Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
You became a coach to help people — but no one told you how to build the business behind it.
Coach as Entrepreneur is the show for coaches who want to go beyond referrals and create a real business that supports both their clients and their family. Each episode explores the systems, strategies, and stories that help coaches simplify marketing, attract the right clients, and grow sustainably, without burning out.
Whether you’re just starting or looking to scale, this is your roadmap to running your coaching practice like a business… and doing it with heart.
Build the system. Serve your clients. Support your family.
Tami Reiss
===
[00:00:00]
David: [00:00:15] [00:00:30] by providing easy to follow tools like the Lead Framework, map, your Influence Canvas, and the Confident Communicator, GPT, she shares her knowledge in accessible ways worldwide. Her [00:00:45] latest passion project is a Rhyming Illustrated book on leadership based in Miami. Tammy brings the heat. dive
Tami from Miami Reiss: Hi, let's dive in.
David: Tammy, uh, I'm really excited to have you here today. Uh, it's already been [00:01:00] a fun time just up and talking. So where should we start? Let's start with your journey into coaching, right? How did you, what were you doing before you got into coaching? 'cause no one, you know, when they're asked, when they're in fifth grade, [00:01:15] you know, what do you wanna be thinks?
I wanna be a coach.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Unless it's like a football coach, I think there are people who are like, I wanna be a football coach or a basketball coach, but not an executive coach or a, like a human coach sort of thing. Um, life [00:01:30] coach. Um, but you're absolutely right, and I don't think anyone goes to college for a degree in coaching.
Uh, though there are lots of certificates you can get later. Uh,
I think there's a reason for that though, because we don't want to turn to a coach for [00:01:45] advice if we don't think they have experience. We actually require that people have some sort of experience before they become a coach because they have to know something, otherwise not much trust there.
Uh, so the things that I knew about were being a [00:02:00] nonprofit fundraiser and event planner. I then spent my career in technology where I spent the vast majority of it in something called product management, which is the strategic space where you decide what to build [00:02:15] next. And I worked my way up different ladders and that stuff.
And I had spent half of my career working in-house at companies and half of my career as a consultant. The last job I had was in the more consulting realm, [00:02:30] and I was working within a venture capital firm called Insight Partners and Melissa Perry, who had recently written a book on product, was hired in with a.
Her group of consultants, one of which was me, to help their technology [00:02:45] portfolio companies do product better, whatever that meant. And so we created workshops on product operations. We wrote blog posts, we had monthly webinars, um, where different executives within [00:03:00] product were showcasing their skills and the things they had done so that other people within the community could learn.
But the, my favorite thing I did was one-on-one coaching with different product executives. And it was really fulfilling to me to help people who were already at the top of their [00:03:15] game be even more exceptional. Uh, part of that was that it was shorthand. I would say something very quick to them, and I didn't have to explain it 'cause they were already pros.
Um, and then they were like, oh, I never saw it from that perspective. And that was really cool. And [00:03:30] I became this sounding board for them and I recognized that there was a real need for specifically product executives. To have executive coaches who had product experience because product management is all about influence without authority.
[00:03:45] And the majority of executives have a lot more authority in a much more, uh, like hierarchical place. Their impact is very directional. Whereas products still has to convince everyone else to do things all the time. And [00:04:00] unfortunately, most chief product officers or VPs of product, their boss is someone without product experience.
They are someone with finance experience, they're someone with operational experience, they're someone with sales experience, management experience, [00:04:15] rarely product. Uh, and you can see actually success of companies based on whether or not the CEO has product experience. But we're not gonna get into that right now.
What we're gonna get into is people need a sounding board.
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: need [00:04:30] someone to turn to that they can trust that is going to provide them with valuable advice. They couldn't think of themselves
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: couldn't think of themselves quickly enough. And so while I was doing that for Insight Partners and Melissa, I bought [00:04:45] product leader coach.com.
I made a decision that I was having so much fun, but that whenever this chapter was over, the next thing I was gonna do was product leadership coaching. And I bought my product leader coach.com and your product leader, I don't even know how [00:05:00] many variations of product leader coach.com I own. But yeah, that was my thing.
And because of COVID, a lot of things shifted. Um, at the VC firm, with Melissa, with the consultancy, and [00:05:15] December, 2020, it was time to shut that down, close that chapter. And so January, 2021 started a new one, which was product leader Coach. And, uh, I got my first client the first month and it was off to the races for around four years, [00:05:30] and now I do something different.
David: So, okay. So much to unpack. Um, one is, I actually, I found my way into product and so I love. I love like product design and like all of that and what you were saying about executives and business, it, it's [00:05:45] really funny because businesses are built around generally some kind of product or service, but then there's like this disconnect when it comes to actually making that thing in the bit in, so it, it's a, it's so funny.
Um, but
Tami from Miami Reiss: [00:06:00] Yes, agreed. Okay.
David: your insight like your, that you saw so far into the future while you were doing that to buy, to buy those website domains is amazing. I think 'cause, you know, not a lot of pe a lot of people [00:06:15] will be kind of like, maybe I'll do it, maybe I won't. And, and they'll kind of waffle back and forth they won't even think
Tami from Miami Reiss: That was part of me creating the intention. Like I was like, if I actually buy the website when this is over, I won't have to think about it. I won't sit there like [00:06:30] wavering and shifting back and forth and putting together pros and cons lists. It's like, no, that's what I'm gonna try to do. And what was really amazing was that I'm sure everyone on this call saw this, and if you were not a coach [00:06:45] before 2021 I, I would bet money that the majority of your listeners are people who became a coach, like hung up their shingle between 2021 and 2024 because it was such like a tumultuous time for everybody.
And there were a lot of [00:07:00] people who all of a sudden were working from home and they said, this is awesome.
David: Yeah,
Tami from Miami Reiss: I don't wanna go back to an office. And a lot of people started doing part-time work and coaching work and things like that. And so I think that there was this massive growth in coaching, [00:07:15] but I had already had this experience from working with an insight.
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: And beyond that, I had experience with executives, which was rare.
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I had experience with product executives, which was even more rare. So
David: it. It's what I've [00:07:30] found is there are a lot of people who, who get into coaching, but they got burned out in the industry and the work that they were doing. So instead of working with the people they know best, they're like, I'm gonna go as far away from that and start [00:07:45] working with other types of people. And then they realize it's so hard, then they go back. And so
Tami from Miami Reiss: Oh, I mean, I, I have product market fit in the product community, um, that's for sure. But I also like to deliver value, right? I'm a [00:08:00] product person. I like to deliver customer value, and the most value I can deliver, like the best use of every experience that's happened in this brain
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: working with product leaders to help them be better at [00:08:15] their craft.
My issue with that was that there aren't that many of them, and they rarely have budget for professional development, and beyond that. I found myself doing two things that were really frustrating for me, that they were, I saw patterns, [00:08:30] product, people see patterns. That's what we do. Um, and so there were two patterns I kept seeing.
Number one was that when I was giving advice more than anything, it was interpersonal advice. It was interpersonal advice about how to navigate politics, about how to [00:08:45] get someone else on their team to behave the way they wanted to, a cross-functional team, which is influence. It was just doubling down on influence and recognizing that you're now in a different echelon, that the other people around you also know how to influence.
And so [00:09:00] you need to really be good at it. Um, because influencing A CEO or influencing a board is a very strategic activity, much more than influencing your designer or your engineer. And so that was the biggest theme that came [00:09:15] out was that I just was talking a lot about influence over and over again in different capacities, but influence and then.
The second thing, and this was really frustrating, was that so much of being an executive is what [00:09:30] I call deputizing people on your team, taking your responsibilities and giving someone else ownership of them. Not delegating where you tell someone to do something, but you actually take a responsibility that's yours and you give it to someone else.
You deputize them so they own it now.
And [00:09:45] people, when I would ask them, who on your team could you deputize, they would pause because more often than not, they were still in the weeds because there wasn't someone on their team that was capable enough. And not that they didn't have the skills and product [00:10:00] enough, but they didn't have enough of that cross-functional influence navigating the internal politics skills to be the leader of something, to take something across the finish line and.
I wanted to change that. So I [00:10:15] started doing group coaching in influence, in leadership, in influence driven leadership, in strategic thinking, in vision creating, 'cause it's all part of influence. And so I still do coaching. Now to be clear, I still do coaching with a select group of clients. I don't do it in [00:10:30] the way I used to do it, and I'll explain what I'm doing now.
But, and I also prioritize groups. I prioritize getting in front of a group of a hundred or 500 people or 10 people 'cause it's still a group so that I can scale my influence. I [00:10:45] want everyone to learn these skills. And if it was only people who could pay for one-on-one coaching, it, it was limiting to the people who could access it.
So that.
David: I love that because there's so much going on in the world and there are so many skills, and [00:11:00] unfortunately now with way the world has kind of just grown up in the last 30 years of, with technology, social media, and now with ai, there's a lot of these skills that were, people just aren't learning.
They're not [00:11:15] developing. Right. And so even more necessary to have people teaching these skills because there are more people who don't know. They don't even know. They don't know. Right.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes, well, it's even more [00:11:30] than that. AI has potential to make practically any hard skill irrelevant.
Like, like hard skill versus soft skill, not a skill which is hard to master. They will not make skills that are hard to master, irrelevant, but a hard skill [00:11:45] versus a soft skill, like a technical skill. And that means we should actually be training people on the soft skills because we will become more efficient in all of these other things.
But we will still have to work with other people.
We will still have to sell things to other people. We will [00:12:00] still have to manage other people we like who are packing the boxes or whatever it is. Like we will still have to think about what is the best step forward? What should we do next? And convince someone else that we're right.
And so that's like the modern reason, like [00:12:15] today's reason why I feel what I do and teaching about influence is so important. Because no matter what changes in the world, this skill is still gonna be important. It'll be important in your work life to get a promotion. It'll be [00:12:30] important in your work life to help other people work together on a group project.
'cause I don't know if you noticed, but everything is a group project
Now. AI as a team member, but still group project and also in your personal life [00:12:45] because at some point you're gonna wanna go on vacation or you're gonna wanna go to a particular restaurant, or you're not gonna wanna go somewhere. And that is a matter of influencing the other people in your life.
David: Mm-hmm. 100%.
I love it. There's so [00:13:00] much in there. Um, Tammy, I really, I'm really curious as well, there's a couple of things right before we go in there. So you said in the first month when you started coaching, you got your first client. did you start getting clients?
Tami from Miami Reiss: So [00:13:15] that client, and I think the second or third client after her came from a group called Women in Product. So there is a Facebook group for women in product and I posted in said Facebook group, hi, I am an executive coach, blah, blah, blah, [00:13:30] blah, blah, like product leadership coach and this is what I can help you do If you're interested, sign up for a free 30 minute call with me.
And that was it. And the reason it was so easy to sign though, was that my pricing was too low.
David: How
Tami from Miami Reiss: I [00:13:45] think I was charging,
David: was too low?
Tami from Miami Reiss: um, 'cause it was too easy. Like I signed like my first two inbounds and I was like, I'm good, but I'm not that good. Like, that's something's wrong. I was charging I think like $300 an hour or something. Maybe two [00:14:00] 50 an hour. Um, yeah, which was too little.
David: Okay.
Tami from Miami Reiss: But I, nowadays they don't actually charge very much more than that. But I think it took me around a year to get up to $500 an hour.
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: And then I went through [00:14:15] packaging and year long programs and six month programs. And I, over the course of the four years that this, this was like the one thing I focused on.
There were so many iterations into how I packaged this and price this and for different levels of people and for people who had different needs, [00:14:30] job seekers. 'cause everyone was out of a job and variety of other things. And so yeah, I went through a lot of iterations and the current iteration is a little different.
David: Okay, so you went, so you started with hourly and then you did, you said six month and [00:14:45] year long, and then you have other packages.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Oh no, no. That was just, the hourly rate was 300. It was $1,200 for four sessions.
David: Okay. So right now, uh, just to talk a little bit about packaging, especially from someone who was in product, [00:15:00] how do you package your coaching? I know you're not doing co coaching as much now, but how were you doing it or how are you doing it now?
Tami from Miami Reiss: So I was packaging it and I was doing very well. The last package I had was actually doing very well, and I was, it was [00:15:15] very easy to sell, quote unquote, easy to sell, but like, it was, it was a clear sale, and that was that I charged everybody $10,000 and that got 12 sessions, which they could divide over the course of a year, like, like a [00:15:30] 365 day year, not a calendar year to their, to their preference.
So some people would use it up. Weekly, within a quarter, some people could spread that out and um, it was an easy number. You could [00:15:45] divide it into two and I could charge your company five grand to begin with and five grand later you could split it up into monthly payments. I didn't really care, but I, it was a commitment of 10 grand, 12 sessions.
And there were all these other benefits that you got [00:16:00] beyond that. You got to email me as much as you wanted. You had my phone number, you could text me, you could call me, you could ask me for templates. You could ask me to do a 360 for you as like part of it in like kind of use credits in an interesting way.
Access to my network. Like you had to build it up as [00:16:15] a thing, right? It was a product. You were buying a $10,000 product that involved me, which was a service. Um, and so I productized the service as best I could, and that was, that was what IS sold. Um, I used to sell this [00:16:30] number of months, that number of months, and it was too complicated for people.
It was like, whoa, which one is for me? And it was like, you know what, what's for you is that you get to choose when to do this, right? Everyone needs 12 sessions.
That's the bottom line. And the [00:16:45] following year you could use those 12 sessions and only pay me five grand because like they were half hour sessions.
Because if you've already spent a year with me with one hour sessions, you might need 12 more half [00:17:00] hour sessions over the course of your next year refresher new challenges because you're growing in your position, et cetera. Um, but. Because we already had so much foundation, we could do half hour sessions and it was less money.
And yeah, so I [00:17:15] had people doing that and it worked out really well,
David: Okay. Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: and I don't do that anymore.
David: okay. but I love that because it, you simplified the, the service and like people look at like this long list of things or different options and they're like, [00:17:30] they're you, you need to create a matrix and excel sheet to understand what the heck is going on. And then it gets really complicated. Cause when it comes to pricing, it's always like 9 97 or like, you
Tami from Miami Reiss: I just make a 10 K 99?[00:17:45]
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I think people are smarter than that. I will tell you though, that there's a woman named Kim Ripper who I bought her services. And she does a fantastic job with that in that it's not 9 99, it's literally her prices are like [00:18:00] 8 73, you know, 79.
David: Okay.
Tami from Miami Reiss: And like therefore you can't, when there's a certain number that you don't round up in your head, even though you should, like when I said that to you, you didn't say, oh, that's like $900.[00:18:15]
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: It was too much cognitive load for you to realize it's $27 less than $900. You associated that with the eight. And so she's fantastic at that. I, I don't actually know where she studied it or how she chooses her numbers, but
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: [00:18:30] yes, and she talks a lot about the value that she's actually delivering that really it's like $22,000 of value that you're getting for 9 72 or whatever.
Um, and so that was actually part of what I started doing. I would talk about the value because if I [00:18:45] was giving you and your team. A session on the topics we would cover or could cover, that would be a lot more money.
And so you were getting personalized value,
David: yeah. I think that's probably one of the harder things for a lot of coaches, [00:19:00] right? Because they're not necessarily coming from the product, uh, mindset or even like a, a sales mindset. So when they come to building a landing page or talking about their services, they talk about too often, like, I, I mean, I've made the same [00:19:15] mistake, right?
You, you talk about too much, about like, here are all the little features, but not enough,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes.
David: enough about the value. It's amount of
Tami from Miami Reiss: not enough about the problem you're solving
David: right?
Tami from Miami Reiss: and the person you're solving it for. So like, I actually wanna go to product leader [00:19:30] coach.com. I haven't been there in so long, but I know it exists. Cause I went through countless preparations, but, um, hi, I'm Tammy. It's nice to meet you. My only job is to help product leaders be awesome, right?
I got. I guide product leaders to leverage their [00:19:45] established product skills to advance towards their goals. My clients earn the trust and confidence of their CEO board and peers, and it pays off with impact, recognition and often a promotion. Um, and then I have a thing that says my best clients all have the [00:20:00] same characteristics, which I wasn't able to do until I had been doing this for a while.
And then I could see that trend. But my best clients were people who had true growth mindset and ambitious aspirations to be recognized for their badassery. That's [00:20:15] actually on my website. Deep Product Experiments. Experience parentheses generally in B2B SaaS and strong management values and great communication skills, but are often better at editing other people's work.
And so like that was my way of [00:20:30] saying like, do you see yourself in this? Like if you read this and you're like, yeah, that's me. Yeah. And there's like different things to talk about the problems you might be having and what I do as a coach, because that's complicated. A lot of people when they would [00:20:45] have that intro call with me had never had a coach before and they didn't know what the coaching experience was going to be like.
And I would have to explain to them that like, I'm not your therapist. And also I'm not an ICF coach. Like ICF coaches are trained to do things in a very [00:21:00] specific way, which is ask a lot of questions to unearth people's things. I'm a consultant by training, which means I give advice. I ask questions to integrate that into your brain process.
But like I'm gonna give you advice and I would say to people, and I say this all the time, 'cause [00:21:15] there's still people who become my coaching clients, and I was talking to a few prospects earlier this week. I say, I'm going to give you advice, but I will never know as much about you, your life, your work, these other people as you do.
I don't live there. I spend an hour with you every so often. Right? [00:21:30] But if whatever it is that I say doesn't feel like it's gonna be authentic to you, or you don't think it's gonna be successful based on something you know, which I probably don't, tell me that. Tell me and I'll give you new advice. Like I'm not married to being right.
I'm not [00:21:45] married to my advice. I'm married. And to you being successful, like that's all I want, is you being successful. Because when you're successful, it means that I'm doing my job well. And so that's the way I worked with all of my clients for years now and [00:22:00] it's great.
David: Your one-liner for your website. It's so direct and it speaks directly to a very specific person. Most coach websites, it's so broad. So, like, especially now, because there are [00:22:15] so many more coaches, which is fantastic,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah, very necessary in the world.
David: Yeah. But they don't necessarily differentiate themselves and say, I am the coach for this person.
And I think there's a lot of fear in, [00:22:30] in, down in that way. Right? Because it's like, could be working with this person or
Tami from Miami Reiss: You shouldn't have that fear.
David: right? Because I, and I was saying this to somebody earlier, which was, you know, if you're, if you're charging somebody $10,000 a year, right? And you're [00:22:45] trying to make a hundred thousand dollars, you need 10 clients need to talk to.
So to get 10 clients, you need to talk to maybe 10 people a month. And you need to have a hundred people come to your website so that you can get that one client a month. [00:23:00] And if you wanted to really accelerate, you gotta figure out how to get a thousand people to your website to do all of that. But The point is, you don't need a hundred clients, you just need 10, 20, whatever your number is. Right. Um, ideally it's, it's not [00:23:15] 20 or like 50. 'cause that gets really hard to, to manage.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes, it does.
David: Yeah. But the point is, is that if you, can be very specific about who you're trying to serve
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah, [00:23:30] there's a.
David: build your, build your business.
Tami from Miami Reiss: There's a coach named Jill Beck, and when you ask her who she coaches, she says, I coach women over 40 who are senior management and in like the [00:23:45] corporate world or something like that, but definitely women over 40. Like,
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: and like, she's like, this is who I like to coach. And I'm like, that's fantastic, right?
Like, and I now know when I go on her podcast like who it is, what it is I should be talking about and 'cause who the audience is. [00:24:00] Um, when you serve everyone you serve, no one, a product for everyone is a product for no one. This is one of those fundamental product things which didn't make it into the book.
I really should have put that in the book. A Product for Everyone is a product for now
David: you need a second edition?
Tami from Miami Reiss: [00:24:15] second edition. Yeah. Um, in the, in the updated digital only PD version. Um, yeah. And, you have to figure out what kind of coach you wanna be and who you wanna be a coach for, and who you can best serve.
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Um, because one of the [00:24:30] things I used to offer, and I mentioned this a minute or two ago, is a job seeker package.
Like there was a job seeker package at some point and it was highly discounted and it was very structured like we would spend this time, like the first session doing an assessment of your skills and where you could go.
The second session was just [00:24:45] dedicated to your resume and your LinkedIn. And the third one was dedicated towards interview skills. Very simple job seeker package, but I couldn't promise people that they would get a job and I couldn't promise people that they would all of a sudden be [00:25:00] better at interview, which is really where the rubber hits the road in getting a job, right?
I could help them get more leads by improving their resume, but I couldn't be there for them in the interview, and so I stopped offering that.
[00:25:15] Instead, I started when people would come to me for that. I have this email that has like resources. I've written articles from other places, a link to a free job search council grouping that they [00:25:30] can be part of.
And now actually a link to a technology called superhuman, sorry, super interviews.com, which like helps people with interactive AI interview skills, which is the sort of thing you would do with me, but you could only [00:25:45] do it for 45 minutes. And this you can just like keep playing with as much as you want.
Such a cost effective option. And I'm like, here's your cost effective options and if you really wanna still spend time with me for like final Polish, buck a half hour, buck an hour, [00:26:00] but I don't wanna sell you a big package. This is gonna be transformative when the job market is as horrible as it's.
David: I mean, and there's so many other factors that come into it. 'cause even when I'm looking at, uh, so I've, I've been talking to tons of coaches and [00:26:15] I've been reaching out so that I can bring them on for interviews. and so what inevitably comes up is like LinkedIn, there's a lot of people who see you running a business and they're like, I'm a marketer. I can help you.
I can guarantee you. Right. Which it's [00:26:30] like,
Tami from Miami Reiss: I'm a marketer. I'm a va. I'm a social media marketer. I am a cold email person. I'm a website designer. All of these things. Yes, I could help you put your best foot forward.
David: one is like the skills to do it, but [00:26:45] it's, you have to know so much about, like there's no way to guarantee 100% like that you're gonna bring them new, new business because there's all these other factors that, that come into it and anyway.
Tami from Miami Reiss: spent [00:27:00] thousands, probably tens of thousands of dollars on different services like that over the past four years. And none of them were overly productive for me because of how niche my market is and how [00:27:15] high touch the sale is 'cause of the vulnerability and things like that. Um, for both coaching and for speaking.
Um, and so the thing that I'm doing right now is I'm hiring a sales assistant, same amount of money. Per month as a social media [00:27:30] person or anything else. But their whole job is crafting personalized outreach to people that I believe are leads and following up with them because I suck at that. Like that's what I suck at.
I suck at the follow up because I have [00:27:45] so many other things going on, and the people who I work with want a personalized touch. It's what I promote when I train people about influence. Like one pitch silver bullet doesn't exist. You have to update and adapt your pitch to each [00:28:00] individual. Like this is literally the core of the MAP framework is understand your audience and, and, uh, change your message.
But I had, I wasn't doing that myself. And so that's now what I'm doing and I hope it works out. But I believe [00:28:15] that that is going to be more successful for me than anything that is like broad net stuff. And at the same point, the broad net stuff pays off in different ways, right? It gives you opportunities to travel 'cause you might get [00:28:30] invited to speak somewhere.
You gives you, um, in my case, I get leads from chat GBT
David: Yeah. That's happening a lot now.
Tami from Miami Reiss: because like I have such a body of work out there in blog articles, in LinkedIn posts that like, [00:28:45] if you ask, I would like you to recommend a number of coaches that can help me as a product person in the director space, become a VP or learn how to be a product executive. Like, and then people ask follow up questions.
I'm like, [00:29:00] it, it gives them me.
And that's great. And now I don't offer them a $10,000 package. I say, Hey, you can pay two 50 for a half hour or 500 for an hour. Book it when you want. Email me when you want. Here are some [00:29:15] links that can help you in your current thing. And I feel better about it because I don't wanna be following up on that $10,000 deal.
I wanna, if I'm getting $10,000, I wanna impact at least 10 people, if not 50 or a hundred. Right?
I wanna [00:29:30] do well by my, the companies that pay me $10,000. 'cause yes, working with one person can impact a lot of things, but it is so much faster if I'm, if you're using that $10,000 and I'm training a group of people to be better at this.
David: [00:29:45] Yeah. le let, let's go into, let's talk about this. 'cause you've transitioned from doing a lot of mainly one-to-one, uh, coaching into doing more speaking and group coaching or, and training. Um, so, [00:30:00] and we we're, we've been kind of skating around this, so let's, let's
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah,
David: about it. So what. Happened in your thinking that said, I wanna have more impact, I wanna have greater impact.
Tami from Miami Reiss: [00:30:15] [00:30:30] I was at a conference and um, it's a conference that I love. It's called Industry. It's in Cleveland. It was, I think my [00:30:45] third year there. And I wasn't actually on the main stage that year. I was in charge of the q and a stage. I was the moderator of the q and a stage, which is a super fun job, by the way.
So being that person was super great and I also got to hang out in the green room, and I met a person. [00:31:00] Who used to be a Google engineer and gave a fantastic speech about ai and his name is Danoff. And he was telling me in the back room about how he had decided a year or two ago that he just wanted to [00:31:15] do public speaking and get paid for public speaking instead of being an engineer.
Like, and we're talking an ENG senior engineer at Google. Like he had, he was walking away from a package, right? Because this is what he wanted to do. He wanted to help people, he wanted to tell his story. And I came back from that [00:31:30] weekend in Cleveland 'cause I did some soul searching and I said, when am I happiest?
Like I'm actually happiest on stage. I'm happiest delivering a message that I'm talking to a group of 500 people and I don't think I'm going to touch all 500 people. I'm not Tony Robbins, [00:31:45] I don't have some like special magical spell, but. There is a large percentage of those people who will walk away with something new, a new perspective, a new skill, a new framework because of the energy I bring to a stage.
And [00:32:00] this is actually a lot of energy to bring to a coaching session, right? Like my energy is better utilized in a larger audience, um, or a larger video, like video audience. Like I love doing virtual trainings too. I, I, like, I am one of [00:32:15] very few people who can train virtually and keep people engaged for an hour and a half.
David: I mean, I love your energy. It's great. It's, it is
Tami from Miami Reiss: So why not use that, right? Like
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I thought I was having like trickle down in the nature that I would work an executive [00:32:30] and then they would be better for all their teams. And now I have more of a middle out approach.
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: if I can develop the emerging leaders within an organization, not only will they be more successful and the people they manage will be more successful 'cause they'll be [00:32:45] better managers and better leaders, et cetera.
But the executives who they report to will also be more successful because they are not dragging them into the weeds as much
David: Right.
Tami from Miami Reiss: and everyone is happy. So middle out.[00:33:00]
David: Yeah. Okay. I love that. I mean, I, I often see a lot of coaches who'll do the speaking, speaking engagements or the group coaching as a way to kind of get their way into an organization, right? That's kind of their foot in the door, and then they'll work up as [00:33:15] people see them working and, their perspective and the, the value that they bring.
And then somebody in the, the audience or an executive will be like, that was so good. I wanna work with you. Right.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah. And that's a thing.
David: yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: in my current packages [00:33:30] like that, I was just putting together, I have a page on Influence Without Authority Coaching. In the packages and speaking overview I put together recently, there's a page on the talks I give and workshops I give about influence.
There's a [00:33:45] page about the workshops I give and the talks I give, which are centered on leadership and leading people in a certain direction, strategic visioning, et cetera. And then there's a whole other page which says add-ons and packages. And the first add-on option is group coaching, [00:34:00] because I believe it reinforces what you've just learned in a workshop or in a keynote, that people have questions that need to be answered about how they can apply this in their job.
And so I don't want people to think that, okay, I'm just gonna give this nice speech [00:34:15] and then everything's gonna be great. It often needs reinforcement and that could be one time a month later or a 30, 60, 90 day sort of thing. 'cause different things show up often within the first quarter and people need a little extra support.
So I offer that because [00:34:30] I have this as a background because I can do it and I also offer executive sessions and things like that. But like that isn't my end game. Like, that isn't what I'm really into. I'm really into hire me for one team, hire me for your next team. Hire me for [00:34:45] your leadership offsite.
Hire me to be at your customer conference so that I can teach all of them how to be better at influence. Cause these are, these are universal skills
David: no, I, I love that because you have such clarity in what it [00:35:00] is that you're, you want to do and the impact that you want to create. And I find that most coaches, when I talk to them, e even the ones who have been working for 10, 20, sometimes 10, 20 years, they don't really think about I, they just, I'm, I'm [00:35:15] just a coach, I'm just coaching. And they don't
Tami from Miami Reiss: No, I changed lives.
David: Like, what is the kind of business that I, is it. That I wanna build for myself. because I was talking with the one coach who, they were in Germany, they moved to [00:35:30] Australia, and they're getting older. And I was just like, what kind of business do you wanna build in the next five years?
Right? Because you could go anyway, you could do more one-to-one. You, you have, 'cause he has all the experience, right?
Tami from Miami Reiss: You could build an online course, you could like, [00:35:45] and I have those things, but they have a very strategic purpose.
David: yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I have a book and it is a very strategic purpose. Like why did I write a book? I wrote a book because there was a void in the world for books for product [00:36:00] managers to read to their children about what it is we do.
Because I found that void when I was a mom and I validated this was a real thing and that this was a problem. And I wrote a book, but I don't, I'm not making any money on this book, like $0 on the book. [00:36:15] My whole goal of the book is that I can say I am an Amazon bestseller because that badge of sorts on LinkedIn is worth a lot as a speaker.
So originally this was gonna be a free YouTube video, but it turns out you actually need a book to be an Amazon bestseller or have a book launch. So [00:36:30] it's a real book, but then once all the books get sold, it's just gonna be a YouTube video and a PDF you can download for free because that's not why I'm in this.
Like I didn't build it to become a millionaire. Like that wasn't the purpose of the book. And. [00:36:45] Similarly, when I think about my business, am I looking to have a lifestyle business? Yeah. I really just want a lifestyle business. I'm not looking to make millions upon millions of dollars and change. Like that's not it.
I wanna change other people's lives. In [00:37:00] 2015, so we're talking, a decade ago I launched something called Just Not Sorry, which is a Chrome plugin that reads your email and it underlines words that are undermining your message. Grammarly was not as good at this back then, much better at it now, [00:37:15] and it went viral and it was this whole big thing and that was fun.
But the most fun thing was two years later I would be introduced to talk about something around product. And [00:37:30] someone would say, and Tammy created is the creator of Just Not Sorry and. I'm gonna go with like 60% of the time. There was someone in the audience who would say, oh my God, that was you. You changed my life.
That was their words, not me. They would say, you [00:37:45] changed my life. Because with word choice, with more confident communication, so many more dominoes, Phil.
And that's the best. Feeling like that right there is the best feeling when someone [00:38:00] says, I change your life. And it's not because I wanna do that for one person.
I wanna do that for tens of thousands of people.
I want someone five years from now to say, Tammy, I was at this keynote that you gave once at a conference and it changed my life. It gave me this new perspective, [00:38:15] and I started implementing that and it was amazing.
Sheryl Sandberg changed my life because she taught people who she worked with, her philosophy on prioritization and they taught me, which is every morning, wake up and say, what [00:38:30] is the highest value thing I can do?
What's the one thing I can do today that is highest value? And it changes the I work and it changes the way I get stuck in the hamster reel. Or when I take a break to hang out with my kids. 'cause I'm like, did I do my one thing yet? Did [00:38:45] I upload those marketing lists? Did I send out that newsletter? Did I post on this Slack group?
Whatever that one highest impact thing is. And for that, there's lots of other things you need to know about where you're going, blah, blah, blah. But
I was part of this speaker [00:39:00] group called Impact 11, which unfortunately went defunct, but their mission was to help people like me. Get better at our craft so that we could spread our message and change the world.
That's a powerful mission, but it's a strong belief that [00:39:15] that's what people up on stage have the power to do. If they get the training to do it, if they know how to do it well, if they know how to story tell. Well, and yeah, that's where I'm at. But that isn't for everyone.
David: And that's really [00:39:30] important. You need to know what it is. I, I mean, again, it, people need to know what their purpose is, what their goals are, what is the life that they're trying to build, then cut everything else out.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes.
Oh wait, so on that note, right, I have this online course on mastering executive presence. [00:39:45] 'cause I made it thinking that, oh, I was gonna be able to like, put up Facebook ads and like, make tens of thousands of dollars on it. And one of my coaches, like my speaking coach just said to me, he's like, Tammy, don't do that.
Like, don't distract yourself with that.[00:40:00]
David: mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: it as a bonus, as a differentiator towards your clients who can hire you to give you a big speech. And then they also got X number of licenses of this course. And I was like, oh, that's so much better. You know? And that's a, that's something that you only get if you [00:40:15] work with me, right?
There are tons of leadership speakers out there. Not all of them have an online course, an executive presence that your audience can all get a free license to or whatever it is. So thinking about and what you're doing with the different assets
Is, and [00:40:30] strategically is important.
My brain is constantly firing and I have such a different experience than most people. Like even most product leadership coaches have worked for one or two companies.
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: With a big brand [00:40:45] name, and that's how they became a coach. And they have experience like that. And that's great, but that's really limited experience.
Like I've seen hundreds of companies, I've met thousands of leaders,
And that's different.
It's, it's not better. It's [00:41:00] just different.
David: There's a big perspective difference in in that, right? When you've worked with, spoken to and seen wider range of, of the same thing, right? You, you understand how [00:41:15] or the different ways you can move to different, possibilities that are out there.
Tami from Miami Reiss: yeah, I mean, when it comes to this particular topic of how coaches can make money, like Melissa Perry makes money in a very particular way. She has an [00:41:30] online course called Product Institute and she sells it as a corporate license and like it's its own, you know, multimillion dollar business that she runs and she does these other things that help promote that.
Right. And she writes a book and [00:41:45] she teaches at Harvard and she's like all of these things like, but they're all like, she didn't teach at Harvard to make money. Let me be clear. She taught at Harvard because she got to say, I'm teaching at Harvard. That's awesome.
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: know, I didn't create a [00:42:00] course in product management for Northwestern because the $50 an hour they were paying me was amazing or whatever it was, I was getting paid.
I did it because I can say I built a course in product management for Northwestern Kellogg.
Like I worked with [00:42:15] Mohan Sambi, who's like one of the top marketing product innovation professors. And I still get to work with him 'cause he is a wonderful person, but like there's a benefit to that, which is different than the cash,
David: yeah. I
Tami from Miami Reiss: you know?
David: So a lot of coaches have a hard time [00:42:30] with the marketing aspect and so when I, when I talk to them about marketing, I don't talk about it as marketing, but as visibility where you need to create visibility for yourself because if people don't know you exist, they don't know to come to you for help to, [00:42:45] for you as a coach.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah.
David: book, uh, working at, uh, teaching at Harvard or you know, Northwestern, which, um,
Tami from Miami Reiss: But not everyone can do that.
David: Yes. But you can do other things and, but [00:43:00] have to go out and seek those opportunities that fit them to do it. So the first episode that we did that I pushed out, which, so she was in Melbourne and then so in Australia, and then she just caught a flight to Adelaide [00:43:15] and she went out and called all, all of her contacts you knew in that city.
It's like, Hey, I'm gonna be in the city for a day. Would you like to grab coffee? And that's how she created visibility for herself with those people in that network.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I'm doing that in New York. Literally, [00:43:30] I'm speaking at a conference on a Friday in New York. November 14th,
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: going to be in New York, the 12th and 13th, and I reached out to 20 people who are executives who could potentially hire me for training and just said, [00:43:45] Hey, I'm gonna be telling you wanna have lunch or coffee?
I'm going to be meeting I think with like eight of them. But once they responded, I said, great, that's awesome. What I'm really looking for is a place where I can do a dry run in my speech on Friday. Would you be down to do a lunch and learn [00:44:00] with your team and then like we can catch up. Otherwise, everyone gets a book, like very much like a generous offer.
And so I'm doing that at a company on Wednesday because dry run helpful, but everyone I reached out to
David: [00:44:15] Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: now has, again, in their mind, and these are people who have known me for years, but don't necessarily have me top of mind,
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: reminder that Tammy, like even in the initial email, I'm coming to give a speech, reminds [00:44:30] them.
That's what I do. I give speeches about influence
David: yeah,
Tami from Miami Reiss: of people, right? Like planting that seed. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta remind people and it doesn't have to be broadcast. Right? That's 20 [00:44:45] people.
It's a personalized email. It's not marketing, it's visibility, as you said.
David: I mean that, so that's the visibility, that's the business of development. You gotta go out and it, it's hard sometimes for people to, to be vulnerable in that way, where it's like, but [00:45:00] it's not really even being that vulnerable. It's like, I'm gonna be in the city. Let's, let's meet up, and by the way, I'm gonna be doing a speaking engagement.
I'd love to do a dry run if, if you guys are cool with that, that's.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah. So my dad taught me a long time ago, [00:45:15] when you're traveling internationally, do everything you wanna do. Like, don't say to yourself, oh, bungee jumping is $300. I shouldn't do that. It's 300 bucks. Because that $300 is still so much cheaper than the flight to get [00:45:30] there and the time to get there. So maximize your time.
Do what you can in that moment. You never know what'll happen. 'cause you may never get to come back. Right. And so it's the same sort of thing of if I'm already going to be [00:45:45] in such such place, why not? Like, and I already have a hotel room and I already am flying, I'm already getting babysitter for my kids or whatever it is.
Like why not maximize that?
David: I totally agree. And that's, I mean, sometimes it's difficult because it's kind of like a [00:46:00] blank check, and my wife is very excited and the kids are very excited. But it's like, when are, when do you have the opportunity and the money, you can always make more money, but that opportunity, that chance, it's like sometimes it's a one once in a lifetime kind of [00:46:15] thing. Yeah. And I think, yeah, coaches as, as you're saying, like if you're going somewhere, you gotta take that opportunity. You gotta take every chance you got that you can to create for yourself, for, for your business. I just. Sometimes I [00:46:30] feel like people are afraid still of some kind of re
Tami from Miami Reiss: Afraid of people, afraid of rejection. I'm still afraid. I'm literally hiring another person so that they can get rejected instead of me. Right? It, it's ballsy. And, but at the same point, like I think there will be less [00:46:45] rejection if that person has a better chance and more time to invest in researching where is the person at right now?
Right. What did they recently post about? Like giving them a sense of, I, one of the people I interviewed [00:47:00] said this yesterday, and it's gonna be part of my speeches now. Show me, you know me,
show me, you know me,
And that takes effort.
So I wanna do that,
David: That's a
Tami from Miami Reiss: but it, I'm afraid of rejection too, so.
David: Uh, well, I was just, I mean, yeah, I think we're all afraid of rejection, but at the same time, [00:47:15] it's, I feel like, I mean, it's kind of what you signed up for as part of if you're building a business, it's, it's what you signed up for. And so, but the other thing is, it's like, from their perspective, it it's not because they don't like you. They just, [00:47:30] don't really, either don't have the time or they don't really know you.
Right.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah.
David: or, or Mike,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Or you have someone else who's already fulfilling this need. So when I was a fundraiser, and I said that earlier for a reason, 'cause it is part of like my experience and my learning, [00:47:45] what you are taught as a fundraiser is that you're not trying to get someone to give you a donation. You're giving them an opportunity to give back to their community.
You're providing them an opportunity to do that.
When you're selling someone something, you're giving 'em the opportunity to get the benefit of your service.
I [00:48:00] had, I had a client who I talk about a lot 'cause she's amazing, but she was in a place in her, like in her mindset where she wasn't raising her hand for opportunities at work. 'cause she was afraid of stepping on other people's toes and upsetting other people.
[00:48:15] And I said to her, if you are part of those projects, will they be more successful? Will you come up with solutions? Other people did not. And she said, yeah. And I said, great. Then you're not stepping on their toes. You're helping the project, the initiative, the product, the company being [00:48:30] more successful.
Absolute 180 in everything she was doing. Unbelievable recognition at work. Promotion happened, she got stolen by another company and then stolen back. Brought back with a customized role for [00:48:45] her to just like ideate on things and be a problem solver for people
Because she started raising her hand and showing her value, which was already there.
David: I think so. I think it's, it's a perspective thing When I've talked with coaches [00:49:00] about, you know, the marketing or sales, because everyone, like, when it comes to sales, everyone has this kind of picture of the used car salesman and they don't want to be this used car salesman. Right?
When it comes to coaching, you're not selling [00:49:15] a, you're not selling a used car, right?
You're not selling, like trying to steal people's money, as you're saying, like she brought value to the projects she was in. you coach with somebody and you are [00:49:30] working with them, there is going to be change for the
Tami from Miami Reiss: them, their community, for their company, for their team, for their family, and if you did a good job in the positive direction.
David: Yeah, exactly. And so it's like, [00:49:45] so you're not really selling to them. You're not, you're not trying to sell them some kind of product. You're selling them that change, that positive outcome and instead of in trying to sell them, invite them to becoming a better person. And that I think is [00:50:00] where it makes it easier for, for coaches if they can get, their mindset about that perspective.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Um, so what's interesting to me is that influence training is also sales training. And I, I often summarize [00:50:15] like I give sales training to non-sales people because we aren't taught sales. We aren't taught how to get someone to sign on the dotted line. We aren't taught how to motivate someone, how to activate them and have them thinking, yes, this is a good idea, but we need to be, 'cause you're still selling [00:50:30] an idea, you're pitching an idea, right?
You're saying, I want you to give your energy to me. Your time to me, and the thing that's important to me, and that's selling
It, is like I, I call one of my trainings, life's a pitch because it is. And so like [00:50:45] selling isn't dirty. Selling is providing somebody who has a need the opportunity to buy something, which will solve their problem, right?
They can go to market. There's many options for how they can solve the problem. They can try to solve it [00:51:00] on their own. You are simply saying, here is an option where I help you solve this problem. I can make it as easy as possible. I can lower the friction. I can make myself obviously awesome as this sales coach, April Dunford says, right?
Like, how do you make yourself [00:51:15] obviously awesome as a helpful thing to a group of people? But this gets back to having a niche like. Part of what I think people feel weird about with sales is when you haven't defined your niche, someone comes to you and then they're like, well, I can sort of do [00:51:30] that. And they're like, wheeling and dealing as to how can I, like, twist myself into a pretzel to provide you what you need.
But if you have the right people, like this is part of being a product person, right? Like problem, solution fit, right? If there are people who have a problem and I'm the solution, [00:51:45] I'm the right fit. And I say that on my sales calls, right? Like I'm not the right coach for everybody. I, I'm a okay. If you say Tammy, your energy, it's not a good match for me, that's fine.
But there is a particular kind of person who I [00:52:00] am the best investment they can make. There are groups of people who hire me and I am the best investment they can make. There are lots of other things that other companies with different problems can make investments in other people. Right. I'm not gonna tell them about ai.[00:52:15]
I'm not gonna teach them about how to vibe code. I'm not gonna teach them about how to get better dressed. I'm not gonna teach them how to be a better customer service representative. There are other experts who do that. Am an expert in influence and [00:52:30] so I am one of your best bet options for that. So figure out where you're the best bet option.
David: I think we could just end right there, but I've got what, a couple more questions.
And I wish we actually had this conversation like three weeks ago because my son ran for [00:52:45] president or class, president of, he's in fifth grade.
But I was just thinking, oh, this would be great your influence program for kids.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Oh, yeah,
David: I always think about all these, all the stuff I'm, I'm learning, [00:53:00] right.
Tami from Miami Reiss: yeah.
David: just how do I apply it to my kids and teach them to
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes.
David: learn how to communicate, collaborate, influence. I.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I was in the middle of a podcast and my daughter came home from school and all of a sudden started [00:53:15] banging on my door banging. Mommy, I can't find my Legos. Mommy. I can't find my Legos. Mommy. I need my Legos. She's a 5-year-old and my [00:53:30] door was locked so she couldn't open it, but it was really disruptive.
And so I opened the door and I said, buddy, I'm on a podcast. Like I'm always on a phone call. I can't help you right now. I will help you when I'm done in around [00:53:45] 20 minutes. That's forever. And I was like, still, that's what the deal is. Close the door, lock it. Right? And then she keeps banging and eventually I actually can't have the list and I go get the Legos.
But I come back to the podcast [00:54:00] and I say to the, um, the host who's laughing about this whole situation, I said, I have to teach her about influence. Because had she knocked and said, mommy, I know you wanna get back to your [00:54:15] podcast. If you could give me a minute to find my Legos. I will leave you alone.
That's influence.
And that's the difference.
So I, I'm slowly teaching them.
David: Yeah, that, that reminds me 'cause I, I was speaking with another coach and he was saying he, he had [00:54:30] to convince one of his early clients for coaching he regretted it because he convinced them of just working with the people who they talked to, talked to them about the value that they bring.
And they're super excited [00:54:45] and because they're super excited to work with them, it's, it's great.
Tami from Miami Reiss: I had one of those clients, like in the call. Of the sales call, she was like, well, I just don't think coaching's gonna be that helpful for me. And I was like, okay, but like, these are the things I could do [00:55:00] for you and help you do. I always say like, if you're giving me a half hour of time, like I'm going to give you value.
And so, like I always did like a mini coaching session on a particular thing they were dealing with. And so I gave her advice about a split thing and she argued with me, not like, said, Hey, I don't [00:55:15] think that's gonna work. It was like, no, no, no. Like, it was like about like managing her inbox. And I was like, oh, I actually don't want this person as a client.
And so I didn't like hard sell the proposal. Like I sent the proposal and then I just like, but she wanted to be my client in [00:55:30] the end. And it was just bad 'cause she, she didn't wanna believe years and years ago I was at a uh, tech meetup. There was a founder in LA 'cause I used to live in LA who, [00:55:45] um, his name is Jason.
He founded a company around documents. But anyways, he was talking about how he had been trained in, um, hypnosis.
And after the training, [00:56:00] he tried it out on some people and it didn't work, like, didn't work. So he called back up. The trainer was like, dude, your training didn't work. I can't hypnotize anybody.
This is bs. And the teacher said, I forgot to tell you the one most important [00:56:15] thing. You have to believe you're the best hypnotist in the entire world.
And now he can actually hypnotize people because hypnosis is actually more about influence than anything else. Like it's a matter of like making that person, you know,
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: It starts with [00:56:30] you being confident in what it is you're selling.
David: Mm-hmm. That is such a good point. Before we wrap up, and
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yes,
David: I've had a fantastic time with you and I'm kind of
Tami from Miami Reiss: me too.
David: our time is coming up.
So here's a question for you. Looking [00:56:45] back at everything that you've done, if you could do something, if you could do it over again, what's one thing that you would've change?
Tami from Miami Reiss: the biggest thing I would've changed is the feeling I used to have that [00:57:00] I wasn't good enough because I wasn't normal. So based on my trajectory, I was supposed to at some point become a VP of product. That was the pinnacle or CPO eventually. 'cause the title didn't exist when I [00:57:15] started. And I wasn't a good match for that and I wasn't a good match for director of product underneath 'cause I kept doing this consulting work.
Right. I kept being in-house then consultant in-house and consultant in, and when I finally joined Melissa with this [00:57:30] Insight Partners opportunity, I recognized that everything I had done was leading up to that. And that like my brain was different. I have a consultant brain, I connect dots that other people don't see.
I [00:57:45] create this much faster, um, understanding of the lay of the land than other people do. And that's okay. Right. I can make a lot of assumptions, but like. A consultant's brain is different than like somebody who wants to be working at a single company for five years. Like, [00:58:00] I thought I was broken. 'cause I had never worked at a company for more than two and a half years.
And
had I earlier recognized that the common path just wasn't the path for me, would've been a lot happier. And so that's my biggest mistake, was that I [00:58:15] was trying to be in someone else's shoes instead of enjoying mine.
David: That's hard. That's hard to
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah. But now I, yeah, I, I enjoy being me. Like I wear lots of red clothing. I wear sparkly [00:58:30] shoes. I travel the world. Like these are the things that make me happy. They don't make everybody happy. Find your own joy.
David: Yeah, it, it's sad that we, that people feel broken when they don't fit the mold because, [00:58:45] um, I feel like it's, part of it is like we create this idea of what is normal in the world as we see it when, and truth, everybody has their, their differences in quirks and whatever, right? And I think that's, everyone's different [00:59:00] perspectives is what makes the world exciting, right? Like it's all the colors of the rainbow. It's not just black and white.
Tami from Miami Reiss: And, uh, in college, I used to say this to friends of mine, like, if you're working really, really hard on the courses that are [00:59:15] core in your major and you're still only getting a c, you're on the wrong major. Go to a place where your natural talents will shine. It will be better for everybody, right?
Like people who keep, and I'm not saying don't have grit and don't have perseverance, but like [00:59:30] at some point if you're putting in all the energy and it isn't paying off, reevaluate,
David: Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Tami from Miami Reiss: you have to actually do the work though. You can't just be like, oh, I'm getting C's. Like you actually like, like [00:59:45] in coaching, right? There are people who like, if you do the work, you get the clients.
David: Yeah. I think that part, that's the part that coaches have a hard time with is the whole client acquisition part of it. Of what? Yeah. I was talking with another, a coach in New Zealand. [01:00:00] He was just like, I was so, I know like there's lead magnets and there's nurture campaigns. I don't understand how to put all of this stuff together and put it into a system, and so it's just like, yeah, so it's just very hard.
Tami from Miami Reiss: [01:00:15] Hire someone else to do that,
David: Exactly.
Tami from Miami Reiss: you know? But when you hire someone else, you need to already really understand your value prop and your ICP
David: Yeah.
Tami from Miami Reiss: or hire someone who's gonna help you do that.
David: Exactly.
Tami from Miami Reiss: [01:00:30] But like it, all of it stems back to who is it that you're serving? How is it that you're serving them?
Why are you the right person to do this?
David: Last question. Um,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Last question.
David: we've kind of already talked about it, but, um, so what [01:00:45] is next for your, for your business?
Tami from Miami Reiss: So next for my business is hopefully on Monday I will have someone starting as a sales assistant, very excited about that. I am going to be investing a lot of time in onboarding them,
David: Mm-hmm.
Tami from Miami Reiss: them understand my [01:01:00] brand, my value, what I think is important in the world, why it is I did this, the kinds of things I talk about, influence, training, leadership, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Um, as well as how I want the approaches to be done.
Cause I want it to be as authentically [01:01:15] as if I was giving it as possible. And so that's the big next thing. And they're going to be focusing on corporate training gigs and association training opportunities and. I'm probably gonna go on like a tour of [01:01:30] associations teaching their emerging leaders about, uh, influence.
'cause it's, I don't know how familiar people are with associations, but there's an association for everything, a lighting association, a microphone, whatever, like wallpaper association, uh, wallpaper, [01:01:45] installers. Um, and people join those and pay membership dues with the understanding that they will have opportunities to network and learn and advance their career.
Meaning that these associations have to provide trainings
And so they have to take the membership money [01:02:00] and give it to coaches and corporate trainers. And so even if l and d budgets go away,
David: Yeah,
Tami from Miami Reiss: associations will still have budgets to pay for training people. So there's gonna be a lot of that in my life.
Mm-hmm.
David: [01:02:15] that's a great tip too for other coaches to start looking for associations that are looking for speakers.
Tami from Miami Reiss: Please don't become a speaker that doesn't charge the association money. 'cause that really kills me.
David: Yeah,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Like if you're, if you're using the speech as a free [01:02:30] opportunity to get future clients, that's not helpful towards the speaking community that charges for speaking. So please don't do that.
David: Yeah. I, I, I agree. Like, and you should be delivering value. Like it's an opportunity to speak. You should get paid for it. You, you're [01:02:45] delivering value, and it's also an opportunity to create more visibility for yourself and potentially get more or new clients to come in and work with you.
Tami from Miami Reiss: And also that doesn't mean you shouldn't ever not speak for free. Like the dry runs are free. I know somebody who's like giving a speech to a [01:03:00] whole bunch of like CTOs for free, like a CTO forum. Like there are reasons to do something at low or minimal payment. But um, please don't do that to the associations.
'cause then the rest of us will have no money.
David: Understood. [01:03:15] Um, Tammy, thank you so much for your time. I've really had a lot of fun,
with you and yeah,
Tami from Miami Reiss: Yeah, it took us like two months to actually make it happen, but it happened and it was awesome and it was so fun.
David: yeah. [01:03:30] I think we're good. Thank you so much. ,
Tami from Miami Reiss: No, Thanks so much for having me.
[01:03:45]