mark that but you definitely want to look to see,

you know, is that coach, it's a red flag, it's a little bit of a

caution, maybe it's more of a yellow flag. It's a little

caution, you need to look what is the program and then what has

the coach done with that particular program. So red,

another red flag that I have is a coach that won't talk about

their program except in vague terms. In other words, when you

sit down and you do your interview with them, and you ask

them what their program is, they only talk about it at like the

highest level like well, you will reach your goals or we will

do some goal setting or there will be accountability or you

will learn this or you will be able to do that. If they aren't

getting specific, like those are just vague, high level

commitments, then then that is a huge red flag to me. So in my

four by four program, for example, I can tell you exactly,

I can tell you what, 16 points we're going to go over in your

marketing program. I can tell you the common barriers that

you're probably getting run into, and I can give you some

idea of how we're going to conquer those. And the actual

value in that program has more to do with me and my ability to

get you through it, which is what a true coach does, then it

does the content of the program itself. In other words, if you

took the book on your own, and you did it, would you be as

successful as you doing it with me, and I believe that the

latter is the more successful way to handle that. So you

definitely want to look at a red flag, if a coach is being very

vague, either they don't know their program very well, or

they're being super proprietary, which means that they're not

going to give you everything that you need when you get into

the coaching program. Another red flag is if the coaching

program you want to enroll in like you buy into the program,

but the actual coaching itself is delivered by somebody other

than the person who developed the program. Again, it's not a

definite no, it's just a red flag to say, hey, you need to

look at this a little deeper to see if this is something that

really is following what you want to do, or is there

something more sketchy going on there. And then the final red

flag that I have, before I get into some green flags is that if

you go to their website, when you're doing your homework, and

you're looking at their testimonials, which if they're a

coach, they've got a lot of them if their testimonials are super

vague. In other words, they're not being specific about what

that coach helped that person with, like they don't have some

really nice solid parameters to them, especially if it's a long

testimonial that concerns me that those were testimonials

that that person didn't get what they really wanted to set out to

get. So look for testimonials that have a little bit more of

specifics to them. Green flags would be when Cara mentioned

that many coaches offer those online workshops, the YouTube

videos, Instagram reels, all of those things, they offer some

education out there for free, ask yourself, did you get some

success from what they offered, you know, go go experiment with

her free stuff, see if it gives you a step forward. If it does,

chances are that particular coach would be really good for

you. That means that their program is going to jive with

you if you learned something from them. And then you took

that option and you went out and you did something with it, then

you've got a hint of success there that should carry through

into the coaching program. Another green flag is that they

have a well defined program with materials. In other words, you

can see from the outside, and this sort of goes to the

opposite of of the they don't know their program really well.

Or they're vague about it, if they're able to really show you

well put together materials and a very well thought out program,

then I consider that program a good program. And then the final

red flag green flag that I have is the red flag would be that

all of the coaching is video based. In other words, when you

enroll in the program, you have very little one on one lifetime

with the actual coach and a lot of videos to watch. I don't

dislike videos and coaching, I think it's a really good use of

the coaches time to record the things that they need to do

repetitively. And trust me, there's a lot of repetition of

what you say in coaching from client to client. I think that's

great. And I think it's important, but I also think it's

important that you have you time when you work with a coach that

you get that one on one or small group setting coaching, where

you can express your specific problem and get your specific

barriers addressed. So those are some more considerations that

you might look at when you're doing your research around

coaches.

I think that's really awesome. And I

like the reassurance that you give about if they're willing to

give away some things for free, that can be super helpful for

your business, like what a great just initial, okay, I'm going to

get something out of this coach, probably because the stuff that

they've got out there for free has already helped me, I really

love that. And I know that that's something that you do in

your business and something that a lot of businesses are trying

to give more, give more away, you know, to establish that

value. And anyway, I just think that's such an important one. So

thank you for sharing those Kim. I really appreciate that. Are we

ready to move on to number two?

Yep, we sure are. Number two is getting super

clear about the scope of the coaching that you're wanting. So

if you just vaguely say I want to hire a business coach, you're

probably not going to have a very good coaching experience

right Cara?

I mean, you're not off to a great start.

I think once you've made that decision, like okay, I'm going

to hire a coach, I'm going to do it that you really need to get

super clear, you know about the scope of what you're going to

accomplish during that coaching and that can look like big

picture goals, but also little goals that you hope to knock out

on each one of your sessions. You know, but you've got to have

those goals. I think outlined clearly in order to really get

some success from that, right?

Sure, and I think a coach's responsibility is to

take your bigger goal and to break it down into palatable

actionable pieces, and then get you to attain those pieces,

right? And it's not their responsibility to do it for you,

it's still your responsibility to execute on whatever it is.

But what they can do is give you resources and tools and

information and awarenesses that get you through those steps,

you're still doing the work. But just like a coach in a

basketball team, they don't go out and dunk the ball and make

the shot

listen to you talking about sports.

It's just sort of sad until you get me under

raining. But yeah, you they don't make the shot themselves,

you the the person who is playing the game that is being

coached, that's the person that goes out and makes the shot. And

it's the same thing for a business coach, they're not

going to come in there and change your business, they're

not going to do it for you, what they're going to do is guide you

to being the best that you can be and accomplishing as close as

you can get or exceeding the goal that you have set. When it

comes to setting the scope of the coaching, you can't be vague

about it. If what you really want to attain is to make a

certain dollar figure in your business, then that's what you

need to bring to the coach and you need to concentrate on that

one thing, yes, that one thing is going to split apart into a

whole bunch of little things over time. But the one thing is

all of those little things are going to move you towards the

bigger object. And when you're deciding about what you want to

be the scope of your coaching program, what I would do is I

would look at do you want to eliminate? Or do you want to

add? So is there something in the elimination part? Is there

something in your business that is just absolutely driving you

crazy, or you're really struggling with it, or you're

really challenged with it, or you have a big block around it.

So you could work with a coach to eliminate that. So you're

taking things away, you're figuring out how to solve that

problem on the opposite side of that is adding something to your

business. So that would be a financial goal that you want to

reach or an expansion goal. Or let's say you have your dog

groomer, and you have a shop and you have two groomers and you

want to add two more, and you hire a business coach to help

you attain that. So you have a very solid scope of the goal.

But the actual coaching may be you know, maybe you have to find

another building that you need to expand to. And you have to

add two more sets of equipment into your grooming business. And

then you need to expand your market to include twice as many

customers because now you have twice as many groomers. So the

business coach can help you settle down and look at those

topics very specifically, as they're moving you towards the

goal that you brought to them for the scope of the coaching,

you do need to be really clear and I one more thing before I

get off my soapbox around this is you need to understand from

the coach's perspective, how assessable they are to you. Some

coaches are only assessable during your sessions. In other

words, you have to wait for a session. Other coaches are

available during certain hours via text or via email or via

phone depending upon this specific coach to help you if

you run into something that's a problem while you're working on

your homework or working through your coaching program, their

coaching program, all coaches work a little bit differently.

They all have their brand and their uniqueness. So you do have

to look at what is within the scope of how much access you're

going to have to that coach. And then also, how long is the

commitment for their program? Is the commitment? Is their program

long enough for you to reach your commitment that you're

asking for? Or is it going to take multiple programs so just

get really clear about all of the details.

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Absolutely. And I think if you've reached

that point where you're ready to hire a coach you found the right

coach you've identified the coach that has all the green

flags that make you happy you think it's gonna get you there

you've done your homework, you know what it is that you want to

accomplish then you're ready for big three number three, which is

you need to make the commitment and that is huge because It's

going to be a monetary investment, it's going to be a

time investment, it's probably even going to pull in some

emotional investment and work as well. Especially if you're

dealing with some some blocks around money or something along

those lines. So a couple big things is you've got to be ready

to make the commitment, you've got to be prepared, you know,

spend some time in advance thinking about what you want to

work on, you know, before you even get to your first coaching

session, you don't want to be scrambling last minute, you

know, before your scheduled meeting. I think we've all been

there where we've got Oh, crap, I've got to be on a call in 10

minutes. And we're scrambling to pull ourselves together, you

know, to get prepped for that call, you know, and then if

you've had a session, sit back afterwards and really evaluate

how that went, you know, did they give you strategies to try?

Well, Gosh, darn it, implement those strategies that you agree

to try, like, don't just let them float out there, you've got

to do that work, you know, things like taking notes, even

when you're not in your coaching session, like one of the things

that I keep on my phone is I have a, I always have a note in

my phone, that's like my ideas log and things I want to, you

know, talk about or that I need to go over and you never know

you're going to be driving or maybe you're out on the tractor,

or you're riding your horse, or you're walking the dog, and that

thing pops into your brain that you need to talk to your coach

about that you need to have questions answered, that's when

you need to put it in that note so that you don't lose it and

forget about it, we always forget the important stuff when

we need to remember it right. And then you know, if your coach

most likely they're giving you or you know, resources that you

need to be looking into, you need to be reading up on that

you need to be trying out, go ahead and review those

resources. And if you don't, if you find that they don't work

for you, or you struggle with them, then you're ready to talk

about that with your coach next time you're sitting down with

them. And then the last piece that I have that Kim has already

somewhat mentioned, your coach is not they're not like your

employee, you can't expect your coach to do all the things

right? Part of this process is that you as the animal based

business owner need to do the work. And your coach is going to

support you hopefully, as you move out of that comfort zone.

But you have to be the one to do the work. And hopefully that

includes their strategies, their support. So Kim, I know you have

a lot you want to add to that. But when I think about, you

know, making the commitment, these are some of the things

that pop into my mind that I think are essential to getting

prepared for that commitment. What do you think?

I think you did an excellent job in covering

that. And I really don't have all that much to add other than

getting coached or being coached is hard. People think that it's

going to ease the burden, you know, like take it away. And the

truth is, is yes, it's going to ease it in the long term. But

the work that it takes to get to the long term is going to take a

little extra effort for you. So if you're hiring a coach,

because you're looking to get something off of your plate, so

to speak, you're not hiring the right person, that's an employee

or a VA or a vendor or something like that. Coaches are there to

help you reach those goals. And if you do not commit to doing

the work to actually putting yourself into that you're

basically wasting your money having a coach and you're also

wasting that coach's time, because you need to really

commit to it in order to be successful with it. And yes,

it's going to be a little painful. I mean, I don't think

you can look, if you look at where coaching what we kind of

traditionally thought of coaching before we ended up in

the life coaching world. Athletes, they go through pain,

I mean, getting to the point to where you are top flight in your

sport for whatever level it is that you play, that takes a lot,

it takes a lot of effort, it takes like you said mental,

emotional, physical effort to be able to get there, you're gonna

have to play those games and definitely put into it your time

and effort and your commitment in order to make it work. I do

think that there is a lot of really good reasons to hire a

business coach. I've worked with coaches for many, many years.

And I've got to tell you that it has always improved my abilities

when I work with a coach. So I always have gotten something out

of those coaching relationships, even the ones where it may be

didn't actually reach the goal, I still walked away with a ton

of benefit. And I think that when we look at coaching now as

consumers, we have a better understanding of what that

really means. And if you do your homework and you hire the right

coach, it can take you miles ahead of where you thought you

might actually land. So it's a good all around thing. Just be

mindful about the way you do it.

Excellent. This was awesome. I think it's

got me motivated. So a couple of the big three here, you're

thinking you're gonna you're ready to hire a business coach.

So big three, number one, you guys we got to do our homework,

okay, we got to ask for references. We got to interview

them, we got to look at their program very deeply. Second, you

want to be really clear about the scope of the coaching like

what do you want to accomplish both big picture goals and then

hopefully some smaller goals and maybe your coach can help you

with those. And then thirdly, and probably one of the most

Important, you've got to be ready to make the commitment and

be willing to be in some, you know, you're going to be in some

pain, just like Kim said, those athletes out there, they're

going to build up their strength. Here we are talking

about sports, again, they're going to build up their

strength. And they're going to do that through a series of

activities. And they're going to it's going to be painful to get

there. So hopefully, working with a coach is not painful for

you. But you know, growing pains will happen. And I think it's

just an cool opportunity. So I'm really glad we had this

conversation today. Kim, I think there's a lot of people out

there right now in this, especially in this time of small

business where people are looking to hire coaches, and

there's a lot of them out there. And it can be super confusing

when you're trying to figure out which route to go. So thank you

for your insight on this today.

Oh, you're very welcome.

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