Join us for an insightful conversation with Greg Weimer, CEO, and Katie Montagazzi, Director of Marketing, as they discuss the transformative power of constant improvement and the pivotal role of coaching in personal and professional development. Greg reflects on the dichotomy of progress versus stagnation, emphasizing that in life, there is no neutral ground – you’re either advancing or regressing.
Through Greg’s experience with both formal coaches and informal mentors, experiences, and books – he shares insights into the multifaceted benefits of coaching and the desire to evolve and improve.
Tune into this episode for an insightful exploration of the joy found in progress and discover how coaching can unlock your potential in business and beyond.
Greg Weimerrn00:04rnHello and welcome to the Imagine that podcast. I’m your host, Greg Weimer, founder, partnerrnand wealth manager at Confluence Financial Partners. Each month, we’ll explore new waysrnto help you maximize your life and your legacy and meet some extraordinary people alongrnthe way. So if you’re looking to get more out of your life today and legacy tomorrow, let’s getrnstarted.rnKatie Montagazzirn00:25rnWelcome, everybody. This is Katie Montagazzi, director of marketing here at Confluence,rnand I am interviewing Greg Weimer, our CEO. So welcome, Greg.rnGreg Weimerrn00:34rnThank you.rnKatie Montagazzirn00:35rnYeah. So today we’re talking about how coaches can improve our lives. And really fromrnGreg’s experience with formal coaches to informal coaches, from sports reading, books,rnpodcasts, and just how you can utilize other people’s expertise and experiences to improvernyour life. So welcome, Greg. Like I said, I wanted to start sort of with Greg’s background.rnYou’ve been in the business for 38 ish years or so.rnGreg Weimerrn01:04rn38 years, yeah, that’s it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.rnKatie Montagazzirn01:06rnWe can’t round up and say. 40. And you share a lot internally here at confluence withrnassociates, how coaching has affected your career, your family, hobbies that you’ve pickedrnup along the way. So I wanted to touch on informal coaching, how that’s impacted your life,rnprofessional coaching, maybe life business coaching, and then how you think a coach couldrnimpact people’s lives and why they should consider. Yeah, I think.rnGreg Weimerrn01:37rnI hope everybody goes and has some type of a coach that could be a priest, that could bernsomeone at the gym, a trainer that could be a coach to help you with or with help you learnrnhow to play the guitar. It could be a spiritual, it could be anything. It could be a businessrncoach, it could be a consultant, it could be a life coach. I think the single and by the way itrnwas a teacher at some point, right? If I think about the great teachers I’ve had and they werernjust bigger than their subject and they taught me something and I learned from them so Irnthink everybody and you can hire a coach. I’ve had a lot of coaches for our profession for mernto think about our business, how we can improve our business, how we can add more valuernto clients and I think everybody would benefit from some type of a coach. You have to startrnwith there’s no neutral.rnGreg Weimerrn02:30rnSo you either have drive or reverse. In life, there is no neutral. So you’re either improving orrnyou’re eroding. That’s just reality. Humans were not meant to stay the same. They werernmeant to evolve and they were meant to improve. So if you watch the, at least from myrnperspective, if I watch and I try to learn from the healthiest, happiest, actually the happiestrnpeople, they tend to be improving something.rnGreg Weimerrn03:01rnIt could be as small as golf, it could be as great as they’re trying to build a majorrnorganization, whatever that is, or it could be their health. To be truly happy and believe yourrnbest days are ahead of you, you’ve got to be improving some part of your life. And I don’trnknow how you do that if you don’t have coaches. I don’t even. I could try to count all therncoaches I’ve had that I’ve benefited from over the years. But truly hiring a coach will be thernbest. It’ll be the best investment you can make.rnGreg Weimerrn03:31rnI think if you think about making investments, the best investment you can make is inrnyourself. The second best investment you can make is in your business. Then you go tornother people in other businesses. But if that coach is 1520 or 25 or 30 or $40,000, thatrninvestment that you make on a professional coach, it’s the money that you’re going to get thernbest return on. I have a coach right now. I was on with him this morning. He’s out of London.rnGreg Weimerrn04:01rnI talk to him every two weeks. I probably spent too much money, but when I look back in tenrnyears, it’s going to be the best investment I make. Sorry for such a long answer.rnKatie Montagazzirn04:10rnNo, it’s fine. That was a great introduction. I was willing to say. I think it’s interesting you’vernshared a lot of this internally, but. Your quote, unquote, formal business coaching sort ofrnstarted with Tony Robbins. Whenever you listen to his tapes, when you were, I guess, earlyrnon in your career, and then you go through, you know, that’s evolved into, you know, we stillrnutilize his type of material here at confluence. But books, you.rnKatie Montagazzirn04:33rnI think you said you allow yourself one nonfiction book a year.rnGWrnGreg Weimerrn04:37rnI used to. I don’t anymore. I don’t do any anymore.rnKatie Montagazzirn04:40rnSo books are great.rnGreg Weimerrn04:41rnYeah. I used to allow myself one book on fiction, and everything else was, like, to improve.rnYeah. So, today, no. Like, I. And it’s not even what. It’s not even what I learned from thernbook.rnGreg Weimerrn04:53rnIt’s what the book causes me to think. So it’s not the words that you read. It’s what. Thosernwords. They almost unleash your mind to be more creative, more thoughtful, more. And so Irnthink whatever that is, and we can name a bunch of them ten times. We all just read tenrntimes better than two times.rnGreg Weimerrn05:10rnSo, like, it’s. I think it’s, by the way, reading them in a group with other people. So, forrnbusinesses, it gives you the same language to speak. So then when you start speaking thernsame language, it’s easier to just communicate. Cause you have similar vocabulary. So,rnyeah, it could be books. It could be Tony Robbins.rnGreg Weimerrn05:31rnThat was back when there were cassettes. And by the way, I think, like, I don’t know if Irnthought about. And I don’t even know if I’d like them anymore, but in that point in my life, Irnthink I probably spent. I probably spent, like, $600, which was like, a million. So. And I wentrnand I got 30 tapes from Tony Robbins, and I put them in my cassette player in the car, and. Itrnwas game changer.rnKatie Montagazzirn05:53rnYeah, I just want to start somewhere, like Tony Robbins cassettes, whatever that means.rnBooks, those are more like informal things you can utilize every single day. That’s easy torngrasp. One thing I wanted to mention was you had said, when things change in life and yournhave different seasons of life, maybe that means you invest in a coach or you listen torncertain podcasts. But you always mentioned September 11 and how you believe the worldrnchanged, which it did, and you knew you had to change.rnGreg Weimerrn06:22rn100%. Yes. When September 11 hit, I thought, okay, I need someone to help me thinkrnthrough. The market reacted, and it was very frightening time. So I thought, okay, what I did.rnSeptember 10 has to be a little different than I’m doing September 12. So I went and hired arncoach to really help me get focused so I could help people navigate through that period ofrntime that was frightening, not only from a financial standpoint, but from a safety standpoint.rnGreg Weimerrn06:53rnSo we were worried about our health and our wealth because we didn’t know, you know,rnwhat it was going to feel like to get on an airplane. So I literally went and got a coach to helprnme think through how I could behave differently through that period of time.rnKatie Montagazzirn07:05rnYeah, I just think that story is.rnGreg Weimerrn07:06rnImportant, by the way. I also think it’s important for a family or a couple. Right. So it’s reallyrnimportant that couples are on the same page. So Lori and I, my wife went to, like, a two dayrntype. Seminar in Pittsburgh on prioritization. And at that point in our life, it was very, veryrnimportant.rnGreg Weimerrn07:26rnWe did that. So I think if you can do it as a couple or as a family, it’s extraordinarily powerful.rnKatie Montagazzirn07:32rnI think that’s a really good point. When you say different seasons of life cause you to haverndifferent coaches or different ways you think about things, but it can include your spouse andrnyour family. It doesn’t need to be all about. Me, me, me, me, me. How can you improve yourrnlife? And that might mean different people.rnGreg Weimerrn07:46rnI went to this coach up in Toronto, Dan Sullivan, and it was a lot of money, and I went uprnevery quarter. And people came around from around the world. There was a small group ofrnus came around the world, business leaders, and we did. And, you know, hardly any. I got arnlot from that. It was fabulous. It was great investment, but probably the.rnGreg Weimerrn08:04rnGreatest thing I got from that was the importance of Lori and I going away for a longrnweekend. January, February, March, April, and we went away. And now you wouldn’t thinkrnbusiness coach. Trying to learn how to grow in your business and have a greater impact onrnpeople. You wouldn’t think that that would be the takeaway, but I’m telling you, that. Was arngame changer. Again, that was a moment in time.rnGreg Weimerrn08:24rnThat Laurie and I go in a way for. And by the way, if anyone wants to think about, we would.rnWe would go away. Four long weekends every single month. You’re always three weeks fromrnvacation or going on vacation. And it just. It was really important for us at.rnGreg Weimerrn08:39rnThat period of our life. So, yeah, so what you get from the coaching, it’s not all aboutrnbusiness. I went to a business coach, and personally, it was a very important moment.rnKatie Montagazzirn08:51rnYeah, that’s actually a good segue. I was going to mention, not every coach that you hire, notrnevery bookery or podcast listen to. You need to take as scripture 100%, like, I believe in this.rnI’m gonna change my life because of all these things I learned. But the one, two, three,rnwhatever nuggets you get from those experiences, that’s the investment you make. That’srnthe result.rnGreg Weimerrn09:12rnThe naysayers were like, oh, but that. Guy or that gal, you know, they do. The naysayers.rnHey, listen to me. 80% of its b’s. Yeah. The 20% will change your life.rnKatie Montagazzirn09:20rnYes.rnGreg Weimerrn09:20rnSo you just have to, like, understand, like, 80. So, like, there’s a certain portion of it that’srnneedless self promotion that makes me crazy. Like, I’m already paying. Stop trying to sellrnme. The next thing I get it. So you have, like, the needless self. Promotion, you have the littlernbit of.rnGreg Weimerrn09:33rnB’S, and then you have the Life changing. So what if it’s 20% is life changing? Focus on that,rnnot the fact that. He’S on his third wife or second. Wife or whoever these people are that arernnaysayers. Just focus on the 10% or 20%. That’S gonna change your life.rnKatie Montagazzirn09:51rnYeah, yeah, that’s great.rnGreg Weimerrn09:52rnThere’s always a reason not to do it, right? I mean, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but. Or thisrnplace or. Yeah, but you had to go to. Vegas for a week. Yeah, but be careful that you havernbuts. It’s really important.rnKatie Montagazzirn10:04rnYeah, so. Something I want you to share is what do you think three or five or whateverrnamount of takeaways are important for people to know? Like, this is how you’ve experiencedrncoaches impacting your life.rnGreg Weimerrn10:19rnSo my current coach has me, first of all, the one thing they all do for you is they. And by thernway, I know the term, it’s metacognitive. It’s metacognitive. Metacognitive is. I just asked myrndaughter the word, so I was pretty sure. Metacognitive is when you think about your thinking,rnand really thinking about your thinking is extraordinarily important because the stories yourntell yourself will become your life. So you got to really think about what stories you’re tellingrnyourself because what you focus on, you will multiply.rnGreg Weimerrn10:54rnSo I think one of the things a coach does is they really help with that. So that’s one of thernthings my coach has me focused on. They also really help you focus on your goal. Tenrnyears. What is it you’re trying to accomplish? My coach said to me this morning, so are yournafraid you’re playing small ball? Another reason they’re like, let’s make sure we continue tornthink big.rnGreg Weimerrn11:16rnThink big. Think big. So they do help you clarify your goals. There’s some coaches, and byrnthe way, all coaches, they’re all good at something different, right? So, like, so I tend not tornkeep the same coach forever, but because some are really good at clarifying your goals,rnsome are fabulous at putting together the process to achieve your goals. All tend to be prettyrngood at helping you stay accountable to your goals. But in my world, it just feels like if I canrnhelp someone, if someone can help me crystallize what it’s all about for me in my life, if theyrncan help me think through some of the key activities and behaviors I need to do to make itrnactually happen, and then they can help me and sort of call B’s when it’s not true that I’m notrndoing it, held me accountable to what I said I was going to do.rnGreg Weimerrn12:04rnFor me, that’s a pretty good recipe. So I think that’s what a coach, at least for me, that’s whatrnthey do.rnKatie Montagazzirn12:12rnYeah. And I didn’t want to mention, too, a lot of people use the term business coach, but fromrnyour experience, and what I’ve heard is. You could have a coach that helps you think aboutrnyour thinking, which isn’t necessarily tied to the business of wealth management, but the wayrnyou think about your thinking does affect the business. So for people to really expand theirrnminds and think, I don’t need a business coach. I just need somebody to help me improve.rnXYZ.rnGreg Weimerrn12:37rnRight? Yeah. I mean, for me, business and life is sort of the same. So, like, it’s all the samernto me. But really, but really making sure on a daily basis, your peak, to make sure that yournare doing your best job possible for your associates, doing the best job possible for yourrnclients and your family. It’s really making sure that you have your stories that you’re tellingrnyourself. Positive.rnKatie Montagazzirn13:08rnRight? Last question. This might not be a formal answer from you, but if somebody said, hey,rnI do want to invest in myself, whether it be a coach or a book or whatever, how do you thinkrnthey should go about that?rnGreg Weimerrn13:19rnYeah, I talk to friends and say, like, hey, who do you use, coach? Call me. I’ll give you somernthoughts on who I used. This new coach is the guy out of London. I mean, I’ve only workedrnwith him for a month and a half, but I’d ask around. I also just start googling. Like, I startrngoogling and say, what’s this person?rnGreg Weimerrn13:42rnOr I get on YouTube and I’m like, okay, I’ll watch a YouTube video of a coach. I’m like, do Irnconnect with this person? Are they speaking to me? And do I think I could benefit from thatrnperson? And don’t get bothered that in a couple years you feel like, okay, I got what I think Irnneed from that person. Next coach. And it doesn’t need to be formal either.rnGreg Weimerrn14:02rnYou could say two, three associates. Let’s get together and let’s have it. Gregory. My son andrnI, we go to Dallas every four months to talk to other organizations like ours to make sure thatrnwe are thinking about the business appropriately. So it could also be, I’m doing another onernin a couple weeks in Orlando with a different group of businesses. So it could be specific tornyour industry. It could be, you’re like, hey, man, you know what?rnGreg Weimerrn14:30rnToday’s the day I’m going to get in shape and I’m going to call the gym. I’m going to get arnpersonal trainer. And that personal trainer is going to be very empowerful to you because it’llrnhold you accountable. Because if I tell the trainer I’ll see him at four, I’m more likely to seernhim at four than if I tell myself I’m going to work out at four. So the accountability. So I thinkrnsome of it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, and then it may be spiritual. There’srnspiritual folks out there that can help.rnGWrnGreg Weimerrn14:53rnWith your faith. So first I think you have to figure out, like, what is it that I’m trying to improvernright now? It could be whatever. And then you go get a person or a group of people that arernworking on the same thing. And it is amazing over a 1020, 30 year period of time, how it trulyrndoes change the trajectory of you personally and your career.rnKatie Montagazzirn15:13rnYeah. Yeah. So. I guess to sum that up, you said in the beginning of the podcast, humansrnare most happy when they’re improving. And that’s really the impact. Yep, that’s the impact ofrnhiring a coach or just getting better. So thanks for sharing your experience.rnKatie Montagazzirn15:29rnI enjoy it. I hope everybody takes a little nugget from this coaching session, if you will. Butrnthank you, and I look forward to talking with you again. If we can help, call.