Kevin Stafford 0:02
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I don’t know if you can hear the smile in my voice, but I’ve already been having a delightful conversation with Bradley Hamner. Let me tell you a little bit about Bradley. He’s been an entrepreneur since 2009, and began his first business with the belief that his sales abilities would be enough to grow and scale quickly learned that being the Rainmaker wasn’t enough. After a health scare, he began architecting his business and he puts that in quotes in his bio, so I’m always I’m very interested in talking about that, and architecting his business to work for him. Now, he teaches other business owners to do exactly the same. Bradley, I have already been delighted to have you. I am excited to record the podcast and I’m excited to probably invite you on again. And again. We’ve only been talking for a little while, but I’m just completely happy to have conversation with you today. So thank you for being here.
Bradley Hamner 0:52
Thank you for the invitation. I’ve enjoyed getting to chat with you for a few minutes. I’m honored to be on here, and hopefully I can serve your audience.
Kevin Stafford 1:01
I’m pretty confident again, let’s uh, let’s go back to your your superhero beginnings, your superhero origin story, how did you? How did you first decide to become realized that you were a coach, maybe someone advise you or told you about coaching? Or you found the word at a time when you already realized that’s what you were doing? So how did you figure out you were ever decide to become a coach? And how did that realization roll into the business that you have today?
Bradley Hamner 1:27
Yeah, you had shared with me that different people have had different starts and, and mine was kind of unique. I obviously was a business owner started my first business in 2009, and was a business owner and had ran and operated that business as CEO for several years. And along the way, I just enjoyed love the conversations with other business owners, we would talk they would call me Hey, what do you guys do and to, to be able to hit these sales targets? And you’re growing your business? And what are you doing? I just loved the discussions that we had. And so one day, a friend of mine who I talked to, you know, almost every day called me and said, Hey, I’m gonna go speak to this other business owner. He’s kind of struggling and wants some help. And he said, What do you think I should talk to him about? I said, Well, what do you think about like, you and I going over there together, and maybe we could like, you know, charge for it. And he was like, that sounds great. And so we, we throw together this pitch deck on a, on a PowerPoint, we went over and, and talked to him and and really, it wasn’t coaching, in that in hindsight, it was it was really running his business, it was almost like we he outsourced us to run his business. So it was completely not a scalable model. He basically paid us $5,000 a month to say, I’m going to Florida, you guys come in and run the business. Well, we love that. And then within a week, we went in and got our second client. And for whatever reason, we charge that client $4,000 a month. And before you know it for the next few months, we were in business, but it was not a scalable model. That means said though, that was my first taste into man, I really do love this, I love this so much. You know, my partner, obviously he enjoyed the the extra side income that was coming from it, we began to kind of have differences in terms of, you know, philosophical how to where how were we going to coach certain things in the business. And so I ended up taking on some private clients within a few months of that. But that’s how my journey into coaching got started, I did not have somebody that was, you know, pouring into me or did not, I had invested in coaching myself, by the way, I really do believe don’t trust a coach who doesn’t have a coach, I think if you’re going to embody a learning and you’re going to want your clients to be coachable, you have to show that yourself to be coachable. And I’ll go as far as to say, I have never asked someone to write me a check for more than what I have written a check for in my own coaching, okay, now, that’s just my personal belief is that if I’m going to ask somebody to pay $24,000, to work with me or whatever that may be, then I want to have known that I have paid that much. And if I haven’t done it, then I’m not going to ask somebody else to do it. Because I just want to be honoring to that process. So anyway, that’s how it got started. Yeah, I actually really
Kevin Stafford 4:26
liked it. I know it’s a it’s a strong personal choice. I love how that represents empathy and action. Just like knowing what it feels like to put that number down and sign your name to it. Like knowing what that feels like in your gut. what that feels like in your head and your heart. There’s just something about that where it’s like you, you can say 100% Look them in the eye and say I know exactly how you feel right now, because I’ve been in this position before. I know how it felt. I know how worth it it was and there’s just being able to get that from a coach. And that’s I mean, it’s exactly the kind of thing that a coach really traffics in is that kind of not just Like, the kind of empathy you can learn about from a book, just that kind of connection, that kind of accountability, a kind of guidance that kind of, you know, I’ve been where you are, I know where you are, let’s go, where you want to go together. I also know how to get there, let’s let’s let’s get to work. It’s so simultaneously comforting and challenging, like in exactly the way that you really need from someone who’s going to fill the role of a coach in your life. And I just, I love the way that you represent that in your practice. That’s I think that’s powerful.
Bradley Hamner 5:27
Well, you know, I have learned something from every one of the coaches or coaching programs, I’ve been a part of, some of them I look back on and say, that probably wasn’t the program I needed at the time. But I don’t, I don’t look back on that as saying, Well, that was, you know, not money well spent some of the some of the programs, I’ve gotten so much more out of them from some others. You know, at the time of this recording, we’re almost in December of 2022. And looking forward in 2023, I’ve already laid out, well, what is my personal develop my personal development plan? What programs amount am I going to invest in? So I am we, you and I talked about intentionality before we hit record, and I think about not being intentional around my own personal development. So I’m more I don’t make as many impulse decisions as I used to in business. And I certainly do, don’t do that in my own coaching programs, to be able to say, what do I feel like I need and what does my coaching business need now. And who do I think is the best person or the best program that’s going to help me to get from where I am today, point A, to where I want to be? Point the and so I’m more intentional about that. So I have four or five different programs I’m thinking about right now, that are going to help me fill in some gaps and kind of move me along. The reason I say that is because it helps me to be very clear as to where my programs fit in with somebody else too. And again, I think that there’s an authenticity that I hope to try to transfer over to my leads prospects and clients around. Yeah, I’m going to invest my own coaching. And here’s where I think we can be able to help serve you as well.
Kevin Stafford 7:12
Yeah, it’s really, I You said this earlier on. And I immediately like I’ve responded to this, because it’s one of those things I hear from, from pretty much every coach I talk to, but like every good coach has a coach, every every coach who’s worth your time and worth your money is eminently coachable. And then coachability never goes away. That’s something that I have found to be very much in common with both people who have come to a point where they understand that they that coaching can have a powerful impact on their life. And people who have decided that coaching is a way for them to impact other people’s lives, is there’s this not just an understanding of but a commitment to learning and growing and remaining teachable and open and seeking out those teachable moments, those teachable abilities for yourself. And for other people. It’s really, it’s something that I find it’s, it’s when you once you see it, you see it everywhere you see it everywhere it’s present, because one of those things where it’s like, it checks a box, which like Ha, you have, you seem to have it all all put together, you have an excellent coaching practice, you know exactly what you’re talking about, you never seem to put a foot out of step you have always had the right words to say. And I can tell that you’re learning right now, as we’re talking. This is me as like a coachee being coached, it’s like I can I can see your openness, it’s so present, and you’re so available. And that combination, I mean, it just, I mean not to not to blow too much smoke up the coating industries. But here, but it’s just it’s a combination that can’t be beat, it really is just, it’s such a breath of fresh air, when you’re thinking about trying to grow as a person. It kind of actually kind of reminds me of, I’m talking more than you in this interview now. But it reminds me of a concept I keep stumbling upon as I’m talking with coaches about this sort of gap in education, where we spend so much of our lives, our early lives engaged in really formalized structured education in one form or another. And then we get to a certain point in our lives, and then that’s kind of it, where it’s just like there’s not really many places to go when you realize I need to learn this thing, or I need there’s some skills you need to acquire. And we’re not just talking about like learning calculus or you know, proper grammar. We’re talking about how to code we’re talking about how to how to move through the world, how to interact, how to conduct and being empathetic, how to be a better leader in various environments for yourself, for your team, for your company, as an entrepreneur or as someone who’s still in a corporate environment and still expected to be a kind of a dynamic leader, there’s so many different things we could still learn as people that there isn’t really much of a structure for at least not when compared to our early lives, which is all very well structured and planned, at least from an education standpoint for a lot of people. And I love the way that coaching really comes in and fills that gap where it’s like it’s really, it’s tailored to the individual, but it’s also filling a gap have sort of like a general here’s how to take the steps you want to take to be more yourself to go where you want to go to become who you want to become to be a better leader to be a better business owner, entrepreneur, all those things. It’s just I find that to be a very, very valuable service that really coaching is the best place to get it from. Yeah,
Bradley Hamner 10:07
I as you were talking, I was wondering, like, in my own background, where did where did it come from that I just had it in me that I wanted to always learn and grow. And I do think that some of it is just hardwired into who you are. And then I think along the way, there’s the experiences. And for you know, my, my, my clients and my program, people that that get to know me, I mean, they they realize, you know, family is a big part of my life, my kids, I’m super active in my kid’s life. And so a sports I mean, I am a sports nut. I’m a sports junkie, I use sports analogies a lot, I played sports, I’m a competitive son of a gun. I play love to play golf in college, I play basketball. And so, you know, a lot of my clients are former athletes that own businesses now, not that that’s some prerequisite by no means. But I think you end up attracting who you are not necessarily exactly who you want to attract, per se, right. So I just was off, I got a phone with one of my clients. You know, he played division one football, he was a great basketball athlete, he just started one of his a Window and Door Company. And, you know, like, he’s one of my my newer clients. But I think that there’s, when I was growing up playing basketball, I just did love the coaching to get better, right? I wanted to get better. I wanted to be a better three point shooter, I wanted to improve my free throws. In golf, like I wanted to be a better putter. And so I just loved the idea of learning from others and pouring into me, and then me seeing the results. And I think that my point insane all of that is to say, I think that that began me to realize very early on in my own entrepreneurial career, that I needed to make sure that I was investing in coaching programs myself. And now I really just share with people I just share with people. This is what’s helped me, this is my own journey. I hope this serves you, you know, like, that’s really Yeah, I just Yes, I’ve codified it into principles and frameworks and concepts and all those kinds of things. And yes, we have all of that. Oh, yeah. But really all of it is like, this is what serves me and my business. I hope it serves you. And it when you speak from a place of I’ve been there done that there are things that I go in my clients notes like, that’s don’t talk badly about that, like, That’s not the thing that, that it’s just not a part of our program, you know, and I will point them in the right direction of other coaches that that I have in my tree, so to speak, or people contacts. I know, one of my podcast sponsors, for goodness sakes is a is a coach because of what he coaches is not what I coach. It’s not I’m not interested in it at all. And yeah, he’s one of my podcast sponsors. And so, you know, and he and I talk about the differences in in our program. So anyway, yep,
Kevin Stafford 13:14
that’s a little but it’s something I’ve also identified in talking with all these coaches, it’s just it’s it delights me to know, and how, how much there’s a rising tide raises all boats kind of feel to it, and how how important fit is to every coach, and they understand every coach because there’s such a collegiality, such a like, like a desire to serve that unites all, like pretty much every coach, I ever talk to every coach in the business. So if there’s, if there’s not a good fit, they don’t just want you to find somebody else, that’s a good fit for you. They probably know somebody who’s a good fit for you. It’s like, they’ll have recommendations for you, which is why I always, whenever anybody asks me, I’m just always just find a coach you think you’ll like and give them a shot, like, connect with them, talk with them have a conversation, because if they’re not the right one, they’re uniquely positioned to know who might be for you. Because they know so many other coaches, as I love how near universal that commitment is that expression of, of just, I don’t like to throw the F word around too lightly, but a very familial kind of connection where it’s just like, you know, maybe not be me, but maybe my cousin over here who knows exactly what you need, or has worked in exactly the field you’re looking to, to grow and develop into. So let me connect you to and you let me know if that works out for you. It’s just I just, I just love it. It feels so connected to a like I said to like a rising tide that really is raising all our boats.
Bradley Hamner 14:38
Yeah, well, it does come down to I’ll use fit. I really, I would say it needs to be fit. I had one of my clients that I invited to be a part of my inner circle and which I only have eight people. And he asked me he said I would I would love to Why do you think I would be a good fit? And I thought, That’s a great question. And so I ended up answering that question as to why I think he would be a great fit for that. And he, of course, he ended up joining my inner circle. But and, and I had to go through saying, What does fit actually mean? And for the coaches listening, you may have different programs, you may have two or three different programs. And so the fit for one program may not be exactly the right fit for another program, not just don’t fit because of you, but where that person is in their journey. Okay, so like, my core offer that I have is called blueprint. And so one of the clients, I was like, you know, what I, so we just on boarded two clients within the last week or so, one client was absolutely a fit for blueprint 100% It was like it is a, it is the perfect fit exactly where he is in his career, exactly what he’s wanting to do what he’s looking for. It’s a perfect fit. He felt it, we felt it as a team. And he’s obviously come on as a new client. Another client was like, you know, what he’s in startup phase, like, that is not the right place for him. If he wants to get this off the ground, he needs to go to this other program that I that have, and I had an opening in it. And I think that’s the right place for him. And then he gets the blueprint program, but it wasn’t going to give him the thrust that he needed to get the business off the ground. So that’s an example of, you know, fit comes in different in different ways, not just personality of the coaches in the in the client, but also within the program and where that person is in there. Again, I serve business owners and so you know, where, where they are in their business.
Kevin Stafford 16:41
That’s yeah, that’s a really, really important point to emphasize, I feel like to do that did it fit is a dynamic, multifaceted concept that every coach ought to be well acquainted with. And I like i That’s a perfect story that exemplifies how there’s personality fit, and there’s program fit. And there’s like, where are you at in certain certain stages of development, certain coaching is just not, it’s not not going to be right for you, it could be the perfect fit of perfect like wedding of coach and business owner, couldn’t be you completely see the value of the program, but you’re just not there yet. And that’s, again, that’s something that a coach is perfectly positioned to help you to see, like you’re being coached before you’ve even signed up for the coaching. It’s funny how that works. Oh, man, there’s so there’s so much meat on this conversational bone, it’s I’m looking at the clock, it’s already been almost a half an hour that we’ve been chatting, I am 100% going to have you back on for another conversation, I feel like we could we could branch off into a number of different directions for much longer than a half an hour. But before I let you go, I want to make sure we talked a little bit about like who you are, what you do, how you got to where you are, you have a very dynamic business model, you have a lot of options for people. So I want you to speak for a couple minutes on it’s kind of a two parter question. Where can people just find out more about you just like learn more about what you do what you offer, why you offer it just kind of like the basics and kind of acquaint themselves with your approach as a coach? And then also, where can people best connect with you if they wanted to start a conversation? Have a chemistry call, maybe like DM on a social media platform of your choosing? So yeah, where are you best able to be connected with? And where can people just start finding out more about you?
Bradley Hamner 18:17
Yeah, one thing I do want to say, though, is actually I don’t have a lot of dynamic programs. So I have to, I have to I have the inner circle, and I have blueprint. Yeah. Now, I will tell you along the journey. So my inner circle, I have a private clients that I meet with one to one. And then we also meet together as a group as well. And so that is a that is a program that I’ve kept. And then I have blueprint, which is my coaching program, $7,500 a year for that program. And I have kept blueprint as well, at 100 people. Okay, now, in order for me to hit the targets that I have in the business, we will at some point, add on a lower tier offer. I do not know exactly what that’s going to be at some point it will I have launched courses in the past. So I’ve done digital courses, it will probably be some sort of combination of digital courses and some other type of deliverables at a lower tier if people are not ready to jump into blueprint, because again, I don’t even really offer the inner circle. I don’t even I don’t even like you know, market that at all because it’s only eight people in there. So it’s really just pulling people you know, that I’ve worked with and I don’t really have spots available for that. So blueprint is my core offer. And then everything we do is to get the right people into blueprints. So I just wanted to share that. That’s my model and we’ll build so we kind of worked from the if you want to use a value ladder terminology. We’ve worked backwards we still ordered high ticket. And then I’ve worked down the value ladder itself. And so where can people find me? So the best place to find me is actually not on social media the best place to find me. Yes, I’m on social media. Yes, I’m on Facebook. Yes, I’m on LinkedIn, you can connect with me on LinkedIn, the best place, Boxer, V O X er, if you’re not on Voxer, that is the best place to get in touch with me. I love Voxer, for news for it’s asynchronous communication. I mean, I, you and I have talked about notifications. But that’s how I communicate with all of our clients on Voxer. It is the best communication tool whatsoever, if you come into our program, we immediately very first thing is get you into is get you into Voxer. Because it’s a way for us to be for me to be able to communicate with a lot of clients asynchronously. So connect with me on there, you can download that free app and then connect with me Bradley Hamner just searched that and then send me a boxer. I’d love to stay in touch with all the other coaches that are out there. Otherwise, I have a podcast myself. It’s called the club capital leadership podcast we’ve had it for next month, be three years, and we do interviews on Mondays and then I do some solo episodes, eight to 12 minute episodes on Friday, so I encourage people to go and check that out. And hopefully some of those episodes serve you have been able to have some pretty cool guests on there. Over the years Mike McCalla wits general four star General Stanley McChrystal has been on the podcast and yeah, it’s been pretty awesome again, next week, actually, the Vice President of high performance at Chick fil A is coming on, or he came on, and his episode drops next week. And so I’d encourage people to check out the podcast. And then if you’re another coach, again, connect with me on Voxer is the best way to do it. And I wish I had equity in that company. I have recommended that app to so many people as like I would, I would absolutely invest in that in that in that company. If I could
Kevin Stafford 22:04
get some kind of affiliate links set up for you. Oh, man,
Bradley Hamner 22:07
I wish, I wish but it’s it’s free app. And I think the pro version is like 50 bucks for the year or something crazy, but it’s such a great tool to use. I love it. All my friends family. You can take away every tool. I have every app on my phone. If I just had Voxer I’d be good.
Kevin Stafford 22:26
So funny on two levels. I was like I’m chuckling mightily, because I’m responding very, very, very much to both of these because we I’ve been using Voxer for a few years now. And we have it’s we haven’t set up for a few of our clients. Because like you said that the asynchronous comms, especially the ability to do like text or voice memos. Like it’s one of those things where it’s like, I’ll just have ongoing conversations, where it’s just like I’m able to complete a thought and like keep a keep a conversation really active and lively and really engaging, even in an asynchronous way. I’m also a Voxer superfan. I’ve been using it for years, I love it. And also, I’ve stumbled on a very similar schedule for this podcast weirdly enough, where it’s like, for a while we were getting so many interviews that we had to go to like publishing three a week, because I just had too much too many in the backlog. And I got tired of saying it’s like and your episode will be live in two months. I was like, then, let’s let’s start start cranking these out. And so we started doing three weeks to get caught up. And now we’ve kind of settled into a interviews on Mondays, you know, special kind of like short, you know, just solo solo solo episodes on Fridays. It’s like, I’m just responding to the fact that I’ve just recently kind of settled on that schedule that you’ve been doing for years now. It’s fantastic. Congratulations on three years, by the way.
Bradley Hamner 23:36
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, we, we, we’ve we’ve crossed the we’ve crossed the what do they call it podcast fading? I didn’t know that. That was a thing until till much longer and so yeah, I mean, it’s, I get it, though. I mean, you know, we produce three episodes a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And to stay ahead of that is a it is a heavy on operational load is what I call it it to sync all those I mean, there’s five people on the team that have their hands, in some part of it. I mean, my part is easy to just, you know, have a conversation and talk to people and ask questions, you know, but, but to actually produce the episode and do it on time and make sure it’s consistent and do all the social media and the emails and all those things. It is it is an operational load for sure. So you know, but you know what, in business, it’s not supposed to be easy. It’s not supposed to be easy. It’s not easy and anybody that tells you that too easy is trying to sell you something
Kevin Stafford 24:37
that you probably don’t need and almost certainly don’t want
Bradley Hamner 24:40
Yeah, yeah. So check check out my podcast, go to check out the club capital leadership podcast connect with me on Voxer my website for my programs is business growth. curator.com If people want to check that out if they are a business coach, obviously, if you were a you know for somebody we drive People to the rainmakers. dilemma.com is where is our call to action? Most of the time, Business Growth carriers my main website, we’ve got an assessment on there that is, you know, that’s how we’ve codified things in our world is you need to transition from being the Rainmaker to the architect of your business and what architects use, they use blueprints, and that’s why the name of my program is blueprint.
Kevin Stafford 25:24
I put that one put that one together. Man, I’m Yeah, we’re gonna I can just have you back on to talk about that. Because I’ve I’ve, I’ve always been drawn to the, to the analogy of an architect when it comes to when it comes to coaching when it comes to building a business. So yeah, I think I’ve already got our theme for for part two, when I when I slipped when I slide into your boxer channel and ask you to come back in January. That’d be great. Thank you so much for being on this has been fantastic. You’re fantastic. I had such a fun time. I would not. I was, I would not be cutting this short. We’ve already gone longer than usual. I would not be cutting this off. I’d be stealing more of your time if I could. But I do promise to come back in and have some more fun conversations with you in the future. This would be fantastic. So thank you. You’re very welcome. Thank you, Kevin. And hey to the audience. You know where to find him drop into his boxer channel. At the very least check out the websites and you know, of course, he’s president social. So if you just want to learn more, do yourself a favor. Learn more about Bradley. He’s got a lot to offer. So thanks for listening, and we’ll talk to you again soon.