aggressively; to 'double down' (doubling the bet when the first two cards add up Robbins, J. 'The Globalization of golf). However, day- time ads on. He went to work with the world-renowned Tony Robbins in San Diego where things really took off, winning Double the bet golf analogy curve tony robbins Leader of the Year twice. He hired. Goldsmith was a full-range sporting goods manufacturer that had tried unsuccessfully to get into golf, and felt this would be the best way. curve from the top. Tony Robbins and all the mtwarrenparkgolf.com.au more. I have golf, tennis, windsurfing, Tai Chi and more curve so that we can avoid “the pain and frustration of.
Humans need mythology, its as human a thing as you can get. So he writes a book on money that is super generic and has no connection to how he actually makes money. Basically Goldman Sachs make money by stockpiling aluminum, creating an artificial boost to the price, and making every soda can just a touch more expensive.
No giving value, no following your passion, no becoming a better person on the inside to attract money, no wealth clearing etc. Just cornering a market, somewhat unethically, but legally. I love that I spent a good 5 years brainwashing myself with self-help and personal development. It was critical to my current success. It really did wire me for success in many ways.
But that was the training ground. Real success is sometimes about things you can write in books or teach in seminars. But when I was in my self-help phase it would have been great. Another gap in self-help is that once you done all the exercises they recommend eventually it becomes time to learn real skills. At least one leads to practical skills that can make money.
Although the gratitude journal probably boosts happiness. For most people who want to make more money though they are better off learning real practical skills — like marketing, advertising, coding etc — than inner game stuff. I seem to still feel seduced by Robbins and another fellow named Paul McKenna.
I have watched a boatload of videos with Robbins and Mckenna. The things you see as negatives I see as amazing miracles. I saw the video where a man wanted to commit suicide. Double the bet golf analogy curve tony robbins I can see the argument that it might not last. I get that. I am quite certain that McKenna works with doctors and psychologist the people are going to. I think Robbins does the same. If I am wrong by all means show me, I would like to know.
I do think McKenna and Robbins charge way too much for any regular person to be helped by them. It makes a certain sense, since they are so popular many, many people would be knocking down the door for help. Thank you for your words. Even do not take Tony Robbins for granted. Love the fact as well that you show people how important it is to learn new things from the books of coaches, but that this does not mean you are implementing it right.
I was reading this principle for months and after one real life training, I was able to experience the power of it 13 months later. Like you say: Just pick a coach who has great testimonials and ask him to support you with the things where he got results in the past. And about Tony Robbins… I am not sure it is the right strategy to build an opinion based on top of a documentary or a book without knowing the full details, context, and process.
Because there is always one or two filters between you and reality. This is very well written. That said, I agree with your assessment of the documentary and his lack of self-awareness where his limitations are concerned. All of it was horrible to watch, and I felt, enormously irresponsible. As you said so well at the end, he should stick to what he knows.
The NLP stuff…frankly never worked for me. But verbal repetition of the successful outcome I want…no. I liked your post. Needless to say I stopped seeing her. A couple of months to solve a life long issue is no time at all. It takes a lot longer in most cases.
If you have struggled with an issue it is usually something that has bothered you for years. It will take a lot longer than a few months. It is not about seeing results in a few months which to me is exactly the quick fix approach you are talking about but about a process of freeing yourself from old patterns. It can literally take years. Thank you for writing this whilst there are parts I agree and parts I disagree overall I am very glad you wrote it and attracted the comments which I also read and learnt from.
Thank you Jason. You are simply using his popularity to get attention. Inevitably there is a lot you dont see. Ive done DWD and it helped me greatly. Tony puts his own gloss on it and has a nice way with catchy phrases which help you recall the key points. Jason if you want to change your life Tony advocates Step 1 changing your state moving your physical body … there could be some lying down in a meditation but its obvious to me you havent caught the key ideas.
Step 4 Change your strategy… make a new plan, make a decision, and take massive action. You can change your life in an instant. By making a decision. What we often do is take a long time to make the decision. Until we get to the point of I cant take this anymore, or I love her so much or whatever.
You decide, you change. You then have to keep at it… repetition is the mother of skill — T. Tony takes you into the motivators of why we do what we do and how we can find ways to change. Bad habits must be replaced with better habits, habits that meet more than 3 of our basic human needs. But he has certainly helped many millions of people who get and enjoy and embrace his ideas.
I worked with TR for a long time… I mean a over a decade in various roles. Large bet on masters golf tournament I am not just saying, I was on salary… I worked along side him at times closely. I have been in meetings many will never know about. I worked in the culture, and the business. It is very cult like.
Your share, is very gentle for the reality of it. The term is brain washed. He reinforces that, his team reinforce that. I am not going to go into too much detail. I am sure it will come out sooner or later. Trust yourself Jason… you have only scratched the surface of all that will come out with this. Free As A Bird and I totally respect your decision not to use your name — this comment is really interesting to me.
She said that even today years later she has his voice in her head. Weird, dark, intense stuff. I appreciate you chiming in here. Jason a refreshing post and well said. I do disagree with you on accreditation…I think a coach needs strong skills and multiple credentials. You need to be able to pick and choose from a solid set of skills those which will best benefit your client.
One size does not fit all so one approach does not work for every client. I love to be able to draw on my huge set of skills and life experience when working with clients. This is a great read. Thanks for the article, it was actually incredibly reassuring.
Good stuff Lucy — for the right person, working with a good therapist and a good life coach at the same time can be a lethally effective combination. I know psychiatrists that are confronting their own industry because of their ignorance in this field. Which is why there are a lot of people with very long relationships with therapists and have spent thousands to heal their trauma and still, years later, have nightmares, crippling anxiety, and very active triggers and are lead to believe they are thriving.
Oh contraire. Double the bet golf analogy curve tony robbins Thank you for reiterating that point. Working through all that stuff on our paths to being better. Dynamic indeed, because the one constant is change. Leckey — I appreciate this comment. Despite that, only two people — you and a close friend — have mentioned them to me. That made me smile.
Hi Jason. This is my first time to your blog and it was a great info. I focused more on your outline around sniffing out poor and even harmful coaching than the specific words agains Robbins. I agree so much though with what you said about quick fixing. It is my number one pet peeve.
Quick fixing took me down the path to orthorexia, shitty relationships, and confusing my trauma around sexual abuse with being told I needed to get those multiple orgasms on demand. People who promise quick fixes usually live in so much denial of where even they personally suffer and fall short.
The deception around what actually happens behind the scenes can be so harmful to those who are strung along this path. One point I would add that I learned about seeking coaching for myself in different areas, and learning what I could do to always improve as a coach, is to really appreciate the ones who are great boundary setters.
They have clear coaching agreements. They outline the limits of the coaching relationship. They value their time and yours. I also know a lot of my suffering in the past resulted from lack of boundaries. Again, thanks for putting this topic out there. I love that it does show how much self-love and acceptance you have developed in yourself knowing it would be a controversial topic that would result in some mean spirited comments about your own integrity.
That, to me, shows a lot of integrity. Hey Sarah. Thanks so much for visiting the blog — so glad to hear you enjoy it. Thank you so much for your thoughts here Jason. I have been a coach for 17 years and a life coach trainer for 5 and the changes I have seen in the industry especially in the last few years have been prolific. Some are for the better but others most definitely are not and most have to do with the shady marketing and manipulation you mention.
The other point I want to raise which is that life coaches are not supposed to give advice. The coach helps to bring those out in a client but it is the client who is self-actualising in the best circumstances and creating their own reality and life. That is what the best coaches do, not make their clients reliant upon them or for a moment believe that they are the ones with all the answers they are seeking.
As for Tony — I went to DWD 20 years ago and found it to be an amazingly confidence boosting, challenging and positive experience. The documentary released last year however absolutely horrified me for all the reasons you mentioned. This was not the Tony I saw and experienced and while we all change in subtle and not so subtle ways as we move through life, this was an experience to me that reeked of manipulation, bullying, dominance and the exact opposite of the title of saying he was not supposed to be the guru.
And therefore there was no opportunity for a path to be opened towards self-actualisation for the people involved. And so…thanks. I am a passionate coach and train others to become one through really empowering and ethical means. I know that there will always be detractors in our industry — and I have in fact come to love them for the challenge they throw to us with me knowing that out there, there are truly incredible coaches doing amazing work that is making a difference.
I have 30 years of experience as a registered health care provider, have a masters degree in leadership, and have done a lot of very high quality personal and spiritual development work, including NLP training which has been very beneficial for me and for people I have helped with those tools.
My experience of the training so far is that is uses specific tools that are well researched from fields like Human Needs Psychology. Cloe Madanes is a well respected psychologist who teams up with Robbins in this training. We watch videos of Tony Robbins in interventions with clients and are reminded regularly that what Tony is doing in front of thousands of people is not life coaching.
Life coaching recognizes that change takes time and that the client is the wise source to listen to about what is needed. Clients who have issues like abuse are encouraged to seek a therapist. The difference between life coaching and therapy are made clear. I have a good BS meter and I do agree with you that there are far too many people out there who are abusing their power in the fields of personal development and are using charisma and other means to make money.
For me life coaching is about helping people learn about themselves, clarify what they really need and want and bring forward their unique strengths to help them move towards a life that meets their needs in healthy and happy ways. I have seen nothing but integrity, honesty and humility in all the people teaching that course.
What I see the most of is Magic based Abundance type courses that throw an illusive net around people who are already struggling and charge them high fees for promises of miracles. But elsewhere you say that if they promise a quick result to run, because true change takes a long time.
I have had dozens of experiences in my life that were nothing short of miraculous if one limits explanation of what is possible to a mechanistic theory of physics. Before those things happened I could easily have said they were impossible. In the end, I think it is always helpful to try to create more informed consumers.
We just have to be careful not to become so critical that we leave the limits of our own field of vision out of the equation and make people too skeptical to get the help that is actually available to them. I stopped believing when that man then went on stage in Tony Robbins style. I think that does suck somewhat, yes Your journey is personal. We all know our own limits and deep inside us we have knowledge of how far we think we can reach in an effort to change.
Change is paradoxical. Only when we have discovered that which we have to sacrifice in order to be different will we decide to do it. We may lose friends and upset family and have to move on entirely from something in that process because that was part of what was holding us in the unhelpful pattern. There will be days when it all goes to shit as well and the next day we have to recommit.
I think change is something we do by stealth. That is what money mindset teaches. So what of kindness, what of the true angels in life who would go the extra mile. Do you think they are getting rich. No they are not. But they are the ones who truly inspire. It is the knowing that there are truly good people out there who will do something for you when they really did not have to who cut the mustard and encourage us to motivate others when we pay it forward.
The formulaic stuff is a money spinner for sure and enticing people to spend money when they have none in order to be better at manifesting money is a lie. Wait until you safely have enough before paying for coaching which may or may not improve your money mindset First, wait until you get a bit more money and then go for coaching to explore more ways of earning bigger money.
Maybe pay the deposit for coaching and work towards it rather than letting go of the last of your funds simply to the hope of a fix. That person or method is not your saviour. You are your saviour. Great stuff. But hopefully this stops some of the bullshit going on in the present, and helps people get more qualified help.
He is in fact the guy who introduced me to Tony Robbins in the first place way back when Tony Robbins was making cassette tapes. I listened to a couple. Pretty good advice then such as write thoughts down in a journal. Write out five things you want to change in your life. Write about five things you are happy with. Anyway, this friend himself is a magician, and a speaker on bullying and he does very well but he is also a charismatic showman type personality and I made a comment that asked the question whether beauty pageants are relevant in todays society?
He is very taken away with pageants. I asked it in the form of a question to be non- offensive however that kind of ended our relationship. Anyway my point is that critical thinking is what is really needed to motivate people to take action. However when anyone follows something blindly, invests money into something and fails to question anything.
The number one skill any humans can have and the number one skill to teach children is to have critical thinking skills. I enjoyed this article very much Jason. I myself have had an uneasy but generally beneficial experience or two with life coaching.
In my case, the main experience was with the Landmark Forum, which I know is a controversial organization that arose out of the old EST, famous for its cultish adherents and high-pressure tactics to get people to sign up for more courses. The criticisms of the Forum are valid, up to a point, but my feeling going into it was to have agency in my decision.
I researched the organization and read articles and accounts of the good and the bad. I attended because I had some personal goals to accomplish, and I made use of that context to achieve some personal breakthroughs. I was reminded of the old adage about getting out of things what you put in to them. In the end, I never signed up for the advanced course.
I could tell that a lot of the ideas were taken from Buddhism, NLP, existentialism and so on. I set about what turned into a multi-year study, especially of Buddhism. I agree with you — in the end we have to do the work ourselves, and I had a lot of deep work to do. Rather than work with a therapist, I chose a rather unusual path, which was to travel to Peru and drink ayahuasca with curanderos there, and have subsequently become a student of shamanism.
Interestingly, technocratic societies like mine are starting to catch up with the indigenous cultures in this regard, and the MAPs and other studies are validating the utility of psychotropic substances in therapy and healing. The DMT was administered in smoke form, and I attained a state of non duality — being one with everything — and my consciousness as the oversoul or Brahma was revealed.
We really are limitless and powerful beyond what we realize. I prefer to directly experience this and know this through shamanic visionary plants, rather than have it handed down to me by a life coach or guru. When you think of it, Robbins is a modern version of the Indian guru, purporting to provide the doorway to the divine, through them.
And as with the teacher plants, the real work begins after the psychedelia, or after we return from the seminar or weekend retreat and that buzzy high it may have given us. Ordinary day-to-day life is the real miracle, though it may not seem so at first. Guy — thanks for the comment and sharing your story. Thank you for writing this. I was terrified, voice trembling — when I began my story a friend of hers, someone more important than me came in late — my coach jumped to greet and announce the late comers entrance talking right over me as I was sharing my greatest pain.
What a lesson. Maybe the most humiliating moment in my life. I am glad to hear that you saw through the manipulation and abuse though. Hi — thanks so much for writing this article. As a relationship mindset coach myself, who truly believes in the power of self-help, and who deeply cares about the women I coach, I expected to be offended and upset by this article.
Some of us are really meaningful and only want to make any small difference we can. Really appreciate your nuances of argument here. You get a cookie. Thank you for this comment. I really appreciate someone in the industry who read the article, agreed with some but not all of it, and then chimed in. Please know, Hannah Jane, that I was and am completely sincere when I say I appreciate your response and am honored to have you as a reader.
Thanks, sorry for my slow reply. Thanks again, please do continue writing with this nuance and honesty — in this world of black and white and character thoughts, nuance is more important than ever. Thanks for writing about this problem. But i do want to defend NLP. As someone trained in it, when used properly it has the ability to help address internal confusion and subconscious trauma quite well.
I work with people as well and would never do some of the things you mentioned in this article- and I do agree that it is not being used with integrity. I am coach from Germany. Just found your article, and I fully agree on the general notion on life coaching. I cannot say too much about TR, since I was not exposed a lot to his work.
The few things I have seen and read were quite superficial though — not very appealing to me. First of all thanks for this masterpiece. I truly honor your opinion and following your advice in your article I would like to ask a question which may sound more critical then it is meant. One of your advices in the article is to use mx gut. So I stepped back a bit and analyze the whole article.
You create vulnerability in this article by telling partially about your own failures without going into too much details , then about very emotional situation of other people which you spices up with some personal emotional comments to add furl to the fire. Situations that instantly create the kind of sense you need for the next step. What you indirectly offers as solution is exactly the field you are working in as explained in your bio.
So my question is: Where are you different from the other guys you condemn when you seem to use similiar methods. If reading my stuff sets off your spidey senses, then the solution is simple: stop reading. It would be weirdly masochistic to do anything else. In fact, with a few exceptions, no one who commented on this post or responded to it on their own blogs know me.
Trust yourself. What makes me different than most other life coaches. I realized something simple: therapists are better equipped to do the work that I was doing than I am. To keep doing it would have been out of integrity and would take up a lot of space in my life.
Im excited for it. I believe in it. I think it will help people. I try to be selective in the people that I allow in. But is it wrong for me to critique an industry that I also work in. Is there a way I can do that sincerely. Other people will notice that I do have a sales page on my site for coaching. Until then, Im suggesting everyone get a therapist. I wrote about that too.
So again, trust your gut. Do I want people to sign up for my mailing list. Of course. It strikes me as a huge win. So this is probably all together too much and may even cloud the issue of whether or not I have integrity, but Fil, I certainly appreciate you asking this question. Thanks for the opportunity to respond. Hello Jason. By chance, I ended up on your site with this article.
He is great, great-looking and speaks to me from the soul. Really well hit. Thanks for the effort to have written this post. Best regards from Berlin. I just keep finding myself surrounded by friends who have drank the proverbial kool-aid and I have been wondering if I am the fucked up one because all I see is the false build up and fake truths.
The part of that film that scared me was when his moterators came back with details on people from the small group break outs. Those details were what he used to mock and pick people out of the audience. They were strategic picks, not organic. I was horrified for everyone in that 6 day seminar.
Thank you for writing this!!. Im with you. The event leverages wayyyy more stage craft than is immediately obvious. And thanks for the kind words, Willow. You made me smile. Perhaps there is more to this. A meta strategy that helps great numbers of people. Would love to talk with you by phone. Please e-mail me if interested. Like I said, perhaps there is more to this…for me too. Thank you so much for putting this article into the world.
You are wonderful. Keep writing. Keep teaching. Keep sharing. Love this and completely agree. It really is a bit of a sugar high. They can definately teach things, but for me, the real value is often in how fired up and excited they get me. Thanks for chiming in. I really really respect you for writing this and for putting yourself above the parapet.
An interesting article and many good points. I would suggest though that a high attrition rate for a psychotherapist is not automatically a good sign and this puts the idea of a quick fix out there. People who are working through deeply traumatic experiences such as rape, childhood sexual abuse, growing up in an emotionally and physically abusive home can take a long time to heal.
I think it is important for folks to understand that there really is no quick fix for deep personal issues whether Life Coach or psychotherapist. It is true that many people live in fear however there is lots of quality help out there. Folk just need to understand that finding quality help requires work and persistence to find the professional who is best suited for them.
High attrition rates for mental health professionals is not as clear an indicator as I initially suspected. It makes perfect sense that some ailments would require and deserve extended periods of therapy and counseling. Thank you for chiming in. Why the mental health field continues to legitimize him is beyond me. Following that demonstration at that particular conference, a colleague and I ran into him at the hotel.
Should we do that. Because I doubt that either of you can afford to lose that kind of money. Oh — and when he shook my hand, he crushed it so hard that it hurt for 3 days after. That was by no mistake on his part. Plain and simple. Heidi — I appreciate you sharing that story. In my opinion, a coach can only deliver true value to a client if he really got rid of all traumatic experiences that happened to him, otherwise he is not helping but there is a trauma-on-trauma coaching going on.
I work as a life and body coach changing your mindset without the help of your body is in my humble opinion not possible, since both are tightly connected and my training which takes 8 years minimum is rigorous, meaning you have to work and train every day physically and mentally, think Mr. But was willing to be open minded and the blog title did its job intriguing me to read more.
I have never attended one of his events so have no idea what goes on have only watched some short YouTube videos and read The Money Code. Its all about the money. So that brings me back to Tony and this is what I see: someone who keeps having to up his game.
To keep charging the money he does it becomes a game needing to constantly deliver the shock and awe factor. To wow people. Take it to that next level. Its almost a double edge sword becoming that popular because in order to keep drawing the big crowds willing to paypremium prices for a ticket the focus becomes less about delivering value and more about putting on a show like having some random girl in the audience who knows if she is really random or planted there..
What you shared about the life coaching industry needed to be shared and its hard to do that without using an example. At the end of the day we are all our own best guru, equipped with our own inner truth and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. However I discovered these methods often did not help people including myself and my psychologist and psychiatrist colleagues to feel happy and to feel good about themselves — to enjoy great relationships or to enjoy life in general.
So I went on to train in NLP, hypnotherapy, EFT — all of which made a much more positive impact on my own life and on the lives of my clients and patients — but still something was missing — and no one seemed to have found the real answers they were looking for. I continued to search for what would really help — and found a lot of things that not only did not work — but made me — and others feel worse.
At the end I felt deflated and to some extent a failure — because — none of it seemed to work for me — in fact I was now in debt — rather than feeling and becoming more abundant for example. I guess the good thing was that I started to realise that not all personal development or practitioners are really as helpful as they make out — or would like to think — and in general I do believe they are well meaning — even though they do not yet see what they are missing.
Although I had some great results with my own patients and clients — those results were unpredictable — and I had no idea why. Eventually I gave up my practices. Many psychologists are trained in methods that are not helpful — and can in fact be more damaging. This article is spot on. That is not to say they are all lying about their life stories but they an a tendency to inflate and have an incentive to make it sound as bad as possible.
Hi Jason, My kind request to you is to be careful when using gender throughout this kind of articles. This kind of communication has a real potential to perpetuate misogyny and gender inequality on a subliminal level. Many thanks for considering this in your future articles. Irina — hi. Are you a new reader. If so, welcome. I appreciate your point. In almost all articles, I default to the feminine for third person pronoun.
Though reasonable people will disagree on this one, I thought that making an exception for this article, would be more sexist than not. Hi Jason. Yes i am new, thanks for welcoming me :. I feel my point was not very clear so let me try to clarify. Thanks ;. Thank you Jason. Some years ago a friend worked with a coach to help with her finances, many promises of what was going to happen and that focusing on small amounts was not what this was about.
What's a streak you need to start. They write that down, then they write down their compelling reason why, then I have them take out their cellphone, open up their calendar, [] and go a month from that day, put a reminder of that decision they just made, and then click "repeat" so that decision is reminded on their calendar every month, month, after month, after month.
That's been very, very powerful. Because, as I tell people, "You may not remember me four years from now, but you may pull out that little card and say, 'You know what, that was the day I resolved to do this, and look what happened. Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm affirmative , so you just mentioned it, but kind of your brand is how to get switched on, or [] finding kind of what motivates you.
Could you explain that a little bit more for the audience and provide a little bit of color and context for that. Chip Eichelberger: Oh, absolutely. My belief is when you stand out, people judge you quickly. They judge tonality, they judge volume, they judge physiology, they judge smile, so how can you create a routine in your life so you're performing at your highest level consistently?
What I try to get people is first acknowledge the kind of the gap between where you are and what's possible. Where do you need to prioritize. Where do you need discipline in terms of faith and family and career and fun and health and fitness and finances, all that. Then it's about reevaluation, taking the time to go back and look at what's working, look at what's not working, expand your compelling vision of what's possible, right?
A lot of people are just kind of going through the motions, because they've forgotten their compelling vision, everything's just gotten too familiar. Getting people to dream again beyond [] where they are. Then it's about execution in terms of a solid game plan. Accountability, measurement, keeping score.
I'm a big believer that for you to be successful long-term, you've got to take care of your number one asset, which is you, and how you do anything is a clear reflection of how you do everything. From a health and fitness and vitality standpoint, that's a key part of my message, helping people be accountable. I've got a really, if people out there Google "Get [] Switched On Energy Schedule", you can pull up a PDF and download that and put that on a mirror in your bathroom.
I've done this with every audience over the last 23 years, getting them to realize, "You're your number one asset. How often are you going to exercise your number one asset. That's one key part of it, and a lot of it's around belief systems and growth mindset, getting you to realize that you have potential beyond [] where you are, that you're a work in progress, that you've got to continue to invest in yourself, so what are those belief systems?
Those are customized heavily based on the company I'm talking to, and I'm quoting people from their organization about what they believe about who they are and what they do, and getting people to look beyond where they are, what they're committed to becoming, what they're willing to start doing, stop doing, and then how, from a performance standpoint, can you bring that A-game every day.
Kyle Davis: Right. I like all of that. I put down four bullets, and I want to spend a little bit of [] time on each one of them. One of the key things it sounded like at the beginning was having people take a look at their life and see kind of where they're at, and maybe reevaluate a lot of things.
I'm kind of of the belief that people don't do enough self-reflection and they don't reevaluate everything on a daily basis, let alone monthly or-. Can you talk about the importance of reevaluation and why it is so important. Chip Eichelberger: Yeah, it's a big part. We're doing the exercise, [] and it'll say, "What is really," and then fill in the blank, "important?
Then there's a box, and I have them write down, "What's really important in your life. Where do you need focus, where do you need discipline. Then I have them stand up and they share and they talk to people around them, which, it changes, when I get people involved in the presentation, it totally changes the energy of the room. It's a good check for them, because they always talk to somebody who wrote some things down that was really important in their life, that they've neglected to put on their list, right?
We kind of go from that base of "everything affects everything". You've got to get clear in these areas, because the formula for getting switched on that I talk about is thinking long-term, right, taking care of your number one asset, and it's those little disciplines you do each day, in each of those key areas, that [] will sustain you long-term, because motivation's great, it's great to listen to motivating music or a speaker or a podcast, but what's going to sustain you long term is discipline and the ability to get stuff done.
Chip Eichelberger: What I try to do is we don't talk about what's important. You actually do it and focus on it right there so it's real to you. Kyle Davis: I love the fact that reevaluation is kind of a key. In my business life, what I've done prior to coming back to GDA, we've always spent time reevaluating every single day, was what I said on the call right, or what the task that we're doing right?
What can we kill, what can we grow. Do we need to pivot, do we need, whatever it may be. Then I see a lot of people who just maybe don't understand the importance of reevaluation, or maybe it's they know that they've gone so far one [] rabbit hole that to acknowledge maybe how far they've gone would be painful. I'm just wondering why you think people aren't so reflective these days?
Chip Eichelberger: Gosh, there's probably lots of reasons. I think people just get very busy and you get into a routine of what's working for you, and then you tend to hold on to what works for you. You're not as willing to look at new things, because, "Gosh, this worked for me in the past, this will work for me in the future," but in reality, you have to reevaluate consistently.
Plus, life changes. Marriages and kids and illnesses and financial challenges and relationship challenges, you know it's just things happen so fast that periodically [] you got to take a time out. What I'm doing is giving an opportunity to take a time out and reevaluate.
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm affirmative. Yeah, I think it's such a huge, important thing. I mean, I look at, I listen, we talked about this prior to recording, but I listen to a lot of podcasts. We talked about Tim Ferriss, and he's like this human guinea pig, if people don't know who he is, and he's constantly changing the way he eats or the way he exercises or sleeps, all these different testing things that he does, and I just like it because he's constantly [] trying to find a better way to do something, like, "If I can get six hours of sleep, let's see if we can do it with five, or we'll see how much better we can do it with seven.
Chip Eichelberger: It is fascinating, and it's easier for him because he's not married and he doesn't have four children or five children, right. Kyle Davis Kyle Davis: When it comes to execution, that was the next big takeaway that I took from it.
I mean, it sounds to me like your focus is on long-term strategy and skills. How important is execution, and do really people, and maybe it's more the pessimistic individual in myself, but I just don't think that people think about the importance of execution or designing the proper execution, and so they have this idea and they don't think about how to implement that idea.
Or am I wrong. Chip Eichelberger: Well, it depends on who you're talking about. One of my friends is a brilliant [] guy, Marshall Goldsmith, you might know him-. Chip Eichelberger: Marshall's a great guy, love Marshall, and he says, like, he'll poll an organization, he'll do a survey. Let's say I'm doing a sales group, and a salespeople, for example. Continue to invest in the Presidents Club winners who consistently make it happen year, after year, after year.
They have some gold strategies and mindsets that you can duplicate throughout the organization. That's one of the things I think I've found over the years when I'm, because I always interview some of the [] top, top people in every organization before I go in, and it's fascinating to hear what they're strategies are and what their beliefs are about what they do.
Sometimes people can think, "Oh, that's just an outlier. That's just something Kyle does. You can cross-pollinate those mindsets and those beliefs and those strategies, so people can execute more consistently. Don't reinvent the wheel. Kyle Davis: Yeah, now, I'm a huge believer in promoting the [] top, and keeping them around as long as possible and making them happy.
There is a limit on a lot of things, but in every organization I've ever worked in it's always been hey, we've got the P-Club, or whatever you want to call it, this trip, that trip, and when we get to those nice retreats, wherever they are, whether it's in Banff in Canada or somewhere in Mexico or Prague or whatnot, we always took stock of what it was that we were doing that made us top performers in comparison to everybody [] else in the company.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is I've been on a few of these, and it's interesting though, there's a lot of similarity, but there's a lot of difference too. What works for one person's personality type, completely different for another person's personality type. It's interesting to see kind of the crowd of people they bring with them and they pull up as they raise the tide.
It's very mirror-like. Chip Eichelberger: Well, it's great for them to network and have the time together. I always say overall, one of the things I've learned from speaking [] at over 1, conventions the last 23 years, is less is more. Typically, companies try to put way too much into a meeting.
Sessions are, in general, too long. There's very few corporate people who can hold an audience for longer than about 30, 45 minutes. Take that hour session planned for an hour, make it 35 minutes, make that person prepare more and really jam the best stuff into those 35 minutes. Make it more interactive, [] have people use handouts like I do. I've done this for multiple conventions where they'll bring me in a month before and spend the weekend and train and videotape and coach these people how to really captivate an audience and engage an audience.
Make them do stuff before, because a lot of times at these conventions people are preparing stuff the night before. Kyle Davis: Yeah, no, I agree, I agree on that one a lot. Now, the last thing you mentioned was about health and vitality. You also mentioned accountability kind of in there. I'm a huge believer in working out, eating right, but there's so much more to accountability, so I'm kind of wondering what your philosophy is on that.
Chip Eichelberger: My philosophy, it stems from that piece where you are your number one asset, and I always tell every audience, I mean, my end goal right now, I'm going for I don't want them to live to be 80, I want them to be a , because we all know people [] who have a high quality of life at 80 years old or 90 years old, and we all know lots of people who are old and decrepit at You got to think your endgame is how long you want to live, but really what quality of life you want to live.
I try to coach my audiences to look long-term, and realize the quality of your life long-term is typically the quality of your movement, and if you're not taking care of yourself right now, you're not exercising and eating well, and you're not enjoying your life, and you're not [] taking the date nights with your spouse, don't think one day you're going to figure that out.
Because if you don't have the discipline right now to put in the time to eat right and instant gratification and avoid binging and drink the water, and I've got an unbelievable smoothie recipe. There were just things that we just had opposite opinions on and I just Him having even more control over me as an adult just made me crabby.
Pat: Okay. Ryan Tansom: So, we got over that and we became best friends in business because we were- Pat: Go back, I interrupted you. You swore you'd never go to work for your dad and you ended up doing it. Ryan Tansom: Worked in another business for internships, selling copiers in college and all that stuff and started full-time in the middle of the financial crisis amongst all the unemployment.
Ryan Tansom: I had a bliss of probably eight months where I just sold copiers and was living life, early 20s and then I started getting pulled into the CPA and banking meetings. Ryan Tansom: My dad was coming back into the business. He was very absent for six years because there was so much margin in the company that he was able to just let the GM run it and clip his coupons at the distributions and he went through a bunch of personal stuff.
Ryan Tansom: So by the time I got in, it kind of brought him back. He had a reason to come back in the business and I got pulled into the banking and CPA meetings. We were in financial distress. We had some major client issues. There was Minneapolis Public Schools had pulled back and we had a recourse deal and a bunch of, and the financial crisis. Ryan Tansom: So essentially it was like, hey we got to turn this business around.
We lost money. So we spent the next- Pat: Let me interrupt you real quick there. You said there was a lot of margin. There's probably a lot of cash flow. Ryan Tansom: That's what Yeah, yeah. Coming from your perspective yes there's a very big difference, right. There is a very big difference. Pat: Very big difference. Ryan Tansom: Yes. Lots of that. Pat: I think that's an important point that kind of helped frame your thinking about business.
Ryan Tansom: Well and I think that kind of goes back to what you and I have been talking a lot about for the last couple of years is we lived off of annual income. There was boats and cabins and cars and just stuff. Ryan Tansom: Any time we had surplus in cash flow, shit was bought in our family business or for the company with very It was just kind of haphazardly, which I think a lot of people do.
Ryan Tansom: It wasn't with ill intent, it was just kind of the way things were. So, when we realized that the cash flow squeeze happened, so it wasn't even It was just cash flow became more difficult. Ryan Tansom: We spent the next five and a half years writing this ship. So, new systems and processes, I think I'd fired 50 people by the time I was 25, something like that.
To your point, without belaboring it anymore is, we got to the point where I was running the business. It had become my baby. Ryan Tansom: I was running all the ops and most of the executives were reporting to me. There was a dotted line from the CFO to my dad. We just couldn't figure out what was the ultimate plan.
The only reason to go through that kind of misery, and I'd tried to quit multiple times, was to have it be mine especially all the operations and the branding and what we were doing it felt as a reflection of me. Ryan Tansom: I was just telling you I had written in my journal about all kind of some of this journey.
There just was no We didn't understand what the next chapter was. We couldn't figure out the finances, we couldn't figure out the transition plans and we ended up just saying my dad wanted his money, he wanted out, he hated the business, hated the people, the employees, the copiers. Just was so ready.
Ryan Tansom: We got to the point where he was like the only option is to sell to a third party because that's we could mentally understand, honestly. It was like, hey these people could buy it, this competitor is going to gut the company to make more money for my dad and for us and that's kind of just how it unfolded.
Pat: So common among business owners. They don't understand what their options are. Sometimes they don't have many options because of decisions they've made and they just get to a point where they have to do something. Ryan Tansom: I think there was one this podcast, Pat, that I did with an individual where he said, "I can understand a strategic buyer. A lot of the things that you and I talk about nowadays are financial structures where you can align a lot of different things but those are not as common.
Ryan Tansom: Because we didn't know, we sold it and I think going back to what you said of why did I start the podcast, it was because when we signed the paperwork, went back, there was an eight figure wired to the bank. Pat: I'm going to interrupt you. Go back a little bit. You were going through the sale process. I think that's a really important part of the story of what you went through during that time that later on informed your thinking and kind of led to this.
Pat: Talk about having to deal with all the suits and people giving you advice and not being able I'm going to take away what you're going to say, steal your thunder because you've said many, many times I didn't even know what to Google to get help. Ryan Tansom: Right. Pat: Talk about that process a little bit. Ryan Tansom: The challenge was I knew I wanted the business.
I had a whole vision for what we could be as a full technology provider. We had just won the Minnesota Wild. We had spent , grand rebranding. Ryan Tansom: So, the goal was that we were going to have a business for a long time and it was going to be mine, but we couldn't figure out how to structure the whole thing. So, when you said we had attorneys and bankers and you and me and the advisor come in and they just mechanically understood their lane.
Ryan Tansom: They didn't sit down and say, "Corey, Ryan, what do you guys want. How does this work. How do we actually map this out. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars with advisors. Failed problems here and there. Ryan Tansom: Then you get to this point where you're trying to keep it secret because you don't know what's going to happen so you're keeping shit secret from all your executives, from all your employees and as the president that's supposed to be like what I was, trying to cheer lead the employees and keep the morale from selling, not selling, selling, not selling.
It's just exhausting. Ryan Tansom: It really out of pure exhaustion from both of us, we were sitting down at a bar and he was just like, "F this. I'm done. I want my money. I'm sick of it all. Sorry Ryan. I don't know. We're done. We're out of options. We'll have a silent auction. We know just from our elementary view of it, if we offered up to these three, four players they're all going to fight over us because we're third, fourth largest independent dealer in the twin cities and just out of pure necessity for them to stop the competitors, it's going to make sense for us.
So, that's just out of pure common sense, I guess, just. Pat: Yeah. You went through all that and you had that experience, which wasn't terrific from the sense of trying to figure out what everybody's goals were and satisfy them. But you did get the sale done and you had that happen. Pat: Then when you had this epiphany of wanting to do a podcast, what is it you were trying to accomplish by having a podcast?
Ryan Tansom: I'll answer that and I'll bridge it as well. Pat: And where did the name come from. Ryan Tansom: Good point. I'll bridge it with when we sold the business, when we finally went through the whole process, which we can get into and different podcasts, different later they can check out some more material is we went, we signed out the documents, we went back and I literally get a stomach ache thinking about it today.
Ryan Tansom: We called in 20 technicians that are in the field, all the sales people, "Hey, everybody come back to the office. So, they're going, "Shit. We're going to fire 40, 50 people so that way we can away with a shit load of money, perception wise that's what everybody thinks. Ryan Tansom: We knew that everybody is interviewing for their jobs. Just total disruption to all these employees that came on for my future vision of the business, which was a rug pulled out from underneath them.
Ryan Tansom: Not only that emotional bullshit that I dealt with, but then I had to be I didn't even I was supposed to be part of the line items that were fired in the process to make the most amount of money. So, I was literally working myself out of a job with no plan after what I was going to do next.
Ryan Tansom: So, now then out of the 85 people, I think they kept 30 or something like that. Literally had it, I went from almost in the corner office to a cube next to a 22 year old intern and like, "Hey, by the way, just have fun. When you pay, you and I both know shit loads in taxes, pay down your debt, it doesn't, the perception people are like hey, I bet you the Tansom's have made 40 million dollars because we were a 20 million dollar company.
So far from Ryan Tansom: You're smiling right now. That is so far from the truth. At that point when I had quit that fall, literally 60 some days. My wife and I took a vacation over Christmas and it was just like, what the F was that. For me to work five, six years to turn it all around and then have to go get a job for someone else, just doesn't work.
Ryan Tansom: The whole point for me was like, hey, let's do this podcast to have as many cool connections of what we could have done differently, and hopefully I'll find an opportunity to do what we're doing now is find people I love and people I can enjoy what we're selling.
I said, "Well, wish I would have read that before we sold. So the Life After Business was trying to explain like hey, this is what life is and how to be happy afterwards. Then I realized that most people don't think about the exit at all until they're forced into a situation and then you can't pull out of what we went through.
Pat: A lot of the focus, it seems like, especially in the early years was about the exit and being focused on that and trying to help people understand what the options were, given experiences of other people who have either exited their business or written books about exiting business.
Pat: But it seems like over the past few years that focus about purely the exit life after business seemed to change a little bit and it seemed to try and incorporate other aspects of the business life into it. Is that right or. Ryan Tansom: Yeah, and I don't know what you would think is a good analogy for this Pat.
But I think about the reason for a lot of, and it was out of my own personal journey of trying to understand what the hell is private equity, what is an ESAP. Investment bankers, how do they get paid. What is the point of them. Ryan Tansom: If you don't understand those things, you can't plan whether you want to do it or not. So, understanding how well the end result can be is the only way you can write your own story.
Ryan Tansom: So, the moment that It took me a couple of years of all those interviews to learn those mechanics, and then I was like well now I know I could have done a thousand things differently. Ryan Tansom: So, then it comes down to growing the right direction. I think so many people, I don't know if there's a story of if you run really fast up a ladder and you look over and you're on the wrong wall, okay, well that sucks.
Wouldn't it have been nice to look up first and say, "Hey, let's go on this ladder. Ryan Tansom: Right, because then you can focus on the journey once you understand how the end works. I just don't think a lot of people understand enough what that end could look like because most people enjoy growing.
Growing is fun, right. Ryan Tansom: No one wants to explain how the end, hey, do you want to talk about death all the time. No, but we need to understand how a healthy body works to make the whole journey as enjoyable as possible. After having a couple of hundred podcasts titled Life After Business, you've decided to change the title of it.
Talk about what led you to that. What was your thought process on that and I think that will just be helpful for people to understand why the name change and what are you trying to accomplish with that. Ryan Tansom: I think the name change of Life After Business has to do with the market research and my trial and error of the word exit that people have a visceral reaction to, because entrepreneurs are so integrated their identity into their business that the only time people seem to think about exit is when shit is way too late.
Ryan Tansom: So, for us to truly help as many people as we possibly can, we have to be talking about growth and we have to talk about the end in mind for them to be able to write their own narrative. But I think it is about the end but it's about the journey to get to what people want. Ryan Tansom: I think the true freedom of having what everyone as an entrepreneur is having the freedom to choose.
It's different for everybody. Pat: The end in mind, the title of our course and our tagline, intentional growth, grow the value of your business with an end in mind. So, you're saying the end doesn't have to be an exit. Ryan Tansom: Right, and the end is a result of how you want to live your life, period.
Pat: So it could be just a more valuable company five years from now and then I would have if I didn't become intentional and do the things that would get me there. Ryan Tansom: Totally Pat. I think about this can, we even though some of the things that we now teach but if I heard from one entrepreneur, I've heard from 1,, I wish I could be the chairman of the board and golf whenever I want.
Ryan Tansom: Look, there's some truth to that but it's kind of there is a level of passion and adrenaline that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners have of taking risk, designing their future and having choices and being okay with those choices. Ryan Tansom: A lot of people fail a lot, but they're okay with it because they had enough data to make those choices.
So, the end in mind could be literally acquiring companies, having philanthropy while you run your business because you don't need the money and you want to do an ESAP and be the chairman of the board. Ryan Tansom: That's possible, it just comes down to you have to build a valuable business in order to have those choices. Otherwise, the amount of people that we know that have jobs, 20 million dollar companies that just have a job, there's a lot of personal guarantees because they don't have the options.
Ryan Tansom: I tell the story of this And one morning he tried to get out of his car and his seat belt was still in and he said, "F it, I'm selling. Ryan Tansom: At that point, to wake up and have to do the hard things, to create a valuable company is almost impossible. It's like fighting gravity to fire your president, do a new ERP implementation, win new customers.
When you hate the business, I watched it with my dad, it's impossible unless you have someone that's got the energy to do it.