Andy O'Brien shares his 'WHY"!

My name is Andy O'Brien and I'm a coach in Northern Iowa, but I also coach in other states in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska. And one of the reasons that I got into coaching was, is in our community in rural North Iowa, there's been a lot of businesses closing and there's not a lot of avenues for them to go and get help other than banks and accountants. So I chose to look for a model that fit the way that I felt about business, and Action Coach fit that bill with their ability. It's, you know, it's the person first and then it's the person in their business second.

Some of the things that have happened through Action Coach have really affected me, and the biggest effect that I can tell you about is the transformation of people and the transformation of people in their business. You know, one of my missions is that I want to be able to help create 200 jobs. And when I look at a business and they're able to hire that one more person or grow their business, maybe it's an extra $10, maybe it's $10,000, they get to do expansion, maybe they get to take the vacation, maybe they get to give their employees a raise. Those are the things that affect me most because it really is a win-win. If the customer wins, then I win. And the whole purpose is to create jobs, create commerce, create profit for the business owner so that they can continue to grow and supply more jobs.

Well, there's a lot of different ways to look at a business coach. I look at it through four words. The first word that I look at is awareness. To have a business coach is having a second set of eyes, somebody who is looking for the tree in the forest or the forest through the trees. Sometimes we're there for awareness because we're not there every day, and we're able to say, 'Hey, look, there's a flower right in front of the forest, maybe we should be looking at that.' That's the first thing we look at. The second thing we look at is education. With Action Coach and with myself, 20 plus years in the business world, we bring over 400 different strategies into a business. Now, do they all work? Well, of course not. But the ones that work we test and measure, and with those strategies we put tactics into place that allow the business owner to do the work with his team. The third thing that I talk about with my clients is implementation. Everybody loves change, and with implementation the key to it is doing the work, making the change. It's quite ironic when they talk about implementation, the first thing you hear is, 'Well, that's the way we've always done it.' Well, the beauty of coaching is it allows you to work to the fourth word: it's discipline. It's showing the client that there is a way to do it and holding them accountable, because in most cases business owners, who's going to hold them accountable? 'I'll do what I want, how I want.' Our job is to push them. My job is to push them to do the work that they wouldn't do.

And so, that's how I... the advantages of having a coach on site. Action Coach means that there is somebody else out there who's going to care as much about you and your business as you do. The best advice and the first steps for anybody to take is let's have a conversation. This isn't a sales process, this is an educational process. Let's set up a coffee meeting, that's all it's about. Have a coffee, have lunch, have dinner. Maybe it's a conversation in the local gym or at a restaurant. But let's just have a conversation because we need to find out if there is a fit. That's the misconception. Nobody hires a coach because they want to. People hire a coach because they want time, a better team, or they want more money. And that's the basis of it. So a conversation, that's all we're asking for. If you're looking at this site, if you're checking me out on Google, if you're checking Action Coach out, the best thing to do is call us. It doesn't matter what your problem is, or even if there's not a problem, maybe you're plateaued and you're looking to grow your business. Here's the deal: there's help out there, but you can't do anything without a conversation. So give us a call, send me an email. It'll be real easy, quick, and I promise there won't be any pressure.