One of the inevitable aspects of running a business is hitting the wall and getting the feeling of being stuck. If you do not know where to go next, getting customizable coaching is an excellent solution. Sam Wilson is joined by business coach, author, and podcaster Jon Dwoskin. Jon talks about the excellent results of offering unique coaching services aligned to the preferences and needs of his clients. He opens up about the common challenges most business owners encounter and the repetitive mistakes they must finally eliminate. Jon also presents valuable tips in vetting a good coach and the importance of finding the right one who will gladly mentor you at all times.
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The Many Benefits Of Customizable Coaching With Jon Dwoskin
Jon Dwoskin is a business coach. He is an author, speaker and also a fellow podcaster. The title of his show is THINK Business based in Detroit, Michigan. He helps business leaders go from stuck to unstuck. Jon, welcome to the show.
Thanks. I appreciate being here.
The pleasure is mine. There are three questions I ask everybody that comes on the show and you can tell us your answers from whatever perspective you wish to share. Where did you start, where are you now and how did you get there?
I found my passion when my dad gave me a set of tape sets at eighteen called The Psychology of Success by Brian Tracy. I put it on my ears. I knew I wanted to be a business coach. I knew I wanted to coach, write books and inspire people. What I’m doing now is I’m a business coach that works with successful people who are stuck. I get them unstuck. I work with solopreneurs, Fortune 100 companies and everything in between, all over the country. I work hard and I learn something new every day.
Break that process down for us. Did you graduate from high school or college and say, “I’m going to be a business coach,” and off it went? What was that process like?
I graduated high school. I went to college. I double-majored in Econ and Journalism. I graduated in May of 1995 and started an internet company in June of 1995 with my brother and a buddy. We made websites. I was the sales guy and the business planner and called everybody accountable. The three of us grew that business to a large company.
Two years after we started it, we sold it to the world’s largest internet professional service firm called USWeb in 1997. We were partners in that company for two years. When we could leave, we left and got into commercial real estate. I had a successful thirteen-year run in commercial real estate. I wanted to start my business, so I left commercial real estate to start my coaching business.
You could talk to us from a lot of different angles. I didn’t know you had a thirteen-year stint.
I was a broker that sold apartment buildings for six years in Michigan. I then took over my office in Michigan. I worked for a company called Marcus & Millichap. I took over my office in Detroit on August 4th of ’08 and the market crashed in September of ‘08. My office was annihilated. I then grew that office over 6 years to 45 agents, 60 some people and one of the most profitable offices in the entire company.
You said, “I’m out of here. I’m going to go be a business coach.” That’s it?
I wanted to be a business coach. I was getting ready to leave. I got offered an opportunity to go in-house for a year at a 50-year old business to help restructure that company. I did that and then I started my business. I was probably going to have my best year ever, but I’ve always moved to fulfillments and I wanted it. I was about to be 42 and it was time for me to do what I wanted to do.
Thanks for having the courage. There are a lot of people that are stuck. They don’t have the courage to make that next move. What was the moment you knew you were onto something when you said, “I can go be a business coach because of X, Y and Z.” Can you break that down?
I had always been building my business plan for it. It was always something that I always wanted to do. I always found myself coaching other people. I loved it. I always had the ability to hear and see what others missed. To me, it was hidden in plain sight. I was able to provide ideas to people. I was able to reverse engineer them, create tools for them to get unstuck, give them the confidence to move forward and break things down to the simple. That’s always been a unique ability of mine, but I loved it. I could apply it in different areas of business, but I didn’t want to work in Corporate America my whole life.
I didn’t want to be a manager of other people at one company my whole life. It was too constricting. I had ideas. I wanted to work with people all over the world, not just in one office. I wasn’t fulfilled anymore. I have gotten down to routine. I knew what I was doing. You do more of the same. There was a quote by Tony Robbins, “Success without fulfillment equals failure.” I wasn’t fulfilled. I thought, “What’s going to fulfill me?” My kids are young. I want them seeing me happy and my wife is supportive. I’m going to quit my job and start my business and I did.
You must have a very supportive wife as well. You got young kids. I’m going to quit the known and go into the unknown. That’s an inspiring story. I love that. I don’t want to stay on here for too long because I want to hear what your thoughts are across all the different classes, industries and people you work with. Some of the common things that you help people get unstuck from. I want to get to that, but I do want to know, what were some of the first steps you took to grow your business on the coaching side?
Success without fulfillment leads to failure.
Once I knew I was doing it, I created a 60-page business plan. It was more of blueprints. Every nitty-gritty detail that I would want to get down. I launched on social media even before I had a website and started doing a video tip every single day. This was years ago when people were doing less video. I still don’t think people are doing enough, but I started using the medium in a way that I knew would build the brand. I started getting clients of people who knew me and knew that I had started and sold an internet company and was a commercial real estate guy. I grew an office.
I’m a business coach that’s been in business and done it. I didn’t go learn somebody else’s formula and then try to force it on someone. Everything I do is highly customized to the individual, group or keynote that I’m doing. That’s what I did. I started doing a video every day. That’s what I tell people, “If you’re going to start a new business, get out there and do a video every single day.” I still do it. I do three a day. I do a morning video, [12:00] video and [4:15] video.
How do you even find enough content to talk about?
My content has content. I have so much content that I break it down into chewable bites.
That’s interesting for an introvert who doesn’t like to put themselves out there. That would be hard for me to think through everything to share every day.
It’s easier than you think. I coach people to get to that space because I’m more introverted than extroverted. The content isn’t about you. It’s about the listener. I find myself coaching people a lot to say, “Here is the system, formula, ritual and how you do it. Go do it.”
Let’s talk a little bit about your coaching business. This is the heart of the show and what I was excited to jump in with you. What are some common things that you see across the board? You say, “These are things I practically deal with every single client.” How do you help them overcome those?
Everyone wants to know how they can grow their business. Many people don’t wake up and think, “I need a business coach,” until they are ready for a business coach. The question is, “I want to grow my business. How do I do it?” I have to find the whos in my world that can help me do what I need to do. What I do is I work with companies and individuals and I find where their stuck points are very quickly and I get them unstuck. The shelf life of each person, whether it’s a CEO, leader, owner, manager, salesperson or vice-president, is different, so the continuity in how I coach each one of them is a little bit different.
Typically, I’ll do a 3 to 5-hour deep dive and then 15 minutes a week or 30 minutes every other week with clients. I type as fast as I can talk, so I type out everything we talk about with action items. We can record the call too and put it in Dropbox. It’s about setting those action plans and getting focused. I’m an idea guy where I can say, “This is what you’re missing. How long have you been doing that? Two years? Here is how I would maybe evolve that.” It’s subtle, but it makes a big impact on change and saves a ton of time. I can help reverse engineer how they need to do it, what they need to do and give them the tool and the beginning launch of what to do.
It gets them unstuck. Some can go 1 to 2 weeks before the shelf life starts to wear off. They need someone who can help them recalibrate, get refocused and set a plan for the next week or two. What it does is it boosts not only their confidence but keeps them hyper-focused. I can quantify by working with me that you can grow your business in a significant way, whether you’re a salesperson, growing your sales, a manager and don’t know how to manage people. Most salespeople are afraid to ask for business and are horrible at time management. They don’t know how to structure their day and I teach them how.
I teach them how to ask for business. Most managers were promoted because they were good at their job. They don’t know how to communicate effectively or manage people. I train a ton of managers. Leaders are confused about how to lead, especially in a hybrid world. I work with leaders and CEOs, business planning, vision, messaging, and how to build and scale the company they want to build. There is a ton of mindset, tools and all of that goes into all of my coaching because I’m coaching the individual on a customized basis. I hear and see things that they completely missed.
It’s hidden in plain sight to me, but not to them. I can do it every single time I talk to them. I guarantee all of my work. I do no contracts. I guarantee that I return every call, text, email the same day. If somebody wants to stop using me, they can stop using me. I don’t care. That’s their choice. I’m a month-to-month investment and that’s how I like it. My clients are successful and they’re stuck. I don’t want them stuck in a contract with me. I know I’m great at what I do. I can help them in real-time. They need me in between sessions. They call me and we get to take care of it. That’s why I guarantee everything that I do.
I know you said from the sales guy to management to a leader, maybe not knowing effectively how to lead in a hybrid world. What are some tools or resources that you give them and you say, “Here is how you can overcome those various challenges?”
It’s tools, things to say, and defining and creating a structure of what they are trying to do but don’t know how to do. It’s putting it on paper. It’s creating a customized routine, ritual or system for them, so they can get laser-focus. One obstacle with people is that most people don’t know how to structure themselves. Most people are doing things and winging it. Most people don’t know how to create a plan or prep themselves, manage time, and even define the problem. I can come in and help define it, build the structure, provide the simple tools to get them unstuck so they can then execute. The time management element is a big piece of it, too.
Talk to us about that. How do you coach people in time management? What are some mistakes people are making then? How do you get them around that?
I do a lot of keynotes and group trainings on time management. I’ll give you three quick things. One, write everything down. The story goes that when people would ask Albert Einstein what his phone number was, he would go to the phone book to look it up. They would say, “Mr. Einstein, you’re one of the smartest people in the world. You don’t know your own phone number?” To which he would answer, “I don’t like to waste my brain power with information that’s easily accessible.”
Many people don’t know how to structure themselves. Most people are doing things and just winging it.
Write everything down, time block everything and track your time for three days to know where you’re wasting time and become a master student of your calendar. For every 4 minutes, you saved us 24 hours a year. If you want to maximize and evolve your business, learn how to use your calendar. I teach everybody to do that all the time. For me, it’s so simple, but for others, it’s so simple as complicated.
What do you mean by learn how to use your calendar?
Most people don’t use their calendars effectively.
Can you break that down for us?
They don’t time block. They have three different calendars, sticky notes, notebooks, two different to-do lists and too many things. They don’t know how to become a master student of their calendar and study their calendar at the end of every day, how to look at the appointments and what they did and didn’t do. Look at the white space of what they did and didn’t do. Track their time so they can see, “I wasted an hour and a half every single day.” While you compound that to an hour a day, that’s twenty hours a week. You compound that times eleven months, that’s a lot of time. I teach keynotes and I also get into the nitty-gritty with individual people. It’s hard for a lot of people.
It is, just on the subject of time management, and I am constantly trying to figure out the best way to do it. Even in the podcasting world. I’ve got six interviews. There is a 30-minute block between one in the next and you go, “What am I going to do that’s meaningful for 30 minutes? How do I find a task that makes sense to fill in that block that is that white space where it could be drifting through email and that’s maybe not a great use of time?” I’m trying to nail that stuff down as a challenge. What have your clients done that have become successful as they’ve employed what you’ve told them to do versus you’ve given advice and they didn’t do anything with it?
My clients are open-minded. The clients who end up working with me, about 80% of my clients long-term, are open-minded. At any point, if they become close-minded, I don’t work with them anymore because I can’t do my work to somebody who is closed-minded and doesn’t want to do their work. I can do my work. I can take someone and keep on growing them. Many kinds that started with me years ago are still with me. I can continually grow them. The minute somebody says, “I’m good. I’m complacent. My mind is now closed.” That’s not my client. My client is open-minded and always looking to grow, reach their highest potential, and understand that the nuances of what they get from working on a consistent basis through coaching are priceless.
How many coaches does every sports team have? Coaching is a normal thing. When I was in commercial real estate, I remember I had two coaches. I had a communications coach and a business coach. My boss always said to me, “What do you need a coach for? What are they going to teach you?” I always thought how close-minded that was. I was like, “What do you mean?” I want someone to push and challenge me and evolve and grow as an individual to grow my business and serve people at a higher level.
That’s invaluable and I love that analogy. That’s a great point. Having a coach or mentor is quite common in the real estate space. I’ve got plenty of people that are made on my bench. You are mentors and coaches in my life that I still pay to this day because it’s valuable to have them out there. What are some things you find that people should look for? There are also as many bad coaches out there, especially in the real estate space. The guru circuit in real estate is overwhelmingly nauseating, in my own opinion. It’s such a waste of money and time. How do you vet a great coach or potential mentor?
You talk to somebody who is going to be high support and high challenge, who understands and can customize for you. Every person is different. I was in the real estate business for a long time. I have a lot of real estate clients. You need somebody who is going to customize it to you, not put a form in front of you or a, “Here are the three Cs of what you need to do.”
That doesn’t work, especially for real estate people. Everything is customized. You want someone who’s going to give you a high challenge and high support to evolve and grow. It’s a great time in the real estate business and growing your business. That’s what you need. You need somebody who is in alignment with you that it fits. You’ll know within the first five minutes.
That’s an interesting point because that’s a soft skill when you know that it fits. I went through that early on in real estate, looking for various mentors. I used to create spreadsheets. I created all this stuff and in the end, you could tell like, “That’s the right fit.”
Typically, if people call me to coach them, they’re open-minded and want to grow. I ended up working with 9.5 out of 10 people. I don’t tell people who my clients are. I keep that highly confidential. I don’t repeat a word people that tell me or who my clients are. A couple of times, I can point to a one-time where people were pushing me like, “I want to know who your client is.” I’m not going to tell you.
What I said to him was, “It doesn’t matter who my clients are. I’ve given you examples of what I’ve done for companies. All that matters is what I can do for you. I guarantee my work. I know I can help you. Here is where I can help you. If you’re stuck on who my clients are, then you’re not ready for my level of coaching because my level of coaching is going to take you to a place you’ve never been.”
If you want to maximize and evolve your business, learn how to use your calendar.
One last question before we jump into the final four questions. What’s one challenge you’re facing in your business, and how do you plan to overcome it?
I don’t have a challenge in my business. I’ve set up my business exactly the way I want it. I have eight virtual people who work for me who do everything to be with clients. Every time I wanted to do something, I figured out a way, “How am I going to do this?” I will add somebody else to my team if I can’t do it so they can do it for me.
I set up my business exactly the way I wanted it and where I could do it. I don’t have a challenge that I can point to. The only challenge is people aren’t doing keynotes as much or I have to decide if I want to go to a keynote in a COVID world. I wouldn’t say I have any challenges. They’re uncontrollable. I’ve got a great team. I love working with clients all over the world. Thanks to technology, I’m able to do it.
Final four questions for you, John. What resource or tool do you find you cannot live without?
Audible.com. I can’t live without it.
I much rather listen to a book than read it.
I’m more auditory. I can retain so much more when I listen.
If you could help our readers to avoid one mistake in real estate, what would it be and how would you avoid it?
Prospect every single day. If you’re a salesperson, prospect every day. If you’re an owner, make sure you’re forecasting and looking at all of the indicators that are going on, evolving and forecasting 3, 6, 9, 12 months out. I find that people in real estate people who own real estate don’t forecast effectively and salespeople don’t prospect enough.
When it comes to investing in the world, what’s one thing you’re doing to make the world a better place?
One of the things I do when COVID hits is I offer three ways to get my information. You go to my website and it gets updated every day with new information. My one-on-one coaching is highly customizable. Some people cannot afford that because it’s maybe outside of what they’re willing to invest in themselves. I work with people who see the value in investing in themselves and want to play chess.
I offered a third way to work with me, which is a group coaching model because I didn’t like turning people down who could afford the customizable coaching. I offered that at $100 a month and it’s live coaching every Monday from [4:30] to [5:30]. You can come and ask questions. You can do anything you want. I’m not accessible to you other than the Facebook group on Mondays, but I opened that up so I could offer another avenue for people to get a coaching with me.
Jon, if our readers want to get in touch with you or learn more about you, what is the best way to do that?
My cell phone is (248) 535-7796. My email is Jon@JonDwoskin.com and my website is JonDwoskin.com. My podcast is THINK Business with Jon Dwoskin, which can be found on every platform. You can download my book, The Think Big Movement, for free on my website
Jon, thank you so much for your time. I do appreciate it.
Thank you. I appreciate your time. Thanks for reading.
Important Links:
- Jon Dwoskin
- THINK Business with Jon Dwoskin
- Audible.com
- Facebook Group – Jon Dwoskin’s – Sales & Business Development PRIVATE Coaching Group
- Jon@JonDwoskin.com
- The Think Big Movement
- https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/jondwoskin/
- https://www.Facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin
- https://www.YouTube.com/channel/UC_jNWIwuk5yjGn_og3qZc6Q
- https://www.Twitter.com/jdwoskin
- https://www.Twitch.tv/jondwoskin
About Jon Dwoskin
If ever there was someone who wasn’t interested in talking about himself, it’s me. But, I know that you are wondering what makes me the expert I say that I am. Well, here it is. When I turned 43 (now 48), I made a career out of being myself. I am an executive advisor, business coach, and founder/Chief Executive Officer of The Jon Dwoskin Experience. I grow businesses big. Very Big!
