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Coaching Creates Clarity and Momentum | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

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Elizabeth: Welcome to the GrowthPro Edge.
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We're here to help scale your business, build stronger teams,
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and sharpen your leadership skills.
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Chris Moyer, welcome back to the GrowthPro Edge.
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We're thrilled to have you.
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Thank you.
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Appreciate being here.
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so listen, I wanna get started and talk about the role that mentorship
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and coaching has played in your life.
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And your professional life.
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before we do that, let's introduce you to everyone out there watching.
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Chris.
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Tell us a little bit about yourself and all of the things
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that you're involved with.
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Yeah, so I am, an owner of Let's Roll Bowling.
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We have three entertainment centers in Kansas and Arkansas.
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Michael: I'm also a real estate investor.
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Have.
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Single family, multifamily, apartment, complex stuff,
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and, do that locally as well.
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And I also, have a W2 job and then a wife, couple kids, and, a whole,
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circus of, animals here as well.
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So you've got your hands full.
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Yes.
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To say the least.
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the reason that I wanted to talk to you today about mentorship and coaching is.
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Elizabeth: I know and you know that we don't know at all.
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And so that there is value to growing and learning through others
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and through a coaching program or through a mentorship program.
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you are somebody that embodies that in such a great way.
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So I want to begin by asking you.
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At what point in your career where you're juggling all of
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the things that you juggle?
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Michael: Did you first decide you've gotta find a mentor
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or you've gotta find a coach?
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Yeah, that was, about three and a half years ago when I joined my real
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estate mentorship program that I'm in, I still actively involved in today.
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And we were, we had 11 doors of properties, a couple duplexes
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and a couple houses, and,
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Wasn't really making any money, wasn't losing any money, just like was
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kind of stagnant in this weird spot.
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decided that I wanted to do more and I didn't know how to do more.
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I didn't know how to scale, as people say.
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I didn't know what systems, processes, didn't know anyone with
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money, to help get along that way.
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Elizabeth: So I, I joined a group to answer the questions that I
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had, that I had for myself that I, I didn't know or understand.
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So this group that you joined provided you an avenue to meet other people who
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were experiencing the same things, right?
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Yeah.
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The mentor that you had, that you, that you cultivated, is that something that
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was cultivated or you were assigned?
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Michael: How did that work?
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Yeah, so I, I joined this group, this real estate group, and you're assigned a coach.
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So my coach, his name was Chris as well.
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he was from the Phoenix area.
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And we get on biweekly calls, give or take a little bit, and just kind of work
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through that process of, of, there's lots of different things in real estate and
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different ways to invest in real estate, and kind of just worked through that
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process and the, and he worked with me and me finding out what I was good at.
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I wasn't good at what, what route I should take in this investing world and kind
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of helped me through all that process.
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'cause at the time I really, I really didn't know it.
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I didn't know what I didn't know, and he really just helped me along the way.
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So you were really lucky that you were kind of assigned to somebody that you
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could develop that mentorship process?
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Yes, absolutely.
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And I know that since then, in those three and a half years.
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You've gone on to become a mentor to others in that real estate group, right?
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Yeah.
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I now coach, I have, 12 students across, the, the US that I meet, on
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that same regular basis and do what, Chris Grant did for me three and a
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half years ago and help guide them.
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Down the route that they need to go or, want to go and, and really kinda
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work through and, and ask the questions that, maybe are a little too tough for
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a friend to ask or a, a wife to ask, or, or significant other, to work through
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those things and figure out what's the best path for you moving forward.
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And, and I've had students that have come into the real estate world.
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And I've helped them realize that that wasn't the right path for
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them, quite, quite frankly, So I'm not just there, as somebody that
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just pushes an agenda or anything.
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Like, I had an older gentleman that was a student that came in.
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He was 73 years old, and after about the fifth call we looked
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at each other and I was like.
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This isn't for you, man, like this.
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And he looked at me and he goes, you're a hundred percent right.
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And, that was really powerful, because, there's, I, I know I, I say this and,
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I think other people would've just kept on pushing him towards that, that goal
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that he thought was the right goal.
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But that goal really changed and we, we got to talking and clarified, well,
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like, what do you really wanna do at 73?
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do you really want to dive into.
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Operating a business in real estate or do you wanna do something
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a little bit more passive?
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And, and he decided on something a little bit more passive.
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So, we're, we're there, not to, coaches are there not to push their agenda.
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They're there to, or any agenda.
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They're there to help you clarify where you are today, where you want to go,
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and then the path on how to get there.
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Mm-hmm.
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Absolutely.
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And as you began to create another business by going into the FEC world and
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purchasing a couple of locations in Kansas and a location there in Arkansas to start
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the let's roll brand of bowling centers.
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Full disclosure, I do work with you and your team at
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Let's Roll as a Business coach.
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With y'all.
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I wanna talk about why did you decide?
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'cause you're somebody, you've got a W2 job, you have a background in this
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industry, unlike the real estate industry, that you really didn't have a whole
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lot of knowledge and background in you.
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You had a very long background in bowling.
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Your W2 job is tied to.
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The bowling world.
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You used to work at a bowling center, uh, as you were coming
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up as a, as a young kid.
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So you, it's not an unfamiliar world to you.
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Why did you decide that you needed to have a coach to help with the business
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side, uh, your new centers and locations?
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Yeah, I, I think for similar, similar reasons in the fact that,
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yes, I, I know the bowling industry very well and, and all, but there's
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still lots of things I don't know.
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And, as when, when we took over existing locations that were 60 plus years
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old, good run bowling centers, six months in, seven months in, I started
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to realize that there was, there was a lot here and probably a little bit
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more than I anticipated, going into it.
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And I felt like not just me, but my team needed help.
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we needed clarity, we needed direction.
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things were good.
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We were growing fairly quickly, because of the market that we're in.
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And I started to just see like how on busy days or times that
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things were taking really long to get done and just, we just had no,
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Had no structure, I guess is the, is the right word to use.
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And I wanted to create some, I, I needed some structure for myself to,
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to, be in the business because of my W2 job and all the other stuff I'm
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going on that I can't have people just, trying to pull me in every
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direction when, right when they needed.
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So we needed some structure.
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I didn't really know how to create that structure.
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read some EOS books.
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Ahead of it before, before reaching out to y'all and, and had an idea.
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But man, there's just a lot there to try and implement all of it without some help.
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And that's where y'all came in.
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'cause we were able to, start slow and build to where we are today
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and in that structure and now.
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Now we have a really good business structure that everyone understands,
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everyone feels comfortable with, and, and it helps all of us owners
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to be able to see what the business is doing, even on days when we're not
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in the business or what's going on.
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we have our nav sheets, we have, we just have this process now
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that makes life just really easy.
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to see what's going on.
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Business isn't easy, never easy, but at least the structure has become
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easy to, to figure out where we're at, what we're doing, and what
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everyone else is doing as well.
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So one of the things that I know is when I'm in something, I'm fully in it, and you
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can kind of get a tunnel vision mm-hmm.
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Of the immediate in front of you.
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And I'm sure you've experienced this on your, when you've got your coach hat
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on, the value, I wanted you to talk a little bit about the value of having
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somebody who is not in the day to day being a part of seeing things in a
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different way and the value of that.
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Yeah.
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when you're not in the day to day.
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The business can pass by really quick.
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I, I'm not in, I'm not in Wichita all the time to, to be there and, and support.
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The business from a hands-on perspective, but because of, because of how things
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are structured, we're able to have meetings, have goals, and have to-dos
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and, and be able to stay on track and support those people, really well.
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Even when I'm eight hours away from my house.
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And, versus, and we do all that in an hour and a half to two
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hour meeting, biweekly versus.
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People coming to you every one day needing this and needing that, and then
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those people not collaborating and not talking, and then, things just end up
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kind of in shambles, I would say, and just, no, no real direction on where it's
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going, because those two people aren't talking to each other and then they don't
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know what you're, they're saying to me.
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And then it just, it became this, this weird loop of like, nothing
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ever really was getting done.
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When we didn't have that structure and, and all that in place to make it happen.
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Mm-hmm.
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when you think about being a mentor to others, something that, that you
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brought up a few minutes ago that I just wanted to circle back to.
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It's not about making somebody march down a certain way to your agenda
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as the mentor or as the coach.
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It's about having those hard conversations and being able to
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take a different perspective than somebody who's totally in it and
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helping guide to a destination, right?
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So when you were talking about the one person that you worked with and having
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to have that really hard conversation of, this maybe isn't for you.
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that while it might be uncomfortable in the moment at the end, result of
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that, right, that that's what it's kind of all about, the end result.
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I, he was super relieved, quite frankly, after that, he spent three months going
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through this process and learning some of this stuff, and, and I know, and, and he
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was never, he was never fully caught up to kind of the plan that's, that's there.
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And, there's some structure to our coaching and, and kind of
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some milestones set that way.
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We know through a half a year coaching or so that.
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You don't get 12 calls in and you're only in milestone four outta 10, for example.
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So, but he was always behind on the milestones and everything.
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And as we slowly kind of peeled back that orange, we realized that, What
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he thought he wanted in the, in the beginning was not what he needed,
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what he actually needed at the end.
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And, every time, it's, it doesn't always end in that situation.
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A lot of times in my world it's more like, I thought the direction was here
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and it's actually here, and you go down a different road and, the relief that people
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have, when you finally get that clarity and you're driving down the right road.
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Is so nice because like you feel like this w this weight is lifted off your shoulders
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because you've been worried about it for weeks past, sometimes months past on,
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man, I don't really like doing that, but my coach said I have to do it, and I, I
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don't really want to do that, but that's what I have to do to be successful and.
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It's not, because like, success is whatever you make of it.
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It's, it's, it's your, it's your metric.
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It's not my metric.
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what, what you feel is successful is different than what I feel is
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success and, and getting out of the head of what other people feel
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like success is and what success towards you is what makes you happy.
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And, and that's where, you get to go down that road and it's, it's pretty awesome.
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when you, when you're looking at somebody and you see that.
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that just the shoulders relax and like everything just comes in the clarity.
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And, and that's the dream of being a coach, to get, to get to that point.
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Yeah.
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And, and for that person, do you think that, that they would have
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gotten there or just continue to slug along for 2, 3, 4 years?
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I think, I think the slug along, and that's the worst, that's the worst thing
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ever is being, doing something for four years and then realizing four years
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later, golly, I hate this, that, that would be the, that's the worst thing.
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we're only here a very short period of time and.
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Four years in a life of 80 is 5% of your life that you work towards a goal
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that wasn't even really what you wanted.
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I mean, that would be, that's terrible to do.
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So, equally terrible is working four years towards a goal that you want and never
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being able to figure out how to get there.
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it is the right goal and, and you, you never spent the time talking to
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somebody to figure out how, how to get from point A to point m. and so both
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those things are equally, equally bad.
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and that's, that's where coaching and having a sounding board and
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somebody else to talk to really, really gets you over that hump.
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Hmm.
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No, and, and, and that is something that I'm still a little shaken by.
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What you just said.
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What did you say?
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Four years out of an 80 year life?
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No.
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On an 80 year life is 5% of your life possibly doing something that.
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You weren't even excited about, that, that you thought was exciting.
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You got into it and, and because you're, whether you're millions in debt or you're,
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you promised, you have workers and people who make a living off of you and all that.
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Like, there is a lot of responsibility and running business.
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at Let's Roll, right at about 105 employees that depend on us to
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manage and run a successful business.
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So there would be nothing worse than if I stood there three years
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in saying, man, I hate this.
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because then what does that do for your other a hundred employees
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and your other owners and all?
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So.
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So slugging along for a couple of years is the absolute worst thing,
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because you're, you're not just pulling yourself down for those four
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years, but you're pulling whoever else is comes along for the train ride.
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as well.
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And that's, and, and the coaching has helped me personally, not do that.
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And then, I've obviously, done the same thing and helped some others, find that
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clarity and, and get down the right road, towards whatever their goals might be.
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I know that you are a prolific.
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Person who loves to learn.
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you, you like to be incredibly well informed.
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You're somebody that anytime that we have a conversation about your business,
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you are able to pull off, out of the top of your head all sorts of information
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about, this percentage and that percentage and, and this and that and the other.
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The metrics are important.
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Yes.
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But the, which metrics are actually important, right?
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We can have data about everything, but the, one of the things that, that I spent
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a lot of time focusing on, certainly in the beginning is figuring out which are
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the metrics that are going to matter.
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That, and the conversation that I have is, what is informative
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versus what is motivational.
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Of, I can look at any numbers and they can inform me of things,
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but is it gonna motivate action?
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What clarity do you see in figuring out and how to determine what
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that motivation is for your team?
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Yeah.
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I, I think that's one of the, the hardest pieces because to the team,
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different people react in different ways.
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So that's been, that is, I, I'd say to this day, one of the most difficult parts
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is, I have 12 students and none of 'em, on the real estate side, none of 'em.
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react the same way to the same messaging, to the same thing.
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So, and it's no different than in our business.
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we have three general managers and all three of them have unique different
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personalities that take a message a little bit differently, not, not poorly
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or personally, or, you, you have to speak to that person the way they, the
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way they best communicate with you.
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And, that's not always easy, easy to do.
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And, and, and also, W as you said, during our, during our coaching sessions, we've
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aligned at what metrics make sense.
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We've aligned also with not just what I wanna see from metrics, but what
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help our managers just as much as what helps me and then, cater that towards.
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What makes sense for them, like whether it's scheduling metrics or payroll metrics
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or percentages on our cost of goods, whatever it might be, we've, we've laid
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it out in a way that makes sense for them, not just for me and, and helped
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them see the light at the end of the tunnel for when there's an issue or from
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when we're working through something.
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And, and how they do that is a little bit different per person.
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Yeah.
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And, and finding that opportunity, I think is as an owner when you're also putting
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on your mentorship hat and your coaching hat, right, of you are helping to coach
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and guide them, but again, not to be many you, but to be fully developed as to who
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they are and how they can meet the goals.
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In a way that makes sense to them and motivates them.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And, and everyone's a little bit different on, what, what makes them
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happy in their personal life too.
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we have managers that, do work more of a Monday through Friday with some weekends.
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We have some managers that love working nights and weekends and, and it doesn't
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mean that's a bad thing for our business.
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It means, if this person really impacts your business in a
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positive way, how can I help?
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Keep them, but also move the business forward.
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and so not everyone fits our mold or, somebody else's mold of
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what they would say is the best.
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Bowling center, amusement center manager in the world, they're the best for us,
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because we work with what they want to do as well and what works for them and, and
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make sure that, that they're happy too.
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'cause if they're happy and they're reaching their goals personally and,
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and their business goals, things, things are good for us as a business as well.
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So, Chris, as we are nearing the end of our time.
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I want to just kind of circle back to so much of, I think you would attribute your
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success is, is being able to reach out and have that mentorship, and find coaching
20:00
that can help elevate what you're doing.
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I wanna ask you, what do you do to grow other people?
20:12
Yeah, so it started off with joining this group to help, help them have a
20:19
sounding board as well, which is, which is, as we mentioned earlier, you, some of
20:23
our managers I know call you personally and ask you questions and everything.
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So they need that person outside of me, to, to talk to and all that.
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as, as an owner, I'm very approachable by, by all means.
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And, but there are times where when an employee almost doesn't want to
20:39
feel embarrassed by an idea that they have, and coming to me, I think makes
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'em almost a little embarrassed.
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Whereas if they have a sounding board, it lets them have clarity
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on what their goals and plans are.
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And then when they come to an owner, they, they.
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It's a little bit more buttoned up, versus a little bit more raw.
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So, I think that is a really, really impactful thing.
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So, not only is the coaching for, for Let's Roll as a business, but
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the coaching is for independently the people inside the business to help.
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to help them grow, and, display their, their positives and, and we
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end up talking a couple minutes every time about one person's random cool
21:24
positive that they had for the week.
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And I think there's just a big growth opportunity in that process of.
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Allowing them to have somebody else to talk to besides, besides me and other
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owners to say, Hey, I, I have this idea.
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How do I get it from here to there?
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so allowing them to have that person and, it, I think it's just
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a really, a really big thing.
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And, and honestly, from our standpoint, we, We're, we're okay with failure
21:49
from an ownership standpoint as well.
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So we're not, we're not expecting perfection.
21:53
We're not expecting every marketing plan to go, right.
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We're not expecting our managers to make all the right decisions.
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and they, the thing that I've promised myself two years ago and, and I feel like
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I've stuck to it pretty well, is I may not always agree with every decision our
22:10
manager makes, but I will respect it.
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I'll let you know if I don't agree with it, and I'll let you know what
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I think we should have done instead.
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But I'm never gonna go back on a decision that you made and make
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you look stupid because of it.
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And I think that's really important as well.
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'cause then your managers don't fear.
22:30
messing up or fear failure, fear, any of that, so just having that
22:34
outlook on it is that, hey, look like these people are human just
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like me and you and everyone else.
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Like we're all gonna make mistakes.
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We all screw up.
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We all say something stupid.
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We all do something stupid, at some point in time.
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And, having the managers feel comfortable enough that.
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Every once in a while they can mess up and, they don't get, there's, there's
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no harm in that, because we all are on the same page that we're all going
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towards the same goal and we're all, we all know what those goals are.
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And I think just, I think that overall mentality and vision is,
23:03
is really important to a successful business that, that grace to fail.
23:10
I call it a grace to fail, right?
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That, that you are giving the grace to.
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Have something not go the way it's supposed to go, or learn from the
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opportunity and the grace to learn from why this is a bad decision.
23:25
Because let's be real honest, every person in the world learns better from their own
23:31
mistakes then from somebody told me to do it this way, so that's how I did it.
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And not understanding the why you're supposed to do it this way, right?
23:40
Yeah.
23:40
That we all learn more.
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From mistakes and having that grace as a, as, as a manager to know that it's
23:50
not gonna be the end of the world if this doesn't work the way it's supposed
23:53
to, and that we're gonna learn from it and we're gonna move on from it.
23:55
And that's okay.
23:56
I think that's a great gift, and, and certainly is a great way to grow
24:01
your managers and to grow your team.
24:04
So thank you for that.
24:05
That's, that's a good little piece of advice there, Chris.
24:07
Thank you.
24:08
I will.
24:09
It's, it is time.
24:10
we're coming to the end of our time here.
24:12
So again, Chris, thank you so much for your insight and your conversation, and
24:18
I hope that this helps other people take a look and say, Hey, maybe I should,
24:23
reach out to that person that I, I've I can counsel with, whether it's through a
24:29
phone call or through a more professional.
24:32
coaching situation or mentorship environment, the
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importance of talking to others.
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So thanks for, for sharing that and your successes.
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So thank you so much, Chris.
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Appreciate you.
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Thank you.
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If you enjoyed today's conversation and if you are ready for growth yourself, I
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certainly hope that you look us up@the GrowthPro.com and schedule a free
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growth call with one of our coaches.
24:56
I'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsors for 2026 in the Growth
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Pro Edge Party Center Software, Roller, Betson, A&A Global, Semnox,
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Embed, and Shaffer Distributing.
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We appreciate what they do, which is to help us bring you a new episode of
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The GrowthPro Edge each and every week.
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I'm Denise Killian, your host with the GrowthPro Group.
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Keep growing, keep learning, and keep striving for the extraordinary.