The Hidden Mistakes Preventing You From Growing Your Coaching Business

Most coaches don’t actually have a time management problem—they have a decision-making problem. And if you don’t get a handle on it, your business will start running you instead of the other way around.

If you’ve ever said, “I need to get [X] done, but I just don’t have time”, this episode is for you. My guest, Scott Maderer, sees this all the time—coaches who sacrifice family time, skip meals, or take on last-minute clients because they feel like they have to. 

But the truth is, every time you say, “I have to”, you reinforce a false obligation that keeps you stuck.

In today’s episode, we’ll break down the hidden mistakes keeping you overworked and underpaid—and how to fix them so you can take back control of your coaching business.

By the End of This Episode, You'll Know:

✅ Why saying "I have to" is keeping you trapped—and what to say instead
✅ How to set boundaries with clients (without losing them)
✅ The simple mindset shift that will instantly free up your time
✅ Why your schedule isn’t the problem—your choices are

About Scott Maderer:
Scott helps business owners master their time, talent, and treasures so they can stop feeling stuck in reaction mode and start making intentional choices that move them forward. His expertise in productivity, financial stewardship, and decision-making helps coaches work smarter, not harder.

Connect with Scott:
🌎 Website: InspiredStewardship.com/CoachSmarter
📖 Book: Inspired Living
🎙 Podcast: Inspired Stewardship

🎧Check out my interview on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast

Next Episode Teaser:
On the next episode of Coach Smarter, we’re diving into how to grow your coaching business as an introvert. My guest, Stacey Chazin, shares practical strategies to help you network, market, and coach in a way that fits your strengths—without draining your energy. If traditional business advice has ever felt exhausting, hit follow so you don’t miss it!

Chapters

• 2:00 How Scott discovered that time management isn’t the real issue
• 4:03 The language shift that will completely change how you manage your time
• 6:11 The “I have to” trap and why it’s sabotaging your business growth
• 11:06 How setting client boundaries actually earns you more respect
• 17:10 Why most coaches overcomplicate their goals—and what to do instead

Transcript

Stephen Box: 0:00

Most coaches don't have a time management problem. They have a decision making problem. And if you don't get a handle on it, your business will start running you instead of the other way around. Think about it. How many times have you ever said, I need to get blank done. I just don't have time. My guest today sees this all the time. Coaches who sacrifice family time, skip meals, or take on last minute clients because they feel like they have to. But the truth is, every time you say, I have to, you're reinforcing a false obligation. And that is what's keeping you stuck. And that's exactly why I brought in Scott Maderer today. He helps business owners take control of their time, talent, and treasures, so they can stop feeling stuck in reaction mode, and start making intentional choices that actually move them forward. By the end of today's episode, you will know why saying, I have to, is ruining your ability to set boundaries and what to say instead. The mindset shift that makes it easier to walk away from low value tasks. And why clients actually respect you more when you hold your ground. Hey, if you are new around here, welcome to Coach Smarter brought to you by Unshakable Habits. This is the podcast that helps health. Fitness and nutrition coaches sharpen their skills, stand out in a crowded market, and build a more efficient coaching business. I am your host Stephen Box and today we're diving into why managing your time isn't the answer, managing your choices is. Scott works with business owners every day who think they have a time problem until they realize there's something much bigger. And I asked him how he first uncovered this connection. Here's what he had to say.

Scott Maderer: 1:51

So it grew over time. I actually started, when I was initially working with people as a coach myself, I was focused mainly on the financial realm because what I was discovering is the way people handled their money really wasn't about their money, it was about them. And then over time, I noticed that a lot of the techniques that I was using to help people with money also applied to the way that people dealt with their time. And so I began to expand and work with people in the productivity arena and in the financial area. And stewardship is something that's a very important word to me. I think I've said, I want to reclaim that word from what it often means in church, which is we're starting a building campaign, please donate. That's not what the word stewardship means. And yet that's what we've come to think of it as. And it's all about money and it's all about that. That's not what that word means. It's really about that relationship that you have with the resources that you've been blessed with. And so that's where the talent piece comes from because at the end of the day. I believe the way you handle your time and the way you handle your money is actually all about how you handle yourself and that's that talent component. So the joke is I really only coach on talent, but people come to me because they think they've got a problem with their time or their money. And then we work on the other thing.

Stephen Box: 3:11

Yeah, it's so funny how we have been taught by society. This external validation thing, If Oh, it's how you spend your time. it's, Oh, use this productivity technique or use this hack or, just get to this amount of money and everything will be fine. But the reality is. All of that starts with what you do. it's about how you use what you have to be successful in those areas, but all of the focus is on the external.

Scott Maderer: 3:43

and I would even put it a step further. When you think about the internal, it's not even about what you do. with what the resources you have. It's even how you think about the resources that you have. It's that's why I use the word relationship a lot. The relationship we have with money or the relationship we have with time. So as an example, I've seen folks that will, what do we say nowadays, right? How are you doing? What's the answer to that? It's either okay, which is really just a generic way of saying, please leave me alone right now. And the other answer is I'm busy. And everyone holds that as a badge of honor. And you were talking about productivity earlier. I distinguish between busy and productive as busy is just getting a lot of stuff done. Productive is actually getting done the stuff that matters. And I don't care if that's in your work life, it's where you're in personal life. That's what productive is. So people will say things like I'm too busy to go to my daughter's soccer game. And what I tell them is just change the language, change the way you're thinking about it. So instead of saying, I'm too busy to go to my daughter's soccer game, which by the way, if you said that most people will be like, Oh man, I understand. You're just so busy. It's too bad. Instead say out loud, it's not a priority for me to go to my daughter's soccer game. All of a sudden people are like, Oh, that feels bad. I don't want to feel, Ooh, I don't like that feeling. And guess what? You'll rearrange your schedule and you'll make it to the kid's soccer game. Because that, but that's the truth. When you say I'm too busy to do something, what you're really saying is this something, is it a priority for me? That's really what it is. And yet it's subtle and as small as that is of just changing the word you use. It makes a massive difference in how you think about and how you relate to those resources. By the way, the same thing works with money. it's not a priority for me to spend my money on fill in the blank. When you say that, it feels different when you're talking about how you spend your money.

Stephen Box: 5:42

A few things that popped up for me there as you were saying that. One is the old saying of, as a man thinketh, a man doeth.

Scott Maderer: 5:49

Mm hmm.

Stephen Box: 5:51

The other one was, I use something very similar to your, when you were saying it's not a priority for me. The one I use is, I'm choosing. So I'm choosing to not attend my child's soccer game, right? And it's the same thing as that gut punch. when you say it out loud, you're like, Ooh, yeah, that doesn't really feel it.

Scott Maderer: 6:12

Where I come into the word choice is, this is the other frame that people will use, right? I had to we use the language of I had to do this again. That shows up in money. I had to buy a new car. My ashtrays were full or, I had to buy a new car. I had a flat tire. we frame it in these weird ways with time. I had to stay late today. Because, otherwise I would have gotten fired. Really? and these sorts of framings. And I tell people the same thing with the word choice instead of had to. It removed the word I had to from your language. Instead, say I chose to. There's two reasons for that. One is it gives you agency and power. Because when you say I had to, you're giving up your agency, your ability to act, your ability to make a different, do something different. It just feels inevitable. I had to. And on the other hand, if you say I chose to, you're grabbing that agency. And then the second reason is exactly what you just said. when you start saying, I chose to, it feels different than I had to, I had to feels inevitable and you just, you're stuck there. Yeah. I had to work late. I chose to work late is wait a minute, is that really the best choice for me? I can do something different. And so it changes the way we, we relate to our, our actions and our beliefs and our relationship with those resources.

Stephen Box: 7:35

One of the things that I see a lot of times with coaches, especially when it comes to clients, is that I have to kind of mentality. I had to reschedule this client or I had to, allow them to do this because I had to skip lunch so that my client could have the special meeting time that they wanted. Yeah. Because there's a sense of obligation that this person's paying me. I have to help them. I have to do these things. And when you're saying it that way, you're going to get burnt out. You're going to feel like you are at the mercy of your clients. And that's going to start to build resentment. And you're not going to coach anyone well when you resent them, right? But at the same time, if you just change that language and say, I'm choosing to give this client this special time, or I'm choosing to skip out on these things, then at some point, if you decide you no longer want to do that, then you can say, I'm choosing to no longer. Allow people to make me skip lunch. I'm no longer, I'm choosing to no longer give up my lunch to coach somebody.

Scott Maderer: 8:43

Yeah. It is that ability of owning the decisions you make. And especially early on, newer coaches when they're first starting out. it's all about getting started. And so it's like any client is a good client, they're willing to pay me, I'm going to bend over backwards and make everything happen for them. And honestly, that's not all bad. that's, I get it. and I was there too. And I think all of us are, especially when we first start out, but as you begin to mature as a coach, or as your business begins to mature, it does come down to deciding. Deliberately, what are your boundaries? I meet with clients in the evening. That's not right for every coach. And if there's certain evenings that I block off and I don't meet with any clients because that's family time and things. I'm an empty nester. It's just my wife and I, it's different. if I had young kids at home and there was bedtime and those routines and all of those things. Now, all of a sudden that evening time becomes very important that I guard and I establish a boundary around it. So it's not even just doing it. It's realizing That a set of boundaries, those rules you're going to have, they're going to change, they're not the same today as they will be in six months or a year or five years or 10 years. And it's the recognition of that kind of relationship is dynamic over time, gives you that ability to do the agency and the choice and say, yes, this is what I'm choosing to do. Right now, but that doesn't mean I have to do it forever. you can pivot on the kinds of clients you serve. You can pivot on the times of day that you work. You can pivot on the locations that you're willing to do. All sorts of things can change over time, but it is important to actually do that with intentionality as opposed to what you're talking about, where it's all at the whim of the way the market is, somebody. Somebody says, Hey, I can only meet at this time. Okay. I'm just going to open up that time. You're not thinking about it. You're not being deliberate about it. You're not being in control of your own boundaries and what's important for you to have a healthy and good life and relationships outside of just that client coach relationship. that one's important. But other ones are equally or more important.

Stephen Box: 10:56

Such a great point, because I feel like, especially for newer coaches, this is such a struggle. Oh yeah. Is you were told all the time, when you start a business that you need to be available 24 seven and that you have to work yourself to the bone and all these hustle, it's all about the hustle. You've got to get things established. And yes, the reality is in the beginning, you are going to have to work way harder. You're going to have to put in more time. You're going to have more sacrifices. You're going to have fewer boundaries when you start, but that doesn't mean that you can't have boundaries. That doesn't mean that you just have to just be wide open and allow people to take advantage of you.

Scott Maderer: 11:44

I work with a lot of small businesses and all sorts of fields. And I'll give you an example. Email is a great one, right? Email invades our life 24 seven. I know people that they'll answer their work email at two in the morning. And I'm not just talking about coaches. I'm talking about anyone, just in business, they get up to, use the restroom in the middle of the night and boom, they're on their phone checking their work email, and answering emails. And I've told folks and I've worked with some high end salespeople and very competitive industries and got them to actually schedule, I'm going to only check my email three times a day. I have an hour or 45 minutes that I have set aside and put it in their email signature that, Hey, I check emails at these times. If it's an emergency, here's my phone number. You'll pick up the phone and call me and I'll deal with the emergency. If it's not an emergency, just send me the email and I'll get back to you at one of these three times. And salespeople especially are the worst about they're like, Oh, you can't do that. you've got to respond to your client right away. you'll lose the sale. And yet when I get them to actually follow through and do it, they don't actually lose sales. In fact, a lot of times they get more sales because now all of a sudden that client is going, wow, this person has, they have boundaries, they have expectations. They, it changes the relationship where even the client begins to look at the relationship differently. And they're like, Oh, the coach is a professional. They have hours. Guess what? So does your doctor, so does your lawyer. So does every other professional does. Why do we as coaches feel like what is good for other businesses and other people isn't good for us? Just blows my mind. And yet I've seen I'm with you. I've seen lots of coaches, especially brand new ones. But honestly, I've seen coaches been doing it 10 years and they're still running that way because they've never stopped to think about the fact that, wait a minute, you can change this.

Stephen Box: 13:35

I think one of the biggest things with that is communication. When you tell people up front what the expectations are, they're like, okay, cool. It's when you don't communicate and you don't set expectations that you get yourself in trouble. Because now people, especially in this day and age, they do expect a instant response. They do expect to have a response in 10 minutes. But if you tell someone, hey, I only check messages at this time, or even if you don't want to go that specific and you just say, Hey, I returned all emails within four hours or whatever, hours or 24 hours or whatever time period you check your email, like you're checking three times a day, a couple hours is probably sufficient, but if you actually tell people that you have that. limit, then they're okay with that because they go in knowing, oh, it's gonna be a couple of hours for I get a response. Cool.

Scott Maderer: 14:34

And you're right. 99 percent of the time it comes down to communicating. And if you're in a business, a W2 employee and you feel like, but my boss controls my time only to the extent that you let them, if you're as a coach and you're self employed, but maybe you still work a full time job and you're just coaching on the side. And so it feels like you have less control. You actually have a lot more control than you think if you establish those boundaries and those housekeeping rules. And then like you said, you communicate and proactively. when I'm back in the days when I worked corporate, I communicated up to my boss and said, here's what I'm doing, these are the times I'm available, here's the times I have blocked off to actually get the work done that you want me to get done, and if you want to interrupt that time, that's fine, but realize that means I'm not going to get this work done that you've given me. And you know what, they're like, Oh, okay. That's reasonable. they don't overreact client the same way. I had a client today that's Hey, the only time my wife and I can meet with you next week is this in this time slot, I know you normally block that off for lunch. Is there any way we could have 30 minutes of that time? Okay, yeah, I can make an exception for you. Let me do that. But it's not, they didn't come to it with the thing of, Oh, you have to do this for me. They came to it with the thing of, Look, I know I'm asking for an exception. Is that okay? because they knew that boundary and they knew that time wasn't normally available. And so they're asking, a favor almost. and again, I can choose to do it. I could have chosen to say, no, that time's not available. In this case, it was easy enough for me to just move lunch by 30 minutes. And, okay, not a big deal. I'm in control of my time. I can do that, but it's not. again, there's a boundary there. There's an expectation there and it was communicated. They knew it makes it easier to have that conversation in a much more productive way.

Stephen Box: 16:26

One of the things I wanted to touch on for a second here is, and it's related to what we're talking about right now, because we're talking about deciding, especially early on in your business, how you want to spend your time, what those boundaries need to be. So when we start talking about this idea, someone mastering their time, their talent and their treasures. I think this can also be a little overwhelming for people, especially in the beginning, because you're trying to learn so much stuff. And especially if you're coming from working for someone else and you're starting your own business, most of us, when we do that, have absolutely no idea what we are getting ourselves into and just how much work running a business is. So what is your advice for somebody when they're starting off? On how to figure out like where to focus your efforts first, how to figure out what works for you, what doesn't work for you, how to set out those boundaries, how to go about actually starting that process.

Scott Maderer: 17:23

Yeah, so first off, I'm going to say there is no magic wand. so there, there is no one system, one tool, one methodology, one whatever that works for everyone in every situation because we're all yes, we all have some core things that are similar in the same. And then yet at the same time, we're all unique. And so the phase of life you're in is going to affect that. Again, I talked about that earlier, having small kids at home changes the decisions you make. So what I tell people to do is step back and whether this is money, whether this is time, the framework is the same idea is first kind of design what you want it to look like. And this literally means sitting down and going. Okay. in three years, this is what I think my business should look like. I'd be, I'd like to be working with this many clients. I'd like to be making this much money. I'd like to have these sorts of time freedoms or flexibilities. Design it, create a map, create a destination. Cause the truth is until you have a destination, you can't develop a plan or a route, if you literally got in your car in the morning and looked at your phone, pulled up the GPS and said, take me anywhere. you're already there. it's like there is no anywhere. GPS actually works and this literally is how the technology works. When you put in the tech, the destination, it puts the point at the destination and then it works backwards to where you are to come up with the route. Now it just does that really quickly. And so we don't know that's what it's doing, but that's what it's doing. We have to do the same thing with our life. GPS. Yes. By creating a destination. Now, let me warn you of this, by the way, when you get there in three years or five years, it's not going to look exactly like what you had down on the plan. That's okay. It's going to evolve and change and move, but it's not really. The plan as in this all has to work exactly the way I think it's the plan in terms of you're putting something down that gives you a target to work towards and then as you begin to work towards it, you're going to get feedback that may let you go ahead and be intentional, make decisions and change and shift. And oh, you know what? I don't really like working with this client as much as I thought. I'd rather work with this kind of client or maybe something changes in your life like you have a kid when you didn't have a kid before. And oh, now it needs to look different. Okay. Whatever it is, it's that idea of creating that. That destination and then get back to where you're at and start as you think about what you're doing You're bouncing it against is that actually something that's moving me in that direction is working on this thing Whatever this thing is Moving me towards the place. I want to go If it is, okay, it's probably a good thing to spend some time and energy on. If it isn't, then it might be a distraction. It might be, there's a squirrel on the shelf behind me. It might be a squirrel that's pulling you off in a different direction. Might not be, but it could be. And so you want to think a little harder about, is this really something I want to spend some time and energy on? Now that is a dramatically Oversimplified step of what to do, because the truth is that right there can take a good amount of time and energy. And this again is where working with someone like Steven, working with someone like me, working with a coach or consultant, or even just finding a mentor, someone who's done it before who can sit down with you and ask you good questions and say, Okay. You think you've painted a really good picture, but tell me more about that. And then you're like, Oh, okay. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And you tell more. And it's great. Yeah. Yeah. That's a little better, but tell me more, and you go about five levels deep and now you finally really got the picture that you're after. It's difficult. It's simple to explain. It's not easy to do, and this is where a lot of times, pulling in, you'll be part of a mastermind. There's a lot of different ways you can do it. I'm a big proponent of there's not one way to solve it, but finding that community that can help you work through that, I think is really important.

Stephen Box: 21:36

Yeah, I actually, excuse me, I just posted an episode yesterday. It's at the top of our recording here about what I call the 108010 principle, and I think it encapsulates what you were just saying there. The first 10 percent of developing any skill is the hardest 10%. Because you generally don't know what you're doing. You're going to make a lot of mistakes. There's going to be a lot of adjustment and trying to figure out what you actually want to do. And most people never get past that 10%. It's so hard, but it's, it is the section you're going to have the greatest amount of growth in because It's just 10%, but you're getting to competence at the end of that 10%. Once you get to competence, now you can start to play with things. You can, you have a baseline to work off of, and you have this 80 percent growth period in which you're testing out new things and things are constantly changing. Like you said, it's not going to be the same in three years. It's going to be different. And that's why it's a constant growth period. And then the last 10 percent is mastery, which most people honestly are never going to need to get to. Unless you just want to be the top of your field. You don't even need to worry about the last 10%. Most of us are perfectly good just in that first 90%. But I see so many coaches that will give up in that first 10%. Because it is so hard. And failure is something that you're going to encounter very frequently in that first 10%. And a lot of people take that as this isn't working. So to your point, if you don't have that destination in mind, if you don't know what you're working toward, it is easy to feel like that failure is failure. And that it's just another spot, right? It's just a pinpoint in the map.

Scott Maderer: 23:33

And I think too, it's connecting that destination, not just to the practical things. I want to make this much money. I want to work with this many clients. I want to have this much time. But actually the emotion behind it too, why do you want to make that much money? why do you want to work with that kind of client? Why do you want to have that kind of time freedom? what's the emotional drivers behind it? I think a lot of times when we do goal setting, we leave out the emotion side. We think of it as a logic puzzle. Guess what? We're not purely logical beings. None of us are, Spock. actually that's the kind of the whole point is Spock wasn't even Spock, right? Spock's not completely logical. That's why that character is so popular is we all deal with that emotional side. And yet we try to leave that out and turn it into some sort of math equation or logic problem. And acknowledging the fact that there are emotional drivers is important because that's what gets you through that hard 10 percent is having a big enough reason. To push through and keep going to get connected to wait a minute This isn't just about quote starting a business. This isn't just about quitting my job Those sound like they're important and they could be but there's more to it than that Why do you want to quit your job? What is it about? You know having your own business that's important to you What is it going to mean to you? What is it going to change and how you look at yourself and how? You look at others and your relationships and your spiritual walk and your whatever, all of the different components of your life instead of just putting it in this really narrow little bucket and saying that right there, that's it. I just, if I make a hundred thousand dollars a year, it's all gravy. Guess what? There's nothing magic. That's just a number until you connect it to some sort of reason behind it. It's really hard to actually do the hard things and drive through to that 80 percent that you're talking about, or even more of that last 10 percent of mastery.

Stephen Box: 25:31

I think one of the things that I see people fall into the trap here of also is we go the wrong direction when it comes to those emotional goals. So for example, somebody might say, I want a seven figure business. You say, okay, why do you want a seven figure business? if I had a seven figure business, I'd be able to take my kids anywhere they wanted to go and buy them anything they want and help make sure they're getting to a good school and I'd be able to, do things for my spouse. And we'd be able to take all these trips and all this other stuff. And you go, okay, why is that stuff important to you? Why do you want to do those things? I want to be a good, mom or dad, and I want to be a good husband or wife or whatever. and you're going through and you're getting down to it. But then if we went the opposite direction and we said, okay, if your goal is to be the best parent, you can be, you're the best spouse that you can be. What does that look like? I'm going to guess that almost no one is going to say, I need to have a seven figure business. So we're going the complete opposite. we're deciding on a goal, I want to make a certain amount of money. And then we're justifying that goal by going, these are all the things that money would allow me to do. But we're not actually thinking about the person we want to become. We're just chasing after the goal, right?

Scott Maderer: 26:49

Yeah, there, I, there's an old joke, about the guy sitting on the beach fishing and, the businessman comes along to him and says, Hey, here you are spending all your days, just wasting your day fishing. why don't You know, buy a boat and then you can become a, own a fishing fleet and you can work up and become this massive businessman, running all these boats and I'm really shortening the joke and the guy goes, why would I want to do that? And he's once you've reached all of this success. Now you can sit on the beach and fish all day. And the guy's got to look at it. I'm like, yeah, that's what I'm already doing. that it's, is that idea of going, wait a minute, if time, for example, if time freedom is what you're after with your business, then are you setting up a business that actually gives you time freedom, or are you setting up a business where you're going to be. Sacrificing your time. If your goal is to be a good parent. Okay. What is being a good parent look like? a lot of times people will say things like, I want to be able to take my kid to school every day. I want to be able to pick them up every day. I want to be able to spend time with them. But then are you actually setting your business up to do that? And when you think about it that way, you, by the way, you could still have all of those things and a seven figure business. It's not that those two things are mutually exclusive. It's just a lot of times. If all you're focused on is the seven figure business, you're going to sacrifice a lot of other stuff. That's actually the stuff that you're after, unless like you're talking about, you do that hard work of going, wait a minute, not just what does it look like, I call it not as a figuring out what does it look like if it all works, but also what does it look like if it doesn't work, flip the. the coin over and look at the other side, think about what's the actual people will talk about. I want to be able to travel and then they'll set up their life where they can't, it's like, why are you doing that? because until I reach this other goal, I can't really travel. Is that actually true? So a lot of it is checking your assumptions as you go, because we'll have these assumptions built into the decisions we're making again. This is why plugging into other people and communities is so important. coaches working with masterminds, working with other folks, especially folks that are a little further along the journey that can look at you and go, wait a minute. Why do you believe that's true? Because what is it about the decisions you're making that you're built into it? An assumption of truth that a seven figure business is the only way to be a good parent. Is that a true assumption? Again, when I say that out loud, everybody looks at you and goes, no, I know some great parents that don't have a seven figure business. Okay. Then what else are you making assumptions about? What else could we do to look at it different? And again, that doesn't mean you don't have a seven figure business. But it does mean that the way you go about getting there and the choices you make and where else you spend your time and your energy and your resources is going to look different when you recognize that.

Stephen Box: 29:48

Yeah. And I think so much of that even comes down to realizing that there are two separate goals, but you've got to figure out how to merge them. So it's not, how do I create a seven figure business? It's how do I create a seven figure business that allows me to show up the way I want to show up as a parent?

Scott Maderer: 30:07

sometimes even making decisions about the trade off. It may be that, and what I mean by the trade off is if you can't come up with a way, to do both of those things. Okay, great. Which one's more important to you? what are you going? What's worth sacrificing for? The other thing, people make those decisions all the time without actually making them. they just do it by default, by living a certain way. It's why, for instance, certain industries have for high divorce rates, because by default, everyone in that industry or that group says, this is the only way you can. You can do this. This is the only way you can be a highly successful lawyer. You have to do these things. And guess what? If you go do those things, you're going to sacrifice your family or your kids and your wife and other things. And then they end up divorced. And they're like, how did this happen? It's because you thought into the assumptions that was the only way to do that. I actually know some folks that are very successful lawyers that didn't follow that route and still have a very balanced life and all of that kind of thing. But they did it by going, this seems to be the assumption that everyone's making. I'm just not going to buy into the assumption. I'm going to assume that there's a different way to do it. And now my job is to go figure it out. Again, easy to say, hard to do sometimes. But it does mean that you can go figure it out. You have that capability. A

Stephen Box: 31:28

perfect example is when I first, before I started coaching, I was working in retail management and I decided I needed to lose weight, get healthy. And I ended up losing 80 pounds over the course of 10 months. But the question that people always ask me is. how have you managed to keep the weight off? How have you not regained the weight? Because the statistics on people regaining the weight, especially within a five year window are staggering. And I always tell people it's had nothing to do with following a certain diet or exercise program or any of that stuff. It was because on day one, I made a decision that I didn't want to give up my favorite foods, and so I better figure out a way to lose weight while keeping those foods in my diet. And once I made that decision, it became easy for me to maintain it. Now, did it maybe take me a little longer to lose the weight? Did I maybe not get the super fast results that you see other people get? Where I can run around and tell people, I lost 50 pounds in three months or whatever, right? no, I don't get to do that because my results may be a little slower. It's still 10 months. It's not like it was five years, right? It took me 10 months to lose 80 pounds and I've kept it off for 14 years now.

Scott Maderer: 32:47

and again, that's the important part. Your goal was to figure out a way to do it where it's stuck around. Great. Somebody can say I lost 50 pounds in five months, but yeah, if you gain it all back in the next three, was that really your goal to lose 50 pounds in three months or was your goal to lose 50 pounds and keep 50 pounds off, and you're right, it sometimes changes the time it takes. It sometimes changes the methodologies you're going to use. I'll give you a different example. Bring it back to the coaching world. I've seen coaches say things like, my passion who I really want to work with is like high school students, but there's no way I can do that because high school students can't pay me. And so I can't feed my family. If I work with high school students, I'm like, can't you figure out a way that you can get paid? and work with high school students. Now, you may have to get real creative. you may have to partner with other organizations. You may have to go through the school system a different way and build those relationships. And yeah, the high school students aren't paying you, but their parents are, or the school is, or A nonprofit organization is or something you can get creative if you just step back and go, I'm assuming there's no possible way, that I could work with this population and get paid. I, we, I have a group of coaches right now that I work with that they're working with a homeless shelter. And working with the folks that are in recovery, trying to get into a home and they're working with them in the financial realm. And guess what? They're being paid as coaches. They're changing these people's lives. And at first glance, you would be like, wait a minute, this is the, this population doesn't have the ability to pay the coach. they don't, but there are partner organizations that do. And when they see the value that the coach is bringing, they're willing to bring the coach in and pay the coach's bill. So it's, Interesting how we make these closed minded assumptions. And by the way, if you're a coach, your clients do the same thing. So it's our ability to look at that and go, why is this true? let's run an experiment. Let's test something. let's push against it a little bit and figure out, is this actually a true assumption? Or is it just an assumption that everyone's made?

Stephen Box: 35:07

Yeah. I love that example, man, because that is such. A true thing where people get caught up in this is the path that I have to take. And when they do that, they limit themselves to so many other opportunities that could be right around the corner. So I definitely appreciate that insight there. Scott, before we wrap up here, if you could just let everyone know, who is the person that you actually serve? and what do you help them with and how would they go about contacting you?

Scott Maderer: 35:41

Sure, absolutely. So I work mainly with small business owners. And when I say small business, I really almost mean micro business. I tend to work with solopreneurs or maybe they have four or five employees or 1099 kind of contract kind of relationships. I'll occasionally work the business that's bigger than that, but I was in the corporate world for decades and quite frankly, I don't like having to work with a company where we have to schedule a meeting and then work on the next meeting so that we can have a meeting about having the meeting. I'd rather work with that small. Business owner who we can meet on Monday. They make a decision on Monday. They implement it on Tuesday and we're seeing results on Wednesday. And that tends to be the smaller folks that are starting out. a lot of them are in, all sorts of industries. I work with clients all over the world. At this point, I've worked with clients in 20 countries, 38 states. So I've been doing this since 2011. And that niche is really who I like to serve. And generally they're people that feel like either their time or their money is holding them back. they've started this thing. They know it's a passion. They know it's something they really want to do, but they're just not able to get the finances right, or they're not able to get their time right. And then I try to help them build the systems and the frameworks to get those things right. As far as getting ahold of me or learning more about what I do, I actually set up a page just for your listeners. If you go over to my website at inspiredstewardship. com, And then just forward slash coach smarter, all one word, no underscores, no dashes, just coach smarter. You'll be able to get some free resources over there. There's a place you could set up and jump on a call with me. You'll find out more about, I've actually got a book called Inspired Living that just came out last year that works on some of these areas. You'll find out about the book or my own podcast. Inspired Stewardship is over there as well. That's again at inspiredstewardship.com/coachsmarter. And that's a wrap on my conversation with Scott Maderer. If today's episode got you thinking, go check out his links in the show notes and connect with him. You'll find everything you need there. And by the way, just a quick note for you. I also had the opportunity to be on Scott's podcast too. So I'll put the link to that in the show notes as well, in case you want to If you're getting value from Coach Smarter, do me a quick favor and send this episode to another coach who needs to hear it. The best way to help more coaches work smarter, not harder, is to share what's working with them. So before we go, let's hit some quick key takeaways. Number one, if you keep saying, I don't have time, replace it with, it's not a priority. That one shift alone will change how you make decisions. Number two, drop, I have to, from your vocabulary. You didn't have to reschedule that client. You didn't have to skip lunch. You chose to. And when you own that choice, you can start making better ones. And number three, boundaries don't drive clients away. They make you a better coach. The right clients will respect them. The wrong ones. Well, you don't want them anyways. make sure you also join us on our next episode of Coach Smarter, where we're tackling something a lot of coaches struggle with. How to grow your business as an introvert. My guest, Stacy Chazin, is breaking down how to network, market, and coach in a way that works with your strengths. So if traditional business advice has ever felt exhausting, hit follow so you do not miss it. That's it for today. Thank you for joining me. This is Stephen Box reminding you that coaching smarter creates a lasting impact for you and those you serve.