Kim Ades, President at Frame of Mind Coaching™ & JournalEngine™ Software
Kim Ades is the President and Founder of Frame of Mind Coaching™ and JournalEngine™ Software. Author, speaker, entrepreneur, coach, and mother of five, Kim is recognized as one of North America's foremost experts on performance through thought mastery. Using her unique philosophy and quirky coaching style, Kim helps her clients shift their thinking in order to yield extraordinary results and personal transformation. She is also a featured speaker for many entrepreneur and executive level organizations.
Kim designed the Frame of Mind Coaching™ program to provide her clients with a powerful infrastructure where they could develop the skill of deliberate thought. She understands that the single greatest difference between those people who are stratospherically successful and everyone else is their thinking. She knows that we all have the propensity to shift our thinking and achieve success.
kim@frameofmindcoaching.com
http://frameofmindcoaching.com
Complimentary Coaching Call: http://frameofmindcoaching.com
AUTOMATED EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:01] You're listening to Scaling Up Services where we speak with entrepreneurs authors business experts and thought leaders to give you the knowledge and insights you need to scale your service based business faster and easier. And now here is your host Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt..
[00:00:21] Welcome everyone. Services resentful when your host today my guest is Kim Kim is president and founder of free coaching career journal interns. Where would you go to hear a little bit more about my coach at various times in history so you always know you mean I know each other for a while and I really said it in the program she is great coach as well. Great ideas as you and you agree journey and I'm really excited about the conversation. Kim welcome to the program.
[00:00:49] Thank you. I'm super excited to have this conversation with you. I've been eager for a while just a little.
[00:00:57] It is a little bit more about you professional background about Friedman's journalism. Are you just going to tell your story. What what has been your journey.
[00:01:06] Ok so I mean I run this coaching company called my coaching. We have a team of 10 coaches plus me. I started it about 14 14 years ago. And when I first started it it was just me and the idea was I think I could do a better job of coaching than what exists out there. Let me give it a try. And when I first started I thought how do I really truly make a difference in people's lives. I thought what I really wanted to do was get into their heads and understand how they think and how their thinking impacts everything they do everything they don't do everything that they want to build in their lives their relationships their career their financial situation. How do I get in there and really understand how they're wired. So I decided from the get go to ask them to start journaling in an online journal and at the time like first of all I'm not a technical person. So we use this you know you've heard of bloggers just on blogging software and I didn't know how to put it together so I had to hire someone to help me make it happen. And I started coaching people. And what I shortly realized soon thereafter is that journaling was really paramount to the impact that I could have in coaching. So I started seeing that when people write their stories they tell you what's going on in their brains. They tell you their beliefs they share with you their perspectives their values. They open up in ways that I've never seen before in any other format. The problem is after maybe I don't know nine months of using blogger. I was coaching this one gentleman and his wife who is fairly technical hacked into his journal and read his journal
[00:02:51] And the journal happened to mention her and say some pretty ugly things about his wife. And when he told me my wife read my journal I had a heart attack. Like I literally my heart went into my stomach and I was not feeling well that day. And I thought this can't be like it just this can never happen again. And that's when I decided to build a piece of software called journal engine that was designed to allow people to journal in a very safe and secure bulletproof environment. So we built the software and again the trigger for that was how do we make sure that our clients and their content and their personal thoughts dreams whatever fears are completely and utterly protected and safe. That's how the journey started and slowly over time we start coaching more people more executives more entrepreneurs more people. And at one point early on in the game I coached this one gentleman actually I think you know him. His name is Dave and and let me back up. I coached groups at first.
[00:03:56] Why did I do. Because I thought to myself What are we going to talk about for a whole hour. Right.
[00:04:03] If I could coach a group and everyone talks for five minutes then the hour will pass and then one day I came across this guy named Dave Dave Goram and he said I want you to coach me one on one. And inside I was a little nervous because what are we going to talk about a whole hour now. Right.
[00:04:22] But I agreed to coach him and he was knocked off his feet. He loved it so much he kept he kept saying I hate you I hate you. And the reason he hated me was because were really making an important impact. Right like he was seeing himself in ways that he had never seen himself before. So after that you know he said I'm really interested in learning more what's the next step. And I said well why don't you kind of follow me around. Why don't you coach Coach something's with me I'm still coaching groups why didn't you coach a group with me. And what he did was he shadowed me and basically I trained him how to coach because at the time like I didn't know I was just kind of a system that really I didn't know how I knew how to coach. I just knew how to coach. If that makes any sense the moment you have to teach someone how to coach is the moment you have a system. Right. Very interesting. And so he became the first component of building a system of training people how to coach these two pieces of news there I think really is the start of a general engine and a little bit because I think that's a whole area of how you develop into actual property and I'm sure there's a whole story and there's a whole story and things you can learn there.
[00:05:37] But I think the interesting thing for me just from a business point of view from a strategy point of view is this whole idea of introducing its own idea of journalling before you know for you is very much a tool to better coaching. But it also becomes an differentiator at some point you know in terms of you know going into this coaching market with lots of different coaches. How much do you feel like the Germany side of it served it as a way of Klinge your prospects. Differentiate you from other types of coaches out there. How much of it was just a tool that you were using to do the coaching that you were doing.
[00:06:12] Yes so that's a very interesting question. The Journal created a process right. What did the Journal actually do. The Journal definitely allowed us to be more equipped to coach more effectively and have a much much greater impact. So that's number one. So hands down I don't understand how coaches coach without a journal but that's a whole other story. So number one we were better coaches because we were using journalling number two is because the clients are journalling every single day. We established a whole different kind of relationship with those clients. It was a much more intimate. It was much more personal. When you talk to anybody every day that relationship builds and my philosophy is without the relationship it's really hard to make a dent in anybody's life. So relationship is paramount to coaching. Number three. Number three and this is really important is that when clients start to journal they start to reflect they start to look at themselves. They start to do the heavy lifting the work that's required to change right. So you can journal by yourself when you do it with a guide you're accelerating your pace.
[00:07:19] So by itself journaling has a massive massive impact. And so it it really helped us to describe the philosophy the approach. So your question is was it a differentiator in and of itself it wasn't the differentiator. What it did for us created the differentiation what it did for us was say hey here's our approach to coaching which is different from accountability based coaching for example. More a kind of coaching you do which is a business strategy. That type of coaching. So you're able to say we are a different kind of coach. But and here's the process and here's why this process works. So I think that a lot of times when a client comes to the table they want to know if they're in good hands. So when you have a process in your place that's backed. Up by testimonial testimonial testimonial and it's backed up by logic. And. The totally not only intellectually make sense but it resonates for me. At a purely emotional level. That's what makes a client say yes I feel like this is going to make a big huge difference in my life.
[00:08:22] So it's a combination of things really and quite a lot of this before but there's an element of leverage here too.
[00:08:29] So it's it's not just the time you're spending. You don't want to call with the client but it's the time they're spending with the software with the Journal. Now your impact is much broader or much more leverage you have a lot more and essentially time with the client because they're interacting with the journal which is essentially interacting with you in a way. So you're more present in the process without having to literally spend the time in it. So there's this letter ideas quite interesting well.
[00:08:55] So they're spending time with you by journaling about when your coaches are super well-equipped to deal with those journals. Now you have groundbreaking territory. And I like now your impact is to me on a whole other level.
[00:09:12] Believe me I was serious about is to what extent did it kind of make clear to you who you really wanted to coach or you can coach well or what you know what your target was because I think a lot of times in the early early businesses in the service businesses there's a little bit of a chasing money problem like everyone's going to going out just wanting employees who are willing to pay and then we'll just kind of figure out who adopters Services whatever they want to do. Did you see I guess a place in what way did you start to see hey these are going to be good clients. These are not so good clients.
[00:09:44] You actually were able to start reading them out or filtering them through the process. You've got people that you knew going to more in Berkeley.
[00:09:52] Yeah that's a great question. So I'll be honest and say it took us way too long to figure that out. You have. Why. Because we felt like we were impacting all the clients and we saw the impact it was dramatic right. So we all like let's just coach people and how and how would we coach people you know how would we get our clients in the early days I'd be on every single podcast known to man you know. And so those podcasts with drive leads those leads would turn into sales but we saw that there's a difference between clients and so we started to say who is our ideal client not only the client who does the work who gets in it does the journalling and is completely committed to the process. But the climate then stands on the rooftops and shares it with everybody else. Right. The client who partners with us and understands that this is not just a short journey that they're on this is a lifetime journey and I don't mean from the perspective of being a client but from the perspective of committing themselves to personal development from here on it.
[00:10:52] So it was a certain character certain personality. What we discovered was that the best clients were those that were extremely driven happen a lot of them happen to be entrepreneurs executives like the highly accomplished population. And meanwhile I was sitting on podcasts like you know things about romance and love. And that had nothing to do. Those were not the clients. Yeah. You know so I could certainly talk about romance and love because it affects every single one of my clients but that's not the client who's going to be sitting the category. So it took us a while to figure that out. I'm like OK that's another podcast. What's the big deal it's you know 35 40 minutes of my time. Not a problem. But the problem came in is we're wasting so many hours sorting through all these leads that really weren't a good match. So it took us a while and finally when we got there we said OK we're letting all of that stuff go. All the stuff that's not a match. All the speaking engagements that are not a match all the audiences that are not a match. Goodbye.
[00:11:54] Yeah I mean that's a huge realization and huge process to go through. I mean it's the other of them. The problem is is that most people think about it as well who can I help run it and who can help me.
[00:12:05] Like who is the best line for me in terms of the growth of the business not just who can I be of service to and it's a shift. You know it was a shift in the way of thinking that at some level you become a need to be able to get that business going to the point where you start even asking the question. But once you do it it really does change things and it changes where you spend your time.
[00:12:23] Where do you invest where essentially what what places do you know how a high concentration of your ideal customer and how do I continue to focus on those areas.
[00:12:33] Yeah it's a very important thing. And you know for us what is the determining factor was when we coach leaders there's a trickle down effect. Right. So they're like oh my god you need to coach my wife for oh my god you need to coach Ted of my people underneath the know that's a lucrative financially. It also has an impact in the world which excites me. That turns me on. So that if we can coach one person who has influence and impact even if we don't coach anybody else but that person he or she becomes a better parent I'm happy person.
[00:13:07] Yeah it's really. What does that client end up doing for you and for your purpose for the bigger impact you want to have on the world. She actually when I do do kind of customer journey with clients and a lot of those times they kind of end okay a successful engagement. One of these ideas we set out to you know advocate and promoter for the company to actually think longer than just your town too.
[00:13:29] What does it take to get me to the point where they become my biggest advocate and they're actually a reader for me. And when you say look you know you can have a lot of other filters that come into play and decent questions and come up in terms of who do we really want to put in the funnel. Because I guess your point is that ultimately the divas that you're going to get more clients by which you didn't have impact in the world.
[00:13:49] Right.
[00:13:49] Like a U.S. client your Gourmet advocate like what are the best I've ever encountered to your point is finding the people that are going to do the work but house you are highly successful but are still driven and still motivated and want to continue to change. I think that's certainly the people that I've worked for and the people that I know that have done well for them.
[00:14:10] You don't have that kind of mentality. And it's it is a very particular type of person. And to your point you can help a lot of people.
[00:14:17] There's a lot of people out there with challenges and things they're trying to achieve that you can have a lot of impact with. But are they going to release or be well given the limited time and energy you have to serve next summer people.
[00:14:27] How do you how do you think that concentration very on right now and the other part of it is just pure messaging. Right. So like how do you determine or express what you do when you are diluted. It's very difficult. Yeah right. So then you end up doing not enough for nobody in particular. So you need to get concentrated so that not only your revenue grows and your business grows so that your impact grows. So they are truly clear about what you do and who you serve.
[00:14:58] Are there anything I'm curious to help Duigan listeners that are kind of in this mode of Hey I've got a decent business I'm working with lots of different people but I kind of feel the need to concentrate or to kind of be more targeted and Heuser and any particular questions or things that you discovered during the process.
[00:15:16] The insights that will help them configure and given their list of clients who when they start look at her. How would they look at their current client base and identify the ones there they really should focus and really can be the key points for the next generation their business.
[00:15:30] Yeah. If you look at your list of clients you look at you know who is the best client. In other words who pays the best who who responded the best who like I mean where are the services. So does the work who engages the most who's most present who journals for me. Right. So who's there who's interacting the most is the most responsive and who's the most lucrative. Right. What makes sense for you to spend more time with. Was the most fun. Who are you growing from. Like for me I want to spend time with the highly driven population. Why. Because that's who's fun for me and that's who I want to learn from as well. And so so all those those components add up to say who do I want to spend time with in this world and and who you know who out there is easy to spend time with who is it fun to spend time with you is adding to my business rather than draining for my business. So I mean those are some of the questions you want to ask.
[00:16:24] And I like that kind of the energy flow analysis.
[00:16:28] I think it's something people think about but you you when you finish a conversation read the initial meeting and you finish a program with them you know where you are you dream and to recover and you are going to have to put the wheels turning on a cart. Are you ready to get out there and do more. Can't we do that actually. That is a good indicator of the people don't don't focus enough on kind of their internal energy states in terms of what is success look like here.
[00:16:50] I think it's critical. I think it's critical. I remember you know again Dave was one of my well he was my first one on one client. And I remember getting off the phone like I'm an awesome coach.
[00:17:01] Right. You know those interactions told me I'm on the right path.
[00:17:09] You know when you're on the right path you get off a phone call or whatever and you feel a little high that means you're on the right path.
[00:17:16] Any thoughts on how how to say no or how to politely but effectively turn away the ones that maybe are the best for you. How do you deal with that.
[00:17:28] Very simply I don't think we're a good fit for you. I don't think I don't think we serve you well. I think there's another option for you that's a better match for your needs. You know like I have lots of people who want strategic coaching. Yeah right. They want they want someone to hold them accountable if that's what you want. I'm not for you. That's not the right fit. Like you're going to be disappointed. So I want to make sure I I. Wow. Every time. And so if you're looking for x and we're delivering y you know there's a bit of a gap there. So I have no problem at all saying if this is what you're looking for we're not the ones to deliver it.
[00:18:03] Look to change minds.
[00:18:06] Surely this person the message that we can serve them by taking them on I don't even know I could probably help them. I'm not the best for them job for them for their sake. I should be meeting in a day after having them talk to another coach. They don't. Yeah. So let's let's talk a little bit about General engine because I think that's you know when we look at growing service based businesses we're looking at you know how do I scale. You know skill staff.
[00:18:31] But also this how do I create tools technology key things that can increase users rate customers for revenue for me.
[00:18:43] You can make money wisely. Kind of idea whereas a big one you are pretty. You know some kind of software based product or your product or service to take them over. I just don't know what journalism does today and then just a little bit about the journey it's untrue.
[00:19:00] Yeah. So turtle engineers is basically software that allows people to journal in a safe and secure environment. That's basically what it is in a nutshell. And it was designed initially for the use of coaches so coaches were going to use it with their clients in a way where they could give their clients.
[00:19:19] Let's call it a journalist assignment homework assignment a journaling prompt something like that they would journal in their journal would go back to their coach and then we incorporated groups and then we incorporated hey some coaches want to use it in a self guided manner. They don't want to have to read and respond to every single journal. And so we just started adding a lot of bells and whistles and features to this product. And we started licensing it out to other speakers coaches trainers even corporations membership groups like you know there's a group in New York that's using it right now. And so really our approach has been to say hey journalling in and of itself is a game changer. There are lots of ways that you can use it. Let's try to accommodate all those ways. We're at a point right now actually where we're overhauling the software. You know we have to be up to date and we're actually in the process of removing a lot of features. Yeah saying. OK. So what you know. You know the concept of NVP that is a viable product right. Again I'm learning as I go along. So say does it really need to have an how can we make it work extremely well very fast very slick very easy user friendly. And so we're moving into a place where we're creating it for the user. The end user more so than for yes we're still licensing it out when the end user is satisfied and happy that the licensee is satisfied and happy. And so our emphasis is a little different. We have a lot of high end tech savvy clients who look that our software and said This is a little dated. Yeah it's clunky it's slow. And so we've had to bring it up to date. And so we're very near launching our latest and greatest.
[00:21:01] But it's interesting because how much do you invest in a piece of software for businesses. It's coaching. And so you know you ask about scalability. And yes it does make money while we sleep because we license it out and there are fees that people pay on a monthly basis but the fee is low compared to what we gain from coaching. So where do you put your effort. Right. So for a while we said okay great we have all these licensees fabulous. But every time we gain ten new licensees who are you know each paying whatever 129 dollars a month we lose 5. So what are we doing every month. Not enough to make ends meet. So what we made a strategic decision at a certain point in time to completely focus on coaching because the margins are bigger so the other thing we did was we created a certification program. Okay so you talk about Scali. So and really it came out of this desire people would go through coaching and they'd go wow that was incredible. How do I learn to do that. How do I become a coach. So we created this certification program exclusively for clients who have gone through coaching. So we have a whole bunch of certified people out there in the world. Some of them we pluck and keep for ourselves as frame of mind coach's arrest we send back to the world to build their own coaching companies or to become better leaders in their organizations. They just want to learn the frame. My coaching method. So now there's there's something interesting going on. There's a revenue stream coming in from certification right at that. And then what. Now that we have extra coaches I don't have to do all the coaches coaching. So we have a team of coaches.
[00:22:48] So now my job is how do we get them clients to in inflation which is you know as a founder and as someone who's gone through the journey of some kind of coaching developing your coaching methodology.
[00:23:04] Looking at the tools each of actually saving lives to now have the clients at some level having this team driven by coaches have a software system.
[00:23:17] What are you going to have to learn or shift or grapple with in terms of your focus your time your energy and how have you navigated some of those decisions. Where are you into your soul.
[00:23:30] Yes so what I discovered is that if I could get someone to replace myself that's the best thing to do. So that I'm always always at all times looking to replace myself so that I can create space and time. And energy really to go and focus on the next thing I'm elevating the company and solving the next problem. But if I am kind of bound up with things that someone else can do. It's not a good use of my time at all.
[00:24:01] So over time we've created more and more we found more and more people who can replace any thoughts on where.
[00:24:11] Are you. Are you seeing a pattern where a source has been really good.
[00:24:17] Well again you know of the. All. Right we have a team of coaches that they've gone through coaching. Great. Now I have a series of classes I teach one as in person. One is online and I can see how they perform. So for me my coaching standards are extremely high that I can see how they're doing how they're learning how they're picking up the concepts how they coach out there is how it comes to them either naturally or maybe it doesn't come to them at all. And so. Because I'm witnessing their performance I can choose strategically on the coaching side of the equation. There are other equations where we fail. Right. Like how do you how do you hire even a junior person who can create content. I've hired many who have failed them. Right. So how do we do that and content creation is tough very tough as you want them to speak in your voice and etc.. So now we've created a new system where the content that's created comes from a lot of our podcasts. So it's not they don't have to create anything. It's my content anyway. They just have to produce it in some kind of usable format. Right so it's always about creating systems that work that make life easier for everybody.
[00:25:32] All right so it's kind of there's a lot of trial experimentation.
[00:25:39] I mean something entirely Bertucci part of it is you have you know when you fealty t reform that you're working with you to promote in there and it's a lot about how people do things and the only way they do a finely tuned one finding success to the next level.
[00:25:56] Growing that stuff is really hard for a loan to replace physicians.
[00:26:01] We've got founders who are actually rich and they're looking to scale like how do you find Siebel and they go through a lot of drama in terms of doing something you think is going to be a means of bringing in three months later they're frustrated right.
[00:26:15] I'm a big believer in dating before marriage. And so I like the idea of trying things out on a small scale and seeing how that feels and then going to the next level and the next level the next level because you know you don't know if you're going to be compatible. And I think it's important. And you know also you want to measure risk right now.
[00:26:35] Right now I'm on a new journey and a new scaling journey. I'll share it with you. One of the you know over the time how do you generate leads. What is the best way to generate leads. For me it's always been through some kind of speaking engagement whether it's life whether it's a podcast whether it's an interview whether it's being on a panel Anything it's always through a speaking engagement because they can hear my passion. They can hear my determination. They can hear what I do how I do why I do it and then they go you know what I haven't heard anybody sound like her before. I'd be interested in what she has to say. OK.
[00:27:11] So the claim is there's only one Kim. How do you like how much of me. I've got five kids I have life to live like everywhere.
[00:27:19] How many speaking engagements can a person humanly do. It's a glossy day. So I have decided to look for other speakers to represent us in one form or another. That's another method of scalings. There are lots of speakers out there who don't coach the latza speakers out there who would love to serve their clients but they're busy speaking lately that's their career and that's how they make a living. Meanwhile they're leaving a lot on the table because there's a whole audience that wants more from them and they can't deliver them. Right there's a lot of people in that boat. So how do I find those people who say man if only I can hand over these people to Kim and her team who already have an amazing track record. And I feel completely comfortable in knowing that if I hand over my audience my client to Kim that they're going to come back to me and say Holy crap that was the best thing I ever did in my life. So those are the relationships I'm looking for. Those are the relationships I'm building. That's another way to scale. So again I try to replace myself.
[00:28:20] It's an interesting thing that you see in the businesses to this point where the business is very much based on the kind of the identity the personality the founder and their kind of vision and position and as they shift to having a creative team around them of leaders you know they need to retain the important parts of that but also a certain amount of that shift as you bring in new leadership. And I think it's a little there's a bit of an identity transition that you go through you know in figuring out there's something that's bigger than me personally but I need to figure out how to leverage and share with others and communicate that effectively while not not getting too caught up in egos goes out of it. And I think that's it's an interesting and important transition some of which not everyone makes. But I think if you can do it successfully there's a lot of power in the industry to the business ultimately.
[00:29:08] Right. And to be honest like you know I'm getting a bit older and you kind of go hey like I only have so much human capacity I have more desire than I have capacity. So how do I still my desire with someone else's capacity. Right. Like. Like there's only so much I could humanly do. Yeah. So how do I do more with you with the resources in front of me.
[00:29:29] Yeah that's a good question. And I think it's a very noble kind of you know journey and challenge them to grapple with because it is it's kind of that it's essentially what's bigger than me and how I make this thing bigger than just me personally so kudos to you for getting to that point and grappling with it. And I'm I'm sure you'd be successful but I'm curious to see how it all plays out. I'll let you know.
[00:29:49] We're out of time here. You'll want to find out more information about you about frame of mind of a journal. What's the best way to contact you and get more info.
[00:29:56] So the best thing to do is to come to our Web site Fremen my coaching dot com and on there there's an opportunity to sign up for our complimentary coaching call. You started off by filling in an assessment. So do it. Why. Because when you can talk to someone who really looks at how you think and how your thinking impacts you that conversation alone is a game changer. So I mean I can't emphasize that enough. You don't have to go on to do coaching but just do that call. It'll make a big difference for you. That's the best way to get to know us anyway is just to get a sample of what we do.
[00:30:32] Burfoot make sure that the linger in the shed tear so people can go straight through. Learn more about that. KIM This has been a pleasure. I always love chatting with you. This one has been particularly fun and kind of getting to the details of the mission where the business is going and where it's going. It's exciting stuff.
[00:30:47] Thanks Bruce and I always love talking to you. Thanks.
[00:30:52] You've been listening to Scaling up Services with Business Coach Bruce Eckfeldt. To find a full is a podcast episodes. Download the tools and worksheets and access other great content. This is a Web site that scaling up services dot com and toll free to sign up for the free newsletter scalingupservices/newsletter.