You may think you know what a coach is, but each one is different.

Based upon my own experiences being coached, I've already formed an opinion about coaching which is that, in the right hands, it can be a powerful tool. Your coach can help you discover things about yourself you never knewælong-suppressed goals and dreams-and show you how to reach them. He may hold your hand during the journey but, once you tell your coach you're going to do something, you'd darn well better do it.

What I didn't know is that, while the above may be true for most coaches, the experience you'll have and the particular emphasis placed on one or another aspect of the process varies greatly from one coach to the next. That will become apparent as we take a close look at the coaching programs of Dan Sullivan, Tracy Beckes, Tom Gau and MastermindYourIdeal. All you need to know at this stage is that any of these coaches can help you be better than you already are, if you're not afraid of a little hard work.

Dan Sullivan: "The Strategic Coach"

All of the coaches we'll be looking at have excellent reputations in the financial services industry, but Sullivan's reputation verges on a saint-like status to many who have worked with him. I remember reading an article by him in the early '90s and thinking how very astute he was, and later hearing from friends and industry veterans who'd used his services about the progress they'd made while under his care.

Surely, such a reputation must be built on a solid foundation of training, or maybe a profound coaching experience of his own. "In fact," says Sullivan, who is based in Toronto, "I have extensive experience as a theater producer and director, which allowed me to zero in on what was required for a performer to do a superb job. I began to see a direct parallel between performers on stage and in the marketplace, so I created an entertainment-based coaching model for entrepreneurs. We get them thinking that they're essentially performers, and that life is a series of performances."

Sullivan expanded his metaphor even further to develop a "frontstage/backstage" model. The entrepreneur's "frontstage" is the kind of experience he's creating for his clients, how he must package himself, and the unique value he's creating. His "backstage" is where Sullivan and the client find out those unique capabilities the client must possess to make the front stage happen.

This is Sullivan's "Strategic Coach" program, where the main emphasis is on productivity. Time management and organizational skills are critical to improving one's productivity. Advisors who go to quarterly meetings with Sullivan frequently report both higher income and more free time.

And Strategic Coach might be the program for you if one or more of these complaints strikes a chord: Have you reached your "ceiling of complexity," that point where working longer and harder produces negative, not positive, results? Do you want a higher quality of life, such as more time to spend with your children and spouse? Do you find yourself not doing what you love, for example, not being in front of and building relationships with clients, but getting bogged down, instead, in "backstage" details?

Ron Kelemen of The H Group Inc. in Salem, Ore., says he had reached his ceiling of complexity. "I'm in my tenth year now with Dan and, for me, the big benefit has been helping me be clear about my goals and priorities ... holding myself accountable every 90 days. I now know what kind of business I'm prepared to walk away from [in order to] have a more balanced life."

Michael Leonetti of Leonetti & Associates Inc. in Buffalo Grove, Ill., has a similar story. Also in his tenth year with Sullivan, Leonetti says, "It's now a way for me to get out of the office one full day each quarter, meet with people in similar businesses, and do some planning for the next quarter." Leonetti has discovered his "unique ability," to use one of Sullivan's concepts, which is taking complex scenarios and breaking them down so others can understand them.

"My biggest value to my company is bringing clients into the firm," he declares. "I'll sit in on presentation meetings, but another planner in the firm will be the clients' main contact."

Is a coach's effectiveness reflected in his own lifestyle? If so, it would appear that Sullivan takes his own advice. He and wife/co-coach Babs Smith take more than 150 "free days" per year together. The 17 coaches Sullivan keeps on the payroll help make this possible.

Strategic Coach programs range from $4,000 to $15,000 for four sessions per year, depending on a firm's income level and the type of program chosen.

Tracy Beckes: "Helping professionals create effortless, outrageous results"

Many coaches of recent vintage have gotten their training at Coach U or The Coaches Training Institute, but not Tracy Beckes. These entities appeared around the time Beckes was getting into the field. "I started so early in coaching's evolution that I thought I'd invented it," she says.

Unaware of these coach training systems, Beckes trained with psychologists Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks at The Hendricks Institute, who teach action-based, forward-looking coaching. "They have a coaching model that focuses on high-performing individuals, like entertainers Kenny Loggins and Bonnie Raitt and entrepreneur Michael Dell," says Beckes.

Who is Beckes' typical client? "Most of my clients are between 40 and 75, they've been in the business over ten years, and they're inquisitive and very intelligent. What gets in their way is something inside, an inner block. That's where I can be most useful, and that's what makes me unique. There are relatively few business coaches who have the ability to look at life and business challenges from that perspective." But Beckes, whose home is Stanwood, Wash., isn't purely about the inner being. She also has undergraduate degrees in marketing and finance as well as an MBA.

Whereas advisors go to Sullivan for a concentrated set of reasons, Beckes' clients are "all over the board. Sometimes they have very traumatic early events in their personal histories that regular coaches won't even pick up on." Due to the intensive nature of her work, Beckes requires a two-year commitment, more than that demanded by most other coaches.

While Beckes was hesitant to name names due to the highly personal nature of her work, she made it clear that her clients' success isn't necessarily measured in dollars and cents. "Because my clients tend to be high-achieving people in the first place, they're more likely to be looking for personal freedom. My longer-term clients, who've worked with me seven or eight years, have issues like improving self-esteem as well as increasing income. I have one of the highest-achieving advisors in the country who hired me just to figure out how to experience more joy in her life." Her clients do improve their financial circumstances, though. "After just two sessions, a client who hired me last year switched one little thing in his business that added $40K to his income."

Is Dan Sullivan a competitor? "I see Dan's style as complementary to mine. In fact, some of my clients work with both of us simultaneously, and I've referred clients to him," she says.

Beckes, whose services tend to be more individualized than those of other coaches who often work in a group dynamic, charges fees that are comparable to those of her competitors. Including phone time, preparation for coaching sessions and debriefing after a coaching engagement, Beckes charges $6,000 for 11 monthly sessions or $12,000 for two years of coaching (22 sessions). Being true to her own advice, she reserves one month a year for her own vacation and renewal.

Tom Gau: "The Million Dollar Producer"

Tom Gau, who calls his coaching program out of Roseville, Calif., "The Million Dollar Producer," wants you to know his advantage over other coaches who work with financial advisors. "Most coaches can't know how it feels to deal with clients after three years of a down market unless they've been an advisor." Gau was and still is a producer, unlike most other coaches, and owns Oregon Pacific Financial Advisors, with offices in Ashland, Brookings and Medford, Ore., which manages more than $400 million in assets.

Gau started his own planning firm in southern California in 1987, and it would be difficult to overstate his success. "By the time I sold the [first] company in 1999, I had $1 billion in assets under management and was doing over $3 million a year in gross dealer concession," says Gau. In other words, he didn't need formal training as a coach; other advisors saw what he had accomplished and were beating down his door to find out his secrets.

The high-energy Gau presented his first "Boot Camp" in 1993, a two-day intensive seminar to show people his operation. Advisors who've been through Boot Camp often advance to take Gau's Million Dollar Producer Exclusive Coaching Program.

Asked if he's aware of Dan Sullivan's coaching services, Gau replies, "I was in one of Dan Sullivan's groups in 1998-99. I thought his coaching was good for generic applications, but he didn't have a clue about my business as a financial advisor. My partner, Ken Unger, and I do all of our own coaching, and we have been and are now practicing financial advisors. The question you have to ask is, do you want to be coached by someone who's never done it, or by someone actually in the trenches? We help you implement our ideas because advice without implementation is worthless."

However, Gau acknowledges that what he characterizes as a downside to Sullivan's services is really a clarification of how Gau's approach differs from that of the other coaches. On a continuum that begins with very inward-focused processes (i.e., self-examination) to very external processes (i.e., how one's business is operating), all of our coaches hold a valid place. Gau sits at the end of the spectrum where the practice is paramount (as one can tell from the name of his program).

Perhaps this is best illustrated by one of Gau's clients. Gordon Wollman of Cornerstone Financial Solutions in Huron, S.D., has been a client of Gau's for about eight years now, and says Gau is all he promotes himself to be. "I first heard Tom speak at one of my broker-dealer conferences. I attended his two-day Boot Camp, which helped me get in the seminar business and get my office organized. Tom shares his own office organization systems, and I was impressedæthey worked for me," says Wollman.

Wollman went on to do more work with Gau, and also with Bill Good, a noted marketing consultant to the business, both of whom he says have been his mentors. But how do we translate his statement that Gau's systems "worked" for him into a concrete measure of success? Fortunately, Wollman shared some of his firm's specs: "I've follow Tom's advice to run my practice like a doctor's office. I now just see prospects or clients and delegate everything else. My typical day is ten to 12 appointments ... sometimes as many as 14. My staff has grown from just a few people to seven full-time and one part-time staff persons. And since I began working with Tom, my revenue has gone up from $350,000 to $1,200,000." Impressive.

The Million Dollar Producer offers three services/products. They are one year of coaching for $12,000, which includes three two-day meetings, six conference calls and four one-on-one personal coaching sessions by phone; a two-day Financial Advisor Boot Camp for $2,000; and training DVDs that cost between $100 and $500.

Ted Roman/Robert Walsh/Tedd Oyler: "Masterminds"

A somewhat different coaching direction is being taken by three enterprising members of our industry, each with established histories in the coaching and financial planning fields. Ted Roman, CFP (Roman Financial Advisors, San Diego), W. Tedd Oyler, J.D. (Saugatuck, Mich.) and Robert Walsh, CPA/PFS, CFP (Lighthouse Financial Advisors Inc., Jersey City, N.J.) are MastermindYourIdeal.com.

The concept of the "Mastermind" was developed by author Napoleon Hill in his 1937 book, "Think and Grow Rich." To Hill, the Mastermind was the coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose. Hill observed that famous and successful people throughout history have often congregated, shared and propelled each other's achievements in a way that might not have happened had they not met. He gives as one example the association of Henry Ford, who grew up in an environment of poverty, illiteracy and ignorance, with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, John Burrows and Luther Burbank. It was only following his association with these other men that Ford achieved real greatness.

For their financial advisor clients, Roman, Walsh and Oyler create Mastermind groups. Two, or sometimes all three of them, will be on a call with between ten and 16 Mastermind clients. A typical Mastermind program lasts one year, divided into two six-month periods in which the participants do two group calls a month, one full-day conference and 24 "buddy calls."

What goes on in the monthly calls? "People share," says Walsh. They also follow the Mastermind curriculum, which helps them figure out the answers to basic but essential questions, such as, "What do you really love to do?" "What does your ideal practice look like?" and "How do you want to define success?" The product of everyone's answers to these and other questions, says Roman, "is our deliverable. Everyone creates a living document, revised month-by-month as he goes through the program, that describes his ideal practice."

Mastermind Buddies often share similar concerns. What is the most common frustration Roman hears? "That's easy. They'll say, 'My life isn't balanced, I'm working too hard, I'm not being paid enough. Almost everyone feels they're undercharging and that they want to run a more efficient practice," says Roman.

Do participants really progress? Kelly Adams of Harbor Light Planning LLC in Novi, Mich., says, "MastermindYourIdeal has helped and continues to help with finding balance between family, work and everything else. I actually have a vacation on the schedule this year ... the first in five years." Kathleen Rehl of Rehl Financial Advisors in Lutz, Fla., adds, "MastermindYourIdeal helped us clearly define the niche areas where we really shine. Now every client is a joy to work with, because we only accept those we truly want to assist."

MastermindYourIdeal is now in its second year and Roman, Walsh and Oyler are finding that many participants want to stay involved beyond the first one-year program. For their fee of $210 per month, which MastermindYourIdeal will discount by 10% if paid a full year in advance, they are succeeding in getting these participants to make the changes they desire. In the end, that's what leads to the balance, the greater compensation and the happiness that all of us want for ourselves.

Coaches To Consider

If you think coaching can help you (and you're probably unusually successful or supremely overconfident if you don't), check out one of these coaching programs. Your toughest job will be figuring out which is right for you.

Dan Sullivan - www.strategiccoach.com

Tracy Beckes - www.tracybeckes.com

Tom Gau - www.mdproducer.com

Ted Roman/Robert Walsh/Tedd Oyler - www.mastermindyourideal.com

Coach U - www.coachinc.com/CoachU

The Coaches Training Institute - www.thecoaches.com

The Hendricks Institute - www.hendricks.com

Bill Good Marketing - www.billgood.com

Bill Bachrach - www.bachrachvbs.com

Leo Pusateri - www.pusatericonsulting.com

-David Drucker

How To Select A Coach

Are you thinking about retaining a coach? You might want to consider several factors before you do.

That's the advice of Russ Alan Prince of Prince & Associates and Bret Van Bortel, managing director of consulting services at Van Kampen Investments, who are co-authoring a white paper on the subject.

The first question to ask yourself is: Are you achieving the level of financial and professional success that you want? The most logical candidates for a coaching program are advisors who want to boost their bottom line and believe their practice has hit a plateau.

Prince and Van Bortel define coaching as "an educational process that enhances the economic success of financial advisors." In the vast majority of cases, an advisor working with a coach should see "an increase of 25% in income during the first year" of the relationship.

Of course, there may be other reasons to seek out a coach. An advisor who is hitting his financial goals but working 100 hours a week to achieve it may look for a coach specializing in organizational skills and time management. But in most cases, advisors are seeking to boost their income first and address other issues later.

Prince and Van Bortel identify seven key factors to weigh when choosing a coach. They are:

1. A self-assessment of where you need the help;

2. Is the coach's philosophical orientation and definition of success aligned with your self-assessment?

3. How do they do coaching, in groups or one-on-one sessions?

4. What is the coach's area of expertise?

5. What is the coach's background?

6. What is the coach's business model, e.g. how do they get paid?

7. What should you expect from working with each coach, and when should you evaluate the relationship?

There is no question that the coaching business is booming in many professions, including financial planning. Inevitably, this means that the quality of coaching in general will deteriorate as less-qualified people jump on the gravy train and enter the business. Coincidentally, it also means that the bar for high-end coaching will rise and require more innovation.

Finally, don't believe all the hype. "If a coach tells you he has no failures, he hasn't been coaching very long," Prince advises.

-Evan Simonoff

David J. Drucker, MBA, CFP ([email protected]), a fee-only financial advisor since 1981, is editor of the Virtual Office News monthly newsletter (www.virtualofficenews.com) and a principal in Practice Merger Consultants Ltd. (www.practicemergers.com).