In this intriguing episode, Robert Mallon, Founder of Elite Coaching Solutions, shares why success almost always comes in short bursts, and what you can do to
- Lead a business that is growing
- Feel like you’re living up to your potential
- Have the time freedom to do what you want with the people you love
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello, and welcome. Welcome to the Secrets of the High Demand Coach. And I’m here with, like the high demand coach of high demand coaches, at least in my world. And that is Robert Mallon. And Robert’s gonna share his story with us here in just a minute. But for those of you who have been listening, even to these first few episodes, you know, as I tell my story, there’s this kind of pivotal moment where I go from the lone shark to, you know, finally realizing I don’t have all this figured out to realizing, hey, this coaching thing is actually something that’s probably really helpful. And what I don’t usually get to do is say that the person who made that shift is my friend, and dear friend, Robert Mellon, who’s here with me on the show today. And so, for those of you who are like, Hey, where’s this coach that he got? This is the guy like, and if you want that transformation, this is the guy who’s gonna be able to help you too. But with with that, you know, in my little bit of a story here, Robert, I just love to turn and open it up to you. And I actually know we’ve talked about this before. It’s been a while I’m eager to hear how you got into coaching yourself, because I know it wasn’t always that way. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into coaching, why it’s so important to you?
Robert Mallon
Got it absolutely. Long, long time ago, okay? No, my name is Robert melons. So glad to be on here. Very quickly. I’m married, actually married twice, first wife passed away from cancer. Back in 2005, I got very lucky and found another absolutely beautiful lady that we’re married to now, between us. We have five children between the ages of 41 and 34, right now, and four grandchildren. But more importantly to this podcast. I own a company called Elite Coaching Solutions. And how do we get started back in October 2002, Scott, I was in the restaurant business and had been for years and years and years and have restaurants like all over the southeast. I didn’t really know it at the time, I had no idea that there was even a thing called coaching. But I hired a coach, a friend of mine was actually using the guy and I heard this guy. His name was Glenn, he did an awesome job. And the whole thing was, what’s next in my life. So I was traveling a lot, my son’s now all three of them are, you know, 30s 40s. And I needed to be home a little bit more they were in their teenage years, and one was in his early 20s. And teenage boys, you need to be around a little bit more. And so I was kind of burnout too. I can say, you know, I did that. I love that I learn how to run businesses, he helped me understand two things. Number one, I love growing leaders. And I didn’t I mean, I knew it intuitively. But nobody ever said that to me. And number two, I love growing businesses and putting systems in businesses. And I had done it for almost 30 years. Okay. So he said, because he loved leader so much in what you do, he said, You need to be a coach. And I said, I have no idea what the heck you’re talking about. And over the course of about six months, he helped me I left the company I was with scariest thing I ever did in my life, you know, have a mortgage and kids and you know, you got to have the money coming in to no income coming in. And it took off. And it was just a perfect fit for me. And it was 90 it will be 20 years this upcoming January that I started the business and have never looked back up to. So that’s how I actually started the business.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic. I love it. Well, why don’t you and obviously I’ve gotten a chance to be part of this. For those of you who don’t know, Robert is my coach. And and so I know about the work that we’ve done together. But I’d love for you to tell our our audience here, what’s the important work that you do for your clients. And just tell us a little bit about what that looks like.
Robert Mallon
Primarily, what I’ll work with is like business owners or business like leaders within larger companies, but the owners, you know, like midsize, smaller mid sized type companies, whatever, you help me actually clarify this. So I’m going to actually say this. Most of the leaders that I work with, they want three things. They want to have a business that’s growing, obviously, you know, they don’t want to be worn down. They want things to be growing up. They want to feel like they’re living their full are up to their full potential. And the vast majority do not you know, when they come in, they know that there’s something out there that they don’t know yet. And maybe most importantly, they want to have the time freedom to do the things that they wanted that they love to do with the people that they love most but many of them We’re working way, way, way too many hours. And so I’ve got a system, I call it literally a framework that helps them understand where they are at certain areas of their life. And they get super specific and 90 day growth cycles of exactly where they need to go and what they need to accomplish. Something else say to Scott, and I think you know, this, most people, as a coach, you absolutely, most people want to go from here to here. And that’s not unless you’re like a rapper, and you get like, discovered and you blow up, you know, and the work well, I’m not a rapper, and you’re a rapper, and the person listening to this as, so for most people, they want to get here, okay? What I’m gonna suggest is, if every 90 days, you figure out exactly what you want, and it’s there, okay. And then you get super specific, and you go after that, just like you and I set goals together. And the next 90 days you do this, and next 90 days you do this, okay, within a year, it’s amazing what you can do with your professional life, but in other areas of your life, too. So that’s kind of what I do very 35,000 foot-ish, but also enjoy helping them become much better leaders. And I mean, that’s a big deal. But I just love his teaching leadership and looking specifically at where they need help so that they can move on.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that you made this point. And I just want to dig into it a little bit. But you said one of the big things your clients are going after is they want to feel like they’re living up to their potential, right? They’re doing the max of what they can, but then you just kind of slipped in there, but that most don’t. Why do you think that is?
Robert Mallon
I think they’re too blinded by the proximity of the business. And I think they don’t have a specific plan for backing up. I mean, quite frankly, let’s be true. I see myself the way that I see myself, but then other people can see me a little bit different. Okay. I think that one of the if there’s a zone of genius thing that I have, I can literally get all of the stuff out of the way, and see simplicity in what they need to do and what they need to go after. But they’re so involved in the business or their career, whatever, that they can’t see what’s going on. They just can’t see it. And it’s not a fault or anything like that. It’s just human nature. Actually, I need coaches for myself, you know, like, I need people to speak into my life and to mentor me and to help me figure out what’s the next direction. And you’ve done. So.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, and it’s not unlike, you know, trying to analyze your baseball swing, well, a 90 mile an hour fastball is coming straight at you, you know, it’s just when you’re there in it. It’s not even a shortcoming. It’s just there’s so much of an intense focus that needs to be placed on, what are we doing now? What are we doing next, you know, putting out this fire achieving this goal, you know, overcoming this obstacle, whatever it may be. It’s just fastball after fastball after fastball and unless you’ve got someone standing there, just off to the side, whose sole goal is to look and say, here’s, here’s how you’re moving. You know, here’s what you could do. And like, just by virtue of, you know, position, right, just the angle that you’re looking at, there’s so much more information that can come so much more growth that can come. And I know, especially in my life, you’ve done an enormous amount of that for me just as a hey, have you you know, what about?
Robert Mallon
Let me give you an analogy. Let’s stay on that baseball thing for a while. One of the question that you asked was, Why can’t people do that on their own? Okay. We can’t see from outside what’s going on. When I was in seventh grade. I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s pretty good baseball player played little league and all that seventh grade, I made the varsity Junior High Team which was seventh, eighth and ninth grade. There were 2 7th graders, I was one of them. And I was absolutely the smallest guy on the team. Okay, because I hadn’t had my Grossberg, you know, I was like 105 pounds and a lot of more like 180, 190, 9th graders. And so one day the pitching coach was, you know, pitching to me, right at the beginning of the season. And much my stance was like this, and I was swinging like this, okay? And he said, Robert, we’ve got to change your swing. And I went, No. And he said, Okay, hold on. He says, what we need to do, you’re trying to pop it out, this field is bigger than what you’re used to. The ball’s not going to go out and you’re gonna pop out every single time. If you do that, if you don’t change you will never play this year. He said, here’s what I want you to do. He said, I want you to take that left arm and I want you to put it up your level. And I want you to swing level. And I want you to try to hit the ball between third and shortstop or just right Head over there, here. But I want you to get base hits. And if you will do that, I’ll play you, right. So he starts pitching, I’m like this M arm start going down after several pitches, right? Then he says, Put that left arm back up, right? And it kept on going back down. Over the course of about two or three weeks, this became very normal. Okay? Then he said, Hey, Robert, stop, go back to your old way of batting. And I’ll never forget this, I was like, and I couldn’t remember the old way that I had done for like five or six years, okay, that’s what a coach does, they help you just change a little bit, the way that you’re batting in business, maybe that’s a good way of saying it. And then they hold you accountable long enough to where you can actually hold that new way of doing it, and you get better results.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I love that. And a big part of it that jumped out at me, as you’re saying is like just he just said the same thing again, and again, right? Keep your arm up, keep your arm, keep your arm, right. And on both sides of that, as a coach, you can feel like I’m just telling these people the same thing every time. And then on the players, it’s all you do is keep saying the same thing every time. But the reality of it is it reminded me of a quote from Samuel Johnson, where he said, people need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed. And I think great coaches are perfectly comfortable in their own skin when all they’re doing is reminding us. And again, that’s one of the things that has always been remarkable is the consistency that you’ve brought to our relationship and engagement. And I see I’ve seen you do it again. And again. And again. It’s it’s really cool. So I’ve got another question for you. And again, I was one of these peoples, I know my story. But what do folks tend to try before they come and work with you.
Robert Mallon
They try to do things on their own.
Especially when it comes to the leadership stuff. In my mind, I’ve had this in my brain for 30 years or so. But I’ve seen it happen where people start a business or they get a promotion, okay, they’ve been workers, you know, that’s what they’ve done. Up until that point, they start a business, they start a career in a leadership type thing. And I see it that the person who promotes them to that, like grabs a sword, they pull it out, like this is a sword and they say, Hey, Scott, on L dub the leader, go. And so literally, that is what happens all the time. And so they go in they, they try to get people on the team, and they, they, they have no idea what the heck they’re doing when it comes to leadership. So what they generally do is, they go back to what they’re used to, which is what lying on the field, doing the work by playing on the scope, they’re not being the coach of the team, they’re actually playing on the field again, because that’s a little bit too hard that managing type thing. And so what I really, really enjoyed doing, you know, almost pretty much everybody I worked with is in a leadership type position is to help them hone their skills, like as a coach leader, to get better. But I think what they do is they try to do it alone and they fail. Or they might read a book or two or read a half a book and put it down and go Well, that doesn’t work, you know. And so that’s what the problem is, is they just don’t have somebody kind of watching what they’re doing, and helping them adjust to what they need. And everybody, as you know, everybody is completely different. So it’s a different word for everybody.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So true. In your opinion, who needs a coach and why business coach in particular?
Robert Mallon
I would say, quite frankly, anybody who’s in business or anybody who was in leadership, I mean that coming from a coach that sounds very self-serving, but I would say. “How the heck are you going to figure it out?” You look at any other aspect of life. You look at athletes, you look at NFL people, you look at, you know, anything they have people pouring into them? You know, I think that possibly the reason that some people don’t, is there a little bit too arrogant to think that they need it, or they think that they’re good enough, and they’ve got all the answers, in which case, I’m probably not going to be the right person for that person. I don’t like working with those people. I would also say and let me kind of swing around that question that you had there. Did you ever did you ever read the book called Mindset by Carol Dweck?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yes.
Robert Mallon
You know, that book, okay. One thing she talked about in their mindset, you know, the different types of about 80% of people have what’s called a fixed mindset. meaning, I am the way that I am. There’s nothing that anybody can do. It’s almost like a person who’s overweight says, Well, you know, my parents were overweight too. So there’s nothing I can do. Okay? About 20% of people are growth mindset people, and they go, I can’t be better than what I am. I read that book, probably around 2020 10, or whatever it came out again, it resonated with me, because I really thought, if a person has a fixed mindset, they’re probably not going to engage with a coach, because they feel like there’s nothing that can be done, okay? I only work with people like you who have a growth mindset. And they want more than what they have right now. And they know that they’re not the ones to bring it to them. So yeah, that was a long answer to a short
Scott Ritzheimer
No, that’s good, it’s good stuff. There is and there is a humility, you know, and again, the baseball thing is such a great analogy. A hitting coach, you know, cannot out hit the players that he’s coaching. Right? And so for a player, you know, making, X million a year to take that step back and listen to this guy, who claims to know something about hitting but couldn’t hit, you know, a half as well. There is a humility in that that that I found is actually really, really special. It’s hard, right? It’s a hard step to take. And I think most people struggle with it, at least the first time through the gate. But once you see the other side of it, it’s just like, it’s just like your swing, like you can’t figure out how did I do it without this right? You can’t go back to doing it another way. It was a tough step at first and even going in tying those two ideas together of the fixed and the growth mindset, right? Leaders, there’s just there’s a little bit of arrogance that’s necessary in leadership, right, especially for entrepreneurs, like by virtue, you’re doing something that you have no business doing, right, eight out of 10 new organizations fail. And so there’s there’s a little bit of arrogance that sits in that. And and that’s a tough word. It’s got a lot of connotations, but there’s that going against the grain, right? That’s just a necessary part of the entrepreneurial process. But in the very same token, if you get if you get stuck going against the grain, right, creating your own ruts, and you don’t have that ability to, you know, to step into the humility and say, Hey, someone else can help me with this. You end up trying to do it alone. And alone takes a long time, for sure. All right. So we’ve got Yeah, respond to that..
Robert Mallon
Yeah, I’m just trying to deal this morning, I was working at a company. It’s a local company, they’ve got about 325-350 employees, something like that. But I was working with the leadership team. They make nuclear motors, okay, a lot of them for like the Navy and things like that. I have no idea. Even if I saw a nuclear motor I wouldn’t even know as a nuclear motor. I’ve been working with these guys for years. Okay. So the whole thing is, they understand that part of the business. And they’re the experts that that’s that part of the business. When I first started working with that company, the plant manager, emailed me and he said, I’ve been working here for 18 years. I got promoted about a year ago. I am the plant manager. I’ve got all these people underneath me. I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t feel like I’m a plant manager. I am scared to death. I can’t let anybody know that. Are you out there? Can you hear me? I mean, it was one of the coolest emails and I was laughing at the end. And I emailed him back and I said, look, let’s take 30 minutes and talk and see if there’s a good fit, right? So the Fit happened. He was able to now I mean, when that guy goes to the plant now, he’s awesome at what he does, and he’s a great leader. Okay, I think he did know how to do that heart beating knows how to make nuclear motors. Okay, that’s the point. So what you and I get to do for a living. There’s parts that people just don’t intuitively get in they don’t teach this stuff like what you and I don’t teach it in college. You know, this stuff that’s outside and it really comes from experience that we learned then we can pass on to others.
Scott Ritzheimer
It’s a great story. All right. So after that, a little bit of a tease here, the moment we’ve been waiting for I’d love for you to share with us what’s the biggest secret that you have that that you’d want to share with with our audience? You know, founders, leaders, folks who want to grow the organization folks who want to have the time freedom folks who want to be living up to their potential. What’s that kind of one thing that you would want to share with them today?
Robert Mallon
I would say the one thing and you know this went quite well. Go in shorter burst like people will set a goal like a yearly goal. polls, you know, and they’ll do like, let’s say, for example, if you if you and you’re not overweight, and let’s pretend that you’re overweight, and you say I’m gonna lose 50 pounds by December 31, okay, your subconscious mind is gonna go, absolutely no way, that’s not going to happen, you know, it’s going to start fighting you immediately, and you’re gonna fail because the goal is too big. But if you break it down into 90 day cycles, like, I call them 90 day growth cycles, which you and I get together every 90 days, we do this, right? If you break it down, and let’s say, if your goal was from January 1 through March 31, you’re gonna lose 12 pounds, okay? Well, your subconscious mind is gonna go, okay, I can do that. No big deal. But if you do that four quarters in a row, that’s 48 pounds, which is basically your 50 pounds, right? So what I would say a big, big secret is get super specific in very short amounts of time. And I would recommend, I’ve seen her work with way too many people 90 days cycles, okay, and then change, and go after that. The other thing would be, as you know, you’re not there’s 10 different life categories we go after we mostly go after business. But in the other areas of life, you need to be looking at those two, and you need to be well rounded. So it’s not just you can have a great business. But if you die of a heart attack, because you’re so out of shape, or if your wife or husband couldn’t have asked for a divorce, because you suck as a husband, then, you know, you should have been looking at that stuff, too. So having somebody that can walk you through that, I think is just super important.
Scott Ritzheimer
So good. Now, I’ve worked with enough coaches to know that coaches have a knack for spending a lot of time and energy on their clients and not quite as much time and energy on themselves and growing their own business. So I want to kind of pause for a moment, I want you to put your CEO hat on right CEO of elite coaching solutions, and share with us where the next minute or so what is the next phase of growth for you in your business look like?
Robert Mallon
I actually have a goal right here that I came up with, and I’m going to read it to you we’re doing this in July, by September 30, I have come up with an have begun to implement three solid ways to increase the number of group coaching clients that I have, so that I have more options in the future, I can maximize my hourly income and to keep the enjoyable lifestyle that we we have. So for right now, I love doing the group thing. I love the individual. But really, if you’re a coach, and you’re listening to this group, I learned this probably six or seven years ago, if you can have five or 10 people in the group, you can literally charge the same amount of money as you would if it was an individual, they get the benefit of the group. Is that not right scouting, so true, the group that you’re in, and you get a lot more income actually doing it that way. So that would be that’s a major thing that I’m working on right now. I just love the group aspect. Yes,
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, group coaching, mom’s phenomenal. I mean, the group that I’m in with your folks, actually in a couple, but we’ve been meeting for about four or five years now. Something like that. And the amount of change in my life over the last four to five years is no accident at all. My family’s growing. My health is night and day what it was. I started my own business, right, all of these different things. And I can I can draw every one of those back to one of the 90 day goals, probably more than one of the 90 day goals, but the 90 day goals that I set with you and and so I mean just to kind of pull all that together, it’s just so true, you’re talking about the 90 day goals. And the amount of transformation that can happen over that period of time is, is it’s phenomenal.
Robert Mallon
I think the neat part of that too with goals like you have five other guys in the group and we’ve all been together the same time. When you do that, especially with that they get to look into your life and into your business. So it’s not just me, you know, giving advice and stuff. Like I like to say all of us are smarter than one of us. I just love that. And so all of it together is just so much wisdom comes from having or being in a group like that.
Scott Ritzheimer
So good. I love it. All right, last question for you here. I know some of our listeners are sitting there saying like yes, like I want my business to be growing Yes. I don’t feel like I’m at my potential and want to Yes, I want the time freedom. There’s a whole reason I started this thing and now I’m spending all my time on my business and nothing on my life. How do folks get in touch with you? Where’s the best place they can find you?
Robert Mallon
I would say the best way. elitecoaching.solutions is my website and if you want to get in touch and talk 15 minutes or so, see if there’s a fit, ask questions. Go to [email protected]. There is no .com at the end. That’s her email address. That’s my assistant. She has told me for five years now if you touch the calendar, I’m gonna kill you. And Rebecca, she’s got everything planned out and everything she can get you in and take 15 minutes just get to know each other.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love it. Fantastic. Well, thank you. Alright, thanks for being on. Thanks for the fantastic contribution. You’ve made my life. I appreciate our friendship more than I can say. Thank you.
Contact Robert
Robert Mallon is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and leadership consultant based in Atlanta, GA. With over 30 years of business experience, he has won numerous awards for his management, leadership, and sales abilities.
Robert has always had a great passion for opening people and companies to their full potential.
You can find out more about Robert at https://elitecoaching.solutions or email his assistant to book a time with him [email protected].