In this episode of the Practical Broker podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing Colt Charlebois. Colt originally started as a real estate agent, he grew a big team selling over 100 homes a year and he later realized that selling real estate was not his passion.
After going through some trials and tribulations, he took a leap that a lot of people are scared to do by following his passion. He shares how that happened and how he was able to make a big shift from real estate into the world of coaching.
3 Key Insights
- In the beginning, there is a place of stability that you need to get to before you can explore some of the greater things you are interested in.
- You can get started with a small “WHY”, it doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering, just get in there with a small contribution.
- You can accelerate your growth and development by being actively involved in a community with a group of peers that you respect and look up to.
Resources
Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t
Show Notes
[1.10] – How Colt got started in real estate
He got into real estate when he was 25 years old and he was full of ambition and vigor. He had aspirations to conquer the world and be the biggest agent ever for probably all the wrong reasons.
After a period of real estate flips gone and being forced to live in the basement of a friend and his pregnant wife, he started to reevaluate and recalibrate his life. He felt compelled to help others and he has always identified with the struggles of the startup or seasoned entrepreneur that is stuck. He sought to find out the mindsets and relationships that they need to get out of a hole if they are in one.
This led him to start coaching about 5-6 years ago.
[4.30] – The first question Colt asks business owners
He asks business owners “why”. If you had asked him why he got into business way back, he would have said things that were not sustainable such as make a million dollars so that I can blah, blah, blah, all those things that weren’t so valuable to him.
It wasn’t about contributing to someone’s life or making a difference. It was not something that was intrinsically wired in him that was going to propel him each and every day.
[5.14] – The journey that led him to find his WHY
A coach told him that he can hear his goals and he understands he wants to achieve them but he doesn’t think that those were really his goals.
His coach told him that he didn’t feel he was connected to these goals, he also asked him for his favorite part about the business and he told his coach that he loved connecting with other entrepreneurs.
His coach told him to sit in front of a few people and ask them what they were looking to do and see if he can help them.
He took a few friends around the office and sat down with them to understand their goals. After a year all of them either doubled their income or doubled the number of homes they sold. They were also excited about who they had become.
He could speak for five hours a day in these sessions and he would feel little resistance so he saw that sign as an indicator that he needed to make a shift.
[10.08] – How to find your WHY
In the beginning, there is a place of stability that you need to get to before you can explore some of the greater things you are interested in. For a lot of entrepreneurs, their WHY would be to pay the bills but there has to be something more compelling to that because that feels defeating every single day. You want something more empowering.
He takes people through an exploration process to find their why and discover it by examining several areas of life. He advises people to start with a small “WHY”, it doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering, just get in there with a small contribution.
When he was a kid, he was given a snowsuit from a local snowsuit fund in Ottawa and he decided that it would be cool to give back to them.
He called everyone he knew and told them he was trying to collect 1000 pieces of clothing to donate to the snowsuit fund and he was able to donate over 1000 pieces to them and it served as a short term “WHY”.
[12.49] – How he built his team
After he got into coaching, he started helping realtors to grow their businesses and double their incomes. He hooked up with a company in the US that worked with large organizations and they started coaching business owners over her by helping them develop talent for their team as well as developing processes to find and attract top talent for the team.
He learned a lot about building team dynamics from the frustrations that he had while building teams because you eventually get to a stage as a solopreneur where you realize you need some help.
[13.45] – How to identify your needs and find the right team members
The biggest frustration that keeps most business owners up at night is always a “WHO, it is never a missing process or a missing system. You need to have a hiring process you take people through. When you follow a process that may include behaviourally hiring techniques, you can make sure that they are behaviourally wired to the role.
You can assess things like their character and their past experiences, so you need to go through a multiple-stage process so it is slow to hire and quick to fire mentality if you are not a good fit.
[15.00] – Some tools that can help you with behavioral assessment
DISC is a good entry-level tool if you are just getting into understanding personality and behavior. Enneagram is also another one that he uses for team building. Strength Finder is also another good tool that you can use.
It is good to have tools that allow you to have an engagement with someone where you might draw different things out of them beyond the normal questions such as what is your biggest weakness or what do you want to be in five years?
[15.48] – Favourite Books
As an entry-level entrepreneur, you can read the E-myth. If you are a little further down the path, you can read a book like Scaling up.
I also recommended Profit First because it really resonated with me and it also adds the cash flow management aspect.
[17.31] – Colt talks about the new group he has started in Ottawa
It is called the Push and it is a 90-day challenge. While building teams with leaders and getting to know their goals, he discovered that one of the things they struggle the most with is accountability.
He put together small groups called the push and it is comprised of respectable leaders who get admire and get along with each other. The world is moving so fast as a result of COVID and the shifting markets we are in. They set their sights on 90 days, they then declare their intentions for 90 days and what they are doing daily to achieve it.
When they state it in a group of peers that you respect and look up to them that brings about a higher degree of accountability and it allows them to encourage one another.
They state their intention for the day and there is a weekly mindset and refocusing call.
It also helps to build a community in Ottawa that is highly connected with each other and doing business with each other.
[21.13] – The inspiration behind the group
He ties it back to his story of how he was stuck in a friend’s basement and some people came around him and actually started a faith journey with him.
He was surrounded by incredible Christian leaders who were calling and checking upon him. Every person needs people that care about them and are reaching out to them on their hard days.
