Case Study

When I met Norbert in 2020, he was ready for change.

His business – a construction franchise – was supposed to be his ticket to success. He started out with big dreams and high hopes for his future… and he was right on the verge of letting all those dreams go. Maybe they weren’t realistic after all?

Luckily, he wasn’t quite ready to call it, to give up hope – and his tenacity brought him to my office.

As a franchise owner, Norbert felt like he was failing the system, that his franchise rights could be pulled. He was pushing hard, doing all of the things he was told – pushing too much really – pushing potential clients away.

{Note from Cher: Unbiased coaching helped Norbert realize that being a successful franchise is a balance of running your business while meeting the expectations of the franchisor.}

He was working crazy hours – all day on the job site plus trying to do sales, manage suppliers and make connections. He felt guilty when he was at work and worried when he was at home. The little time he had with his wife and young kids was filled with stress and distraction.

“I felt unstable. I felt like I wasn’t there. I wasn’t able to give 110%. I didn’t have a vision. I didn’t have a goal. You know, I didn’t have traction.”

It sounds like a pretty big problem, doesn’t it? I mean, no one starts a business with the intention of having it take over their lives. People start businesses for freedom. For impact. There’s a certain amount of hustle that’s anticipated, but eventually, everyone expects to hit that sweet spot where things start getting easier.

So, what was really going wrong for Norbert?

What quickly became clear was that Norbert’s “strategy” issue was primarily a mindset issue. That sounds harder to fix, doesn’t it? But the reality is that, often, mindset shifts happen in a single instant, a single choice, a single paradigm shift – followed by action, even teeny, tiny action…. an action that says “this, not that!” All it takes is opening to a new perspective – one that serves you.

“Everything starts from the inside out, so I knew that I needed help before I could help the business grow, and help the team members around me … It started with the identity shift, and then the vision, goals, mini commitments. How are we going to get there? Who do we need to be to get there?”

The 3 Most Important Things Norbert Did:

1. He took sales from an emotionally charged task he dreaded and loathed… to a neutral conversation founded on curiosity. A conversation he now loves.
2. He completely shifted his relationship with his business by becoming the business owner – instead of continuing to act like an employee. This meant creating essential boundaries and modifying his expectations (not of his profitability, but of himself, his employees, and his clients) in ways that allowed him to stop over-thinking, over-giving, micro-managing – to take back control over his time, and to regain peace and perspective.
3. He supported those changes with small but mighty tweaks in his self-perception and habits to get him back on top of his game – energized and excited and confident about his business and his life

“I went through some serious mental struggles… not being able to, you know, be the person that I wanted to be… This was definitely a game changer for me. I’m aglow! I’m happy. I feel confident. My friends see it in me. My wife. Everybody sees it in me. And the results are showing in my business.”

“I have the boat. I have the project managers. I have the salary. Everything we talked about – about a year ago – has come together.”