In this down-to-earth episode, Kyle Gillette, Founder and CEO of Blue Shirt Business Coaching, shares the lessons he’s learned coaching clients how to succeed in the real world of business.
You’ll learn the key to leading and inspiring others well, the power of writing things down, and how to ask great questions.
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast. And I am here with yet another high demand coach. And that is the one and only Kyle Gillette. He’s the founder and CEO of Blue Shirt business coaching. And he’s helped small business owners and leaders around the world to take their businesses from good to great. He’s an ICF, certified coach. He’s a behavioral analyst, and also the creator of blue shirt leadership framework that helps leaders and small business owners become the leaders. They’re meant to be. Kyle, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to dive in on some of this. But before we get there, I’d love for you to just tell us a little bit about yourself. How did you get into coaching and why?
Kyle Gillette
Sure. Thanks for having me, Scott, I appreciate it. How did I get into coaching? Well, I was thrust into a coaching situation because I was terrified to be an adult. So that’s, that’s how I got into it. And I was in college. Talking to my parents on the phone, I remember, I remember the conversation very clearly sitting at this makeshift desk that I made out of a piece of plywood and two by fours, staring at this big fat Dell monitor, as I’m talking to my parents on the phone. Now that obviously wasn’t video because I’m too old for it to be video at that time. And I’m telling my parents, okay, so I’m behind in school and 40 pounds overweight, and I’m terrified to do life is basically what I was telling them without really telling them. And I didn’t really realize that’s what was happening to me. I had gone on a trip to India, a few weeks prior to that. And fortunately, that conversation with my parents, which helped encourage me a little bit, and then a phone call from a guy that was on a trip with me, that said, hey, there’s a there’s a visitor’s job opening for you at this men’s mentoring program. And I think you’d be a good fit. And I said, Okay, tell me about it. So John, my friend told me about it. And a couple days later, I went to an interview, interviewed at the job, hour and a half long interview sat in this farmhouse on 20 acres rolling green hills in San Luis Obispo, California. And they ran this pet resort that supported an on men’s mentoring program, guys 18 and 25, just off track in life. And my job were to I except it was to go live in the house with six other dudes that are really lost and confused in life, while I’m the guy that’s lost and confused in life. So, so Jack, the president of the program shakes my hand at the end of the interview, we’re standing in the middle of this house that was built in the 1880s. And I still remember this brown, big entertainment center. I don’t know if you remember those, those wooden entertainment centers way back in the day, staring at that as I’m looking at him. And he’s asked me do you want do you want this job. And when I knew that MIT was I’d be moving out of my apartment with my friends and moving into this place with strangers and another guy that would help me lead the program that I didn’t know anything about. And I said yes. And that was what thrust me into coaching. Because for the next nine years, I lived with these guys, or they worked for me in different capacities. And I coached them and training them. And then in the midst of that, I also got coaching and training from my mentor who was the founder of the program. And that was the catalyst to go in, oh, this is what I really love to do.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. So we’ll fast forward here, you’ve been a coach for a while now, what would you say is some of the most important work that you’re doing with your clients at this moment.
Kyle Gillette
Helping them to realize that it’s okay to not have it all figured out. It’s okay for them to admit that they might feel like they’re on an island that they feel like they’re an imposter, that their numbers aren’t where they want them to be that their systems aren’t where they want them to be all those things that people are really afraid to admit or to share that it’s okay. And if you share it, and we talk about this, we can resolve a lot of that it’s not going to be instantaneous. But we can resolve a lot of that. And what that boils down to in a word is accountability, helping them to be okay with holding themselves. I can’t hold them accountable only. You can hold yourself accountable. I can hold myself accountable and they can hold themselves accountable. But going okay, it’s okay that I hold myself to these things that I say I’m going to do. So that’s one of the first insights and the heart of what I’m doing with all my clients.
Scott Ritzheimer
And it’s so good because it’s so important. Yeah, there’s this myth of entrepreneurism, that that’s rampant now, which is it’s cocktails on the beach, you know, and, and there’s this idea that, like, you have to have the entrepreneurs smile, have you seen it? It’s just kind of like this is like when to yeah, there’s too many too many to do. What’s what’s really going on? Yeah, how’s it gone is great. You know, it’s, it’s wonderful. But what a lot of folks don’t realize before they get into it, and what everyone realizes once they do get into the game is getting a business up off the ground, getting it through these big growth challenges. It’s like waking up every morning, finding a sharp corner and just banging your head against it. Like that should be the definition of entrepreneurism. And when you’re doing that alone, right, it’s such a challenge. because you’re right, like mixed into this, you’ve got visionaries who’ve got these big ideas on where they should be. And I mean, just the nature of the game is you’re not there yet. You know, and you’re wrestling with the dynamic between the two of them. So what does that look like? I mean, you talk about accountability. I know for a lot of entrepreneurs, that’s not the first word they’re looking for. Right? Someone comes in, they’re just frustrated with where they are, how do you start moving them out of that into something more productive?
Kyle Gillette
Yeah, I mean, the work that I really love to do is to get them to know their story, what’s their story, and what’s the why behind what they’re doing. And I know it’s a little bit cliche to talk about why but that is extremely important. If if I can tell you with conviction, what I’m trying to do in my business, and tell other people with conviction, what I’m trying to do, some people start to get on board with that they start to get interested. And that makes what you’re doing, you don’t feel so alone, because people are getting on board they’re interested in whether or not they can directly contribute. Isn’t that significant? At that point, it’s more about, oh, there’s other people that care about what I’m doing, I have some support, because being an entrepreneur can be rather lonely, running a business and you’re so busy doing the business, it can be rather lonely. So when other people engage you in, they’re genuinely interested in your story of the deeper why of why you started this business, or why you’re still running. And even though it’s so hard, that keeps you moving along. So I want to make sure people have a clear mission or vision depends on the person, which one we’re going to do, but want to get that very clear. So that that’s clear for them. But it’s also clear for their vendors, for the customers, and maybe most importantly for their employees. And if that’s clear, now we have a message that we’re sharing the message of what our business is. And now we have something to stand on to move forward from and from that you build your systems and, and so on. But that has to be clarified as soon as possible. And it feels great to have that up in front of you on a wall or to have that in some graphic. But it’s not about the visual of it. It’s about the implementation. It’s about embodying it as the leader of the organization.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I want to get into a little bit more of that. But what I’d love to do is pause for a second because you mentioned mission or vision. How do you kind of define the differences between those two and who should be going after mission who should be going after vision.
Kyle Gillette
To me vision is something that has a number associated with it mission as more of the boots on the ground of what you’re doing to achieve the vision. So vision is actually a little bit broader. For me, it’s more of the biggest umbrella, let’s call it mission is more of the this is how we’re going to pull off the mission. So for example, my vision is to help 1000s of business owners shift their mindsets and habits so that their hearts can be transformed. So they can become the best version of themselves, if you will, the mission of that has to do with the way that I coach has to do with the self awareness, accountability, growth and empowerment approach that I take to my clients. So they are synergistic, and they have to be, but some people can’t start with the vision because they’re not really sure where they want to go in the big scheme. But they do know what they want to be doing in a little bit more intermediate schema things. And so depending on where the person lands, in terms of their clarity of where they want things to be determines if you’re going to do vision or or mission. And sometimes you can do both, of course.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. Because there’s lots of people know about vision, lots of people know about culture books, we’ve read, good degrader built to last, and it’s like, you know, the Toyota story and all of these. And I think folks can try to over vision too early. Right? And so that it works in some environments, you know, if you’re, if you’re creating a vision for a new roofing company in your area that does roofing, just like everybody else, but nicer and actually on time and delivers. You know, like, it doesn’t take an enormous amount of vision. But if you’re if you’re paving the way into something, even if you’re your chief among visionaries, there’s still the sense of just opportunism, right, you’re going out there and you’re trying things and they’re failing, and you’re trying things and they’re failing. And that’s just part of the process early on. And I love that you separate those two. And again, even coming back to this idea that you have at the very beginning of say, Hey, it’s okay. Right? It’s okay that you don’t have the vision figured out yet. You can make progress now. So that when you actually go and do the right, you can do the right vision the first time. One of the things that you also mentioned is just kind of putting it up on the wall. And I think those two go together where if you do your vision too soon, you put it up on the wall now you’re stuck with it, you know, and you start drifting away from it or just openly denying it, but it’s on the wall. I think that’s one of the biggest injustice is that leaders do to their followers is Have one vision on the wall, right and have the other that they’re actually going after. So how do you help folks really get clarity around knowing that they know that this is the vision they want to go after?
Kyle Gillette
You know, I recently went through that myself where I didn’t know what I know. Now, I wasn’t really clear on what I’m supposed to do. And I was listening to a book called limitless by by James quick, or Jim quick, excuse me how he’s saying that, anyway, by Jim quick. And in the book, he talks about the need for vision. And we I’ve heard this 100 times, listeners have heard it 100 times. But I really wanted my dang vision to be clarified. So I turned off the audio, and I prayed, I’m like, What is the vision I’m supposed to have? And then it came to me. And it was that 1000s of business owners shifting their mindsets and habits. And for me, the reason the way to get there was is it’s an intuitive thing, right? You play with it, you mess with it, you try to figure out what is it that you really enjoy? Who do you enjoy doing it with in terms of business, but it also needs to be big enough to encompass important aspects of your your life, not just business, but your life. And for me, impacting people’s lives and shifting their mindsets and habits is generational impact is generational change, not only for the leaders, but those that they’re leading, because the way they shift impacts those that they’re leading, which impacts their families and so on. So the heart behind it for me is the generational shift. That happens as a result. So that really resonates with me. So Intel, it resonates with the business owner, it’s not going to it’s not going to sit well. And it’ll be harder to go after. And it’s okay, because it took me four and a half years to get there. Did I did I still run my business? Yes. Did I run it successfully? Yes. Is it okay that I didn’t have a vision? Yes. But I had a mission. Instead, my mission had to do with who I am, which is someone that wants to coach people, someone that wants to help people in that regard with those four pillars that I mentioned. So I still going after that. It’s just my lighthouse was really, really foggy, and I couldn’t quite see the light very clearly. And then the vision hit. Now the lighthouse house is clear. And I’ve been working on my ship for a long time, which is my mission. The ship is ready, and it’s dialed in. And now I’m rowing in the right direction, if you will towards that lighthouse. And I intuitively now know that the path I’m on, I’m pointing in the right direction finally, I veer off, but I know I can get back to it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, there’s just so much to unpack in that. But one of the things you’ve mentioned several times now and going back to your vision is this idea of shifting mindsets and habits. And to an extent shifting presupposes that there’s something wrong, right or that there’s gains to be made by bite changing. So what do you find your clients are shifting from and to?
Kyle Gillette
Yeah, from? Often it’s a mindset of, I have to do everything myself, is one of the mindsets. Another one is that there’s no way to get over or through this thing. Whatever it is, sometimes it’s a cash flow issue. Sometimes it’s an employee issue, hiring people issue, whatever, it varies, but I’m, I’m stuck. I’m not good enough. Or I just don’t know if I want to do this anymore. Those are those are some of the things that happen. And when you start to shift and realize that just a little tweak a little different perspective here of well, what if you tried this or have you tried this, that little shift can make a huge difference? I have a have a client right now that he’s he works in landscaping and handyman. He’s got a million million dollar business. But his cash flow is terrible. He continues to struggle with the cash flow. I said, Well, what’s what’s your business savings account look like? Because I don’t have one. That’s a shift. That’s a huge shift for him. And now he’s putting a percentage aside, every single project every single contract, he puts a percentage aside to his personal savings and his business savings, so that he can build on both for rainy days because inevitably, in his in his industry, there’s rainy days, in that literally exactly. That little shift is huge for him and plenty of other businesses don’t do that they don’t have as a set aside savings for those, quote, rainy days or for future projects they want to work on and just have a little bit of a little nest egg there to to use for that. So that’s an example that tends to fit a lot of people.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, and I again, I think it’s so important because when you walk into being an entrepreneur, there are so many different skills that you’re now the number one person responsible for in your business, especially if the business is of one right. Even if you have two or three people helping you along. You know when it hits the fan, if you will, where did everybody’s eyes go? They go to you and there’s nothing that can really prepare you for that business school doesn’t do that, you know, some entrepreneur program for six months. If you get any program that’s long Gonna have to teach you all the lessons you’d need to know before going in, there’s not an entrepreneur in the world who’d be patient enough to go through that, right. So a lot of it is, you know, it’s just the nature of the game, again, you’re learning as we go. And many times, that’s the best way for that style of person to learn. But what happens is, when you’re doing it alone, it’s a lot easier to get stuck, right, it’s a lot easier to mistake a problem for something that’s just terminal, right? You can’t get beyond this. This is how it always is. And I love that you go in and help folks to change that. Because you’re right, that that slight adjustment in the way we think about it can have a huge impact downfield.
Kyle Gillette
It’s all about angles, can you can you look at it from a different angle. And a very practical way to do that just to give people something very practical here is I haven’t given an example, I have a client right now that he’s really downsized this business quite a bit. And it’s been super beneficial for him. He’s gotten his head around his business, he’s got his numbers figured out significantly. So now he can step into a new season of growth, while he’s much more stabilized in the way he’s thinking about things and seeing things and better systems, etc. And the one of the best ways to continue to wrap your mind around things and to see your business, your leadership, the people on your team from new angles is to write to write it down. Why don’t you know that the whole idea of creating a business plan, there is wisdom in that people don’t want to do that often. But there is wisdom in that. But if you just create a 12 week business plan or a 12 week idea of what the heck’s going on in your business, where you’d like to see it go, that’s a new angle, it’s a third quote, unquote, third party angle that you get to see what’s happening. And you could pick a person on your team that’s difficult to deal with, put their name down and look at them from all these different angles, but put it on paper. Because we swim in our heads as business owners all the time. We’re just swimming and swimming. Let’s quit treading water and make some progress. But the best way to do that is to get it down on paper, or I don’t know if it’s the best, but it’s one of the simplest ways to do it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, that’s good. All right. Here’s the moment that I love in this show. And that is an asked this question. What’s the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish every founder, leader entrepreneur listening today knew?
Kyle Gillette
It’s tied to what I said to a certain degree, and it’s asked open questions. So many business owners that I’ve worked with do not know how to ask good questions. They really, really struggle. They struggle to ask good questions about their the inanimate things of their business, projects, and, and vendors and all these things that are happening over here. And they really struggle to ask open questions of their employees. And an open question is a question that allows thought, it allows meaning it allows a motion to come out. And leaders typically are asking closed questions that are binary, should we do it this way or that way? We’ve tried it this way. And we’ve tried it that way. So we only can do it this way. Right? It’s closed thinking. And when you start to draw out insights from people, the only way you can truly do it is by asking open ended questions. What do you think about this? What would your approach be? How have you tried this in the past those types of questions, draw insights from your employees in ways that you just cannot when you’re telling people what to do. Behind that one more piece of this one behind that is you have to be curious. You have to have this insatiable curiosity for your team for the people that you work with. And assume that they are fascinating. It’s one of the things I challenge all my clients with is, do you do you assume your employees are fascinating that they have fascinating lives, they’re a fascinating person, as who they are as a character as a as a person as an individual. And if you don’t, it’s a lot harder to ask them questions that are meaningful, because they’re just a robot. They’re just a cog in the wheel of the business. And I’m not trying to be harsh here. But a lot of people will see employees like that on accident, not because they’re jerks, but because they’re just busy doing their work. And they don’t recognize that this is a human life in front of you, in this Two Minute interaction that you’re having. And if they’re fascinating to you, and they’re really interesting. And you know that they’re brilliant, because they are otherwise why did you hire them? Then you can pull out that insight by asking open questions. So insatiable curiosity and belief that they’re amazing, coupled with powerful questions, is is a recipe for really high success as leader.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s such great advice because one of the things that most entrepreneurs have going forward is that they are curious people, right? They’re constantly looking at how the world could be a better place is what got them to start in the first place. And where we get hung up so many times is where we failed to shift, how we how we communicate that how we leverage Just that curiosity, right? Because early on, it’s just you figuring it out, right? But if you get stuck, and I figure it out, then yeah, it shuts everything else down. So I love, I love how you brought that out. Because if you can think that they’re brilliant, if you think they’re novel, you will not find a group of people who are more curious than entrepreneurs. Right? And, yeah, so I love that. And it’s just about it’s not like, oh, it’s not me, or it’s, you know, a wiring thing. It’s none of those things. It’s just a new skill to pick up, and, and develop. All right, so what I’m gonna have you do here for a second is I’m gonna have you take off your coach hat, right, I’m gonna have you put on your CEO hat, CEO of Blue Shirt coaching. And I want you to tell us a little bit about what you think the next stage of growth looks like for you and your business? And what challenge will you have to overcome to get there?
Kyle Gillette
This morning, I was reviewing how my business is done in the last few years, actually. And so two years ago, grew 45%, or three years ago, grew 45%, the after that it grew that the something I can’t remember exactly. And then this year, it was 50.88%. Right, so the business has been growing. So now I know for a fact that I’m on a trajectory of growth and trajectory of shifts happening. But as a coach, I can only coach so many people. And I can only charge so much where I’m like I don’t I don’t want to charge this $50,000 For for a year’s worth of coaching or whatever, some people charge a lot. And that’s great. I want to impact a lot of people, hence the vision that I have. So the the evolution of my business is into more of a one on one coaching Plus membership. And this, this new name, is tying myself to home service businesses, it’s tying myself to people in the trades, business owners in the trades, and working with him because that’s a group of business owners that don’t have the resources that a lot of the quote, white collar people do, they do the blue collar people do too, but they don’t know that. And I want to be able to serve them in build a membership around that, that helps them not be in the truck all the time, not not have to be in the field all the time, not take the phone call with the customer late at night, just like any other business doesn’t want to be doing that either. And provide a community of people where the plumber in Wisconsin in this particular city in Wisconsin doesn’t want to talk to any of the other plumbers in there because they’re in competition, but they can talk to the dude in Washington anytime he wants. And they can mastermind together with the same problems that they’re dealing with. And that goes across, you know, the industry is there. And bring them together, bring a community together that genuinely cares about each other, that can have mutual accountability. And then see the progress. That’s the result of that, because that’s the formula that I use with my personal clients. And I know it works. And so let’s plug it into a bunch of people. And I know it’s going to work as well, because I’m already doing a mini version of this. So the business is shifting in that direction. Because that’s more people more impact, more legacy changing, more generational changing as a result.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. Now, I would be remiss to not mention you’ve got a book that’s out right, Sage leadership, and why don’t you tell us a little bit about the book and what folks can expect to get out of it?
Kyle Gillette
Yeah, for sure. So I’ll give you the metaphor of the book. The book is about your leadership house. And there’s four pillars or four parts to your leadership house, the foundation is self awareness, without a self awareness, you cannot build a house, you need to have that foundation, then accountability is the nails that holds that leadership house together without accountability, as we’ve seen, where a leader isn’t holding themselves accountable, things kind of falling on them, and worse fallen on other people as well. Growth is the walls in the roof. So this is the idea that you know, you have that leadership lid to use the John Maxwell language, we got to we got to raise that lid, we got to remodel your leadership and adjust where the wall is adjust for certain parts of your leadership is as your business grows. And as the people that come in and are influenced by you need different leadership styles or different approach. Then empowerment is the windows and doors. And this is the idea that I’m doing my thing and I’m killing it as leader, you’re doing your thing, you’re killing it as a leader, you’ve got a great foundation countability is in place you’re growing, and then people see it, and then look into those windows and going wait a second, that’s I want to be a part of that business. I want to be influenced by that leader in that culture. And so they knock on that door, you open it up and they come in and start working with you. And so that is the gist of what sage leadership is about is building out leadership house and I walk people through a bunch of different mindsets and habits, both through story, statistics, anecdotes, and practically like I did on some of what we talked about today to help them actually implement it. And step into that process and start building more of the leadership house that they already have. But get some get some furniture in there. Get some clarity on what’s what’s happening. Is there a chip in my face? nation what’s going on with that window? Why is it cracked that kind of stuff? I love it. Where can we get a copy? Go to Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. And then there’s various other retailers. But those are the two main places just look up Sage Leadership, and then type in my name Kyle, as well, because there’s another one called Sage Leadership. That’s not mine.
Scott Ritzheimer
Got it? Well, we’ll make sure to put the link in the show notes for everybody. Kyle, thank you so much for being here. It was just such an honor having you on such great great wisdom and advice and for everyone listening your time and attention just mean the absolute world to us. So thank you for being here. Thanks for tuning in. I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Kyle Gillette
Want to learn more about Kyle’s work at Blue Shirt Business Coaching? Check out his website at https://blueshirtcoaching.com/
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