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Clarity Comes After Action with tony Martin · Christian Business Growth Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to the Christian Business Growth Podcast.
• 0:04
  I'm here with Tony Martin.
• 0:05
  We're just going to call him Coach Tony Martin, and he's going be sharing his story with us today.
• 0:10
  So Tony, how did God get you started in business?
• 0:13
  How did God get me?
• 0:14
  Well, I tell you, my background is local church student ministry.
• 0:20
  I did that for millennia.
• 0:21
  And then for the last 25 years, I worked for our state nomination office as editor of our state newspaper and just had a good run with that.
• 0:32
  But somewhere along the way, and I'm saying this was, and I actually retired from that day job back in December.
• 0:37
  So I'm living that life.
• 0:40
  It's hard for me to even say this, but I'll be 70 in May and just feel like I've got a lot of good ahead of me still.
• 0:47
  But to your point, I have always been fascinated by how people learn and how they process and how they grow from that.
• 0:57
  And so I sort of started out with this whole, this sense of doing course productions because my degree's in education and I'm kind of a curriculum geek.
• 1:06
  so, but I realized pretty quick.
• 1:08
  that this is not gonna sustain me.
• 1:10
  This is not, I mean, if you have to sell 50, $35 courses to even put a dent in one your expenses, that's not a good move.
• 1:19
  And so what happened while I guess, and I should know better, mean, the progression of my mind gets a little hazy sometimes, but I just realized just how easy, I say easy, but how
• 1:33
  accessible people were.
• 1:35
  and how easy it would be to meet people's needs if I could approach them from an online basis.
• 1:39
  So that's how that kind of little kernel started.
• 1:43
  And then I realized, mean you can actually make money at this?
• 1:46
  And so that's kind of where it started.
• 1:48
  I'm not motivated by money, although like Ziegzaler says, or said, somebody that says they're not concerned about money will lie about other things too.
• 1:57
  And so it's like, okay, I've got this gift.
• 2:00
  I feel like it's a providential God calling.
• 2:04
  how can I with integrity monetize that?
• 2:06
  So that's how all that started.
• 2:08
  I've been in this space now, um not, let's see, well, June of last year, so what is that?
• 2:16
  Seven or eight, nine months, something like that.
• 2:17
  Anyway, that's where we are, yeah.
• 2:21
  what specifically are you coaching?
• 2:22
  What kind of categories are you dealing with?
• 2:24
  What made you think of going from curriculum into coaching?
• 2:29
  Okay, so that's a great question.
• 2:32
  I appreciate you asking that because I was going to work in an answer to this one somehow anyway.
• 2:37
  But the Lord has given me this real heart for that frustrated Christian entrepreneur, business person who's had this late night crisis of belief.
• 2:48
  That's just the way I've identified in my own brain, who woke up and thought, am I fulfilling the purpose that God put me here to do?
• 2:56
  Is the whole issue being called to a role?
• 2:59
  Because I believe the reason that the Lyle's not dead and the reason that I'm not dead and the reason your listeners aren't dead is because we hadn't fulfilled that purpose yet.
• 3:06
  We've still got things to do ahead of us.
• 3:09
  So my role would be on a one-to-one basis initially, or primarily, let me come alongside you and ask you some really hard questions.
• 3:19
  Because if you're frustrated and scared and you may be successful financially, you may be at the top of your game, but you're still hollow inside and that's little scary.
• 3:29
  to feel like that you're gonna finish your days here on earth, not doing what you're supposed to be doing.
• 3:34
  So I would help that person sort of unpack that.
• 3:36
  Let's discover together what it is you're supposed to be about, and then let's work out a plan for you to fulfill that.
• 3:44
  So at its core, that's what I'd do.
• 3:49
  What's God doing right now in your business?
• 3:52
  Well, it is a constant learning process, I'll tell you that.
• 3:57
  One of the things that's been interesting for me is that being in ministry all those years, what I'm offering, I used to offer in the context of, and working with students,
• 4:06
  but adults too, it was the context of, you're doing this anyway, as a free service, basically, because you're on church staff.
• 4:16
  So learning to monetize that has been kind of a challenge for me, um but it's a matter of
• 4:22
  getting the right people in front of me as much as anything else.
• 4:25
  That's been the biggest challenge, but it's like, dude, if I can talk to you one time, I feel like I can help you.
• 4:35
  So that's where it is.
• 4:37
  still, I don't think you ever quit learning or you shouldn't quit learning.
• 4:42
  So I'm still trying to figure all this out because I don't come from a business background.
• 4:49
  Prior to now, I've never owned a business.
• 4:52
  than doing that kind of thing.
• 4:53
  So that's been a really kind of fun experience for me.
• 4:58
  But I'm still figuring it out.
• 5:01
  If you wanted to interview somebody that's got it all worked out and you came to the wrong guy, dude, sorry.
• 5:05
  I'm a pilgrim.
• 5:07
  Yes, And what would you tell somebody who's kind of dabbling on the side with their business, but they're still in a job and they're wanting to make that transition?
• 5:14
  Yeah, so that's me.
• 5:16
  That's my story.
• 5:18
  And I think first of all, the idea is, I gotta be real careful here, the conventional wisdom is follow your passions.
• 5:27
  And I'm saying that really sounds good, but is God in your passions?
• 5:34
  the baseline is, is he gonna be pleased with what I'm doing?
• 5:38
  Is this what he wants me to be doing?
• 5:40
  So that would be that.
• 5:41
  And I would say just start out by being a resource hog.
• 5:45
  know, read good books, listen to good podcasts, sort of figure out what's made other people successful, and then take some baby steps.
• 5:54
  um I don't mean set small goals, but I would say set hard goals that are achievable in a certain amount of time, and then just do the thing.
• 6:05
  And give yourself permission to mess up, you know, you don't get a grade on this.
• 6:10
  My, I can't remember who, where I heard this, the approach I take is beta now, better later.
• 6:18
  So for that newbie out there, just do something.
• 6:21
  Don't sit there, the whole ready aim fire thing.
• 6:25
  Some people like ready fire.
• 6:27
  And my tendency is ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, and then never pull the trigger.
• 6:32
  So what I've had to learn is just do it.
• 6:35
  Ship something, get something out there, whether it's good or not.
• 6:39
  Don't worry about it, just get it the heck out there and then you can come back and refine.
• 6:44
  And if you can get, I would say they still get feedback from trusted friends.
• 6:48
  um And if you've got a trusted friend that understands the space that you're working in so they can converse intelligently about it, then lean on them because all of us are smarter
• 6:59
  than one of us.
• 7:00
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:01
  You said something that kind of sparked my curiosity.
• 7:04
  You said that, you know, follow your passion.
• 7:06
  The whole concept of the world is telling you to follow your heart, but the Bible says your heart is deceitful.
• 7:11
  And until you sacrifice that deceitfulness and say, okay, God, what do want me to do?
• 7:19
  How do you align this with God?
• 7:20
  So what are you telling somebody that says, hey, I really think I want to do this, but I'm not sure if God's part of this?
• 7:27
  Well, that's gonna come down at its core to your personal relationship with Him.
• 7:33
  I don't think you need to expect God to give you some kind of divine revelation if you hadn't already established a certain level of intimacy with Him.
• 7:42
  On the front end then, I would make sure that I'm in a place where I can hear from Him.
• 7:47
  And that's, again, that just takes, that takes some time.
• 7:50
  It takes some time alone with Him.
• 7:52
  It takes basically marinating in Scripture and having a really vibrant
• 7:56
  prayer life, but you can't do that on the fly.
• 7:59
  Because I don't think God, listen, this just occurred to me, I don't think God's will is like an Easter egg hunt.
• 8:04
  I don't think it's just like laying around under a bush somewhere and you've got to go find it.
• 8:09
  I think his will is available to you.
• 8:11
  The problem is a lot of times we're afraid to trust him with that because what he wants us to do and what we perceive in our hearts that we want to do can be in two different
• 8:20
  places.
• 8:21
  So that's where you have to really guard yourself, do that.
• 8:26
  It's like if you're trying to figure out what you need to be doing, if you look at Jesus' recruiting methods, it's pretty basic.
• 8:34
  He come on, follow me.
• 8:37
  And the deal was, Lord, I don't know where you're going take me, but I'm going do it anyway.
• 8:42
  And that's kind of the mindset I think we need to have, too.
• 8:45
  If God says, follow me, it's like, you know, He will light your path, but not a long way in front of you.
• 8:52
  I think He lights it just enough for you to get one step down at a time.
• 8:55
  That old joke about if you want to hear God laugh out loud, tell him your long-range plans.
• 9:00
  There's a lot of truth to that.
• 9:02
  So just take that first step that you know is right and then do the next right thing by His grace.
• 9:08
  But just do something.
• 9:09
  Here's my point, Lyle.
• 9:10
  Just do something.
• 9:13
  Just start.
• 9:14
  Don't wait till you have all the answers.
• 9:16
  I would say be as prepared as you can be, but then again, give yourself permission to screw things up and say, well, next.
• 9:23
  Failure is part of the process and I think people, they're afraid to fail, but failing is where you learn.
• 9:29
  oh there's that process we kind of built into our society.
• 9:32
  Everything's got to be perfect, but it's not going to be perfect.
• 9:35
  You said you plan, plan, plan.
• 9:36
  And I look at it as a headlight faith.
• 9:39
  Your headlight don't go so far and until you move forward, you can't
• 9:44
  yeah.
• 9:44
  That's, that's a great analogy here.
• 9:46
  I would, I'd buy into that.
• 9:49
  So we're going to move into our business growth concept.
• 9:51
  What are you currently doing to grow your business and help impact people and let people know about what you're doing?
• 9:57
  I would start by saying that ah I was sort of late to this whole idea of being coached because we've got there's so many resources out there.
• 10:09
  You can go on YouTube or any number, well, as an example, but any number of places and find out the how tos, okay?
• 10:17
  And so my attitude was I can figure this out.
• 10:20
  I got this.
• 10:21
  I'll just see what else, what somebody else has done.
• 10:23
  They're successful.
• 10:24
  I'll just copy that.
• 10:25
  I don't need a coach.
• 10:27
  Can I say that you do need a coach?
• 10:29
  mean, can I say that it's just almost, you need somebody that can equip you and maybe not on a one-to-one basis.
• 10:38
  I don't know whatever structure you'd be looking for, but you really need somebody to take you along the path.
• 10:43
  So I would say as far as building a business, that was the first thing that I had.
• 10:48
  I realized I had to do is I had to get somebody that knew what they're doing.
• 10:51
  So I've got currently two really good coaches slash organizations.
• 10:57
  that are getting me down the road.
• 10:59
  We're part of the same one, so you know what I'm talking about there.
• 11:01
  But I would say step one would be get you somebody that you trust that can really help you and just understand that it's gonna cost you some money, but you're actually investing in
• 11:12
  yourself, so that's cool.
• 11:15
  So I did that, that's past tense.
• 11:17
  And then the other thing that I'm doing that I'm really encouraged with because I feel like I'm getting some traction is that,
• 11:24
  I hear people say, I don't have an email list and I don't have a social following and I don't have any of those kinds of things.
• 11:31
  Here's what I've learned is that sometimes you can borrow other people's lists, other people's groups.
• 11:38
  As an example, find somebody online, their website or whatever that has a newsletter or do a weekly email blast or whatever and subscribe to that.
• 11:51
  read their stuff and then say, know, respond to them and say, hey, listen, you don't know me.
• 11:56
  I only know you from your reputation and what I've read.
• 12:00
  Um, but I really like what you're doing.
• 12:03
  And would you, would you consider, uh, us doing like a resource swap where I would share some of your really good content with my people and in return you would do the same thing.
• 12:13
  That would be a win-win.
• 12:15
  My list would grow from that.
• 12:16
  And I think that has been one of the most helpful things I've done.
• 12:19
  And I've only really learned that in the last couple of months.
• 12:22
  But those responses I've got from that, most people out there say, yeah, we can do that.
• 12:27
  What would it hurt?
• 12:29
  And it's a matter of two, just finding somebody that aligns with the same values that you have.
• 12:33
  And even if they're not in the same industry, would be more of a shoulder industry um than do that.
• 12:41
  just, you you understand we're not in competition because when you say you're in competition with somebody for that, you're saying there's a finite pie.
• 12:47
  And I don't believe that to be.
• 12:50
  In God's economy, I think there's a...
• 12:51
  I think there's a lot to go around.
• 12:54
  listen, even this lot, you are your own unique voice.
• 13:00
  And even if you're sharing the same content that somebody else would, it's not yours and theirs and theirs and yours.
• 13:07
  So you've always gonna have that unique voice.
• 13:09
  I don't really buy into this limited audience thing.
• 13:12
  I think they're out there.
• 13:13
  It's just a matter of finding them.
• 13:14
  So I would say the coach part and then just getting the right people.
• 13:18
  And again, I'm doing this resource swatch.
• 13:20
  Swap thing that was really working well is I just feel like in the last couple of months I'm seeing some real traction that I want to see him before So finding your audience and
• 13:31
  going after them, you know, it's pretty basic
• 13:34
  And we've talked about this on a couple other podcasts, but what would you tell somebody if they've never had a coach before, they do the YouTube university aspect, and we both
• 13:42
  know that as a business owner, you have blinders, you don't even realize the things that you're missing.
• 13:47
  And so what would you tell somebody if they've never had a coach before, how could they look for a coach, what should they look for first?
• 13:53
  Give us some wisdom on that.
• 13:56
  Well, there's networking.
• 13:57
  um At some point, we talk about being solopreneurs.
• 14:03
  Well, that works up to a point, I think.
• 14:06
  And that's really how most people sort of get started is I'm the one man business and I'm everything.
• 14:11
  I do the website, do the emails, do the, you do everything.
• 14:16
  And the fact is, is that you need to find that like-minded person or people that are.
• 14:25
  that get it.
• 14:26
  And I don't have a formula there.
• 14:28
  don't have a, I don't know how to really track that other than just being on the right places and social media, sort of hanging out with the right kind of groups.
• 14:37
  For me, it's old school, but Facebook groups have been really helpful for me to find somebody.
• 14:42
  And people love to be asked questions.
• 14:44
  They love to say, you know, here's what I'm doing.
• 14:47
  And so that's where it starts.
• 14:48
  And so I think at that point it's referrals and recommendations.
• 14:51
  as much as anything else.
• 14:52
  like, because everybody's going to look good online, right?
• 14:55
  mean, no, no potential coach out there is going to say, well, I suck, but hire me anyway.
• 15:00
  Um, so you're going to have to find that person that you trust that says, Hey, I know a guy or a lady or whatever the case may be.
• 15:08
  And then just reach out.
• 15:10
  And what I've also found is, that with coaches, um, you could be asking a coach or find a coach that provides the exact same service that you need.
• 15:21
  But their approach might be so different so you could benefit from both of them.
• 15:24
  Of course, you start getting to cost issues there too.
• 15:27
  But I think it's a matter too of finding complementary things.
• 15:30
  But to your point, it's just a good recommendation from somebody that you trust that gets there.
• 15:35
  And you can build that, I think, even through social media with somebody that you don't know.
• 15:38
  Just start DMing and just say, I like you.
• 15:43
  The relationships I have with you and other folks in our group, that's the way that came about.
• 15:49
  There's a lot of folks that I would say, if you said it, I believe it.
• 15:52
  Doesn't mean that people won't let you down, but at least you have somewhere to start.
• 15:57
  Yeah.
• 15:58
  let me ask you a question here then.
• 15:59
  Do you look for a coach that's got the same personality as yours or somebody who's got a different personality of yours?
• 16:05
  What do you look like when you're looking for a coach?
• 16:09
  Well, I don't want to hang out with anybody that's just like me.
• 16:11
  You know, I mean, I get tired of me.
• 16:14
  I want somebody that's going to bring a fresh attitude and aspect to it.
• 16:17
  Now, I will say that being in ministry, in local church ministry for millennia, for decades, literally, I got to point where I felt like I can work with anybody.
• 16:28
  I necessarily have to just be best buds with them, but I feel like I can find common ground with anybody.
• 16:36
  Having said that though, if somebody's got this on the desk, I'm an S, kind of pretty laid back, just kind of go with it, you know, just real relation, all that.
• 16:46
  And these annoy me sometimes, but I can still benefit from them.
• 16:51
  You know, if somebody's just like all up in my face and says, this is what you're going to do, no discussion, you know, get past all this feely touchy stuff, what are we going to
• 16:58
  do?
• 16:59
  Well, okay, I appreciate that.
• 17:01
  And I learn and grow from that, but that's not where I want to camp.
• 17:05
  So same personality, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
• 17:08
  I do wanna have some points of contact, some commonalities.
• 17:14
  Obviously I'm gonna prefer to work with a fellow believer, although I think you learn from most anybody.
• 17:23
  That's not a personality thing, but I would say that's pretty high on my list as a criteria I would look for.
• 17:30
  um same personality, nope.
• 17:35
  No.
• 17:37
  So as we end up here, how can someone get in touch with you, number one?
• 17:40
  And number two, what's one little bit of wisdom you want to leave us with today?
• 17:43
  Okay, so the best way is real basic.
• 17:47
  Tony at coachtonymartin.com and I respond to every email.
• 17:53
  I just make time to do that.
• 17:56
  And what I would like to do past that uh is just to get on a Zoom chat with you and just let me hear your story.
• 18:05
  I'm just like that.
• 18:07
  Let me hear your story.
• 18:08
  Let me have the long version.
• 18:10
  I do okay with small talk up to a point, but sooner or later it's like, okay, can we get past the weather and let's just, let me find out.
• 18:16
  Because I want to know specifically based on what I hear from you from asking some questions and having some dialogue, is there any way that I can serve you?
• 18:26
  And we would take it from there.
• 18:28
  I would say, and my website's coachtonymartin.com.
• 18:31
  That's pretty basic.
• 18:33
  But if you want to get a hold of me directly, it's tony at coachtonymartin.com.
• 18:38
  What was your other question?
• 18:39
  forgot.
• 18:40
  What little bit of wisdom do want to leave us with today?
• 18:43
  What a little bit of wisdom is that, um, trust the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding.
• 18:51
  In all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll make your path straight.
• 18:54
  That's not original to me by the way, but it's, it just, it's just really, it's really germane to this discussion.
• 19:04
  When we get frustrated, I think one of the most dangerous things you can say is, I've got this.
• 19:09
  Well, no, you don't.
• 19:11
  God's got it.
• 19:13
  Most of the time when you say, got this, you're fixing to mess up.
• 19:16
  this is just like, trust him.
• 19:19
  He did not, wherever you are in life, listen, wherever you are, he did not bring you this far just to abandon you.
• 19:25
  And you can't look back on your life as a believer and say, boy, God just really, he just really dropped the ball on this, man.
• 19:32
  um That's not gonna happen.
• 19:34
  So it's a matter of, and I think that's part of our Western culture.
• 19:37
  You know, we're taught to be.
• 19:39
  you know, pull ourselves up our own bootstraps and be a self-made man or woman or whatever.
• 19:43
  And that's, that sounds really good.
• 19:46
  And I think there's a benefit in, you know, acting wise and doing things that you know you to be doing that you know you need to be doing.
• 19:55
  But ultimately it's like, I just need to get my marketing orders from him because if I'd known I'm going to march off in a gully somewhere.
• 20:02
  So there's the nugget.
• 20:04
  Thank you, appreciate your time today.
• 20:07
  Well, it was fun.
• 20:08
  It was fun.
• 20:10
  Happy to.
• 20:11
  Love to serve folks.
• 20:13
  I mean, honestly, that's where my motives are.
• 20:16
  Let me serve you.
• 20:18
  I think I can help you.
• 20:21
  Yeah.
• 20:22
  Sure thing.