You’re in the Driver’s Seat! Insights for Business Owners Seeking Education

Picture this: you’re a business owner who needs someone to lean on. You need someone to turn to with your questions, concerns, and curiosities. You want to know how to grow, what to focus on, and how to make it last. You start digging on Instagram and come across various coaches and consultants, you send a few DMs, and before you know it you’re on a call with someone that goes like this…

After a few minutes of pleasantries, they ask: “What's your profitability like?” (As if they have a right to immediately know.)

Or, “What does your P&L look like?”

Or often they dive right into drawing a 1:1 comparison with their own business, as in, “Well, this is how I run my consulting firm.”

It doesn’t take long before your head is spinning, and a creeping sense of overwhelm takes root.

But regardless, you push onward, and they’re driving the conversation ahead. As the conversation continues, it seems for all intents and purposes that they’re fishing to see if you’re the one who’s worth working with.

I’ve been exactly where you are. This is where I want to hit pause.

You have the right to interview your prospective educators.

Surprisingly, that's not a concept that I've often heard discussed. Typically the so-called educator takes on the role and perspective of being the interviewer, which can be a little intimidating — as though the paying client should be on the backfoot, anxious to see if they're good enough for this gatekeeper of knowledge.

But when education becomes an expense, I think the verbiage should be switched. To my fellow business owners, once again: please know that you also have the right to interview this person. Sure, their credentials are attractive, you’re interested in learning more, and that can — on paper — make it seem like they’re in the driver’s seat, but ultimately, this is your car. Your journey. You’re deciding who is going to sit in the passenger seat. You get to determine who is going to help you navigate the turns, bumps, and obstacles that lay ahead.

My skepticism might be an unpopular opinion, but I think it’s important to look past the glossy taglines that these consultants put up on their Instagram accounts and re-center the focus onto you. You know, the business owner with the pocket book, who wants to get it right and just needs some guidance!

To offer insight into my own experience working with consultants, coaches, and educators, be advised that they will often wedge into the conversation how they want you to take a course that they’ve constructed. To me, this comes across as… In a word? Pretentious. Recently I inquired about an online course, and the verbiage I received in response was: “We will let you know if you are accepted.” Now I get the point that they're trying to make, to make themselves look as though they're in high-demand. (And to make their high price points appear justified by their exclusivity.) Honestly, I find this off-putting. If a coach or educator is reading this, here’s a heads up: you might have a bit more success if your course and branding feel welcoming. I wouldn’t raise this example if it wasn’t an industry standard that I’ve noticed throughout the years. The age-old saying goes that you attract more with honey than you do with vinegar, so why should we as business owners be made to feel as though we have to earn these consultants’ favor?

Before sourcing an educator, coach, or consultant, for any small business owners out there who are feeling lost or in need of guidance, I highly encourage a little bit of soul searching on your own. Go back to the simple questions of: What do you want? What is it that you're not achieving?

In my past, during my era of being an immature business owner, those questions would annoy me. (Isn’t that telling right there?) My thought process used to go something like: “Gosh, I just want to make more money!” But in reality, it goes deeper than that. I knew it deep down. You know it, too.

If you’ve spent time reflecting but your answer is stubbornly still “I just want to grow my sales” then I’ll be honest, that is really empty to the soul.

Why are you wanting to make those sales? Why are you wanting to learn this new skill, this new mindset, or this new approach? What are you looking to achieve?

A helpful place to start when meditating on the above questions can be closing your eyes and picturing the lifestyle you’re aiming for. What does “success” mean to you, tangibly? Work backwards from there. Because at the end of the day, it is my advice that if you are wanting to pay for an education of some kind, the bottom line benefit is what, besides dollars and cents, does making this investment give you that you don’t already have.

Because let’s be clear, you and I as business owners already don’t have time to begin with, so if we’re going to commit to oh, let’s say… Four hours a week of coaching, with follow up homework online that takes about two hours a week… That time away from our day-to-day operations, away from our families, is going to add up fast. We’ve all heard it somewhere before, and it’s so true: if you're going to say yes to one thing, you're going to end up saying no to something else.

It’s only by understanding your own unique answers to those questions above that you can determine if someone who you hire to educate, coach, or guide you is going to meet your needs. Get comfortable with communicating what boundaries and expectations you have around and for your growth. Even better: tell whoever you’re thinking of hiring those bullet points up front.

If you determine that you’re not ready to take on the expense of hiring someone, there are still productive options for you to explore.

First off, YouTube. A fantastic tool that’s free for you to have in your arsenal. Play around and research to find thought leaders who speak to your specific questions. Sometimes I source people to learn from through my Instagram feed — if they’re thought leaders, they usually have a link to their YouTube channel in the Instagram bio. You can create a playlist to have on-hand for your down time. Play a video while you’re at the gym, during your morning routine, or while you wait for a flight. Learning from a video format makes it actually approachable. Here are a few of my favorite YouTube videos for insightful business education:

And if you’re ready to put a little money towards educating yourself, without bringing a coach or consultant into the picture, I love using MasterClass. Spend a weeknight investing in your business mind by learning directly from the best of the best. Here are a few of my favorites:

I want to conclude by saying that when it comes to learning at your own pace, and by trial and error, believe me I can relate. I’ve been there. When I first started out, there was a lot that I felt that I didn't understand, and plenty of obstacles that cropped up in my path.

For those that don't know my story, my husband is Australian, and there came a time earlier on in our careers that the US government decided to revoke his driver's license because he wasn’t far enough along in his immigration process. As you can imagine, this impeded his ability to work. For a family with five children that loss of stability was devastating. We had to pivot, and fast.

Our young family experienced a blow from my side, as well, when I was fired from a long term salon that I was associated with, and unfortunately there was a toxic owner involved who took an unkind and uncomfortable approach to this transition. To the point where I was greeted at my home, with my five children alongside me, by that boss arriving at my front door with a police officer in tow.

All of this to say: I've seen a few things. It's been ugly and I've had to educate myself in some tough situations, very quickly, whether I was ready to or not. On the other side of the coin, I’ve also experienced tremendous warmth and kindness when I’ve been at my lowest. When I was in that terrible position of having been fired, I sought solace in another local salon. That salon’s owner took me in, and I most definitely looked at her as a fairy godmother. To this day I have an immense depth of gratitude for her. When your face hits the mud and someone offers you a hand to get back up, you never forget it. I carry her kindness in my pocket with humility. (I love the phrase “you will never run out of kindness in your pocket.”) For those of you that hold faith dear to your heart, having that belief that your journey is just not on your own timeline can bring such comfort.

A beautiful journey can also be scary at times — but I lived to tell the tale. I believe that sometimes you have to sit in the mud to get to the gold. I know that that is not an attractive way of thinking of making business moves, but if I'm going to tell you about education and educating myself, you need to know this, too. You will have to sit in the mud to get to that gold. Sometimes that mud looks like navigating difficult personal obstacles, and sometimes it means relearning as often as is needed, until you can grasp the key concepts needed for success.

And for me, one of those concepts was accounting. To be clear, it’s not my favorite thing at all. I find it burdensome, difficult, and out of my wheelhouse — but I persevered until I reached a point where, to a certain extent, I can navigate my own accounting. With that said, part of the wisdom I’ve learned with time is that after achieving an understanding of the basics, it’s alright to delegate. I have a bookkeeper and a corporate accountant. (Thank you, Lord, for the ability to pay them.) Because it's not that I am incapable, but rather that I am choosing to allow someone to do that on my behalf, so that those things are taken care of on behalf of my business and my employees as well.

The pressure that fear can put onto us can be crushing, and the intensity of needing to cover your family's bills ASAP is very, very real. As always, I highly encourage you to be mindful and to reflect, whether that is in a journal or in your own voice memos. If you are in a stable job position and are simply looking to make some changes within your career — maybe you’re looking into getting a coach or consultant to assist you — take my story as a grain of salt. Keep your day job. Discover, understand, and underline what you're doing and why, and what you are hoping to achieve, so that when the time comes you’ll have your instincts ready to go. Safeguard your stability, ask yourself those important questions, and strategize.

It’s my hope that you are able to glean a nugget of wisdom within my experiences. Whether you’re considering looking for someone out there to help guide you, or just needing some reassurance that you can do tough things independently when it’s required, just know that at this moment, while reading my story, you are not alone.

I'm cheering you on.

🤍 Quinn