A franchising entrepreneur explains why his best advice came from someone outside his industry. He argues that coaches stuck in their lane limit innovation, while mentors from other sectors spark the disruptive thinking needed to scale fast and reimagine how business works.
The advice that I got at one stage, I actually thought was wrong for my business. But let me tell you, that advice actually was some of the best advice I ever took or whatever got given. I get to coach a lot of people, and the most common thing I hear, Colin, you're not from my industry. You won't understand my industry. Here's the thing. If I'm not in your industry, do you think I can think outside of the box? Most people that coach people in their industry stay in the lanes of that industry, and that doesn't help them. If you want to be a disruptor in your industry, Don't be coached by someone who's not a disruptor in your industry. Get coached by somebody who knows how to think outside the box, who can disrupt your industry. My favorite statement I always hear people say, Colin, it's not done that way in my industry. And I'm like, you're just gonna be the same old in your industry. You'll never be the next Airbnb. You'll never be the next Uber. In fact, in the franchising world that I'm in right now, we are disrupting the franchising world cuz we are staying within the legal parameters of what we have to do, but we are doing things differently and people are looking at us going, how are you scaling so quickly? We are scaling because we We took advice from people outside of the franchise world, not inside the franchise world. For sure, I'll listen to people inside the same lane that I'm in, but at the same time, people that aren't in your lane are often the holders of most of the creativity that could help you disrupt your industry.
