334. Living Your Values: How to Translate What Matters Most into Business Success with Zachary Coleman

00:00:06
Hey, there. I'm Sandee Sgarlata, and welcome to the Happiness Solve podcast. Twice a week, we explore the journey to finding true happiness by sharing inspiring stories, practical tips, and insightful conversations with some of today's leading experts. But we don't just scratch the surface. We dive deep into the real grit of what it takes to live a generous, genuinely happy life.

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Whether you're looking to improve your well being, enhance your relationships, or simply add more joy to your life, you're in the right place. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and let's dive into today's episode, because happiness is a choice, and the choice is yours.

00:00:47
Zachary Coleman. So excited to have you on my show today. I love our conversations that I have with my guests before and always like, oh, we probably should have hit the record button a little bit sooner, but all good. We may be repetitive in our conversation, but for the audience, Zachary Coleman is the founder of creative of founder of Creative, a successful, grit focused agency. And my website is cutting off here, so I apologize.

00:01:16
I may have missed some of that. You're a grit focus branding agency. There we go. Okay, so welcome to today's episode. So happy you're here.

00:01:26
Thank you for having me on. I really appreciate it. Yeah, yeah, of course. So everybody has a backstory. What is your backstory?

00:01:33
How did you get to where you are today? Because everybody has, like, that light switch moment or the light bulb moment. You know, I think that's a. I think that's a. A funny question, because I think that there's.

00:01:49
It's the culmination of everything that's happened over the last, you know, 20 years. It probably would take hours for me to explain on this call, but I would say, you know, I think there was two specific turning points in my life. One I had about a year and a half to two years ago within the business, and one that I had before I jumped out into the corporate world. And so, uh, I'll kind of say that first story here. Um, you know, I grew up.

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I grew up, uh, my dad was an NFL player. I played soccer growing up. I always wanted to, um, be like him. And so I practiced really hard. And then I just got to a point where I realized, uh, that I just had to follow my own path.

00:02:33
Right. In college, I grabbed this great fascination with visual communication and how to help people feel seen and heard of because I kind of lacked that. When I was a kid, I was always the one trying to prove myself and to do certain things. I think it's the mind of an entrepreneur, really, funny enough. So I went into visual communications, and I job hopped for years.

00:02:55
And at the time, I thought it was a money thing, but I realized over time that it was really because I'd learn everything I possibly could, and then I'd get bored. And the last job that I was at, I actually got, you know, I was always one to. I was never afraid to communicate, meet people. I was always going on interviews, even if I wasn't going to take a new job, I just. Just the way I was as a person.

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And I was already dabbling in kind of thoughts on, hey, I want to kind of do this on my own. I was going through a situation at my work, which I call the Honey pot syndrome, where I had a very good boss, a medium boss, and then I'll just say a not so good leader towards the end of my realm there. And it was kind of pushing me to push myself. And I had this interview with a company that was going to actually hire me, that had me go out to, wanted to fly me out to New York City, which was always my dream. I tried to do my internship out there with American Express.

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They were like, we need to redo our whole website. We want someone to come out. They hired me. They called me and said, you got the job. It's a contract.

00:04:04
Six months. They're going to pay for travel. They're going to pay for your room and board for six months. You'd be paying twice as much as you would be if you were in the corporate, you know, as I was making at the time, out of fear, I turned that job down. Out of fear of being like, well, what am I going to do after that six months and dwelling on it that night, I finally had enough gump to email him back the next day, literally the next day, and say, I want it.

00:04:36
I'm good to go. I just needed the day. And they're like, sorry, we already gave it to somebody else. But looking back on that experience, I realized at that point that, like, I need to do this. I can't let the fear of not knowing what the outcome is going to be six, you know, a year from now.

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And I. And I'm. I've always been the person growing up in a family where my. My parents were, I'm not going to say not very good with money, I tended to become the opposite. So I was always in control over savings and.

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And all that stuff. And so I had a good budget that I already accumulating, and I. That was my. That was it. That told me, I need to go out on my own.

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So. But I was smart about it. I said, I'm going to give it two more months here just so I can get everything in line with my, you know, all my savings stuff. And I did. I gave it two months, maybe an extra two weeks, because the fear was still there a little bit, but I did it.

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And I remember on that drive home, first thing I thought was my, my mindset shift, it was just such a quick shift. I was like, wow, I actually have more control over my destiny doing this myself than I do with, do with being in the corporate world because they could have fired me at any time. And in fact, they were doing that sleazy thing in the environment where they were like giving all the senior strikes very slowly, one by one, and then promoting the juniors up without giving them a pay increase. And so I was kind of already getting close to that list. And so, yeah, I went out on my own and that was about eight years ago now.

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And I've been at it ever since. Has it been hard? Yes. Have I. Have I.

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Did I start very small? Yes. I made a lot of mistakes? Yes. And that was kind of probably around that.

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Around my first. That was my first, I think, pivot in life that I had where I finally decided, hey, things need to change for myself and I need to take control over my own life. And, yeah, that's. That's kind of led me to where I am today. Awesome.

00:06:48
I love that story. And it's interesting how you had that one pivotal moment where you turned down a job offer. Yeah, it looks bad, right? It looks that you're like, oh, man. Like, you look back and you'd be like, you regret it.

00:07:02
Do I regret it? Yes. But at the same time, if it wasn't for that situation, I probably wouldn't have given myself enough credit and confidence to be like, I can do this now, and I need to do this now.

00:07:24
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00:09:44
Yeah, you know, it's interesting because, you know, the older you get, you look back and, you know, it was Steve Jobs that said, you know, you connect the dots by looking backward in your life, right? And I had an opportunity. I was working. It was a startup engineering consulting firm. I was their third employee and I left after being there for a little over four years to coach figure skating full time.

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And I look back and I'm like, wow, if I had stayed with that company, the person that replaced me is now one of the owners and has ownership in the company. I'm like, that could have been me, right? And then I, like, you start analyzing, it's like, yeah, but then I would have been in the same job for 20 some years and look what I've done. You know, I became a us national and international figure skating coach. You know, I now have, you know, like, you just start, you can't.

00:10:39
And you're like, wow. Like, I don't think it's in my personality to stay in the same job for 20 years. I probably would have been bored out of my mind. And being an entrepreneur is, you know, it's hard. You know, I left my corporate job last October.

00:11:00
And I gave a three week notice on what was my 58th birthday. I happen to be, because we worked at home, I happened to be in the office, and I said, this is a gift to myself, that my business has reached a point where it's not just a side gig anymore, it's a full time. And so people are still saying, so do you think you made the right choice? And I was like, I definitely made the right choice. They're like, well, is it easier?

00:11:26
I'm like, oh, my God. The easy route would have been to stay in the corporate job and collect the paycheck. That was the easy part. And there are times when I've had to, like, second, you know, I've second guessed myself, and I start looking for a job, and then, like, I remember I was looking for a job, and then I got an offer to speak for a company at their annual leadership conference, and they're paying me a lot of money to do it. And I'm like, okay, I think I'm, you know, you know, you get these little golden nuggets, right?

00:12:00
But, yeah, you know, it's, it's not easy, but I tell you, it is fulfilling, that's for sure. Definitely. It's definitely fulfilling. And I think that's something. Um, I, you know, I've, I agree with you.

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I was one. I've still looked at jobs every once in a while to this day. You know, you get the business depressions, and one day you're on top of the world, the next minute you're like, nothing's working. And, you know, I've tended to see this correlation with, you have this win, and then you have this loss, and they usually happen around the same time. Um, and it could be with profits, it could be with person, person personally.

00:12:34
And I, I think it's just the universe trying to tell you certain things. Like, you were looking for that job, and then you were, you got this, the speaking, and it kind of pushed you. But when I look at jobs, I'll look at it for a minute, and I'm like, one, I don't think they'll hire me because they know I'm an entrepreneur, and they know entrepreneurs. Um, I always thought it would be the opposite, but it's nothing. Um, and two, I'm like, yeah, even a hundred grand, even a hundred grand a year just doesn't seem to be appealing to me.

00:13:03
Like, I feel like I'm worth more than that. And I don't know if sitting behind a desk for 8 hours is going to, you know, apped that and back to your change. I think as entrepreneurs we love change. Um, and business is always changing and growing and you need to have that ability to enjoy change and not get caught up in the settling. And that's something that I did.

00:13:30
And that was part of my second rebrand period was I got caught in this spectrum of settling. In a way. I just felt comfortable. I was in a good place, I was in a good spot. And anyone that was just starting out would look at making what I was making with a team.

00:13:53
Oh, like I could survive. I was at the point where I didn't really even need the business anymore for ten years. I could have retired and went a different direction or tried something else, but I knew something had to change. I wasn't satisfying my growth in who I was trying to become. And that's when I started to push more towards how can I get into the uncomfortable and become more of a leader instead of what I would say is more, instead of a delegator.

00:14:24
Right. Get out of that management mode and get more into leadership. And I think everyone kind of goes through those pivots at multiple points in their life. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

00:14:35
Well, I know for me, and we talked about this before, hit record, you know, I'm such a creative person and things have finally come together for me because I've done so many different things over the years and now all of a sudden, you know, I had this moment a few weeks ago with a coach that I'm working with and she's a branding and marketing specialist, but also deals with the quantum and mindset and removing blockages and things like that. And it helped me to combine everything that I'm doing with all the media production that I'm doing as well. And I'm launching a new program that for the first time, like, it's something that really makes sense for me and my brand and it's exciting and I can't, like, I haven't been able to do anything this week but like focus on this new launch and it's just so much fun. Right? Yeah, dude, that's, that's amazing.

00:15:30
And I give you kudos. And I give kudos to your branding and marketing coach, too, because it's very easy to get trapped in the spectrum. And I'm not saying this, I think this is an evolution since I'm in branding and marketing, I think this is an evolution of any branding and marketing specialist where, you know, you're a doer and then you realize, I need to do I want to do more. I want to be a leader. And mindset starts to become one of those situations where you realize how important it is to get to the next level.

00:16:02
And it takes making it to a certain level, I think, before people realize it's not a fake guru thing, it's like a real thing. And so I give you kudos for working on your mindset because for me, if it wasn't for my change in mindset and my continued work on my mindset, then I wouldn't be where I am today either. Well, I've been working on my mindset for 35 years and I became a certified life coach in 2004. It's just there's different levels. And so I launched for the longest time.

00:16:42
For me it was all about achieving happiness and it still is that. It's just like for me now, it's a whole nother level. It's about staying in consciousness, not just being happy. It's staying present in consciousness. And I've been talking about getting into your zone of genius for a few years now and that's kind of like my signature talk when I get paid speaking engagements and conscious leadership and all of that.

00:17:14
But for you, let's talk about you as a creative because I know that we talked about that as well. And right now your big creative thing is working on a TEDx talk. Yeah. So how do you, how do you switch gears? Because that's one thing that like, is hard.

00:17:30
It is definitely hard. It's definitely hard. You know, I have a co, I have, I mean, I think one thing anyone could take away from this is it's okay to have coaches. I mean, I have multiple coaches in different spectrums of my business and I kind of, so I'm a brander at heart. Like I said, I graduated, I got a visual communications degree.

00:17:55
I love developing, I love building things. And my business, my business when I first started kind of turned into a, I was just getting marketing clients. And as much as I love, I love the reoccurring revenue and being able to look at the forecast for the end of the year, it got to the point where I realized that it's a different audience than my branding clients and it's much more numbers based. It's much more, hey, you just need a doer to like go through these tasks and these kind of things. And so it kind of forced me as the evolution of my business to get into that operation operations mode, right?

00:18:36
Build up a team, start doing this, start doing that. And I lost. I was having such burnout that I lost. I didn't realize that it was like, I'm really, I just lost my creative juices. And so I had to sit down and actually realize, all right, what are the things that in my life from my past, as we talked about earlier, like, looking at your past like that were making me happy.

00:19:03
And I actually started, funny enough, something that I do with my clients is, you know, you go through personal values or you go through business value, brand values when you're developing a brand. And I was like, I need to look back and see what do I really value now in my life? Like, what are the things that I value and what are the things from my past? And so I had to look down, and I realized that the three things that I was missing was, one, I wasn't connected with myself. I wasn't doing those things anymore that I loved to do, which, funny enough, or as you said, mindset was a big KPI to help the business grow from a leadership perspective.

00:19:41
And so I brought back my, my activities. I tried to bring back my activities. I set a schedule. What does futures act look like? And, I mean, it's still hard.

00:19:52
I still get out of it, but I make sure that I put those types of activities in my schedule. So I had to say, all right, I'm making sure that I'm working on myself. The things that are in my control, my health, my activity, which is my spiritual, is my activity. That's how I work on my mental health. And so I brought those things back into my life.

00:20:15
And I actually recently started to about five or six months ago, saying I need to, if I'm going to become more of a visionary and more of that creative in the business, I need to start setting time out just to do that stuff. And so I set time out. Like, I moved all my employee meetings. I either have someone else do the meetings now, my operations per my project managers, turning into much more of the operation side. So I have her kind of focusing on that.

00:20:46
And then any other meeting, I told everyone, I'm like, Fridays are my visionary day. I'm like, I'm not talking to anyone on Fridays. That's all me. And I try on my schedule, like today in this podcast. Like, this stuff makes me alive, connecting with people, building my own confidence about the stuff that we're talking about.

00:21:05
Right. Is, is a big, a big KPI for me. And so I make sure every Monday through Thursday that 09:00 a.m. to around 1212 are my, is my visionary time. I don't have client meetings I don't have, I just do podcasts, writing, speaking lives, and I try to keep all this stuff that makes me come alive in that timeframe.

00:21:36
Yeah. You know, I'm the same way. I just have my calendly. No calls are scheduled before 11:00 a.m. because that's when I'm the most creative, is first thing in the morning.

00:21:47
So it really, if I have a call at 09:00 a.m. i'm missing out on my creativity time, and I'm like, I have to have that every single day. Yeah. And then it forces you, and then it somewhat forces you into, into kind of a delegation kind of mode because you're like, oh, I just had a talk with this client, or I just had a talk with this. So let me reach out to my team.

00:22:08
Let me do this, let me do that. And then, yeah, it kind of, and then you get back into the things that you're used to, the things that you're comfortable with. And turning your mindset, making your mindset and go into that creative mode, like you said, takes time. I I do plethora of things. Like, I, like I said, I can't just go to the gym.

00:22:26
Right? Like, I can't just go to the gym and get my creative juices going. So I will, I'll sit in my office and I'll, like, listen to certain types of music that I listen to, or I'll do a few push ups on the ground, or I'll scream. I'll do some, I'll do some screaming, or I'll just practice speaking out loud because I know that it, you know, I know that it brings me, has me come alive. And those are some of the things I kind of do to try to help get those creative juices flowing in the morning.

00:22:56
Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. So you work with athletes and athletic driven brands to find their why through brand identity and digital experiences. And you've had some great success with Major League Baseball's Phil Koch, NFL's Mike Kafka, corporate brands such as the Phoenix Suns, Crunch Fitness, the pro football Retired Players Association. I mean, those are some really big names.

00:23:32
What are you doing with these brands? And why would someone come to you to help rebrand themselves? So what really makes us different? What makes us, I think different is the psychological. Psychological of our business.

00:23:52
Right. Like, I'm very big on my personal values. Funny enough, the, my TEDx is about three, three pillars. It's about connection, contribution, and confidence. Those turned out to be my values.

00:24:07
Those turned out to be my personal values, right? I had to live with what I did to really build the TEDx out. And those are my pillars. And so, funny enough, when I'm hiring people, I'm using my personal values to become my brand values. And so if I'm going to bring anyone on, I want to make sure they follow those values.

00:24:29
And so, for instance, for crunch, we make sure that the people that we hire to work on those types of projects, they have similar values as that. They connect, they deal with their personal time. They have a mindset. For instance, one of our writers is also a yoga instructor. So he understands, he understands the clientele we're writing for.

00:24:54
And so it makes everything that we're doing that much more one. They're more passionate about it. It's easier for our research, if any research, right? But it also makes it where we can actually give, create real differentiation for these companies because we're actually hiring people that live it, you know, within the environment. And so that's really, I think what separates us apart is my employees and how much I make sure that they, they match those values.

00:25:28
I think, too, you know, I'm a, I'm a huge, I'm a huge gym goer. Like I said, it's mental health. And that's, that's my passion. And so I see a correlation between what I do and what those types of companies and the valleys of deaths that they go through and the challenges that they go through. And so I know that my biggest, my vision for our company is to really just help people find their community.

00:26:00
I want to help every day. So the gyms and the athletes aren't necessarily my clients. It's the clients of my clients that I'm really trying to push and help. And how do I do that is I help the gyms and the athletic companies, right? And so that's really the vision for the company.

00:26:21
And I think that vision is what builds the confidence in our team to be able to continue that passion and continue to try to evolve and grow and change and do whatever necessary to help people find that community. I love it. I love it. That's just, you know, because you need, and you need to be niched. Right?

00:26:47
And I love that you picked because, you know, I'm a huge sports proponent. And I don't think when we talked the last time, I think I told you I was launching a television show and it was going to be happiness solved television show. And I just, I just realized that that's, I didn't really want to do that. You know, I love the happiness solve podcast, and this will be keep going on for as long as I can keep interviewing people. And it makes sense.

00:27:17
But I've decided that it's going to be focused around sports and mindset, and I'm real excited. It's called peak performance playbook. Playbook. You're hearing it here first. This is the first time I've even talked about it on the podcast.

00:27:35
But it's, you know, the first season, because I'm in the DC metro area, all of my interviews will be taped live. And I think that was what really made the difference for me was that I didn't want to have a tv show where everything is done on Zoom. I was just like, I do this with my podcast. I didn't want to do it. And so I already have, you know, videographers.

00:27:56
I have. I've hired one person, I've got four others as backups. And I'm covering two international tennis federation tennis tournaments that are here in the local area in the next few weeks. So I'm in the middle of producing those. And it's like, you gotta do something that just excites you.

00:28:13
And I'm like, yes. Like, that's something I'm excited about to, like, interview athletes live in person, looking them in the eye and, like, having that heart to heart conversation. It is. There is one thing with athletes that I've seen through the correlation of working with a plethora of athletes. I think they all have a very good, they have a very good vision.

00:28:37
They're that orange personality I was telling you about earlier. And they lose their why very fast once they retire. And that's really what it comes down to. They lose their why. And what ends up, I've seen happening for most of them is it's hard for them to re evolve themselves or evolve themselves when they're kind of starting from scratch scratch.

00:29:00
And they're not like you and me. They don't go through the business woes, but then they have all this money. And so what ends up happening is they feel like they spend all this money grasping at certain things to try to find their why. And they don't necessarily sit down and be like, okay, well, what do I really want to do? Like you did?

00:29:19
I don't want to do this. I want to do this. That's hard for, that's hard for entrepreneurs. It's hard for athletes as well. And just trying to figure out, like, that vision, I mean, like I told you, like, I kudos on.

00:29:32
On telling yourself, I don't want to do this because it's very hard to look at it and be like, you know, the money looks like it might be quite good, and, you know, I need it right now, or it may help my career or the business. And really saying that this, does this follow my vision? Does this follow what I want to do? And, I mean, I've had to go through something similar. Um, a good story of mine is I have a long lasting client.

00:30:02
He's not in the athletic space. I got him when he was. When we both started out, he had one location here in the States, and I won't say who he is, but, um, he opened up two new locations after Covid, um, in the area. And with what's going on in society right now, no one's really buying, you know, and so it was, he was going through a tribulation, uh, he was going through a tribulation of, like, how do I do this? For the last eight, nine months, I've been like, I need to pivot.

00:30:31
I need to make a change. I was holding myself back from speaking, from doing certain things, because I was doing what was comfortable. And I got to a point where he was like, hey, man, I have to cut all your all services out. And I literally just hired, like, within the last year, like, five or six people, right? So I was like, yeah, I'm basically going to have to.

00:30:55
If he leaves, I'm going to have to basically not going to say start over, but, you know, so I was going through that dilemma, and during the same time, I'm getting my TEDx, but I took the situation as, hey, this is a moment for me to realize what I'm kind of doing right now. And what I was doing wasn't working, and I need to make my shift. I need to make my pivot in my shift now. And so I give you kudos for not having that, like, that instance where you had to, like, you know, what do they call it? The going down, you going down, your deepest, darkest woes before you find the push yourself and the wisdom.

00:31:35
I had to go through that. Luckily, my situation, I was such friends with him. We had such a connection that we worked together, and he's not leaving. But the. The situation itself cause me to be like, I can't lose that.

00:31:49
I can't lose that determination from what happened and be like, I still need to make a move and push my vision. Push my vision the best I can. Yeah, well, everything we need to know is already within us. It's just accessing it. Yeah.

00:32:07
And that can be the challenging part. And, you know, you mentioned, you know, about having coaches. You know, I tell everybody, if you're looking for a coach, make sure the coach that you're considering hiring has a coach because you do. I mean, I've, over the years, I've had branding coaches, I've had coaches that are influencers, coaches that have mindset, some that are a combination, some that were just for funnels, how to set up the, you know, so there's all different types of coaches out there and it's just, you want to make sure that you're hiring somebody that has that growth mindset because just because they're a coach doesn't mean they have the growth mindset. And if they're not hiring another coach, they're not interested in growing anymore.

00:32:59
And it's just a never, you never stop growing. I will probably always have a coach for some purpose. Right. Well, my wife's a family trauma therapist herself and I tell people all the time, like, I'm not one, I'm not one to disregard therapy. Like even therapy, personal life.

00:33:19
Like, I think everyone, I mean, like, I love the fact that I can go to somebody and I can be like, these are my problems and they're not biased. They're not a friend that's going to say yes and they're not my wife probably going to say no. They're right in the middle that's like, hey, you know, and so I think therapy, I think coaches, I agree with you. There comes a time, I mean, my coach right now, the reason I think we're, he's such a good fit for me is because he's very much like you were talking about. It's mindset.

00:33:53
It's finding spiritual rituals, it's finding personal rituals, it's finding what you really want to do and bringing that out, like you said, bringing that, letting that, letting that come out. And I've had other coaches and I think it, you know, being in marketing and being in the, in the age that we're at, my biggest pet peeve right now is a lot of, a lot of people have a hard time either purchasing marketing or purchasing branding is because there are a lot of people that are just, you know, like, I've never done this before and I'm just going to start it because I want to make money because they don't get to that part of connection yet. And you end up spending thousands and thousands of dollars on something that, what I call ex girlfriend syndrome, that ends up teetering over into your next relationship or your next business relationship. And so that's something I think a lot of people have to watch out from both angles, too, is making sure they're not just the right fit, but making sure if they are or they're not or you're going through certain stipulations that you have to understand that not everyone else is like that. Yeah, exactly.

00:35:06
Yeah. I mean, there's. Because there's a lot of. There's a lot of services out there. I can count so many that I signed up for, and that was my fault.

00:35:16
Right. I don't blame the person who sold me into their program. They did a good job, obviously, because I purchased it and I made quick decisions and didn't really. And because I was like, I knew I needed something, I just didn't know what it was. Oh, yeah, I'll give you ten grand.

00:35:36
Okay. That wasn't worth it. Okay. Yeah. Let me give you.

00:35:41
And you realize that sometimes there's just so many people out there, right, that are selling things, and it's about just getting clear, like you said, having that clarity, what is the best thing, the next right thing for my business. And. Yeah, and it's funny you say that, because I had. I actually had a call yesterday with a company because I'm, like, telling you, I'm like, I need to make a shift. And I've done that, a similar thing.

00:36:10
I think part of. Part of my connection with myself is, you know, I saved up so much money because I was afraid of making that commitment. I think it's, you know, they call it the valley of Death period. For a lot of people. It happens multiple times in business where I was like, oh, I'm afraid to spend on this and this.

00:36:30
But then I fell into the trap of I was so burnt out because I wasn't making the correct shifts that I was just purchasing stuff, hoping something else could help me. And next thing you know, I'm like, wow, now I'm 100 grand in debt. Not in debt, but I spent 100 grand this year and on different things, and it becomes kind of addicting because you're like, oh, I want to try this. I want to try that. And I had a call yesterday with someone, and I.

00:36:58
I think it's great what something that you brought up? Cause I think it shows growth. Cause I thought the same thing is he tried to sell me on the call, and he was just doing his job. You know, he was just doing his job. And, you know, it was connected.

00:37:13
Did I, like, him? Yes. Did I love the program compared to every other program I saw, I'm like, man, like, this seems like what I need. Like, this does seem like what I need. It had value, but I had to tell him, like, you know what?

00:37:27
I love this, but I'm going to need at least a month to think about it, especially with my TEDx coming up, because I don't have the time and energy. I don't even have the commitment of myself to be able to do it right now. And so he was grateful he let me do it, but it was the fact that I was able to not blame him for trying to sell me that. I think what I got out of your conversation the most is understanding other people and connecting. Yeah, for sure.

00:37:55
And the thing is, because I was in a similar situation, and there's this program, and I want to do this so badly. And I said to the guy, I was like, I made a commitment to myself that I am not going to purchase another program unless I know and I can commit to be 100% fully in. And right now, I can't do that. I cannot make that commitment. Just like you were saying, I can't make that commitment.

00:38:21
It's hard to say no. It is. It's hard to say no. But it's like, for me, it comes down to I'm making. I have.

00:38:27
I made that decision. I'm going to. If I can't be 100% full in, then I'm not going to do it. Yeah. Yeah.

00:38:36
It's, it's, uh, it's definitely one of those things that I've had to really take a step back on and allow myself to say, say no more. Um, not just to, not just to. And, you know, there's something out there that a lot of people say. They're like, once you start making more money, it's easier to say no. It's like, no, it's not.

00:38:56
I feel like it's the exact opposite. I feel like, said no to your proxy, more so to your prospects and bringing on clients, but I'm like, no, it's not. I still want to help people and serve people, and so I tend to still take on certain people that I'm like, will go above and beyond for me. Then I realize a month or two in, and I'm like, yeah, this probably wasn't the best idea, you know? And so being able to start saying no more, it's.

00:39:21
It's kind of the opposite of the yes man movie, right? Like, learn to say no more instead of yes more. Exactly. That's exactly right. Because, you know, next thing you know, you're.

00:39:33
Yeah, you've spent $100,000, and you're like. Okay, yeah, well, and then there's other things. Like, I did. I. I had a program come to me, and I had a program come to me, and it was not necessarily a program.

00:39:49
And a good story behind this is I purchased Zoom info last year. I was never a fan of cold outreach. It's never been part of my values to cold outreach to try to get clientele. And I was really attracted to zoom info because it was like, oh, I can find people that are searching this, and so their antenna is already there. So I don't necessarily feel like I'm just reaching them out of the blue.

00:40:11
I'm actually trying to help them. And I purchased it for, I think it was like, 25 grand for the. For the package, and I got no use out of it. You know, it wasn't as great as I thought it was. I needed, like, three employees that I didn't even have to even use the program, and so I just didn't have the infrastructure to put it into place correctly.

00:40:32
And this last weekend, you know, I went out and I. I went to a TEDx out in Atlanta last month just to kind of meet some of the speakers and to see. See them speak. And I was in contact with one of them. I was having a conversation with him last week, and.

00:40:50
And he's like, oh, I'm using this one program for conferences and speaking. And so I went into it, and I started using it a little bit. And funny enough, the owner actually called me because I didn't have certain features. And he's like, hey, we bought this other program, and we're moving everyone over. And it was a little bit more pricey than I would have liked, but the energy and where I'm at right now with what I'm trying to do to grow, I'm like, this just seems right.

00:41:19
This just seems like the right situation for what I'm trying to do right now. And so I think, on another note, sometimes you have to kind of, you know, feel. And I gave it a few days. Of course, I sat on it for a few days, but sometimes you have to, like, go, okay, what is my heart telling me? And what is my brain telling me?

00:41:39
And my heart's telling me that this is the pivot in the direction I want to go. So I needed. I need to make this commitment now. And, yeah, I like the fact that the owner called me personally. You know, it wasn't just a bot or some random person that texted me over chatbot.

00:41:55
And he was like, hey, we're giving a one time, full access lifetime discount for everyone because of the transition. And so I was like, I think that's a good enough sign to say, hey, give it a shot. That's right, because you are, you do have some people, and I've worked with people in the past where they're like, no, if they can't make, make a fast action decision, then they're not the right fit for us. And I'm like, but that's not always true because sometimes, you know, it's, it's smart to, to make, to have, to give people that opportunity to think about it. Like, take 24 hours.

00:42:33
I have a hard time with the, with prospecting in that, in that perspective, because I am a very connected, I'm a consultant type personality. I want to hit their outcome and their pain points as much as I can and help them kind of see it. And, you know, you hear a lot of sales reps say, or closers or companies, and sales be like, say what you just said, like, get them on the call and sell them on the call. And I'm like, I would hate to be treated that way. That's not my value.

00:43:06
You know, I'd rather, yeah, I'd rather say, hey, can you at least give me a day? Kind of like the guy the other day I was talking to who was like, yeah, like, we'll push it out a month, and I'll still apply this discount if you end up purchasing at that time. And I'm like, thank you. I appreciate that. You know?

00:43:21
Exactly. I mean, it's no skin off anybody's back. It's not, it's not. They're still making profit there. I'm a marketer at heart.

00:43:30
So it's funny because I'm, I always tell people my superpower is I can tell how, how good a company is by the way they market, because, you know, if they have horrible customer service, for instance, their branding's not on par, their marketing, it's like, oh, they're, they're a market first company, not a product first company or a customer first company, you know? And so it's very easy for me to see that kind of stuff. And their program itself was very, I could see how they make their money, how they, how they. I'm like, that's genius. I'm like, I like this method, you.

00:44:09
Know, I would love to do, like, an experiment because for me, everything is about being in consciousness, right? There's two states of being. You're either in consciousness or you're in ego. And when you're in, when you're selling, if you're selling from a conscious place, there's got to be a difference than selling from the ego, because when you're pushing somebody to close the deal, that's ego. That's not coming from consciousness because you have zero connection with your purse, with the person you don't care about.

00:44:46
You know, you're just. They may have objections, but you're always going to be coming from the ego standpoint. So I'd be curious to do, like, an experiment and have, like, a team that's just trying to close the deal and then have one that's just coming from consciousness and coming from a place of love. I look at that, would there be sales? Or am I, like, thinking this is a utopia that's never going to exist?

00:45:14
I don't know. My second pillar of one of the branding principles that I really bring up in my talk is confidence. And funny enough, I think it's very similar to your consciousness side. I think confidence is different than ego. I mean, I had ego.

00:45:33
I, you know, I had ego when I first started the business. You know, I was like, oh, I can do it all. I can do it all. And what that does is that limits you to, like, let other people in. It limits everything you do.

00:45:44
And it's funny you brought up the. I was talking about the conversation with seeing marketing collateral because I feel like you can easily feel confidence versus ego, and not just the way the salespeople are talking, but the way that their marketing is displayed, the kinds of marketing they do, their visuals, you know, their communication. And I would like to see that, too. I would like to see that too. I think that we all, I think the problem with society right now is that we all, we all go have a chance to purchase a car at one point in our life.

00:46:20
And I don't see too many car dealerships that run off confidence. Most of them run off ego, of course, you know, and so I feel like society is naturally trained themselves that, oh, selling is bad, and not just selling is bad. But I also think with social media and stuff, it's pushed society into a much more transactional type environment, not a relationship type environment. Right. So.

00:46:46
But I would like to see that, too. I would like to see how that confidence and that consciousness played out. I have a prospect right now, for instance, that we talked to about four weeks ago, and, you know, our, our lead offer for one of our services is they have to go through this competitive analysis, and we charge for it. Um, we got on the first call, and he's like, oh, we already did all our research, you know, here it is. Most people would run from that, right?

00:47:12
They would say right away, like, oh, this guy's gonna be nitpicky. He's not gonna be, want to move forward. I was like, no. One of the things that makes us different is I like to be partners with my clients. I don't come in.

00:47:26
We're not just doers. We like to have conversations and go through stuff. And so I told him, I'm like, hey, I don't even think we need to do this because you already got your information. Like, we don't need to spend hours rehashing that internally. So let's just use your information and we'll come up with something real fast that show you how.

00:47:45
How we can move forward with that. And so I basically waived the fee because I'm like, I don't think they need it. You know? And we've had four conversations so far to move him through the pipeline. It looks, of course, knock on wood, it's not until they sign the contract, they move forward.

00:48:02
But we have a conversation next week on that. But that, to me, is confidence. It's not ego. Right? It's, hey, I'm going to work through this with you three or four times if necessary, because I know that this is a huge, this is a huge commitment for you and your company.

00:48:22
But I also know that our goal here is to be the most effective with you as we can. So a lot of that really just comes down to communicating with each other and finding out the problems and the solutions together. And I felt like that was a very confident way, that's a confident way that we handle things compared to, you know, how I used to, where I was like, oh, man, we just need to make the sale, which means let's just sell them.

00:48:51
Oh, my gosh, that's awesome. All right, so last thing I just want to touch on, because you help your clients find their why. That's true in anything that we're doing, right? We need to find our why. Can you offer any tips to help the audience, whether.

00:49:11
Whether they're looking for branding or they want to start a company, or they just need a reason to get out of bed every day? Like, how can people find their why? That's a really tough question because I think it depends on where you're at in life. Because for me, 2012, when I first kind of had that correlation with the business and certain aspects of my life, finding athletics. That was a rebrand period for me.

00:49:42
I evolved at that point a year and a half ago, very similar situation. I was making good money. Like I said, I was in a value death period and I wanted to be more of a leader. And so I think that you evolve and your vision can evolve. But I would say a really good step for people to take is probably something that we talked about earlier.

00:50:06
I think that a business or brand, kind of like you said earlier, can be anything, right. I think that it's all an accumulation of who the owner of the company is. No matter how big it gets, it's always going to derive from the personality and the type of person somebody is. Right. And so I would say, I always recommend our clients to work on their values.

00:50:40
What do you value personally? And let's take those personal values that you can then move up when you're ready, when the time is right, to brand yourself to your brand values, the types of people you hire, the types of people you work with, all that stuff. The hardest part is finding your values. Right. And so back to my story.

00:51:06
I would say for anyone just starting out, especially if they're at the point where like, I don't know what my why is, because they're just starting out. Look back and try to find, find your values. Look at times in your past. I say if it was yesterday, a month ago, and find places in time when you were truly happy, truly just happy, and try to find a personal value of yourself correlated from that situation. And just come out with four values that you can start living by every day.

00:51:44
And then just start scheduling your time around those values. And then just make sure that everything that you do or try to do somehow correlates back to those values. I love it. That's amazing. Great golden nuggets to drop for the audience.

00:52:03
This has been amazing. Zach, love talking with you. Could talk for another few hours, but I'm not Joe Rogan I always joke about yet. Right.

00:52:16
Is there anything else that I didn't bring up that you'd like to mention to the audience? I don't think so. I think as of right now, I'm really just trying to build connection with people. And so I usually just tell people, hey, if you want to get a hold of me, if you want to start a conversation, just follow me on LinkedIn. Get to know me on LinkedIn.

00:52:39
We'll have a conversation. If you want any of our, if you want to talk services if you just want to grab a 30 minutes, a 30 minutes phone call and just hash things out with what you're doing in life, or if you have a podcast, whatever it is, just email me. Not email me, dm me on LinkedIn. LinkedIn coleman. And I know you'll throw that link up and so everyone can reach out to me there and let's just start the conversation and move forward together.

00:53:13
Nice. Love it. Zach, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it. And thank you everybody for listening.

00:53:22
Thank you.

00:53:35
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