Transcription
Hi everyone, and welcome to another exciting episode of the Conscious Counsel podcast with your host Corey Sterling, that's me. In this week's episode, I'm very very lucky to have a personal friend and one of my coaches here with us, Josh Biro, who is the owner of Artha. And Josh is a business coach and a coaches coach. What's going on, Josh?
>> What's going on? Thanks for having me, Corey. Excited to jump on. I've been doing my homework listening to all your episodes to get prepped.
>> Wow. And and you and you still agreed to come on, which is very very nice. Um I just want to give everyone a a little bit of an introduction, I think, from I started Conscious Counsel in 2017. And Josh, you and I uh we we met maybe at a Mindbody University event in Chicago in 2018 or 2019, and then we were also at the Mindbody Bash. What was it called? The Mindbody annual party in Anaheim, California.
>> Yeah.
>> Like 2019, 20 2018, 2019. So, you and I go way back. Um and in addition to you being my business coach, I've hired you on many many occasions to be my business coach and give me amazing advice, of which you've been fantastic in doing. Um I also lived with your family for 3 weeks in Mexico, which was the most fun I ever had. So, this is professional, but it's also very very personal as well.
>> Yeah, we've had a good good crossover run of a few things. And you've been It's been really helpful to have I want to say a lawyer in my pocket. I don't have a lawyer in my pocket, like as weird as that sounds, but what I mean is to have someone in your confident that understands the industry that you're in to go to, cuz I know quite a few lawyers and they don't understand what it is that we do in health, wellness, coaching, whatever, which makes it difficult to get some help when you need it. So, same goes in reverse, buddy.
>> Cool. And and most most importantly, we're keeping it hot and uh and and we're still connected. I want to have a conversation today about coaching and the coaching industry in 2026. I know that it's something that you're super passionate about. I know it's something that you're incredibly talented at. How do you see coaching different in 2026 than it's been in the past?
>> Yeah. Well, the simple statement is the coaching industry has been dead in the water since probably 2019. Like it's been much longer, but post-COVID and then now in the world of AI, the idea of information coaching, templatized formulas, etc. is beyond dead. And unfortunately, that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of players that are still offering that sort of stuff. It's no shade on them or anything. It's just it's interesting to get to see having been a full-time coach for well over a decade now and just I you know, we're over a thousand different businesses that my team and I have worked with, getting to see behind the scenes like what actually makes a difference in coaching, etc. Um it's an industry that's silently being disrupted right now, and I don't see a lot of pivot going on. So, it's been a focus of mine the last little while to train our team up better, but also get a lot of people coming to us asking about becoming a coach or how do they improve their own coaching business, or even just clients asking, you know, how do I pick a coach or what am I even looking for if I'm looking at coaching, etc. Um so, that's been a Yeah, it's been an ongoing conversation, especially this last year.
>> You You used the term silently disrupted. Can you elaborate on what that means for the coaching coaching industry from your perspective?
>> Yeah, I mean uh the obvious path here is the internet made it accessible to start to communicate everywhere in the world. And so, it's like you saw the death of Encyclopedia Britannica that I had in my house when I was a kid and the speed of updated information was better. But now what we've done is completely commoditized knowledge access and so anyone if they know the right question to ask can jump into AI and pick which one you even like and get a real response and what's more is things like the idea of a template that would represent sort of a formula you can get the formula and your own custom version of that template done shipped and in your hands like immediately now. And so if you look at coaching through the lens of I know something that you don't know. I'm going to educate you and then I'll give you the formula and you just follow the formula. That's been dead for a long time and has never been our methodology but right now it's ridiculous. Like the fact that someone would take someone's money and then only give that I find almost offensive honestly.
>> Okay, how how have you and your business pivoted to adapt to the times and understanding that the landscape has changed and accessibility has changed? How is your coaching methodology or approach changed in during this period?
>> Honestly, it hasn't. Like our core methodology hasn't actually changed that much. We were never the one size fits all program course template sized situation. We did have to have a pretty stern conversation internally in our coaching team to be like if you think that this isn't happening that there's in this disruption that the value that we're offering is is you know, some information or something like that. You're crazy. So wake up. But it's just made us sort of lean into the things that actually matter. So I think that right now from and this applies across business beyond coaching too but coaching is like an amplified case for this. Knowledge is not power. Knowledge plus action is power. Knowledge plus action plus lived experience, which means collected data optimization measurement, equals wisdom. And if I own a business, what do I want to be? Like someone who knows a bunch of stuff about business or someone who's wise in business? And so, it's obviously the latter cuz it's a more powerful place. Which just means the value of a coach isn't the information that they have. It's not that that's has no value, it's just the least valuable piece of the puzzle. The actual value is having someone who has the unique understanding of your business and can help you sort through all of the different things that you have going on and choose which information actually matters. It's like a coach can help you detangle and therefore you utilize the information. And then when you add on top of that, accountability of implementation. Accountability doesn't look like, "Hey, here's a list of stuff we said we're going to do last week. Did you do it or not?" Because you can have a bot that does that. Accountability is actually having the conversation and saying, "Hey, we said that this was an important thing. Here's a list of stuff we have to do. We're not getting this implemented in the business. What is actually happening here and how do we solve for that?" And so, it's a big shift for us has been really focusing on coaching much more towards the actual person, the entrepreneur, um than just the business. Sometimes we internally joke is like kind of having two clients in coaching. Like you've got the business, but it's also the owner of the business. And we're coaching both of those things.
>> Yeah, it's I I I love what you're saying and I have two sort of responses and one is a story that that I'm going to ask your comment on, but the first is what's interesting from the legal perspective of what's changed with with all of this is I'd say the first 6 years of Conscious Counsel, the whole idea was we could write agreements that a 7-year-old would understand. That was the that was the whole approach. It's like law doesn't make sense. You can't understand the contract, you know, you're we we write it so that you can understand it. But now as chat GPT and and AI have totally changed things, any you could get a robot to write a contract and you could take an existing contract, put it in and say, "Write this as if a 7-year-old, you know, if you're explaining it to a 7-year-old."
>> Mhm.
>> And so cool like the whole approach that we had. And so for us at Conscious Counsel, we pivoted to the relationship with our clients and the expertise of having worked in an industry for 10 years. And that's the that's the difference and that's what enables that's that's what I've learned from a marketing perspective. It's like we're doing the same thing, but we just have to tell the story a different way. Now, the other example that I want to give is a friend of mine who is training he was training to do a DEXA body scan for his body fat percentage. And he was using AI for all of it, using a robot as a coach, right? He gave it a prompt, "Hey, you're a coach and you can help me train." And he sends me a message and he he sends me a message and he's like, "Look, I'm I'm I'm working with this AI. It made the program. All I have to do is this, this, and this. And then all I have to do is eat this, this, and this." And he did it twice and both times he failed miserably. And for me what was so interesting was like it's like, "Dude, you you can put you can have a coach in on your phone with your with your AI, but that's not going to actually help you do the thing. Like that's not what's going to make the difference. All it you're right, the information now everyone is on the same level playing field with access to information, but it seems like coaching now is more about, you know, motivation for the individual or, you know, redefining what accountability is. Does that land with you with with everything that you've been saying?
>> Absolutely. And I would say the deeper layer on top of this because it it's easy to see how like this starts to become executive coaching or more like therapy and life coaching and stuff like that, which is a tricky place to be in, too, when we're talking about it through a business lens. But it's realizing that like it's always been true that you're your biggest problem in the business most often as the owner of a business. And the way that I would say it is just that let's say you have a business that's doing 500,000 a year in gross revenue and you want it to be doing a million a year in gross revenue. We know how to do that with a wellness business, like a yoga studio, Pilates, or whatever. And I don't want to sound cocky here, but like we know exactly what it takes to do that. I don't know the specifics of what it's going to look like for your business, but I can tell you right now that the biggest friction point comes from asking a simple question, which is well, why is it that you don't make the million dollars right now? And it's because you, the owner, are the container that the business exists within. You aren't the appropriate container for a million-dollar business yet. This has always been true. It's just so obvious and amplified now that that's actually where the value is. This is a long-winded way of saying, if you want to go from half a mil to a mil, one to two, two to 10, you have to become the person who can hold that business. You have to change. And you're going to have to make different decisions. You're not going to get to a place you've never been by continuing to be exactly who and how you are and operate in the same way. And so a lot of the coaching is finding where is that unique combination of specifics that are the limiting factor inside you, inside the business, whatever, and what are the high-impact ones that just require some sort of a shift. That's really where the coach piece comes in.
>> Let's open the toolbox. Maybe you can talk about what you see from the clients that you work with. How does someone go through the transformation of becoming a person who runs a business that earns 500,000 to someone who earns a business that earns a million?
>> Yeah. Usually the 500 to a million situation is just actually taking action. Like I would say eight out of 10 times someone has got themselves stuck in what we would call either being the paralyzed idealist or being the silent martyr. And in either case, it's like an anti-avatar that we talk about. The paralyzed idealist is I have a business that functions and I have a lot of freedom, but I don't like I don't really put a lot of extra work into it. I don't want to work weekends or evenings or whatever. Like I'm actually don't have a little bit of hustle. But I like to talk about how I'm doing something really good in the world and that's kind of good enough for me. Or what's more likely often in the fitness wellness business arena, especially, is the silent martyr where at 500,000 you can get there and still major components of the business basically fall on your shoulders and you're the one behind the scenes who's not really getting paid a ton of money at that level. But like you have to make all the major decisions, you have to come up with all of the strategy, you have to be the one that even like does the stuff. And so the transition in either of those cases is just action because the formula for doing it isn't like some major strategy change. If you use a yoga studio for example, it's the simple stuff. Someone gets into your business, can you get them through your sales process to become a member? Can you keep them on your membership? Does that person then evangelize you and bring two more people in? I mean, of course it's an oversimplification in and details of how you do that, but that's it. That's the formula. You'll go from 500,000 a year to a million a year just by having really great classes and a good sales process. Literally, that's it. We think it's marketing and nine out of 10 it's not. Marketing is then the next piece that I would say kind of comes after that.
>> Let's throw away this container of 200,000 to 500,000 and 500,000 to a million and a million to 3 million. Let's talk more about like lifestyle and fulfillment. What do you see in terms of clients who come to you who Okay, maybe they're at 500 now and the issue isn't that they want to get to a million or they want to double or they want to grow. They want to be happier. They want to spend more time with their family. They want more time to pursue personal projects. How do you How do you approach that differently?
>> Yeah. Look, I think that that's the truth that everyone wants. Even when someone says, "I want to make the million." I In my experience, it's very seldom actually the true thing. Why do any of us want anything? And like business Businesses are a vehicle for you, the owner of the business, but a vehicle to what? The reason that our business name is Artha is Artha means wealth accumulation from a spiritual sense. We have a simple statement like wealth accumulation is a spiritual practice. The way we describe wealth internally for us is freedom, including money. If you have good financial security, you're free and have less stress and can do other things. If you have control of your time, then you can utilize that, etc. etc. So, I think that that just as a precursor is what everyone's actually wanting and chasing. The irony of it is that most entrepreneurs in the beginning are stuck holding on to something. It's less about doing something sometimes or I should say it is doing something practically in the business, but on the personal side, they've got to let go of something. And so you've got to trust that someone else can do their job. You have to let someone else make some decisions. You have to decide that no, I don't have to be in on a Saturday. I can go do whatever I want. Like the business won't explode or implode overnight sort of thing. Um So personally on an internal level, I think that that's a piece of the puzzle.
>> Perfect. Okay. I'm I'm with you. I'm I'm just I'm just thinking because I'm I'm curious what you see Let's make this specific about health and wellness and and either boutique fitness studio owners or yoga studios or um Pilates studios. Are is there anything specific that you see with them in a coaching perspective that's unique to them that
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah, that that maybe wouldn't apply to another industry.
>> Yes, there are narratives, common practices, etc. that in all boutique fitness and wellness um they all have their own little ones, but there's some threads that go across that are really prevalent and I don't think people even ever objectively look at it and ask like, "Where did this come from?" I'll give a simple example. If you were on a SaaS product team, it would be internally culturally inappropriate to say, "Well, I don't think we should sell the SaaS product." Like I don't believe in sales, but it's an everyday occurrence in a Pilates or yoga studio for a yoga teacher or someone at the front desk to be like, "Well, I don't believe in sales." Which makes no sense and shows a misunderstanding of what sales are supposed to be and in non-training whatever else. And it's no shade on them, but even at the owner level, that type of narrative that friction that then comes from that. You could call it like a knowing how to do it, but it means or it highlights often a prioritization of your own individual personal comfort as opposed to doing the thing that's necessary for the business to grow or for the larger good of the situation. And so a lot of it is reframing some of these beliefs or narratives of friction points. To be very thorough on the point, someone, you know, and I'm sure that anyone listening to this has heard me say this throughout the years cuz it's just more true now than ever. If someone has the idea, oh, I'm going to do this like hot Pilates hit class, and I get my phone out and I find you of all the places I could go to in the city, and I book the class, and then I get my ass off my couch, and I get in my car, and I drive across town, and I find a parking spot, and I go up two flights of stairs cuz you're on the third floor, and I make it into the class on time for a class time that you scheduled, not me. That's an insanely large action. No one's just coming in being like, "Eh, I'll just try it out." Like I'm looking for something more. So, if they wanted to do some stretching postures or some push-ups, they'd do it in my living room for free. I don't need to come to you. So, from that thought, if then you're going to be at the front end of house and be like, "Well, if Corey wanted to buy my intro or wanted to join membership, he would have seen it online and just did it by himself." But then, how many times have you done that? Zero. That's not human behavior. But that becomes the excuse to buffer the comfort piece of sales we're talking about, where it's like, "I don't want to say to Corey, 'Hey, I know you came in on a drop-in. When you start, what most people do is our first month of membership is this discounted price, whatever.' Because I don't want to be salesy. I don't want Corey to be uncomfortable. That has nothing to do with Corey. That's you hiding behind something else. And just that one thing amplified across the hundred first visits you would have in a month in a fitness studio equals your business doesn't grow.
>> Yeah, you got it, man. You're You're absolutely right. It's It's The The words that you used that I think resonated most with me were like teaching people to change beliefs. So, I've got two final questions before we wrap up. One question is, how do you facilitate a process for people to change their beliefs?
>> Yeah, man. In the world of AI, the two superpowers, three, let's make it three. The three superpowers are discernment, critical thinking, and communication. And so, from that thought, the way we start to change our beliefs, if necessary, or solidify them, is to use critical thinking and use one more objective reality. Now, we don't ever None of us experience objective reality. We experience our filtration of reality.
>> Yes.
>> you should be able to answer the question, if I say this is this cuz this this, you should be able to back it up with some facts or some data. And in business, it's really easy. Like, oh, well, people don't like it if I say this to them. Is that true? Like, prove it. So, you should be able to prove it. Or, I don't think that we need to do better sales. I think we need more marketing. Okay, but that might be true. Prove it. Show me in the numbers that that's that's the case, that that's the focal piece. So, one is, you know, get out of the subjective emotional piece and get into the objective data-driven part. Um because you just like can't deny it. And then the other belief change thing on the more human personal level is where the critical thinking comes in is just honestly being really good at practicing curiosity. It's the observer state. We're like, isn't it interesting that this is coming up for me or that I have this thought or this automatically comes out? What's happening with that? And just being curious about and almost skeptical of yourself. If I'm saying this, can I prove that it's true? Where is that coming from? How come? Cuz there'll be things that you're like, no, you have a good reason and you do have data to back it up and you do have lived experience and etc. etc. Great. And then there'll be a whole bunch that you're like, oh wait, I just kind of made this up. Our brains are kind of fuckety. They do all sorts of weird things. So,
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Cool. I I love that. I I think that that's curiosity is the key with everything. And whatever decision you make or you feel a certain way, why do I feel this way? Why am I going to make this decision? Um Josh, I I just want you to share a little bit in wrapping up. First I want to thank you, man. I appreciate you. I love you.
>> You always
>> for having
>> such a unique unique and intelligent and you're always on the leading edge, man. You you always understand where where where things are going and the the frontier and and you have your eye set to it. Maybe share a client success story of something that you've enjoyed recently uh at your business and then also just let everyone know where they can find you.
>> Yeah. I've got like the best client success story. I'll I'll if it's okay, I'll share two briefly. One is client of ours client of ours off and on with coaching uh with us for I don't know, six, eight years. Uh I even went to her studio probably five five or six years ago. When I went there, she'd already been in business for like 13 years and we have the tape of her saying like, I just thought this is it. Like, things are okay. This is as good as it gets with the business and I I don't remember it, but she says I said to her like, no way. You're not even anywhere near it yet. And she's since like more than five times her business and she just bought a building across the street, built out the entire thing, expanded like the total square footage by double, is [ __ ] crushing it right now in that expansion, and all of that she's bootstrapped as well. And like and it and and here's the part that for me personally I think is the most exciting part of it after like let's say 20 years in the fitness wellness industry, she still practices, she still loves going to her job, she still like wants to talk about she's still enthusiastic about it. She's not all jaded and fried out and like wants to avoid it sort of thing. So, to me that's that's a huge huge win. Um
>> Epic.
>> And then another one I another brief one is we have a new coach that just came on our team and she's just gone through this beautiful transition of like bought a studio, you know, I don't know 10, 12 years ago, has like three, four x that business. Uh I believe is in maybe even in the process of a sale or whatever, but despite some like real hardship with a landlord and stuff, has just really blown the business up and is now transitioning to being a coach because she's just that person. Like she's naturally called to it, people are asking for advice, whatever. And so just getting to see that progression of someone like I did this, I built this business up, and then also I'm enthusiastic about now sharing this with the next group of people coming up cuz like there's a a lot of abundance, we should all win here. Uh to me huge huge success story as well.
>> Awesome, man. Congratulations, dude. You're such a stand for uh for these people and whether they're people internally or externally, if it's clients or your team, you take a stand. Where can everyone learn more about Art of Coaching?
>> Yeah, you can go to artha-coaching.com. We do have a private community you can join if that's interesting to you and we do have some open slots for one-on-one coaching if you're a business. If you are a coach trying to improve your coaching business or if you want to become a coach because you're at that transition moment, that is the other behind-the-scenes programming that we have. So, you can actually email me directly on that. It's just josh@artha-coaching.com.
>> Awesome. Josh, I want to thank you, man. You're you're my coach. You've been my coach over the years. I appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today and I love you, bro. I always will.
>> Appreciate you, Corey. Thanks for having me on.