Is coaching right for you?

I’m sure that if you have listened to podcasts from almost any entrepreneur they make you feel that paying for coaching is the only way to succeed.  Or at least succeed faster.

I thought the same thing.  So I hired my first coach and didn’t hold anything back. 

Here’s the thing, I hired a fitness coach and I’m in the transportation industry.  This guy didn’t know anything about my industry at all!  Like he didn’t even know that it took a CDL to drive a truck.  

What was I thinking? 

Hiring him to help me get more results?  

He had awesome results when it came working one on one with a person, but had no clue what it took to get a contract with a business, or the amount of time and effort it took to land those contracts. He was used to getting massive results from his clients because he taught them how to sell to individuals.  

The key here isn’t that coaches cant help.  The key is that you need to find the right coach!

Don’t just listen to your friends and people you reach out to.  Take time and research before you spend your hard-earned $$.  

When I first started the conversation with these guys it was all roses.  This thing is that they were running me through a sales pitch.  I carefully paid attention to it because I knew what was going on.  but I still got sucked into it.  They didn’t ask me any questions about my real goals.  And at the time I didn’t realize that they were using a script to get me through the door.  

Here’s the thing about me.  

I hate scripts.

As a kid, we used to put on 1 act plays.  The directors always “hated” me because I would constantly go off-script to add humor to the production.  

It took me a long time to realize it, but God was telling me never to script anything in my business.  He was giving me the foundation to keep it personal.  The way business should be.  

So do I think that you need to hire a coach to help you get to the next level?  

YES.

But make sure they are the right fit for you.  Do some research.  Get them to give a free month of their teaching and see where that month takes you.  Don’t afraid to fire them and find one that fits your style better.  

The biggest key that I want you to hear is that I’m not upset that my first coach(s) didn’t perform the way I needed them to.  I used that as a learning experience so I knew what to look for in a coach.  

Before you hire a coach, listen to their podcast, read their blogs, dig into their personal life (a little) to make sure that they will be a good fit.  Then after you start don’t be afraid to change and ask for a refund.  Think about it, if you don’t provide the services to your customers that they expect wouldn’t they expect a refund?

I hope that this helps you. Get out there and find the right coach for you!

Stay safe and keep the rubber side down.

Dan

Trust as a leader

I grew up hearing the trust isn't given it's earned.

 While I agree with that, I also disagree with it.

I agree with the premise that trust can be lost extremely easily. all it takes is one mistake and all the trust you earn is lost.

The reason I disagree with it is that we have to have some trust to survive. I trust it when I go to the store I'm not going to get shot at. I trust it when I get in my car brakes are going to work.  I trust a bit when I go to work in the morning my teammates are going to be there to help me and we're going to work together to accomplish the project.

You see trust is one of the most important things that you can have in life and it's not always learning sometimes you have to give it.

As a leader, trust is extremely important.

I'm sure that we've all worked for bosses they didn't trust. Think back, do they make you feel? Did you want to go to work? Did you put your whole heart and everything that you were doing? Did you give your best?

The answer for me is no. When my boss didn't trust me I didn't perform as well as I could have or should have because I knew it would never be good enough. When they question my every action they continue to strive hard to be the best person I could be, no.

As a leader, if you don't trust your people then you're not getting the most you can get. 

Not everybody is going to be able to relate to this but a lot of you will. 

As a father or mother do you trust your kids? If you ask them to do something, do you trust that it will get done?

Me, I do. I trust my kids wholeheartedly that they will try their best to get it done. I also know if they make mistakes, and I know it won't be perfect, and I also know that I could probably do it better and faster. what does a teach them if I don't trust them?

As a child how did you feel when your dad trusted you to do something? I still remember the first time my dad gave me a screwdriver and said go clean the carburetor out on this lawnmower. I was scared to death what's so excited. after I got done came out and he looked at it and we tore the carburetor back apart and we put in a few pieces that I didn't buy get put together right but throughout the whole process never belittled me never talk down to me. All we did was explain how I could have done better, he explained but it's hard to remember how everything goes back together the first time you do something.

The point is trust goes a long Wings Frost can make your teamwork together. The lack of trust will tear your team apart.

I work for a boss one time and on a team of three people, he's somehow divided the entire team for we all dislike each other. He thought Dubai feeding each Amore goes individually not as a team he will accomplish more out of us. He would create a rivalry between this and it would cause us to create inner competitions. What you did was took a team of three people who are fairly tight all my chores all part oh, and broke us down where we didn't even want to see each other anymore.

Because of his lack of trust in all of us his team failed.

Have you ever been in a leadership position where you had to trust somebody completely new somebody you never met before in your life?

The next time that you get put into a situation where you trust somebody, trust me. Don't hesitate to give them the benefit of the doubt. Know that they can accomplish the task just as well as you could do it.  they might even do better than you could you never know.

Why you should never separate God and business/work.

Alright, y'all know I'm a strong Christian.

We also know that I haven't always been a strong Christian. 

There was a time in my life where I wouldn't talk about God, anywhere. Except in my own house or a church.

I was what we call a Sunday Christian. 

You see God opened my eyes. He told me that it was all right to talk about him at work. 

He showed me that people would be interested in learning about him no matter where I was.

He showed me all of my social platforms are great areas to talk about him and that others want to know about him too.

I had somebody call me the other day and they said, “Dan I would love to have the courage and strength that you do when it comes to talking about God.” 

I asked him what they were talking about. 

They said, "Well, you're not afraid to talk about God anywhere! You put verses at the bottom of your web pages. You claim him in every aspect of your life. You give him full credit for everything that's ever happened to you."

They brought up something that never crossed my mind. I give God credit for everything. I'm not scared of him. I'm not scared to admit that I know him, that I love him, and I know that he uses me. 

You see I know that God exists and I know that God works in my business, the same as  he works and so many other businesses around the world. 

God wants us to succeed, he wants us to prosper, he wants us to win. 

Why would you take away the best thing that could ever happen to your business by being scared that a customer might leave if you talk about God?

Think about what you can do to keep God in your life. Think about what you can do to add him to your business, to add him to your work life.  I encourage you to go out and be a HOT Chirstian, not a lukewarm one!

Wake UP Early!

 Waking up earlier to add time to your day

I can't tell you how many books that I've read that have told me to wake up earlier to add extra time to your day. When I first started reading these books, I thought man these authors are crazy. 

What are they smoking? 

Then I decided to start listening to them. 

I set my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier on the first day. I started waking up at 5:45. The next week I set my alarm 15 minutes earlier again, and got up at 5:30.

Now I wake up without an alarm clock just before 4:30 every day without even thinking about it. 

It is our great thing!

Here's what I found by waking up earlier. 

When it comes time to go to bed in the evening, I'm ready to go to sleep. I'm bedded down by 9 o'clock, and asleep by 9:30- 10pm every night.

When I get up at 4:30, I have time to do everything I want to do before anyone in my house ever thinks about opening their eyes. 

I get so much work done in the morning before any of my kids get out of bed.  

We all have a magic time and I've discovered that my magic time is between 5:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. If I can have that & not be disturbed. my creativity levels soar higher than any other time of the day.

Here's my recommendation for you. 

Start this week by waking up 15 minutes earlier. Then do the same thing next week 15 minutes earlier again. See what it does for you, see how it changes the amount of work you get done. 

Let me know after you try it. What were your results?

In the comments tell me what time you're getting up I'd love to know

PS. I almost forgot, never hit the snooze button! 

NEW Short Haul Exemption Takes Effect 9/29/2020

NEW SHE

Let's talk about the new Short Haul Exemption rules coming out soon.

FMCSA announced the other day that they will be changing the Short Haul Exemption rules across-the-board. 

This is a great thing for all companies that operate under this exemption & some that will be able to operate under it now!!

You see right now a CDL driver can only work 12 hours a day. They also have to stay within a 100 air mile radius of their start location to use the short haul exemption.  

While non-CDL CMV drivers can work upto a 14 hour day. They have to stay within a 150 air mile radius of their home base. 

We found when you try to teach the differences to the drivers that they struggle to understand the differences. Especially if you're trying to teach it to people who operate both Non-CDL CMV’s & CDL vehicles.

We are excited to announce that FMCSA has just announced that most likely by October 1st 2020 all drivers will be able to operate under the NEW short haul exemption rules.  

The rule will state that everybody, CDL and non-CDL commercial drivers can operate: 14 hour days.  It also says that they need to stay within a 150 air mile radius of their home base.  

That's HUGE how many companies will be able have their CDL drivers operate under the NEW short haul exemptions

Short Haul exemption & the 70 Limit for CMV drivers

Short Haul Exemption and 70 Hour Limit

There are tons of things to talk about under the Short Haul Exemption, but we're not going to get into the weeds today. What we're going to focus on is the 70 hours in 8-day or 60 hours in 7-day rule.

Did you know that under the short haul exemption you still have to abide by the 70 hours in 8-day or 60 hours in 7-day rule.?

So many times we forget about that part of the regulation.  

The Short Haul Exemption gives us the ability to work up to 12 hours a day, for CDL drivers and up to 14 hours a day for non-CDL commercial drivers. 

A lot of companies forget that even though we can work 12 hours a day we can't go over 70 hours in an 8-days. Without taking a 34 hour reset or 24 hour reset if you're in the oilfield.

Many drivers think they can drive 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.  That's a total of….  I'm horrible at math, let me get my calculator, out hold on… 84 hours in 7 days but they're wrong.

No matter what exemption you're operating under, you must abide by the 70 hours in 8-days or 60 hours in 7-days regulation.

We know that there was a TON of valuable content in the post.

We'd love to hear back from you.  Give us a comment on something else you'd like to learn more about.

Family road trips are the BEST!

When we first started our business, we weren’t making the progress as quickly as we wanted.  We couldn’t figure out why either.  We kept moving forward but it was at the speed of a snail.  It didn’t feel like we were making any headway. 

In the middle of this, we took an extended family vacation where we loaded up our 4 kids in the car and drove from Colorado to Red Lake Canada.  If you’ve never been to Red Lake, I’ll give you a quick rundown on it.  You go straight north from where Minnesota and Canada meet about 7 hours.  It was an awesome drive.  We spent 24 hours in the car and saw countless awe-inspiring things along the route. 

It was on the drive where we really had time to reconnect with each other and talk.  That’s one the reasons we love driving so much.  All of the time to reconnect as a family is amazing.  During those times we talked about the business and where we wanted it to go what we really wanted to be able to accomplish with it.  Without ever writing a word, we made our business plan and set up goals. 

We spent a week in Canada and enjoyed every second of the time.  We rented a small fishing boat for a day and caught tons of fish.  Our youngest son caught his first Pike!  Our oldest caught a small mouth bass.  Which we didn’t see as a huge accomplishment but after talking to the locals, they said that anyone who catches a bass in those lakes is truly blessed.  We took a biplane tour of the lake, taking off and landing on the lake several times.  In the air, we saw a couple of bears and even were blessed with the privilege of seeing two Bull Moose.  What is the plural of moose, meese?  Who knows.  Lol.  My wife and went out one evening and found an ole dirt road and went for a drive until sunset.  It was an amazing experience all together.  Oh yeah who could forget we had to try poutine, a Canadian fry dish.  It was great ehhh. Lol.

After we left Red Lake, we headed off to Pennsylvania, another 24 hours in the car.  During the trip, our entire family continued to reconnect.  Our kids were getting along great; my wife and I were able to talk more about every aspect of life.  We had just left Wisconsin when it hit us both at the same time.  Why don’t we name God as the CEO of our company?  It will no longer be ours but we will run his business!  I would say that there was just about, as much as excitement about that as when we found out we were pronate with our kids!  It happened almost like a movie.  We both said it at the same time. 

There wasn’t much discussion in the matter after that.  It was decided, we didn’t own the company any longer, God did.  It was our job to work for him and run it the way he wants.  We would pray before all meetings, we would include verses on all of our web pages.  It was his company we are just here to be the hands that will run it, we are his stewards. 

We started making the changes necessary immediately.  We stopped referring to the company as mine or ours and called as it was.  I changed my title from CEO to COO and published that GOD was the new CEO of Eclipse.  Almost immediately, the wheels started turning again and the company started moving forward. 

We spent the next week in PA at a family camp.  It was a blast!!  Our kids loved it.  If you ever get the chance to be chaperones at a family camp do it.  Take your kids and let them have some freedom while you watch, join in, and enjoy it.  We will never forget these times. 

From there we drove to West Texas for work, another 24 hour drive.  Spend the week there and headed back to colorful Colorado after that. 

This trip was one that changed our lives forever.  We made decisions that allowed us to let go of stress.  We reconnected as a family and grew in ways that we never thought possible.  I am convinced that if we wouldn’t have taken this trip then our business wouldn’t have God as its CEO.  I am so greatful that he led us to take time for us to enjoy our family.  He led me to know that time is our most valuable commodity.  We can always make more money, we can always make new friends, but we can never get a second of our day back. 

Your kids are only young once don’t squander your time with them.