Tell me about your vision. Well, Harry, it's
great to be here. Pretty much I've started out
my business with one goal in mind, and that is
to add value to other people. And as I've kind
of grown in my business and I've been doing this
for about two decades, I really like to help
people be more effective communicators to increase
their results, build deeper relationships, and
of course, add value to their business. So that's
kind of my vision in a nutshell. I really like
helping others and helping them get results.
That's amazing. I think being able to add value
to someone is a very powerful tool to be leveraged.
So tell me more about that. What exactly do you
mean by adding value to someone or a business?
Well, when I started out as an entrepreneur,
I started out doing a lot of training. And then
over the years, I've kind of fine -tuned what
I really do. And mostly what I do now is I'm
a communication strategist. So I help my clients
who are mostly leaders become more effective
communicators to lead more effectively, to communicate
more effectively, to present more powerfully.
And even if they're on a podcast, how to make
sure they get their message across, right? So
communication is something that we spend a lot
of our time doing. In fact, some studies say
you spend about 80 % of your waking day. in some
form of communication. So what I've developed
is what I call the six step impact process. And
I kind of teach people this methodology that
they can use to craft and deliver more powerful
communication, whether it's face to face or in
writing or in front of a group or, you know,
on camera. That's awesome. And how long have
you been doing that? Like when did you start
doing all this? Yeah, I started my business back
in. You know, so it's a bit over. I'm just going
to say over two decades because it's been a little
bit longer than that. But, you know, I started
doing this when it really wasn't popular to have
a home office. Right. People were like you'd
like to pretend that you didn't have a home office.
So you didn't want people to know, you know,
you worked out of your home. But now, of course,
it's almost a daily routine for a lot of folks.
Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. Thank you
for sharing that. So tell me more, Patrick. How
did you get started into this path 20 years ago?
I would say coaching, speaking 20 years ago.
I can't imagine it being that big. A lot of people
will be doing that. So how did you get started
on that? And where did this all come from? Well,
my undergrad degree is in radio and television.
And I went back and got my master's. And so right
before I started my business, I was an executive
director for a state association. So I was out
there running an association, leading other leaders
on how to be more effective in their particular
specialty. And when I started my business, I
really started out wanting to do mostly speaking
and training. So as a director, right, I was
hiring speakers to come. and speak at our conferences
and i was saying to myself you know i can do
that you know not knowing you know you have to
have more than a good speech you have to know
a lot about the business side but that's really
how i got started i quit my job i started my
speaking business and of course um i do a lot
of work with people who want to be speakers today
we have an organization called the national speakers
association and we have local chapters there's
actually a chapter right there in austin texas
so One of the things that I try to help people
do if they want to be in the speaking business,
and that's not my normal niche, but it's one
of the things that I do, is I tell them don't
do what I did, which was just to quit my job.
You know, so I just quit my job, Harry. It really
wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I really
wasn't happy at work. I didn't want to get up
and go to work anymore. I'd save a little bit
of money. And so I put out my shield and started
doing speaking and training. Now, when I started,
you know, speaking has been around. It's a lot
more popular today. You know, I belong to the
National Speakers Association. That organization
started back in the mid 1980s. And coaching wasn't
even on the radar when I started my business.
So I hadn't done any coaching when I started.
Eventually, I learned more about coaching and
I added coaching to my speaking business. So
now I spend probably, you know, maybe 50 % of
my time speaking and training. and maybe 50 %
of my time doing one -on -one coaching. It fluctuates.
It could be 60 -40, but I do both. That's awesome.
Thank you for sharing that with us. What would
you say, Patrick, that the lessons you have learned
going through 20 plus years of business and 20
plus years of coaching, what would you say that...
Some of the things that you'd like to share with
our audience regarding that. Yeah. Well, I think
to me, you know, there's one fundamental principle
that I've always lived by, and that is, you know,
to build deep relationships. It's all about relationships.
And right before the call, we were talking about,
you know, you mentioned people don't care how
much you know, so they know how much you care.
Actually, that's a quote, at least that I've
attributed to Zig Ziglar, who I've actually heard
speak in person at the speakers conference. And
I really think to me, if you want to be in business.
Yes, you have to have a great product. Yes, you
have to have a good service. Yes, you have to
understand sales and marketing. But really, I
think your motto, Harry, is kind of the most
important model, is you have to let people know
you care. And people like to work with people
that they know, like, and trust. So that's a
very important part of the process. Yeah. I mean,
one of the biggest organizations on the planet,
Apple, people think they're in the business of
selling phones and services. No, they're not.
They're in the business of selling smiles. Yes.
Same with McDonald's. It's not a coincidence
that the biggest, almost the biggest franchise
in the world for fast food, their mascot is a
clown. So, yeah, that's absolutely correct. Thank
you for sharing. You know, Harry, you bring up
a very important point. And this is something
I learned years ago when I got my MBA. It was
a phrase called marketing myopia. Have you ever
heard of marketing myopia? I have a myopia. I
have it. I don't have I don't know what is marketing.
So marketing myopia, you kind of refer to it
as that people sometimes forget what a business
to really in. Right. I'm in the speaking business.
I'm in the coaching business. I'm in the hamburger
business. I'm in the phone business. And so I
remember this very clearly when I was taking
a class and they were talking about the example
that when airplanes came in, you know, the the
railroads thought that they're going to run out.
They're going to be out of business, you know,
because now there's a new form. of transportation.
When movies were very popular, then television
came in, same thing. But they all forgot the
most important thing is they weren't in the movie
business. They weren't in the television business.
They were in the entertainment business. You
know, they weren't in the railroad business.
They were in the transportation business. So
I think what you shared is so important. Like,
you know, Apple's in the smile business. I'm
in the education business, right? I'm not a speaker.
I'm not, I'm really actually, you know, Harry,
I'm really in the problem solving business. That's
what business I'm really in. So when you start
your business and you want to know what your
vision is, you got to make sure you don't get
into that marketing myopia, right? You don't
want to make sure you're thinking of yourself
as a speaker, trainer, or coach, entrepreneur.
You really need to know that you're bigger and
broader than that. So I don't know if you follow
Alex Hermosi or not, but he's one of those people
whose ideas and thoughts are very, very precise
on what you just said and mentioned. He was talking
about a situation like a lawyer. He said, once
you go into a business, right, and then you start
to scale it and then you have issues and problems
after a certain point, that's when you actually
figure out what business actually am I in. You're
not in the lawyer business. You're not in the
case business when you try to scale a business.
He said, for a lawyer, that is recruiting business.
You need to recruit high -level talent so you
can get your time back. At the end of the day,
you can get all the secretaries in the world
and all the paralegals. But if you don't have
someone by your side, which is as higher or a
better lawyer than you, you will never be able
to scale a law firm. And same with other things.
Like if you go to solar or other door -to -door
industries, are you in the sales business or
are you in the product service business? I think
you have to figure out at this stage when you
try to scale it and you can't scale it at a point.
So you're absolutely correct. Most people have
no idea. what businesses they are in and what
they need to focus on to actually scale responsibility
and in the right way. Exactly. And, you know,
I have a lot of friends into speaking in coaching
business. I have some, I have a good friend of
mine who has a big coaching companies. He has,
you know, 10 other coaches and he does a lot
of projects. And we actually together, we did
a seminar for the local coaches chapter. And
he talked about. you know, being running a coaching
business. And I talked about being a coaching
solopreneur. So there's no right or wrong way
to do it. But if you don't have a clear vision,
if you don't know exactly what problem you solve,
you know, then you're not going to be successful.
I want to push back on a little bit. I want to
say you mentioned there's no right or wrong way
of coaching and you're on the solopreneur side.
I firmly believe that the way to build your business
and scale is through a team and the right team
and the right leadership. And you definitely
don't share that same perspective. I would love
your thoughts while you disagree or maybe partially
agree with me. Yeah. Well, I'm not saying it's
not good or bad. I'm saying that everybody's
got a different perspective. I have a brother
who is an architect. He has an architectural
firm. He wanted to grow a business. He wanted
to have employees. I just never wanted that.
And today, more than ever, you can actually run
a very successful business of being a solopreneur.
Now, that doesn't mean that I haven't hired contractors
to help me, you know, but I've never really wanted
to be a business. And, you know, years ago, I've
hired marketing and salespeople who were contract
workers, you know, but now, I mean, literally
like with AI, you have all the staff you need
and you can run it pretty. I mean, I've run a
fairly successful, you know, six figure business
for many years. And the thing about. When you
run a business, it's not about gross, it's about
net. And so I know some folks who have a very
big, big business company, but yet I net more
than they do because of their overhead and expenses.
So I'm not saying there's one way better than
the other. But I think if you want to be an entrepreneur,
if you just want to have your own practice, right,
you can do that. If you want to have a company,
you can do that as well. So the way I see it
is if you're in a business, you want to. The
way I see a successful business is either you
can sell it in a few years or you can have it
working with less to no time of your own where
it's generating income for you. Right. And I
don't see that as with a solopreneur route, even
in the contracting world. Because if I want to
sell my business, no one wants to buy my job.
They want to buy a business that's producing
and that's where they'll pay the big buck for
it. It's just in itself without me being involved
at all. You're right, Harry. I will not be able
to sell my business because it's me. However,
I can sell my methodology. I can sell my program
because I've created a program called Communicating
with Impact. So that is a methodology. I have
a book. I've got a workshops. If I wanted to,
I could franchise that. I could, you know, license
it. But I can't sell my business because if when
you take me out of the equation, there's no business.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy
that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking
forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes
continue to move forward. This is going to get
more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.