Kevin Stafford 0:00
Hello and welcome to another episode of the coffee with coaches podcast. I am your shipper and slightly over caffeinated host Kevin. And today I have the pleasure of interviewing Richard Osman Richard founded proven it. provenance. provenance provantage, novanet, ProAV provantage enunciation. On the right syllable, Richard founded provenant edge in 1999, after 24 years in nonprofit executive roles, he’s kept his focus on service for the greater good, and has built an international business whose purpose is simply to, quote, transform the lives of entrepreneurs and communities. Simple, deep, broad. Richard, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I’m really excited to talk about everything you do.
Richard Osmann 0:44
Thank you, Kevin.
Kevin Stafford 0:47
Let’s, let’s start at the start. Let’s jump back to the beginning. How did you find yourself realizing that you were a coach, and then moving from there to becoming a coach professionally and building a coaching business? I find that superhero origin stories always very unique.
Richard Osmann 1:04
Well, I guess in my first career as a leader in various nonprofits, we coach along we coach the employees, the teams, our clients. And it was a natural, I think just transition actually. I don’t know what I don’t know what more to say.
Kevin Stafford 1:31
It’s awesome ended. It’s just that simple.
Richard Osmann 1:35
So you know, I was, quite frankly, the other service that I was over was crisis intervention service. So we psychology related. Running. At the end of my career, last 10 years, I worked more or less, with actually two organizations, I’m a nonprofit health care, they had 16 hospitals and half the state of Virginia, and in their, in their Department of Health, and we, so we met people at the worst time of their lives, and help them you know, take the next step. Anything after that is not that difficult. And because I ran too big services, I also knew business, and was invited to go into business by a close friend of mine, and we just every business has challenges. The only difference is people aren’t dying in this in this kind of thing.
Kevin Stafford 2:40
It’s really, it’s, there’s a difference between like actual life and death. And then the because there’s the stakes are still high for people as they grow and develop in their leadership and in the ways that they live their lives. Absolutely. There’s there’s still stakes, but yeah, it’s it’s it’s a different,
Richard Osmann 2:54
it’s different silver or silver shares. You know, and I, well, one of the things with me, but besides being service oriented, is um, relationship oriented. And be you know, because of what I did my first career, and I think you could say I take a professional, a deep professional interest. And some of my longer term clients actually become more than professional friends. You know, we’d become colleagues. You know, we, you know, I’m invested in their success.
Kevin Stafford 3:27
Coaching really is it is a relationship business. I mean, most business business really is a lot about relationship. That’s something that’s definitely a truism, but especially with coaching, because the requirements of a good coach coachy relationship, there’s a lot of vulnerability, a lot of empathy, a lot of understanding and connection that goes on there. And there’s this truth, there’s, there’s a lot of deep work that happens. And so it’s very natural, and in fact, very expected to create these bonds that are more than professional, more than simply just professional, that they they bleed out into the other areas of your life. And that’s, that’s one of the big values of coaching, Ithink.
Richard Osmann 4:02
well, you know, you said there’s a lot of stake, and that’s why I love to work almost exclusively with business owners, because their business is an expression of who they are. And it’s a central part of their life. And quite frankly, the lives of their families and their employees in a lot of ways and, you know, and in their communities. That’s why That’s our, our mission is to transform the lives of Entrepreneurs and communities.
Kevin Stafford 4:30
So that’s who, let’s talk a little bit about the how, especially nowadays, like obviously, you’ve been at this for quite some time, and you work almost exclusively with business owners and entrepreneurs. How do you go about coaching them and then how can we kind of you can take that however you’d like. It could be the like, whether or not the the format is one on one or small group like mastermind style coaching, or if there are like keynotes or you know, Team, Team structured activities that happen and then like so talk about the how of your code thing.
Richard Osmann 5:00
So what we’ve done over time was we’ve developed a couple of different programs. One is a mastermind program. And people who, who participate in the mastermind programs also get it get at least an hour with me. The masterminds are monthly. So they’ll get that and then and then an hour, hour and a half whatever required between times it’s because it’s also about execution. We build industry specific vertical masterminds. So as an example, I’m getting one together right now for the green and renewable space. There’s because that’s about transformation. It’s so important, right? Yeah. You know, we have one for general business, you know, we have a couple others that have been running a while. So that’s the end, I don’t do just the coaching, the brilliant part of that is I don’t do just the coaching, I facilitate the groups. And there’s, so you have to be careful who you let in, but they coach each other. And that is such a big benefit, really, to the, you know, to the members. I obviously will have, you know, if I have things to say or you know, to contribute, I will be the coaching is very structured, because people work with me to help me take them to a place where they’ve not been before, huh, yes. All right. They want to improve their business, improve their leadership, which improves their business, a lot of different things. A lot of business owners and entrepreneurs don’t really aren’t really, professionally, I’ll call it conversion on financial management. They kind of know what they’ve got, but they’re not looking at every dollar. And, and so it depends on what the client needs. But what I do with the, with the coaching clients is we set up a week we set up goals, what do they need help, I know, they need it, you know, and we’ll set up, you know, usually a six month to begin with contract, although I’ve never had a client cancelled at the end of six months. Because we’re really, we’ve made some massive progress, but then they say they can do so much more. And that’s a great thing to see them. You know, get on fire, so to speak, and really get it and, and we meet weekly, and everybody has, everybody has a weekly goal. So we set the six month goal, we set quarterly goals monthly, and then we have weekly and I contributed it, I just don’t sit there and drink coffee and go Oh, tell me more. But you know, and it’s information sharing, oftentimes, you know, get actively involved, they need help, because listen, being a business owner, you got things coming at you from 360 degrees. And, and you know, a lot of times I you know when appropriate and and you know, you know, can can help them with some things to execute on some things. So that’s the, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s the coaching, we do take it one step further. Because when they’re really sharp moving through the process, and they’re growing, they need to hire additional leaders that can help them with strategy, finance direction and this kind of thing. I’ll retain them as coaching clients, but then what we may do, if it’s really good report we need it is all slip in as in a fractional executive role. And because I just need another hand, they don’t need a full time hands on deck. But they they need someone that’s, you know, bend down lists, you know, I’ve done for my company, what I do for them, and and as well as other clients. So that’s kind of the long answer to a short question.
Kevin Stafford 9:05
Well, that’s that’s what we’re here for. And it wasn’t that long at all. We still barely been in the room for 10 minutes. I love I love so much about what how you go about doing what you do. I’ll pick one thing I love the way that you help them and move with your clients through transition stages. Like I love that capacity to step in as a fractional executive when the time comes, because there’s so much so much growth and so much potential and potency in that coaching experience. And a lot of times a lot of coaches they’ll don’t they’ll have they’re almost like a like a stage of a rocket you know, where they’ll help you get up to a certain level, then they have to, you know, fall away and someone else steps in and someone else begins to help at a different level. And I love the fact that you’re able to move with your clients through their transition stages. That’s so powerful because then you get the benefit from that relationship that’s already been built that foundation that’s been laid you have the trust you have the belief you have the the understanding together And I just I just feel like that’s so powerful, it’s, it’s pretty special to in the coaching realm, I love that.
Richard Osmann 10:05
Well, thank you very much. Yeah, you know, after six months, we, you know, we know who each other are, and you don’t have to get adjusted to somebody else. You know, those are few. And those are we do that for a select few, you know, some are just happy, and they’ve already got the, the infrastructure improve, and their official want the coaching, which is fun, you know, because the goal is to serve a client.
Kevin Stafford 10:30
I love the way that you meet, you meet their needs, you meet them, where they’re at, help them get where they want to go, and you’re ready to meet their needs, whatever that whatever shape or form they might take. Thank you. I love that. And also, there are two words that popped into my head as you were describing your process and describing your business. And it’s I love that you use the word facilitate, because that it’s so much a part of what a coach does. Some people have a have a certain kind of understanding of a coach is someone who can come in and tell them what to do, or walk them through things step by step. And there’s definitely a framework involved there, there’s depth there, definitely, there’s definitely a structure that will help. But really what a coach does the real juice, I think in that coaching relationship, is that you’re there to facilitate, you’re there to guide. And I love that you focus on that.
Richard Osmann 11:15
That’s, that’s right, because you don’t want to create dependency, that’s a parent child relationship. And you want to facilitate somebody’s own progress. With the goal, like a really good parent, is when it comes time for them to go off on their own. They’re fully equipped. And then you can sit back going, Yeah, that’s awesome.
Kevin Stafford 11:34
You can see, you can see, you can see your work together and the way they go about their lives. It’s beautiful.
Richard Osmann 11:37
Exactly right.
Kevin Stafford 11:42
Before we sign off, let’s talk a little bit about where where people can find out more about you what you do personally and professionally. And also where you like to connect with people? Do you have a particular social media platform that you’d like to start relationships on? Do you like them to go through your website? How, what’s the best way for people to learn more, and find out more about you and connect with you?
Richard Osmann 12:02
You know, I really think LinkedIn is the best thing, people can look at my profile of Richard Osmann, and they can see the things I like the things I post. You know, I don’t know if things get my connections or not, but you know, the people who connect you to groups of men maybe. And I’m very active on that I stay away from Facebook. You know, that’s more for family and personal relationships, quite frankly. And that’s probably now we do have a website provantage.com. But that’s really a placeholder website. Because the other thing we do on a very high end with corporations is we help with capital acquisition. And that’s kind of the high end of the transformation. So, you know, when I started provantage, no one thought you’re legitimate unless you had a website. And you know, and so are we, you know, we put a website together because we work through relationships, I want to know who I’m working with, and I want people to know who they’re working with. Because it’s really is about you know, you know, walking this path together. So I think LinkedIn is probably the best suppose.
Kevin Stafford 13:21
Excellent. Yeah, I find I find LinkedIn to be increasingly in my regard my favorite social media platform, which is a weird thing to say, because I didn’t, I used to regard LinkedIn as just, you know, you know, resume, you know, a beefed up resume platform, but it’s really become my favorite relationship platform, you’re able to really genuinely see what someone’s like, get to know them a little bit, let them get to know you a bit. And the ability to connect and send messages back and forth and see what people post you really get an idea of who you’re working with, which, for coaching especially, is so important, because you have that trust relationship begins from day one moment one, you start building that trust together, that’s going to be the foundation for everything else you do. And yeah, I love that you’re active on LinkedIn, I feel like that’s the best place to build that kind of trust.
Richard Osmann 14:04
Well,Im very active and and, you know, I, you know, I want people to check me out, just like, go check them out, you know, people have the contract, maybe they’re not getting a sales job. You know, I won’t do that. I just, you know, want to see if, if you know what they want to do and what I bring to the table. When can you know, is it a good fit?
Kevin Stafford 14:26
I think we’ll leave it there a good fit. Richard, thank you so much for being on the pod. Thank you for sharing. Thank you. And yeah, it’s been it’s been fantastic. And to the audience, find Richard, find him on LinkedIn, get to know him a little bit, see if he’s the right fit for you. Because I can tell you from talking to him before we started recording, the fit is very important. If he can serve. If he can be of assistance of service to you, he will find a way and if he’s not the one for you, he’s going to be able to help you find the one who is and it’s a lovely aspect of his service service oriented leadership. So thank you again, Richard. Thank you, Kev audience and hey, we’ll talk to you all again, very soon.
