Surviving the Side Hustle

From Counseling to Coaching: Laura's Journey to Empowering Leaders and Achieving Business Success

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 66

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Unlock the secrets of effective leadership and business growth with Laura from Venture Coaching International. Laura's journey from counseling to business and leadership coaching offers a treasure trove of insights for aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs. Discover how she collaborates with small business owners and executives to tackle the challenge of "loneliness at the top" and emphasizes the transformative power of accountability and goal-setting. Laura's strategies for staying focused and avoiding distractions are a game-changer for business success.

Ready to revolutionize your planning and execution techniques? We explore Laura's favorite tools, "Traction" and "The 12 Week Year," which provide structured frameworks for business planning. These resources are designed to help you prioritize effectively and break down your goals into actionable steps. Learn how to identify key actions that drive real progress and develop a consistent habit of strategic planning. Laura's approach to goal setting empowers leaders to balance long-term objectives with immediate actions, creating sustainable growth and momentum.

Communication is key to business success, and Laura shares timeless techniques and resources to enhance these skills. From Leader Effectiveness Training to Donna Gennett's delegation advice, find out how effective communication boosts team performance and business growth. Laura's coaching services cater to professionals seeking a more productive and balanced work environment by fostering improved communication and delegation skills. Our conversation concludes with mutual gratitude and excitement for future discussions, making this episode a must-listen for those eager to strengthen their business acumen and achieve lasting success.

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Rob:

what's going on? Everybody today on the show we've got laura. Laura, how are you doing? We were just chatting total, like totally opposite side of the um, whole continent. But uh, not too far actually, uh, but how's it going out by you?

Laura:

oh, really well, thanks, rob. Uh, yeah, I'm here in central alberta and still has some leaves on the trees and and in fact, just two nights ago we had this amazing Northern Lights display, so it might actually be happening again tonight, which is kind of cool.

Rob:

I'm pretty jealous about that. I've never got to experience Northern Lights, even though I heard recently this year there was actually some. Somehow there were some sightings of Northern Lights down by me in connecticut, um, so that's kind of interesting. When, when does it start snowing up by you?

Laura:

oh well, it depends on where you are. There's already snow in the mountains, so lake louise, banff, uh, they've had some snow, so the skiers are starting to get itchy and the you know the hills. Lake louise usually opens around November, the 11th, so it's a common.

Rob:

Nice Soon soon. But before we get too distracted, laura, would you mind sharing a little bit about yourself, who you are, how'd you get to where you're at? Who do you help?

Laura:

Yeah, that's a great way to start things off. So my company is Venture Coaching International and so I do business and leadership development with all kinds of small business owners and C-levelreneurs for over 20 years now. So I came out of a counseling profession that's what I originally studied and went to university for, then made a career change because I've always been fascinated about leadership and helping leaders, and, in this case, owners, get to the next level.

Laura:

So that's what I get to do on a daily basis, and it's a ton of fun, because I have all kinds of different conversations with different kinds of people. It's really awesome.

Rob:

Yeah, I imagine that's super fun. I get to work with a wide range and variety of individuals and different professions and it keeps me motivated and it's exciting because there's new challenges every day. I just I guess I just love like solving problems and working together as a team and that excites me. So I imagine you're just having the time of your life every day.

Laura:

Well, absolutely. You know, as a business coach, I really see myself as a partner in my client's business. You know they hire me. One of the reasons they hire me, anyways, is that they're not alone, because you know, as you go up the leadership ladder, it can be lonely at the top and you can have there sometimes there aren't people to consult with or bounce ideas off with, or challenge your thinking or push you a little bit. So so, yeah, I get to have, you know, those kinds of conversations with people and and help them get to the next level and achieve their goals faster, which is pretty cool yeah, I love that.

Rob:

I love that you look at it as kind of like a partnership diving in um. A lot of my coaching is more like the personal side of things, and and I I like to look at myself as kind of like, as like a really good friend, like someone who's there, who's kind of like hey, like guiding and teaching certain ways, like an older brother almost in some aspects, with a lot of my clients, and I just love the connection aspect of everything. So I wanted to ask, though, like cause you're an accountability figure for a lot of your clients and how do you stay accountable yourself? Do you yourself have coaches and mentors?

Laura:

Yeah, well, I have to walk my talk.

Laura:

So, absolutely, you know, I've had a number of coaches over the years and so that's one way I hold myself accountable and using the tools that I teach you know there are, you know, tools and mechanisms out there that people either aren't aware of or are aware of, but they're not using them consistently and definitely. Consistency is one of the challenges that I've had over the years. I can definitely get excited about something and go down a rabbit hole or chase a tangent of some kind, and I have to remind myself that to keep circling back to the goals and objectives you know that I've set for myself and to take consistent action towards pursuing those, which is not something I did in the beginning you know of my coaching business but it's something that I've definitely learned to embrace, because when I practice it, I go further, faster, and I get to be an effective role model of that with my clients, because it's the exact same tools and process that I get them using, and when they're using it and following it, they exceed, they meet or exceed their goals every quarter.

Rob:

So it works. Order, so it works Nice. Yeah, I got to ask you what because you said there's tools and strategies that people are, I guess, maybe almost taken for granted, where they're not utilizing it as often. What is the most common one that you see that everybody knows that they might just kind of brush off or not stay as consistent with?

Laura:

Oh well, I guess there's. There's two issues um and one uh, and two tools that can really help. So I think one of the really important ones that you know small business owners or you know people doing side hustles may think they really they don't need, but they do is a business plan. Uh, I admit you know business planning was something I avoided. It's felt too hard, too complicated. It's just me, and you know why do I need this?

Laura:

And so it gets dropped and and or it gets written, so some goals and objectives actually get written down, but then it gets shelved and you know it collects either real or virtual dust and doesn't get visited for another year or whatever timeframe. And when a business plan isn't kept alive and active throughout the year, that's when the rabbit holes show up, that's when we start chasing tangents, that's when we end up doing things we kind of feel like doing versus the things that we should actually be doing. We lose focus, we get distracted and ultimately, we lose traction. And so having a plan and working your plan, knowing what you want to accomplish, when you're going to accomplish it and broken down into action steps of how you're going to accomplish it, really is the secret sauce to moving a business forward, no matter what scale of business you're operating at.

Rob:

Yeah, that's so true and like that, digital dust is such a such a real, a real thing. Actually, in the past I just remember for so long I would write down different goals and I would even write down the action steps and things that I'd want to do, and I'd write it on a document and I'd make it all nice and neat and like, boom, this is perfect, this is exactly what I'm going to do. And then a couple of weeks down the road I totally forget about it and then I don't even revisit it until like six weeks or six months down the road when I'm like, oh, let me reevaluate my goals and I'm like, oh, my God, I totally forgot that I wanted to do that six months ago. Absolutely, how do you help people, like make sure that they keep that in the forefront? And like, how do they keep that awareness and that consciousness of their goals when life is crazy with the whirlwinds and it's so easy to get distracted?

Laura:

Yeah, absolutely Great question. There are two resources that I use all the time. I use them for myself, I use them with my clients. The first resource is a book called Traction and how to get a grip on your business.

Laura:

I'm a firm believer of using effective tools. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel. The tools are out there. We just have to pick them up and use them. So Traction is a great book, and the cool part is that the company even provides all of their tools as free downloads on their website. So they have a simple two page business plan that I use and I use with my clients, and the first page gets you focused on the foundation of your business. You know why are you doing it? What are your values? Where do you want to be in 10 years? Where do you want to be in five years? It's really a reverse engineering process. So it walks you through that on page one, and then page two gets you focused on a workable timeframe, which is the coming year. So, for example, we're having this conversation today in October of 2024. So now is a great time to actually be thinking about 2025 and coming year and be thinking you know, where do we want to be? December 30th of 2025?.

Laura:

Calendar years work great. You could use your fiscal year if you want to, but really it's the same principle, and so then what that tool does is have you set goals for your coming year? So first of all, you get clear on the year. Then, once you're clear on your year, you look at those goals and you prioritize and you decide okay, I can't work on all of these goals at once, so which quarter business quarter am I going to work on particular goals? So you prioritize and you choose your what are called rocks for your quarter. So maybe you've got 10 goals for the year and you decide that you're going to work on four in the particular quarter. So that's great. Now you know what you're working on for the year and you know what you're working on for the quarter. Then we have to take it into how and when at a deeper level. So then I turned to another tool which comes from a book called the 12 Week Year, and that book is all about getting more done in a quarter than most people get done in a year, and what it has is a tool called a scorecard.

Laura:

So that's the next tool that I use with my clients and basically what we do is we take those goals for the quarter and we create a scorecard, and then we take each of those goals and we break them down week by week. So we look at week one. What is one or two action steps that we have to take this week related to each goal? We're not planning the entire quarter, we're just looking at the coming week so that we know what actions we're going to take. So that's your. Your actions are basically your how.

Laura:

Then we're opening up your calendar as well and we're looking at the coming week and saying, okay, I need one hour to take this action step. I am blocking that hour into Wednesday at 9am. So then we know what we're doing and we're knowing when we're doing it, because that's the other thing people don't do. We may set our goals and objectives, but we don't figure out how. And even if we figure out how, we don't plug it into our calendar and book appointments with ourselves for when we're going to do it.

Laura:

So that again, is the secret sauce to keeping it active and alive. So then we can execute on our scorecard throughout the week. Then we sit down with our scorecard either at the end of the week or the beginning of the next, evaluate our execution score, make sure we've actually done what we said we're going to do, and then we plan the next action steps related to each goal. Then it becomes just a habit of consistency. Using the scorecard every week consistently to stay on top of execution gets us in a habit and gets it done, and that's how we can actually get more done in a quarter than we often achieve in an entire year.

Rob:

Oh wow, that's some powerful stuff. Do you know the author of the 12-week year?

Laura:

Oh.

Rob:

Off the top of your head.

Laura:

Off the top of my head. I might actually have it on my desk here. I usually keep it handy, the top of my head.

Rob:

I might actually have it on my desk here. I usually keep it handy Because I love that idea, that concept of the scorecard. I read a book a couple of years back called the Four Disciplines of Execution and they talk a lot about the concept of having a scorecard and setting up lag measures to achieve what they call the WINK goal or the wildly important goal, and that sounds pretty similar to what you're talking about and I think it's super important. I try to create scorecards for a lot of my clients on different things, whether that's something as simple as like, hey, let's just getting up early to get to the gym and making sure that we're keeping track of the things that are at least moving the needle forward, because there've been plenty of times where I've been wasted a lot of time tracking a lot of information on things that didn't necessarily help move the needle forward. Do you have any advice on that, on helping prioritize the right actions for the goals?

Laura:

well, I think, yeah, that actually comes pretty naturally. Uh, once you've got your goals established, then, uh, as you're sitting looking at them and you're planning your week, you're thinking, okay, I kind of know. I find most it's very intuitive type of process. Actually, we do, uh, tend to have a good sense of like. Okay, in regards to this, to this, I know I need to take, you know, this action step and, and then the action steps really build on each other from week to week.

Laura:

So, and that's why it's helpful to do it week to week and not try to plan an entire quarter because, we can't uh, we can't anticipate an entire quarter in advance and even uh, even if we try, you know, things change quickly, especially when we're in small business and we want to be able to adapt and shift quickly.

Laura:

So if we can just take a couple of actions that leads us to a new place for the following week, and then, once we're in that new place the next week, we say, okay, this is the next step I need to take. And if we're not sure what next step we need to take, I think that's where having a coach can be helpful. That's when having a business partner or a trusted confidant can be helpful because if you aren't clear yet, I can't see your next action then talking it through with someone and just gives us a way of processing the information rather than having it all sort of rolling around in our head. If we speak it out loud, then we can usually figure it out by having a conversation with someone else bouncing those ideas off. Then I find that the clarity comes.

Rob:

So I have another question for you. Sorry if this is kind of like a curveball, but have you had any experience working with individuals who kind of come in and they're like, hey, I want to work with you, and then they just have these dreams or visions or goals that are just a little, they're just too big for them at that particular time? Have you ever, have you ever, encountered anybody with that?

Laura:

Yeah, I mean people, I call them be hags and big, hairy, audacious goals, and it's good to have those. Absolutely. We want to have big visions and things that we're excited about and if that's the case that's great. And then we have to still sort of break that down. And I talk to my clients about having goals that feel like a bit of a stretch, because we want to be stretching ourselves, growing into something new. But they can't be freak-out goals Because if their freak-out goals are too scary or too big in the beginning then we'll sabotage ourselves. You know we'll find excuses for not doing it, we'll fear will kick in. A whole, you know variety of excuses will show up that can stand in the way of us moving forward on those. So I try to have goals at both scales, definitely have the BHAG goals out in the future and then have the quarterly or annual goals that feel like a stretch, but also in that doable range, so that there's kind of a sweet spot there that we work on. So hopefully that addresses your question.

Rob:

Yeah, no, yeah. I love that Because because some people, some people I've encountered before, they're afraid to kind of set goals or audacious goals that they can really strive for, because they don't want to be, they don't want to be let down. If they don't, they don't make it there If they, if they don't want to bite off too much, that they can't chew kind of thing. And then sometimes it's some individuals want to, they want to do so much, so much, and they're just not ready to handle all of that. So I've kind of seen people in both categories and I was interested on your take on individuals that you encounter like that.

Laura:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean mean the exciting, you know, and everybody's different as well, and so, uh, I think that's where, as a coach, we have to. Part of our job is to show up and work with our clients where they're at. I've got some clients got the big goals and they're excited and they're pumped and they're just raring to go.

Laura:

And that's that works well for them. And then I've got, you know, other clients who that would totally freak them out, and we have to break things down into actionable steps where they can see with a little more clarity how they're going to get there. So I think everybody's different and so, like I said, as coaches we have to show up and respect where the person is at and by understanding them and who they are, we can also give them that feedback. We can give them feedback around. This might be a little bigger than what you're thinking it is or bigger than what you really want to take on. Let's scale it back a little bit.

Laura:

Let's work on this in bite-sized chunks and build some momentum by making some progress and then, as that happens, then yes, let's chase the bigger goals, as some confidence builds.

Rob:

Yeah, I love that. That's very true. And so you're working with individuals, you're helping them set these goals, you're setting up these action steps, and then how are you helping them kind of keep track and making sure that they are staying consistent with that? Everything, then, more to success than just setting the goals and planning out the attack. Right, you've got to show up consistently. You've got to have support networks and be able to communicate effectively with your team and customers, and so on, right?

Laura:

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, goal setting is just one of the things that I do with people. I mean we have to get clear on goals and objectives, you know absolutely. And then what's going to happen is life is going to show up and the daily, all of the various you know crises and fires that are associated with building a business, are going to show up, and then the fear is going to kick in, and then conversations are going to need to take place, and so those are all.

Laura:

So leadership, if you will, is a big umbrella and encompasses a lot of things, and so, over the 20 years that I've been helping small business owners, I've developed quite a toolbox to address all of those issues.

Laura:

So, yeah, I work on communication skills with people. How do they give their colleagues or their direct reports effective feedback so that their direct reports can actually stay in the conversation and hear what is being shared, versus get defensive or have the conversation break down? How do leaders listen more effectively? I find leaders and small business owners they're people who just want to get things done and are very good at getting things done and doing things, and so sometimes they take on other people's problems and make them their own and just try to fix things, and as long as they're always fixing things for people, they're not actually putting their energy and attention into the issues or actions that are most important for them, and then that creates more havoc and more fires. And so I work with my leaders around helping be facilitators of other people's problems so that people learn how to solve their own problems, and the leaders don't have to take on all that baggage of their own and just be fixing stuff for other people all the time.

Laura:

So that includes things like boundary setting. It includes things like knowing who owns the problem so that more appropriate conversations can happen. You know around that. So we work a lot, you know, on communication. And then we work on time management, because sometimes and delegation issues as well, because if there's just too much on someone's plate, then they got to learn how to delegate and often owners don't want to delegate because, oh, I tried that, it didn't work.

Laura:

You know, they didn't give me what I wanted as well, and they were pointing fingers at the people who didn't do the work properly, when, in fact, they need to point the finger back at themselves and look at how did they actually communicate their delegation?

Laura:

because if they haven't delegated clearly and set milestones and have check-ins and confirmed clarity of their communication, then they're not going to get what they want in return and which is going to add more frustration. So yeah, there's a whole myriad of topics that I take on with my owners, because it's complex moving a business for exciting, you know, but also complex. There's a lot to deal with.

Rob:

Yeah, I was just going to ask you because, obviously, everybody's a different individual, everybody's their own individual. They've got their own situations going on. But what are some like immediate telltale signs? If you're working with someone and you're like, listen, you can't do it at all. You need to start to delegate some of this. Like, what are some of the? Obviously like the burnout and overwork, but is there, is there anything else where you're like, okay, listen, you just slow down. We need to get somebody else to come in here and handle some of this. We got to make something a little more efficient and we got to go here, here and here. What do you see from there?

Laura:

You know there's all kinds of symptoms that show that there's some underlying issues that need to be dealt with, you know. So the symptoms often look like you described burnout there, stress, working, you know, super long hours, not being able to sleep because their mind is just always racing. Health problems you know they may be experiencing a whole variety of different health concerns that start to show up, being very reactive and just kind of exploding and being sort of temperamental, if you will. That often shows that somebody is kind of in their fight and flight syndrome all the time and they're just reacting to things, uh, everywhere, and they're not slowing down and thinking through things and dealing with things logically. So if someone is highly emotional and reactive, that's another symptom that there's issues going on.

Laura:

They could be showing up as relationship challenges, you know. Are they having, you know, is their spouse complaining about things going on? Or a business partner, you know, complaining about things? These are all indicators that there's some issues going on and we can't just try to deal with the symptoms. We have to look at what's underlying. What's the core issue? Is it a lack of process? Is it a lack of planning? Is it communication problems? What's the core issue or issues that need to be addressed, and then prioritize them, because it's the resolution of the core issue that's going to take those symptoms away yeah, I feel you on that.

Rob:

it's kind of like um, uh, putting, putting a band-aid over like a gun wound or something. It's like figuring out what, what caused the wound or the injury in the first place. Don't just stamp a Band-Aid over top of it, like dig a little bit deeper and figure out where the problem is kind of arising from, kind of right.

Laura:

The temptation, of course, is just to stick the Band-Aid on because it seems quick and it seems easy, so we can get on to the next issue. And sometimes these issues seem too big and overwhelming and so people avoid them, and yet that's exactly what has to get done. I mean so when I work with my clients, you know sometimes there's some triaging, there's a few fires that we have to deal with immediately and get those resolved, so that then we can get strategic about things and work on things in a more strategic, thoughtful manner to actually make the progress that we want to make. So it's sometimes a balance.

Rob:

Sometimes we've got to triage and deal with an emergency because that's what frees up our ability to then get strategic. So I understand you have some resources that you help people send out to them. Can you mind sharing a little bit about what some of those resources are? I know you mentioned a couple of books earlier in our conversation.

Laura:

Yeah, absolutely. I love tools and so I'm always looking for tools that people can use and integrate into their personal and business lives. So Traction by Gina Wickman, that's one of the ones I mentioned already. I can't remember the author of the 12-week year, but it's a red book. You can find it on Amazon, so that's a pretty easy one to find. And, yes, I've got a bunch of free resources on my website where I share with people business. There's a business planning tool there. There's some eBooks about how to communicate more effectively, how to deliver feedback, how to time manage some marketing, some sales stuff. A variety of topics are covered there. So people just need to go to my website, which is venturecoachingca, because I'm in Canada and there's a freebies page there, and they can go get a bunch of free downloads.

Rob:

And so I know we talked earlier how you mentioned that the business plan is pretty much the main thing that you got to get. At least have that down and pay attention to that every once in a while. If we're talking about communication, though, what do you think if you could recommend one of your resources or one of the biggest problems that you see business owners in terms of communication? What is that?

Laura:

Well, I've got two go-to resources for communication effectiveness. The first one is called Leader Effectiveness Training L-E-T, and it's actually 30 or 40 years old. This is not new material and it's training that I did. I got certified now in this approach about 25 years 25 years ago so leader effectiveness training is all about communication, so that's an excellent place to start. And the other go-to resource that I use for communication is a book that focuses on delegation.

Laura:

And that book is called If you Want it Done Right, you Don't have to Do it Yourself by Donna Gennett, and what I like about those two books is they're quite complementary. So Donna's book the delegation book, it's a one hour read. It's quick, it's simple for busy people. It's even got cheat sheets in it. It's awesome. But the communication and listening skills that she recommends are totally aligned with the communication and listening skills that are talked about in LET. So it's not like you're getting disjointed information. They're very complimentary and if someone really wants to take on their communication skills and their delegation skills, those are excellent resources.

Rob:

Wow, awesome. Yeah, I got to check out that second one there. You said it's called. If you Want it, you Don't have to Do it Yourself.

Laura:

If you Want it Done Right, you Don't have to Do it Yourself. Yeah, long title short book, but it's very good.

Rob:

Love that Well, Laura, I appreciate you taking the time here today to connect with us and share a bunch of insights and some of your experiences. But I got to ask you where do people go to kind of follow, find out where you're at? Are you taking on new clients, even if someone's interested in seeking some of your coaching?

Laura:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely I'm always open to have a conversation. You know I tend to work with people, you know, depends on the project. You know, some people just need one very specific thing that they want to focus on, and so we work together for 90 days and I've got other people. Where the coaching engagement lasts, you know, you know 18 months, two years, even as long as five years, so I always have people sort of coming and going, you know, from my roster. So I'm always open to having a conversation with someone to see if and how I can support them in some way. So the best way for someone to find me is my website, which is venturecoachingca, and they want to do some browsing around. I'm also on LinkedIn and I'm on YouTube. There's a number of other podcasts that I've been involved in and some video resources there, which is also under Venture Coaching International.

Rob:

Awesome. Is there any certain requirement or limitation for business owners starting out? Do they need to have, like, a team, do they need to be making a certain amount of money, or can they just be fresh off with a brand new idea of what they're wanting to launch, to kind of get involved?

Laura:

Yeah, my ideal client doesn't necessarily have to have a team in place. I do work with some solopreneurs, but they do have to be somewhat established. I don't tend to work with brand new startups, so I tend to work with subject matter experts their lawyers, their accountants, their engineers. There's someone who has, you know, develop their skills and abilities, become an expert in their field and now sort of branched off and are now running their own small company. So they might be a solverner, but typically they're going to have a small team of maybe three to five at least and they're going to have revenue around 500k get going. So, you know 500k. You know up to $20 million. Companies is really, you know where I can serve best.

Rob:

Cool, good to know. Good to know, laura. And again, seriously, thank you so much. I feel like this was a masterclass, real quick, on a lot of information, good resources and. But I gotta, before I let you go cause I do want to be curious over time here I gotta ask you if you were to just boil everything down in terms of business success. If, say, I'm here starting off with my side hustle, what would be your number one piece of advice for me, not only to survive the side hustle but to thrive it and grow it into a massive business?

Laura:

I would say have a plan and work your plan. Like I said in the beginning, I avoided it with a plague. I didn't want to do it. There was all kinds of resistance. It's easy to tell ourselves, oh, I'm too small, I don't need one. But we really do. And so if you really want to get moving forward quickly on something, and because you know life shows up all kinds of things, distractions show up to take us off our game. So it really is about have a plan, create some clarity for yourself and work your plan, and the tools exist to help you do that.

Rob:

Boom, I love it. That was awesome. Thank you so much, laura. It's been a pleasure. Would love to chat with you again in the future.

Laura:

I would enjoy that.

Rob:

Thank you so much.

Laura:

All right, take care. Thanks for having me today.