Kenny Chapman argues business leaders need to invest heavily in training and preparation. He uses a Padres spring-training story to show why repetition and continual communication build skill, and why customer-facing work is practice. One client uses a seven-week onboarding with video modules and action guides to get teams ready before seasonal rushes.
Hey, everybody, Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach, coming to you with this week's video version of Freedom Friday Focus. Now, I just walked out of a mastermind meeting where I'm getting myself trained with some of the most brilliant entrepreneurs on the planet. This week I'm in Phoenix here with the lovely Christie. Came down a couple days early just to kind of get our legs under us and get ready because, yes, we invest in training ourselves. I spend tens of thousands, invest tens of thousands of dollars a year in my own training and coaching to make me better for, for my clients. And an interesting thing happened this week. We got down here, we're doing some planning, and I realized the San Diego Padres are playing a spring training game. Now that's my team, my Padres that I grew up with. I know they're painful to watch and I get jokes about it being minor league baseball and all that, but they were playing a spring training game here in Phoenix. So we ventured out and we went to watch it. And as I was sitting there in the beautiful 75 degree Phoenix area, weather, enjoying America's favorite pastime, I started thinking about spring training and why, you know, why do they have this in Major League Baseball? What does this mean to the players? And you know, there's several things that I think as contractors and business owners and leaders that we need to think about, right? So I don't want you to do training and planning just in the springtime, but right now is a time when everything's coming alive, everything's coming to growth. What about your mindset? What about what you're doing with your team? So, you know, one of the things about baseball is repetition. Anthony Robbins said it best. Repetition is the mother of all skill. We, one of the things we do when we're training our team is we don't repeat it enough. And what do I talk about with my team? Communicate, communicate, communicate. Just as soon as you feel that you've communicated everything you can, you've got to loop it right back around and talk about it again. Repetition, repetition, repetition. We have to continue to train, continue to work with our team preparation. One of the reasons they hold spring training here in Phoenix and in Tampa or in Florida, different areas, is to get prepared for the real game. Now, one of the things I talk about is we have a brilliant opportunity in our world because we get to practice while we play. Every service call you run, every sales call you run is an opportunity to practice. But how prepared are you? One of my top clients does a seven week onboarding training before one of their team members goes in front of a customer. Do you think they're prepared? Yes, they're one of the best in the country. So we've got to look at those types of things. Then I look at skill building. Many people say, oh, Kenny, I'm having training meetings now. In fact, we signed up for your amazing monthly training video package and we're doing everything and we're using them. You're using them. Guess what? Just because you're having meetings doesn't mean that you're building skill. So utilize some of our videos to help with that skill, but then reinforce it. Use a module, have them fill out the action guide, bring it back next week and discuss it how it comes to life. One of the things that makes our stuff so much more effective than a lot is it's real world. We're in the ring, fighting the same fight every single day. So be very mindful about that. The other thing spring training does is it brings a unit of continuity to your team, building your team. You might have traded some players over the offseason, you might have had some free agents that left or different things that took place. Well, now it's about building this team, getting this continuity ready for the big season. Many of you are ramping up in the H VAC world right now for AC season, but perfect time for you to look at your training. Are you making it as effective as you possibly can? I'm Kenny Chapman, the blue collar coach. Until we talk again, have a better and fantastic week. I'll see you next time.
