Why Coaches Matter, In Business and Beyond | Season 2, Episode 6

Greg Weimer
00:04
Hello and welcome to the Imagine that podcast. I’m your host, Greg Weimer, founder, partner
and wealth manager at Confluence Financial Partners. Each month, we’ll explore new ways
to help you maximize your life and your legacy and meet some extraordinary people along
the way. So if you’re looking to get more out of your life today and legacy tomorrow, let’s get
started.
Katie Montagazzi
00:25
Welcome, everybody. This is Katie Montagazzi, director of marketing here at Confluence,
and I am interviewing Greg Weimer, our CEO. So welcome, Greg.
Greg Weimer
00:34
Thank you.
Katie Montagazzi
00:35
Yeah. So today we’re talking about how coaches can improve our lives. And really from
Greg’s experience with formal coaches to informal coaches, from sports reading, books,
podcasts, and just how you can utilize other people’s expertise and experiences to improve
your life. So welcome, Greg. Like I said, I wanted to start sort of with Greg’s background.
You’ve been in the business for 38 ish years or so.
Greg Weimer
01:04
38 years, yeah, that’s it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Katie Montagazzi
01:06
We can’t round up and say. 40. And you share a lot internally here at confluence with
associates, how coaching has affected your career, your family, hobbies that you’ve picked
up along the way. So I wanted to touch on informal coaching, how that’s impacted your life,
professional coaching, maybe life business coaching, and then how you think a coach could
impact people’s lives and why they should consider. Yeah, I think.
Greg Weimer
01:37
I hope everybody goes and has some type of a coach that could be a priest, that could be
someone at the gym, a trainer that could be a coach to help you with or with help you learn
how to play the guitar. It could be a spiritual, it could be anything. It could be a business
coach, it could be a consultant, it could be a life coach. I think the single and by the way it
was a teacher at some point, right? If I think about the great teachers I’ve had and they were
just bigger than their subject and they taught me something and I learned from them so I
think everybody and you can hire a coach. I’ve had a lot of coaches for our profession for me
to think about our business, how we can improve our business, how we can add more value
to clients and I think everybody would benefit from some type of a coach. You have to start
with there’s no neutral.
Greg Weimer
02:30
So you either have drive or reverse. In life, there is no neutral. So you’re either improving or
you’re eroding. That’s just reality. Humans were not meant to stay the same. They were
meant to evolve and they were meant to improve. So if you watch the, at least from my
perspective, if I watch and I try to learn from the healthiest, happiest, actually the happiest
people, they tend to be improving something.
Greg Weimer
03:01
It could be as small as golf, it could be as great as they’re trying to build a major
organization, whatever that is, or it could be their health. To be truly happy and believe your
best days are ahead of you, you’ve got to be improving some part of your life. And I don’t
know how you do that if you don’t have coaches. I don’t even. I could try to count all the
coaches I’ve had that I’ve benefited from over the years. But truly hiring a coach will be the
best. It’ll be the best investment you can make.
Greg Weimer
03:31
I think if you think about making investments, the best investment you can make is in
yourself. The second best investment you can make is in your business. Then you go to
other people in other businesses. But if that coach is 1520 or 25 or 30 or $40,000, that
investment that you make on a professional coach, it’s the money that you’re going to get the
best return on. I have a coach right now. I was on with him this morning. He’s out of London.
Greg Weimer
04:01
I talk to him every two weeks. I probably spent too much money, but when I look back in ten
years, it’s going to be the best investment I make. Sorry for such a long answer.
Katie Montagazzi
04:10
No, it’s fine. That was a great introduction. I was willing to say. I think it’s interesting you’ve
shared a lot of this internally, but. Your quote, unquote, formal business coaching sort of
started with Tony Robbins. Whenever you listen to his tapes, when you were, I guess, early
on in your career, and then you go through, you know, that’s evolved into, you know, we still
utilize his type of material here at confluence. But books, you.
Katie Montagazzi
04:33
I think you said you allow yourself one nonfiction book a year.
GW
Greg Weimer
04:37
I used to. I don’t anymore. I don’t do any anymore.
Katie Montagazzi
04:40
So books are great.
Greg Weimer
04:41
Yeah. I used to allow myself one book on fiction, and everything else was, like, to improve.
Yeah. So, today, no. Like, I. And it’s not even what. It’s not even what I learned from the
book.
Greg Weimer
04:53
It’s what the book causes me to think. So it’s not the words that you read. It’s what. Those
words. They almost unleash your mind to be more creative, more thoughtful, more. And so I
think whatever that is, and we can name a bunch of them ten times. We all just read ten
times better than two times.
Greg Weimer
05:10
So, like, it’s. I think it’s, by the way, reading them in a group with other people. So, for
businesses, it gives you the same language to speak. So then when you start speaking the
same language, it’s easier to just communicate. Cause you have similar vocabulary. So,
yeah, it could be books. It could be Tony Robbins.
Greg Weimer
05:31
That was back when there were cassettes. And by the way, I think, like, I don’t know if I
thought about. And I don’t even know if I’d like them anymore, but in that point in my life, I
think I probably spent. I probably spent, like, $600, which was like, a million. So. And I went
and I got 30 tapes from Tony Robbins, and I put them in my cassette player in the car, and. It
was game changer.
Katie Montagazzi
05:53
Yeah, I just want to start somewhere, like Tony Robbins cassettes, whatever that means.
Books, those are more like informal things you can utilize every single day. That’s easy to
grasp. One thing I wanted to mention was you had said, when things change in life and you
have different seasons of life, maybe that means you invest in a coach or you listen to
certain podcasts. But you always mentioned September 11 and how you believe the world
changed, which it did, and you knew you had to change.
Greg Weimer
06:22
100%. Yes. When September 11 hit, I thought, okay, I need someone to help me think
through. The market reacted, and it was very frightening time. So I thought, okay, what I did.
September 10 has to be a little different than I’m doing September 12. So I went and hired a
coach to really help me get focused so I could help people navigate through that period of
time that was frightening, not only from a financial standpoint, but from a safety standpoint.
Greg Weimer
06:53
So we were worried about our health and our wealth because we didn’t know, you know,
what it was going to feel like to get on an airplane. So I literally went and got a coach to help
me think through how I could behave differently through that period of time.
Katie Montagazzi
07:05
Yeah, I just think that story is.
Greg Weimer
07:06
Important, by the way. I also think it’s important for a family or a couple. Right. So it’s really
important that couples are on the same page. So Lori and I, my wife went to, like, a two day
type. Seminar in Pittsburgh on prioritization. And at that point in our life, it was very, very
important.
Greg Weimer
07:26
We did that. So I think if you can do it as a couple or as a family, it’s extraordinarily powerful.
Katie Montagazzi
07:32
I think that’s a really good point. When you say different seasons of life cause you to have
different coaches or different ways you think about things, but it can include your spouse and
your family. It doesn’t need to be all about. Me, me, me, me, me. How can you improve your
life? And that might mean different people.
Greg Weimer
07:46
I went to this coach up in Toronto, Dan Sullivan, and it was a lot of money, and I went up
every quarter. And people came around from around the world. There was a small group of
us came around the world, business leaders, and we did. And, you know, hardly any. I got a
lot from that. It was fabulous. It was great investment, but probably the.
Greg Weimer
08:04
Greatest thing I got from that was the importance of Lori and I going away for a long
weekend. January, February, March, April, and we went away. And now you wouldn’t think
business coach. Trying to learn how to grow in your business and have a greater impact on
people. You wouldn’t think that that would be the takeaway, but I’m telling you, that. Was a
game changer. Again, that was a moment in time.
Greg Weimer
08:24
That Laurie and I go in a way for. And by the way, if anyone wants to think about, we would.
We would go away. Four long weekends every single month. You’re always three weeks from
vacation or going on vacation. And it just. It was really important for us at.
Greg Weimer
08:39
That period of our life. So, yeah, so what you get from the coaching, it’s not all about
business. I went to a business coach, and personally, it was a very important moment.
Katie Montagazzi
08:51
Yeah, that’s actually a good segue. I was going to mention, not every coach that you hire, not
every bookery or podcast listen to. You need to take as scripture 100%, like, I believe in this.
I’m gonna change my life because of all these things I learned. But the one, two, three,
whatever nuggets you get from those experiences, that’s the investment you make. That’s
the result.
Greg Weimer
09:12
The naysayers were like, oh, but that. Guy or that gal, you know, they do. The naysayers.
Hey, listen to me. 80% of its b’s. Yeah. The 20% will change your life.
Katie Montagazzi
09:20
Yes.
Greg Weimer
09:20
So you just have to, like, understand, like, 80. So, like, there’s a certain portion of it that’s
needless self promotion that makes me crazy. Like, I’m already paying. Stop trying to sell
me. The next thing I get it. So you have, like, the needless self. Promotion, you have the little
bit of.
Greg Weimer
09:33
B’S, and then you have the Life changing. So what if it’s 20% is life changing? Focus on that,
not the fact that. He’S on his third wife or second. Wife or whoever these people are that are
naysayers. Just focus on the 10% or 20%. That’S gonna change your life.
Katie Montagazzi
09:51
Yeah, yeah, that’s great.
Greg Weimer
09:52
There’s always a reason not to do it, right? I mean, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but. Or this
place or. Yeah, but you had to go to. Vegas for a week. Yeah, but be careful that you have
buts. It’s really important.
Katie Montagazzi
10:04
Yeah, so. Something I want you to share is what do you think three or five or whatever
amount of takeaways are important for people to know? Like, this is how you’ve experienced
coaches impacting your life.
Greg Weimer
10:19
So my current coach has me, first of all, the one thing they all do for you is they. And by the
way, I know the term, it’s metacognitive. It’s metacognitive. Metacognitive is. I just asked my
daughter the word, so I was pretty sure. Metacognitive is when you think about your thinking,
and really thinking about your thinking is extraordinarily important because the stories you
tell yourself will become your life. So you got to really think about what stories you’re telling
yourself because what you focus on, you will multiply.
Greg Weimer
10:54
So I think one of the things a coach does is they really help with that. So that’s one of the
things my coach has me focused on. They also really help you focus on your goal. Ten
years. What is it you’re trying to accomplish? My coach said to me this morning, so are you
afraid you’re playing small ball? Another reason they’re like, let’s make sure we continue to
think big.
Greg Weimer
11:16
Think big. Think big. So they do help you clarify your goals. There’s some coaches, and by
the way, all coaches, they’re all good at something different, right? So, like, so I tend not to
keep the same coach forever, but because some are really good at clarifying your goals,
some are fabulous at putting together the process to achieve your goals. All tend to be pretty
good at helping you stay accountable to your goals. But in my world, it just feels like if I can
help someone, if someone can help me crystallize what it’s all about for me in my life, if they
can help me think through some of the key activities and behaviors I need to do to make it
actually happen, and then they can help me and sort of call B’s when it’s not true that I’m not
doing it, held me accountable to what I said I was going to do.
Greg Weimer
12:04
For me, that’s a pretty good recipe. So I think that’s what a coach, at least for me, that’s what
they do.
Katie Montagazzi
12:12
Yeah. And I didn’t want to mention, too, a lot of people use the term business coach, but from
your experience, and what I’ve heard is. You could have a coach that helps you think about
your thinking, which isn’t necessarily tied to the business of wealth management, but the way
you think about your thinking does affect the business. So for people to really expand their
minds and think, I don’t need a business coach. I just need somebody to help me improve.
XYZ.
Greg Weimer
12:37
Right? Yeah. I mean, for me, business and life is sort of the same. So, like, it’s all the same
to me. But really, but really making sure on a daily basis, your peak, to make sure that you
are doing your best job possible for your associates, doing the best job possible for your
clients and your family. It’s really making sure that you have your stories that you’re telling
yourself. Positive.
Katie Montagazzi
13:08
Right? Last question. This might not be a formal answer from you, but if somebody said, hey,
I do want to invest in myself, whether it be a coach or a book or whatever, how do you think
they should go about that?
Greg Weimer
13:19
Yeah, I talk to friends and say, like, hey, who do you use, coach? Call me. I’ll give you some
thoughts on who I used. This new coach is the guy out of London. I mean, I’ve only worked
with him for a month and a half, but I’d ask around. I also just start googling. Like, I start
googling and say, what’s this person?
Greg Weimer
13:42
Or I get on YouTube and I’m like, okay, I’ll watch a YouTube video of a coach. I’m like, do I
connect with this person? Are they speaking to me? And do I think I could benefit from that
person? And don’t get bothered that in a couple years you feel like, okay, I got what I think I
need from that person. Next coach. And it doesn’t need to be formal either.
Greg Weimer
14:02
You could say two, three associates. Let’s get together and let’s have it. Gregory. My son and
I, we go to Dallas every four months to talk to other organizations like ours to make sure that
we are thinking about the business appropriately. So it could also be, I’m doing another one
in a couple weeks in Orlando with a different group of businesses. So it could be specific to
your industry. It could be, you’re like, hey, man, you know what?
Greg Weimer
14:30
Today’s the day I’m going to get in shape and I’m going to call the gym. I’m going to get a
personal trainer. And that personal trainer is going to be very empowerful to you because it’ll
hold you accountable. Because if I tell the trainer I’ll see him at four, I’m more likely to see
him at four than if I tell myself I’m going to work out at four. So the accountability. So I think
some of it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, and then it may be spiritual. There’s
spiritual folks out there that can help.
GW
Greg Weimer
14:53
With your faith. So first I think you have to figure out, like, what is it that I’m trying to improve
right now? It could be whatever. And then you go get a person or a group of people that are
working on the same thing. And it is amazing over a 1020, 30 year period of time, how it truly
does change the trajectory of you personally and your career.
Katie Montagazzi
15:13
Yeah. Yeah. So. I guess to sum that up, you said in the beginning of the podcast, humans
are most happy when they’re improving. And that’s really the impact. Yep, that’s the impact of
hiring a coach or just getting better. So thanks for sharing your experience.
Katie Montagazzi
15:29
I enjoy it. I hope everybody takes a little nugget from this coaching session, if you will. But
thank you, and I look forward to talking with you again. If we can help, call.