[00:00:00] Kevin Stafford: Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the conversations with coaches podcast. I’m your host, Kevin. And I find myself saying this when I’m talking to someone who I’ve had a chance to interview before. I expect you can hear it in my voice, because I can certainly hear it in mine how delighted I am to get to chat with when Jacob again, we basically just picked up when we left off, like we haven’t, I forget the last time that we recorded, but it was just like jumping right back into a conversation. We’re laughing. We’re telling like personal stories. We’re getting into the deep end so quickly. It’s just, it’s the kind of thing that I love about Lynn’s kind of thing.
I love about great coaches is how easy the conversation goes. That’s why I love this podcast. So if you hear me already smiling and already delighted, that’s why. Let me reacquaint you with Lynn in case you don’t remember from our, I think we’ve recorded a couple of different times in the past, but let me reacquaint you, Lynn is an international speaker, business advisor, performance coach.
And I love this, the world’s leading butt kicker for CEOs and managing directors of startups, as well as seasoned enterprises throughout Canada, the U S Europe and Australia, a passionate leader with a strong competency to integrate business functions in an international environment. She’s known for helping her clients find.
and unlock their untapped layers of potential, set clear strategies, and set a direction. Lin, thank you for being who you are. You have delighted me already. I feel like I said, I feel like I’m gonna have to go like for a run after this conversation because I feel so energized to see you again. And thank you for being here today.
You’ve already made my day and I expect you’ll make the audience’s day as well.
[00:01:30] Lynne Jacob: Thank you. Thank you so much, Kevin. And thank you for the opportunity to do this. And yes, we had fun conversations long before you turn on that record button. But yeah, I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you again and to share whatever I have to share with your audience.
So
[00:01:47] Kevin Stafford: let’s let’s dive. Let’s basically pick back. Pick the conversation back up where we left it off. Pick up that thread. We were we had begun to talk about some client stories and some experiences they were having inspired by what we were talking about in our own lives. So as we’re when we’re recording this, it’s I guess my goodness.
We’re already well into November of 2023. When you’re listening to this might be, later in the year, or the year might have turned already. So we’re already reflecting back on 2023. And in particular, experiences that you’ve had with clients that have really stood out to you as, or had had lots of lessons for you, or really exemplify Something about your coaching or why you love coaching so much.
Share if you have any, I’m sure you do, but if any of you feel comfortable sharing about experiences that clients have had with you and that you’ve had with clients over the last year.
[00:02:33] Lynne Jacob: Oh my goodness. I could go on and on cause so many just flashing into my mind when you were saying that.
One that we were just mentioning because it was about untangling thoughts, I think is what you had said something about untangling and anyway. So just in a coaching session just today, one of my clients had asked. So I have people send me a document. It’s called weekly reflections and achievements review.
But in that he was talking about how something he really needed. To do in a way that he’s tried it so many times, but he needs to develop the habit he didn’t, they’re my words, not his, but develop the habit of doing routinely is to have his, and this is another expression that is mine, have a one week look ahead or a two week look ahead.
Now, this comes from construction and he’s a service based company with anything that moves like fans and stuff like that. But at any rate. kind of construction y. At any rate so we’re looking at how he can put together the week ahead. How he knows But it was Friday morning, he decided he’d do it how he knows Friday morning, what his whole week ahead is going to look like at least 80%.
And so we, I start, I said, would it be a benefit to you to start working on next week’s right now, which would be tomorrow morning? He do it, but he just started it. So why not? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And he got uncomfortable right off the bat and he was getting defensive. He was very resistant. All this stuff. And I just, at one point, yeah, at one point I actually said would you do me a favor and just take a deep breath with me?
And he yeah, okay. Cause he does breath work and everything too, right? But anyway. Yeah. Okay. And I said, how about if we put our spines up straight because he was leaning back as far back as he could get from me and the words. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So he did. And we took a couple of deep breaths and then we went back at it.
So this is just as ego resisting. That’s all. So at the end of a good cause we hit the ground running this morning in this coaching session because we knew what we’re going to talk about. And it was a good 50, maybe 55 minutes of all of this. And I said, so is there anything else I can help you with before we end today’s coaching session?
He said, no, this is a lot. Trust me. It’s a lot. I said, okay, I get that. I get that. And that was good. We mapped it out. And then I said, and How about if you were to bounce around a little bit and we’ve talked about this before, but for something else, and I said I’m thinking just to release all, because I could see how tight his muscles were in his body.
He could see it in his face. You could see it in his. In his his shoulders and his arms and stuff like that. And he had told me, in fact, right at this time, was there more that I could do to help him today? And he said, this is a lot and I know I need it because I feel horrible. I, my physically, I feel terrible and I feel nauseous.
In my stomach as well. So I know that I needed this, but it’s a lot. So then I asked if he would do some jumping jacks when he hung up the phone just to release some of those locked up muscles and stuff. And he said, Oh, I like that. Yes. Yes. I’ll do that. And I’m sure that he did, but this is one of the, one of the ways I help clients on in, in a particular coaching session.
So this is a particular thing. He needs help with, and boy, it was painful, right? And we’re going to talk about it again next week. But the other thing with this guy is in his WRA or this week, he told me that he is still growing. He had, the top five achievements of this week is one of the examples.
And he’s getting on new big jobs every week. And he actually fired. a customer that was bringing in something like something just under a million a year, I think it was, I think it’s maybe around 900, 000 a year or something. And he fired them because they were just horrible. And now his business has filled that hole that one big company left.
And He is collecting on, all the unpaids from that big one and, and lots of nice success stories there too. But also he said that he is still growing. The company still hiring more people at the same time as all the other companies around him are laying people off. So there’s a little success story.
Same guy, same thing. And now today he was feeling about what we were working on. And it’s not the first time he’s felt that way. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gotten to this level. And we’ve been working together for a year and a quarter or something like that. And we’ve got a lot more to go. And now he’s working on succession.
And I know that he too will get there. So one of my, one of my clients we started working together. Let’s, you do the math, but it was in 2006, December 06. We met in a seminar that I did or a workshop I did to introduce my services. So then he stepped into working with me in March. And in January, he said to me.
I have reflected more on my business in the past 14 days since that workshop than in the previous 14 years. So we started working together in March of 07, and we’re still working together today. And he just told me a bit and succession has come along in all these years, right? And so he’s got a whole team working on it and he’s been through that in the past nine months or something like that, and he now knows the numbers.
And they’re phenomenal. He said, I would have never guessed that this was possible. And the guy just a year ago received his custom built airplane. Yeah. Electrical. Electrical contractor who had been throwing in the towel when we met. He had already made the decision that he was packing it in at the end of the year and his guys would have to get a new job and he was going to get a job.
So it’s been a few years, but he’s had this custom built plane in his hands in his hanger for more than a year, and he had another plane before that, a used plane that he had purchased and been flying around. So anyway, that’s another great success story for this year. I want to hear the numbers in his succession.
They’re there. If he does nothing more, they’re there. What if he sells the company? Boy, that’s just going to add to that incredible amount of. wealth he has acquired for himself. And it’s thanks to his wisdom in continuing to coach with me every month in all that time, because otherwise he probably would have never gotten the plane.
He would have never pulled the trigger on this. He might, he would never have pulled the trigger on learning to fly. He wouldn’t have done any of these things. So just. They’re just pie in the sky ideas.
[00:09:54] Kevin Stafford: And that’s I feel like that exemplifies beautifully the importance of the consistent, persistent work.
Too many people come in and they’re looking, not necessarily for a coach, but they’re looking for an answer to a specific question, or a solution to a specific problem, and then they want that solution, and they’re like, okay, thank you, done, goodbye. It’s pump the brakes there, buddy.
There’s a lot of work to be done. And if you want. Those moments where you’re able to pull the trigger on big decisions that make you deliriously happy, but you’re able to look at the numbers and whatever you’re looking at and be like, Oh. This is even better than I could have possibly imagined. All of that is because of the work that’s been put in persistently and consistently prior to that.
And that’s, I feel like not enough. Plenty of people realize this, but more could that it’s not just about finding a coach and working with them for a limited amount of time. It’s about having a coach who knows you, who learned you, who can challenge you in the right ways, who can make you uncomfortable, who can make you a little nauseous every once in a while, which is not necessarily a selling point, but that’s.
But it should be, it could be, you need somebody in your corner who knows you like that, who has the wisdom, who has the skills, who can push you a little bit to do, to make all the decisions you need to make, to pull all the triggers that need pulled and avoid the ones that need to be avoided. And that’s, yeah, I think that’s, oh, it’s such a good example of why coaching is so important over time as well as in a moment.
[00:11:12] Lynne Jacob: Exactly. Especially over time. Yeah. And so then it’s funny because now the other story I want to share that just came to mind is a young company just two years old met the guy on LinkedIn and it’s owned by him and his business partner, not related, but a man and a woman. And I think I can safely say this, I knew that they wouldn’t get very far still together, but I never said anything about it.
It never came up, but then they did join a program that, that. I felt was the best fit for them and it was a big investment for them at the time because they were two years in business and they needed help. If they needed help, it meant they weren’t making a lot of money and two years in business, you’re not, but he had the wisdom to know we can’t wait, five and seven years because it’s two people.
They need to be contributing to the households of not just one so she agreed to, I met with her afterwards and she agreed to, and in the 1st so I 1st. We had a coaching session to get started to give them something to do before this program started for them to come into it. And in the 1st training session of the 7 month program that they came into, then he said, he sent me an email and he said, just so you’re not blindsided tomorrow, I have, we not I, but we have.
We don’t have enough money to make it to the end of the month. And this was like the second week of the month or something like that, like going into the second week and they didn’t have enough to get to the end of the month. That included payment, right? The second payment for this program, because it was a monthly payment deal that they accepted.
And anyway, so in that training, when I go into the Q& A. he Started about it. I said, you feel comfortable talking about this here in the group? And he said, sure, if nobody else here has had this problem, you might one day. So absolutely. That was a Tuesday morning. By Thursday afternoon, he had received in his in their bank account, but through his actions received more than twice as much as the entire investment for the program.
And they’d only made 1 payment so far and we’re making monthly payments, but he had received a chunk of money that was. That was twice as much more than twice as much of the entire amount for the program in one, whatnot, one coach that we did have one coaching session to get started. And then they had this 1st training session and in the Q and a now, it wasn’t easy because what happened was.
He, I helped him coach, I coached him through mapping out a plan to collect on an all but lost receivable. It was gone. It was months ago. They couldn’t lean the property, they had no rights for collection left and the person wouldn’t give them any money and all this stuff. So then I encouraged him to reach out and say, it’s not personal.
This is just business, strictly business. I’m going to collect that’s all there is to it. So anyway, at what time he would make that call at 2 o’clock that afternoon. At about 2, 15 to 25, something like that. I called. He answered the phone and I could hear that he’s driving and we’re talking no, I didn’t have time yet to call and I will later and blah, blah, blah.
And I asked, can I hear that you’re driving? Are you like in your vehicle and you’re on the road? Yes. And I said, will you please pull over as soon as you can? I’ll hold on the phone while you pull over. And so he did and he was doing hands free, so it was legal. I just wanted his attention. Yes. So he pulled over, and I said, okay, now here’s what I’d like you to do.
I’m going to hang up the phone on you, and you’re going to call this person right now, and then you’re either going to call me back in about five minutes, because it won’t take longer than that, because every phone call averages, like the average for phone calls is three minutes. Even if he had a conversation with this person, it wouldn’t last more than five, right?
And I said, and then either you call me back or I’ll call you. And he’s just a minute. And I just hung up. So he didn’t call me back in five minutes. So in seven minutes or something like that, I called him and he said, and he’s not the first one. I’ve heard it before. I have to tell you, when you hung the phone up on me like that, I went, you bitch.
And I said, people say that, but did you make the call? And he said, I did. I said, and what was the result of the call? I’m going to get money on Thursday. So now he still didn’t yet have the money on Thursday. I didn’t have the money because it’s not Thursday yet, right? Yeah. So I texted him on Thursday and then I texted him again when he hadn’t responded.
And I said, so just so you know, I might be calling today because this is what I do. I crack the whip. I actually can crack a good bull whip. And so he kept at it and then I emailed him and I said, how else can I help you get that money? And he responded to that email saying, I now have the money. It was X dollars that came in and that’s only about a third or a little more than a third of what the people actually owe, but he would continue collecting on it.
But that was like just. It was lost money. If he hadn’t gone after it, he was never going to get it. They were never going to just offer it to him. No. Anyway, so then he, I said, how else can I help you? And he said, and as for how else you can help me I’m really getting annoyed with your constant phoning, texting and emailing.
So I think you’re helping me really well. So they even recognize. that their annoyance is a good thing, right? That if I’m feeling annoyed about this, okay, I don’t like it, but this is a good thing. So now we’ve been through this training program, right? It’s been a number of months. And at one point along the way, both of them were receiving paychecks, like, Regular paychecks, like they owned a company, not just a little bit of what’s left over in the bank account.
Yeah. They re they now receive routine paychecks just all the time every week or every other week, they now have so much work. They have had to hire on two more people and they have to hire more people. You go from, we don’t have enough money to make it to the end of the month to, and so that was.
Within three months, they were receiving regular paychecks, these two partners. And it started way back when he said, I don’t know what else you can do to help me, but this is really annoying me. So I think this is good.
[00:18:06] Kevin Stafford: Oh, that’s so great. And again, I feel like that’s another really great example of.
Of not only what great coaching looks like, but also what you should think about when you’re looking for great coaching, or, that you need someone to come coach you is you need to understand that the thing that you need coaching in or with, or through it’s. It’s going to make you feel uncomfortable in some way.
It might be just anxiety, it might make you mad, it might make you frustrated, it might make you nauseous, it might make you, might give you a headache, you might find your shoulders up inside your ears and have to constantly roll them out and do jumping jacks, it’s going to get uncomfortable precisely because there is some kind of change that’s required here.
Something about your behavior, your approach, the way you have things structured, things you’re ignoring, things you’re paying too much attention to, something needs to shift. This coach is going to help you shift that. And that shift is going to feel uncomfortable. And I love this you know what, you’re really annoying me, which means I know you’re doing a great job.
It’s that’s to me, that’s the perfect encapsulation is it’s I’m very bothered. And that is great. Yes, exactly.
[00:19:16] Lynne Jacob: And they do come to recognize that it’s not the coach annoying me, I’m feeling annoyed. But I, but they get that after, a couple of few times, it’s not you who’s ticking me off.
It’s that I’m feeling ticked off and it’s mainly because what I asked this one guy today who was, all frustrated and flustered and stuff like that. I said, what is it that weighs the most heavily on you right now? And he said, Oh, that’s a good one. And then he said. It’s I’m feeling confused.
I don’t know what I would want to do with my business. I could sell it. I could hang on to it for the kids. They’re still young. One’s still at home and the other one is just, has just left home or maybe she’s in university, but anyway, just left home to go to university. So they’re young. So do I sell it because he could, or do I hang it all, hang on to it for the kids?
But he still can bring those kids in when they’re older and be 55. And have it all wrapped up at 55 and when he came when he brought that out and said, yeah, but whatever it is, I do, I can make the decision to do it by 55. And there’s lots of time for that. Yeah. Okay. No, I feel better now. So it was just all this.
I don’t know. I don’t know. And once you can calm that, I don’t know down, it doesn’t weigh so much.
[00:20:43] Kevin Stafford: It’s perfect. Okay. As much as I could just do this with you all day and as many stories as I know you have that are along these exact same lines, I should probably wrap us up. We’ve been chatting for almost 40 minutes and 20, 25 of that being recorded.
So I should get you the rest of your day. That was a perfect place to end it. And I love, I just, I really love that you had that question about what weighs heavily. Cause that’s a physical question. Just like the anxiety is physical. The nausea is physical. The jitteriness, the shoulder tensive tenseness the neck veins popping out, you don’t realize it’s popping out it’s physical until you ask a physical question.
And I think it inspires that kind of insight. So that’s, I love that. If I may say so, I love you. I love the work you do. I love the way you go about doing it. I love your commitment to it. And just, it just, it makes me happy to know that you’re out there annoying people.
[00:21:34] Lynne Jacob: Thank you, Kevin. It’s my
[00:21:36] Kevin Stafford: pleasure.
Oh, before I let you go, Lynn, if the audience is as, as delighted as I am as inspired as I am, where can they go to find out more about you? Get more of you. I think we talked a little bit about a new YouTube channel that you have started. I don’t know if you want to talk about that here, if you want to say that in your back pocket, but like basically if people want more of you on a personal level, professional level, everything in between, where can they go?
[00:21:59] Lynne Jacob: Okay. LinkedIn is a great place to find me for the business. And that’s, my name is L Y N E Jacob, like in the Bible J A C O B. And my website is M L J like Mary Lynn Jacob, M L J international. com. And then this YouTube channel, which is, it’s coming along slowly, but nicely that is personal.
It is. Blossoming very, but yeah it’s blossoming with all the weather, I’m in Canada at the moment and it’s fricking cold in early November, but anyway, that, that new fun project I’m doing, which is just personal is fun after 50. on the YouTube
channel.
[00:22:40] Kevin Stafford: So I didn’t mean to put you on the spot there, but I was so excited about it the way you were talking about it.
I was like, I wanted to give you a chance just to put it out there so that people know what if they want a little bit more of you, because I feel like you have so much to offer. Like you, I get so much every time that we talk, you can tell where it’s just man, you probably just Just to shed inspiration and action.
It’s beautiful to see. So yeah, I just want to give you a chance to put that out in the world.
[00:23:05] Lynne Jacob: Yeah. Yeah. If you want to know who I am personally, and it’s just personal stuff, but it was inspired by this colleague we met 15 years ago and she’s doing her. For her 50th birthday, she was doing a bucket list, and so she reached out to me, just having remembered our fun time together, and she said, you are so inspiring to me!
And I’m a nomad, right? I’m a nomad. So I’m soon going to be back into the heat of Mexico, and yeah. Yeah. Because it’s
[00:23:33] Kevin Stafford: cold. It’s cold in Canada. I’m up in the Pacific Northwest. It’s not Canada cold up here, but it’s getting nice and frigid, which I enjoy. Of course, I couldn’t live here if I didn’t love it, but also Mexico sounds nice.
[00:23:44] Lynne Jacob: I used to love the winters, used to love the winters here, but I’m of a certain age that I don’t anymore.
[00:23:50] Kevin Stafford: Times change. People change. But, you can go anywhere you want to get whatever you want.
[00:23:55] Lynne Jacob: Exactly. Exactly. Isn’t that the truth? Yeah. Because I’m a board med, so that’s what this thing is all about.
It’s just living life on your terms. That’s all. And it’s just personal, sharing all kinds of stuff. My topics are all over the board, help, like just
[00:24:10] Kevin Stafford: everything. So people will just have to subscribe to just to find out, just to see what you have to offer.
I’m just, hey, the audience that’s a hint. Subscribe. There’ll be links to everything in the show notes, like all the usual podcast stuff. Lynn, one more time. Thank you so much. I very much had a blast and I’m not kidding. I feel so energized. I might have to do some jumping jacks myself, but like to work off the positive energy.
[00:24:32] Lynne Jacob: Thank you so much, Kevin. Truly. It’s been a pleasure. It has been. And
[00:24:35] Kevin Stafford: to the audience, I hope you had just like a fraction of the amount of fun that I just had because if you did, then I know you’re having a great day. You know what to do next. Connect with Lynn, find out more. Just find out there’s so much more.
We barely scratched the surface, so you know what to do. And here on the podcast, we will talk to you again very soon.
