Transcript of Podcast Interview with Dr. Dan Cruoglio from Life Adjustments Coaching
This is Christine Matus from the Matus Law Group. It’s an honor to have Dr. Dan Cruoglio from Life Adjustments Coaching on this podcast. I believe personal growth must precede professional growth and we need an outside person to look at things and help. Dr. Dan’s information, interaction, and experience is bar-none. Dr. Dan, tell us about yourself, and how you started.
Dr. Dan: Most people don’t know that I’m a chiropractor and I maintain my license. In 2008 we lost our office in a fire, and my wife was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. One of my patients happened to be the founder of a coaching school and recommended that I go through the program, and that’s how I got involved in coaching.
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Christine: You’re a business owner, so the information and experience you give to others is heartfelt and personal.
Dr. Dan: Yes. I’ve gone through every hardship known to man. Not only losing my practice, but losing my wife, my house, and sanity. I know what it’s like to have things happen to you. But, when you learn specific skills and learn to ask the right questions, then you’re able to get to where you want to be.
I started as a consultant for a chiropractic consulting company, Breakthrough Coaching. They teach chiropractors how to build their practice. I found some did well and some didn’t, even though I was teaching the same stuff. Then I learn about the Energy Leadership Index, which is a wonderful tool to help people see what they’re doing. It’s otherwise difficult to change what you don’t see. It’s tough to see the frame when you’re in the picture, so it’s important to have somebody from the outside to help you.
Christine: What are the advantages of hiring a coach?
Dr. Dan: The first advantage is we can see things you don’t see. Many people don’t know what a business is. By definition, a business is a profitable entity that can run without you being there. If you don’t meet that definition, then you don’t have a business, you have a job. The reason for a business is three-fold. You want to leave it as a legacy for your children, sell it for a profit, and get somebody else to run it and collect passive income.
There are six phases to a business. The first phase is operations or the day-to-day things you do. The second phase is strategy, and not many people have a strategy. They ride by the seat of their pants and don’t have goals or a business plan. They think they’re going to get to where they want to be without putting in the time, work and effort to create a plan. Third is your finances. Most businesses fail because they grow so fast, they don’t have the finances to support the growth. It’s important to understand the difference between revenue and profit. Revenue might increase your ego, but profit is what feeds your family. It’s what you take home, but it’s not how much you make. Unfortunately, people think that as their revenues go up, their business becomes their personal ATM, and then they find themselves in trouble down the line.
What’s more, learn to use energetic words. I always tell my clients that “have to” is a low energy word. Be inspired, so you love doing it. Also, create priorities for each day. If you have more than five priorities, you don’t have any priorities because you end up doing all the easy stuff and the stuff that needs to get done, doesn’t get done. It gets pushed to the next day, and the next day, and the next day.
Then there’s marketing and advertising. How do we find our ideal client and what message do we send them so that they are attracted to us? And you can’t grow a business without people. It’s better to find someone that has the soft skills rather than the hard skills, because you can always teach the hard skills. You can’t teach integrity, honesty, showing up on time and loving your job. Those are the things you want to look for rather than skill sets, because every 18 months the skills change. There is always something new to learn, so hard skills are continually evolving. The soft skills are the people skills.
When you find somebody that has good credentials, but can’t get along with other people, you’ve got a toxic genius. They have the skill sets, but can’t get along with their team, and that creates a very stressful environment. Also, you can’t manage people. People are not manageable. Systems are manageable. That’s why you have to find the right people and then manage the systems. Write everything down, so every person you hire knows what they need to do. Then when the time comes that you want to sell your business, it’s a turnkey operation with all the systems in place, like a franchise.
Christine: What are some of the most frequent challenges small business owners face?
Dr. Dan: Three challenges: time, money and people. So, how much of your day is productive? Columbia University did a study with salespeople and found the average salesperson is productive an hour and a half a day. The rest of the time is wasted because of a lack of strategy and priorities. For instance, wasting time on the phone, in the car, and using social media. What systems do you put in place to be more productive? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and it’s how we use that time that makes us productive.
Then there’s money. Let’s say you told me you don’t have enough money to take on coaching. However, you were in Florida last week on vacation and bought a lottery ticket, and you won the $10 million prize. However, the only way you could claim the prize is to get there in person. You’d find a way to buy the airline ticket, wouldn’t you?
We ascertain our client’s values because the highest values are the highest priorities. If your goals are not in alignment with your values, you’re never going to reach them. That’s where the Energy Leadership Training comes in. It allows us to understand how you view the world, and your beliefs, assumptions, and perceptions. Do they energize you, or put you in a catabolic state where you’re in fight or flight all the time, where you’re either the prey or the predator?
Let’s say you want to run five miles. In your mind, you should be running 25 miles. If you tell somebody to run a mile, at the end of the mile, they’re going to be huffing, and puffing, and sweating like an old warhorse. If you tell somebody they have to run 25 miles, at the end of one mile there just warming up. Physiologically, you control what goes on. That’s why it’s all about asking the right questions, finding the right person that’s going to get the best out of you, because it’s all inside of you. I don’t have the answers, you do. I help you draw it out.
Christine: How can people reach you?
Dr. Dan: My phone number is 732-690-4054. I have three websites: LifeAdjustmentsCoaching.com is the first one. LifeAdjustmentsBusinessAcademy.com is my online training course. LifeAdjustmentsStartups.com is for people starting new businesses. My book is “The Monday Morning Huddle,” and I’m excited that in a couple of weeks I’m going to have my new book called, “How to Sell Like Hell and Still Get to Heaven.” It talks about strategies that increase your sales.
Christine: Dr. Dan Cruoglio, Life Adjustment Coaching. Please reach out to him as he has invaluable information that can help your life and business. This is Christine Matus of the Matus Law Group at (732) 281-0060. Thank you.
