Unveiling the Financial challenges Faced by Coaches and Real Estate Professionals

Unveiling the Financial Challenges Faced by Coaches and Real Estate Professionals

Faisal: You're listening to the Coach's Journey Podcast, exposing the struggles and celebrating the successes in the life of coaches who are action takers and creating authentic impact in today's world. Whether you're just starting out expanding your reach or exploding your impact, you're in the right place right now.

Stay tuned and be sure to subscribe to this podcast. Now, here are your hosts of the Coach's Journey podcast. The way the industry works, like everybody, for example, in the real estate world, they talk about. Doors coaches might talk about, Hey, I have this many clients. Hey, I have this kinda business, but they might not have the cash flow to show that. One of the things I actually learned from both revenue versus net profit yeah, both Mike Machowicz and Grant Cardone talks about this quite a bit to another real estate investor is like, you should be using only about 20% of your revenue in the beginning.

You might use about. 40%, but you should push yourself to use only about 20%. The rest needs to get reinvested somewhere else and when I was listening to that a few years ago, I was using about 90%. Yeah. Yeah. Most people are there like, oh shit. How the hell do I change this? I'm getting clients, I'm starting to get clients. I'm nowhere near 20%, so I'm halfway there. So I'm using half of my revenue for that and half of it is getting me. That's still great. Yeah, but it's like slowly work in progress. But until I heard that from somebody who's had an experience, that Mike Machowicz talks about, the other side of it is that most systems for finances are set up around assuming that human beings are logical, but we're not.

Yeah, we might logically think that this is how it should go, but reality shows a very, very especially as you have. More money coming in your lifestyle starts to go up a little bit and then, yeah. One thing after another. Before you know it, now you're doing as much as what you're making.

You're like, okay, what the hell do I do with that? Yeah. That's where most people struggle. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. And I think coaches listening to this, a lot of them might be struggling to even get clients. But that might not be the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge might be that you might have a job and you might not have enough of a cushion to even put yourself out there as a coach.

Yeah. You might not even be looking at your finances properly to say, Hey, if I did decide to go towards this as a transition part-time as a coach, or full-time, how long can I sustain myself? And what would that look like if I looked at my investments, and this is what I'm passionate about, this one, I think that's one of the things that holds coaches back is like, can I make money?

Yes, you will be, but you're not gonna make money in the first month. You need to put yourself out there. You need to do the work just like any other business. It takes time for you to build on that. But you need to look at your financial situation. You need to look at what you are doing and even, yeah.

Steve Chandler, I have his book there. Crazy Good. He talks about it like if you jump into the, let's say the coaching world, cause you're building a business and you're like, I just wanna make money from day one, go get a job. Go find another way of making money until you build this system for this. Because that's gonna be a disservice to your clients. cause you are all, mostly your focus is gonna be money. Yeah. That's so good. Gonna help you. And I agree. There's one thing you said that, you said many profounding, but one thing you kind of passed by it very quickly. But that was really powerful.

I don't even know if you noticed it, but you said that you had millions of dollars coming in that told you that this thing is working, that you're pining your words, and to me, what I hear there is that the market decided that what you are offering out in the marketplace is valuable.

Yeah. And that's something that I don't think a lot of coaches understand about the capitalistic system, that because they're all kind of in their own head. I was too at one point where like, okay, what if I put this out there? Nobody cares about it. what if people can, it's not about you.

Because ultimately what's gonna decide whether or not this is even valuable, whether or not you're gonna make money is the marketplace. People are gonna decide whether it's valuable and that's what moves forward. And until you put it out there, you could have all the best ideas in the world. It doesn't mean squat.

 Could you expand on that? 

David: Well, yeah, that's why when I first started I was like, I want to, after reading Dan Kennedy's books, I said, I don't want to be the cheapest option. I don't want to go out there and give a cheap option. I want it to be expensive

and this was me. Okay. This is David three and a half years ago where he should be imposter syndrome galore and I definitely had some of that, but like I said, I'm gonna charge a lot of money and I'm gonna charge at least 20 and to me, it was a lot of money back then. 2,500 a month at least.

Like for people to work with me, if they work with me one-on-one, that's a different story now. But like back then I was like, are people going to do this? But then I put myself out there and once I could explain what I was doing, giving them that clarity, even back then when I was horrible at explaining it.

I was getting people in the door because so many people understood they had a bookkeeper in CPA, but no one to really help them keep more money in their pockets. How do I take the dollars that are coming in and make sure I'm building an actual business and not going out of business or thinking about the money all the time?

That's crazy that so many people think of money all the time, but they're trying to make an impact. But then their shoulders are tight and they're not able to think about anything. But can I put food on the table this week?

So I love what you said, like maybe you need to get a job. Maybe you need to do something to make an impact, but the market's gonna tell you if you've got something that's good. That's where I also helped go from, Do I need to keep doing this myself? Keep it very small and squeeze the profitability margin to Grant Cardone figures where you could be doing like 80%, you know, net profit margin.

But that was also too, I wanted to make that impact like we even talked about before. Like, do I want to change the world or do I wanna change my world? Like the people, just the people that I'm interacting with now. But I had so much feedback. Feedback in the form of dollars and clients that wanted to come in and where I'm like, I need help.

I need help. Like if I want to work with more people, if I want to make a bigger impact. That's kind of where the market even drove the expansion, which seems logical, right? Like that's where most people wouldn't need to get to that point. But I feel like you're saying, a lot of people don't even, I don't know, believe in themselves enough or maybe don't have enough.

Coming in like in the sales or like they don't know how to put themselves out there to know that, okay, is this a viable option? And then getting those dollars in return and if you're not getting it and you're doing a lot of things that might be the market telling you they don't really need this like this is not something, maybe it's a great idea for you.

That's why if you've got something that worked for you that has changed your life and it's changed other people's lives as well, that's where you can start getting that rolling and one other thing. That I wanted to touch on that you and the last point of like as you scale your business or like the different, you know, stages that you're at another book.

I think this will provide a lot of value to the coaches out there and the consultants that Mike Michalowicz has another book, not just Profit First. Profit First is all about how I get more dollars to stay in my bank account and be profitable and a good system for it. So definitely pick that one up. But he has another book.

Fix This Next, and it's an incredible book because it's about like if you've heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for your personal life and all that. But this is like the business hierarchy of needs where it's got the little pyramid and it's like, what's broken and what do I need to fix next? So if it's like I don't have enough sales to feed my family, well that's the bottom of the pyramid.

Sales have to be there. The engine has to be driven like you have to have leads to come in and you have to have money coming in to even manage it. That's where profit is next. Step of that pyramid. So like I have to have sales coming in, but then I have to manage the dollars as soon as they're in my bank account.

I need the profitability there to then fuel more sales and to fuel the engine to make sure that hey, that I am able to continue building this like I want to, and that I'm able to have a business that is not kicking my butt all the time. So it's like sales, then profit. The next one is ordered. So like now you have to organize the chaos. That's where I was on my journey.

When I had more clients coming in than I could handle, I had to take the conscientious decision to say, do I want to have more orders? Which might decrease profitability a little bit because now I'm investing in people in systems. So the order stage is like I have to. Convert some of that profitability that I have into order out of the chaos.

So like I need to invest in those people, systems, processes, you know, maybe some mastermind-type things to make sure, okay, who are the right people I need to be around that can help me organize this mess? So that's where the next step is in order. Then that cycle repeats itself constantly. I feel like those three, cause then it's like, okay, now order's great, now I need more sales to come in to feed the team that I have.

So it's like, but then you still have to be profitable so that way you're not burning out because you've just gone up a level. But then you've skipped the profitability step and you keep thinking, you know, like that's why I love that pyramid there. Then the other two are impact and legacy. So the impact is how many people I reach. In Legacy, am I able to pass it on? I've kept that framework a lot because I go constantly like, okay, the next stage of business I have to work on the sales, then I have to work on the profitability, and then I have the chaos that I've caused by going to this next level.

And that's where people just have to have some sort of framework in their mind of like, do I want to take that next step? Cause as you said, the marketplace was telling me this is a good idea, people need this. How big do we wanna get it? Okay, well let's build the sales, let's get some profitability in there.

Let's convert some of that profitability to order and see how long that goes. Because people ask me all the time like, what are your big end goals? And I'm like, honestly, I wanna keep doing that order until it stops working, until either the marketplace has dried up. Or we've reached every person that we can.

It's like I'm a young guy. I'm not looking in two years to retire from this business and be out there. Like I want to make an impact. So it's like, can I keep that process going too, to just see how large I can take it? And that's why. The play of the book and getting the book out there, which was not just a big business card, which it's a great credibility piece for sure.

It gets me on stages, it gets me into different rooms and stuff. But it's also built as a book that can actually help people like people have taken that not worked with me and had good success, and I'm like, Boom. The book is really accomplishing what I want it to accomplish, but then in turn helps other people know about it.

So there you go. I'll stop there. I'll let you get back to like the main question, but that's where I feel like the marketplace really does have that big effect of what, how big you can get. You might have a good idea, but then the marketplace is gonna tell you how big of an impact you're going to make eventually.

Faisal: Yeah. And I think you explained with that model that one of the big gaps so, this is how, and this is how I thought too in the beginning. It's like, yeah, alright, I'm starting a business. I wanna make a bigger impact. So as you were describing that pyramid, I was thinking about the top of the pyramid, but I didn't know anything in the middle of it.

Yeah. Feel like just working with real estate investors as well as coaches and one of the reasons why I connected with real estate investors, even without being a real estate investor, is because I saw that I had the same goddamn problems that they do. So I think one of the things that most coaches and even investors do when they jump in is because a lot of them come from like a work world, corporate world, they have a job for it.

They were trained to think a certain way. That is not how business works at all. Like most of what we're taught. It does not apply when you're in the day-to-day option. It looks like it might, like if you just find a few clients, it does not. There are so many variables and it takes a little, quite a bit of time and work for your mind to even understand the variables and there.

So I think most coaches and most people come from a job world like I struggled with that for two years and I thought I was the only one. But as I was going through, I'm like, there were so many things I needed to make sense of and I kept underestimating. So I think most people underestimate what it takes to build a business.

Yeah. It's a longer-term journey. The focus, like a lot, as you said, you need to build the systems and that's what our focus is in C M C as well is that let's help you build the business system rather than get you a couple of clients, cause that is not gonna help you build a business two or three clients a year or in a month, we put a lot of free stuff just to get you started. Go get a few clients, but most coaches I talk to, they're thinking processes. Let's just get two or three clients. I'll be good. But here's what happens.

You'll get those two, three clients. You don't know how some of the systems work. Within six months, you're out of clients again. Right, and you know how to approach more people. You don't know how to set up the system for you to more leads coming in. You don't know how to put yourself out there. You don't know what to reinvest in, which is another piece of it

is that we wanna keep the profit for reinvestment in the beginning stages of a business and if you can do that and sustain your life, you will start to build a business and a brand that will be very powerful as you move forward. And there's stages of that and I don't think anybody thinks about the stages of it.

They're just, I just wanna get a few clients. Yeah, exactly.

David: Can I say one thing super quick, Sheri, because it's me and I thought while you're talking about, this is a great Star Wars quote, it's Yoda, right? You have to unlearn what you have learned. I don't know how many times I've thought of that quote over the last three and a half years building this thing of like, there's so many times I need to like just stop putting the stuff that I was running through a filter and put it through a new thing or learn something

and then I think about that in the real estate world, like you just said, so many people in their backgrounds like. Forget all that. Like if you're a coach and consultant listening to this, you have to get rid of every paradigm you've ever had about business and just listen to the people that are successful, like listen to that.

I honestly feel like that's why I've had a quicker trajectory, not just because of the marketplace, but because I didn't have as many bad habits. I didn't go to this crazy college and got an NBA. I Had a financial account like some of the liabilities that people have were assets at one point in their life and it's like, what in the world?

I have to change my whole mindset of like, okay, I need to switch this around. That was a good statement. Like, I need to write that down. I'm shocking myself. Sorry, I just, that was. Right. That's why that's like, there's my Yoda quote, but that's where a lot of people just have to unlearn that. That's why I was like, you got me here.

So I immediately thought Yoda and like, you gotta unlearn what you're learning so that way you can grow to where you want to get to and like not running outta clients and like thinking ahead because that's what it's really about. Of like, okay, can I be a few steps ahead? You don't have to get 10, 20 steps ahead.

Just making sure. Okay, are we on the right track? Of what we really want to get to. Sorry for cutting you off, Sheri. 

Sheri: Yeah, you're fine. You're our guest. We're picking your brains today and we'll totally let you snip that out for a reel or something so you can just, you know, blast it all over the place.

David: Yeah. Yeah. That was, I need to start saying that. I do need to write that down somewhere. I do need that piece cause I'm like, I think that one might resonate with people. I'll have to test it though, even though I like it doesn't mean other people like it. So, see, I gotta go on stage and see how people react to it.

And yeah. Sheri, 

Faisal: before you go into the four questions, I just wanna share a couple of things that might be like things to take away for coaches themselves. There. There are many things in there, but especially if you're starting as a coach there is actually no way for you to make a creative business unless you put yourself out there that, now, that might not be on social media, that might not be on every podcast there is, but it might be in person.

It might be you talking to the people around you. It doesn't matter how great you are as a coach, it doesn't matter how you are you. The first step is to put yourself out there and actually offer to support people, whether it's individuals or groups, whatever that is. Without that, there is no business. And once you start doing that. Before you even start doing that, take a look at your finances. Read profit first, read David's book, profit First for real estate investors and really think through what's happening in your life right now. Where are your investments going? Because the first piece of investment is actually in your own education and your own professional development.

The coaches your own self. And you are doing that with other people. You're gonna go up to people and ask them, do you have a coach? They're gonna ask you, do you have a coach? And if you don't, That's a struggle point cause it'll be very hard for you to sell then. That's part of what we do in C M C is to help you get not only the professional development support, but help get a coach as well as you're working through that and help you get the resources for you to move forward, to build a system a long-term scalable system for you to build a profitable business that will support you, but also serve a lot of people in the process there.

There's a huge need for coaching right now out there. It used to be very small. Now it's. Picking up like wildfire. It's in the real estate world. It's in the business world. It's in the entertainment world. It's in the athletic world and even normally, people are more and more aware of it. And as this is building up, you might fall behind if you don't jump in and invest in this and we're here to support you. So go to the links, and join our Facebook group. If you're listening to this outside or just go to coaching master community.com and you'll be able to gain a lot of information from that. I'll let Sheri take this before she starts messaging me a bunch of stuff that I won't like,

Sheri: you always have so much good. Stuff to say. The challenge is our listeners don't have a full day to sit and listen to one long podcast.

Well, first of all, I wanna say David, I adore what you do and I first heard about Profit First from Mike Michalowitz. I think it was when he wrote his book back in like 2015. I had a large mental health practice and that revolutionized kind of how I thought about the finances and the practice. then I

told my husband about it because my husband if he looks at a spreadsheet, like his eyes crossed, we've had QuickBooks for like 15 years and I don't think he's ever logged into QuickBooks and so like, he just doesn't care about that stuff. That's not his personality and so I told him about this and he is like, you know don't about the bank account balance.

Yeah. You know, stuff like that and so he's been using it in our real estate business and even C M C, we use profit first in our finances and so a hundred percent bought into the system and absolutely love what you bring to the real estate investing space with that, because there are some nuances.

If you are an investor, you happen to listening to this, there are some nuances to how to understand profitability among the different types of real estate strategies that I couldn't figure out in my brain, but the book does a really great job laying out, so that's amazing. 

David: Thank you. I appreciate that. If you're gonna make the money, you might as well keep it. 

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