How To Increase Your Success As A Coach With Marc Mawhinney, The Coach Of Coaches. (#100) — Transcript
Updated: Oct 26
THE PICTURE OF WEALTH · EPISODE 100
Dustin Serviss speaks with Marc Mawhinney about building a coaching business, finding clients and developing a mindset that supports consistent action. The conversation also explores lessons that apply beyond coaching.
Listen to the episode
This transcript was generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability. It may contain transcription or speaker-attribution errors. Refer to the recording for exact wording.
Chapters
[00:00:00] Turning youth into an advantage
[00:04:19] Failure and rebuilding
[00:08:09] Choosing to coach coaches
[00:12:07] Email lists and client acquisition
[00:15:42] A lesson from property management
[00:19:11] Growth versus a lifestyle business
[00:22:22] Being comfortable making money
[00:25:42] Family and gratitude
[00:29:23] Education and entrepreneurship
[00:37:04] Staying in business through difficult times
Guest & resources
Related episodes
Transcript
[00:00:00] Marc Mawhinney: As I said, hey. Look. Couple of things. I know I'm young, but I'm hungry. I got student loans I wanna pay off. I wanna make it, and I'm gonna work hard for you, harder than anyone else. So while all these other agents are off, at their cottage in the summer, right, and they're enjoying their golden years, so I'm gonna be hungry and out there working to sell your home. So I turned that into a positive, which actually helped me get a lot of listings once you confront it that way. So, there's no old saying, make the skeletons dance. You You take the skeleton in your closet, you turn it into a positive.
[00:00:33] Dustin Serviss: Welcome to the picture of wealth or TPOW as we call it. I am your host, Dustin Service. That is the voice of Mark Mawhinney. Now, we had a great visit. He coaches coaches. Now, if you wanna understand someone who's built a business in less than ten years, he is running a Facebook page called The Coaching Jungle with Mark Mawhinney and he has twenty four thousand followers. He is also the leader of a company called Natural Born Coaches. He's also the mastermind behind a top secret for the eyes of motivated coaches only, Secret Coach Mastermind. Now this is a group that he leads on tips and tricks for helping
[00:01:17] Dustin Serviss: people run successful coaching businesses. Now for a listener, if you're not a coach, I guarantee you that this podcast, we dive into a number of things that'll be applicable for your business. We talk about if you're twenty five and going out of university into the jungle of life, what things that you should be or you you could be considering and looking at as different avenues because it's a it's a it's a jungle. It's thick out there. It's unknown. It's uncertain. And Mark does a great job of unpacking that. He's talking to us from Moncton, New Brunswick. Again, he stayed up a little later at night to get us through and
[00:01:53] Dustin Serviss: he talks about what his favorite book is. And again, this book is from nineteen ninety four. And I know of the book. I know it is, well, actually, it's nineteen ninety two, was originally published, and it's still applicable today. Mark reads it every year to get his mindset right. So without further ado, I bring you Mark Mawhinney. Listeners, I'm excited to have Mark on the show. Mark is a coach of coaches. And, again, what is that? And for any of you, you know, and listener, if you're not a coach, stay tuned because the tools and tricks that Mark has is crosses many, avenues into business and anyone who's in the interacting
[00:02:30] Dustin Serviss: with people, achieving things. And, again, Mark, thanks a lot for being on the show.
[00:02:35] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. Thanks for having me, Dustin.
[00:02:37] Dustin Serviss: I I I think we need to have a bit of a backstory. Again, I don't wanna... You know, people can look you up. They can see the success. You have a Facebook page called the coaching jungle with nearly twenty four thousand people, following along. And, you know, that's a great following, and you've got a great message there. So for anyone who needs to check that out, it's on Facebook. It's a group, the coaching jungle. But get us up to speed with where this came from. I, you know, I have done some research on you. I know there's a bit of a real estate story in your background, but, coaching coaches, where does this come from?
[00:03:11] Marc Mawhinney: It's always tough to try to condense, you know, a lot of years into thirty seconds.
[00:03:16] Dustin Serviss: You're not that old?
[00:03:18] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. I don't know. True story. I got, I was buying cologne at Shoppers Drug Mart the other day, and she asked, no. I I don't... I... My age. I turned forty four last summer. And she said, are you fifty five? Because they had a discount, I guess, for that. And I said, oh my god. She said, I hope not, but there's more grays in the beard than before. And she... And then she tried to play it off like, oh, no. No. We always check if it's within, like, ten years or whatever. I'm like, yeah. Yeah. Sure. That's okay.
[00:03:45] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Right.
[00:03:46] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. I mean, to make a very long story short, before I got into coaching, I was in real estate throughout my twenties. You know, I spent about a decade building up a a a good sized real estate company, and, everything was rolling, hockey stick growth every year, you know, consistent growth. And then everything came, crashing down. You know, I had about a hundred agents and employees and couple offices and different companies under one roof. And, prior to that, I didn't really know much about coaching. I'd actually had someone approach me before that popped into the real estate office,
[00:04:19] Marc Mawhinney: a business coach back when there weren't as many business coaches. And maybe in a cocky, you know, late twenty something at the time thought, like, take a look around. It looks like I need a coach, you know, and set him on his way. Then everything came crashing down a few years after that. I thought, Jesus, maybe I should've worked with them. So I went through a few years of, I say, in the wilderness, not literally, but a couple rough years where, it was a very, surreal time because I had never, failed at all. I was just... You know, I wouldn't say success was easy. It was a lot of work, but I hadn't stumbled as I was building
[00:04:52] Marc Mawhinney: that real estate business. And I went through a couple years where everything I touched turned to crap, and I thought, Jason, what the heck's going on here? Anyways, that's how I got into coaching because I ended up hiring several coaches just to figure out what the heck was going on and help me get back on my feet. And when I was ready to to get back into business again in twenty fourteen, I thought, jeez, I had a front row seat to see what coaching can do in people's lives, and this would be a great business to get into. And that's how I jumped into it, and here we are almost a decade later, still going.
[00:05:25] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, that's, I think it's important to say, you know, I would, profess that listener, you're a self made go getter, and, you've done amazing things on your own, and you're busy. And, you know, you try and fit a coach into your program, like, where is that gonna happen? So, Mark, help us understand, you know, when you're working with coaches, like... But back us up to the the end user. What is the value of a coach? Or is there a psychology, a psychological reason that, you know, kinda gets activated where people can access different parts of their brain? Or, like, I just think, oh, hire a coach, another homework person.
[00:06:04] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. Coaching is getting more well known. I think we're in a bubble in the online space, and we think everybody knows about coaching. If I went through my neighborhood knocking on doors and asking people if they knew what a coach was, I'm sure a lot of them would think of sports, athletics, like, you know, like, football coaches and wrestling coaches and so on. It's getting better, but there's still a a ways to go. The way I answer that question, I would, say it doesn't matter how disciplined you are and how motivated, how much energy, what big goals you have. It's really tough to see the forest for the trees, you know, if you're
[00:06:43] Marc Mawhinney: you're very close to the action. And it's a very solitary experience often building a business, for example. And, a coach is that second set of eyes that's able to ask you questions that draw things out of you and give you some different perspectives and make you think differently about things. So I'm a big fan of coaching. You know? At any time, I usually have one or two coaches that I'm working with in different areas on things. I just hired a health coach a few months ago just to kick my butt into shape, with it. So, yeah, I mean, coaching, it's... That's how I... The way I put it, a good coach helps a client get from point a to point b.
[00:07:19] Marc Mawhinney: That's probably the easiest definition I could give.
[00:07:22] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. No. And that's that's a great... And you you touched on it. You know, most of the peep... You know, we're talking business coaching. The coaches that you are coaching, is it all business coaches or are we talking every genre of coach?
[00:07:35] Marc Mawhinney: No. It's all across the niches. So I do work with business coaches, life coaches, relationship coaches. The health coach I hired is a past client of mine. I helped him with his business, so I knew him. And, that all came about because when I first started... When I got into coaching, it was very broad. I said I'll work with any entrepreneur. Because I I don't think entrepreneurs have enough support, and I think they get crapped on a lot. I always say entrepreneurs make the world go around. What I realized in that first year, I had a couple entrepreneurs that were in different, industries or different fields, but I was also working
[00:08:09] Marc Mawhinney: with a couple... Two coaches as clients. And not... Nothing against my other clients, but I had the most fun with those coaches. It just seemed to click. It seemed to gel, and I was good at what I was doing. So I decided to plant my flag in the ground, focus only on helping coaches at that point. So anyone else that approaches me now, if there's someone that owns a restaurant or a gym or, you know, anything like that, I I just politely say, hey. Look. I can't help you. I only work with coaches. But, hey. I could probably refer a good person to you because I've met a lot of coaches and worked with a lot. So, yeah, that... That's...
[00:08:42] Marc Mawhinney: The importance of niching down is picking a lane and sticking to it. Mine's helping coaches.
[00:08:48] Dustin Serviss: What do you think's been, you know, for... Talk a business owner to business owner, what has been, like, a biggest breakthrough for you in... And I'm I'm I'm stretching a bit, but in your world, I assume digital marketing is is a thing. I'm assuming you're not, you know, knocking on doors to find coaches to coach. So how have you built your business and how... You know, twenty four thousand followers on on Facebook. There's obviously something that people want. So how how have you done that?
[00:09:17] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. So, I don't work locally. I'm in Atlanta, Canada. I have had clients come to me locally just that they stumble onto my podcast or something, but you won't see me advertising in local publications or doing local, you know, trade shows or anything like that. Ninety five percent of my clients are in the United States, and I like that. Nothing against people in my neck of the woods, but it gives me different perspectives working with people all over the place and not just in a local sandbox. So, yeah, it's all... Everything I do is online, and there's so many different ways you could build a coaching business or any business online.
[00:09:55] Marc Mawhinney: What I'm really big on is focusing on what I say, three pillars. And and, basically, you know, pillar is where you're getting your message, your offers in front of the people that need to be hearing about you, the people you could help. And for me personally, I mean, your three pillars could be different. But, the three pillars for me is podcasting. So that's my show, Natural Born Coaches, but also going out on shows like this, so both sides of the mic. Another one's community building. Like you mentioned, the Facebook group, the coaching jungle's big part of what I do, where that's a large group. And then finally, email marketing.
[00:10:29] Marc Mawhinney: I'm a really big fan of daily emails, which a lot of people think, oh my god. That's crazy. And everything, I've been doing daily emails since twenty sixteen, and I don't plan on stopping. So if I'm doing those three pillars... And I still do other things. You know? I'm on LinkedIn and other places. But if I'm focusing on those three things, I know that I'm in good shape.
[00:10:50] Dustin Serviss: And so is there a more receptive nature to a coach to emails than common Mary Smith consumer? Is there is there more traction there?
[00:11:02] Marc Mawhinney: I think there's a hesitation for people to get into daily emails because they think that people will, find them at their home and kill them or throw a rock through the window or something because, oh my god. They'll, you know, they'll be mad at me if I'm sending daily emails. I think coaches are very receptive to it because if you're entertaining with your emails, you're providing some value in there, then they're gonna wanna read them every day. It's gonna be just like their morning cup of coffee, you know, that that they're used to having. But, I mean, there's other people that are interested in other things that would
[00:11:36] Marc Mawhinney: be, cool with daily emails. I mean, I'm sure there's... I don't know. I'm just throwing this out there. There's probably fans of the show, Yellowstone. You know, maybe there's a daily email update on... Because that seems to be the yet shown now or, you know, someone's into, like, board games. That's a huge industry, which I didn't realize. There are these real board game geeks that are, geeking out on the design of games and talk about the plots and all this other stuff. I'm sure there's daily board game lists as well. So it's not just coaches, but I think coaches are, set up well for
[00:12:07] Marc Mawhinney: it because they're very interested in getting an ROI of making money, getting more clients, getting more leads coming in, and a good email list could help them do that.
[00:12:17] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. That's... Is is there something that was in your old past that that led to coaching? Like, again, we talked about real estate. You needed some coaches. But there's a lot of different avenues you coulda went after real estate sort of hit the bed per se.
[00:12:32] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. So when everything happens then, two thousand nine, I I had an inkling I wanna do something in personal development because I'd always been big on reading personal development books, you know, like, Think and Grow Rich, reading Tony Robbins stuff, and everything else. I wasn't sure how that was gonna look. Would I do speaking? You know? Would I be writing books? You know, motivational speakers, self... How personal development books or whatever. So it was probably a little early at that point when I first started thinking about it because coaching wasn't fleshed out as much as it was when
[00:13:06] Marc Mawhinney: I eventually jumped into it in early twenty fourteen. There was, more of a coaching industry out there. Now coaching's been around for decades, but it it wasn't as well known then. So the reason I like coaching is, well, a couple things. I mean, I I love the flexibility. So for being in real estate for, like, a decade, I found myself, very restricted. Like, I couldn't leave that. Obviously, I could leave my, area, my city, but anytime I traveled anywhere, inevitably, there'd be just some BS stuff popping up, you know, like some sort of issue because, you know, I'm managing a bunch of agents on the team, and then you get clients with issues.
[00:13:45] Marc Mawhinney: True story. My ex wife and I went down to Vegas. We actually got married in Vegas in o six. And, we weren't on the strip for an hour, and my phone rang with my assistant. And she was told only contact me if it's an emergency, and she was really good about it. But when I saw her number, I'm like, oh god. What happened? And, this was February. Being in Atlanta, Canada, one of our listings was a vacant home. And, whichever agent showed it, we never figured out who because there have been a bunch of showings. They turned, what they thought was a light switch off because usually oil furnace, switches are painted red so people don't do this.
[00:14:23] Marc Mawhinney: This one wasn't. So they thought it was a light switch, vacant home. When they're leaving, they turn the switch off. It turned off the furnace. All the pipes froze being February in Canada. They all burst. They wrecked the hardwood floors, just tons of damage to the house or whatever. And I remember saying to, to my now ex wife back then, I said, I don't think I wanna be doing this when I'm seventy years old. You know? I said, like, you can't even... I can't even travel without worrying about stuff like that. So for me, not to knock real estate. I had fun through those years with it, but it just,
[00:14:58] Marc Mawhinney: I was ready to do something new because that's all I've done basically right out of university. My whole adult life was selling real estate, being a broker, and everything else. I like the flexibility of coaching. I just got back from Niagara Falls. I went with a buddy, brought the laptop. I did, you know, fifteen minutes of work in the morning in the hotel room before we're off for the day. Bang. Everything's great, you know, that way. And, it's something that I feel like I'm making bigger footprint in the world, than perhaps if I was selling real estate locally because I'm helping people all over the world.
[00:15:30] Marc Mawhinney: And, I think there's a ripple effect there as well. So that's interesting to me.
[00:15:35] Dustin Serviss: Just side story. How did you solve that problem? So that's... That was on the agency? Is that... You had to take
[00:15:42] Marc Mawhinney: the Yeah. I'm trying to remember right. And then this is where it got even more awkward just to, you know, the plot twist. It was one of my employees' homes. She was one... It... I had a property management company that that was a sister company for the real estate business, and she worked with the property management company. So she didn't sue us or anything because that would probably be a little awkward where, you know, we were her employer. And I think that insurance would cover it in that case, with it. But, yeah, like, I felt bad. I felt, awful. But, you know, it's one of those things that's... It it was an accident.
[00:16:17] Marc Mawhinney: It wasn't like the agent, whoever did that, did it on purpose. But it did highlight how there's not a lot of opportunities for r and r in real estate. You... You've got that phone on you. It's ringing a couple hundred times a day. I had a a phantom ringing problem. You know, that thing they say when you you're used to your phone buzzing, and then even when it's not in your pocket, you're still feeling, like, that vibration. That's what... Yeah. I would still matter. I would... I'd try to put the phone away. I'd go to a movie with my wife. Could never go to the late show because by the time the late show got out, it'd be eleven PM.
[00:16:52] Marc Mawhinney: Too late to call people back if I was working on offers and all this other stuff. So we go to the early show, whatever time it starts, seven o'clock and be done by nine ish. And then the rest of the night, I get home. Like, well, I gotta return forty calls or whatever because we're working on all the stuff. I'd be up till, you know, late at night returning calls with it. I could do it at that time because my son, he's fourteen now. He had... He was just born at the tail end of it. But... So for most of the time, I didn't have a child, but now I do. And I thought, wow. I couldn't do that now in my forties.
[00:17:23] Marc Mawhinney: I wouldn't wanna be doing that particular business.
[00:17:26] Dustin Serviss: So in in your world now, you've got, is it a business model that's, like, online or is it one on one coaching? Like, where are you getting your your revenue? And so, you know, again, from what I've seen, you know, maybe you could unpack the business model a little bit without getting into the numbers. But this... Is this a business you would sell for lots in the future? Or is this a lifestyle business for you as well?
[00:17:52] Marc Mawhinney: So, I guess to answer your first question, my business is all virtual. I don't meet anyone in person. You know? So I'm on... I was using Zoom, Skype, and Zoom a lot before COVID hit whenever I figured out about, Zoom. I had one of my best friends, a lawyer here, and, well, now he's a judge, but at the time, he was a lawyer. And, right when COVID hit, he called me up and, he's like, Mark, I... Oh my god. I found a great tool. You'd probably love this. I thought you'd wanna check it out. I said, okay. What what is it? He said, well, it's called Zoom. It's a video conference. I'm like, yeah. Well well, Scott, I live on Zoom.
[00:18:25] Marc Mawhinney: I've lived on it for years on Skype when I first started, then I went to Zoom. So I'm like, you don't have to tell me about it. But, yeah. So so, I work virtually, with people. I don't meet anyone in person. Although I do speak at events and stuff like that, I... Which is cool to meet people that you've known virtually than in person.
[00:18:43] Dustin Serviss: Right.
[00:18:44] Marc Mawhinney: But, my offers go anywhere from, I have a hard copy newsletter that's ninety seven dollars a month, nine ninety seven a year, all the way up to ten thousand dollar one on one coaching and everything in between there. And then I do joint ventures with partners as well. So if a partner has something, that can benefit coaches and they wanna get it in front of my audience, I'll promote them, and I'll get paid to promote them that way. Yes. So there's there's different revenue
[00:19:11] Dustin Serviss: streams. It... It's not, because I'm I'm... I always... So there's two types of wealth advisors. Usually, there's build the biggest practice and then sell it. Or there is, you know, have a sustainable business, and collect a reasonable income and not, you know, not build it up and sell it. So you have, you know, more lifestyle more. Is that what you're prescribing to? Is that what real estate brought you, or are you not... Right now, you're just in build mode?
[00:19:38] Marc Mawhinney: My my plan... Because there's pros and cons doing it each way. The issue with growing everything tied to Mark Moroney, I get hit by a bus tomorrow. You know, that... That's not good. So a lot of my business is tied to, I... I'll say my sparkling personality. I'm being sarcastic. But but, I'm like, you know, with my daily emails, with my content, with my podcast, a certain sense of humor, certain point of view that I put out there for coaches around business, you know, very pro capitalist, and and got a lot of, like, inside jokes with, you know, my community and stuff like that. And it's very personality based.
[00:20:17] Marc Mawhinney: As time goes on and as I get older, I would like to set up some things so it's not so tied to me. You know? So if I'm doing things like... If there's coaching certifications or coaching school, stuff like that, it's not so much Mark Mahoney, yeah, with it. So right now, it's tilted more towards, yeah, I'm very involved directly. That could change. I mean, I'd love to have my son, get involved. He's fourteen now, and he's, started this summer with, you know, starting to do stuff in the business because he's good with video editing, different things like that. So if if he wanted to when he got old enough, I'd love for
[00:20:53] Marc Mawhinney: him to be involved in the business and and do some stuff there.
[00:20:57] Dustin Serviss: Pro capitalist, and you have a son. This is great because, I have two sons, and, you know, we we live a certain set of life... Set of lifestyle and try and teach them things. And, you know, they're only five and seven, so
[00:21:09] Marc Mawhinney: we have
[00:21:09] Dustin Serviss: a long ways to go. But what are you... Is there any sort of core values at at fourteen, years old that you're really trying to instill in them, without being... Trying to keep this very nonpolitical? But you kinda get my question of, like,
[00:21:27] Marc Mawhinney: what do
[00:21:27] Dustin Serviss: you give them the two? What tune is he giving them?
[00:21:29] Marc Mawhinney: And I don't know if this is... If the video is released for this or just audio, but you can see what's in the background. Yeah. Anyone who... Anyone who can't see it, I have a portrait of a bunch of hundred dollar American girls.
[00:21:39] Dustin Serviss: The Benjamins. Yeah.
[00:21:40] Marc Mawhinney: That... Yeah. The Benjamins look so much cooler than our Canadian
[00:21:43] Dustin Serviss: money. Yeah.
[00:21:44] Marc Mawhinney: I... I'm not a fan of, the Canadian money. So, you know, it's interesting, and I don't wanna get too political either, get you canceled. Nowadays, it's a dirty word to be pro capitalist, but I do find it very, strange to have... There are a lot of coaches that, will bash capitalists and... Almost like they think it's dirty to make money to make a profit, and I've seen this time and time again in the coaching world. And everything I do is trying to to bash away at that belief, I guess, with it and say, hey. As a coach, it's okay to be charging a lot of money. If you're good at what you do, you deserve to be compensated well for it.
[00:22:22] Marc Mawhinney: You know, I don't hide that. Anyone who follows my stuff knows that I'm very pro capitalist, and, I won't be joining the socialists of Canada, or, you know, be wearing an AOC T shirt or shade, you know, or Fidel Castro shirts or anything. No. Probably not. But I think anyone in business should should probably not be bashing capitalism. I think they should be, okay with making money and being compensated for doing a good job.
[00:22:47] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Well, I think the big word in there if if, listener, you didn't get it, is value. You know, in our world, if we help someone save two hundred and forty thousand in tax and we charge them twenty thousand to do it, that's a good deal.
[00:23:00] Marc Mawhinney: That's a steal. Yeah. Bob Berg, who wrote the book The Go Giver, he was an early guest on my show way back, I think, twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen. And he said something that stuck with me all those years in between. He said money is an echo of value. So, basically, if you're putting enough value out into the marketplace or out into the universe to go a little woo woo, you're gonna be compensated. You know? You're gonna notice that come back in your bank account or in your wallet, with it. So I think it's win win. Like you mentioned in... With your example there of helping, say, people save two hundred and forty thousand
[00:23:34] Marc Mawhinney: dollars in taxes, I'm sure you could probably charge even more. Right? That's a steal if if you're paid twenty thousand. So I... I'm trying to help coaches get away from this weird, icky feeling around money because there's some really messed up beliefs, not just with coaches, I think humans in general, when it comes to money.
[00:23:52] Dustin Serviss: Well, we're... This is waiting. I made a little bit on the edge of my comfort zone. But I I think it's humans right now, the the momentum is equalization of sort of everything. Yeah. And, and again, I I might pivot for a sec because I feel like I'm getting kind of excited about, you know, things. But I... I'm I'm I'm with you. I'm supportive of, you know, value. I'm support... You know, any business owner that that you talk to, usually, it's... You know, I I don't mind paying myself if I get something back. And nowadays with technology, even my my my best friend's a dentist, and they have fancy cameras that look like a pen.
[00:24:35] Dustin Serviss: And so nowadays, you know, back in the day, it's like, oh, you got a cavity. It's like, okay. Well, that's gonna cost a bit more. But then you get this pen, he takes a picture. There's your tooth. You see that coloration? Drills a bit, takes a picture. You see it now? There's a cavity. Oh, yeah. It is. So it's like more transparent. So the tools of nowadays is way more that we can demonstrate that value in either dollars or visual things. Add social, you know, social proof. Your coaching jungle, twenty four thousand people. Obviously, there's something interesting. So when we're trying to sift through the world of of busyness, there's
[00:25:13] Dustin Serviss: there's value there. So finish off the the, the thing on your fourteen year old. Give me some inspiration for, you know, I've got seven years still. My son, my oldest is there. You know, where where where are people at at fourteen and, you know, being a dad? Where where are the kids at? Lots of things going on to school. And, so what sort of other core anchors are you giving them to to sort of make good decisions?
[00:25:42] Marc Mawhinney: Well, I'm very lucky, knock on wood. Everybody says their kids are bass. Right? You're biased. But, our son is, has never slammed the door, never talked back to his mother or I. Extremely, thoughtful. It it just... I don't... Yeah. We locked out. We got the kid lottery with it. And even when it comes to this past Christmas, I'm asking in advance, like, what do you... What would you like for Christmas? Oh, don't worry about me, dad. I'm good. I'm like, well, you know, most kids are given a whole list or whatever. And, yeah, he's just, not, you know, interested in material or things like that. You know? He had a good Christmas.
[00:26:27] Marc Mawhinney: I got him some cool stuff, but he wasn't giving me any help with it. And I'm sure he... He's almost like, you know, don't don't worry about me, dad, or whatever, you know, with it. So, I... I'll say enjoy your time because I know it's cliche to say time flies, but just seems like yesterday that I was stepping on Thomas to train toys and cursing. You know? I was stepping all around the living room and stuff, and now he's going to a winter formal. He just started high school. So he's going to his winter formal dance, this week. He's gonna be driving, you know, what, two years. It's, that, his voice is changing.
[00:27:03] Marc Mawhinney: I bought him a razor just in case because that's gonna be coming up soon. So he's almost as tall as me. He's getting there. So, yeah, time flies. I think the big thing for me, though, is, I mentioned earlier I'd love for him to get involved with the business, but it's his choice at the end of the day. I don't wanna shoehorn him into doing something if it's not his passion. And same thing goes with university. I mean, I went to university. I have a a degree. I can't say that I did anything with that degree. I don't even know where it is. It's in a box somewhere in storage, with it. I... I've had fun at university, but I'm not telling him
[00:27:38] Marc Mawhinney: that you have to go to university. You have to take this. You have to do that. If he wants to jump in and start a business when he got down to high school, I'd be very happy to say, hey. Here's your university money put into the business or something with it. So I'm all about, life short, do what makes you happy, and there's no, pressure to to do a certain thing just because I want them to. Like, that's not my style of parenting.
[00:28:02] Dustin Serviss: And what would you say to, you know, listener who's age twenty five? And so there there's, you know, and I'm looking at the image of, of your Facebook thing. It's a, you know, it says the coaching jungle, and, it's a jungle, and you're swinging through the vines. And, it's
[00:28:17] Marc Mawhinney: part of the mark. Yeah.
[00:28:19] Dustin Serviss: The the the image and the word of jungle for a business owner or for someone twenty five about to start their career is very, very fitting. It's... I'm sure there's a lot of deliberateness there. But for the twenty five year old or your son who's ten years older, is it is it still go get a bigger education? Or where where do they go in the
[00:28:45] Marc Mawhinney: I'm very lukewarm on university, and I know y'all get... I'd get backlash saying that. I think if you're going into something that's, very specific with a path there... Like, one of my ex girlfriends years ago, she's an audiologist. So she helps people hearing stuff, and she had a very clear track when she went through university with her degree and with that. And then I think that makes sense. For me, I took a bachelor of art. I have a bachelor of arts degree with a a political science major, history minor. It's not like I'm like, I'm gonna go work in the political science factory down the street. Right? I love politics. I follow politics.
[00:29:23] Marc Mawhinney: It was a great experience there. But, I see too many people just get doing university or college because they think that they have to. I sure as heck am grateful that I'm not in the States with him going into college with the campuses and face spaces and the lack of free speech and a lot of indoctrination, I think, on the... Especially the American campuses that that's a scary time, to be down there. But, yeah, I'm I'm very lukewarm on it. I think you can get a great education from the school of hard knocks starting a business. What I would say to the twenty five year old who's listening, first off,
[00:29:59] Marc Mawhinney: don't pay too much attention to the media because it's gonna scare the crap out of you. You know, you're hearing it in the news now how this year is gonna be this awful recession that's gonna be, you know, like, terrible and this and that. They're whipping up the fear. I think it's the best time to be starting a business, especially if it's an online business. So back in my real estate days, I spent, oh my god, a fortune opening up offices, buying office equipment, chairs, desks, computers, huge square footage, everything else, brochures, print advertising, radio ads, all this other stuff. God, just a ton of money.
[00:30:35] Marc Mawhinney: Now you can start a business with, what, ten bucks? GoDaddy, you get a URL that you like, bang, you're off to races. Free social media. You know, roll up your sleeves and put the work in and and do it. So I I would say don't list in the media. Don't list the people, who've never started a business. Tell them, yo, don't start a business. They've never been entrepreneurs. Get in. Get started. If you fail, you know what? I I failed. And you pick yourself back up. You take the lessons from it. You move on, and and life goes on with it. So I I think it's a great time to be alive.
[00:31:06] Marc Mawhinney: I mean, people in the sixties would give their front teeth to be able to reach it. Well, I don't know. There's eight billion people in the world. How many people have Internet access? Is it four billion? A half? Something like that. Maybe like that. For free, you can literally reach half the people on Earth for free for free social media, etcetera. So great time to be in business and to be alive.
[00:31:28] Dustin Serviss: No. That's for sure. You, you bring up a good point about, I think of the the business and and did you... Do you have any highlight stories of sales success in the real estate business where it was like you did something and, because that's a people business. As much as it's, you know, you're dealing with people of buyers and sellers, you're dealing with agents. But for anyone, you know, is there a a story you could share of of success or a a big win or a moment in that, the real estate stuff?
[00:31:59] Marc Mawhinney: Sure. So when I started real estate, I was twenty one years old, fresh out of university. I looked about fifteen or sixteen. So I mentioned at the beginning of this interview, I'm getting carded for being a senior citizen now. Back then, I... If I was buying a bottle of wine for a a client who bought a house as a housewarming gift, I always got carded because I looked like I was, like, sixteen years old. And, I I was skinny too. Like, my face was like this. It's like, get this kid a sandwich. So going into real estate, a lot of people... I remember my family, my parents are a little bit hesitant. Like, oh, gee.
[00:32:34] Marc Mawhinney: Like, you know, you don't get paid. That's commission. And other people were, kind of throwing cold water on it because the friends I had didn't have any money. They're all coming to university student loans. They weren't buying, selling houses. And I look like a kid. And, you're asking people to trust you with their biggest investment, right, to sell their home for them or to buy a home. What I ended up doing is I flipped it around into a positive. And that's why I always say is if you can, turn your negative into a positive. And the way that I did it, when I went in for a listing
[00:33:06] Marc Mawhinney: against these more established agents that were fifty five, sixty, sixty five years old, is I said, hey. Look. Couple things. I know I'm young, but I'm hungry. I got student loans I wanna pay off. I wanna make it, and I'm gonna work hard for you, harder than anyone else. So while all these other agents are off, in, at their cottage in the summer, right, and they're enjoying their golden years, so I'm gonna be hungry and out there working to sell your home. So I turned that into a positive, which actually helped me get a lot of listings once you confront it that way. So, there's no old saying, make the skeletons dance.
[00:33:41] Marc Mawhinney: You take the skeleton in your closet. You turn it into a positive. There's... I couldn't hide how young I look. Like, it's not like I could say, no. I'm I'm really fifty at this local high young age. I was twenty one. But I I instead turned it into a positive, and I think that could be done in near every single situation out there. If you think that it's a negative, it could probably be flipped around into a positive.
[00:34:02] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. No. The one thing you were talking about earlier is, is also not believing the thoughts in your head to be real. Yeah. And, you know, again, there's a lot of psychology, call it woo woo, call it whatever. But, you mentioned a few books, thinking to grow rich or or you mentioned some of the Tony Robbins stuff. Is there a book that was like a major mindset mindset changer for you that kinda sent your your career Yeah. Up a level?
[00:34:31] Marc Mawhinney: I'll mention one that a lot of people don't know about because people know Think and Grow Rich, you know, How to Win Friends, Influence People, and the the big ones. But this is a book I wish I knew about when I went through the business closure, and I didn't find out about it until I started in coaching. And it's Thick Face Blackheart, and it's Chen Ning Shu wrote that. She wrote it in the nineties. Rest in peace. She passed away. But, Thick Face Blackheart, I say it's really a hard book to describe. It's a cross between, The Art of War, a little bit of Think and Grow Rich in there, and and some other, things.
[00:35:08] Marc Mawhinney: It's, a realistic look at human behavior. So you know Robert Greene who has the forty eight laws of power and all those type books? I think he was probably influenced by her, because that... Yeah. So not many people know about that book. I read it at least once a year, because it's not a light, fluffy, rose colored glasses, you know, woo woo, like, shoot out positive vibrations from your butt, and, you know, the the universal provide for you. It's very hard edged in a way, but that's, that's how you have to be. Like, the world isn't always a happy place with everyone trying to help everyone. It can be a cutthroat place.
[00:35:46] Marc Mawhinney: So Thick Face Blackheart is one I wish I knew about earlier. I would have loved to read it when I'm, you know, even young.
[00:35:53] Dustin Serviss: Yeah. Thick Thick Face Blackheart.
[00:35:56] Marc Mawhinney: Okay. The
[00:35:56] Dustin Serviss: Warrior Philosophy for Conquering the Challenges of Business and Life.
[00:36:01] Marc Mawhinney: You got it.
[00:36:01] Dustin Serviss: Great name. Great. Nineteen ninety four. So, again, powerful book if it... If the principles you're reading today are still applicable. It's a great book. It's not trendy. I'll definitely pick that up. Any parting thoughts, Mark, on things that you're most excited about in your space right now?
[00:36:22] Marc Mawhinney: Oh, jeez. I won't mention chat, AI and stuff because that's overdone with people. I I think it's a little overblown, although it's kinda cool. I think in my space, what's gonna be interesting is, we saw a lot of new people get into coaching when COVID hit because they viewed it as a get rich quick. And there were people that had government money, that disposable money to buy courses, they were home to do these online trainings, and a lot of people made a lot of money. But, what's happened is a lot of them are now out of the coaching world, and they're... Well, not now. They they went over to, cryptocurrency.
[00:37:04] Marc Mawhinney: Now they're probably off to something else because that hasn't gone great. And, what's exciting is, for those who can, stay in there, keep your head above water, and, rough out any difficult economic times coming up, I think there's getting more business for you at the end of the day. So a quick story from back again in my real estate days, but it's applicable for coaching or any... Anyone doing business nowadays. I hadn't... I wasn't selling real estate back in the early eighties because I was in diapers. But, I spoke with agents who were in the business back around, like,
[00:37:42] Marc Mawhinney: the early eighties when the interest rates just went through the roof. You know, at twenty something, it sounds like a credit card, your mortgage interest rate. And I said, jeez. That must have been scary. How was it? I said to one particular agent, how was it, like, selling around then? She said it was the best time ever. I loved it. Because what happened is it chased off all the ones who weren't doing much, or the ones that weren't really committed, and they were kinda lukewarm, but they were still all added up. We're stealing market share away from the top agents. They all got out of the business and left more for those successful agents,
[00:38:16] Marc Mawhinney: that could stick in there. And I see the same thing in twenty twenty three. If we have a difficult economic times and it contracts a little bit, the online space and coaching space, it'll chase people away. That's more for for me and for others that are doing well with it. So...
[00:38:33] Dustin Serviss: Well, thanks, Mark. I, I look forward to doing some more research, getting some more information in the show notes. And where can people find, find you online?
[00:38:43] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. So, the main site's natural born coaches dot com. And then the Facebook group, which we mentioned, the direct link there is dot coaching jungle dot com.
[00:38:54] Dustin Serviss: Great. We will, get that, and I really appreciate, you sharing your tips and tricks today.
[00:38:58] Marc Mawhinney: Yeah. Thanks, Dawson.
[00:39:01] Dustin Serviss: Thank you for tuning in to this episode. If you enjoyed the show, please like and rate the show, share with a friend, or use your new knowledge in your next conversation. If during the show something gave you a pang of inspiration, motivation, or sense of uncertainty, act on it now. Get the clarity you're looking for. Find the permission you seek. Go to service wealth dot com to discover how others are learning how to take Fridays off, or buying a recreation property, or spending more money. If you're an organizer of an event where you believe my philosophy on finance
[00:39:28] Dustin Serviss: lifestyle design would be applicable, go to service wealth dot com and book me as a speaker at your next event. If you want a copy of our new book coming out soon, send me a message on Instagram or Facebook, and we will be sure to get you a first copy.