GA 513 | Lean and Live Coaching with Sam Morgan

I trust myself and my skills and my heart to be able to help people in a meaningful way versus, like, oh, I'm just here to, like, I can't do it. Or I'm just here to like, pull the wool over their eyes and sell them something they don't need.

Today I'm excited to welcome Sam Morgan back to the show. Now, Sam and I had a lot of fun today. We were talking about an experiment that Sam has been running on LinkedIn. And the experiment has to do with some live coaching that he's doing with folks. And so he basically just entered these live coaching conversations, typically with other lean practitioners or lean coaches themselves, and, you know, just kind of works through any type of topic that that person has on their mind or some problem that they're dealing with. And so today we talked a little bit about, like, why he's doing it and, and, and, you know, sort of the problem he's trying to solve. And then I was asking him like, well, what's it like? And he's like, oh, you want to do it? And I'm like, okay. Did like a, like a impromptu live coaching session in. In for real. Like, we had. I had no idea what was. We were going to talk about or how it was going to go. So, yeah, it was a little intimidating out of the gate, I have to admit. But we ended up talking for just like 5, 10 minutes on this new fast track program that we've got. I know it's going to. Might sound like it was a plan for a Gimp Academy commercial, but it really wasn't, I swear. But it was just fun to see Sam's style of how he goes about sor. Of working through a conversation with someone on a. On a topic that he has no idea that person is going to talk to him about. So anyhow, I think it might be interesting for you just. And really, maybe when you're listening to Sam, imagine it was you sitting in Sam's spot and like, how you would have approached, like, what questions would you have asked me based on what I was giving you? Because admittedly, I don't think I was giving the best answers because it was just like on the spot. But hey, that happens a lot. And so like, coach Sam up. Like, well, Sam, I would have said this or whatever. So that might be a fun way to. To listen to this episode. So show notes and links to connect with Sam can be found over@gembapodcast.com this is episode 513 and as always, just kind of scroll down on the app there and all the links will be there for you. Okay, enough for me. Let's get to the show. Sam, welcome back to the show. How's it going, man?

Hey, Ron, it's going so good. Happy to be here and kicking off a new year with you. I'm stoked. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, everybody's listening to this in, like, I don't know, probably February or whatever. Whatever.

But I know, right?

We're talking early January. Right. We always stay a few weeks ahead on the schedule, but, yeah, man, it's fun to. To kick the. The year off with you here, Sam. So. Well, you've been on the show before. You know the drill. We like to get things going right out of the gate with our guest sharing a quote.

So what do you got, man? I was thinking about this tossing around in my brain because I've had a lot of great moments, but honestly, the book of the year for me and that's impacted me most and I share with my clients very often is the Practice by Seth Godin. If you haven't gotten it and you're a lean practitioner, I highly recommend it. He's talking about marketing, but really his essence is experimentation. So highly recommend it. But all that said, the quote is, the search for a guarantee is endless, fruitless, and the end of possibility, not the beginning.

So what's that mean to you?

For my whole life, I've always wanted guarantees. You know, part of that is that bent of, you know, engineering process improvement if I can engineer the outcome so I can and be in control and I don't have to worry about failing and rejection and all those things. But if I recognize and come to that, yeah, you know what? Like, it's. I can't guarantee the outcomes. I can just work on the process, then that kind of lets. Lifts the weight off and lets you just be. Which is, I think, what we all would say. I'll sign up for that.

Yeah, for sure.

For sure.

All right, well, hey, Sam, in case, folks, I just looked it up. So you were been on a few times, but the most Recent was episode 477 with your buddy Andre. So that was a lot of fun. So in case people don't remember from way back when, who is Sam and what are y' all about, man?

Yeah, so I'm coach that coaches lean coaches, and I just have gotten clarity on this in the last year in my journey, and that's what I'm kind of excited to talk about today. But I love to help, especially folks that have been doing lean practicing. In an organization or whatnot and are ready to make that transition, to do their own thing, whether they're frustrated or excited about what's coming up. And so that's what I've been really focusing on this last year, is speaking to those people. And all the ways that I do, whether it's in one on one conversations, my newsletter, or in posts on LinkedIn and Conversations is just speaking to those people, finding out what's going on, what their challenges are, and really doing everything I can to support them through those challenges. So I'm just excited for what's ahead and being able to help folks like that too.

Yeah, got it. So something that I know you've been, I guess you started last year was some live coaching on LinkedIn. So like, what's that all about? Like, where did you get that idea? What problem are you trying to solve? And everything in between.

Right? That's a great question. I actually think back that it starts back about three years ago when I first got onto LinkedIn and I started posting every day about purpose for those that maybe have followed me or we talked about this in one of our previous conversations. Ron. I had started out doing it being a part of a cohort with Katie Anderson and Karen Ross, who's been on the show multiple times. And that really helped me get clarity on my purpose. And so I wanted to share that. So I did day one and talked about how that went, and then day two did it again and for 90 seconds every time. So I called it 90 second purpose. And that first week I was like, man, I could do this for a whole year. And sure enough, I posted a day video every day for a year on LinkedIn. And so it had always been in my mind to be like, I love the consistency, I love the engagement. I have a degree in radio broadcasting. I love communicating message and story through video or audio. And so that was in my head. And so when I started learning about KATA about three years ago, I think it was just actually about the same time it was kind of in my head of like, man, that that's kind of cool. I would, I would like to have maybe some conversations. And then as I started getting more into coaching, I was like, dang, this would be really, really cool to, to. I wonder if anybody would actually be up for putting their stuff out there and like saying, hey, these are the challenges I'm dealing with. This is the, the work that I want to do. This is where I want to be. This is where I'm at. And so that was in My head. Well, fast forward to the end of last year. I had been really in an experimenting mode. Really I was kind of at the point of like, I'm just tired of looking for the guarantees like we talked about there at the beginning and wanting to just try stuff. So I've been in my head bouncing around the idea of doing a newsletter. Well, I finally, instead of saying, oh, it'll be a few months out, a few months out, I just did it, I launched it. And I've been doing it, you know, three, four, five months now, every week, putting something out. And then I start had this idea for creating a community where people like I described before could come and share their challenges and get support and have some coaching questions. And I launched that. Instead of just sitting around, I did a beta test and then, and then launched it. And I was like, okay. And then I'm like, well, how can I bring some more people maybe into as clients? And I was like, well my, my LinkedIn coach gave me this idea of doing like a challenge. So I offered a four day challenge. People could come on and we'd talk about challenges that they have as like consultants or coaches, lean practitioners. So I did that and that took so much time and energy, one hour every day, but the lead up and the actual event and then the follow up. So I was in that mode already. The end of last year, those things were all in the last quarter. And so in my mind I was like, well, I'm already experimenting. I've had this passion and idea for wanting to do coaching. I love coaching and helping people. Why not give it a shot and go out there and see if people would be open to doing it. Now in my mind before I'd been like, well, let me do like a daily kata coaching thing. I was like, well, how about we just do like a half an hour a week and just see where it goes. So I reached out to my friend, Andres was actually the first, first one and now we've had about five and I've got lots more coming up. So it's been really exciting to just kind of see that experiment come from my head and my heart and actually out into reality and seeing people get some, some really big benefits from it too. So I'm excited for, for that and hopefully we'll encourage other people to just, just try stuff.

Are you only focused with other sort of like lean coaches talking to them or is it to the general practitioner of lean?

Well, yes, the answer to that is, I'd say it's, I've had Kind of a mix. Right. I've had folks who are like consultants, folks who are coaches in organizations, but they're all practitioners of lean, and they all have challenges in their practice, whether it's in their organization or launching their consultancy or with their consultancy. So it's just having them having a conversation before and just kind of identifying maybe a couple of those challenges that they have and then just launching into the session.

Okay, okay. So, I mean, what's it look like? Like. Like one of these coaching sessions.

Yeah. And it's actually just maybe give you a general idea of how. How they've gone too. We can. We can talk about that because I think, you know, folks like Andres were on, and I had a few other lean coaches. And what's cool is they actually. What I always aim to do is give them, help them find clarity and then get an action step, like walking away with something to do. And it's actually blows my mind that that's actually happening because I think in my head, I'm like, this is my plan. But then the imposter syndrome comes in. It's like, you really think you can coach these people who've been coaching for, like, years and years, and you've been doing it for, you know, a couple years or just a practitioner for six or seven, you really think you can do that? Well, then the reality happens, and I'm just present. I help them get clarity and then they get a step. One of the folks, this is forever going to live in my mind. She's looking to kind of start restart her consultancy. And she was struggling with getting the voice of the customer. You know, that's so important that we understand our customers, what their challenges are. And so that surface, like, oh, I need to understand that more. And so she's like, I'm like, okay, well, what do you want to do? Well, I've got this person in my mind who's like my ideal person that I'd want to support and work with. So I'm going to call them. And so I said, okay, well, when do you want to do that by? Oh, well. And this was middle of December. I'll do it by the new year. I'm like, that's interesting. One of the questions we ask in kata is how quickly can we go and see what we've learned from doing this step? And so it was really cool. She was like, oh. So I said, is there any way you could do that step any faster? Yeah, I can make the call today. So I was like, that was awesome. Just to see her do that because I could see the discomfort, but then also leaning into like, okay, I gotta try and learn. And so I was like, well, let's check in and see how things go. So fast forward to a week and a half, two weeks later. She had been engaging in one of my posts and she was like, well, this is really exciting because you know that conversation that I had with that person to get feedback, he's now a client. So it's so cool to see that this work of helping people get clarity, take action, is actually impacting people. And there's other stories here too, but that's just, that's just really, really exciting to see that happen. Yeah. But to your question about how does it work? So I like to meet before with the people and just give them like, do a little, you know, hey, let's check everything, make sure the technology is all working because you know how that happens. Things kind of can go off the rails. Let's make sure that's good. Let's just get a general idea. What's the problem you in general want to talk about? So we take 15 minutes, half an hour before, and we set that up. And I've been, you know, obviously out there asking and probing and DMing people and saying, hey, would you be interested in coming on? I saw you mention this, that or the other and so that's how it goes. But I think, Ron, the best way is instead of just telling you, like showing you, would you be up for doing maybe like a quick like express 3 to 5 minute version to kind of show the people what the experience is like?

Yeah, man, let's try.

Let's do it. Yeah, let's do our own little experiment. We're going to actually not just say we experiment, we're going to try it here. And for all those out there thinking, oh, you planned this. You, you know what? He's no, I have no clue what Ron is about to say right now. Right, Ron?

I have no clue what you're going to say.

So, but, so it's the question that I always like to start with is what's on your mind? What's, what's going on for you these days in terms of any, you know, challenges that you're having? What's taking up your space?

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What'S on your mind? What's. What's going on with for you these days in terms of any, you know, challenges that you're having? What's taking up your space?

Oh, boy. That's a big question. I guess we'll.

We'll.

We'll leave teenagers out of it.

Yeah.

Stay at Gemba Academy.

There we go. Okay, fair enough. Fair enough.

Yeah. Easy stuff Academy, you know.

Yeah, yeah. Compared to teas. I know that.

Yeah. Wow. Gosh. I mean, we have a lot of things going on. I mean, one of the things that I'm pretty excited about, we've got a new. We've always had, you know, over the years, different certifications that we offer. Green belt, black belt. We've got a lean practitioner. And so we've. We've had this for a long time that we've. We've done all the training, you know, by video, right? That's what we. What we're known for, right, is videos. And we do coaching, virtual coaching to complement the video. So. But it can take a little while for people to get through all the videos, right? And of a black belt course, for example. And so we've come up with what we're calling a fast track program, where people come together for five days and do the vast majority of the learning. Not all of it, but the vast majority of the learning in five days. So it. It's a fast track.

Right.

And so we. We're. We're really kicking that off this year. So I'm pretty. Pretty excited about that.

What. What's the. For your fast track, which I like. That's exciting me just hearing about it. What. What's your, like, ideal scenario? Like, you're like, oh, man, this will. This would be awesome if it looked like this. What is that?

Yeah. So, like, our big thing with. Sounds like a huge commercial for Gemba Academy. I swear, I didn't mean it for to be.

No, but it was not.

Our main major intention really, with any customer is that they receive value, right?

And they receive.

There's value that's been passed from us to them. And then they, like your client who landed a client, they got results.

Right.

And so that's what we're after with certification. We do require projects. I know there's some people out there who don't require projects and all that. I, that's a whole nother story for a different podcast, but we're not about that. So we want to, we want the candidate to practice what they're learning and to realize benefits. So what I hope to see with this program is that we can help that person get through the academic stuff. You know, there's an exam and all that, you know, like normal, but they can get through that stuff. I hate to use the word faster, even though it's fast track, but more efficiently.

Right.

And more focused perhaps is a better way of saying it. So then that we can get them into the project work quicker, meaning they can realize benefits to their company and to themselves quicker. Because just learning something, that's, I guess there's some benefit there. But until you do something with it and make something better, improve your company, improve your business, your life, whatever, you haven't done anything. Right. And so that's my hope is to, you know, the people that come through this program, that we're able to help them, you know, realize benefits faster. And we've got all kinds of data, you know, that shows, you know, how long it takes our, our normal candidates to get through the program and what our certification rate is and all that kind of stuff. So we've got metrics that we can, we can compare.

Well, it sounds like you've got a good idea of the quote, unquote, like current condition, current state of things. What, what do you see is like the biggest challenge or obstacle from where you're at to getting to that place?

Yeah, you know, I would say it's probably more on the, we've got a great sales and marketing team, but you know, we sell and we market primarily, you know, this online vehicle. Right. Like this. So this is a, it's a slightly different, I don't know if it's a different audience, but you know, it's what we would call live instructor training instead of online learning. Right. So it's a, it's a slightly different approach to marketing. The selling side of it, I guess, is probably not that much different, but. And in some cases it's easier even because it's a faster, the benefits are realized better, so people might get more excited about it. But I think probably our biggest obstacle is figuring out, you know, how to, how to market live instructor type training and you know, versus again, our more traditional online learning platform with that in.

Mind, kind of the marketing piece and trying to figure that out what's, what's an experiment or something. That you could try that would help you be able to, you know, even get more clarity or move you even just like a titch up on that obstacle.

We've got some ideas as far as, you know, doing, you know, we've got a newsletter and we can. We've got a pretty decent reach with our newsletter, and so we're able to run a B testing on different types of messages. And so we could even dedicate a particular newsletter to this topic. And, you know, we can monitor engagement. And so those are experiments that we more than likely will. Will run for sure is, you know, message A, send it out to 50% of the list, and message B to the other 50% of the list. Or sometimes they'll do, you know, message A to 25%, message B to 25%, and then the winner of those gets the remaining 50%. Right. So. So I think that might be some experimentation that we do with just messaging with Think, something like a newsletter that we do have complete control over. There's also like, you know, the old Google AdWords that you can go out and pay for advertising and. And experiment with, you know, putting ads in LinkedIn and on Google and all the rest of it. So those are also things that we could experiment with. Yeah, just a couple. Off the top of my head.

What's. What's one that you'd like to take action on? I mean, I obviously, I know this is kind of like off the cuff and that kind of thing, and I'm sure you've got lots of strategy plans and all that stuff, but is there one step in particular that you could take, you know, in the next day or two that could get you even a little further so that those. There's more clarity or more reality to those things.

And funny you say that. I just had a conversation with Jennifer Scott, our director of sales and marketing, literally before this, this podcast, and we were talking about it, so. So it is. Yeah, I think, I think having more cover. I'm not real big on dictating. Here's what you're going to do.

Right.

So it would be more about them sort of experiment. We should have had them here because they're the ones actually doing it. I kind of stand back and marvel at their genius. Right. So. But like, Jennifer and her team will, you know, I think the next step will be for me to sort of help Jennifer and the team to sort of gain clarity on that next experiment, which I do think it'll be. It'll be something around messaging, you know, of the. Of the of the event. It's actually coming up in April when we're doing, doing this one. And yeah, so it's coming up pretty quick. And so, yeah, it's going to be around messaging and marketing and we are working on landing pages and improving that because even our website's probably not dialed in as well as it should be for this type of product.

Really?

Because again, it's a, it's a pretty new style of product for us, which is why it's so exciting and unknown. And unknown, really?

Well, what with, with unknown in mind, what do you expect from, from taking this action that you're talking about? What do you expect from that?

Yeah, so I, I would expect that literally within the next, you know, week or two, we're gonna have very good clarity on the messaging and, and the, the approach that we're going to take with getting the word out about this, about this fast track event. I mean, it's already, there's, in fairness, there's, it's already started. Yeah, you know, we've had a lot of conversations already with, with customers. So it'. But, but the, but the, but the, the new emphasis will be on, on clarity of messaging and figuring out, you know, landing pages. Like, okay, people clicked on the, the link in your newsletter. Where did they go? Right? And what's the, what's the, what do they see? What are the benefits? And you know, sell the benefits. Right, like sales 101. So, like, why would people want to do this? What are they going to get out of it? So those are all the things we've got to really sort of dial in relatively quickly here, you know, within, within the next 30 days.

Yeah, well, with that coming up in April. Yeah, I mean that's, that's right around the corner. So yeah, like I said, some of.

This has already been in motion, but we can, yeah, but we, for sure it's continuous improvement. Right. And continuous learning as, and iterating and learning as evolving as we go here because. Well, because, because yeah, we, this is a new style of a new product for us really.

So it's going to be really cool, I think, for all of us to see like how it goes. Obviously we're going to be out and for those of us who track with you and Gamba Academy, we're going to see how that goes and it would be really cool to kind of hear like, hey, this is what I expected. This is what happened. This is what we learned. You obviously are, you all are in that mentality, but it'd be great to Kind of hear more of that as you do it. So, yeah, thanks for stepping in and. And just being open and sharing right there, right off the cuff. That was. That was brilliant.

Yeah. What I liked about I was sort of watching you is how you really listened, you know, like. And I think that's so important when you're trying to coach other people. So often we listen to respond, and you don't do that. And guys like Brandon Brown and other really great coaches out there, you know, they're. They really listen. Like, Brandon in particular, he's famous for. You'll. You'll say something and then you stop and he's just staring at you a little bit or. And he doesn't say anything, and you're like, you there, Brandon? And he was like, tell me a little bit more. It's like, whoa. He's really taking it in, right? Yeah. And so I've learned that's okay to embrace some silence from time to time and. And to really listen to understand instead of listen to respond, which is. That's much easier to do. Listen to respond.

I took it. I took an improv class back when I was in college, and one of the rules. And Elizabeth Swan, who, you know, may know in your. In your lean circle, she did an improv lean class. And one of the. One of the rules of improv is silence is golden. When you. You may think like, oh, I gotta. We have these. This. This. This tension of like, oh, my gosh, I gotta fill it. I gotta fill it. And actually, it's an opportunity for something to come in, something new and beautiful and creative to fill the space. And so when we operate like that versus, like, oh, I'm insecure. I gotta fill the space. Yeah, so that's cool. I love that. That's beautiful.

For sure. So back for me asking questions now. So, yeah, come on. What's your plan now, Sam, for this next 12 months, as it goes with this experiment that you're trying? What do you hope to get out of it, man?

Well, I think the end goal is to, you know, you want to help people in the sessions. You want to help them get clarity, take the action, and to really, you know, would be great to have more clients come through the door, say, like, dang, Sam does, like, what you just talked about. He listens and then he asks really meaningful questions that help me in a meaningful way. Not just like he's blowing smoke and saying this, that, and the other. It's actually adding value. Like, I'm getting clarity, I'm taking action. I'M feeling supported and heard. And so as I continue to do this and figure out little bits of the, you know, the sessions and okay, I want to format it this way, open this way, close this way, ask this way. You know, obviously be great to have more clients who come in and get that support in more of a extended way because we know like real change, mindset change and change on moving towards our goals happens over time. And so really finding more people that see the value and would see value in it for themselves. So that's the, that's the goal, is to find more folks that I can support in a meaningful, meaningful way. And that's, I expect that. I mean, I expect it to happen. It's not going to be easy and I don't think it's. This is definitely not a short term deal, but I'm excited for, I'm really excited for this. Every time I get on, I can't tell you, like, I get so energized by those sessions where someone comes on. It's like, man, it's like what we just talked about, the silence. There's opportunity there. There is like something great there. I mean, sure, there's like some, oh, how is this gonna work out? Like, speaking to the first quote we talked about, right? Like, like, nothing's guaranteed. I have no clue. I didn't have any clue how you were going to answer those questions. And I don't know, other than maybe a general topic that they want to talk about how it's going to go. But that's like, I used to be kind of that insecure, like, oh, I got to have it all planned out versus now. It's like, no, I trust myself and my skills and my heart to be able to help people in a meaningful way versus, like, oh, I'm just here to, like, I can't do it. Or I'm just here to like, pull the wool over their eyes and sell them something they don't need.

So, Sam, if folks want to connect with you or learn more about like, any of your coaching or the services, what's the best way?

Yeah, best way is you can reach out on LinkedIn. That's. I'm on there six days a week, so feel free to shoot me a DM there and illuminate coachsammail.com you can go to my, my website got all the wonderful podcasts and resources that people can check out if they were like, dang, I want to hear more or find out more about the stories and things go on right there. And of course. Shoot me a dm. I love, I love conversation. If you, if you couldn't. Yeah.

What's the website?

Illuminate coach.com.

Illuminate coach. Okay.

Yeah.

And we'll have it all linked up in the show notes, people. So just scroll down on your app there and it'll, It'll all be there. So, Sam, man, thanks again, man, for coming on. This has been a lot of fun and it's always, always an adventure.

Well, hey, any, anytime you need, you need a coach and you need a little express coaching session, you just give me a call, Ron, and I'm. I'm here for it.

Yeah, man. Perfect. Perfect.

Awesome.

All right, man. You take care. Okay?

Thanks, Ron. Appreciate it. Much love.

Thanks for listening. Whether you've been on the continuous improvement journey for many years or perhaps you're just getting started, Gemba Academy is here to support you. And while we're best known for our more than 1500 lean and 6 Sigma teaching and virtual tour videos, we also have a team of experienced Lean and Six Sigma practitioners available for one on one coaching, as well as a variety of of Lean and Six Sigma certification options. To learn more and to schedule a demo, head on over to gembaacademy.com.