104: What is Business Coaching & How Does It Work

Andrea Liebross: You're listening to the Time to Level Up Podcast. I'm your host, business life coach, Andrea Liebross. I help women in business commit to their own growth personally and professionally. Each week, I'll bring you strategies to help you think clearly, gain confidence, make your time productive, turn every obstacle into an opportunity, and finally overcome the overwhelm so that you can make money and manage life. Let's create a plan so you have a profitable business, successful career, and best of all, live with unapologetic ambition. Are you ready to drop the drama and figure out the how in order to reach your goals? You're in the right place. It's Time to Level Up. Let's do this.

Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you're having a great holiday season. How's it going? How are you feeling? What do you think is going well? What's not going so well? What do you want to do differently? Those are three good questions to ask yourself to check in on the status, to check in on yourself, to figure out what is working and what is not. I'll take that as a segue to ask yourself, are you working on your business as much as you want to be working on your business? Or are you putting it on the back burner right now?

I am gearing up for the Get a Grip masterclass that starts on December 5th, you're not too late. If it is past December 5th, you can still access all of it by going to Get a Grip 2022, andrealiebross.com/getagrip2022. You can still find it all there. But in thinking about that, I also have been thinking about what exactly is business coaching. This is a question that I get sometimes: What do you do Andrea? What's business coaching? Why do you and how do you coach entrepreneurs and why should entrepreneurs have a business coach?

So today you're going to hear from one of my clients, Cresta, who I've worked with really since probably the very beginnings of her business when she was in a place of chaos created by confusion. Now she is in a place of maybe not chaos, but a little chaos created by the success she's had. She's going to explain to you a little bit about what our relationship looks like in a minute, but first, I just wanted to offer you a couple of thoughts on what business coaching is or how I see business coaching.

There are lots of coaches out there that coach in different ways, but what I see business coaching as is really a collaborative relationship between the entrepreneur, business owner, CEO, and me as the coach. I sometimes say that you've got a new employee. I'm now part of your team. Because together we strategically develop the success that you want in your business and the success you want at home. My role really is to help you design a vision for your business that aligns with your values, and the goals you have for your life.

I'm really big, as you know, into making sure that we never forget about the life part. When we have that vision in hand, the vision of a business that aligns with where you want to go in life, I come in and help provide you with some guidance. I'm almost like a Sherpa carrying you up the mountain. I give you guidance. I give you support. I give you the accountability that you need to set and move through your goals, which will allow you to take your business from where it is now to where you want it to be.

I like to picture where at the bottom of a mountain, you're fully prepared for the journey, by the way, because I don't know, you might have gone through some counseling or maybe not but you're ready to go, you're really willing to go. We set out on a journey and together we choose the trail we're going to take to get to the top of the mountain. We may not even be able to see the mountain top because it's covered in clouds but you know it's up there and go in it alone. No one should ever hike alone. I am your partner.

Why do you need this partner? Because you are so stuck in your own peanut butter jar that it is hard to create a strategic roadmap. One of my jobs is to help you create a very clear roadmap that is built with intention and I offer all of my clients the opportunity to create that clear roadmap together. We figure out how you're going to build systems and strategies and wrap your head around, get the mindset you need to grow the business. I grow or develop alongside you, I help you move through all of these stages.

You're likely to create a system at the beginning stages of your business that isn't going to work in the later stages of your business. That's where we, together, figure out how to transition and what we should be transitioning into. I do provide you with a clear roadmap. I also become a very trusted partner. I don't tell you what to do. I am not a consultant. I don't just listen without giving some feedback. I am not a counselor. I am someone that you can trust, someone who has the ability to diagnose specific and systemic issues in your business by asking you the right questions, and I know that you will be able to see all of this if you are asking the right questions.

A business coach also knows that you have to implement solutions yourself in order to get real results. I don't do the work for you. You've got to do it. But I'm there to guide you. I'm a really good listener. I really feel as if I am a trusted partner. I care about you. I want to get to know you and your goals so that I can understand why you went into business in the first place, what makes you tick, and I sometimes have to be super patient with this. My job is to really help you clarify what needs to happen next. But I wait for you to take the action. Of course, I also hold your feet to the fire on your goals.

I am an accountability partner. But I also remind you that you have all of the ingredients that you need to create the business you want. You just might have to get them out of the cabinets, and in order to do that, someone's going to ask you to do that. I also help you figure out maybe why you're not taking these things out of the cabinets, maybe why you're not going after your ideal client, maybe why you're not creating the profit you want. I find the root cause for why things might be stuck or stagnating. I get to ask the right questions in the right moments. I also am honest with you.

I think a lot of people would say I kind of tell it like it is because I understand that you need to hear the truth even if it stings a little bit. I also understand that sometimes you've got to pause and reflect before you jump into action. If I can help you bring all the pieces of your business together, if I can put the pieces of the puzzle together with you, I promise you you will see the impact in your business. The way your business starts to stabilize and grow and get closer and closer to your vision, you'll see the impact in how you show up, in how your team shows up, if you have a team or we'll create a team, we'll figure out when is the time for a team.

You'll see the impact in your bottom line, in your client retention, and how your work changes within the business, how you become more of a visionary than a manager, how your leadership skills grow, how you have time to do what you want to do, how you create freedom in your business. That's why one of my programs is called Runway to Freedom, but I know that our relationship may not last forever. I want you to become an independent entrepreneur and business owner.

Someone asked me yesterday, “How long do I work with my clients?” Sometimes I work with them for a day, a VIP day. Sometimes I work with them for years. I have a client I've been working with now for four years. She has evolved and her business has evolved. It is exciting. I am here to help you. Let's listen to Cresta tell us a little bit about how I have worked with her and how her business has evolved, where she is now compared to where she was before. I think this will really, really help you.

My first question would be: How does having a coach add to your business or what does it bring to the table that you cannot create on your own?

Cresta: I think that we, as business owners, get so focused in the business, we're working in our business, we're doing our thing. We're managing operations, marketing, and sales. Having a business coach allows us to work on the business and to see things from a different perspective that we can't see because we're so stuck in the middle of our business.

Andrea Liebross: I can say the same thing about me. The perspective piece I think is super important. I also think, because I see with my clients, like in my coach asking me, asking the questions creates growth in and of itself, like having someone to ask those questions. What do you think?

Cresta: I agree, asking the difficult questions makes us think, really just working with a business coach, most recently with you, and defining what the core functions of different roles within the business are, are so crucial to my long-term success. You're asking those questions and things that I may not have considered in defining certain roles within the business because for so long, I've been one person doing all those different roles. Now all of a sudden as I'm growing and looking to hire, I really need to make sure that I'm defining those roles. Because as other people come in, one person can do multiple roles, but multiple people can't do the same role.

Andrea Liebross: That's when that creates chaos.

Cresta: Exactly. Yes, it does, and confusion.

Andrea Liebross: And confusion. Yeah, but I think what's interesting is that when you and I have recently met, when we first started working together a couple of years ago, that was kind of the foundational time in your business. You were like, “How do I do this?” Right now, it’s like how do I even do this, but it’s how do I even do this because you've actually had success. You're at a different level in your business, you've got different questions. You still need that sounding board and perspective. I think sometimes we still have those same feelings of like, “I don't know what I'm doing.”

But the “I don't know what I'm doing” is really coming from because I've grown and now I'm at Cresta 3.0 and I passed a 1.0. I don't know what I'm doing. Now you're at 3.0, I don’t know what I’m doing. It's a different one.

Cresta: Like raising a child. Our businesses when we first start out, it's our baby. We are helping that baby grow and mature and our business becomes a toddler, then an elementary school-age student, and then a teenager. When our business now is becoming more independent.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, that's a really good analogy. I've never thought about this, but it is, it's like, you gotta let some stuff go. Teenage years, like you've got to let them figure it out. You have to let whoever you hire figure it out.

Cresta: Right. You have to delegate some of those tasks and let them help you succeed.

Andrea Liebross: So true, so true. But delegating is hard.

Cresta: It's incredibly hard. Which is why, again, you asking those questions helps me as a business owner be just level set expectations, place parameters, and boundaries. I think as we're delegating tasks, if that other person understands the core values and vision of the business, then they buy into what you're trying to accomplish, whether it's a service or you're selling a product.

Andrea Liebross: But not knowing what the core values and focus are, that's something that Cresta come up on her own.

Cresta: It's really hard for us to come up on our own, which again, if you are stuck in your business and not working on your business, that's where having a business coach is so valuable, to really have someone from the outside help you define some of those core values, help you define that vision. Because sometimes, we get so focused on who our target market is that when you ask me different questions, although it was on the same path of where I thought the target market was, it was a little bit more niche.

Andrea Liebross: It was. Cresta and I recently, we kind of looked at her business from a 30,000-foot view. We did talk about what her core focus is on her business. It was like you're on the right trail, but we’d fine-tuned the trail. I think one of the most interesting parts of the whole day was when we were talking about who your ideal client is. It's not really personalized in the beginning.

Cresta: That's correct. Which again, you've helped me along the way. The business has evolved.

Andrea Liebross: It has. I think not doing that kind of exercise on a regular basis can really set you back. If you had kept marketing to imply an A, which is not really the person you want to be marketing to, and not B, I mean you probably would have, I don’t want to say stalled out, but it definitely wouldn't be as much fun or you wouldn't enjoy it as much because that's not the person you want to be working with anymore. It was at one point.

Cresta: Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. But I think that's pretty typical in many businesses. As you start to scale, you really want to have a better idea of who you really do want to work with.

Andrea Liebross: Someone's got to ask you the questions. I went with my own coach last week for two days. She really had to push me and ask me those questions. A couple of times I was like, “This looks scary.”

Cresta: Well, it's really hard for us to admit that we might be on the right path, but we just need to fine-tune it a little bit.

Andrea Liebross: I think it's something that every business owner and every entrepreneur at least needs, that they need to have a coach. It's different than mentoring too, because mentoring doesn't necessarily push you in the same direction as a coach. I have learned that too. You have a lot of mentors. Actually, you have someone that has a bunch of mentors but it's different.

Cresta: It’s different. Mentors give you advice from their perspective and how they have had success within your own business. A coach, again, gives you that outside perspective and they bring experience from multiple different areas that gives you an entirely different new perspective on how you can grow your business the way you want to. That's really where your coach is so valuable, is just defining who you are, how you want to run your business, focusing on your core focus, and your vision. That's where having you as a coach is so valuable in helping me excel to that next level.

Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I think the mentor thing, they can give you advice on how it's worked for them. But they're not necessarily asking how do you want it to work for you.

Cresta: Correct. Again, asking those questions can help you have a better understanding.

Andrea Liebross: Yes. I think the other thing that's super interesting is Cresta is financial advisor, which I am not, and it doesn't matter, I can still ask, it doesn't matter that that's not my expertise, business principles are business principles. Sometimes I think people get caught up in that like, “Well, I'm a special snowflake. What I do is so different. You'd never understand.”

Cresta: It's really not.

Andrea Liebross: That doesn't even matter. Whereas a mentor may give you more industry-specific advice. But if you're talking about running a business, that doesn't have to be industry-specific, but just has to be foundational business principles, and you've got to have someone ask you those questions.

Cresta: Absolutely. Spot on.

Andrea Liebross: Alright. Well, thank you for chatting today.

Cresta: You're welcome. My pleasure. Good to see you.

Andrea Liebross: Good to see you too.

What are your thoughts? Isn't it kind of cool that she is just getting clearer and clearer, more confident in herself as an entrepreneur business owner, and in who her business and how her business can serve her clients? It's so exciting when we uncover things that she “had not seen” before. It's just thrilling to me. It's thrilling to her. I don't think that we can do this kind of stuff alone. I spent three, two and a half, three days with my coach all by myself last week, and we picked apart my business, my business that I started in 2018, so it's not a baby business anymore.

I am making multiple six figures and I'm on my way to making a million dollars a year. But I could not have done that without the help of a coach asking me the questions. I always am telling my coach, “That's a really good question.” If you want that same lift, if you want to soar, you need a co-pilot. You can't do this alone. Oftentimes, you can't read the map because you're stuck in the peanut butter jar. I can help you create a map and read it with you. We can be doing this together.

I become a partner in making your business a success. Let's do this. If you are listening to this and want to join us in the Get a Grip masterclass, how to create the best year ever now before the year begins, go over to andrealiebross.com/getagrip2022 and we'll get you started off on the right foot in 2023. You can start to eliminate some of the chaos you're feeling, skepticism, doubt, uncertainty, or frustration. You can start to eliminate that now and don't have to wait till January 1st. Let's just do that together. Then let's chat.

If you are curious about what business coaching could do for you, then you can also just go and book a call at andrealiebross.com/consult, just book a complimentary strategy call where we'll take a little bit of a deep dive into your business over Zoom and figure out what and if business coaching is right for you. Now's the time to think about it. If you're gearing up for 2023, let's start out on the right foot. I do have, I believe, one more spot for VIP day in 2022. I'm already booking into January for VIP days as well. That's something, if you just want to kind of tackle this in a day, we can do that too.

I'm going to leave you with two things to do. Go register for Get a Grip 2022 at andrealiebross.com/getagrip2022. While you're there, just book yourself a consult call, a strategy call. It's kind of a strategy built into the consults. Do that at andrealiebross.com/consult. All of these links actually can now be found at andreaslinks.com. Isn't that clever and convenient? I have created that one link that'll house all these links so you don't have to worry about spelling Liebross because it's not easy.

Alright, my friends, now is the time before the end of the year to level up. Let's get your act together. Let's do this. Leveling up requires work. But let's do the right work. Let's not have you spin your wheels, which is sometimes what happens at the beginning of the year, and it's already January 20th before you get your act together, let's get it together now. Let's create a plan. Alright, until next time, remember, now's the time to level up. There's never been a better one. See you soon.

Thanks for listening to the Time to Level Up Podcast with me, your host, Andrea Liebross. If you know someone who could benefit from listening to this episode, I encourage you to take a screenshot and share it with them. Okay. Now, what about you? You've listened to the podcast, and if you now know that you're ready to upgrade your life, upgrade your business, upgrade you, then stop being only a listener and start being a liver living that upgraded life. Head over to my website and schedule a call. Right there on that call, we'll start changing the way you think and act so that you can have the freedom to achieve the impossible in life and business, and have the resources to do it. You deserve an upgrade. Let's do it.