I Spent $25,000 on a Coach During the Most Chaotic Month of My Life #645

At the most chaotic time of my life overwhelmed, and moving across the world I spent $25,000 on a coach.

Here’s why. In this video, I break down:

• Why I chose Daniel Priestley over Dan Martell
• What made me say yes despite fear
• The ROI mindset that changed everything
• Whether you’re considering coaching, building a business, or just feeling stuck, this story will give you clarity on what to do next.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why I Hired a Coach
• 2:11 My Business Challenges and Bottlenecks
• 4:51 Choosing Between Two High-Level Coaches
• 9:02 Why Invest During Imperfect Timing
• 12:11 Keys to Making the Right Choice

Transcript

Lachlan Stuart: 0:00

why I hired a multiple five-figure coach to grow my business. Over the last couple of weeks, since I've decided I'm moving back to Australia, we have set up the foundations. I've now moved into my office, there's a lot of things happening in life and I'm ready to plant my roots here back in Australia, and I'm very excited about that. One of the things that I look back on year upon year is has my life been getting better? Has my business been growing, my marriage been growing, all these key areas? And it's very simple. You can go yes or no, and I have metrics that allow me to do that. It's important to understand why, and one of the things that I'm very excited about being back here is really building towards that seven figure goal.

Lachlan Stuart: 0:36

As I've said, the reason why you guys are tuning into this channel especially the new YouTube, but if you're listening along on the podcast is I've been building a business for about eight years, since 2017. And I've always had the goal to earn a million dollars doing something I love that aligns and allows me to build the lifestyle that I wanna live. I think it's important. Yesterday, I was sitting here with a client and he was talking about he's in property. He was talking about how important it is to build your life by design A keyword by design. A keyword by design meaning you're intentional, you're choosing to do the things that you want. In the initial phases, you obviously don't have the leverage to do that, whether that comes through time, whether that comes through capital, whether that comes through being able to delegate, whereas I'm moving into this phase where some of those things are possible and I'm just getting clear on what that looks like. So when I looked and addressed what are the challenges that I have in my business and for me that was delegation I'm doing everything, from administration all the way through to coaching, to sales, to marketing. I'm doing everything, and I think most businesses go through that phase in the beginning and it's overwhelming Area.

Lachlan Stuart: 1:33

To step out of that is to then be able to start looking at the things that you're doing and going okay, of those things, which ones do I enjoy doing for one, which ones don't I enjoy doing? And they're gonna help you decide what's giving you energy and what's not okay, or what's fulfilling and what's not. From that, you can then also look at the tasks and group them into specific things. Beautiful thing about that is, if you aren't in a position where you can delegate and you still have to wear all the hat, you can start chunking your time, which means, rather than having to go bouncing between multiple different tasks throughout the day, which has proven to not be as effective as if you were to just focus on one specific thing it means you could go okay, I need to get all my content done from nine till midday on a Monday. I'm going to do all my sales calls on a Tuesday between nine and 11 and a Thursday between three and five, and you're starting to group these tasks together so that way you can set yourself up in the right location, you can get yourself in the right state or frame to do that and you'll be more effective. So really cool thing to look at there.

Lachlan Stuart: 2:33

From that, as I was starting to think about all these challenges and I'm listing these things out, I'm also going okay, which things should I not be doing anymore? And when I was going through and just writing down and this was an exercise I borrowed from Dan Martell with his buy back your time principle I was doing a lot of admin. Last week and the week before, I was doing about 25 hours of administration Then, on top of that, I had 15 hours of coaching and speaking and preparation and various other things, and so I thought to myself, if I could just get rid of the administration, I'm going to get back at least 20 hours a week, which what could I do in that time? I could potentially work with new clients, I could train more, I could do whatever I wanted, I could work on the business, and to me that was exciting. So, essentially, when I looked at it, I was at a point where everything felt like it was falling apart to a degree, because I keep hitting this threshold in my business and then I would pivot. I wasn't ever building through systems and if you want to create leverage in your life and if you're listening to this because you're a man who wants to provide, you want to build a life by design and you want to be the best version of yourself, leverage has to come into play, and that comes through time, money, reputation, because reputation in your brand does allow for leverage and then also delegation right Delegation or technology right Having people be able to do tasks for you that free up your time, and so cashflow was low.

Lachlan Stuart: 3:54

Moving back from the US, I'm wanting to start a family with my wife. I was feeling overwhelmed with work because, as I said, I was doing so many things and it was hard to stay on top and make sure that it was all done well because I did not have the systems. But I still made a bold move I hired a high-level coach and I'm going to tell you who that is at the end, but I'm going to run you through now the two coaches that I boiled it down to, their two programs and what the systems was like and how I came to my decision, because I know for some people, you may be looking to hire a coach, you may even be looking to work with me, but you're not sure You're sitting on the fence. So I want to give you the process and the things that I did for due diligence, which I think is extremely important. I have worked with amazing coaches in the past and I have worked with coaches who weren't aligned with me, and that was my fault. I didn't do the right due diligence, but I think it's important to look at those things. So I wanna share those lessons with you. Yeah, so, and be as honest as possible.

Lachlan Stuart: 4:48

Firstly, the two people that I was talking to was Dan Martell and his crew. I was looking at his accelerator program and Daniel Priestley from Dent. Now both of these guys have recently been on huge podcasts. I first came across Dan Martell maybe eight months ago just on social media. Have some friends that are doing this program. They rave about it and I really enjoy his content. So that's why I was like interesting, if I enjoy it, he has results that I want. He has seven figure backend and business and in a similar field makes sense. So that ticked that green light.

Lachlan Stuart: 5:19

Second was Daniel Priestley. I read his book 10 years ago maybe. I was gifted it by a friend called Key Person of Influence. I didn't really do too much with it at that point, but then I saw he was on Diary of a CEO and what he was talking about, the framework that he had. I was like that's very, it sounds very easy to follow and if I could do those things in my business, I feel like it's gonna help me go to the next level.

Lachlan Stuart: 5:40

So I'm interested and I started doing research and I started thinking you know the problems that I have lack of scalability it's all about me. You know the people wanna work with me. I can't do group programs. At the moment I'm doing all the keynote speaking. There was no leverage.

Lachlan Stuart: 5:54

When a client came on and we did a session, I would be sending the notes to them, I would be booking the appointments, I would be doing the onboarding, I would be doing the invoicing, all of it right, there was no leverage and I was just stretched thin because then I'm training for endurance events, marathons and things like that, which I love Don't get me wrong, love and then I've got my beautiful wife that I'm wanting to spend time with. We've just moved houses. There's a lot happening, and I'm not the only one who experiences that. I'm sure you've got your own experiences of being spread thin. That's why it's so important to look at how you're going to create leverage in your business and in your life.

Lachlan Stuart: 6:29

So the timing also wasn't perfect, because it was very easy for me to think I don't have time to invest in a coach, like, I'm already spread thin and I don't wanna sacrifice my relationship or my training or coaching hours. I don't have time to do it. I'll get to it further down the track, but the truth is I'm just kicking the can. When I was looking at both of these people, I realized they had the answers to the problems that I was trying to solve, and when someone has the answers and it can speed up you going from where you are to where you want to be, it's worthwhile looking at it. It may feel like you're taking time out of your current life which you are to invest in somewhere else that is hopefully going to move you forward, should you do the due diligence correctly. So, as I said just moved, cash was tight, big life changes were happening, but I still did it anyway, so I wasn't going to wait for that perfect timing.

Lachlan Stuart: 7:18

I have always believed in investing myself and over the last decade, even before I had a business, I was investing in personal development events. I was going to sales events, personal development events, professional development events, nlp. I was just trying to understand myself and the skills to build the business. I've spent upwards. Well now, with the latest investment, easily close to $200,000, like getting towards that which is wild, like that's a house deposit, or even paying off a house, depending on when you bought with the current prices.

Lachlan Stuart: 7:51

So if I'm thinking about that, okay, well, how do I get my ROI on that? Why is it important to just not wait for the perfect time, because the truth is, there isn't ever a perfect time. If time's issue now, soon finances might be the issue or there's going to be always be that next problem. And so if you can just say, hey, I just want to commit to this, I'm going to do whatever it takes and I'm going to make it work because I believe that this person has the answers and if I can implement and execute that, that will change my life. It is worth it, absolutely worth it. I see this with my clients all the time. Since I have come back from America, the results we've been getting with our clients even before, but really in the last six weeks, some of the transformations we've had with clients on their businesses, in their relationships, in their lifestyles, in their self-esteem and self-confidence has been a 180 degree turnaround in a very short period of time, and that's because we got clear on what the main problem was. We worked back, we helped them get clear on what was holding them back and what they needed to do in order to get the outcomes that they were looking for.

Lachlan Stuart: 8:58

I think the thing when you're looking at that is, if you're investing, there will be short term discomfort. It could be. It puts a little bit of financial strain. I wouldn't recommend doing it if it's going to put a lot. But a little bit of financial strain is okay. It may also mean time. It may mean you have to get up earlier or stay up later Okay, and it okay. And it may also mean it's going to challenge you. It's going to challenge you to think differently, do things in a different way, maybe make some challenging, tough decisions that you have been putting off and you've got to think about.

Lachlan Stuart: 9:29

What is the difference between staying stuck and investing in yourself? For me, I would have loved the multiple five figures in my bank account right now, especially as we're getting a house, a car, all these, all of these things. The expenses are really high, but I believe that it was an investment in myself and I'm going to make back that if not more, two to three X return on that over the next 12 months. That's what I've committed to from an intention standpoint. This is going to help me get time, money leverage, important things for me making the decision. So I wasn't looking for motivation. That was another thing to be clear on. If you're looking for motivation, don't pay money for motivation. Just jump on YouTube and search motivation I was looking for and I needed scalable systems so that I could get my time back but also grow my income.

Lachlan Stuart: 10:14

And I wanted leverage. I wanted to learn how to interview administration, how to set them up, what their SOPs operating procedures should be, what order I should hire people into my business, because there's a lot of decisions and orders. I didn't really have the experience around that. It was overwhelming. So I thought to myself, if I can get guidance around that, around someone who has done what I'm doing in the same industry beautiful, that's what we wanna do has the same results. Right, if you're not looking for a business coach and you're looking for a performance coach or a life coach, look at people who have similar lifestyles and you relate to, because they're the ones who are going to not only be able to give you the frameworks but understand your way of living.

Lachlan Stuart: 10:57

I wanted to look for proof of results. As I was saying, they both had a seven-figure ecosystem content leverage systems, speaking at scale. Style of delivery was another important thing to look at. Both of them offered one-to-one coaching. It was insanely expensive, like Dan Martell's was $400,000 for 12 months for one-to-one. Maybe a good investment. I just didn't have that capital. So I looked at the group from both of them and what the accountability came back like how tactical was it, what access you would get to people, and I weighed them both up. Even from the onboarding, like in the sales approach, dan's sales approach was all done by text message. There was no phone calls, it was all text message and then sent through a Google doc with the overview of how the group program worked. Now I thought how cool is that that someone's doing that For me?

Lachlan Stuart: 11:40

Personally, I liked dense approach where I did an onboarding form, booked a call, got a quick 20-minute call with someone and got them to, you know, got to actually speak person to person. That for me was a big tick there and I thought, hey, this is a more personalized approach. And for me, having done group coaching where you never get to speak to a person, and done small group coaching where you do, that's where I sit, because I want to be able to share my challenges and problems in the group and get real life feedback, because that's what's going to move the needle for me. I don't need generic stuff at the moment. Once upon a time the generic stuff was just as valuable because I was learning so much, but as you start getting more specific problems, you want specific answers, so keep that in mind. I, just, like I said, the lead flow experience from both of them and the pitch was the same. Right, the group programs were both similar. Right, multiple five figures for 12 months. But it was just like what was onboarding, like Did you get group access to small people? And like get to speak to people on a phone. I enjoy that because I want to, as I said, be able to ask those questions.

Lachlan Stuart: 12:46

So what I learned is when you should invest. Whenever there's a problem that you don't think you can solve and someone has the answers, it's worthwhile looking at investing. Obviously, you need to take into account if you're married or if you're in a long-term relationship. You've got to chat to your partner about that. You need to have an intention, right? The intention needs to be what am I going to get out of this program? What do I want that would make it worthwhile me investing in this, and that's something that's important to think about.

Lachlan Stuart: 13:11

Thirdly, you must take responsibility for the outcome. When you're investing, you have to do the work. You have to do every task, ask the right questions, prepare for the sessions to maximize them, and if you're not doing that, your coach can't be a mind reader. So, for me, every call that I jump on, going through the modules and stuff, I want an intention around how is this going to help my business and how is that going to allow my business to help my life? So something to think about that. As for how to know if the coach is the right fit, I go by the principle if you feel like you would have a beer with them, probably a good fit because you can really connect with them. Obviously, though, you want to have the accountability and assertiveness and you want to know that they're going to be more than just a mate. They're going to give you the kick up the ass and allow you to grow, and I think that's extremely important, and quickly.

Lachlan Stuart: 13:57

Just the differences between a mentor, consultant and coach. A mentor, to me, is someone that you don't pay. I have mentors, darren and Troy, and they're in the industry as well. They're highly successful, but we'll just catch up for a coffee every now and then, and we'll get to bounce ideas around what's working, how we could help each other grow and overcome pain points. It's just that guidance.

Lachlan Stuart: 14:18

A consultant is someone you would look at externally, bringing in to fix problems in your business.

Lachlan Stuart: 14:23

For example, I could bring in a consultant to work on my sales process, meaning I don't necessarily need to be there, they're gonna do those things. And then a coach is someone who's upskilling you right, they're working with you, they. And then a coach is someone who's upskilling you right, they're working with you. They're not necessarily doing something for you, they're helping you find those answers within yourself so that, once you've finished with them, you have this new level of confidence, new level of awareness to do the thing that you're looking to do. So if you're thinking about hiring a coach, comment below. Especially if you're looking at a high performance coach, comment below and let me know what you're looking to work at and maybe I can help you. But that is what helped me get clear on what would work in the coaching scenario and why I invested multiple five figures in this coaching program. My name is Lachlan Stewart, I'm a men's high performance coach and I'm focused on helping men who have had success in their careers but feel disconnected from their family, their health and their relationships.