Business planning can feel extremely overwhelming for any entrepreneur, but if you have a roadmap to success, it makes it feel a little easier to achieve. Today on The Coaching Equation, we are joined by the incredible faith-driven business coach and author of Ultimate Breakthrough Planning, Mike Ferrell, to discuss the importance of business planning and how to get on top of it. Tuning in, you’ll hear about Mike’s non-traditional career, why he prioritizes his curiosity, his books, how the financial crisis of 2008 changed everything for him, and how he came out of his darkest times. We delve into what inspired him to create his five Monk principles and a breakdown of each of them before Mike explains how they can be the key to business planning. We even discuss why creating a foundation and business planning are imperative to your business’s long-term success. Finally, Mike shares some tips for simplifying business planning into manageable, bite-sized steps. To hear all this and even be reminded to celebrate your successes, be sure to press play now!

Key Points From This Episode:

• A warm welcome to today’s guest, Mike Ferrell.
• Mike tells us about his professional golf career.
• Where Mike’s entrepreneurship journey began.
• The importance of maintaining curiosity as a coach.
• How to maintain or recapture your curiosity.
• Mike’s first book and the financial crisis of 2008.
• The greatest gift Mike was given during his hardest time.
• What informed Mike’s decision to dig himself out of this hole.
• The five Monk principles he created from The Rule of Benedict.
• One: virtuous conversation – living positively.
• Two: community – why community is the foundation of culture.
• Three: stability – how an organization operates.
• Four: excellence – innovation and how to create positive change.
• Five: profound hospitality – internal and external.
• The importance of planning and building a foundation for your business.
• How to simplify business planning so it becomes approachable.
• Why you need to celebrate your success.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Mike Ferrell

Mike Ferrell on LinkedIn

Ultimate Breakthrough Planning

The Sweet Spot

The Rule of Benedict

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes

You’ll want to come back to this episode again and again because it’s a game-changer! In all of our experience, one of the key biggest problems that we see is an inability to establish trust with a prospect. During this episode, Brook and Ryan set the record straight and talk about how to establish trust before, during, and after your sales engagement, whether your prospect decides to buy on the call or not. Learn how to create consistency between marketing messaging and direct engagement with clients, position yourself as a true trusted advisor, and build trust one step at a time. We explore the importance of team communication, how to ask meaningful questions, and grow to understand the pain, the dream, and the gap for your client. You’ll also hear us unpack what it means to ask deepening questions, why it is so critical to stay true to the experience you promise, and why you should value when clients say ‘not now’ rather than get discouraged by it. This episode offers listeners a linear path to building massive amounts of trust. Get ready to sharpen your sales sword today! Thanks for listening.

Key Points From This Episode:

• The challenge of establishing trust with a prospect during sales engagements.
• Effectively bridging marketing messaging with sales conversations.
• What it truly means to position yourself as a trusted advisor.
• Creating trust through sharing personalized client results and testimonials.
• Why it is so valuable to build trust one step at a time.
• Communicating outcomes and expectations from the first step.
• Establishing real trust once you are in a sales call.
• The importance of building a strong dynamic of team communication.
• Building rapport through meaningful questions and understanding the client’s needs.
• How to grow your understanding of the pain, the dream, and the gap for your client.
• What it means to ask deepening questions in order to allow people to elaborate.
• Staying true to the experience you promise.
• Understanding the value of a response that says ‘not now’ rather than ‘yes’.
• Why it is important not to allow emotions to lead in the follow-up process.
• The correlation between buying behavior and trust.
• How to implement the advice laid out in this conversation.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes

Author, coach, speaker, and entrepreneur are just some of the titles of today’s remarkable guest. Markus Kaulius is a globally recognized business and thought leader, and he joins us today to share some tips on how we can start living more meaningful lives to unlock our full potential. We begin with a major transformation from Markus’ life that taught him most of what he knows about business success. Then, we explore the gravity of choosing to work on your business rather than in it, how to set up a business as a sellable asset, where ownership fits in, and the ins and outs of Markus’ groundbreaking book, Play a Bigger Game. We also discuss ways to free yourself from imposter syndrome, why nothing really matters without action, and everything we need to know about our guest’s latest business venture: Yaystack. To end, Markus doubles down on the importance of living with intention and explains how he overcomes some of life’s biggest challenges.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Welcoming Markus as he walks us through one of his life’s biggest transformations.
• How to know when it’s time to stop working in your business and start working on it.
• Understanding how to set up a new business to be sold for profit in the future.
• Ways to take and give ownership as a business leader, and why this matters.
• The biggest obstacles that prevent business leaders from empowering their subordinates.
• What inspired Markus to write Play a Bigger Game, and more on this groundbreaking book.
• Simple steps to help you break free from imposter syndrome and feelings of inadequacy.
• The importance of taking action after gaining new information, and how to rise above haters.
• Unpacking Markus’ new business venture: Yaystack.
• Reiterating the power and value of intention.
• How Markus overcomes the biggest challenges that life throws at him.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Markus Kaulius

Markus Kaulius on LinkedIn

Markus Kaulius on Instagram

Markus Kaulius on Facebook

Markus Kaulius on YouTube

Play a Bigger Game

Yaystack

Amplify Publishing Group

Tony Robbins

Magnum Nutraceuticals

Hidden Potential

Trey Roth on LinkedIn

The Surrender Experiment

Ryan Lang on LinkedIn

Brook Bishop on LinkedIn

Empire Partners

Empire Academy

The Coaching Equation Podcast on iTunes