056: Kalani Thomas – Grow Your Business Coach

[1:42] What exactly do you do as a business coach?

I work with small businesses to give them the confidence to make decisions that help them grow their business. I do that through anything that has to do with finding, acquiring and keeping revenue. Sales, operations, marketing, any area of the business that you can measure and innovate. I typically like to share a metaphor for this that helps clarify, if I may.

Most people are familiar with putting together a jigsaw puzzle. Our businesses are nothing if not a puzzle. If you have ever put together a puzzle, you have the same experience most people have had. You’ll be sitting at the table for an hour or so, and you get focused on a certain part of the picture. In comes a fresh pair of eyes, and they can quickly pick up and snap in a few pieces. I like to joke how annoying it can be to have someone point out those easy pieces you were “going to get to”, but none-the-less, the picture is more complete after they do. You can’t be the person sitting at the table and the person that walks up to the table at the same time. As a coach, I bring value by having lots of interactions like this that make the picture clearer.

[4:04] When you offer access for only $350 a year, how can you do that for so little?

It’s why I have a mission statement to answer it. Simply put, I would rather charge too little and do too much and risk my business, than charge too much, not do enough, and risk yours. I used to charge the same high fees of most of my counterparts, which is fine if you want to teach a 2 million dollar company how to make 3, but for most small business owners, taking $40k a year to teach them how to move the needle from $250K to $350K is a big pill to swallow. When you take all the work I’ve already done to get my knowledge to where it needs to be to be helpful, and you add in technology and tools you can use to make yourself more efficient, there is no reason to keep charging high fees.

[6:29] What makes you different from most coaches?

First of all, everyone should have a coach, even if it’s just here and there and not all the time. Having perspective and experience can save you lots of time and money. I have seen a lot of coaches, maybe not all of them, but most will show up, assign homework, high five you and disappear until you reach out to them. I like to split up the homework, high five you, and agree on a time to be back together to compare notes. When you split this huge project of improving a business into bite size chunks and then chew them with your clients, you see a higher level of success.

3 KEY Tips

[8:34] Your skill set  –  It is not just the skill I want you to learn but the skill you need to learn to be better tomorrow than you are today.

[8:41] Tolerance – There are lots of ways to do lead generation for example. It is dependent on the business.

[9:09] Culture – I put into consideration  the culture of my clients’ business  and try not to negatively impact the culture of work while trying to get the business out of a slump.