Navigating Your Career Path with The Power of Coaching

Are you struggling to achieve your career goals? Do you want to work smarter, not harder, and create the ultimate end game as you define it? Join me in this powerful episode as I share my personal journey and offer insights on The Power of Coaching in achieving career success.

In this episode, I discuss the differences between a mentor and a coach and explain why having a coach or a mentor is essential in reaching your defined end game. I share practical tips on how to stay focused on your vision, celebrate your successes, and navigate the inevitable obstacles that come your way.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, a professional, or just starting out on your career path, I hope this will inspire and motivate you to reach your full potential. So don't miss an episode, listen and subscribe now, and start your journey to success with The Power of Coaching!

00:00 - Introduction
01:56 - How I Became an End Game Coach
03:33 - What is an End Game?
08:03 - Why Get Coaching
09:41 - Working Smarter, Not Harder
14:00 - How Can A Coach Help You Reach A Goal
16:07 - Defining a Good Coach
19:15 - Why Having a Coach is Important When Navigating Areas of Struggle
20:31 - Summary

Transcript

Dr. Ryan: 0:00

Once you have determined what an end game might look like or what that future vision is then we do have to develop an actual strategy to get there, a plan. Again, with that will come obstacles with that will come opportunities, and that's where the, the ability to be flexible and dance and traffic and be able to learn to how to do that with a coach or a mentor becomes critically important. Hey everyone, welcome to The End Game Podcast, where I bet you didn't know, which you didn't know. I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, successful entrepreneur and your endgame coach. I'm here to talk to you today about a topic that's incredibly important to me and frankly a really good topic to explain why I am the End Game Coach. And that is to discuss the power of coaching. You've probably heard me discuss in the past. You may have heard a snippet or two where I talk about different instances where coaches have been used, whether that's for myself or for others. Key one I always kind of point to is if you're a golf fan like myself, you'll, you'll recall that even Tiger and his heyday and, and still to this day, has a swing coach. So even the greatest of the greats have coaches in different facets of their life, whether that's on the court or off the court or, or in the sport. So coaches, we've kind of shown through, many, many years that coaches are critically important to get the best out of an athlete, and that's where I'm here to make the argument that coaches are critically important to make the best out of you as a, an entrepreneur or as someone who owns, runs, founds a business. And so first and foremost, let me take a step back and kind of explain how I became the end game coach and why I became the end game coach. So if you've heard my story, you may recall that I had successfully rolled up a number of mental health practices as a board certified psychiatrist and had sold them to a private equity financial backer. And it was actually a humbling experience in so much as I, you know, I start off every podcast with the idea of not knowing what you don't know. And it was clearly a moment in my, in my career and my life personally and professionally where I realized more so than most that there were definitely things about the due diligence process and about the, the sale of a business the emotions around that there were things I did not know, that I did not know. And, and that for me was kind of the night is for, for bringing my experience both as a clinical psychiatrist but also in the field of, of entrepreneurship and business and, and exit to others as a coach, as a mentor. And we're actually gonna spend some time today talking about what's the difference between a coach and a mentor, because they're often used interchangeably and they, they do overlap a lot but there are some key takeaways in, in differences. And so that's why I decided to become the end game coach. And then the end game specifically as defined, however you wanna define it. So end game for me at that. It's not end of life, end of career it's just an inflection point. So the end game for me so far was the successful exit in sale of my business which I still sit as the chief medical officer of, and, and that's a, a nuanced piece of an exit that, you know, we can talk about in a coaching or mentoring capacity. But point is end game is, is how you define it. That could be a set, scale or growth standard over a certain amount of time. It could be an actual exit or a sale of a business. Sometimes it could be passing it onto a family member. There's a lot of ways to define what an endgame is. And so I leave that up to those who I coach. So getting to the kind of nuts and bolts of today's podcast again I am an endgame coach. I'm a coach by trade. I'm a psychiatrist by trade. But that kind of leads me down the route of coaching. And I talked a little bit ago about the fact that there is a notable overlap between a coach and a mentor. And I think it's important that, you know, you guys understand that as well. So for me as a psychiatrist, coaching just kind of slots right in there because it's about asking open-ended questions. When I was in medical school and residency and training and in my clinical career a lot of what I did was asking open-ended questions, right? Not guided questions. Not directed questions. Directed questions Might be more of a trainer, so, you know, if you're in a training or educational Aspect of your career that's likely to be much more directed much more specific. Whereas a coach, we will kind of present to you open-ended questions and then guide you through those questions from there. So a lot of it is Getting you as the individual being coach to have self-discovery and to kind of understand what are your core values and what do you want your vision and goals to be? How would you possibly define an end game? and then again, kind of guiding you through and giving you the tools to help really achieve that. So for me, a coach really slots into what I've learned in medical school and residency and in my clinical career more so than a trainer educator. And then there's a mentor. So a mentor helps to answer direct questions. They will often provide resources or information. Informational resources for you to do, again, kind of your own self-study. They're not gonna necessarily give you every answer. There's an aspect of mentorship that is about helping you stretch outside your comfort zone, grow your knowledge base. And you're not gonna do that by just question and answer. You're gonna do that through maybe being guided towards a resource and then coming up with your own answer once you dive into that resource. So you know, again, three kind of very overlapping but distinctly different Programs as you think about a trainer or educator, as you think about someone who might be a coach to kind of help you with self-discovery, explore what end game might mean, or, or what it is you're even looking for out of life, personally or professionally. You know, there are life coaches, there are business coaches And then mentor someone who's kind of paid all the dummy taxes or paid dummy taxes. You, you'll never pay all of the dummy taxes and can help guide you through presentation of resources. And, you know, some questions are very binary and, and can be answered directly, but oftentimes a mentor and a coach. We will answer questions with more questions and help guide you towards your desired endpoint. And so again, as we think about why coaching you know, it. Not everyone starts a business and knows where they're gonna go with it. A lot of people start a business and think they're gonna go somewhere with it, and it goes completely different direction. And your ability to kind of adapt and understand and, and be flexible. You know, I always say those entrepreneurs who are truly successful tend to be the ones that can dance in traffic because every day is a traffic jam. And so how you navigate the traffic jam and how you can work smarter, not harder. So your ability to kind of turn reactivity into proactivity, understand what direction you want go. And then be coached and agree to be coached to both better understand where you want to go and what, what an end game might mean for you, or what a goal might mean for you. But then also provide the resources and the guardrails and the mentorship around how to get there. I've not, I, there's many things I still don't know that I don't know. I have not paid all the dummy taxes, but I've paid a lot, and I can really impart a lot of knowledge to someone on, even if it's not specific to their business on broad strokes around what I've learned and how to avoid some of those some of those unfortunate opportunities that present themselves day to day. You know, I mentioned a couple of minutes ago this idea of kind of working smarter, not harder. And I'll liken that to something I'm actually trying out new, which is I've recently purchased the tonal, and I've worked out, I've, again, you've heard me talk about motion drives emotion. I'm a mindset coach, kind of first and foremost as a psychiatrist. And I, I've talked a lot about how your health set or your physical health plays a critical role in your, in your mental health, in your mindset. And so, you know, I'm very much, I, I believe in exercise. I believe in physical movement and activities, so I work out pretty much five to seven days a week. I you know, was one of those individuals who wasn't giving their body the, the time to reset and rest. So stretch and rest are important for muscle development. But what actually the quintessential idea of working smarter, not harder, and then kind of overlapping that into physical activity is the tonal. It actually has smart resistance technology, so it truly allows you to work out smarter, not harder. and the tonal is very akin to buying into or investing in or beginning a program with a coach or mentor because that individual can help you stretch outta your comfort zone. You don't grow unless you're stretching. You know, there's an adage, if you're not climbing, you're sliding. And that's very true. It can be very true. And climbing doesn't have to be the grind. Climbing doesn't have to be working so hard. 12 hour days, you know, seven days a week doesn't have to be seven days a week of physical gym, exercise. You can climb, you can be an entrepreneur, you can be successful, you can have wins and and achieve. Unlimited amounts of things just by businessing, smarter, not harder. And so to me that is where coaches and mentors and, and the overlap they're in that become so critically important to our day-to-day as founders, as owners, as operators. You've heard me talk in the past, you. when you are in the day-to-day, you know, working on your business, working in your business you're constantly presented with opportunities with, with traffic. And the more you can do it smarter, not harder, be proactive, not reactive. The less overwhelmed you will feel the better your mindset will. The better your physical health set will get and you'll achieve more in a shorter amount of time. And as you think about your end game, as I said it earlier, your end game doesn't have to be a notable event. or, or truly an inflection point in your career. But it does usually have to have some sort of time. It has to have some variable of what your vision, which, what you are looking to do in that timeframe. And again, the, the less days you spend overwhelmed and overworked the more likely you will achieve what it is you're trying to achieve. As I think about where I've come from and think about where you want to go that is really where a coach with some mentorship capabilities comes in. Again, part of what we would do if we were working together if you're working with any coach on a goal, on a plan, on a vision you would then have to make sure you put an operational plan or a strategy in place, right? So I, you've heard me say but kind of a goal without a plan is a dream, it's a wish. So you can have audacious goals. You can be very much a a dreamer a visionary. You know, visionary's a hot, hot button word but you can only be a visionary so long before it all crumbles apart. You can be a visionary your whole life if you have the, the strategy and the operations to get it done. Once you have determined what an end game might look like or what that future vision is then we do have to develop an actual strategy to get there, a plan. Again, with that, we will come, obstacles with that will come opportunities, and that's where the, the ability to be flexible and dance and traffic and be able to learn how to do that with a coach or a mentor becomes critically important. The other thing that will happen in journey, happened to me many times happened to me specifically, definitely in that moment of due diligence and, and kind of the emotional aspect of having found something grew it to where I grew it, and then to no longer be the unilateral decision maker. That's a big step. And so there's minutes, and moments in your career pathing, regardless of what your ultimate end game is where you, you will feel defeated, where you will feel on your own island, where you will believe that no one else has ever made this mistake before, again, that's obviously, again, hearkening back to my, my clinical psychiatric career. That's an important moment where you want to be able to lean on a coach when, when pressure's high and results are needed. A great coach is, is someone who's there for you to help you, you know, overcome that difficult time. Our mind tends to focus on the negatives when we usually, when we list out pros and cons, it's always easier for us to kind of identify and emotionally feel the cons. But the reality is a good coach is someone who will also help you truly celebrate your successes. And, you know, frankly, help you get more successes on the board. Get more wins on the board. Right? A great coach is one who ultimately wins. And again, that's up for discussion and individualization. However, you don't want to just focus on the opportunities and some of the negatives you wanna make sure you're also celebrating your successes. When you think about a coach or mentor and other thing is fit. You know, I always say fit and feels critically important. I made a career on interviewing individuals and I was always the one who interviewed, interviewed them around the idea of did it feel right, was it a good fit? And truly the science behind that is very poor. So I'm not recommending you do that. However, what we do know, again, in my career, what we know about a successful psychotherapy course, largely has to do with fit and feel. If you can build a rapport, if you have a connection, if you can kind of get on the same playing field then you're much more likely to succeed. And obviously that's the case with a coach or a mentor too. If, if you're gonna find someone and work with them, if you're gonna tell them, you know, your struggles, if you're gonna, celebrate your successes. You probably want that to be someone who you feel comfortable with being open, honest, transparent who you feel comfortable with celebrating and who you feel comfortable with approaching with issues with opportunities. So fit and feel is critically important. We know that to be the case in psychiatry. We know that to be the case from a coaching perspective, too. All that being said there will come challenges, right? Our goals always to be flexible, proactive, our goals always to be helping to kind of anticipate There's exercises where you can work on not knowing what you don't know, and you can turn that into at least knowing you don't know something. And then, you know, with time and training, you can turn that into knowing it. But the reality is no matter how proactive you are, no matter how many exercises you go through to try to avoid areas of struggle, they will come. And that's, as I said earlier, that those minutes and moments are where having a coach is so critically important because there's not only the aspect of wanting to only make original mistakes and the mentorship and coaching around having paid dummy taxes and, and help avoid those in the future, but it's also what you choose to do in that moment when life gets really tough and that's where a coach also can slot in and be so important and give you the guidance, even if it's not specific to that thing, give you the real life experience and guidance around how, how we might best tackle that head on, overcome it and move on from it as a team. And I think that's a another really critical part of, of having that coach or mentor, that business colleague who you can share those difficult times with, just like you can share the successes and kind of recapping here. You know, my story and why I chose to become the end game coach and, and kind of where I found myself in my career path and what I knew I could do to help others. And then thinking about, you know, trainer or educator versus a mentor versus a coach, understanding that there is a lot of overlap, just some different stylist some differences stylistically. And then the kind of day-to-day conversation. Understanding why having a coach is important both for your kind of being a visionary and being able to stay a visionary but also forgetting where you want to be and doing it smarter, not harder. Celebrating the successes, trying hard not to focus much on the negatives, but understand they will come and then how you dance in traffic to get to your defined end game. So I hope that was helpful for you today. Again, I'm I think it's incredibly powerful to understand where you are and where you want to go. And I, I know that it's incredibly important to have a coach to help you get there. So, I wanna thank everyone for listening. Please like, subscribe or share this episode if you found it helpful for you. Once again, I'm Dr. Ryan Wakim, a successful entrepreneur and your endgame coach. And just know that I'm here to teach you how to exist today, be in the moment so that you can expand tomorrow and create the ultimate end game as you define it to the point of your wildest desires. Thank you again. Have a great rest of your day and we'll talk soon.