Hello everyone. This is Tonya Dawn Recla, your Super Power Expert and I’m really, really excited to introduce you to someone who, you know, we haven’t known each other for a very long time but I think what he’s doing is so incredibly crucial. We attract a lot of the entrepreneurs and coaches and consultants and change agents and stuff here at Super Power Experts and what I really appreciate about him is this super down-to-earth kind of nonchalant attitude about, you know, the coaching industry and how to do that and do it well and do it in integrity and not kind of get batted around by all of the get rich quick kind of stuff that’s out there but be solid and commonsensical about it. So Marc Mawhinney helps coaches build successful businesses like that’s his take. I can’t even express how needed that is in the world right now but the thing that makes me giggle just a little bit is he’s got this show called Natural Born Coaches so I may be dating myself but I knew exactly what the reference was to the Natural Born Killers movie, one of my favorites, as well. So I am really delighted to have him on the show because he’s got some great content and some really good pointers that he can share with you all. So without further ado please, please join me in welcoming Marc to the show. Welcome Marc. Thanks for joining us.
Hey, Tonya thanks for having me.
Absolutely. I’m so delighted to be able to introduce you to our audience. I want to jump right in and just ask you, you know, what are your Super Powers?
Well, x-ray vision and then there is flight that came about last year.
You laughed. You laughed. I bet we’re not far from that. Come on, come on, let’s have hope about that.
Kidding aside, I’ll tell you what Super Power I don’t have. I would like to get more of it and that is patience. I’m probably the least patient guy in the world in some ways. But I would say, for me, you know, Super Power would be the ability to take action. I don’t overthink things. Maybe that comes with the whole patience thing that we talked about and then it’s consistency, you know, after taking action. So a lot of the things I’ve done in my business when I look back at it, I may not realize at the time but, you know, I did a daily podcast for 300 and some episodes. You know, before it went to a weekly format, I’ve been doing daily emails now for probably close to a year and a half. You know, there’s 500 e-mails there, so I would say the taking action then also consistency.
And for those of you who don’t do podcasts, let me just assure you that 300 some odd episodes is a ridiculous number of episodes to be that consistent with. What was the thinking behind it? What do you credit with that kind of persistence?
Well, I’m part of, one of the people I learned from when I got started, I started the show in 2014 and I learned from John Lee Dumas. I was in a program of his. And, of course, EOFire super successful daily format and I said, you know what, I’ll do a daily format except my shows for coaches not for general entrepreneurs as much. And what I discovered was after 300 episodes that I needed to find either changed out or find a way to out about five hours a day on my life, you know, and that wasn’t possible. So I said, you know, what I’ve done enough of the daily. We’re going to scale it back. But then it gives me more time to go out on shows like this one as well just for me. I think it’s important as entrepreneurs if you don’t get married to an idea too much. And I felt that I got enough benefit from doing those hundreds and hundreds of daily episodes that go into a weekly show wasn’t going to hurt. The show had momentum. We had that audience and following and all that. And it hasn’t, you know, moved down. Our numbers are probably the same now with one episode a week compared to when we had daily shows, you know, seven days a week just we’re out there enough as is. And it was the right move I just felt it in my gut.
Is that a technique that folks were using to kind of front load the episode kind of consistency and then kind of peter off?
Yeah, that’s what I’m seeing a lot of people doing except what they’re doing is they’re launching with something like 20 shows and then they usually burn themselves out and then they don’t release the show for a few weeks and then they’ll release three in a week to try to, you know, kick some life into the show. It’s on life support then they want you all hear from them for two weeks and then they come back a little more. And we joked around about that before we started recording. It’s called podcatorion podcasts. And you don’t know if it is dead or alive or pod fading and for pod that term, as well. And I see a lot of people doing it. You could do it any way you want. I say do at least a minimum once a week to get that traction. It’s going to be tough to do it, if you’re doing a day less than that. But be consistent however you do it. So I’ve always been consistent with the Daily Show every morning 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. It’s going out every morning. Now it goes out every Monday 4:30 a.m. Eastern time. I don’t like it when podcasters release, well, sometimes we’ll release Monday morning and sometimes it might be Tuesday afternoon or Thursday night and all over the place. It’s just not good.
Yeah I can understand that so why podcasting, like where did all that come from?
Well, I wanted to do something else to get the word out there from my coaching business. And there’s so many choices, you know what it’s like you’ve got a million choices of things to do. So I looked at all of them. I felt OK am I going to really hammer videos hard with YouTube or is it going to be blogging or is it going to be writing books. All this and just something about podcasting stood out because I’ve been listening to podcasts for years probably since I would say 06, 07 I’d been listening to podcasts. I had no clue how to put one together but I’d been listening to them and I was comfortable and I knew kind of the format for shows and all that fun stuff. So I didn’t overthink it. And that’s been the story of my life. I mean my life before coaching, years ago, was in real estate. When I was 21 years old. I just decided one day, hey, I’m going to get my real estate license and sell real estate. You know, once I was finishing up the university and say, “Hey, I’m going to start real estate.” now I jumped before I get the chance to talk myself out of it. And usually it works for me. Sometimes it’s hurt me, actually helped me more than it’s hurt me, so I always have kind of a bias for action.
You’re so funny. So I could pick your brain all day long about your choices in business but let’s talk a little bit about the kind of getting into assisting coaches and kind of being the coaches’ coach, I guess, you know. Where did that come from? How did you go from real estate into that?
Well, when I first started coaching, I had the most broad…I mean mostly focused because there is no focus. So I said hey, I want to help entrepreneurs, you know. That was my act. And I did very simple tasks to work with someone if they could fog a mirror or if they had a pulse then, hey, come on board I’ll work with you. And what I realized was working, I’d seen bricks and mortar traditional type entrepreneurs. But I was working with two coaches as clients and those calls were the ones I was having the most fun on. And I was enjoying it. I was pumped up and had, you know, that energy for it. I just really joined up and coaches with their marketing and set up their programs and all that stuff. And I didn’t enjoy working with Joe the Plumber and I’m just using that as an example. I didn’t work with any plumbers. But, you know, I didn’t enjoy that sort of traditional bricks and mortar type businesses much. And so one day they said, you know what, I’m enjoying this way more than that. I’m going to cut off the other and when it comes to me now that’s more of a traditional business that’s looking for a business coach. I refer them off. I only work with coaches in that set. And I think that’s an important thing for people to do. There’s no sense hanging on to something you’re not enjoying doing. If there’s a niche or something that you really like then just go with that. It’s going to be a lot easier that way.
And how do you like that kind of conversation is so powerful. And what I find is that people are really fearful to do that, right? Like we’re afraid to say, “Well, I’m just going to work with these people.” because it feels like you’re cutting off like ninety nine point nine percent of the population as potential clients but what I find is the exact opposite happens like people’s businesses really flourish when they’re willing to get kind of that super, super niched. What advice do you have for people in kind of making that leap and then maybe technically how to go about that or how to choose really?
Well, you don’t want to be too general and that’s the problem I’m seeing in the coaching world of sort of seeing a lot of people that want to work with anybody. They say, hey, I can, you know, you see it a lot with life coaches, you know, and people say I can help people make more money and have better relationships and lose weight and have more spirituality and everything that’s out there then they don’t end up attracting anybody because they are a mile long and an inch deep. So you have to get rid of that fear of missing out on potential clients because there are 7.5 billion people in the world. You’re not going to be able to work with all of them if they want to hire you. Unless you’re really, or maybe there’s people listening have some real Super Powers, so you have to cut them off. And there is a fear that way. I think I had that fear a little bit too but I just kind of jumped in to that abyss and say let’s see what happens and it’s worked out. So it’s hard at first to get your head wrapped around it but once you do it and you’ll just breathe a sigh of relief, “Ahh, this is who should be working with.” and it’s not that you have it all figured out right away. Usually people have to start out a little more general. And then they see who they are attracting. So if they’ve attracted 15 clients and must say 13 of them are middle-aged women going through, say, picking up the pieces after divorce, for example, then there’s probably a good chance of that so they’re attracting maybe they should look at serving the market and forget about the 25-year-old males who are, you know, graduating college and looking for a career. Don’t worry about that. Focus on the people that you’re attracting.
Wow that’s a perfect advice. And then other than that the idea of, you know, getting very specific in the niche. What other advice do you have for people who are listening who, you know, maybe they’re in an employment position that they’ve been in for quite a while or a profession or something and they’re wanting to transition out. Do you work with folks in that space and if so what advice would you offer them?
I do. I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of people who’ve transitioned over from a nine-to-five and then become coaches full time. I always caution people not to do, do you remember the movie Jerry Maguire when he quit and he took them, and he said, “Who’s with me?” and Renee Zellweger was the one that went with him. Don’t do that Jerry Maguire speech because, or don’t tell off your boss or just storm out of there, because it’s going to take time to build up your coaching business. So, you know, not saying it’s going to take 10 years. You can but if you can keep that income coming in from your job, do that job as an investor and your coach in business and then you have to be very dedicated in your off hours from your 9:00 to 5:00. You’re going to have to work a lot on evenings, weekends, early mornings. But you can do it. And I’ve had clients that can get more done when they’re working a quote j o b and then doing coaching on the side. They work only 20 hours a week to put towards their coaching. They’ve got more done in 20 hours a week than someone who’s a quote full time coach but is playing Farmville and Candy Crush and, you know, talking about Trump and Hillary and stuff all day on Facebook. They’re just distracted and not very focused. So that’s what I would say you can manage it just you have to be…I always say you can build up a coaching business part-time but you have to put in full time effort when you’re doing it.
Well and I think the other piece that is so valuable there is really affirm what you’re saying is I find that the alternative if people do jump ship and now they’re trying to figure it all out. Two things happen. One, you know, when I left government the first time when I was a federal agent, I was just done. And that was it I was going to go run my business everything. I think I sat on the couch like two weeks first, realizing like, “Oh, my gosh I have no idea what I’m doing and this is really scary.” And now I’m my own boss. And I, you know, even though I was very autonomous as an agent, it was still pretty well-scripted like you know the counter intel industry is pretty well kind of formulaic and this wasn’t. And so there was that kind of like, uh-oh, you know, what do I do here? And then the second piece is, you know, I find that if that there’s not that steady stream of income and people are really relying on a brand-new venture to support them right away, I mean one that’s a lot of pressure to put on, it’s like birthing a baby and demanding it run. You know, it’s like that’s kind of…
Well, I’ve never birthed a baby but I can imagine the pressure.
Exactly. The second piece is just the amount of time that’s wasted in worry, you know. Worry and stress is a huge time sucking and it kills efficiency and so I think what you’re talking about is really brilliant advice. But we don’t see that, you know. I don’t know what it was or where we got started with like this initial wave of like ideology that said, you know, forget everything and start afresh and find your passion and make a business out of it. You know, I don’t know that we are being totally honest in that story about what all goes into it. You know, just with even the podcast around the idea that there’s…it’s work. You know, it’s easy to start. But there’s a lot that goes into it. And then the consistency and staying with it and continuing even when you don’t have the idea, you know, also, you realize like maybe the whole world doesn’t just automatically want to hear what you have to say, you know. So there some elements there and so I really appreciate that you’re guiding people in the sense that, you know, yes, you know, for sure I took a huge leap of faith and you know sink a few times and you know, pull myself back up and all these other things. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There’s a much easier way to go about it.
Yeah, and people can detect if you’re needy. There’s a saying and prosperous coach Rich Lipton and Steve Chandler say needy is creepy. And I think that’s true. So if you’re going out there and if you’re surviving on water and your cat Fluffy’s food or something like that then that’s not a good place to be in, mentally, right now. There’s a saying that, I love it, says if you can’t afford to pay the light bill, you can’t light up the world. So if you ditch your job in corporate or wherever, and you say, screw it, I’m going to, you know, achieve my dreams and I’ll put up my little kitten poster, you know, hang in there in my home office and it’ll be fine. Well, then you’re pretty stressed out with everything going on and you’re going to feel like taking on clients that you really shouldn’t be working with, just because they’ve got money. So not suggesting that you do a 10-year exit plan, but, you know what, if it takes three, six months or so to make that transition over that’s not bad. At the end of the day, you know you can do that if you see the light at the end of the tunnel. And I think that that’s the approach that I prefer. You shoot to hit a single or double instead of a grand slam right off the hat because you can really stress yourself. I would end up just going broke down being depressed and in a bad state doing it that way. So there’s nothing wrong with keeping your nine-to-five for a little bit just to help fund the coach businesses and getting off the ground.
You had me at needy is creepy.
I can’t grab credit for that. That’s why I gave Rich and Steve credit. I could, maybe, yeah, I have a great saying. I’d say, I made it up 20 years ago and I say it all the time.
Unfortunately there’s a fair share of that out there as well. Oh my goodness that was awesome. And it’s what I find too is when people do it and follow kind of that natural flow of things then it’s obvious when you can transition out even further or even, you know, Tim Ferris and the whole 4 Hour Work Week talks about the concept of, you know, you can work even potentially within your structure and telecommute or what. You know there are ways to work around and to kind of make moves in that direction if you’re willing to put the time and to be a little bit strategic. And then, you know, I’ve worked with plenty of people that they work, they only really truly perform and face their stuff in tumultuousness. So it doesn’t really matter how much you caution them to be you know, to use common sense and to kind of take baby steps. They will always create scenarios for themselves that require them to kind of sink or swim. And some people really only perform when they’ve burned all their bridges so it’s you know despite all the evidences. And I can’t say always I think that they get to a place where they kind of plateau out and mature a little bit. Now they don’t need that experience anymore. But a lot of folks that’s kind of what motivates them and so but just know that that’s not necessary and you know for all of you out there kind of thinking that you know actually this just came to me where I see people doing that is within they try to kind of they’ve kept that kind of flame inside of them down too long. And they haven’t started making moves and letting that out or their creative energy, they haven’t allowed it to flow and so when they finally are willing to acknowledge it, it just explodes like all over them and everybody else. And so there’s a lot to be said for knowing that you can do both and kind of, can ease into it and maybe that’ll give people the courage to start giving that creative aspect of them or maybe that guided mission whatever they want to do in the world a little more voice and then a little more voice and baby stepping into it in that way. And I think that that may be some of what’s going on there for folks.
Definitely.
Well very cool. Well, I love talking with you and I encourage all of you out there that if you are, you know, making that transition on your coaching and you can’t quite figure out how to make it successful, if not it hasn’t been quite as successful as you want it to be, I recommend that you look into Mark’s stuff. And where can we send people to find out more?
Well, there’s naturalborncoaches.com not natural born killers dot com that won’t get to me. But naturalborncoaches.com. I’ve got a Facebook group that has, as we’re recording this, about 6000 coaches in there but when we release will be quite a bit higher and that’s called The Coaching Jungle. So that’s @thecoachingjungle.com. And then I have a print newsletter for coaches sounds very old fashioned but it works. And that’s called Secret Coach Club and that’s secretcoachclub.com.
Awesome. Very cool. We’ll make sure we’ve got those links in there for all of you. Mark one more question I want to ask you. So what advice do you have to offer people who really want to come out in a bold way? You know, maybe they’re looking to harness a new Super Power of their own. You know, what advice would you offer them?
Well, it’s not terribly original but I think it’s important and that’s stop caring about what other people think about you. And I think that’s probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, thing holding back most people is they’re worried about what that guy that sat right next to them in Grade 10 Chemistry thinks about them becoming a motivational speaker, for example or whatever they’re doing or coach. I see that a lot in this world. So if you can develop a rhino like hide over your skin, a very thick skin and not care about all that stuff. It’s tough to do. But if you can master that little trick then you’ll be unstoppable. Unfortunately, most people don’t, they, and I’ll give a suggestion, a great book to read which not a lot of people know about. It’s my favorite book, it’s called Thick Face, Black Heart by Chin Ning Chu was written in 1991, I believe. And that’s an awesome book for that exact thing, just to be able to deflect people’s criticism and develop a thick skin. So Thick Face, Black Heart.
Very cool. I love it. Well, thank you so much for joining us and telling you out there listening, like I said I really recommend that you, at the very least I’ve really enjoyed just kind of watching where you put it out on Facebook and it’s a great reminder that, you know, we don’t have to walk a tight rope we can stand solidly on the ground and still have an impact and probably even have a better chance of an impact. So thanks for everything you do, Marc.
Yeah. Well thanks for having me on Tonya.
Absolutely. And to all of you out there, as always we appreciate your loyalty. And until next time, go out, uncover your Super Power and change the world. Take care everyone.
Podcast: Play in new window
