Hello, and welcome back to the show, folks. I'm
your host, Michael Foreman, and you're listening
to the podcast where networking is more than
just an awkward handshake and bad coffee. It's
an art and a talent. But here's the twist. It's
an art and talent you can actually learn. Yes,
even if you're the person hiding in the corner
at every event, pretending to check emails. Networking
isn't just a nice skill to have. It's a game
changer. When you get good at it, you'll wonder
why you didn't start sooner. More connections,
more opportunities, more profits. It's like unlocking
a cheat code for life. So whether you're the
life of the party or the just let me stay at
home and text type, we've got something for you.
So stick around. Let's turn those awkward small
talk moments into big wins. Now, I've got a guest
today, and he's a speaker and a coach and everything
else. His name is Amitai, and he's worked in
the industry, the IT industry, in management
for over 30 years and 10 years as a consultant.
He started and sold several small businesses
and is a successful entrepreneur. Now, instead
of me butchering the rest of his bio, let me
just introduce him to you first, and we'll go
from there. So welcome, Amitai. How are you?
I'm good. How are you? Not doing too bad. So
give us a little background. Okay. I got my bachelor's
in computer science. I got my master's in management
information systems. master's in business, and
I'm currently working on my MBA. I have worked
in companies as big as Fortune 10 companies down
to three -person law firms. So I have a pretty
big depth and breadth of experience there. I've
worked as a consultant in a variety of companies.
I started out basically in help desk support,
moving all the way up to senior architect over
my career. Let's see what else. That basically
sums up my background. I am disabled, and what
I speak to mostly now is how to use the adaptations
that disabled people, both non -neurotypical
and physically disabled people, use. and how
to leverage those for general management and
leadership. And you do speeches and your life
coaching and stuff like that? Yes. Okay. What
inspired you to become a life coach? And how
has that journey shaped your approach to coaching?
What inspired me is my mentors. And how they
have coached me in my career. And I've also had
some people who mentored me in my personal life
journey. And I've learned a lot from them. And
then I have just my own general experience of
how to deal with stuff. I've been studying life
coaching as a practice and theory behind it and
so forth. And the principles of not just... giving
out answers, but helping my client discover the
answers that they already know and creating systems
and processes for accountability. And that relies
back on my management experience to create those
systems. But the person who best knows about
themselves is the individual. You're the expert
on you is basically the principle I operate on.
So we use that to develop the coaching strategy
for either life coaching or professional coaching.
Okay. Many people see coaching. Many people seek
it, but they struggle to take action. What's
the biggest roadblocks and how do you help clients
overcome them? Coming up in IT, one of the most
dangerous phrases we learned was, that's the
way we've always done it. And you have to be
open to change. If you want to engage with life
coaching or professional coaching, the key thing
is you have to start out being open to change.
If you're not open to change, then there's nothing
coaching can do for you. Because you have to
be willing to accept that accountability and
that openness. Because obviously what you've
been doing to this point is not achieving your
goals. You have to bring it from there. Exactly.
And everything else, you have to be open to coaching
to change in order to succeed or to be better
than what you are. You coach and speak to people.
one on one, and you speak to an audience, how
do you adjust? How do you adjust from one to
the other? Audiences are more generalized. So
I'm talking more about my personal experience
and about theory. Whereas in a coaching session,
one on one, it's very catered to that individual's
situation and their individual needs. So I start
out like the first meeting I have with somebody
is just introductory of me getting to understand
what they're looking to accomplish out of coaching
and what their goals are. And then we develop
it each step. And just using project management
terms, we meet, we review what we talked about
previously. We talk about our goals going forward
and set action items, set some not quite deliverables
because they're not handing something, but just
goals for them to accomplish or to work on and
what difficulties they anticipate, how they can
take an approach to adapt to those and preempt
them and do stuff like that with a keynote or
a workshop. It's really... addressing, it's addressing
a larger group that is coming to hear about a
theory or practice and learn from that and then
take it back and develop it on their own. Okay.
What's a powerful mindset shift that business
professionals can make today to accelerate their
success? One of the Key mindset shifts that seems
to be what I've noticed a lot of management getting
away from is the idea of listening with humility.
A lot of managers, when things are stressful
or there's pressure, will fall back to a top
-down approach rather than relying on the ideas
of their team. And just being adaptive in that
situation to what gets the maximum productivity
out of their team versus taking what gets the
maximum productivity from themselves and just
imposing that downward. And it's that sense of
humility of being willing to change and willing
to listen that. is one of the major things I'm
seeing management going away from now. And it
was moving in that direction for a while, but
COVID and now back to work orders and all that
other stuff, you're getting a lot of shift and
pushback because people are getting confused
and tense with change. Okay. Okay. How do you
measure? success in coaching and give me some
results you've seen with your clients. Success
in coaching is achieving the goal, whatever goal
we set out from initially. If it's a personal
goal, one person I was working with on personally
was she was having relationship issues. and just
was going through a series of bad relationships
and couldn't manage to break her bad habits.
And so what we set as the goal was to really
set new paradigms for what she was looking for
out of a relationship and what she had to do
for herself to see these new relationships rather
than just, again, go with the same old. She had
to look at what she thought she was initially
attracted to versus what she actually wanted
and how to look for that. And then professionally,
we've worked on productivity and career advancement.
And so when it's career advancement, it's pretty
simple. If they move up in the organization,
they've achieved that goal. When it's productivity,
We have to determine what the productivity measure
is in that situation. If it's a nonprofit, then
productivity can be measured by how many people
they've served or how well the interest of the
nonprofit has been addressed. If it's a corporation
environment, then productivity is really how
much results are produced per hour of labor.
Okay. Okay. You've really explained what success
looks like. What are some common mistakes that
are made within the coaching industry and how
can you overcome them? One of the most common
mistakes I've seen is coaching being used as
therapy. And coaching is not therapy. As a coach,
I'm completely unqualified to give therapy to
people. I'm not a medical professional, and I
don't pretend to be. If somebody's looking to
deal with certain personal issues, then that
is really a therapeutic role. And a lot of coaches
want to veer off to that because that's just
our natural inclination. When somebody approaches
us with a problem is to give them a solution.
Whereas as a coach, we have to guide them to
finding their own solution. So it's as a coach,
you're almost exclusively asking questions. Whereas
in a therapy role, you are making suggestions.
And as a coach, you really, there can even get
into legal issues with that. You cannot give
suggestions because otherwise you're not fulfilling
the coaching role. You're a guide, but you're
not a solutions provider. Okay. Okay. How would
you position yourself as a high value coach?
and speaker in a crowded market? It is a very
crowded market. I think what makes my position
unique is coming at it from a disability perspective
and understanding a more out of the box type
of thinking and thinking in more of an adaptive
manner. So taking the idea that a cookie cutter
solution does not fit everyone. Let's look at
what adaptations the individual or the organization
needs to make in order to achieve their goal.
Be it an organization, sometimes a work -from
-home solution works really well for some people.
I've seen other people that it's awful for. If
they're not in the office, they don't know how
to function. And the same thing with coaching
is... If your approach isn't working, let's brainstorm
and think of other things that you can do that
might be a better approach. For example, with
this person that I commented on with the relationship
issues, maybe something like Tinder is not the
best option for them. Whereas some of the other
apps or even going back to the traditional of
just... meeting somebody in a bar or meeting
somebody at church or something like that, where
it's more of a face -to -face interaction where
you can get a better read on the person rather
than how they're presenting themselves on an
app, which is always, it's a presentation. They're
not going to indicate their flaws. Right. It's,
it's very cold when you go through texting or
an app and you definitely more You feel the vibe
of the other person, to feel the vibe of the
room, and it can give you a much better feeling.
Yeah. I've noticed there is an age differential
there. Obviously, the younger people are, the
more comfortable they are interacting electronically,
whereas the older people are, they're going for
the older methods and meeting the people face
-to -face. I've noticed a lot of interpersonal
communication issues with. younger generations
because they just you know back in my time you
had to talk to people that's right you do or
you did yeah and actually you still do uh yeah
i still operate on that principle absolutely
absolutely and that's what i am all about all
about meeting and greeting and seeing the vibe
of the person and getting to know them creating
a relationship because Really relationships,
what's in and building a client list that's really
out the door. Today's day, it's all about relationships.
Exactly. Okay, so give me a strategy that helps
you attain and attract and retain clients. And
how can my listeners apply them to their own
businesses? Okay, as far as... attracting coaching
clients, a lot of it is word of mouth. I do post
some ads on some local sites or targeted ads
on Facebook, but they're very general. Like one
of the ads I most recently did was you have all
these New Year's resolutions and everything,
but you don't feel like you can get to them.
Maybe coaching is a solution for you. And then
I offered also with that, the introductory session
is free as a get to know situation so that we
can both see if I can take them on as a client
and if I'm the right coach for them. But a lot
of it is also referral. If you're a good coach
for somebody, they're going to refer you. And
eventually, word of mouth, it becomes your best
situation. Good. Let's bring this full circle.
And if you could leave my listeners with one
game -changing piece of advice of their personal
or professional growth, what would it be? I would
say listen and divest your ego. Okay. Not everything
is a personal attack. And even if it is, It's
someone else's opinion. You don't have to take
it on personally and let it impact you. Just
be open to listening all the time. Feedback,
both positive and negative, can always be learned
from. And if you divest your ego from it, then
you're more available to act upon it and see
what's valid. and what changes you can make if
they're necessary changes at all. Very good.
That's very good advice. And that's a very good
takeaway. If somebody wanted to get hold of you,
if they wanted to talk to you about coaching
or speaking or any, how would they get hold of
you? Our website is currently going through a
slight overhaul. It's mostly done, but there
is a slight. bit of overhaul on it, but the contact
form on the website is probably the best way
to get a hold of me because it allows me to address
the person when I have the time to get back and
really discuss with them. So the website is the
word problem, the number two, resolution .com.
Okay, that's good. I can't tell you how great
this was. You gave a lot of insights to the coaching
aspect of things on your side. And listen, if
anybody wants to get hold of Amitai, just please
do. I think he's got a wealth of knowledge. Thank
you so much. I really appreciated this opportunity.
I think what you're doing is really great out
there getting all this stuff out there. I'm glad
you enjoyed it, and I'm hoping to spread your
message all throughout, and I wish you very much
success. Thank you so much. Well, hold on, folks.
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-U -P -K -I -D -S .org. Well, that's a wrap,
folks. A huge thank you to our special guests
for sharing such incredible insights today. And
of course, a big shout out to you, our amazing
listeners, for tuning in and spending your time
with us. Remember, networking isn't about being
perfect. It's about being present. So take what
you've learned today, get out there and make
some meaningful connections. If you enjoyed this
episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave us
a review and share it with someone who could
use a little networking inspiration. Let's keep
the conversation going. You can find me on Apple,
Spotify, YouTube or my website. Michael A. Foreman,
remember, until next time, keep practicing, keep
connecting, and keep building those relationships.
This is Michael A. Foreman signing off. Take
care and happy networking.