In this empowering episode, Brad Koch shares how you can take control of your business by shifting your mindset and focusing on key strategies. If you’re struggling to let go of daily tasks, or if you feel overwhelmed by scattered marketing efforts, you won’t want to miss it.
You will discover:
– What daily 1% progress can do to steadily scale your business
– Why shifting your mindset helps you delegate and focus on your zone of genius
– How to focus on one marketing channel to drive growth without burnout
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And here with us today is yet another high demand coach in the one and only, Brad Koch, who is owner and CEO of foresight coaching. Brad is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a 32 year veteran of corporate America. He’s developed high performing teams, started and sold businesses and been part of growth teams. Brad works with small businesses, founders and CEOs to help them overcome their biggest challenges, whether a company needs to improve retention, profitability, sales, performance or strategy. He provides the environment and the tools for success, and he’s here with us today. Brad, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you here with us today. Out of the gate here, I want to kind of set this stage. So I’ve seen a lot of founders who start their company get kind of everything they wanted, right? They get the revenue, they get the growth, and then they find themselves working 80 hours a week or more missing all the rest of life. And there’s this, there’s this feeling of like resentment or just being trapped, for a lot of founders. So if we’ve got someone listening today, they’re just in that place. I know I’ve been there. I’m assuming you have too of being overwhelmed by it all. What’s the biggest reason that they’re losing control?
Bradley J. Koch
Uh, first of all, thanks for having me. It’s great to meet you one on one having listened to your podcast. Good to put a face to a name. So I think at 30,000 feet, the core issue is they’re not letting go. They’re not comfortable yet they don’t have the right mindset. And some of the common reasons that I’ve personally experienced myself and coached through is at this stage, they still feel like they have more time resource than money, resource. Yes, they might also feel like, hey, it’s something that the founder should do. I’m the founder by golly. I have to do this. And then that fear of trust that is someone else going to do it as well as I am. And I I think you said something important. They’ve got a few wins to some that reinforces the beliefs. They create this loop, like, Hey, I’m I’m winning, I’m making money. So I got to do this.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I want to unpack this because, like, it literally is the roadmap for this stage. So they they’re not comfortable. You said they don’t have the right mindset. Tell me a little bit about what the mindset is that they do have and the mindset that they need to take moving forward.
Bradley J. Koch
Yeah, a couple of generalizations. Let me start there and say that I know from personal experience that when I fell into this trap, it was because I had the mindset that I had more time resource than money resource. I hadn’t gone through and experienced some very helpful processes that uncovers what my zone of genius is, and then really understanding that’s the skills and the tasks that I need to leverage. I didn’t done that yet, so I’m still looking at everything through that. I’ve got to do everything thing and right? I may be working 80 hours a week, but I can afford to work 85 I feel like I can’t pay another employee, or another half employee, or whatever it is. So I hate first things. First is we just have to get out of that mindset that everything is better with you, and once we can, once we can see through that, that’s to me, that’s when the business starts to get fun, because you start to build a team, have you, as you’ve talked about so many times.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. I love that that time, instead of money, is so true. And what’s so fascinating to me about this is that when you look at those things, my time, I have more time than I do money. I need to do it. You know, if it’s to be, it’s up to me. It’s not that those things aren’t true leading up to this, right? So they’re, they’re mindsets that are there because, to some extent, they’re necessary to get through the very earliest part of the process, you know? So these aren’t bad things and and you, you nailed this as well, saying, hey, it’s those wins when you behave like that. When you behave like it’s to be it’s up to me, and you close the deal and you deliver it on time. It kind of locks you in as like this. Is it? Right? I would go so far to say there are synapses that are built in your brain that drive that behavior. So how do you help folks to kind of demarcate that point when those things aren’t serving them anymore, when those mindsets and traits?
Bradley J. Koch
Yeah, excuse me, I think what I try and do is get into that zone of genius understanding. So we start to unpack Pareto and this 8020 role, like in the beginning, you’re the founder. 8020 doesn’t exist. 100% is what you do. But as you get closer and you start to get extended, and you have some wins, and you can see that your that your concept is validated, like you have a marketable business going through that and figuring out what that 20% of what you do that drives 80% of the results is sort of a life changing process to go through. And on the other side of that, I would expect the founder to be able to leverage that 20% so what did that look like? Acknowledge for the first time, probably in their in their journey, that I need help with the 80% right? And I’ve got and maybe at this stage, they do have a team built out, and maybe the team is really close, and then he’s keeping or she’s keeping them very close. But we know, and it because we’re from the outside as coaches and consultants. We can see the forest through the trees. They can’t, so they they still think everything has to flow through them, and we can see the next big thing for them is what happens when you start to build up your A players and the team around you. And that doesn’t happen, at least in my experience, until we can recognize and categorize what it is they do that leverages the most results.
Scott Ritzheimer
Right, That’s so true. So one of the things I noticed as I was getting ready for the episode and doing some research on your work, was there was a pretty heavy emphasis on marketing. And even in your answer here, you said, once you have a marketable business, is as one of, like the the many things that contribute to the timing of all of this, what role does getting hold of your marketing play in taking back control of your business.
Bradley J. Koch
From the founders point of view? Well, God, this is a multi faceted question, so bear with me, because I think there’s, there’s a couple of key things that I’d want folks to take away from. So early on, marketing tends to be, I’m just going to do everything, I’m going to do ads, I’m going to do the social I’m going to do lives, I’m going to I’m going to do this. And then here’s my strategy for a banded cart. Here’s my strategy for this or that. And if we think about a game, Scott, if you had a checkers board, and I had a checkers board, and we lined our pieces up on the baseline, and the goal was the first person to get a checker all the way across to the other side. Wins my strategy, and we alternate. So my strategy is, I move one piece, you move a piece, I move a different piece, and we just go back and forth like this. I’m moving all those pieces a little at a time, but you You’re smart. You already understand the game. You’re taking that one piece and you’re moving that consistently until you get to the to the finish line, and you’ll beat me every single time. Yep, the same is true in marketing. There’s time to spend resources and and energy on building this ecosystem of marketing, the cus, you know, the customer journey understanding. How can you I mean, ultimately, you want to get to a place where you’ve got more eyeballs, those people are committing more frequently, so they’re not abandoning um, that they’re adding more things to their cart, so each transaction is a little more and they come back more often. And lastly, they tell everybody they know about you, right? If we’re trying to do that early on, that’s, it’s, it’s like the checkers game, right? We’re never going to make it. So my advice for them to feel productive with marketing and actually to see results is to go back and keep it simple. You know what? Right? What is one thing that you know about your audience? You know where they hang out, you know what their pains or frustrations or aspirations are focus on that.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. And it’s part of a it’s part of a bigger pattern that’s playing out in a number of different spaces goes right back to your 8020, principle, right? Because I do think that there’s a necessary stage of trying out a number of things, right? It’s kind of like, if you have a shrub out front, you plant it. You don’t just cut every limb off, or, you know, as soon as you put it in the ground, that’s not going to go well, so you let it grow out a little bit, and then there has to be a season of pruning, right? And I think that’s a more painful season than we recognize for for founders, if you don’t realize the benefit of it, if all you do is think you’re saying no to things, if all you do you think you’re saying is cutting away, it can be very painful, but the value of that, I think I’m hearing from you is the ability to focus your limited time and resources in one place where you can really succeed. Is that right?
Bradley J. Koch
100% and just add one thing to it every that there’s an overlaying principle that as founders, as entrepreneurs, as creatives, we tend to lose sight of and that is, what is the goal? What is the goal? And have that be the filter that we view everything through? So this, at an earlier stage in the business, the goal is one thing. Later in the journey of the business, the goal is something different. You know, it might be scale, it might be profitability, it might be whatever expansion. So ask yourself, are all of these efforts, and this goes back to the founder in the 8020 are they supporting what the goal is? Are you just doing a lot of things? Because that’s kind of what got you there, right? Does it support the goal?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And, and that sounds very elementary, but, but it isn’t right, like, because here’s what I’ve seen happens at this stage, and add to this, because I think you’ve got a lot of experience in this space, but one of the big pivotal shifts from our mindset issues, you’re moving from your business surviving to it thriving, right? And what that means is success is not just being here tomorrow, which is kind of it’s kind of as much as you can expect at some points early on. But if your hope when things are going well is to just be here tomorrow, there’s no direction in that. There’s no purpose in that. There’s no kind of like higher meaning. And when being here tomorrow is covered, it’s kind of like, why am I still here? You can only play that game so many times before it starts to get very old. So how do you help folks at this stage to redefine success through that lens of thriving?
Bradley J. Koch
Yeah, so it’s a blend of going back to day one. I mean, what? What drove you to start this business? It wasn’t surviving. It wasn’t, you know, maybe ultimately, it was to have more control over your time or more control over your income. But oftentimes the the founder is driven by something, right? They’ve got a deeper call to do something. And if they go back to that and keep that in the forefront all of all of the other things that take place tend to go out of focus, like you don’t necessarily need. Well, I’ll use your analogy, and I’m sorry to change thoughts, but the pruning, I love that. I mean the season for pruning sounds simple, but it is probably the most painful thing I can recall at different stages. There were very distinct stages in my life where pruning had to take place and saying no to things had to take place. That was hard, and I ultimately think that I want to support the founder and their creative why, why they started the business, and as long as we keep that in the forefront, and there’s another piece to this, which you’ll probably ask, is, is going to help us, you know, do the right things or be okay with where we are. Now I’m rambling, so bear with me for a second. I apologize to the listeners early on, once you decide this is what I want. Do it’s, how do I do it and stay open tomorrow, right? That just survive once you got that covered, how do you stay focused on doing the things you need to do to get to the next stage? Well, the question I’d ask before that is, when you started the business, have you thought about it as a journey. Have you thought about it as you’re going to go through iterations? And that’s one of the reasons I’d love to meet early, early stage thinkers about what they want to do, because I think educating them about all of these I say six. I think you talk about seven, I think the difference is you have fun as a stage. I don’t, but they’re gonna the life cycle of the business is gonna go through here, and here are the key things that you have to stay focused on through each of them. I don’t know, does that answer? I felt like I just rambled.
Scott Ritzheimer
No, it does. It really does. And it captures some of the tension that’s there and that it’s not formulaic, right? There’s a lot of folks who will approach that and say, Well, here’s the formula, here are the meetings that you need to have, or the goals, like the goal program that you need to have. And it’s deeper than that for founders, and I think you’re touching on that in the heart of it. And I think that’s really cool. I do have another question for you, and then I want to make sure folks know how they can get in touch with you, because I know there’s folks who are going to want some help and to tap into more of your wisdom. So question first, what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing you wish everybody watching or listening today knew?
Bradley J. Koch
I would say this, that in the in the stock market, or in investing, there’s something called compound interest. You put money in, and this magical thing happens with time, and you don’t have to make huge investments to become wealthy. You can make small, consistent investments. The same is true in your life and in your business, in many different ways, and practically speaking, if I am a new business owner, I have this pressure of feeling like I have to hit home runs every single day. And I think that pressure does a couple of things. It kills businesses, it kills the drive and fire that they have, and it also forces them, I think, to make bad decisions if we could refocus them and say, no, let me show you how 1% better or 1% progress every single day is going to far out perform. You know, a 20% jump here, and then maybe a 6% jump there have been a 5% jump backwards because you’re overthinking compounding action. Do you want to make change in your life? Do you want to make progress in your business? Break it down. What are the what are the smallest things that you can control that move you towards your goal?
Scott Ritzheimer
I love it. I love it. Brad, there’s folks listening who would love to reach out to you and connect, hear more and potentially even work with you. Where can they find more out about the work that you do?
Bradley J. Koch
The simplest place is 4sightcoach.com and that’s a number 4, s, i, G, H, T, coach.com and yeah, all the resources I have and how to get in touch with me. And yeah, I’d love to, and like you, I just, I just enjoy meeting people that have taken that step to starting a business. And yeah, that’s a that’s a pleasure.
Scott Ritzheimer
Amazing, amazing. Well, I highly recommend it. The website’s fantastic. There’s so much there, and if you like what you heard today, it’s only just the scratching the surface. Brad, thanks for being on the show today. Just a privilege and honor having you here, and for those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did, and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Bradley J. Koch
Bradley J. Koch is the Owner and CEO of 4sight Coaching. Brad is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a 32-year veteran of corporate America. He’s developed high-performing teams, started and sold businesses, and been part of growth teams. Brad works with small businesses, Founders, and CEOs to help them overcome their biggest challenges. Whether a company needs to improve retention, profitability, sales performance, or strategy, he provides the environment and tools for success.
Want to learn more about Bradley J. Koch’s work at 4sight Coaching? Check out his website at https://4sightcoach.com/
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