0 (2s):
Boom, shake the room, Fire Nation, JLD here. And welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like my first million stories about companies that grew from nothing into legit businesses. Today, we'll be focusing on how to build a million dollar coaching business in make any competition irrelevant to drop these value bonds. I brought to Dino Gomez on the mic. Dino started his business at 23 years old and has since gone on to do multiple millions online. He is a two comma club award winner, founder of Coaching Launch and the 7 Figure Visionary Mastermind today, Fire Nation.

0 (43s):
We'll talk about the best way to start an online coaching business. How an aspiring coach can define their niche. How does an online host differentiate themselves from the competition? And of course, make their competition irrelevant and so much more Fire Nation. When we get back from thinking our sponsors from tools that help with automating your emails, increasing sales gamification in more, it's never been easier to create an online course than with the Thinkific app store. Learn more and sign up for a free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/fire free. That's THINKIFIC.com/fire free hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on zip recruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invites them to apply.

0 (1m 29s):
So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire Dino say what's up to Fire Nation. And what is something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with?

1 (1m 50s):
Yeah. Well, first off, thanks so much for having me on today. I'm super excited to dive into today's episode and yeah. Something that most people overlook when it comes to becoming successful. I would say mindset and, and the reason I want to say this is because we hear so much, right? You're, you know, it's who you surround yourself with. That's who your mentors are. It's kind of sometimes luck of the cards. You know, it's your strategy. We hear a lot about that. And all that stuff is, is absolutely accurate. And, but nonetheless, I think your mindset is so crucial and, and here is why, right? Is that your mindset naturally, when you decide I'm going to become an entrepreneur, when you take that leap, I'm leaving my nine to five job.

1 (2m 36s):
You are instantly in the 1% and I'm talking not 1% of the wealthy, you know, maybe perhaps on your way, but you're instantly in the 1% in the sense that you are going against the grain of society, right? Society is teaching us go, you know, go to get good grades, go to a good college, get a good job, save for retirement, all of those types of things. And as soon as you decide, no I'm going to go and be that 1% that decisive to create something, to be an entrepreneur, to build a business, to impact people. As soon as you decide to do that, you're going against EV all the programming in the world you're going against what, what is taught to us as a culture.

1 (3m 16s):
And, and so it's going to be challenging. And to give you a little bit of background, a funny story here, like I started off just out of college, you know, working for a direct response marketing firm and six months in, I realized cubicle life is not for me. All right. And, and so I go one day and I'm preparing to give my two weeks notice. And I sit down with our, our boss of the company, really nice guy, great guy. But nonetheless, I give him my two weeks notice and he sits there and tries to convince me why not to become an entrepreneur. And John, this is funny, but he's like, he's like first off, do you know? You know, your chances of succeeding are very low. He's like, you're going to, you know, you're going to end up working more than you currently do.

1 (3m 57s):
He's like, and he even went so far as to say, he's like, you're gonna, you're gonna gain weight because when you work from home, the fridge

2 (4m 3s):
Right there, I mean, he was pulling out, right. I mean,

1 (4m 7s):
Pull out every single card possible to convince me not to go out on my own. And, and, and also just talking with friends and family, right? Like my parents supported this decision. And, but nonetheless, you know, you still talk to friends. They're like, dude, you're lucky to have a job. Like why would you risk it? And, and, and so it's just, you know, you're in that 1%, as soon as you decide, I want to become an entrepreneur. So you have to have the mindset that you're making the right decision and you have to be prepared to go and kind of battle what everybody is, is telling you, you should be doing otherwise, which is, you know, you know, to go the safe route. And so I think mindset is crucial because you're going to have bad weeks.

1 (4m 47s):
You're going to have bad months of business, you know, business fluctuates and you gotta be able to power through, and you gotta still have that core belief that, Hey, I'm going to make it through. And it's going to be awesome.

0 (4m 57s):
Brian nation, we're talking today about how to build a million dollar coaching business and make any competition irrelevant and Dino, I want to get right into the tactics, into the strategies. So let's be quick on this next part, but I do want to know the why, like, why did you start an online coaching business

1 (5m 16s):
Comes from the fact that I've just always loved helping people. I'm going to be Frank here, John I'm, I'm five foot five on a good day. And, but I always loved basketball. I was always good at basketball and high school. I played, you know, you know, for our team

0 (5m 30s):
Dude, Muggsy Bogues was five, two, come on.

2 (5m 32s):
Right, right, right. So, you know, it was always a dream.

1 (5m 36s):
I loved, you know, I love sports, but nonetheless right up, I wasn't going to be a college athlete. Wasn't going to be become professional. And in my sophomore year, the head coach of the women's varsity basketball team came to me and I was like, Hey, do you know, you know, we have an opportunity, I think for you to become a, you know, a secondary head coach of the women's varsity team, would you like that opportunity? Because he already saw the cards were there for me to, you know, become an, ever be a starter or move on to the next level. And so I started coaching the women's varsity basketball team, and I loved it. And from that point on, I kind of realized that I just love helping people.

1 (6m 17s):
And, and, and so, as I kind of got into internet marketing and things of that nature, I really, what I enjoyed most was when I was teaching, when I was training and just to see the ripple effect of how it impacted others, really, it's just really what, you know, kind of lights me up. And so ever since, you know, it's, it's a huge industry as well. So I saw the potential there to make great money, also impact others. And, and so that's really why I got into it. It's just following my passion now

0 (6m 44s):
Into the tasks Fire Nation, let's do this. So what is specifically the best way to start an online business? Because Dino, you've done some things, right? You've done some things wrong. Show us the good ways. Tell us how to avoid the bad ways. How do we start an online coaching business, the right way?

1 (7m 3s):
Definitely done plenty of things wrong. I will, I'll start by saying that. But the, the main thing rent is I going to go a little bit back to mindset is that I waited John about four years too long to start my online coaching business. And here's why I thought I might need a degree, a certification. I thought somebody was gonna pop out of a Bush and be like, do you know, you're officially now an expert. You're a guru. You're now qualified to coach and teach others. And so I waited too long and the fact is right, you don't need credentials. You don't need an online degree and nobody's ever going to come knocking on your door saying, Hey, you're now good enough to coach and give advice to others.

1 (7m 45s):
And, and so the first thing is that, is that realization that like, Hey, you know, you become a coach. As soon as you appoint yourself, good enough to help others. And so that's a huge mindset. Breakthrough is that a, is that concept right there now the best way to start an online coaching business, there's a lot of different ways that you can do it. There's a lot of different traffic channels and social media networks and things of that nature that can help you kind of build your audience and get going. I firmly believe you should start with organic, which is basically non-paid advertising in terms of where you build your audience. And really what you want to do is figure out where your target market is spending the most time.

1 (8m 26s):
What social media platform are they spending the most time? And, and from there, you, you want to cultivate and start building, spending time on that particular, particular social media network. You want to start building your audience. You want to start giving value. Main thing you want to do, right. Is figuring out what problems do you want to do a lot of market research? What problems does my target audience have and what can I do to help them solve that problem? So it, the right way to build a business is not a, what is, what do I love to do? It's, it's a combination of what do I love to do, but also how does that tie into solving the needs that the market actually has?

1 (9m 7s):
And because when you can solve a problem, then you know, you're always going to be in demand. And so I see a lot of people chasing things that they love to do, which is, is an important component for longevity, but you also need to make sure there's still a demand there. So it really starts with market research. And then this is what we'll get into in a little bit here that I'm really excited about. John is how do you differentiate yourself? Which a lot of people don't spend time thinking about, they just dive into their online business and they ha they haven't spent two seconds to go, how am I different? Yeah. All of the, you know, from everybody else who's out there currently. And then industry

0 (9m 47s):
It's so true and Fire Nation. I really hope you're taking a lot away from what Dino just shared, but I really hope you're taken away. What problems can you solve for a specific person? And how can you create the best solution for that? And guess what? You may not be able to create the best solution for a specific problem, because there's an amazing solution out there right now. And, you know, you can't create a better one for it. That's when you need to niche. So how can aspiring coaches niche down? Do you know, how can they define their niche? Huge,

1 (10m 21s):
Huge one huge one, right? How do you define your niche? It's actually one of the, the main questions that we get for from aspiring coaches is like, okay, I know I love helping people, but how do I choose my niche? And so one of the, one of the things we have aspiring coaches do is what we call the personality matrix. All right. And basically what this is, and this is a very tactical thing that everybody listening can, can do, you know, at, at home or when they have a moment is basically what you want to do is take a piece of paper, a Google doc, and you want to draw a line down the middle of the piece of paper. And on the left, you want to talk about all of your accomplishments in life. All right. Here's things I I've accomplished.

1 (11m 2s):
I went to college, I launched my business, I got married. I had kids. I traveled the world. All of the different things you've accomplished on the left-hand column, on the right hand column, you then want to list all of the ways that you think your friends and family would describe you. All right? And these are just, you know, personal attributes, friendly, outgoing, let's see courageous. It could be also specific to, you know, yeah. How tall you are. It can be all these different things, but your personal attributes on the right-hand side. And, and so what you end up having with this personality matrix is you have your accomplishments on the left-hand side, you have all the ways people would describe you on the right-hand side.

1 (11m 46s):
And, and this might be like, well, that person is a podcaster. They're a Facebook ads expert. They are an entrepreneur. They are a dad. They're a mom. Those are all the attributes on the right hand side. Then what you do is you look and you try and cross-reference potential potential like opportunities between the left hand side and the right hand side. And what ends up happening John, is that you create your niche by realizing how you, what accomplishments you've had and, and what, and then what attributes you have the way somebody would describe you. So, for example, on the left-hand side, when I was doing this myself, cause I was trying to figure out, okay, where where's my first coaching niche.

1 (12m 27s):
I lifted, I listed on the left-hand side, my accomplishments. Okay. I got these amazing results with Facebook advertising. I have an agency, I'm an entrepreneur. I graduated college, I got married. I, I listed all that. And then I'm like, okay, how would people describe me on the right-hand side? I'm like, okay, well, they would describe me as short, outgoing, friendly, you know? And I started listing those things on the right hand side, David described me as actually an SEO expert because I got started online doing search engine optimization, which is no ranking yourself at the top of Google. And so I started listing those things out and then I started cross-referencing and as I started cross-referencing, I, I came up with all these different ideas.

1 (13m 13s):
It was like, okay, well, I, on the left hand side, I got a accomplishment is I got married on the right-hand side of an attributes. Somebody would describe me as, as a they're like, you know, well, do you know, this is short. And so I was like, okay, can I perhaps be a relationship coach to help other short men, you know, you know, find their, their dream partner. Right. I was like, that's a potential niche for me. I did another cross-reference on the left hand side. I was like, okay. I I'm amazing at Facebook advertising on the right hand side, people describe me as a SEO expert. So I was like, what if I teach people? I teach SEO experts, how to run Facebook ads.

1 (13m 55s):
And, and so w when that happened, when I did this personality matrix, and we've done this for thousands of clients, and it's incredible what comes away when you do this, you don't realize how, you know, how this uncovers first off of your accomplishments and then who you can serve. But when I did this, that that's the one that really clicked for me that resonated was I can teach SEO experts who are used to relying on Google traffic, how to also run Facebook ads. And by doing that, I created this niche. And so I launched a Facebook ads coaching program. About three years after Facebook ads became popular.

1 (14m 35s):
And it grew into a multimillion dollar coaching program, because I was very specific. This was not just another Facebook ads course generic to anybody. This was a Facebook ads program for SEO experts. And, and so that is the, the power of the personality matrix is that when you do this cross referencing here, you'll, you'll figure out, okay, here's what I've accomplished. That I'm, I'm qualified to teach. And then here is a very specific audience that can relate to me that I can niche down into.

0 (15m 10s):
I hope you're understanding the power of the niche and the power of just defining your niche and understanding what that could look like and what that could be. And by the way, when you define a niche and find a niche and get down into that niche, that's not where you're going to be forever. It's not like you're sentencing yourself to that specific small niche for the rest of your life. That's where you get initial traction, momentum experience, raving fans, and then you grow from there. And we have so much coming a Fire Nation. As soon as we get back from thinking our sponsors, if you're a business owner who's hiring, you probably face a lot of challenges when it comes to finding the right person for your role, like not having enough applicants with the right skills or experience.

0 (15m 51s):
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0 (16m 31s):
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0 (17m 13s):
And that gives you an experience where you can pick and choose the right apps for you and your business. As you scale, then look no further than the Thinkific app store. The course creation options are nearly limitless. Create certificates, coupons, live lessons, private courses, and more and Fire Nation. You're invited to try it out for free for 30 days right now, visit Thinkific.com/fire free to sign up and get started on your online course today. That's THINKIFIC.com/fire free. So Dino, you teased us with this a little bit earlier, but I want to talk right now about differentiating ourselves from our competition. How do online coaches do?

1 (17m 54s):
Yeah. Yeah. So this is a huge one. And again, I feel like not enough people spend time before they hop into creating their online or offline business about how they're going to be different from their competitors. Right. They, they love something. They're like, okay, I'm going to get started on this, but have you really sat down and been like, why would somebody choose me over the competition? And it's interesting, John, actually, to this day, you can still ask majority of business owners, how are you different from their competition? And they can't articulate it in one sense. So true. Right. And it's, it's, it's a bummer because gosh, is it powerful? So excited to dive into this. So first off, I want to recognize you, John, because think about, I know that you spent time doing this big time, right?

1 (18m 37s):
Like you're like, I'm not just going to launch another podcast. I can't do it. You're like, okay, what is missing in the podcast game? So I can be different. And you're like, there's not a seven day a week podcast. Right. And boom, you entered the market with this, this new style of podcasting, Hey, it's going to happen seven days a week. You're going to have content on the weekends as well as during the,

0 (18m 58s):
And real quick to cut in. I was like, because I knew I was not going to be a good podcast host when I started, I knew I podcast, wasn't going to be that good or me that great. So guess what? I had to be different I need to be unique. I had to frankly, be the only

1 (19m 9s):
Exactly. And I mean, you're just crushing it, man. And I've, I've just loved your journey and it's so awesome. But yeah, and, but you, you did that, right? This, this, these are the little things that make the big differences, right? So here's a couple of tactical, tangible, tangible ways for you to differentiate yourself. Number one, what are your core beliefs and what is your brand? And when I was starting out, I was like brand, I don't like the whole branding thing. And it seemed very like corporate top level. Like, no, you don't need to have a brand when you start it. Now it makes a huge difference. Right? Let me give you guys an example here. Let's let's, let's, let's talk about Gary Vaynerchuk for a second. He came out with a very interesting brand. Even if he was his brand was be authentically yourself.

1 (19m 50s):
I remember watching his interviews and watching him on YouTube and he was dropping cuss words and he was doing, wearing a t-shirt and he wasn't wearing a suit. And he was going against everything that we were taught was supposed to be out of, you know, how to present yourself as successful, but he was being himself and that is branding right there. And so one of the ways that you can brand yourself or otherwise be, you know, differentiate yourself from your competition is what are your core values? What do you stand for? And then making that known. So in other words, making sure that's part of your marketing, baking that in so that people understand what you agree with and what you disagree with. So one of the ways that you can do that right, is, is by, you know, presentation of yourself.

1 (20m 33s):
But also another way, right, is, you know, for example, our, our company, we partner with a different non-profit every single year, this year, we're profiting with a nonprofit that is specific to supporting who have been victim to domestic violence. And we incorporate that into our marketing. We let people know, Hey, not only if you hop on board and work with us as a client, are, do we have these results? And are we going to help you in this fashion? But you're also contributing to this particular charity. And that's just our core values. That's our mission. That's our brand. That's what we stand for. That's what we believe in. And, and so we make sure people know that. And so instantly right away, people go, you know what I either like or dislike what they're, you know, the nonprofit, the charity that they're supporting.

1 (21m 20s):
And if they like it, it's instantly makes us a little bit different, right? From the get-go with nothing else done. So core beliefs, brand, number one, very simple to do, but makes a huge difference. Right? Number two is what I like to call again. This is niching down, but in particular, I call this John the relate-ability factor. All right. So how can you make yourself relatable to your target audience? All right. And the example I love giving here is I'm a huge standup standup comedy. I love standup comedy. And, and so if you think about standup comedians, right? There's, there's a ton of them. All right.

1 (21m 60s):
Why is it that we like one Stan stand-up comedy or comic rather than another, we can relate to them. We can relate to that's it. Right. Right. Their jokes are funny because we understand that because we've lived that we've been there. Right. So for me, right. I love Kevin Hart because his first tour was all about what it's like to be. It was called I'm a grown little man. It was like what? It's like to be sure as a grown man. Right. I laughed at all of his short jokes, like my wife and I, we have, how tall is your wife? She's like five, three, five, four. So we've been kind of shoulder to shoulder.

0 (22m 31s):
Okay. Shoulders, Yoder, cheek to cheek. I got it.

1 (22m 34s):
And so, I mean, we have stools all over our house. Right. So we can reach stuff and like the top shelf. Right. And, and so why did, why is Kevin Hart? My favorite comedian, because I understand his jokes because I relate to him. So when you think about your marketing, right? What can you do to make yourself relatable to your audience? Right? You don't have to be the world's best. Alright. You can, you can teach people, internet marketing, and, and people will relate to you because you're also a mom because you're also a dad because you know, there's so many different factors because you're also a veteran. We have a client that came to us. They're like, I want to start a coaching business. I just don't know how I'm going to carve out a niche. And we went through the personality matrix. I found out, I didn't know, he is a army veteran and served in Iraq for several years.

1 (23m 19s):
And I was like, okay, well, this is your niche. Teach internet marketing to military veterans. Right? And that's the personality matrix right there. He doesn't have to be the world's best internet marketer. But th the relatability factor is that other veterans are going to choose him and want to go to him because they respect what he's been through. They relate to his history.

0 (23m 38s):
We actually kind of even add one more thing to that. It's because Fire Nation, they know that, Hey, if this person can do this, who's been where I've been. Who's done what I've done. This person who's has my life experience can do this and be successful. I can too. That's where the relate-ability comes in. That's where the power comes in. So Dino, we're going to leave a little bit for Fire Nation to uncover when they, you know, want to dive deeper into your content. So share one more thing with us on this topic. And then we'll move on.

1 (24m 9s):
Third one I'll I'll share here is I'll make this one. Shorter is, is your methodology to get results. All right? And so, you know, some people teach that, Hey, you should become an Instagram influencer. Other people are like, you should grow a YouTube channel. Some folks are like you should podcast. You can become unique and differentiate yourself from your competitors by saying, Hey, I'm going to get you this result by using this different methodology for us in the coaching industry, our unique methodology is that we help you create a profit ladder. And in particular, at the top of this profit ladder, which basically means you have subsequent courses for people to graduate too, and kind of up level into, at the very top, we teach people, Hey, you should create a mastermind and bring in multiple resources to add a ton of value to your, to your audience and build this community at the top.

1 (25m 0s):
And it should be a mastermind. And so we help a lot of coaches that go from starting off as one V one coaching, or, you know, low ticket coaching. And then we say, Hey, when you tack on this mastermind, your profitability is going to go up. Your impact is going to go up as well. Cause you can serve more clients. So your methodology is how you get people. Results is another way to differentiate

0 (25m 21s):
Yourself. Fire Nation, as you can tell, Dino is a wealth of knowledge in this area. I mean, you know, this is the thing you need to understand. When you find somebody that's an expert in their niche, you got to follow them and you've got to learn more from them. You got to consume their content. So Dina, what I want to do here is give you this chance to kind of take the mic for a second and share the one big takeaway you want to make sure our listeners get from everything that we talked about here today, and give us a way that we can connect with you further to find out more about what you have to offer. And then we'll say goodbye.

1 (25m 55s):
Awesome. Yeah. Well, first off again, John really appreciate you having me on it's a, it's been a blast and the big takeaway Fire Nation is that there's never a perfect time. Again, somebody is not going to come knocking on your door saying, Hey, you're good enough. Or, you know, today's the day for you to start your business for you to launch your online coaching program. It's not going to happen. And nobody is going to appoint you an expert. This is a huge mistake I made. I waited and waited for the universe to tell me it was time and I was ready to coach others. It never happens. So you don't need certifications to become an online coach. You don't need a degree. You don't need anything fancy. You don't need to be a public speaker. And you're not going to receive that, that knock on your front door that says, Hey, you're good enough.

1 (26m 38s):
What actually happens is as soon as you say, I'm ready and I'm willing to, and I want to help others. And you start creating content and providing value to the marketplace. That is the day you become an expert and people kind of fall in line and start marching to your beat as soon as you're ready to step up as a leader. And, and so that's what, you know, that's the main thing I would, I would leave with everybody is don't wait. There's not going to be a perfect day. You can get started. You can be an online coach. You can use your life experiences. And I, I truly, and genuinely believe everybody has incredible experiences and knowledge to share with others. And the online coaching industry is booming.

1 (27m 19s):
It's going to be $325 billion industry within the next four years. And so it's a great time to get started. So that would be my, my big takeaway. And then yeah, if you guys want to learn more, we do have a special for Fire Nation, a big 95% discount. If you guys are interested in starting a or even consider launching your own online coaching business, just go to CoachingLaunch.com/fire. So CoachingLaunch.com/fire for $27, we will get, you started with your online coaching business. We'll help you find your niche, develop your message, differentiate yourself from your competition, build your audience and launch your first group coaching program.

1 (28m 4s):
We'll give you one V one support along the way. And so we have that incredible offer. I'm really excited about for, for all of you guys,

0 (28m 11s):
Wow. 95% discount and includes one on one. I mean, this is amazing viral nation, 27 bucks to get your coaching career launched. And again, that is CoachingLaunch.com/fire. Wow. Fire Nation. You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with DG and JLD today. So keep up that heat head over to EOFire.com type Dino DINO in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything we talked about today. Best show notes in the biz and the call to action. CoachingLaunch.com/fire 27 bucks and 95% discount is going to get you on your coaching journey. Fire Nation, make that happen. Dino, thank you brother, for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (29m 8s):
I appreciate it. My man, thanks so much.

0 (29m 10s):
Hey, Fire Nation today's value bound content was brought to you by Dino ans successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the freedom journal to guide you. And complish your number one goal in a hundred days, step by step. Visit TheFreedomJournal.com and use promo code podcast free $15 discounts. And thank you for listening to my podcast. TheFreedomJournal.com. I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side from tools that help with automating your emails, increasing sales gamification more. It's never been easier to create an online course than with the Thinkific app store. Learn more and sign up for a free trial of Thinkific at Thinkific.com/fire free.

0 (29m 52s):
That's THINKIFIC.com/fire free hiring can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you post a job on zip recruiter, their matching technology finds these qualified candidates for you and invites them to apply. So while other companies give you too many options, ZipRecruiter finds you the needle in the haystack. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire.