The Interview with Michelle Arant, Coach & Operations Director of Kris Plachy Coaching | Ep #54

Hey, I'm Chris Plackey, host of the Lead you'd Team podcast. Running a million dollar business is not easy. And whether you're just getting started with building your team or you've been at this for a while, I'm going to bring you honest, specific and clear practices you can use right now, today to improve how well you lead your team. Let's go ahead and get.

Hello, everybody. Welcome. So by the time this podcast publishes, which will be just a couple weeks from today when we're recording it, there's a couple announcements I want to make along with today, which I'm super excited about. First of all, just this episode with Michelle. But since, secondly, you may have noticed that the name of the podcast is slightly different. We changed the name from how to lead for female entrepreneurs to now it's lead your team, which isn't that big of a change. But you might have noticed the COVID art's a little different and the title is a little different. This actually was born out of a coaching VIP day that I had with Allie Brown that I think I've talked to you guys about where we really looked at what is it that my business helps women do. And it really is about leading the team and learning how to lead the team and understanding all the mechanics of managing other people. We just thought the podcast, that title, could get a little bit cleaner to help other people really understand what it is that we do and how we help them. So with that, I want to make it a formal announcement of a new team member. Dr. Michelle Arant actually joined my team back in October, but we have been sort of busy putting everything together behind the scenes, and now we're ready to show up and be official in the world. So I thought it would be an incredible opportunity for Michelle to come on the podcast and talk with you about what she has done in her beautiful life and career and what she is doing with me here at Chris Plackie coaching and how she is helping my vision of really serving female entrepreneurs and helping them be better and more effective at leading their teams and feeling like that experience is more simple and less daunting. So Michelle and I are going to really just have a great chat today. We want to talk about some of the common things that we see sort of at the different levels of clients that she and I work with. So, without further ado, welcome Michelle, to the program today.

Thank you. Thank you for having me here. This is very, very exciting for me because I just, I love Chris Plackey and everybody. I want all of you to know that. That I worked with Chris a few years ago when I was first. When I was in corporate and I was first promoted to chief operations officer. And I knew that I needed to really get better at leading and managing a larger team.

I had years of experience in management and leadership when I received this position, but nothing like I knew that I needed. And so I met Chris and she totally, totally saved me and helped me. And I knew, I knew that I wanted to continue to do this coaching work. And I'm just so excited that she has allowed me the opportunity to do that and work with. Especially work with women, but most importantly, to work with women who are learning how to manage and lead and just become this evolved leader that they want and know how to be. So thank you.

It's a full circle moment. You.

Yes, it is.

Yes. You were a very good client. You did all the things I was going to say.

I do the homework. I did what Chris told me to do. It's amazing how sometimes that just works.

It work when you apply things. It's amazing. Yeah. All right, well, it's so great to have you here, so why don't we first just go ahead and I'm just going to give you the mic. Tell us about. You're a doctor of something. What is that? So tell us a little bit about your experience and, you know, what led you to becoming a coach and. Yeah, let's just kind of get to know you a little.

I'm from the education space. I was. I taught special education in public school. I taught at the University of Tennessee at Martin. I was there for over nine years as a faculty member and professor. I was director of a few grant programs in the education space. So I had people, you know, working with me as we tried to do good in the world and in education. And then I went to a public school and was an administrator there, directing grants and teams of teachers and all of that. So while in education or while I was doing the administrative work in a public school system, I was approached to join a startup company. And what we did at the startup company is we developed content for colleges and universities to put their courses online. And so with my background in education and my teaching experience, it just. It was just seemed like a really good fit to join that startup. I was the seventh employee hired and I worked with. I worked with what I like to call just a true founder, visionary, brain. My boss was incredibly. He was so brilliant and we grew our company. It was about at 150 when I left, so I Understand? And it's funny, because I came from the education space where everything is just. It just everything is so routine. There's a process.

Yes.

And then I came from that space into entrepreneurial space and into a startup where you could change on a dime, you know?

And y', all. I want to say that was part of the coaching for Michelle was her little education brain was like.

I think we need a process. And of course, she worked for this guy who had so many ideas. Right. He was always challenging them to just forget that we got to go forward this way. Right, right.

And he would always. He would always make fun of me and say, michelle, take off the government hat. Like, we don't have. We don't need a process for this. We don't have. You know, we don't have to do it that way.

And I'm like, little did he know.

Wait, wait. And for the first couple of years that I was there, when you have seven employees, you can get by with doing that, but then once you start getting. You start growing and getting bigger and adding people to your team, the way that you communicate is very different, and the speed at which you can make change is very different. And so it just. I just learned a lot about coaching my brain, like, because we were very different. We were. We thought about things very, very differently. So part of that, like, so while I was working in that space, I was very stressed. I was working a lot of hours, and I was becoming unhealthy of gaining a lot of weight and all that. So I actually started in a weight loss program. And then that coach had just gone to the life Coach school to be certified and came back and taught me the model. And then everything changed. Like, once I realized that I didn't have to feel stressed, I didn't have to be overwhelmed, and that I could really make different choices and how I was thinking and I could look at my brain. Then I thought, oh, my gosh, like, I need to teach this to everyone I know. I have to make sure everyone knows that. So I decided that I wanted to go be certified, and then I wanted to come back into the corporate space and teach all the people who worked under me. I wanted to share all of that with everybody. So that's why I went to coach training to begin with, is I want to come back into my corporate setting and teach everyone the tools and teach them how to be a manager and a leader. By management. Yeah, yeah. By teaching them the model. So. And then that's, of course, where I met Chris and got back from coaching coach certification. And then within a couple of weeks, I was promoted and thought, okay, I'm going to practice what I preach. I'm going to get some help and support. And so that's when I met Chris and the rest is history. I just fell in love with it.

And that trajectory just brought you through all of the evolution of what so many people go through when they go through coach training. Right. It really does change how you think about so many things. And not everybody becomes a coach, but a lot of people really, they make significant changes in their lives with this. Yes.

And what I want to also point out, stayed in corporate and did that. I didn't leave immediately. Like, I. We created a program for up and coming managers to teach them obviously leadership skills and management skills. But of course we, we. I use the thought model to help them navigate their day to day. And even those people who went through that program and that I mentored, they have now gone on to get promotions and do other things and just they're happier and they're less stressed and all of that just because of the work that, the work that they learned that is so valuable. So. And then I just. Kris offered her leadership certification program and I wanted to.

That was a few years ago. So I used to teach leadership coach training to coaches who wanted to do exactly what Michelle just said she did, who wanted to take the concepts of leadership coaching. So understanding expectations, understanding the thought model, understanding how to coach employees and have difficult conversations, then they would take the tools I taught them and they would coach internally. And so I put, I did that for several years and put many, many, many people through that because we need coaches in companies just as much as we need outside of them. So, yeah, it was fun. That was good work.

And then I just, you know, you just, at some point, you. I think all of us have a moment where we realize, like, this is what I'm supposed to do. Like, this is it. And when I had that, when I had that calling, then I just, of course, thought I didn't know what I was doing and there was no way I could do it. And got a little coaching on that from Chris. And then I just realized, well, I'm going to make it work. I'm going to make this happen. I think it's just like, like a lot of the women that I coach and that we work with, you feel called to do this. And so you jump in. I mean, you just jump in and you try to make it work because you know that it's what you were Meant to do. And so that's. So I left corporate and started a coaching business. And then luckily, Chris called me in the fall and said.

Yeah, so whispering. Whispering to the listeners. So Michelle can't hear. Right. I knew that I wanted Michelle to be on my team for, like, four years. I just had to get my business big enough so that I could afford her. So now we're here.

And we're having the best. We're having a great time because Michelle really is the process person. So she's an incredible coach, and that's why she makes such a great coach, because she's very focused on the process. And when you are the client where Michelle is, she's incredibly helpful for you. And we're going to talk more about that. But Michelle is also serving as my operations director. So she's helping my business develop and standardize and create all of the internal processes that we know we want to have in place so that we can continue to grow as well. And really, the evolution of this was as I switched to focusing specifically on female entrepreneurs. Gosh, about a year and a half ago, we were first just testing it, honestly. Will female entrepreneurs hire me to help them learn how to lead their team? There's a lot of coaches, business coaches, I say in quotes, who help you make more money, who help you market, who help you attract more clients, who help you mastermind how to generate revenue in your business. But will people actually want help learning how to lead and manage? Because here's the truth, you guys. This is the most unsexy part. With the exception of going over your books with your bookkeeper, can there be anything less sexy running a business? But the truth is, it's so vital. If you're not good at it, it just sucks you up and it kills you slowly. Somebody just told me the other day, I hate my business. And she's making a lot of money, which is terrible. It's just a terrible relationship. So we first had to test it, and of course, the response was huge. Then what happened is I realized, okay, I can't scale this with just me. What kind of model do I want? I did not and still don't want to have the large group model where, you know, there's 400 people in a group and I show up and I do some coaching. There's nothing wrong with that model. It's just not the one I want. I want my clients to have an intimate connection and experience with their coach. I want everybody who works with my team and with me to. To know that we know who they are. And so if that's the kind of model I want to have, then by extension I need to bring qualified, frankly impeccable and exceptional coaches into my business. And I will say from former experience, because I've built one other coaching team in my life when I built a coaching business team within a company. And we used to say that we were the Tiger team and that's a reference to a military, like an elite military squad. And I was incredibly selective about who was allowed to start me with me on that team. And I held a very high expectation for how people needed to experience us. And the rule of thumb was always that when we would walk in a building, we wanted people to be so relieved that we were there. Thank goodness you're here. We need some help. And I just hold that same level of expectation now. So that's the evolution that brought us here today. Where now Michelle. So what happened as the business grew is I started with focusing on women who are at seven figures or higher in their revenue line. And naturally I was getting a lot of interest from women who are at $100,000, $500,000, who maybe are just now starting to think about hiring their first real full time person, or they may have three or four, but they just done it very ad hoc. And so it just became a natural place for Michelle to support the women who are kind of in that different space. Then I can focus on the seven and eight figure earners and we can help more people, which is of course my goal. Because there's nothing more heartbreaking to me than doing an initial consult with a woman. This happened to me recently and she looked at me and said, should I just sell it?

I just don't know how I'm going to get past this. I don't know how I'm going to work through it. It feels too overwhelming, too vague. I don't want women to give up on their dream of having their company and having the lifestyle they want to have as an entrepreneur, because this part's hard. So that's a significant reason why Michelle is here, so we can help more of you achieve the goals that you want for your business. So with that, Michelle, why don't we talk a little bit about your client. Like I just said, Michelle is working with women who are under seven figures.

So why don't you give us just sort of that high level how you would describe your client right now?

Well, currently I'm working with women who are pretty much just hiring their first couple of people or maybe, maybe they Already have. Maybe they're working with contractors right now, and they're. They're trying to add more people to their team or they. It's falling apart. They're really struggling with.

Just knowing what to do and how to deal with these extra human beings that now are a part of their business. And I'm working with the women who are. Man, they're hustling too. That first, you know, those first six figures and multiple six figures, man, it's a lot of work. And they're seeing. They're starting to wonder, okay, can I have a life and grow this business in such a way that's sustainable? And they think they can't. And so we have to work on them as who they are as the leader and how they are just even.

Starting to think about themselves as a leader. Right, right.

Because they.

Yeah, it's just me and my shingle outside. And then all of a sudden I got to hire someone and I have to do something with them. Right. They don't just know what to do.

And I have to. And I have to know myself, what I want. I have to take that extra step to figure out what is exactly that I want them to do.

Right. Yeah.

And then stopping themselves from just doing it anyway. Like, they just want it quicker. It's just.

It's.

It's all the trick that you talk about. Yeah. And so it's. It's one of those things where. And even. Even some of them are just trying to figure out exactly what business model they want. Maybe they've got a couple of products out there. And we teach, obviously, we teach constraint and deciding, okay, which one of these is really going to make you the most money and that sort of thing. So they're trying to figure out how, which one of those will scale better, which one of those lead into having a more effective team and a more efficient team and that sort of thing.

I love that because you have to think about all of it. Right. And so while we don't, we're not business coaches from a perspective of, you know, helping you figure out what your best product line is or what your marketing strategy should be, we help you think about that in terms of what kind of organization are you building. But you do have to have an established business model, and that's actually one of the key things we talk about in entrepreneurial management, which is the base for the content that Michelle uses in her program with her clients. Knowing and having a really clear business model is an essential step before you start making a lot of hiring Decisions, because otherwise you end up just sort of unwinding it. I did have a question for you, Michelle, because I get asked this. What kind of industries? I mean, do you have mostly online business owners or like, who are your people online?

Just, we have. I have very. It's just an array. So one, it might be a realtor, from a mortgage broker to someone who has a brick and mortar business, does forms of meal planning and meal prep, delivery, serve. I mean, they're just all kind. Yes, I do have people who have online businesses, but there are so many other people that we help because, I mean, the basics are. The basics are the basics when you are working with and hiring a team, when you own your own business. And so it doesn't really matter what industry you're in. I mean, I've even worked with clients who are in the education space. You know, it's all about you becoming the leader that you want to be and deciding, like, what is my real vision here? What are my values? Like, it's.

It applies. I agree. Because I know in my founder's lab, I have medical doctors, I have veterinarians, I have dentists, I have florists, I have interior designers, I have online business owners, physical therapists, restaurant owners.

I have restaurant owners.

Yeah. Yeah. So what I do love that this whole lead your team element, right, Entrepreneurial management, it's a level set. And the only variable is whether you're managing people virtually or you're looking at them every day.

But human beings, whether they work in restaurants or they work online, or they work in a dentist's office, human beings are human beings. Employees are employees. And so.

It'S just a common truth that everyone who manages people shares, I think, for sure. Okay, so what we thought we would talk about is also what some of the current. I think people always kind of want to know, what do I talk to? What do I do? Because what I know is most of the women, when we first start talking, they launch with, I know I need help, but I don't even know where to begin. I just know I'm really uncomfortable. I'm really frustrated. I'm really overwhelmed. But I don't know where to begin when it comes to business. What are some of the topics that you've been working with some clients on even as recently as, you know, the last couple of weeks?

Well, it seems. It seems that the common thread when you move into being just you, like, you talk about your, you know, you hanging your shingle then and moving into an entrepreneur where you're bringing Other people on board. It becomes very clear quickly. And I hear this all the time, I don't know what I'm doing like that. Just that it's either that quote or I'm afraid that everybody else is going to realize that I don't know what.

I'm doing or the imposter.

Yes. So we coach, we coach a lot about that. And what I want, what I want all of my clients to understand is of course you don't.

Unless you went to the university and got a degree in management.

Even then, I was going to say.

Even then you, no offense, read a lot of white papers.

Yeah, I have a master's degree in organizational management. Nothing I coach my people on was in that program.

Yeah, right. So even, even then, correct. That this isn't something that we just automatically know how to do because you've been spending all of your days and nights doing the thing that you do in your business, whether it's selling something or serving other people. That's what you've been spending your time doing. You haven't been learning how to manage and lead a group of people to do this, to do the same thing that you want to do or support.

The work that you do. Right.

And so, so we do talk a lot about, about in the coaching process. We do talk a lot about, okay, what does that belief like? Okay, so you may not know, like you may not know all the things about leadership and management. Okay, but, but you continuing to repeat that story in your mind over and over every day that I don't know what I'm doing, How does that affect you in your day to day business? How does that keep you from moving forward and growing yourself and helping your team be more efficient? It's just, it's not valuable. And so we, we look at, and work, work on changing those beliefs and, and then getting to a place where you can see or the clients can see that these skills are all learnable.

Exactly.

It's not like some people are born with it and some people aren't. There's these set base level skills that you need to have and we work on those and you can learn them and then we move into applying and implementing the things that you're learning.

Yes.

Having conversations, you know, just recently had a conversation where someone had hired a friend. You know, you're finding anybody who can help you because you're so.

Someone you trust.

Right. You hire the friend and you know.

You know that your friend's going to want what's best for you and they're Going to jump in and help. And, you know, there now that. Now that this leader has evolved and moved from, okay, it's now just a couple of us on the team into, no, I'm the CEO of my business, and I have these people that I'm paying for results underneath me. I have to step into that. And we have to kind of set some boundaries around, you know, how things have changed and how we. How we want to move forward so that we can grow and we can scale. And so we just do a lot of.

I guess, role playing and having conversations around how am I going to approach this situation, how am I going to give this feedback and then, you know, being prepared for a response from a team member and how that's how you're affected by that. And so we do. We do a lot of that work. We also talk a lot about what I'm noticing from when I'm noticing people making that change, which is so exciting for me, just selfishly, is when I first start working with people, they're like, oh, my gosh, can I do this? I have no idea how to do this to. All of a sudden, they do learn how to. And then they create their values and they create their vision, and they start setting expectation for these roles, and, like, they've done the work on the back end that nobody else knows about, and then they have to have the courage to step out in front of their team and announce these things and make these changes and then start holding everybody to them.

Oh, yes.

Such a fun. It's just such a fun experience for me to watch that growth. But what I notice is that.

A.

Lot of women, they do the work and they're ready to step into this role of CEO, and then they realize, holy cow, it's lonely up here. Like, I can't. I can't have these lunch conversations and, you know, gossip anymore because I've elevated myself.

Yes.

Into this new role.

Yep.

And so a lot of times we just. We have lots of conversations around. I mean, my clients say, like, thank you. You know, I'm just so glad that I have this. I have a place to go.

Yeah.

To just be able to talk through some of these things because, you know, I know that I can air all this out and that it's not going to be shared anywhere and that, you know, it's like a trusted, confidential relationship.

Trusted advisor. Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, and for those of you who are listening, who, regardless of where you are with business, I think that what Michelle just struck on or touched on, I guess is such an important thing for all of us to hear, because there might be people who have $5 million businesses or $35 million businesses who would say the same thing. And I think the biggest difference between what Michelle and I are trying to do with the different levels with our clients is I've had people come to me who have $10 million businesses who never did any of this foundational work. That doesn't mean they can't still do it. And we do do it. The only benefit is if you do it when you're at 500k, you don't have to unwind the whole damn thing. When you're at 10 million, yes. And it's less bodies to have to work through. It's less decisions you have to make about employees. But if you're at 10 million and you realize this is overwhelming, I haven't built the structures. I haven't set myself up to lead the team. Well, that doesn't mean we can't do it. But that shared belief that I see so many women have, and frankly, just women have. But in general, like, leadership for women is not yet. Not a huge sisterhood yet. And so when you can find someone that you know you can talk with and work through your thoughts, there won't be judgment. They won't be. You know, when you talk to your staff about what's on your mind, they are not objective and you influence them. So if you tell them you're worried about something in your business, it affects how they feel about working for you. So it is so bright to find that outlet, honestly, whether you were to hire Michelle or I or not, it's so vital to have a place to go. And what I find also. I don't know if you would agree with this, but most of my clients don't have girlfriends they can talk to because their girlfriends aren't running successful businesses. And so they don't understand either.

And if you. It's in it, too. A lot of times I listen to my clients. They've joined masterminds or, you know, just. Just for the camaraderie. I mean, just to have a place to go and talk about these issues that nobody really understands, your husband doesn't understand. Like you say, your girlfriends don't understand. And what they find is they sometimes, unless they find the right one, they'll get in these masterminds and then these. They'll find that other people are kind of catty and jealous of maybe their success, and they don't.

Then you're just in a regular Cultural situation. Right. No matter societal.

It's not as. It's not.

It's.

It's just not as beneficial as having having the right group of people. And I think that's. I mean, I'm gonna. Of course I'm gonna say this, Chris. I think that's what's so valuable about what you do is you make sure in your groups that that's not what's happening and that it's very structured and we keep this about business and we lift each other up. That's key to me is we have to support each other as women business owners and so that we can do the good out in the world that we're meant to do.

My favorite thing about when I work with my coach is it's all about me.

I don't have to listen to her talk about her life. It's just about me. It's all eyes on me, all eyes on my business, all just studying for me. And I'll take it because I'm always about everybody else. Right. I spend all day coaching other people on their businesses and their challenges and what their thoughts are. And I know that even if you're not a coach, but you're running a business and you're a woman. In fact, I have the vivid memory, Michelle, of the conversation that you and I have. I can still see your face on the zoom when I was coaching you and you were so frustrated that people just kept coming in and out of your office. You could never get your work done. Right. So we established the two. Right. The two rule where you had to have two solutions before you could come into your office. And Michelle was cute because she came back like a couple weeks later. She's like, okay, it's working. And all I have to do now is put up my two fingers.

And I love how you're mocking me. You're not charming, Southern draw.

You have a wonderful accent. I can't do it. Right. But she. Right. So you're always the one that everybody else goes to.

Yes.

So having this coach is where you have your place to go to. And Michelle will giggle with you also, which is lovely.

Okay, so we're just about out of time, so let's talk a little bit about your program that you offer so that people understand what it looks like and what it feels like. And then if someone wants to talk with you, how do they do that?

So if you want to do this work with me, this very important work, then what we do is we have. It's a 12 week program and we Call it the Founders Lab Foundations program so that we can get all of the fundamentals out of the way and get those established. And the base of those fundamentals is the entrepreneurial management program that Chris and Brooke Castillo developed together. So as a part of the 12 week program, you get membership or enrollment in entrepreneurial management. And then for 12 weeks we work together on all of the modules and the goodness of that program and you start to apply what you're learning. And then, and we have two individual one on one calls per month. And then I also have open office hours additional times during the month so that you can just drop in if you're having an issue or if you need to just, you know, need some support around something or get your questions answered, you can drop in to those as well. So you also receive like a workbook that accompanies the entrepreneurial management that we work through. But then, But I also don't want anybody to think that it's just the entrepreneurial management. We can coach. We coach on anything that's coming up in your. In your.

Yeah, but it's the basis for. Because most of you guys who are listening need structure in your business. So we talk about you as a founder, we talk about your business, we talk about your systems and your processes, your backstage processes. All of that really matters. But what I always like to say is we introduce these things, we have you do something and then we watch your brain have a tantrum.

Exactly.

Then that's why the coaching matters. Because one of the things I can say about. I don't know if this is true for you all listening, but a lot of people in their desperate hour of need at 2 in the morning, when they're looking at Facebook or Instagram, will buy something to help them buy these job description templates, buy these conversation outlines, whatever, right? You're desperate for help to manage your team, so you buy something. But what happens, I know, is a lot of people, they buy a lot of tools, but in the absence of someone to help them work through applying it, that's where the frustration sets in. And it actually becomes more exhausting to understand and learn more, but not know how to do it. So the benefit of working with someone to help you is that you can apply what you're learning and doing it. And then you come back and you say, hey, this is how that went down. Did I do it right? That's what a lot of my clients will say, like, okay, I tried it. I had the difficult conversation, I fired the person, I whatever, right? And then we come back and we debrief and we talk about how it went. So that's one of those other pieces that it's a program because we know that you need that structure. But that's why we're keeping it one on one. Because each of you will do this at your own pace. You'll have different challenges that present to you that Michelle can help you through as you're experiencing those uniquely.

And it saves, I think it saves you time because there's so much experience and knowledge that has gone in, like mistakes and success. And it's all that has all. So with in the entrepreneurial management program, with the modules that they're that are included, there's lots of trial and error that have already been vetted and are in this program. So you're not spending all this extra time, like you said, searching on Facebook for the right templates or like a lot of this stuff is already included in there. So the time that you do spend spend with me, like, we're hitting the ground running. So at the end of the 12 weeks, then you are so much more advanced and have so much more done than what you might be had you tried to go out and piecemeal and listen to all these extra podcasts and read all these books and all that. Like, no, we're going to cut all that out.

Right?

Let's take this information. Let's do it.

Yes. So good. Awesome. All right, well, I know this has been a slightly longer podcast than normal, but thank you all for tuning in and for meeting Michelle again. I'm super excited that she's on the team. Her information is also on my website. So if you want, you can go to chrisplacky.comteam and you'll see more information in her bio. And then of course, she already gave you the information to go to the appointment link if you want to schedule time. But it's Chrisplacky.com appointment to select a good consult time for Michelle. You'll see when you book that. When you pull that up, we'll give you an option to book time with me or with Michelle. So based on where your business is, just make the right selection for you. We're here to help you all and we're super happy to continue to work with the clients that we work with because we're watching amazing things happen in people's business and it's so, so rewarding. So all of you out there working really hard, keep at it. Now you can get off the treadmill or stop your walk or Maybe you're off the bus now, ready to go to work wherever you are in the world. But enjoy your day. Thank you Michelle for being here.

Thank you all. Bye bye.

Hey there gorgeous. Are you ready to take everything I teach you in this podcast and put it to work in your business and really learn how to master leading your team? If so, I'd love to have you as a client in the Founders Lab to learn more about how we can work together. Head on over to chrisplacky.com.

Join there. You'll see everything you need to know about the Founders Lab and how to get started. See you there.