From someone a little older and a little wiser

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet with a new business coach/mentor in the form of a guy called Fred Kasparek. I’ve been considering getting some business coaching/mentoring to take things to the next level and it just so happened that one of my good work buddies Darryl knew just the guy…

Fred’s a very successful architect and multi business owner and from what I can tell, being about fifty or so, he’s a bit of a wise old owl so I was pretty keen to hear his thoughts on business and life.

We chatted about sailing, family, life, church and my plans and dreams for global domination (eg. Adapt) I explained to Fred the story of Adapt, starting out in the garage with a couple of mates to the fast moving freight train it is now – I relayed the incredible growth that we’d experienced over the past 3 years and how that I thought it was time to jump into Adapt on a full time basis. I told him of my goal to have another location by mid next year and how I thought that staying in my current job was limiting my ability to do reach it. I wanted to write more, meet with more of my clients, train more and spend more time with people I love, doing the things that I love – Adapt.

Now Fred’s a pretty conservative, risk adverse guy and from what I can tell he errs on the side of safety, where as me – well you already know that I’m a balls to the wall, all-or-nothing, shoot first then pick up the pieces later, kind of guy. Because I know what type of person I am, I have learnt and understand the value of having other people who’re a little more settled then I am to bounce my crazy ideas off. I’m already so very thankful for people like my super intuitive wife Rebecca and my steady mates like Darryl and Nick. Listening to me when I rant and calming me down when I get all emotional.

Over the course of lunch, Fred said a couple of things that really made me pause and do a double take – I mean I was stoked to have been given the opportunity to meet with a man like this so regardless to whether or not I agreed with what he was saying I was definitely there to listen and carefully consider everything put on the table. We spoke about many things but here’s what stood out:

Most business go through 5 year cycles – There’s going to be good times and there’s going to be bad times (and up to this point it’s been smooth sailing)

Considering I’ve only really been in strength and conditioning/gym business for less than 3 years it’s quite possible that while we’ve experienced significant growth up to this point (eg. CCF is going mainstream at the moment) we haven’t really experienced any really bad times (eg. what happens when CF isn’t the latest and greatest?, we haven’t been sued yet, business hasn’t really taken a dip, etc.)

He told me to look at the big picture and said that running a business on the side while maintaining a fulltime job wasn’t such a bad thing and that in the grand scheme of things, holding out for another 12 months would give me the chance to get another year of running a business under my belt without the added pressure of making Adapt my sole source of income. If there was a down turn it wouldn’t really matter because the bills would still continue to be paid with income from my fulltime gig.

Turning your vacation into your vocation changes things – Adds pressure?

Currently I love doing Adapt. I love the being in the space. I love training my crew. I love training with my crew. I love making coffee for my guys and I love helping to improve people’s lives, whether that be offering a small tweak to their technique in the gym or offering some advice and encouragement over a coffee. I truly love what I do (at Adapt) and I hope that it never changes but Fred said that my situation (eg. stable fulltime position and a business on the side) afforded me ‘the love’ I currently felt…

I’ve said for ages that what we do at Adapt it isn’t about the money but what happens when it suddenly is? At the moment if people come and go in the gym it has absolutely no impact on my ability to pay for the house we live in or the car I drive but what if I were to drop to a single source of income? Would it change my mindset? Would it make me more desperate to hold onto clients that I would normally be happy to let go? We say what we do isn’t for everyone but would I change what we do or the way we do it in order to hold onto more people because it did affect my ability to keep my family fed, clothed and sheltered?

Currently I don’t really have any pressure on my family because I am employed on a fulltime basis and Adapt is a side business that’s continuing to grow. I definitely don’t have as much spare time as I’d like to but Fred made me ask the question dropping to a single source of income – Is it an added pressure? Would that pressure make me lose all the warm and fuzziness that I feel for my Adapt peeps?

Make the most of your current situation – It is what you make it…

I told Fred that I’d lost all motivation in my current full time position working for the government and that I’d taken that as a sign that it was probably time to step out on my own and do Adapt full-time. Every time I speak to someone it’s all about Adapt. The future of Adapt. The people, the coaches, the atmosphere!

Every time I speak about working for the public service my whole demeanor changes to something that resembles Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh “Sure, I’ll dig a hole and fill it in again…” Well, it certainly seems that way since I’ve been questioning management decisions to do that for over 9 years now. It’s also been my experience that it doesn’t really matter which agency/department you work for either, there’ll always be more of the same bureaucratic BS and red tape wherever you go – Don’t hate the player – hate the game.

Earlier that morning I’d had a one on one meeting with my manager and I’d pretty much given her 3 months notice of my intent to jump into Adapt full time (by mid January) with a “3 or 20” statement. Eg. 20 more people at Adapt (150) or 3 more months in the APS – whatever happens first. Once again we finished the 1:1 by talking about her diet and how, if she really wanted to take control of her diet) she should keep a spreadsheet of what she ate for a week – See? Everything rolls back to Adapt and health and fitness… I just can’t help it.

I’d be the first to admit that I do have a “Glass half-full” attitude when it comes to my day job and I know (through many of the self help books I’ve read) that life is what you make it and it’s all about your attitude. After speaking with Fred I decided that I’d suck it up, put a smile on my dial and look for any win, regardless of whole small it is every day I go to work.

I know I’ve got to look at the positives and I am quietly comforted by the fact that I have a little newbie Graphic Designer that I can impart my knowledge of the industry to – oh and also palm off all my freelance work to. If I can give him some useful info on a daily basis and empower him to become a better designer than I’ll take that as a win for sure.

So to be or not to be – 20 or 3?

The reason I’m after a life coach is I’m keen to learn. I want to learn more about becoming a better person. More about running the best business I can. I want to find out more ways to have a greater impact on a greater number of people. I want to help people become better than they were yesterday and I think a coach/mentor can help me to do that.

Am I going to stick with my “20 or 3” statement? Probably. But it sure was great to be able to speak to someone like Fred and I’ll probably be hitting him up sometime in the near future to glean some more of his pearls of wisdom. I know I need these catch ups like these from people who’ve lived a little longer and done a little more than I have like I need to balance my ‘jump without looking’ approach by opening my eyes every now and then.