Navigating Entrepreneurial Challenges with Coach Kyle Gillette

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rock Star podcast.

I am talking to Mr. Accountability today. We’re talking to Coach Kyle, and he’s with Blue Shirt Coaching. And how he helps people is he helps people to be more, do more, have more, and give more. Excited to be rocking out today with you, Kyle. Are you ready to rock?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, let’s do it, Tim. Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off here in a good note. So tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired

Kyle Gillette: by. Yeah, I had a, a family business approach me and say they wanted to double their business within the next couple of years that just the stated flat out, we want to double our business.

And that’s really exciting because it’s super clear and not everybody has clear goals. And so that makes them stumble. But this family was really clear. They’re a mom and pop place that have been around for, Geez, I think he was doing it was 16 and he’s almost 60, right? So they’ve been cleaning carpets for a long time and they want to retire.

And there’s a lot of things going on. I don’t want to [00:01:00] give too many details cause it might reveal who they are, but we started in the beginning of the year. And their business is now 30 percent bigger than it was at the beginning of the year. And so most of that is tied to being more efficient with their systems, being more efficient with their time and the way that they schedule appointments.

Uh, they’ve raised their prices just a little bit, but they’ve also done a lot. Referral requests, and they’re doing social media. Things are requesting more reviews. Uh, they’re doing some, some, uh, call follow up stuff, some online scheduling. All that is new to their business. And as a result, they’re, they’ve grown, like I said, that 30%, but it’s.

At a pace that they can manage, even when they’re in their fifties and they’re the only two that are doing anything. So now I’m convincing, uh, the, the gentleman that’s running the business to start considering just, maybe you should hire someone to help you with the physical side of things. And I’m working with him on the mindsets behind why it is that he resists [00:02:00] that so much.

And we had a bit of a breakthrough on the last call as well. So I’m really excited for them. And. Preparing them to help them retire is really rewarding for me as a coach. Cool.

Tim Melanson: Fun. You know, what’s interesting is that, uh, if I were to do a little statistic, I think about maybe three quarters of the people that I, if I were to ask them, what would you do differently if you started over again?

They would say I would delegate sooner. So isn’t it interesting that that seems to be, you know, a struggle for a lot of people, right?

Kyle Gillette: Yep. That’s my answer. If you were to ask me, I’d say the exact same thing. I’m doing it way better now, but I wasn’t a year and a half ago. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. But we, we seem to have blocks.

A lot of entrepreneurs have blocks. Do you have any insight into why we, we, we tend to have these blocks

Kyle Gillette: and delegating? Sure, I think a lot of times we don’t know what it is that we actually are doing, so we’re not truly aware of our systems and our own processes. So when we go and think about bringing someone else in, [00:03:00] we’re not even sure what we would actually hand to them because we haven’t dialed in our own processes to be able to say, okay, this is the procedure to when it comes to generating leads, or this is the procedure when it comes to our social media, or this is the procedure with X, Y, Z.

And since you don’t know that. Okay. It’s pretty intimidating to bring someone in and then just kind of fly by the seat of your pants to give them work to do. And if you do that, you don’t know what their return is going to be for your business. And so then why would you hire them? Cause you don’t know they’re actually going to give you that return.

That’s worth it to pay the payroll on them.

Tim Melanson: I’ll bet you there’s some people identifying with what

Kyle Gillette: you just said. Yeah,

Tim Melanson: it’s true. So if they are identifying with what you just said, then what is the next thing that you’d say to

Kyle Gillette: them? Yeah, so two things. One, if you want to test it out a little bit and do it for kind of an inexpensive approach, hire a virtual assistant just to play with it and see where your gaps are, you know, find a virtual assistant that’s very capable.

But if you hire them, [00:04:00] then, then the cost is way lower. They’re not actually going to be on payroll. And so then you get to test out your systems. They can give you feedback and you may keep them on board for less, less costs. But if that’s not possible for you, then I suggest my client spend 10 minutes a day at the beginning of the day, or at the end of the day, or better both documenting the processes that you went through in a particular.

Area, not all areas, but pick, pick an area, right? Let’s say it’s your financial side of your business. Spend 10 minutes at the end of the day, just documenting what you do on the financial side. When do you check, when do you check the payroll things? When do you, when you look at your revenue, when you look at your P and L, when you look at your cashflow and just document how you go about.

Doing that or your hiring process, whatever it is, pick one area, get it dialed in and then go to a new area, but spend 10 minutes a day. Everybody has 10 minutes a day to learn what, how you run your business and what the systems are.

Tim Melanson: And now just to bring something that we were talking to beforehand into play, you, you can [00:05:00] now just do a screen record and use some AI to, you know, transcribe it for you.

And boom, all of a sudden now you’ve got, you know, screen share videos with transcriptions of it, right?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, exactly. There’s, there’s no, that’s beautiful. I didn’t think of that. So there’s no reason to have to scribble it all out on paper. If you’re a talker like I am, it’s easier just to talk out your thoughts on how you do things and the AI will catch it for you and transcribe it even word for word, which is wonderful.

Yep.

Tim Melanson: And then you can run it back through the transcriber to tell it to rewrite it in a way that like reads better. Which, uh, I, I use that all the time. Like when I, when I do my videos, sometimes I’ll just get it. I’ll just run that transcription through the AI again. And cause it takes out all your arms and your eyes and your awkwardness.

Cause when you talk, it’s different than when you write.

Kyle Gillette: It’s true. Yeah, that’s good. You can, you could just plop it in there and if you want to maybe create a blog post out of it. So we’re kind of deviating a little bit from the. Procedural part. But if you have some [00:06:00] thoughts and you just want to share those thoughts that put it in AI and ask it to create a blog post out of your own thoughts, then it’s still original, but it’s created in a way that’s, that’s going to make you or allow you to save a bunch of time.

So like it right on,

Tim Melanson: right on. So no, Kyle, I’m not sure if, uh, if this happens to you, but sometimes things don’t go as planned in my business, there’s some bad notes here. I’m wondering, can you share with us one of the, the bad notes that you hit and how we can, you know, either avoid it or

Kyle Gillette: recover from it?

Yeah, in 2014, I decided my family, I decided we’re going to move up Pacific Northwest and be closer to my wife’s family. And the goal was to come up here. My wife’s a nurse or was a nurse and she could get a job easy. Right? So she did. She got a job easy. And that was great for our family, but I’m living with my in laws and not, I can’t find a job.

So I. I worked in a men’s mentoring program for 10 years prior. I had helped double the income of the business that supported the program. I’d managed 20 people at a time. I’d [00:07:00] run a pet resort. Like I, I have experience. I applied to 50 jobs, five, zero jobs before I got an interview. And when you’re sitting at your father in law’s house.

For four months, not generating any income, feeling like a loser, that teaches you a little bit about yourself and your persistence. And I definitely, I definitely felt like a failure at that, at that time. But it introduced me ultimately into a job in HR profession that opened the door to disc assessments, which opened the door to some income through workshops, which then made me go, Oh my gosh, I can make money doing this.

What if I coach people too? And then here I am. So that failure was. Substantial in my life for sure. And, and it really beat me up quite a bit, the confidence, uh, but it turned things around ultimately my life in a significant way. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: And, and that tends to be the thing is that, uh, the biggest breakthroughs you have usually come on the [00:08:00] heels of a really big

Kyle Gillette: failure, right?

Yeah, that’s true. The, I got another story as it relates to that for sure. The, the first ever workshop I did. So I love using disc as part of the process of coaching my clients. And that was the first thing I ever did. I, I, the organization I worked in had a hundred employees. And so I got to do disc assessments on every single one of them, hour long debriefs.

And so I got really good at understanding what a profile meant. And then I started doing workshops within the organization and then I branched out. And there’s, we’re a petroleum. Based area out here where people have that out here. And so there’s an organization that is an engineering petroleum engineering company, and I met the president and I was courageous enough to say, Hey, can I, can I do a workshop for your team?

And he said, sure. And so seven team members. I jump in, they do the assessments. I do the debriefs. They go swimmingly. Everything’s wonderful. And then it’s workshop day. I’m terrified. [00:09:00] Like, I’m wearing two shirts so that when I’m sweating, nobody knows, you know, I’m, I’m terrified of, of the day. Well, it got worse because I show up and I go into their conference room and it turns out 1 person is sick.

And so they’re in their office and they’re going to do the workshop from their phone. And then the 2 people that were supposed to come in from the. Other states, Alaska and Arizona, they couldn’t come in for whatever reasons. And so now it’s three people on the phone and four people in the actual conference room.

And I’m trying to do a workshop, right? So I get going. My PowerPoint doesn’t work. Of course, I can’t get it to connect. Finally, get it to go. 10 minutes in, I’m sweating, quite literally sweating, trying to wipe my brow. Everybody knows what’s really going on. So finally, the admin lady that’s part of the team, she starts answering some of my questions and giving feedback, and then an hour and a half later, it’s over.

I [00:10:00] survived. But it was a complete disaster, uh, because it just, there was no flow. It was a mess. The president of the company walked out with me to, to, um, just walk me into the parking lot. And he said, that was great. I really enjoyed that. I learned a ton and I’m going BS, you know, on my head. I’m like, yeah, right, dude, this was terrible.

Get into my car and I pull out of the parking lot and I went, that was terrible, but I loved it. At the same time. And that’s right. Then I was like, I’m sold. This is it for me. This is what I’m going to do. So that again, another failure that catapulted me forward in big ways. Wow.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. Yeah. It is interesting that, and this relates right to music too, that you can play a show and think that you just made so many mistakes and just be like, that was a terrible show.

And meanwhile, the reviews are glowing. It’s, it’s amazing how. People perceive you even though you’re perceiving yourself in a very bad way, right?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, and I think a lot of that’s our own mindset, because if we could synergize that, [00:11:00] if we could go in with that level of belief that they’re, that you’re going to be successful in that, in that concert, you’re going to be successful in that presentation, in my case, a workshop, there’s that tweaks your own approach.

And then it’s going to make it even more successful for the people that you’re leading or that you’re singing to. Right. But if you don’t, you’re actually depriving them of a better experience when we go in doubting, or when we go in thinking that, well, I’m not good enough for this crowd, or I’m not good enough for this, this audience of people I’m gonna speak to, we’re depriving them of a better performance or a better workshop, and that’s a disservice to them.

And obviously to yourself. So. You know, the simple answer is picture it picture the success of it in your mind before you even do the performance or do the speech. And you’re likely going to have a different experience, a different result for yourself and for them. Yeah. Well, and

Tim Melanson: also I think that you are comparing your presentation to the best version of your presentation [00:12:00] in your mind.

And you’re like, it didn’t go that way. You know, it was supposed to go this way. It went this way. Regardless of that, as long as you know your topic, I mean, as long as you, you know, you know the song, well, then they’re not going to know the difference because they didn’t see that best version of the presentation that you could have done.

They saw the version that you did, and it was still just as valuable, right?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, I’m in, I’m in Toastmasters and often, well, they, every time when you give a speech, you’re given a timeline, you know, four to six minutes, five to seven minutes. And I’ll go in with way too much content sometimes I’ve, I’ve gotten way better about it, but I’ll go in with too much content.

What people don’t know is that I have five bullet points, but I only shared three. And I think that’s what we need to realize that people don’t know what you, what was going to happen. It’s in your head. And so if you just let that ride, it’s not that big a deal because they have no clue. Yeah, I would agree

Tim Melanson: a hundred percent.

And same thing with playing a show. You might [00:13:00] have a set list with this many songs. You do the ones that felt right to you at that moment. Yeah. Which is probably what you do, right? You, you have all this content. How do you choose which content to do? Probably the stuff that was resonating,

Kyle Gillette: right? Yeah. Yeah.

When it’s kind of an intuitive moment too, right? You’re going, Hmm, no, that’s the song to play. Oh, that’s what the audience needs to hear. So that’s what I’m going to share.

Tim Melanson: Absolutely. So let’s talk a little bit about practicing and getting good at what you do. Like, so you, I mean, you’re doing presentations.

How do you. How do you tune it up? How do you get ready for this thing?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, there’s, you know, three parts, right? So there’s, there’s the intro, we’re going to talk music in order to talk messages. Right? So there’s the intro and that has to hook. If you don’t hook with your intro, whether you’re selling something, whether you’re marketing something on your website, whether you’re, you’re giving a speech or workshop, if you don’t hook on the intro, it’s over like.

People are tuning out and you need, you have three seconds to do it. So you got it, you got to nail that. And then you got to continue to nail it every seven seconds. I think is what the [00:14:00] statistics show. You get the intro done. And then the next thing is get the conclusion done. And I am skipping the body on purpose.

What’s the conclusion. What are you going to do to make sure it sticks, right? You get their attention with the intro and then how you’re going to get it to stick with the conclusion that wraps everything back together. So it makes it sing. If you will, if you get those two, the body’s easy. Because those two are dialed the, the, the body of, or yeah, the, the main part of the music or the presentation or whatever, or the sale, whatever it is, that’s going to be dialed on the sales side of things.

Very practically, one of the things that I recently learned was don’t end on the cost and on the value. What’s the great value end on possibility. And when I, my conclusion in my, in my, uh, sales presentations for coaching became the possibilities. What are the possibilities? If you work with me, what are the possibilities?

If you hire me to work with your organization, instead of it costs X dollars to work with me. That’s, that’s [00:15:00] just like crappy ending. That that’s not very motivational. That conclusion shifted the way I did my body, if you will, you know, shifted the way I did the middle of the conversation. So that, that would just be a approach that I think has been fairly helpful for me.

Tim Melanson: Love it. And then in the music world, yeah. I mean, y’all, we started off on a song that, you know, extremely well. So that you’re not going to be making mistakes. And, and, and especially in the beginning, like I’ve always found in the beginning of a show, there’s a lot of weird distractions going on. You know, you’re just getting started.

So people are going to be like, maybe finishing conversations and walking around. Like, so it’s a little distracting. So you got to make sure, you know, what you’re doing in that intro, right? And then the same thing with the outro with the, with the last song, you’re, you’re not going to play the song that you just learned this morning.

You’re going to play something that’s huge and everybody knows and everybody’s singing along so that you can walk away from that going like, all right, I’m done. Right. So it sounds similar to

Kyle Gillette: what you do too. Yeah, I [00:16:00] think the equivalent to, to give a real practical idea here, the equivalent would be the intro starting it when you’re doing a sales presentation or you’re, um, you’re trying to start a meeting and get everybody’s attention.

Um, you started with a question. Open ended question that’s related to the topic that you’re going to be focused on that, that basically hijacks the mind of the people that you’re working with. Right? They can’t help, but hear that question. Their mind has to go down that path because that’s the way it works.

And then if you end with the same concept of a question, maybe the same question you asked at the beginning, but now they have a much better answer because of what you did in the, in your presentation or your conversation, then that’s a great way to conclude to. So very practically. What’s a great question you can ask of your audience.

And I’m sure you could do that in musical form too, right? There’s probably a beautiful way to do that in musical form that I don’t understand, but you probably could do it.

Marc Mawhinney: Hi, it’s Mark Mawinney from Natural Born [00:17:00] Coaches. And I want to give two very big thumbs up to Tim Melanson and his creative crew agency.

I have been using them for a long time and I am 100 percent happy. They get the job done right. They’re fast, and they let me focus on my business. I don’t have to worry about anything. So again, I want to give them two very big thumbs up. I have no problem recommending them. I don’t give testimonials for everyone because my name is attached to it, but I gladly do so for Tim and the Creative Crew Agency.

So use them. You won’t regret it, and good luck.

Tim Melanson: I’ll probably have to think about that, yeah. Uh, how do you start with a question, eh? It’s a good thought, though. And I do know that that starting off with a question is a great way. I mean, I do that even when on websites, you know, the you have to have a question, you know, very, very quickly, because that’s, that’s what you’re trying to connect with.

You’re trying to figure out if you can get into their heads,

Kyle Gillette: right? Yeah, I mean, my website literally says, [00:18:00] what would you do with 20 percent more courage? What would you do with 20 percent more confidence? What would you do with 20 percent more freedom? So it just says that and it flashes through confidence, freedom, and courage.

Um, so I want people to know that if you work with me, I’m going to be asking you questions that really challenge your thinking, but at the same time, we’ll move you forward if you just take a moment to consider the question. Uh, and so just going to my website, you get value, cheap pitch there.

Tim Melanson: Perfect. So we talked a little bit about AI earlier, but is there any other tools?

Well, what tools are you using to, uh, to get success in your business?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah. Uh, the two primary tools that I use. Let’s see 3, the 3 primary tools that I use that are like indispensable to me, uh, obviously Google. And I need to use, you know, the calendar that that’s 1 of them. Another 1 is, uh, Calendly. So Calendly is huge for me because I use it a lot to automate conversations with people to automate starting of conversations.

And when I had my podcast, all I did was send them that link and it took them [00:19:00] through everything and anything they needed to know and prepared me 100 percent for my shows. And that, that saved me loads of time. And I do the same with like, um, what do you call them? Uh, consult, free consultations. Right. And then free net or not free when networking, but networking conversations, just it, that really helps.

But the one that I want to camp on is Todoist. Have you heard of Todoist, Tim? No, I haven’t. Okay. So to do is sounds like a to do list, right? Cause that’s what it is. And it’s primarily for the solopreneur. You can do it with teams and my wife and I exchange, um, you know, assignments and stuff with each other on there, but it’s really primarily for the solopreneur, at least in my opinion.

And it’s, it’s an app that allows you to. To create projects or the things that you’re focusing on your business and put in the things you want to get done and give them due dates, give them reoccurring things, add comments. I mean, I even use it as my CRM because you can, you can have it, have a view like CRMs have.

And so I put the people’s name in there, the link to their [00:20:00] profiles and comments about our last conversations, et cetera, et cetera. So it’s really powerful and. I wish I could just show everybody on here how it works, but what I, the way I use it is for my whole life and I’ve broken it down into areas of life.

So I’ve got my, my, um, you know, business or vocational, I’ve got emotional, spiritual, financial. Uh, physical, and then why am I forgetting some, uh, relational, right? So each of those areas serves as a kind of a catchall for those areas of life, of the things that I want to get done. And so that’s been really tremendously helpful for me.

Um, I could not run my business at the level that I am, if I did not have that tool, there’s no way.

Tim Melanson: Okay. Well, I’m going to have to check out that tool specifically. And, and I mean, we all need something. That’s going to, you know, help us with our, with our task lists. Right. Um, I know I use monday. com is, is the one I use, but, uh, but I mean, [00:21:00] uh, to do this, I’m going to have to check that out because, uh, I know there’s a lot of people that are, uh, solopreneurs on the show.

So, uh, I know Monday works really well with teams, but, uh, it’d be cool to have a, you know, a tool that works better for solopreneurs

Kyle Gillette: for sure. Yeah, and I think the main thing, no matter what tool you end up using, because there’s a lot of options out there for that type of tool, like a to do a site tool.

It’s, if it can serve as like a second brain for you, in other words, if the tasks that you plan ahead, if you’re creating these goals and you put in the plan for those goals, so you can accomplish it and you put due dates on it, and then the system just reminds you for you, yeah, helps you build habits, then it’s worth it if, if.

For you, it becomes more of a burden of, okay, great. Now I just have to write down the tasks that I need to do or not write down, but type in the tasks I need to do, then it’s not worth it. It’s not, but when you use it more as a reoccurring task type tool and a goal setting type tool, [00:22:00] it’s the value of it is, you know, it’s invaluable or priceless.

Yep.

Tim Melanson: I’m 100 percent on board with that. The, the recurring stuff is, is what I use the most, you know, it’s just your to do list and you can set it up for each day of the week as well. Um, but another thing I want to touch on. So you mentioned, uh, all these areas of your life that you’re focusing on and, uh, you know, you mentioned spiritual and you just mentioned relational.

How important is it to have all that dialed in as a business owner? Thank Oh,

Kyle Gillette: yeah. Top, top of the list, right? And it’s top of the list because you’re going to bring your personal into the business and you’re going to bring your business into the personal. And so if you don’t have a good pulse on what’s going on in all those areas of your life, then you’re going to be out of balance.

And I’m not here to preach balance. Like you need to have 50, 50. No, I’m not saying that you’re just going to be out of balance in your own ways. And that’s going to. Limit your productivity. That’s going to limit your success in both, both areas. [00:23:00] So I’ve, I’ve addressed this for years now, intentionally in my business and in my life, and there’s two, there’s two primary ways that I do it.

I journal every single day. And I use 2 different journals. I do a gratitude journal towards my wife and kids. I write down 1, at least 1 thing I’m grateful for for each of them every single day. So that I’m so I’m focused on the things that are good instead of focused on the things that frustrate me or annoy me about the relationships.

I’m in specifically my family. And then the other journal is just essentially the things that are on my mind that I want to let go of and put down and just release. And for me, often that’s a spiritual exercise because I’m saying, God, I trust you with this and I’m going to release it and give it to him to take care of.

Right? So those are the two journals. And then Saturdays I do review where I’m reviewing my week, I’m reviewing my goals. I’m reviewing my vision and my values and making sure that I’m locked in on all that. And then there’s [00:24:00] a third part to that, which is something called a MOLO. Have you ever heard of a, of a MOLO, that acronym before?

So I do, I do a MOLO, which stands for more of less of, and yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. So every Saturday I’m. Usually on the couch and I’m sitting there going, okay, what, what’s the one topic I want to focus on? All right. So I picked that one niche or nuanced topic and I go, what should I do more of? What should I do less of?

What should I keep doing? What should I start doing? What should I stop doing? Doing that. I’ve been doing that for years and having, first of all, digital record of that. So I can look back and then having that as a way. Uh, but part of my review on Saturdays has been really, really helpful for me. Cause it’s like its own coach for me that those questions serve as a coach.

And it’s, it’s a wonderful way to end your week, to be reflective, but also to press forward into the next week. Wow.

Tim Melanson: And it’s, this is so important. [00:25:00] However, I think that a lot of people think it’s counterintuitive because they think, okay, I need to increase my sales. So you kind of push on that area, right?

Try to increase the sales. But meanwhile, you know, you don’t have any balance in any other parts of your life. And so, you know, this is not the first time that I’m sure that someone who’s listening to this has heard this. But sometimes the best way to move forward is to focus on your life as a whole.

Sometimes it’s better to take a break. Hey, sometimes it’s better to spend some time in nature. Sometimes it’s better to spend some time with your family that can actually lead to more sales, can’t it?

Kyle Gillette: Or a hundred percent. Yeah. I have a client right now that’s struggling with, he’s really demotivated because his, his work isn’t rewarding him as much as much as he wants it to.

Right. So he’s not getting the sales as quickly as he thinks he can. And I know that he can. And so. That’s real frustrating for him. And so his level of motivation is just tanked. And so he sent me a text [00:26:00] message last week about that. And I took a whole day to think about how do I want to respond to him?

Because we don’t have a coaching call until I think later this week. And, but I wanted to respond to him, but I didn’t want to give him some flippant answer. And so I, I took a day, thought about it, and then I responded. And I said to him, what, what is one little tiny. Thing you can do 1 little step that you can take that you don’t normally take what’s the little tiny thing that will move you forward.

What is that thing? Right? So that’s that’s pretty straightforward. Typically, that’s pretty easy to figure out. What’s that little thing? Because that’s the beginning of the momentum, right? That’s that spark. And so I wanted to help him get a spark. And then I said. Now I want you to think real big picture, and I want you to think about something that you can do.

That’s adventurous. What’s something that’s outside of your norm? That’s really adventurous. And I said to him, because I want you to get perspective, right? Do something adventurous, maybe physical. That’s different than you do usually and give yourself some [00:27:00] adventure and some perspective because perspective often is what we need to get our motivation back.

And then that helps us. Thanks. Get back to purpose and get back to vision and all that. But we need to get out of our norm in order to get there. So maybe you do need to jump out of an airplane to get perspective, for example, quite literally to get perspective, or whatever thing fits you, that’s going to push you to help get perspective.

So, um, that’s, that’s what I suggested to him. So I’m excited to hear what ended up doing to get back on the path.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Awesome. Okay. So now let’s talk a little bit about keeping the hat full and making sure that your cashflow is positive. Uh, do you have any tips and strategies on that? Cause it, you know, it can get away from you.

Can’t it?

Kyle Gillette: Oh yeah, it did for me in the beginning of the year. I, from four months, I just could not create clients. It was driving me nuts. I couldn’t figure it out. And in retrospect, I had to rebrand. So part of it was that, but it was also, I don’t think I was doing the smart things. Um, and so [00:28:00] for me and my business, I need to create conversations because when I create conversations, I create clients.

And how do I do that? I’m posting on social, I’m posting on LinkedIn, which I see as something different than social, it’s like a different animal altogether. And whenever people engage with me on there, I reach out to them directly. You know, if you like something of mine, I’m going to figure out who liked it.

And I’m going to reach out and say, Hey, what were your thoughts on, on my post? I appreciate that you, that you liked it. And then. If I get follow up from them, then I’ll continue to follow up with them, right? And if I don’t, then I might tag them again or nudge them again. And it’s, it’s just being on top of those things.

And as soon as. I reach out to someone because they, cause they commented or liked something. I add them to my CRM and I put them on a drip and it’s not an automatic drip. It’s, it’s, it’s a reminder from my to do list that says, Hey, you reached out to this person about X, Y, Z in seven [00:29:00] days, reach out to them again.

If you don’t hear from them, right. That’s basically what, what the flow is and that’s been really helpful. And then secondly, I offered to do consultations for free, like. If you’re going to hire me to do coaching, I want you to get a taste and I’m going to knock it. I’m going to knock it out of the park.

So you get that taste and then it’s easy for them to say yes to me. So those are, there’s a bunch of other ways, of course, because there’s in person stuff that I’m doing, but when it comes to social, that’s, that’s what I’m finding is working for me and successful. But you can’t get a sale unless you ask for the sale.

So, and they got to know I can trust you to get there. And so that’s, that’s been my path. That’s been pretty successful.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah. You’re very systems driven,

Kyle Gillette: aren’t you? Yeah, because that’s what, that’s what allows me to be available 100 percent to my clients when I’m working with them, because otherwise I’d be stressed by all the stuff that’s going on in my business.

That’s not dialed in and then I’m not with them. I’m not [00:30:00] present to be of most or best service to them. And I’ve gone through seasons, of course, where that’s true, or I’m not dialed in, but then I fix that and continue to up level. The quality of service I provide, but also the quality of systems that my business has.

Yeah. And you have to

Tim Melanson: keep that in mind too, that things are going to kind of go up and down. Maybe you might be all dialed in and then, and then all of a sudden you’re not. And that’s okay. Right. Cause it happens to everybody. I assume. Right.

Kyle Gillette: Yeah, a hundred percent. And that’s where you have to have grace for yourself and like forgiveness and go, you know what?

I ain’t perfect. I do not have it all figured out. That’s for darn sure. But this little dip is, is a beautiful thing, right? It’s like when you feel like an imposter to me, that’s a beautiful thing because it says something is out of whack and you’re feeling like a fake, which probably means that you’re stretching yourself.

So that’s a wonderful thing. And if my systems get out of whack, that’s a wonderful thing too, because it means that this is a moment for me to go. What can I shift here to make things better? So both [00:31:00] of those are really positive feedback. If you look at them that way.

Tim Melanson: Love it. So it’s time for your guest solo.

So what’s exciting in your business right now?

Kyle Gillette: Yeah. So I have this guy right here that got delivered to my door yesterday. Uh, so I’m publishing a book called right now leadership. It’s on sale right now. And, uh, it’s going to be available October 17th for people to actually get it in their hands. The book is about the things that I’ve been talking about, but my business name is blue shirt leadership, and we haven’t really mentioned what, what blue is and blue is actually an acronym that stands for four things.

And I can, I’ll go through this briefly, but it’s be a self aware leader, lead with accountability, use a growth mindset and empower others. So this book walks through those four pillars and the mindsets and habits to help you. Embody those four pillars of great leaders. And just like you’ve been hearing me on this episode, the book is very much like I’m [00:32:00] talking practical, a little bit of story, a little bit of metaphor and right to the, to the meat of what’s valuable.

And so I’ve written the book like that because. That’s what I want from a business book, give me, give me the steps, give me the process. So I can immediately apply it and use it and let it be beneficial. So I wrote it that way. Um, yeah, so that’s, that’s, what’s exciting right now. What’s going on with me.

People can get it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and all those retailers.

Tim Melanson: That’s amazing. Like in mid-October then, right?

Kyle Gillette: Yep. You can pre-order now, and if you do pre-order, now I’m giving away the ebook for free so people can get it. Uh, the ebook right now, all they gotta do is, uh, show, just send me a receipt, basically email me a screenshot of the receipt and then I’ll email them back their, uh, ebook of the, of the book.

So,

Tim Melanson: So how do we, how do we, so this is on Amazon, all the majors, uh, places. Do you have a website that they can go to

Kyle Gillette: too, or Yep. Go to blue shirt coaching. com slash book. And it’s in the menu as well, [00:33:00] but blue shirt coaching. com slash book. And there’s, there’s. All six of the retailers that you can purchase it from.

So who,

Tim Melanson: who would be the, you know, the person who would get the most value out of reading your book?

Kyle Gillette: Sure. Yeah. Purpose driven business owners. So people that are going, you know what, my business is here to help my families to, to make a difference in, in my financial situation. But I’m also here to make a difference for my customers and my clients.

I’m here to make a difference in my community. Uh, legacy minded people are also a great fit where, where they see their businesses more than just a means to an end to get a vacation. Yes. I want your business to get you a vacation, but you also recognize that there’s value in what you do be on just the dollars and cents.

Those are the great fit for my book because they get it.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Right on. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Kyle. This has been a lot

Kyle Gillette: of fun. Yeah. Thank you, Tim. I appreciate it. Cool.

Tim Melanson: To the listeners. Make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment. [00:34:00] We’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar

Kyle Gillette: podcast.

Thanks for listening to learn how you can become a work at home rockstar or become a better one. Head on over to work at home rockstar. com today.