Why You Need a Coach and How to Pick One

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One of the most contentious topics in the real estate investing community is coaching—do you, or don’t you, need a coach? Each side has strong opinions. Those who do not believe in coaching will often say, “everything you need is available in books and podcasts.” But is that true? In this episode, Jeff explores this topic, and explains why he believes—without a doubt, based on his experience of both being a coaching client and coach himself—that you do indeed need a coach if you want to be the best possible real estate entrepreneur. Jeff explains why you need a coach, and how to pick the right one for you.

Episode Transcript

Here’s a fun little activity for you. If you want to see a Facebook post go crazy, then do this go into a real estate investing Facebook group and post a question asking about whether you should get a coach, I guarantee that you will get a lot of response and a lot of different answers and perspectives to that question, most of which will have a lot of let’s say energy behind them, people with very strong opinions. So in this episode, I’m going to tell you why you do need a coach, and I’m going to tell you how to pick one and I know you’re going to get a lot out of this. So let’s not wait any longer. Let’s cue up that theme song, we’re gonna jump right into this. Welcome to Racking Up Rentals, a show about how regular people, those of us without huge war chest of capital or insider connections, can build lasting wealth acquiring a portfolio of buy and hold real estate. But we don’t just go mainstream looking at what’s on the market and asking banks for loans nor are we posting WE BUY HOUSES signs are just looking for quote, motivated sellers to make lowball offers to you see, we are people oriented dealmakers, we sit down directly with sellers to work out Win Win deals without agents or any other obstacles and buy properties. Nobody else even knows what for sale. I’m Jeff from the thoughtful real estate entrepreneur. If you’re the kind of real estate investor who wants long term wealth, not get rich quick gimmicks or pictures of yourself holding fat checks on social media, this show is for you. Join me and quietly become the wealthiest person on your block. Now let’s go rack up a rental portfolio. Hey, thank you for joining me for another episode of racking up rentals show notes for this episode can be found at thoughtfulRE.com/e144. Please do us a big favor by hitting the subscribe button or the Follow button in your podcast app. It really helps fellow trees thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs to find this show because the platform is no you’re listening, and they want to share it with others honored with today’s episode. So I see tons and tons of debate about this all the time the idea of having a coach or not having a coach. Right. And so one opinion that it comes across very strongly that is shared very commonly by people is having a coach is stupid. There’s no need. Everything is available to you in books, and podcasts. Right. And here I am recording a podcast for you and trying to convey as much as I possibly can to make this a valuable experience for you each and every episode yet. I don’t agree with that everything that you need to know is in books and podcasts. We’re going to dissect that a little bit. But here’s why I became a coach because sure asterisk disclaimer, I am a coach. Absolutely. So would you say I don’t have an objective perspective on this? I don’t know, maybe. But I’ll tell you why I became a coach, two reasons. One is I was and still am the product of a great coach, I am the product of having a great coaching experience where I am the client. And he Greg who you’ve met before, and episode 100 Is my coach. So I’m the product of a great coach. And I can tell you without any doubt that I wouldn’t have achieved any of the things or as many of the things that I have without his coaching. Secondly, I believe that this school of thought, which is an idea, we’re going to come back to this school of thought that I have learned and worked on and adapted from my experience being a client. And now that I’m sharing with other people, I believe the school of thought needs to be shared and spread around. And those are the two reasons why I have become a coach myself. And it’s very important to note I am still I’m still a client of my coach, Greg, I don’t plan to I don’t see any situation where that’s likely to change, right? If you look at professional athletes, even you know, the best golfers in the world still have coaches, even the best players at any sport. Everybody who is trying to be at their very best, has some outside perspective that helps them be that. So let’s start at the top here. What is a coach in the first place? Well, that’s actually it seems like a real simple question. But I would say it’s not necessarily quite as simple as it seems. Because people use the word coach. And they use other words, as well. But they can mean a lot of different things. When someone says Coach, what they could mean is a teacher, someone to teach them what to do. They could actually mean a coach, they could mean a mentor. They could mean kind of a consultant type of person. So really, people use the word coach loosely to me, and there’s somebody else who’s helping me and showing me how to do this, but there’s different levels of hands on Ness, if that’s a word versus helping from the outside, really holding somebody’s hand teaching them what to do versus advising them, etc. So, a coach can be a A lot of different things. But here’s my definition of what a coach is. And so as I talk about this, this is what I want you to understand that I mean, to me, a coach is somebody who is coming alongside you on your journey, but you’re already in motion. You’re not just standing there and having someone else take you by the hand and move you forward, you are already moving forward, but you feel like it would be better to not necessarily move forward, alone. And so a coach comes alongside you. And a coach asks questions, in many cases, right? Coach doesn’t always provide answers. But a coach asks a lot of questions, offers perspectives and different ways of looking at situations, points out pitfalls, and things along those lines, it does occasionally, of course, give advice depending on the type of coach, when I’m coaching, though, that’s what I’m doing. I am providing advice, but I’m helping people see things from different perspectives and asking them good questions. So who is it? Who needs a coach? Well, let’s start by actually answering the question Who doesn’t need a coach. And I would say that the real estate investor, who is investing occasionally, probably doesn’t need a coach, the real estate investor who’s investing in a very transactional kind of way, probably doesn’t need a coach, someone who has what I would call a pure investment mentality, right. So there’s different kinds of investors, there are investors who see a rental portfolio as basically an inventory of assets, but they think of it in a very clinical kind of manner, right? They think of it like I would think of the mutual funds that are in my E trade account, there is no emotional connection between me and the mutual funds are in my E trade account, I could have the help from a coach and picking the right things, I guess, to put in that E trade account. But it’s very, very transactional, the things that are going into that account are very much commodities. And there’s no real care that kind of goes into it. It’s just very clinical arm’s length, these are investments, I’m using my head only to think about this, that kind of investor. And there’s a lot of those types of real estate investors. And I’m not saying that’s bad, but those folks probably don’t need a coach. But I’ll tell you, who does need a coach, somebody who has an entrepreneurial mentality, somebody who would say, I am an entrepreneur, as much as they would say I do entrepreneurship, because it’s a sense of their identity. I am an entrepreneur is very different than I do some real estate investing. Somebody who is continuously This is one of my favorite words for what we do as thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs is we try to continuously make progress towards building our portfolio. So somebody who is doing business on an ongoing basis, somebody who is seeking mastery at what they consider to be the art of real estate, entrepreneurship, not just buying property. So someone who’s seeking mastery needs a coach, someone who takes a macro portfolio view, not just a transactional view, right. So the person who doesn’t just see each property as an individual asset in a vacuum, they actually see their whole portfolio as a collection of individual things, but they all relate to each other. And they have a holistic view on those right. And these people, whereas the first people who I said probably don’t need a coach, see these as clinical inventory of assets in a portfolio, this person who does need a coach who’s more of a thoughtful real estate entrepreneur, thinks of it as they’re curating a collection of special assets. It’s not a clinical thing in their, in their mind, in their perspective at all. Sure, they use their brains, and they do analysis and things like that. But there is an emotional connection to the things that they are buying, and the care of the way that they’re buying those and the people that they’re buying them from, in their vision for how the property is handled, and how they’re a steward of that asset in the in the future. So their head and their heart are both in the game, that type of person does need a coach. And I would say that if you’re listening to this podcast right now, you are much more likely to be in that second category. One thing I think that’s really interesting is that people who make great coaching clients have a couple attributes. One is they’re very coachable. I did a podcast episode about this probably a year ago. They’re very coachable. They’re open to perspectives and they want people to challenge them to think differently. But what What’s really interesting about great coaching clients is not that they need need need the coach in order to be successful, they could do it alone, they could see success by themselves. But they don’t want to go the road alone, because they know that they can get where they’re going with some more speed, higher quality, fewer mistakes when they have somebody who has already walked that road alongside them. So here’s why I think you need a coach you listen to right now listening to this, because like I said, I don’t know who you are, in this exact moment listening to this. But unless you have just randomly stumbled across this podcast, and this happened to be the very first episode you’ve ever listened to, I’m going to assume that you are listening to this podcast for a reason. This idea, this approach, this thoughtful approach, this relationship oriented approach, and non traditional approach to doing real estate resonates with you. So here’s why you as that person need a coach, you need some outside perspective, it’s so easy to get inside your own head on a deal by deal basis on a portfolio basis. On a seller conversation basis, you need some outside perspective, you need somebody to challenge you, not just to raise the bar for yourself, but to challenge the way you’re thinking about things. You need somebody to help you with what I would call the contextualized application of knowledge, right? So this goes back to the books and podcasting, everything you need is available books and podcasts. Why would you ever need a coach? Well, you can get a lot of knowledge from books and podcasts. But when it comes to applying that knowledge, in a different situation, every time because every seller is different. Every property is different. Every deal is different. The contextualized application of the knowledge you have, it’s very hard to do by yourself. You need somebody to help you figure out how to apply the knowledge you have into the context of this unique particular situation. You need and deserve somebody to help you overcome your own doubt your self doubt. Because guess what, if you haven’t experienced this yet, Oh, it’s coming. It happens for me all the time, I need to overcome my own doubt. And I can coach myself, but it’s really helpful when my coach helps me overcome my own doubt. And that’s a big part of what I do with my coaching clients as well. And here’s what I’d like to say, a book, a book can’t believe in you. A book can convey some knowledge to you. Yeah, but guess what, a book isn’t going to grab you by the shoulders, look you in the eyes and say, Hey, you can get through this, you’ve done two scarier and harder things before, we need to take a deep breath and take a step back. And here’s how we’re going to get around this. A book can’t believe in you more than you believe in yourself, but a coach can. And trust me, I know, because that’s exactly what I’ve experienced from my own coach. He is believed in me more than I believed in myself, many, many a time. As with any form of entrepreneurship, there is a massive component to this journey, that is mental journey. And that is something that you do not want to be trying to navigate by yourself. If you are seeking mastery, and you want to be really good at this. A coach is super important for helping you level set when you aren’t thinking clearly. And when you need a shift of perspective or to be re grounded. And of course, a coach can also provide some very useful tips in situations difficult situations, easy situations can help you understand what might be considered normal. Just for instance, just last week or so I was having a conversation with a coaching client who was feeling like they needed to pay a certain interest rate percentage to private lender money. And I help them see that actually, there’s a whole market of money that is significantly cheaper than that. And that was just a tip in a particular situation. That didn’t even seem like a challenge to that client. However, that tip helped them save a whole bunch of money in this deal and in future deals. So what can a coach do? I think this is a really important question. A coach cannot make you successful. A coach cannot be responsible for your success. Now I would say a coach is responsible to you, but a coach can’t be responsible for you, right? So you can’t hire a coach and realistically expect that suddenly by by virtue of having signed the contract to coach with them and paying them that that’s what’s going to make you successful, but they can help you be more successful as long as you are taking ownership of your own outcomes in your own success. So how do you pick a coach? Well, I want to give you my answer speaking from my own experience On now, both sides of the equation, here’s what I have clearly learned from being both the client and the coach. There are two things that need to align when you choose a coach, and those two things are your head and your heart. So what do I mean by that? Your head has to look at the ideology of that coach, and has to believe that that ideology makes sense. Your brain has to look at it and say, No, I can see how that would work, I can see how this approach would work, it actually makes sense to me logically, and I understand it. But secondly, your heart also has to feel like the approach the ideology that that coach teaches in and coaches in is one that is in alignment with who you are. It’s something that feels authentic to you. Because if either of these two things is out of whack, you’re in trouble, right? If you are in a situation where your head is nodding, yes, yes, this makes perfect sense. I can see how this would work. But man, my heart is feeling like this is not me, you are in trouble. Conversely, the exact same thing is true the other way. If your heart says yes, this feels so much like me, but your head says, I do not understand how this could possibly work, it feels right. But it just doesn’t add up and make sense. You’re also in deep trouble there. So you’re looking for something that makes sense. And you’re getting green lights and types of feelings of thumbs up from both your head and your heart. And in many ways, what you’re doing is really more about joining a school of thoughts. You know, your coach is like a leader, or a pastor in a church with that has a particular point of view. They’re a philosopher and a particular school of thought. And in many ways you are joining that school of thought, as much as you are simply hiring that coach, right. So you are saying, I am signing up to be a member of this ideology. And it manifests in the form of like, I’m coaching with this person. But I am signing on to their way of thinking Overall, it’s a whole belief system that you are signing up for. And so it’s very important that that belief system, that school of thought, is something that resonates strongly with you. And you say yes, I see myself as a member of that school of thought I see myself as a member of that church, sitting amongst people who believe, like I do. And when you found that person who feels like the right school of thought you want to be a member of and your both your head and your heart are nodding yes. And giving you green lights, that is the person I would say who is the best coach for you. So I wanted to kind of wrap this up by sharing a couple mistakes that I think people make when they’re thinking about coaches and picking a coach, I’ve already shared some of the thoughts about what I think fallacies in the in the thinking about coaches is everything knowledge wise might be available in books and podcasts. Yes. And if knowledge was all it took, then you’d see a lot of billionaire librarians, wouldn’t you but you probably don’t see a lot of billionaire librarians. You need to figure out how to apply the knowledge in every unique situation, which is different every time. And a coach can help you with that. And a coach can also believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself so that the mental challenges you face along the path along the road along the journey are not those that shut you down. But when it comes to picking a coach, I see a couple mistakes as well. I want to give you an A quick example. I was having a conversation with a good friend, Mr. Brian Tripp, who’s been a guest on this podcast a couple times. And as you might know, I’m a big fan of soccer. And I was talking to Brian, I said, you know, Brian, I was thinking about coaches the other day. And there’s this coach, his name is Thomas Tuko. He’s a German guy and he coaches Chelsea Football Club in London plays in the Premier League. And he’s probably at this moment, I would say maybe considered like one of the top five kind of coaches in the world. Probably not number one or two, but somewhere arguably in the three four or five range I would guess. And I thought to myself the other day you know, I don’t really know much about him. I mean, I guess I kind of came late to you know, knowing who Thomas to close let me just look up. What was his playing career like was he a player and I looked up his playing career and it was decidedly uneventful. From what I can tell. He’s not a famous player. He didn’t light the world on fire. He didn’t single handedly win World Cups and things like that. So I thought about hot so average player has gone on to become one of the most amazing Coaches and I shared that with Brian. He said, Yeah, there’s lots of good examples of that in other sports, as well, because being a great player and being a great coach, are not the same things at all. Now, I’m not suggesting that you should just go out and find somebody who’s never done any real estate investing, and hire them as your coach. But I am saying it’s very easy to say, Oh, how, how many units does that coach have Oh, less than 1000. I can’t learn anything from them. That would be short sighted, and absolutely silly. A coach isn’t just somebody who is the goat of their industry, right, the greatest of all time, they’re not just somebody who is the goat of their industry. They are somebody who helps you be the goat of your life. Right. So just because Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of his generation, and arguably ever, doesn’t mean that he would naturally be the best coach. And just conversely, just because somebody had a mediocre, playing career doesn’t mean that they would be, or that they couldn’t be the greatest coach of all time, either. Because it’s not really about what they did. It’s about what they help their players achieve. So I would tell you, that the best coach for you the mistake you don’t want to fall into is picking somebody simply because you think that they had an amazing investing career themselves, they could have had an amazing investing career themselves, and be utterly useless in terms of helping you be at your best. So seek out that person who you feel is not only going to lift you up, but it’s going to help you bring out the best aspects of what you do help you use your strengths into their greatest capacity, and is going to be more focused on helping you be the best version of yourself, then they’re going to be on talking about or focusing on their own investing achievements. So that my friends is why I think you as a listener of this show, need a coach, and how you should go about evaluating and picking one. And that is it for today’s episode of racking up rentals. So again, show notes for this episode can be found at thoughtful our E comm slash e 144. Please do us a massive favor by hitting that subscribe or follow button in your podcast app. And taking a moment to rate and review the show I see all the ratings and reviews. I’m so appreciative of those. And it really helps spread the message of the show when you rate and review it. Did you know that we have a Facebook group for thoughtful real estate entrepreneurs as well? It’s true and it’s called rental portfolio wealth builders. We’d love to have you join us there. Just go to group.thoughtfulre.com and the magic of the internet will redirect you right to that page. If you liked this episode, please take a screenshot of it on your phone. Post that screenshot to Instagram tell us what you liked about it in your post and tag us we are at thoughtful real estate on Instagram. I will see you in the next episode. Until then this is Jeff from the thoughtful real estate entrepreneur signing off. Thanks for listening to racking up rentals where we build long term wealth by being when when deal makers. Remember: solve the person to unlock the deal and solve the financing to unlock the profits.