When to stop coaching classes...and how to #levelup skillsets to scale your business...HOW TO MINE FOR GOLD FROM YOUR BUSINESS 💰 Ep 74

In this episode, the host discusses the importance of skill development for entrepreneurs, particularly in the fitness industry, to scale their business and increase income. They emphasize that personal growth and acquiring high-value skills are crucial to transitioning from low-wage tasks, such as coaching, to more lucrative activities like sales and marketing. The host illustrates how gym owners can boost revenue by focusing on selling and marketing, and eventually, by developing leadership skills to manage and motivate a team effectively. They also highlight the significance of documenting processes and creating a cash reserve to ensure a smooth transition when delegating sales roles. The host concludes by urging listeners to continually invest in skill acquisition to overcome income stagnation and drive business growth.

• Personal and skill set growth are essential for scaling a business.
• There is a direct correlation between an individual's skill set and their earning potential.
• Acquiring high-value skills can significantly increase income.
• Transitioning from low-value tasks to high-value skills is crucial for business owners.

"So ultimately, the business will always be limited by your personal growth and your skill set growth."

This quote emphasizes the importance of personal development and skill acquisition for the growth of a business. It suggests that a business cannot expand beyond the capabilities of its owner.

"The honest truth is that a lot of times you can't afford not to pay someone."

This quote addresses the common concern of not being able to afford hiring someone. It suggests that in the long term, not hiring can be more costly due to the opportunity cost of not developing higher-value skills.

• Opportunity cost is the potential gain lost when choosing one alternative over another.
• Business owners should evaluate the opportunity cost of performing low-wage tasks versus higher-value activities.
• Delegating low-value tasks can free up time for activities that generate more income.

"And so if you have a desire to make more money and yet you are filling your time with tasks that are a $10 an hour or $15, whatever, you know what I mean? An hourly wage that is below you would like to be making, then that should be an indicator for you that you need to level up and acquire more skills."

This quote highlights the concept of opportunity cost in time management and income generation. It suggests that spending time on low-wage tasks can prevent one from earning a higher income, indicating a need for skill improvement.

• Sales skills are highly valuable and can drastically increase revenue.
• Mastering sales allows individuals to leverage their time for higher returns.
• The ability to close sales can replace many hours of lower-paying work.

"And so for that, for every hour he meets with two people and he closes one or two at 500, $600. And now he goes from making $15 an hour to making 500 to 1000 an hour."

This quote demonstrates the significant income difference between basic coaching and the ability to close high-value sales. It exemplifies the impact of acquiring sales skills on an individual's hourly earning potential.

• Combining sales and marketing skills can exponentially increase a business's success.
• Marketing skills are necessary to attract potential customers.
• Sales and marketing together enable business owners to control their income.

"The reason that the actual gym lunch gyms and gym legacy gyms make so much more and make it so quickly is that we give them two skills. Not just sales, but sales and marketing."

This quote emphasizes the combined power of sales and marketing skills in increasing a business's revenue. It suggests that these skills together can lead to rapid financial success.

"And once you have both of those together, that's when you can really start cranking and make your own paycheck."

This quote reinforces the idea that mastering both sales and marketing is key to taking control of one's financial growth. It implies that these skills empower business owners to significantly increase their earnings.

• Understanding the value of time in relation to income is crucial.
• Skills such as leadership and vision casting are not easily quantifiable in hours but are highly valuable.
• Transitioning from time-intensive tasks to high-value skills can significantly increase income.

"Ultimately, we're always trading our time for dollars, despite what anyone will say."

This quote emphasizes the universal principle of exchanging time for money and suggests that this is an unavoidable aspect of work.

"A skill set of leadership is just more difficult to track the hours being spent on leading or casting a vision. But is that more valuable than sales? Yes."

The speaker highlights that while leadership skills are harder to quantify in terms of time, they are more valuable than direct sales skills.

• Learning and mastering new skills can make an individual more valuable to a business.
• Skills that contribute significantly to a business's revenue, such as sales, are highly valued.
• The discrepancy in value between different skills can be substantial, with sales often outweighing other tasks like training.

"This is how you become more valuable to the business. It's because you acquire skills that are valued by the business, that are valued at a higher rate."

The speaker points out that acquiring skills that the business values highly is a pathway to becoming more valuable and thus earning more.

"Like one sale covers an entire week of training sessions. That is how huge the value discrepancy is."

This statement illustrates the significant difference in value between sales skills and other tasks, with sales providing a much higher return on time invested.

• Once a skill like selling becomes second nature, it's important to document the process.
• Documenting allows for the transfer of skills to others, which is more valuable than the skill itself.
• Scaling an ability through teaching is a key step in growing a business and increasing its value.

"You have unconscious confidence. Awesome. Document it, right? And once you document it, then you can transfer the skill to the next person."

The speaker suggests that after mastering a skill to the point of unconscious competence, one should document the process to teach it to others, thereby multiplying its value.

• The podcast grows through listeners sharing it with others.
• The host does not use traditional advertising but relies on organic growth and word-of-mouth recommendations.
• Listeners are encouraged to share the podcast in the same way they discovered it.

"The only way this grows is through word of mouth."

The speaker emphasizes the importance of word-of-mouth promotion as the sole method for growing the podcast's audience.

"My only ask is that you continue to pay it forward to whoever showed you or however you found out about this podcast that you do the exact same thing."

By asking listeners to share the podcast, the speaker is encouraging the continuation of the organic growth cycle that has benefited the podcast thus far.

• Scaling one's ability to sell is a precursor to taking on larger business responsibilities.
• Owning a business involves mastering marketing, vision casting, and team management.
• Effective management is a skill that has a significant impact on a business's success.

"Now, once you're scaling your ability to sell, then you have to start owning the next thing, right? And so the next thing for you is going to be owning the actual business."

The speaker is outlining the progression from mastering sales to taking on ownership and the broader responsibilities that come with running a business.

"And what I mean by that is marketing, right? And then casting the vision and running an actual team, because that is a skill."

This quote highlights specific areas of focus for a business owner, emphasizing that these are skills that need to be developed just like any other.

• Transitioning from selling to leadership and marketing is crucial for scaling a business.
• New salespeople and leaders will initially lack proficiency.
• The jump to leadership can be problematic if not handled correctly.

And so what happens is there's this jump that needs to happen where you go from selling to leading and marketing, marketing still, because it's still more valuable and probably no one else will do it or have that skill set in your area.

This quote emphasizes the importance of evolving from a sales role to a leadership role, while maintaining a focus on marketing due to its value and rarity of skill in certain areas.

• Staying in the "boring zone" longer than expected is beneficial.
• Consistency in fundamental business practices, like customer service and cleanliness, leads to wealth.
• Innovation is not always necessary; excelling at current practices can be advantageous.

And the boring zone is where you're like, boring makes you rich. I'll say it over and over again, like, a boring business will make you rich. As in, every day, the front desk girl smiles and greets people by name.

The quote highlights how repetitive and seemingly mundane tasks, when done consistently well, can contribute significantly to business success.

• Statistically, half the audience is below average.
• Recognizing average or below-average performance is a starting point for improvement.
• Overestimating one's business performance is common and can hinder growth.

Just this whole side note, and I'll make a whole video about this, but half the people who are watching this are below average.

The speaker points out the statistical reality that not everyone can be above average, implying that many have significant room for improvement.

• Documenting processes during the stable periods of a business is crucial.
• Introducing shadowing and partial responsibility to new salespeople mitigates risk.
• Documentation aids in training and provides a reference for consistency.

That is when you need to document. All right? That's number one. And you're documenting the process.

The necessity of documentation is stressed here, indicating its role as a foundational step in preparing for business growth and delegation.

• Building a financial reserve or "war chest" is essential.
• Avoiding premature rewards, like vacations, ensures financial stability.
• A financial cushion allows for smoother transitions and risk mitigation.

And so you have that war chest so that when you do make that final transition and you push the person full time into sales, if for some reason cash flow drops or sales drop, you can do so without having to jump back in because you have a cash flow cushion, right?

The quote advises on the importance of saving money to safeguard against potential downturns during business transitions, highlighting the need for a cash reserve.

• Leadership is likened to a higher level of selling; it involves selling the business vision and future to employees.
• The process of leadership is continuous and requires constant reinforcement through communication and motivation.
• Employees need to be 'sold' on the company not just once but regularly to maintain their productivity and commitment.

"You're selling them on the business, you're selling them on the vision, you're selling them on the future, you're selling them on your customers."

This quote emphasizes the ongoing nature of leadership as a process of selling the company's vision and future to the employees, which is necessary to keep them engaged and productive.

"You don't just sell an employee one time, you have to sell them on a daily basis. You have to sell them on a weekly basis."

The speaker is reinforcing the idea that leadership requires continual effort in selling the company's values and goals to employees to keep them motivated and focused.

• Stagnant income is a sign of a lack of skills in certain areas, such as selling or leadership.
• Identifying skill gaps is crucial for personal and business growth.
• Once the lacking skill is identified, the focus should be on developing that skill to improve performance.

"If right now your income has been stagnant for a period of time or not grown in the amount that you think it should have grown in a period of time, it is because you have a lack of skills."

The speaker suggests that a lack of growth in income is indicative of a deficiency in certain skills, highlighting the need for self-assessment and skill development.

"What skills am I lacking? And if it's been the same, just start trying to identify what skill it is."

This quote advises individuals to reflect on their current skills and identify areas where they are lacking, as a first step towards improvement and growth.

• Effective leadership is essential for maximizing team productivity.
• Without strong leadership skills, team performance can suffer, especially when the leader is not directly involved.
• Leadership skills are necessary to prevent a drop in performance when the leader is not micromanaging the team.

"Whenever you take yourself out of the training or like being micromanaging on the trainers or being micromanaging on the admin in front desk or being micromanaging sales, everything drops."

The speaker points out that a lack of leadership skills can lead to a decrease in team performance when the leader is not constantly overseeing every detail, emphasizing the importance of developing strong leadership abilities.

• Recognizing skill gaps is only the first step; the key to improvement is actively working on those skills.
• The process of improving skills is described as 'attacking it and then just doing it until it gets right.'
• The speaker encourages continuous effort and practice to master the necessary skills for success.

"Once you know what skill it is, then the easy part is just attacking it and then just doing it until it gets right."

This quote stresses the importance of taking action to improve identified skill gaps, suggesting that persistent effort is required to enhance one's abilities and performance.

• The speaker acknowledges the value of the listener's attention and expresses hope that the information provided is valuable.
• The aim of the talk is to give listeners a good return on the investment of their attention by providing useful insights.

"Thank you all for giving me your most valuable asset, which is your attention. I hope I give you a good return on it."

The speaker expresses gratitude for the listeners' attention and indicates a desire to provide valuable information that justifies the time spent listening.