Will Kelly built his mowing business alone for three years before a neighbor introduced him to a multimillion-dollar lawn-care owner who became his mentor. That guidance plus later coaching from Randy and a C12 peer group taught him to focus on profitable customers and trust the process. Kelly argues a good coach finds your blind spots in ways free resources can't.
For the first 3 years of building my business, I tried to figure almost everything out myself. And looking back, I wasted a lot of time and a lot of money doing that. I didn't know how to price jobs. I didn't know where I should be spending money. I didn't really know how to market to new customers. I didn't know the best way to even get customers. But the biggest problem was that I didn't even know what I didn't know. And that's dangerous, because when you don't know something, you can Google it, you can watch a YouTube video, you can read a book, you can even search it through AI. But when you don't even know the problem exists, you don't know what questions to ask. That changed for me about 3 years into business. One day I was out mowing a lawn and a neighbor walked over to me and started talking to me who I had never met before. He found out that I had gotten out of the military and started our lawn care business. And then he told me that his brother owned a multimillion dollar lawn care company. That conversation ended up connecting me with somebody who was way further down the road than I was. And everything started speeding up. He helped guide me through getting licensed for fertilization and weed control. He helped me understand which services I should be offering, how I could package my services together for a more profitable way, where the better opportunities were, how to maximize the return and the profitability of customers we were already Serving. These were things I probably could have eventually figured out myself, but that's the point— eventually. How much money would I have wasted? How many mistakes would I have made? How many years would it have taken me? Sometimes one conversation with somebody who's already been where you're trying to go can save you 6 months of wandering around trying to figure something out yourself. I think that's one of the biggest mistakes ambitious people make. We think working harder is always the answer. Sometimes it's not. Sometimes you need somebody outside of your own head who can visually see what you can't see because you have blind spots right now. I have blind spots right now. And the crazy thing about a blind spot is that you usually don't know it's That's why it's a blind spot. Even today, as we're building multiple locations and pursuing much larger goals, I still need people in my corner. I'm currently part of a C12 group, and my coach Randy recently pointed something out to me. I move extremely fast. That's naturally how I'm wired. I've got goals, I see where I want to go, and my initial instinct is to push harder and faster. And get there faster. And Randy gave me almost the opposite coaching. Slow down. Let the Holy Spirit work. We are on God's time. We're not on Will Kelly's time. And I needed to hear that because sometimes a good coach doesn't push you to go faster. Sometimes a good coach sees that you're moving too fast. That conversation reminded me to be present, take in what's happening around me, trust that God is working even when things aren't happening according to the timeline I created in my own head. That's what good counsel does. It doesn't just give you tactics, it changes how you think. And I've experienced that going all the way back to when I was involved in Amway. I had a coach back then who required me to constantly be learning. I would listen to an audiobook and read a nonfiction book, and I had to send 2 or 3 things that I learned to my coach every single day. At the time, it was just something I was being held accountable to do, but that habit stuck. I constantly read. I still listen. I still try to learn every single day. And I can trace a lot of my mindset, my leadership, and my composure and the way I think today back to years of intentionally investing in my own personal growth. People will hear this and say, why would I pay a coach when I can learn everything for free on YouTube or using AI? And the reality is, I actually agree with part of that. Start with the free stuff. Seriously. All of my content on YouTube is free. Watch YouTube, read books, listen to podcasts. There is more free information at your fingertips and available to you today than probably any other time in history. I have hundreds of videos on this channel. Watch them. You can learn an unbelievable amount without spending a single dollar on coaching. But there's one thing a YouTube video cannot do. It cannot look at your specific situation and say, Will, you're missing this. It can't ask you why you said you're going to do something for 6 months and still haven't done it. It can't notice that the problem you keep blaming on marketing is actually a leadership problem. It can't challenge the story you're telling yourself. And that's where the right person in your corner becomes incredibly valuable. My C12 group right now costs me $1,350 per month. That's $1,350 per month. You see, when I first looked at that, I thought that was pretty steep. But if a good coach helps me avoid one major mistake, make one better leadership decision, see one more blind spot, or move toward one major goal faster, that investment can pay for itself Time and time again. The important word there is good coach. I don't think you should just hand somebody money because they put coach in their Instagram bio. A good coach cares about you. They're genuine, they're honest, they have integrity. They're willing to tell you something you don't want to hear, and they genuinely want you to win. win and succeed. They should also have some evidence that they've been further down the road you're trying to travel. And for me personally, there's another part of it. I pray about these relationships. I pay attention to whether I have peace about the person who I'm seeking guidance from. I try to discern whether this is somebody God has put in my life for a reason, because the wrong counsel can send you in the wrong direction just as quickly as good counsel can move you to the right one. If I could go back and talk to myself when I was first starting my lawn care business, trying to figure things out, everything alone, here's what I would tell myself. Find somebody who's further down the road. Try it for 3 months. If you're paying them and you're genuinely getting no value, stop. No harm, no foul. But don't spend years wandering because you're afraid to spend money investing in yourself. You don't know what you don't know, and sometimes the fastest way to find out is having somebody in your corner who's already been there. Thank you guys so much for watching. Make sure you're subscribed to the channel if you want to build a more successful business and have a better leadership mindset.
