Episodes

Time to revisit where it all started: Rory Vaden's take on personal branding is a lesson that never gets old. Welcome to the first episode of The Coaching Equation, a show helping you take your coaching business to the next level. In this episode, we sit down with Rory Vaden, author of Take the Stairs and Co-Founder of Brand Builders Group, to unpack why you need to have a personal brand in today’s market, how to start building a personal brand, and what a personal brand is not. Rory is a renow...

Ready to kick off your holiday weekend with a burst of inspiration? In this special Thanksgiving edition of Fast Five for Friday, Ryan and Brooke reflect on five essential lessons that power their coaching journey. From the value of a top-tier team to shifting your perspective on sales calls, they share how gratitude fuels growth and progress. Plus, they dive into how endings can unlock new opportunities and why the unwavering support of family makes it all possible. It’s a perfect mix of heart,...

Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) can transform your business, but how do you avoid consequential pitfalls and maximize success? In this episode, Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop share invaluable insights from 18 months of running a VA staffing business. They cover the top 10 mistakes business owners make, like failing to onboard effectively, setting unrealistic expectations, or treating VAs as disposable instead of integral team members. Learn why clear communication, consistent check-ins, and focusin...

Welcome to the fourth edition of Fast Five for Friday, and today, we explore the wonders of slowing down, embracing nature, and finding the fun in all we do. We begin with being specific and how it can open new pathways to success, the magic of nature even during extreme weather, how doing less can lead to more, and the wonders of keeping the fun alive by gamifying even the most tedious tasks. To end, we are reminded of the power of fully committing to something and persevering through any chall...

If you hold limiting financial beliefs and undervalue your worth, you'll struggle to accept fair compensation for your efforts. Joining us on this episode of the Coaching Equation is the incredible business coach and CEO of Quantum Evolution, Mariana Lacombe, to discuss how you can unlock wealth consciousness. In this conversation, you’ll hear all about Mariana’s career and what led her to coaching, how dreaming contributes to healing, her life in the business world, how it caused burnout, and s...

In this Friday's Fast Five, Ryan and Brook share five game-changing insights to sharpen your coaching business. They reveal how follow-up can be a goldmine for growth, why consistency beats intensity, and how courage, not comfort, leads to breakthroughs. With creative problem-solving, they uncover ways to find hidden opportunities and reimagine setbacks as opportunities to adapt and grow. Packed with stories and strategies, this episode delivers clarity, inspiration, and actionable steps to help...

What does it take to build an impactful, long-lasting business? In today’s episode, we delve into the power of relationship-based growth and why it’s essential for every business owner. While we’ve touched on this topic in the past, in this episode, we are giving it the in-depth focus it deserves. During our conversation, we discuss how to transition from a transactional approach to one rooted in trust and authentic connection—all without a marketing budget. Learn the difference between building...

What’s the secret to making swift, impactful decisions in life and business? In this episode of our Friday Fast Five, we explore five key insights, from the importance of quick decision-making to the transformative revelations of the Gene Keys personality assessment. We discuss the “witching hour” phenomenon, the value of focusing on inputs over outputs, and why these approaches matter for long-term success. Join us for practical, introspective tips to drive success and uncover your true purpose...

From the upcoming US election to the holiday season to extreme weather events, we are living in a truly chaotic time. And that’s before we even get into the prospect of a possible recession! With this in mind, we are using today’s episode to discuss the impact that the time of year and world events can have on your sales engagement, both for you and your prospects. We discuss how these elements can influence your prospects’ decision-making and psychology before setting out clear and intentional ...

Welcome to the inaugural episode of our exciting new series, Friday Fast Five! Each week, we’ll bring you five quick hits from our week, things like thoughts and insights, Aha moments, memorable experiences, and interesting (or sometimes just random) tidbits we want to share with you. Join us as we dive into five highlights from our week! Key Points From This Episode: An introduction to our new Friday Fast Five series. We explain the format of our Friday Fast Five episodes. The dynamic of hav...

In business, making difficult decisions is paramount to success, and that is why indecision is one of the biggest obstacles preventing business leaders from realizing their company’s full potential. So, how can we make the tough decisions that will ultimately decide our destiny? A great starting point is the grandfather sentiment, which explains how making quick decisions is often better than stalling to try and make the perfect one. That said, speed is beneficial while haste is detrimental, so ...

Business planning can feel extremely overwhelming for any entrepreneur, but if you have a roadmap to success, it makes it feel a little easier to achieve. Today on The Coaching Equation, we are joined by the incredible faith-driven business coach and author of Ultimate Breakthrough Planning, Mike Ferrell, to discuss the importance of business planning and how to get on top of it. Tuning in, you’ll hear about Mike’s non-traditional career, why he prioritizes his curiosity, his books, how the fina...

You’ll want to come back to this episode again and again because it’s a game-changer! In all of our experience, one of the key biggest problems that we see is an inability to establish trust with a prospect. During this episode, Brook and Ryan set the record straight and talk about how to establish trust before, during, and after your sales engagement, whether your prospect decides to buy on the call or not. Learn how to create consistency between marketing messaging and direct engagement with c...

Author, coach, speaker, and entrepreneur are just some of the titles of today’s remarkable guest. Markus Kaulius is a globally recognized business and thought leader, and he joins us today to share some tips on how we can start living more meaningful lives to unlock our full potential. We begin with a major transformation from Markus’ life that taught him most of what he knows about business success. Then, we explore the gravity of choosing to work on your business rather than in it, how to set ...

We’re all about sharing our experiences so you can reach your goals even faster. Today, we put the spotlight on Ryan to explore his entrepreneurial journey and the invaluable lessons he’s learned along the way. In a conversation led by Brook, we delve into the realities of building businesses, what it takes to scale to 8 figures, and the challenges of launching a coaching company after achieving that success. We discuss pitfalls to avoid, the “messy middle” between starting and succeeding, and h...

Are you looking for some tried-and-true sales and marketing insights to help elevate your own skill set? Then you do not want to miss this episode of The Coaching Equation! Today on the show, we are joined by a special guest, Michael Hunter, the Founder of PersonalBrand.com and Spiffy Checkouts. In an episode bursting with goodness, we dig into Michael’s entrepreneurial journey, how to craft irresistible offers in sales and marketing, the inevitable trials and tribulations of being a business ow...

Business is not for the faint-hearted. If you’re going to not only create a business but actually maintain it for the long haul, then you have to make sure that you’re asking yourself the right questions; that you have the necessary tools; and that you’re fully kitted in mental and emotional armor to withstand any challenge that comes your way. Today’s mission of cultivating sustainable business success begins with a fundamental question: Are you in it for the long haul or only while it’s easy? ...

Are you making common mistakes that could hold back your sales team's success? In this episode of The Coaching Equation, we dive deep into the top five sales leadership mistakes that leaders unknowingly make and, more importantly, how to fix them. We discuss the problem of setting clear expectations for sales teams and how to communicate, clarify, and verify sales outcomes effectively. Discover what a healthy sales environment looks like and the common missteps sales leaders make when attempting...

We make decisions all the time. Are you conscious of the ones you’re making? During this episode, we are joined by Focusologist Penny Zenker, a captivating public speaker, business strategy coach, and best-selling author. Her work has been featured on NBC News, Forbes, ESPN, and more, and today she joins us to share her insights on the psychology of productivity and focus. Penny’s story begins with a tragic event at the age of 19, and she talks about the turning point that this created in her li...

In life and business, you either win or you learn! During this episode, we dive further into Co-Host Brook Bishop’s journey into sales success. In this continuation episode, Brook gets into all the muscle that he built in the early part of his sales career, learning how to turn that into massive amounts of sales revenue and eventually scaling a team level to the tune of 30 million dollars. Tuning in, you’ll get countless lessons from Brook on turning difficulty into opportunity and identifying s...

Success and sales do not happen overnight. Co-host Brook Bishop has an incredible story of success, and during this episode, he shares the details of his climb to sales mastery. We are able to bring you so many lessons from his journey in this episode. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about his introduction to sales and how he learned to ask better questions in order to get better results. He shares his experience of selling lobster before getting his first sales role and enrolling 92% of his clients ...

Business coaches elevate themselves to the next level when they realize that coaching is about running a business, not having a job. Today we welcome the incredible business coach, Mike Savage to the show to discuss the business of coaching. Tuning in, you’ll hear all about Mike’s interesting career arc going from owning a comic book store, to becoming a coach, and eventually training other coaches. We delve into how Mike knew that business training was imperative to being a coach before discuss...

Are you ready to transform your coaching business into a profitable powerhouse? Today, we introduce you to a third member of Empire Partners and VP of Operations, Vanessa Malkin. Vanessa is renowned for optimizing client operations through her blend of empathy, creativity, and communication skills. With a solid background in program management and talent operations, she brings a wealth of knowledge from her time at high-profile organizations. In our conversation, Vannessa walks us through the va...

Some things that are true about life are also true about business. Just like in life, not everything is going to go your way. Business challenges are inevitable, but what can business leaders do to ensure they can overcome them? Today, we unpack how to identify problems before they arise and proactive steps to take to overcome any hurdle. In this episode, we break down the seven causes of a crisis to be aware of and how to prepare for them effectively. We discuss how technological innovation can...