Re-Think, Re-Invent, Re-Open - In Conversation With Brad Sugars

Brad Sugars is a serial entrepreneur, best-selling author and founder of the worldwide business coaching community, ActionCOACH. Brad is without doubt, the No. 1 Business Coach in the world.

Listen to how he first got started in business, some of the changes he's seen over recent years and his views on the actions business owners need to take while we go through the current pandemic here in the UK.

We talk planning, marketing, team, systems and some of the actions his own companies are taking at the moment.

Brad has recorded a 10 day, 5 hour programme which UK business owners can access for free by clicking this link: https://www.actioncoach.com/covid19-business-survival-training/

You can also watch Brad's latest webinar, Re-Think, Re-Invent, Re-Open on his website here: https://bradsugars.com/blogs/news/re-think-re-invent-re-open

Brad Sugars
Brad Sugars started the ActionCOACH brand in 1993 in Brisbane, Australia. Today the company is ranked as the leading business coaching franchise by Entrepreneur magazine.

ActionCOACH operates in over 80 countries and has more than 1,000 coaches around the world, coaching 15,000 business every week. The franchise has received numerous awards including Fastest Growing Franchise, Franchisee Satisfaction, Best Overall Company and has been named the number one business coaching franchise in the world every year since 2004.

Using the coaching strategies that have helped thousands of companies around the world, Brad Sugars and his executive team helped lead ActionCOACH and its coaches to some of its most profitable and best years ever… in the face of challenging economic conditions.

Brad Sugars and his team continue to build “business re-education” to new, more innovative and exciting levels.

Website: https://bradsugars.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BradleySugars/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BradSugars

Transcript

Paul Limb : 0:00

Hi, welcome to the latest action coach Bolton podcast. We're here today with serial entrepreneur, serial author and founder and CEO of action coach. It's Brad sugars. Welcome, Brad.

Brad Sugars : 0:13

Okay, how you doing, buddy?

Paul Limb : 0:15

I'm very well thank you very well, it's 830 in the morning over there. I believe.

Brad Sugars : 0:19

It is nice, bright and early. Yes, it is 8.30. There you go.

Paul Limb : 0:23

So you've been doing a few zoom calls over the last few weeks.

Brad Sugars : 0:27

You know, it's been really important the last few weeks to be teaching business people is this is my fourth economic downturn to be running through and most business people really don't know what to do in an economic downturn. So yeah, it's it's been important to be teaching at this time.

Paul Limb : 0:46

Yeah, I think the one thing that I've seen through the whole action coach community and we've got over 1000 coaches around the world is the the abundance that's been shown by everybody. Everybody's trying to help as many people as they possibly can. Just right now.

Brad Sugars : 0:59

Yeah. And I look at it from a simple perspective, that's really the job of a business coach is to help business owners and you know, in the last, what is it now it's 8-10 weeks of time, there's never been a more important time to be a business coach than now. There's never been a more important time to lead business people and for business owners, there's never been a more important time than to be informed than there is right now. And, you know, in normal times, you can get away with not really having to learn about what's going on and not really having to understand everything in business, but in times like now, it is absolutely vital that you are well informed and up to date.

Paul Limb : 1:43

Yeah, absolutely. I know here we've we've helped we ntds up just the other day, We've helped over 260 business owners, since the pandemic started back in March, through webinars through workshops through gifted coaching sessions. So it's just so important, Brad, we're going to talk more about how we can help people to get through and reemerge from rebuild through through the Coronavirus and through the pandemic. And I just wanted to touch on how you got started first of all, you know you've got a you've got a super business now you're running I think nine businesses as well as action coach, how did it all start with you?

Brad Sugars : 2:19

Yeah, look, I've always been a well, I'll go back to the negative and then the positive, the negative is I'm not very good at working for other people. So I was destined to be working for myself, I guess is the simplest way you can put it. But the flip side to that is, is I started teaching when I think I was 20 or 21. And when you're young in business and doing pretty good people want to know what's going on. Like how are you successful when you're young. And today I think the less so than it was back when I was a kid, you know, it was like today we we see on Twitter. realism in the millennial generation and Generation Z and we kind of expect that they are, they are by far the most entrepreneurial generation that's, that's existed so far. And so I think that just a little led me and I have always loved business. I love being in business, but I guess the real start was 16 years old. I was introduced to Rotary Club and they ran a programme called rotary Youth Leadership Awards. And I won the local area. It's called Rayleigh is the award rotary Youth Leadership Awards. And they sent me away for a week long training on how to be a leader and how to be successful and you know, at 16 years old, that's a massive, massive part of life.

Paul Limb : 3:47

And action started in Australia in 93.

Brad Sugars : 3:51

Yeah,

Paul Limb : 3:52

1993 26 years old. Now, obviously, you're no best across in in the states in Nevada. So What's been the changes for you over the last few years in action? And obviously now action coach and, and business in general?

Brad Sugars : 4:08

Oh, dang. It's hard to think of years back because like the world changed so dramatically 10 weeks ago. But I think that probably the biggest changes in from a business perspective in the last five years has been that business coaching has gone from something that was our Why do you have a coach to or why don't you have a coach? I think that's probably the biggest shift in our industry. And you know, that's, that's really the way that I see the world going. And I've said it from day one that eventually Iran will and using the American vernacular have three as an accountant, an attorney and an action coach. Every every business will end up having one because, you know, you can't run a successful sporting team without a great coach. So why would you think that you could do it with a business team? It's sort of my my theory on on that sort of thing. And I see more and more people are able to do that.

Paul Limb : 5:13

Yeah. Well, you know, things have changed so much over the last few years in business and for business coaching, but particularly in the last few weeks, you know, we've things have changed completely. He said in the last 10 weeks since the pandemic took hold. We've gone through various stages of panic of denial, almost. And now people are starting to look at how they come out the other side, or at least some business owners are I think some people still have their heads stuck in the sand. So what would be your your top tips, your advice for people who would just come in on that upward curve now?

Brad Sugars : 5:49

Yeah, yeah, look, first of all, for those who are still stuck in in that place, I think Firstly, the first thing you have to do is get with Paul and his team and have a conversation about How you actually survived this thing if you're still head in the sand survival is very important. You know, I've said this, there's three phases to this thing. First is survival second is thrive. So once you get a survival plan, and you're in you're acting on the survival plan, then it's about the thrive plan. How do I actually do well through this thing? And then it's about reopening, reinventing, restarting, because what technically we've seen is the world's is virtualized. What would it take in the next five or 10 years in virtualization of the world has happened in a period of eight weeks. Okay, well, actually, it happened in a period of four weeks. But you know, now the normalcy of virtual is really interesting. The normalcy of purchasing online, the normalcy of home delivery, the normalcy of zoom calls, the, the normal sea of virtual is sort of started to sink in, they say it takes 30 days. To build a habit Well, you know, we've had the 30 days or 60 days of habit building around virtual world and people who have never purchased online and are very happy to purchase online and, and that sort of thing and had deliveries to their door and, you know, that's changed dramatically. And so it's, it's, I think, then once you've realised that this, you know, that's the survival thing. And then once you realise that you can thrive once you realise that this isn't an economic crisis, it's an economic transformation. It's a, it's a change in the way people do business. It's a change in the way life happens. And that, to me is a massive shift in thinking for people because you've got to get out of crisis into opportunity thinking and that's what when you realise it's a transformation in the way people spend because, you know, people didn't stop eating. They it transformed the way people ate, they went back to eating at home there and back to take out they went back to all of these different things. People didn't stop communicating, it transformed the way they communicate. People didn't stop doing life, they just transformed life for a period of time and there is no going back. You know, you keep hearing this, oh, let's can't wait for it to go back to normal. This is the new normal type thing. So when you come out of this, your business must be different. Your marketing must be different. Your sales must be different. Your methodologies of delivery must be different, you know, simple things that we used to take for granted that our store was clean. We now want to take that for granted. We now need to see it happening. We now need to visually notice that there is cleanliness happening in order for us to be that way. You know, I took my son to the hairdresser the other day for the first time in eight weeks and You know, everyone is literally lined up outside of the place everyone's waiting outside there are no waiting chairs and it's like, there is a visual representation of a new normal. And and people want to see that now like I know one of our businesses our restaurant, we won't be using physical menus unless people ask for them and if they do, there'll be just single use paper menus. But on every table we have a QR code printed now on a thing and they scan it with their phone and the menus on their phone because we know they won't want to touch things. So you know coming out of this thing, everything will be different. And to say the most important thing to come out of this is that you have a relaunch, you launch your business you open it as if it was the first time you open it, you open it as if it's a brand new business you open it as a welcome back. It's a you know, and you do that you have a party and even if it is a virtual party, you're still want to see the ribbon, cutting it Still want to see. And it can, the mayor can be there virtually to cut your ribbon or you know, someone can be there virtually to cut your ribbon and it doesn't matter now, but what matters is that you relaunch you reopen, you don't just, you don't just open back up, you open up with a bang, you open up and tell the world that hey, we're back. We're here where we're doing business again. And I think people will welcome you back in that way. And, you know, I, I know here in Las Vegas, we started opening up the other day and you know, for the first time my wife and I went to a restaurant and you know, everyone's socially distanced, and you walk in with your masks on and you take it off when you sit down at your table. And I still remember the guy coming over towards the end of the evening saying, you know, can I get you another cocktail? I really didn't want another cocktail. But you know what, this is the first time that eight weeks someone's actually served me I'm going to have another cocktail and save lives. Man, I appreciate you. serving me. So I'm going to tip I'm going to tip way more than that. Normal and you know I saw a nice little post the other day from a friend of mine saying if if you if you're going out now and you're in it to complain please just stay home you know there is no complaining right now there just isn't you're not allowed to complain you they will be slow they will be this because everyone is reopening their business. Everyone is going through first night Judas.

Paul Limb : 11:22

Yeah, I think we're a few weeks behind you, you know, look at the latest government predictions either some hospitality may start to reopen at the start of July. But right now restaurants is still closed. So to pivot do takeaways, that kind of stuff.

Brad Sugars : 11:38

Yeah, as I'm lucky enough to do business in 80 countries and watching all of them open gradually, you know, watching Germany go first and Australia and New Zealand, New Zealand second very, very slow, which is kind of odd because they as an island, they literally had almost no cases. So yeah, yeah. So I'm watching everywhere and I'm watching them. reopen I think the Germans have led the way very well. And it's just a matter of watching it. But you know, I'm, I'm not an expert in the disease. I'm an expert in business. And from a business perspective, I think that the more businesses can understand how to reopen, and how to make certain that they're doing a great job with welcoming back their customers. And that's, that's the thing. And customers want to see familiar faces, they want to see all of that stuff. So it's gonna be tough, but it's got to be done.

Paul Limb : 12:33

Yeah. And as you said, there's no doubt that the way we do business has accelerated, you know, what we may have been doing five or 10 years hence, we're having to do now and we're never gonna go back to the way we're working before. And you know, the way you market has got to change as well. We've said from the very beginning, you're going to be doing two times three times four times as much marketing but in a different way to you know, getting different messages talking with compassion and abundance to you. So you're audience and getting ready for what's coming next. Because we are going to reopen, it's not the end of the world. It's the start of a new world. And everybody's got to take that time to plan what they're going to do moving forwards.

Brad Sugars : 13:13

I think that's the key word planning. You know, you don't open a business, like when you first opened your business, you had a plan, you plan how you're going to open your business. And that's, again, what needs to be done in this day, is you need to plan how am I going to reopen my business? What am I going to do in order to open this thing because it really is that it's it's a planned operation to reopen the business. And anyone who does it without a plan is going to make mistakes. You know, I know even for us, I look at one of our businesses, the full office environment, and just the simple things to reopen an office from a cleanliness or social distancing. Just the timing of our staff coming in An out, you know, we had to redo the doors. We don't have doors that aren't self opening anymore. You know, many of our businesses, we've had to put locks on the front door, and doorbells because we're like, okay, there's no one coming in here without permission. It's like these simple little things that you have to think through. How do we put doorbells on all of our businesses and stuff? And how do we who answers the door when it is opened? And you know, for some of their businesses, where we have receptions? How do we have the plastic acrylic up in front of things, you know, all of these questions and that's why I've said it too many businesses, Paul, you must sit with your coach and you must plan this out. Because it was an it was easier to close down that will be to open up much easier to close down that opening up and you know how much work it took to close down. So yeah,

Paul Limb : 14:52

yeah, and one of the other things that I've noticed is we've seen some real innovation now, you know, in the early days, people were looking at how they could pivot and do business with them. sectors that were thriving through the Coronavirus. But now we've seen some real innovation through some of our clients looking at what's going to be needed for businesses to open up and pivot in their services towards that. We've got one that's a training company in the events industry. Well, the hospitality and events industry has been decimated. Hmm. But they're now looking at health and safety and, and infection control, doing online training for those businesses that want to reopen, but can't right now because of what they need to do to get that in place. So they're looking at what they can do differently, to offer those services to people who are about to reopen.

Brad Sugars : 15:42

Yeah, I've set with an events company the other day, they're like, well, we're an events business. No, no, no, you are no longer an events company. For the next 12 months, you got to be something different. And you may stay that new thing or you may go back to being an events company, I'm not sure but for right now. You're not an events company, you need to redefine yourself, what business are you in? And that and that's the companies that have to do the massive pivots because some companies have had to change their entire business overnight. The business they're in just is no longer a business. And that's scary as heck, Paul, it's it's very scary for some businesses. But again, having a coach walk you through that is a big part of you know, thank you for taking me through this. I didn't, you know, a lot of people thought their business was going to die. And when you sit down and do their finances with them, and they see, okay, worst case scenario, I'm going to lose 5000 a month or whatever. So what I'd have to do is find 5000 a month. Yes, that's what you have to do. Okay, great. You know, and that to me, like being my fourth economic downturn, I knew that's what we had to do. The first thing we have to do is run our numbers. Yeah, no. Where are the numbers? What are they in? What are they going to look like? And in one of one particular of our business very scary, I was like, Okay. All right. This is what we got to find, you know, and luckily enough, we got government assistance in that particular business to the point of allowing us to survive and keep our staff without much of a problem. But, you know, in the beginning, we honestly felt we're gonna have to fire everyone. And thank goodness, we didn't have to thank goodness, we could keep them all on staff and, you know, get through it.

Paul Limb : 17:33

But, you know, it's so important to know your numbers, isn't it? You know, we often talk about the statistic of the biggest reason for business failure in the first five years is business owners just not knowing their numbers in times of pandemic or otherwise. And being clear about your numbers means you understand exactly what you need to do rather than just having your head stuck in the sand in blind panic mode.

Brad Sugars : 17:56

You know, it's it's an interesting one and We teach obviously an action coach, the clarity leads to power. And yeah, it's it's clarity. That is the biggest thing for business owners being clear on where I'm going like, you know, I've watched businesses right now where I've sat with the owners and said, Listen, what is your focus for your staff right now? anessa What do you mean so well your staff are right now in fear. If you aren't giving them something to focus on, they're in fear and they're worried. So what are you going to give them to focus on so they're not worried and panicking right now because there is fear in the market and this is where your marketing has to shift your sales has to shift to understand that the general mood is fear. The general mood is worry the general mood is not excited happy to spend money, doing great fancy not out that's not the general mood and and of watch business people struggle with understanding how to take the general mood into account and you know, especially in March And it's like, oh, my goodness, please, your marketing can't be straight to the point anymore. It has to be about care and help and assistance and all of these wonderful things that are a part of today's general mood.

Paul Limb : 19:16

You know, I was talking to Michael Apple last week. And he was talking about a group of people that he calls the edges, his business leaders that he interviewed for the edge, one of his books. And he's re interviewed quite a few of those over the last few weeks. And he said, there were four things that they're doing, they're making quick decisions. They're, you know, they're not taking the time if they need to make change those decisions further down, they can do communication, the communicating with everybody inside and outside of the business in the wider community. They're getting ready for what's happening next. And they're investing. They're investing themselves in the team if they've got cash reserves or invest in the company,

Brad Sugars : 19:51

I think, yeah, all of those things are very, very important to do the communication levels. I know on day one, when I first started teaching about this First thing I told people is you need positive communication and you need a lot of it you know if you as a leader, and not out front up front vocal on video with your team if you're not out front then they don't see you leading so be the leader of the day. It's it's been, I this is emotionally one of the hardest things a business owner will ever go through business ownership is tough at the best of times, and it's lonely at the best of times. But right now, there's no more important time than to be with. And this is what I love about what you and our other action coaches do. Paul, you get our clients together, you have them communicating with each other. And you know, when you do your huddles with your clients, and they're talking with each other and they're realising, oh, that's normal. Okay, that's okay. I'm doing the same as you. Okay. That's, to me, that is a big part of just being sane of steaks. People ask you how you do today and I say sane and healthy, you know, because sanity is the biggest thing that that is necessary right now. It's tough, but that's what we're going for. So,

Paul Limb : 21:09

yeah, for sure, in our group programmes over the last few weeks, one of the the big the biggest sort of values for for our clients has been just getting together with other people. You know, we're doing all of our programmes online now. You know, even the ones that were formally face to face, obviously, and just having the opportunity to speak to other business owners and get some peer to peer learning some comfort that yes, it's happening to other people as well as them and there is a way out of it is so important for business owners right now that sense of community.

Brad Sugars : 21:42

Yeah, I think community is right now and but not just with other business owners, with your staff, you know, this social distancing term can people can go very clearly into frustration and, you know, they go into that anger and denial of what's going on and your staff Unless they're given something to focus on unless you keep them in community, you got to remember social distancing creates loneliness. And and one of the jobs for you as a business leader is to make sure your people don't struggle psychologically through this thing, because that's now I hate to say it, but that's a big challenge for a lot of people in this thing is having the psychology of that. And so, I know for us, we make sure we do a daily huddle. Every day with all staff members in all of our companies. They're all on the phone at one time every day, talking about what's good, what's going on. It's just community building. It's nothing more than what's news and I gave him Yeah, I think yesterday was, what's your favourite restaurant day? And everyone just went through what was their favourite restaurant? And you know, I think you saw people making a list of all of these great restaurants they want to visit when we're allowed to go back to restaurants sort of thing. But but just that community building within our companies is important to keep people saying,

Paul Limb : 22:58

Yeah, we've done a couple of workshops. on virtual leadership and the skills required and the differences between how people were leading when when people were in the same room and how people need to lead now in a virtual environment, because, you know, the key facets of leadership haven't changed, but the way that people need to do it now is so different

Brad Sugars : 23:19

that and so you know, here we are in a different world. And we can either stress about that and panic about it, or we can make a plan of how to get through this thing. And that, to me, is the biggest benefit of working with a coach is that you very quickly learn how to plan to get through this stuff. And I know, you know, it was interesting when when late last year I started talking to coaches about Listen, I'm not sure what it is, but we're going to have something economic happen and we were contemplating will it be Brexit that will turn the economy's negative will it be the US elections? What will it be that turns economies negative because got to remember, we were eight years into a bull run. And economic cycles are seven to 10 years. And so it was it was crazy to sit down and think, oh, Chief what term this was a mean. I hate to sound very Matter of fact, because this is a human crisis first and foremost. But the reality is this crisis that is a human crisis has created this economic transformation that people need to navigate their way through. You know, we don't want the economic crisis to end up being worse than the human crisis.

Paul Limb : 24:36

Yeah, yeah. Brad, you've been really abundant with your time over the last few weeks with so many different business owners. I know you've put a programme together as well for anybody who wants access to it free of charge. And I think you did that while you were locked in your own house as well. Right here it's recorded right here at this very spot is Yeah, 10 days, five hours 30 minutes a day of great advice for business. So long as we're running as many webinars and workshops as we possibly can to help business owners right now, we've got a few minutes left so what would be your top three tips for business owners right now we're thinking what do I do next?

Brad Sugars : 25:14

top three tips. Dang. Other than what we've spoken about today top three tips. Number one, get marketing get out there get marketing do more of it. Be be out in the marketplace you can't be hiding right now. Any business that gets caught flat footed coming out of this thing will lose a lot of customers so you've got to be ready to open when the markets open. Don't wait Don't hold back and and be caught flat footed you'll lose customers if that's what you end up doing. Second top tip be here or be on the front and be on the front foot. Don't be leading be out in front. You've got to lead Through this time, you can't hide. You've got to be leading. And that's that's important. Third one, just stay well, mentally well, physically well stay well through this thing I did a little podcast the other day about, you know, you're going to be fitter or fatter coming out of this thing. And it was an analogy, not just for your personal body. It was an analogy for your business and an analogy for your finances and for your mental state and your knowledge base and that sort of thing. So, yeah, I think just stay well is probably the most important thing through this thing.

Paul Limb : 26:32

Rob, that's been absolutely great. I love spending a few minutes with you talking about business and about background and about action coach, thank you for your abundance with with every business owner that you've been working with. I know you've recorded a few zoom calls that you've actually done some coaching sessions with coaches as well. So if anybody gets the opportunity to watch those, then I encourage anybody to have a look at bills you will learn something

Brad Sugars : 26:56

and they're all over my Facebook and YouTube and LinkedIn. On Twitter and Instagram and all over my blog, so whenever people need jump on my website, it's all there. Thank you, Paul. Thanks for all the work you're doing out there helping business people.

Paul Limb : 27:10

Thanks a lot Brad. Nice to talk to you. Transcribed by https://otter.ai