Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Jeff Heggie, Founder of Jeff Heggie Coaching, located in Gilbert, AZ, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I help entrepreneurs and athletes to develop a powerful mindset and extreme self-confidence and reach their full potential. A big part of my business is working with athletes in The Confident Athlete Program. However, what I will be more focused on here is my work with entrepreneurs. As I work with entrepreneurs, my personal goal is to teach them to become optimal-performing entrepreneurs. What is an optimal performing entrepreneur? The best way to explain it is with an example. I was working with a great guy to help him grow his business. He was so focused and dedicated to the success of his business, and from that aspect, he was succeeding. His business was growing like crazy, and it was doing very well. But it wasn't all good. Yes, his business was doing well. But at the same time, his family relationships and other key relationships in his life were falling apart. He spent so much time on the business he never even thought about his health or fitness, and just like his relationships, they were hitting rock bottom too. We sat down one day, and I congratulated him on the success of his business but made it very clear to him that I did not see him as a success. To really be a success, it couldn't be only the business. We continued to focus a lot on the business, but we also focused on his family and relationship goals, his finances, his health and fitness, his spirituality, and his personal development. Yes, it was a hard transition, but looking back now, it was so worth it! I do look at him as a success today. If he had waited any longer, his relationships would have been ruined. So as I work with my clients, I make sure they remember to dedicate some of their focus to each of these areas so that the success in one area isn't at the complete sacrifice of the others. Some of my coaching is one-on-one, some are through my mastermind group, but the majority of my clients work with me through The Entrepreneur Coaching Group.

The Entrepreneur Coaching Group is a membership program of like-minded high achievers. A big focus in the Success Path modules of the program, I teach them how to build their personal brand as The Experts in their field. Creating their authority is really what helps them to separate themselves from their competition. Besides the Success Path, there's new training added to the group each month, plus we have group masterclasses and mastermind calls. Whether it's the entrepreneur that works a full-time job and has a side hustle, or the entrepreneur with 500 employees, bringing these incredible people from different backgrounds, different industries, with different experiences is doing amazing things to help everyone grow!

Tell us about yourself

Whether I'm working with entrepreneurs or athletes, what gets me motivated each day is watching people change their lives and their futures when they develop the mindset that allows them to exceed all the expectations they ever had for themselves. I always wanted to be in control of my own destiny, and that's what excited me about entrepreneurship. I graduated from college with a major in entrepreneurship. After college, I had a great opportunity to work at a bank, but I turned it down because, at the time, I was a professional rodeo cowboy, and that's what I wanted to focus on. However, I eventually did go back and take the job at the bank and had a few years of incredible learning experiences as I worked with business owners and other clients. Then one day, I was sitting in the office of one of my clients who was building homes at the time. He had a catalogue on his desk for the artificial stone veneer that they put on their homes. To make a long story short, at that time, I had an epiphany and thought, "I could do this." That client became a long-term business partner and mentor to me, and we started a manufacturing company for artificial stone veneer, which we ran for 16 years. During my time running this business, along with other businesses, such as my real estate holdings, I also had the opportunity to mentor and coach a lot of different entrepreneurs. About five years ago, I made the decision to focus more on the coaching and working with business owners.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

I've had a number of great accomplishments as a business owner. But most of the ones that mean the most are tied to people. Whether it's been helping a client build their dream home or helping someone on our team grow and advance their career within our organization, they are all rewarding experiences. From the standpoint of a coach, my biggest accomplishments come from my clients achieving their goals they used to think were impossible. I remember having a client who set a big income goal for her company that was bigger than they had ever imagined in the past. But she was confident that by implementing the things we were working on, they would be able to do it by year-end. About two months before year-end, I received a text message with a screenshot of their financial statements. They crushed their goal almost two months ahead of schedule! It's experiences like that which excite me and make all I'm doing worthwhile.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

Honestly, there are many hard things that come with being a business owner. As a business owner, you're responsible not only for your own financial success but your decisions and actions that impact the finances and lives of many people, from employees, partners, clients, etc. But overall, one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner is the emotional roller coaster. One day you can be on top of the world, and nothing could be better. Then the next day, you're dealing with a crisis that you don't know how to deal with. But fortunately, each rise and fall of the roller coaster gives you the experience to become a better business owner in the future because of those experiences. Mark Twain said it well, "Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions."

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Think bigger! Don't let your limiting beliefs hold you back from doing amazing things. When you think you have set some big goals for yourself, think bigger. Then ask yourself, what has to be true? What has to happen to make that goal possible? That's what you focus on.
  2. Get an accountability coach. I work with my accountability groups every day. It's easy to get busy with the urgent things that we face every day. But you have to make sure that your number one focus is to do the ONE THING every day that will get you closer to your bigger goal. You have to be accountable every single day!
  3. Who, Not How. I was like every startup entrepreneur, I did everything. But I never started to see real success until I started replacing myself with people that could do my jobs for me and, in most cases, better. This allowed me to focus on the business and the most important things that only I could do.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.jeffheggie.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JeffHeggieCoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffheggiecoaching/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffHeggieCoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffheggie/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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