They’re very different. Very, very different.
Michael Portz 12:39
I mean, caves on this kind of by the sea easy going in Johannesburg is on two kilometres altitude, kind of what’s that 6000 7000 feet altitudes, very dry, different weather, different climate, and also very different in terms of financial people are in the culture. And then there was another call center location, which was in a more sleepy town in the south, right by the ocean, which is called Port Elizabeth. So I was going around these locations, working with with all the people there. And that was, it was a great joy and a privilege and massive, massive learning that helped me a lot for what came after. And this is when Qatar came. So you know, two years later, my contract was up in South Africa would have maybe been the chance to extend it, but I was keen to, you know, drive my career go up further on the ladder. And I knew I had to go to the next place for that. And I was keen to see more of the world. Although I keep saying that with Cape Town, I picked the worst place to go first to because it probably was the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived.
John Corcoran 13:39
It’s hard to go go from there to the Middle East, right? Yeah.
Michael Portz 13:42
And then I went from there to Qatar. And you know, that’s kind of how to describe it. It’s when you mean, Las Vegas is similar in a way. There’s a lot of desert. And you know, when you approach with the airplane, and when I looked down from the window, there’s a lot of desert and a lot of nothing. And then all of a sudden there’s something. Now in Las Vegas, there’s a lot of bling and a lot of action stuff going on in Qatar, there was a lot of desert and nothing going on. I remember looking out that airplane window thinking, Oh, what have I done? And well, what what happened then was simply amazing. And I mean, you know, Qatar has been a huge controversy around the world and controversy, you know, what happened there and the World Cup and how did they get in and whatnot. I lived there for eight years. And you know, I would say I have my view on all that. And certainly there are a lot of things that can be better like in any country, and I would certainly classify them as a developing country. So it has issues that in Germany or in Europe or in the United States, we don’t know like that.
John Corcoran 14:47
Are you comfortable picking out one or two things that, you know, just rubbed you the wrong way or you felt like were incidents where you were you weren’t comfortable with it? You know, the the working conditions or anything like that.
Michael Portz 15:03
So Well, I would say, I was comfortable with almost everything because I went there to expand my horizon, right, I wanted to learn, I wanted to grow, I wanted to go to a different place that will challenge me. So I was like a fish in water, I was right in the right place. Now, the things that are there is, you know, that this has to do also with my values, is, you know, Qatar is very relationship driven. And, you know, my value system is more merit based. So depending on who, you know, then there’s a way to operate that, well, I prefer, you know, to operate based on merit and on skills and on knowledge. So, you know, there are differences in that. And, you know, I tell you, I did come to my to terms with all that and to respect that. And I learned the value of relationships and to appreciate more and to also work that more, to appreciate that and to, you know, give that more attention because I didn’t pay enough attention to them the past and it’s super important to be successful in life and in
John Corcoran 16:07
business. Yeah. And it’s been, it must have been challenging for you coming from, you’re originally from Germany, you go to South Africa, and then you’re in a completely new place new you need don’t know, the people don’t know, the culture, probably imagined, don’t know, little language. How do you feel this company? With that, with those challenges?
Michael Portz 16:27
Yeah. Well, I think all of us who went there for this job, were keen on the intercultural experience. And, you know, part of my purpose in life has been bridging cultures. Because there’s a long story, you know, my mother was a refugee from Hungary after World War Two, and her family was kicked out of the country. And there’s a painful journey that emerged out of that. And my mother at age 82, is still not quite over. And so that instilled, you know, deep wish in me for peace and for more understanding in the world. And so bridging cultures and doing something between cultures, and mediating that always was at the core of who I am, it was always important from me from early age childhood. So for me all that was very welcome opportunity or a welcome challenge, to deal with that, how we did that. Well, we adjusted and respected a lot of how things are done there. And we also did some things differently. And I think key difference in the discussion about, say, the labor situation and the low wages that workers are paid. In some cases, that’s true. In some cases, it’s not true. In our case, we chose to pay the people on the entry level double of what was typical in the country. Now, of course, that had a financial impact on the business, but we could afford that. And for us, that was the right right thing. And we were willing to also demonstrate that it’s possible. And the other thing, and that’s the big one, and this is really Graham’s the CEOs, who built the culture that we had there, which was still to the state, the most amazing business culture that I ever had the privilege of witnessing and being part of, and it was centered around purpose. And this is where that conversation with a coach in Cape Town, got its first connection. So now three years after that coach Graham in a taxi, when we met first asked me the question, so Michael, what’s your purpose in life? I was like, Oh, my God. That’s what Bev asked years ago, and you’re meeting this guy who is going to be my boss. He’s very experienced, he had been CEO and five companies. He had done this kind of thing before. So he was an inexperienced operator. i At that time, I didn’t know yet how experienced he was, he was amazing. And he had, you know, curated all this knowledge of business methodology and tools and leadership methodology. And I learned a ton from him. And from that moment, the first topic was purpose. This was in 2008. All right, I mean, purpose has become a big thing. And I was a ton of books about it back then. There were not too many people in big business who are asking questions about purpose. He did on the first meeting asked me about my purpose, because he wants to know how much my purpose fits the purpose of the business that we were going to build together. And the purpose of the organization that we built there was to make a world of difference for all people in Qatar. You know, and this all people we always stress that and in an environment where there’s the highest density of millionaires in the world and effectively every Qataria household is a millionaire household, probably double digit by now and bless them. Yeah. And at the same time, we there are workers from Nepal and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, who work on a $200 wage probably now it’s more back in 2008. The minimum was $200, which also must be set for where people come from that’s a lot of money and they sent back home a lot. And so you know, one person working in Qatar feeds a family of 20 back home. So But anyways, so you know, the statement that we made in this country of saying we’re going to make a difference for all of the people in the country that set the course for that business. And everything we decided strategically was drawn from that statement and connected to that, we always ask the question, so host is going to make a difference for all people. And that was that was how we succeeded.
John Corcoran 20:29
And Grahame was a big impact on your life. He had a lot of great people skills. You’ve talked about this before. He was the as you said, the leader of the business. Unfortunately, sadly, he passed away rather suddenly, a couple of years into the business talk a little bit about that experience and what that was like?
Michael Portz 20:49
Yes, so we had grown the business to about 400 people. We were making about half a billion dollars in revenue annually. We had gone if we had done our IPO on the Qatar, we stock market for 2.2 billion. So it was a many way massive success. And we did reach about 30 35% market share within those four years. So phenomenal business success. And also phenomenal people success because the culture we had people loved working there. It was amazing. You know, it was a dream come true. This This was this is the movie, this is the movie about a start up that hits the jackpot in every possible way. You know, both in the people way and in the business success way. And so yeah, all that had already happened. And some I get a call or an or an email back then we all have blackberries. That was the thing to communicate over. And a message Grahame is in hospital. And he had just attended a charity walk to raise funds for breast cancer and went into hospital was diagnosed with a mild stroke. We thought everything was going to be okay. In fact that this was on a Friday on the Monday night I came back from from a trip abroad and firstly went into the hospital to visit him, although I knew he was going to be released the next morning. And what he told me was No, it’s all good. And like to work again, he was typing on his BlackBerry with one hand, left hand didn’t work yet. And he said, Yeah, I’m going to be out tomorrow. And then in two or three weeks, the handle is going to be fine. And this isn’t the part of the brain where it’s self repairs, and I’m on the right medication, it’s all good. And then the last thing and I’ll share that part of the story, because this this, I am glad for what I witnessed there was you know, the nurse brought two trays and said in Grahame was a slim guy and he was a marathon runner, he was getting ready for for triathlon for an Ironman and all of that, and said, they’re bringing you to two dinners, be careful that you don’t get fat. And he gave me this look. And very analytical, very nice looking sit nights for Jenny, it’s his wife, we eat together. I thought I got what a silly joke. I mean, you know, you know, the whole and how nice of them to eat together and to be together. I thought that was so so human. So warm, so nice. And I left with that impression of the two of them sitting down and said goodbye to Grahame and to Jenny. And then I left. And I thought nothing. And the next morning, I got a phone call at 6am. And it was John, the CFO of our business, my colleague who had the news that Grahame had passed away from a heart attack. And even though he was under observation in hospital couldn’t be saved. So and that was a I mean, there was a big personal shock. He had become a great friend, a mentor. He was my boss. I had learned so much from him, and then suddenly he was gone like nothing, just just like that. And then we had to face the business and tell everybody Grahame has passed away. And what are we going to do now at that was a great moment of leadership situation that require all of us to step up. And Grahame had carried all of that way too many people love them. So we had to step up and keep the business running and then get ready for what was going to come next.
John Corcoran 24:19
And did you know a lot of fears with that sort of situation a business that people your best people are going to head for the hills, they’re they’re going to take off? How can you prevent that from happening?
Michael Portz 24:32
Well, if we did, I’m not sure. So what what happened was that it took quite a while to get a new CEO at this all happened two or three, three years later, maybe I would have been ready. I would have loved to but it was clear at that time. I wasn’t ready. So there was no question about that. And then what happened was John or CFO stepped in interim head he had a few ideas that you know that then he put into our strategies and where he wanted to take the business mainly what our product Access and pricing and all that strategy. But I think what we all didn’t notice was, you know, how grabs people skills were missed. And then eventually, you know, the interim role ended. And even before that, it was not even a year, after eight months, I quit and had a conversation with, I couldn’t, I just, I couldn’t be there anymore. It was not the right place to change the culture change to them. It was also I think, I changed and I wanted to move on. And so I did, and so we amicably separated, you know, and I’m grateful until today to Vodafone for the journey that I had with them for almost 10 years. And I saved a lot of money out of that, and then invested 10, and ventures and started company. So you know, it allowed me to go into the entrepreneurial phase after that. And that respect, I realized that I’m quite different from a lot of entrepreneurs who, who started on this journey much earlier. And then lastly, to finish off that story is, you know, eventually, I think the culture change, I don’t think it ever went back to the heights that it had with Grahame. And maybe that’s okay. And maybe that’s how the world goes and bought what was it seven, eight years later, the business was sold. And it still carries the name that it had back then. But it’s an entirely different company now. So key learning is, and it’s probably what all the wise books say to is the culture of the organization stands and faults with the CEO. I couldn’t have lifted in a more impressive exemplary way.
John Corcoran 26:36
Yeah. I want to ask you about the next venture on Earth as the exact next venture. But you had a challenging one. This was called the Misha Shisha. So this was a product that you might describe as like a Craig Cup, which is in coffee, or like an espresso cup or something like that. But for hookah water pipes. And this one, unfortunately, you’ve sunk a lot of money into it in in and it struggled to talk a little bit about that experience and some of the leadership lessons from it. Yeah.
Michael Portz 27:11
So you know, obviously, that idea originated in the Middle East, I was living in Qatar, I traveled to Dubai a lot and visited most of the countries in the region. And, you know, there alcohol is not so prevalent. It’s not not quite compatible with Islam with the religion of most of the countries, though, about waterpipes hookah or shisha nagila. All the names for it is it’s everywhere. And in Dubai, if I go out for lunch in Dubai, and I sit in a cafe outdoors, almost every person that has a water pipe standing next to them, or every second person, and I’m not exaggerating, it’s everywhere. Like we would have a glass of wine or glass of beer. On the table in the restaurant in Europe or the US there, it’s the water pipe. So what I noticed and I started doing them at home and getting into this, you know, and then at that time, I was married to a local woman who loved waterpipe. So you know, that also got me more into it. And at some point, I say, Well, you know, I hit my Nespresso machine in the kitchen, you know, making coffee so easily. And then next to it, I was preparing water pipes for my guests that are what a mess. You know, my hands are dirty. This is very smelly, and the smell doesn’t quite go away when you wash your hands. And as I was looking at that Nespresso machine, and and those beautiful, shiny aluminum capsules, that that’s how this should be, you know, just take it out of the box, they get on the water pipe. There you go. Yeah. And I taught a told a few people, even at that party, when I first had the thought, and like, there was around four or five people that looked at me, in amazement, going, Whoa, it’s a really great idea. And I kept hearing that over the years, and then at some point, I presented to a few friends that had been with me on that leadership program. And we were all too keen to start our own businesses. And we all did investments into other our businesses sales, so it’s a kind of give a safety net to each other. So we all cross invested in multiple businesses thinking, okay, as long as one of us makes it with their venture that you know, none of us are going to be
John Corcoran 29:18
poor. Not bad. Not a bad approach. Sure.
Michael Portz 29:21
Yeah. And it works. I have to say that that approach worked. That’s another cool story about what happened with Misha Shisha was then you know, cut to the point where more than one person and some serious people encouraged me to do it. Yeah. And not only that, they said, if you do this, I’m going to give you $100,000 or more. Yeah, so So all of a sudden, you know, I was the CEO of a startup called Misha shisha. And we were working out of Qatar. This the shareholders were in France and South Africa and Spain and the Netherlands and me and Qatar, we incorporated in the Virgin Islands. Not so much for tax reasons, but for legal reasons. Yeah, having such a diverse international shareholder group and I didn’t want it to be incorporated in Qatar for other reasons because it’s hard to do it there and to to have it safe at least back in the day. So
John Corcoran 30:12
then what happened then so it sounds like a great idea people are throwing money at you sounds innovative, like people would be interested in buying it. So where to go right?
Michael Portz 30:21
Well, we prototyped it. We got the parts in China, we prototyped it with a company from India, the brand agency who did fantastic job origami brands out of Auckland in New Zealand. And we created really cool marketing for we took it to Dubai to the tobacco fair, we took it to Las Vegas to the tobacco fair there. And the feedback everywhere was this is great, this is great, but we didn’t get orders. So here’s everything it’s a great idea that never still today, I still get emails every week where people hear about the see it somewhere on the internet, I kept the website life your Misha shisha.com or with sh. And I still get inquiries, whenever it says great idea. We couldn’t get the unit cost to the right level is the main thing. So it wasn’t too expensive to produce. And we couldn’t sell it at a high enough price. This This was one reason. So product and cost reason. The other reasons were that the regulation around the world changed dramatically towards tobacco. So we started this in 2011 2012. And then in 2014 2015, major regulation came into place both in Europe and the States, basically prohibiting to sell shisha tobacco with the names of the flavors, you cannot call it strawberry or cherry flavors, and some other things. So it actually became really hard with a lot of legal hurdles. And we did realize that and we tried to joint venture with one of the tobacco majors or to sell it to them, but at which they it was of interest. And maybe it would have worked a year or two earlier. But at that time, their business was breaking away, because they were under attack from all the vaping industry. So then we’re struggling to protect their their tobacco revenues. And they didn’t have time for a little thing like Misha Shisha. So I went through all the avenues. And eventually I had to make the tough decision, we’re going to stop it.
John Corcoran 32:17
You know, I interviewed a guest yesterday who was talking about he had he had gotten into kind of early SEO search engine optimization in the late 90s. And so like very early, but he rode this wave of, you know, adoption of digital marketing and search engine optimization. And he was talking about the importance of picking the right field. And just to reflect on these different experiences with Vodafone. He’s definitely you know, in the mid 2000s, at a time when, you know, probably in the Middle East, I’m guessing here, but there wasn’t widespread mobile phone adoption. It’s an industry that was on an upward swing. Compared to you have Misha Shisha in an industry that is heavily regulated. In parts of the globe, like the United States, I believe smoking has been going down, we’re going down for a long time to talk a little bit about some of those learnings in terms of what industry to go into and how that affects the ultimate outcome of the business.
Michael Portz 33:19
Yeah, I think it’s, I love that I in my mind how I call what I think you described there. I call it the surfer analogy. And I don’t surf. So I have no idea what I’m talking about.
John Corcoran 33:32
This is neither even though I’m in California, but I will test your surfer analogy. Yeah.
Michael Portz 33:37
Well, I lived in Cape Town anyway. So I can be the best surfer in the world. And I have all the skills and I’m on the board, I can do all the tricks. And I’m top of I’m on the tip of the wave, and I do all the tricks. But if the ocean is moving into a different direction, I’m not going to reach my my destination where I want to get, right. So this is, you know, my simple way of the phenomenon that you described there, which is there’s an underlying wave that carries it which, in many ways, I think some of the things that I’ve been successful with in life, I think it’s more of a case that there was an underlying wave that carried me and I was smart enough not to screw it up. So you know, and maybe that’s an extra humble view or so I hope that I still achieved something. And there was always an underlying situation that made that possible.
John Corcoran 34:29
You know, reflecting on our business when I joined I know you’re you’re involved as EO Accelerator Coach and Trainer. When I joined Accelerator, we had a different business. We were focused on doing small group events mastermind format around the country. It was like pushing a boulder uphill. When we switched to helping other businesses to start podcasts part of this industry. That’s an upward trend, everything became so much easier, you know, so it’s like just choosing the right field to go into me It’s a big difference. I do want to ask. So you have had a couple of Harvard business school studies written about you and your different business experiences, which is an honor to have that happen. You even sat in the back of the room when they discussed it. I don’t know if they knew that you were sitting in the back of the room when they were discussing it or not. But talk about that experience.
Michael Portz 35:21
Yeah, so I’ve been lucky twice on that one once was the the company that we built in the Middle East Graham’s company, where he was CEO. We there’s a Harvard Business Case about that. It’s called, I think, Building a Telco in the Middle East. Wonderful return and really nice memory for me when I read it nowadays. And then the second one is about Misha Shisha. And how this all came about was that I had a chance to join a one week course at Harvard executive education. Out of a group is an organization called endeavor, who promotes entrepreneurship around the world in particular, in I think, a Latin American Spanish speaking countries. And because of one of the companies that I helped to scale up as an angel investor, I was part of the group of founders that was invited to go and I took the chance and grafted I thought, Harvard, awesome, one week, and for half the price of what it usually costs, I mean, so I went over, and I loved the experience, there’s so much that I learned not about all the cases itself, but how they do things and how Harvard teaches and you know, the whole way of how it works. That was a feast for me what I learned because I mean, I know you know, we have koa Academy, and I founded an academy and we do educational self. So there was major learning from that. Now what happened with the case where I sat in the room, they do this every year, when the Endeavour group comes together, that there is one failed business. And thankfully, the United States has a much better failure culture than some other places in the world. So it’s cool that this kind of thing can happen. And literally what happened was that a PhD student wrote a case about Misha shisha, about five investors who were friends and fellow executives and prior situation with Vodafone, or most of us. So that was an interesting case about how we structured the company, how it came about. And then what happened also in terms of our relationships, and so forth. So there was interest on this from many angles. And of course, it was a fail. And yeah, what happened there, they wrote this beautiful case study. It’s 20 pages, I read through it, I couldn’t, you know, criticize the thing, put the finger on some nice things. And as all the case studies do, they don’t judge right. It’s all very descriptive and very non judgmental, which is great. And then the discussion in the room happened. So I was invited to come over. The professor or the wonderful professor, Bill pker, William Carr, invited me this, this was in his program, and he taught the class. And so I was sitting in the front row, not in the back in the front row visible to everyone. Okay, so they knew the business in the room. Here’s my uncle, and I’m sitting there smiling and waving and thinking, Oh, my God. And then there was 75 minutes of 60 brilliant minds, going through this case, and asking questions and speaking their mind and sharing their opinions and, and having ideas. And it was wonderful and exciting times. It was tough, obviously, because it was a fail.
John Corcoran 38:29
Where there were there times, you were like, Why didn’t I do that? No, no, no, no, no,
Michael Portz 38:34
no, no, like, luckily, you know, luckily, I left the room thinking, I tried everything I could. We really did everything we could. And there are reasons for why it didn’t work. And it wasn’t because I am a failure. Personally, it just wasn’t the right thing at the right time.
John Corcoran 38:51
Was a confluence of couple of events with the industry regulation, everything too. Yeah.
Michael Portz 38:56
I need no, by the way, the thing I would love to share in a way, I’m glad it didn’t work, because I have been anti smoking since my early childhood.
John Corcoran 39:05
So yeah, interesting business that go into that. Yeah,
Michael Portz 39:10
it is against my values, you know, and maybe that’s a underlying psychological reason for maybe I sabotage this myself, maybe right. And anyway, I was glad because my view was okay, I’m going to start this up, and then we’re going to sell it to a major and somebody else is going to develop it. So for me, it was the excitement of creating something new and bringing that idea into the world. I didn’t see myself 10 years 20 years later as the CEO running it, I saw myself as the giving birth guy and then handing it over to the foster family that’s much much better for that. But if I was glad so you know, I did want to share that because there’s something you know, values and values management which also goes back to Grand, massive learnings on that, you know, to stay true to my own values. I would never do that. That kind of business again.
John Corcoran 39:56
Let’s bring things full, sir because our vocals are running a little short on time. I’m to, to CoA Academy you pronounce it, or CoA Academy, which I believe stands for Chief of Anything. Talk, talk a little bit about how that came about and what you guys do now.
Michael Portz 40:15
Yeah, thank you, with pleasure. So when I came back after 10 years abroad, South Africa and Qatar, and move back to Germany with my wife, petite Sam, who I met in Colorado, but she’s not the logo, and I got divorced and married, they’re gonna hold another story, if you want to talk about that one day, I don’t make before different podcasts. So we move back and Misha shisha was coming to an end at the time. And when we changed country, we move back, but wanted to be closer to the rest of the family here, because we just had a baby. Who knows, turning eight years in seven days. So it was big change. And I was thinking about my son, what am I going to do next? How am I going to start the next venture? Will I do more angel investments. And you know, now that being a family man, and having kids and a wife, and I was not willing so much anymore to put money at risk as I was used before, and I didn’t make that much money to splurge on ventures and create a great family situation. So I did still need to make income, I do still need to make income. And the question was what I do next, so I caught this project, my next big thing. And I found some mentors that helped me to come to the conclusion what I was going to do next, and I explored everything, do I take a job again? Do I go to a corporate? Do I become an interim manager that that thought intrigued me for a while, and I came to the conclusion, no, I’m going to be a coach and this next phase of my life, because when I met Beth in South Africa, for the first time, in the first meeting, or after the first hour, I thought, when I grow up, I’m going to do what you do. And that was the time to come back to that decision, there was always kind of at some point, I’m going to be an executive coach. And then I came to that decision. And I went on that journey. And I went through a certification course with with an ICF accredited course, I did NLP practitioner training and a whole bunch of self development efforts to get there. And I learned a ton. And ever since then, you know, when people ask me what I do, and I say, I’m a business coach, I help leaders in businesses to be successful in what they do, and to be successful in their life and with their companies. And that’s the purpose of my work.
John Corcoran 42:33
Hmm. And then also, you’ve been heavily involved in the EO Accelerator program, which I graduated from, talk a little bit about what that program is, for those who haven’t heard of it before, because I’m a huge advocate of it. Tell people about it all the time. I like to say it’s better. I didn’t go to business school, so I can’t compare it to an MBA. But I, in my opinion, I know people that have gone to business school who say that it’s even better than going to business school. Yeah.
Michael Portz 43:01
So. And that also ties in to the part of the question I didn’t answer before about CO Academy, because CoA Academy is the venture that I did fall into, I didn’t think I would find a company again. But then I did, because COVID happened, all of a sudden leadership development and education and training became possible remote. And that’s what I do now. So you know, we educate business leaders remote, to be great people, leaders. Now, with the EO Accelerator program, that’s also where we cover some of that, and I have been a trainer and a coach. With the EO Accelerator program. I think it’s five years now. And I love the program. From the first time I saw it, I think I was on a panel first to share experiences. And then I saw what happened there in these learning days. And I would agree that it has much more pragmatic value to building a business and scaling a business than doing an MBA. I can speak for both I have done an MBA through the Vodafone program, they sponsored that. And I’ve been through the EO Accelerator. And I think definitely for for scaling venture. As an entrepreneur, the program is fantastic. The curriculum that we have there, which is a mix of scaling up and of EOS and other methodology that’s all put together. It’s a really cool mix that over one to two year program helps entrepreneurs that already have a successful quarter of a million business to scale to over a million. And the little secret is that I learn at least as much out of being a trainer in that program as the participants do. Because for me, it keeps me connected with, you know, with the people who are now starting businesses, and I get connected to new ideas and new tools and new minds. So I go there for learning and growing just as much as everybody else.
John Corcoran 44:50
That’s great. I want to wrap up with my last question. I’m a big fan of gratitude, especially expressing gratitude to those who helped you along the way you mentioned grant You mentioned bath, other peers, contemporaries, perhaps EO forum mates, who would you want to shout out and just thank them publicly for what they’ve done to help you in your journey. Oh, give
Michael Portz 45:14
a big shout out and my massive credit suit goes to Andreas Etten. You might even hear this. Andreas is the person who when I made the decision to become a coach, he is the one who asked the critical question. And he and I met under very interesting circumstances, we had to stare into each other’s eyes for three minutes at an event where we met in Berlin, and we had never met before. And ever since then we’ve had a really strong relationship. And he was one of the mentors. I consulted when I made the decision. And I told them about this idea to become a business coach. And I said, Yeah, but I think I gotta do this first, I gotta do that first. And he looked at me and said, Why don’t you do that? Right away? Wait, that question. I mean, I can still see him. I know where we were, you know, those moments in life, where I can still remember exactly where it was, how the light was, and kind of what went on in my mind. Because it I went, boom,
John Corcoran 46:12
yeah, yeah, erect these barriers. Sometimes, in our mind, we think I have to do these steps before I can do that thing.
Michael Portz 46:20
And that all fell with that simple, disarming question. And he looked at me almost like he was saying, Are you kidding? Why are you not doing that now? You weren’t very coach. Like, you know, there was no doubt right, almost felt judgmental. And it was exactly that mix of judging me a little bit and asking me that question. Why don’t you do that now? With with amazement, the trick and I went out of that I thought, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m going to become a coach. I’m gonna get certified. I’m gonna take this serious. And I’m gonna help people in leadership positions to be great people leaders.
John Corcoran 46:55
Yeah, well, it looks like a great program. coa-academy.com is the website. It looks like a great virtual program for companies that want help with leadership development. Michael, this has been such a pleasure. Where can people go to check out check it out and learn more about you? Is LinkedIn your place or where any other websites?
Michael Portz 47:13
Probably two places to find the most is well, there’s my website I have a personal website portz.coach, just like that no .com after portz. There’s a top level to portz. Sometimes I get called bought death. But you know, I’m not it’s not a Spanish name. So German imports portz.coach. Or on LinkedIn, Michael Portz.
John Corcoran 47:39
Michael, thank you so much.
Michael Portz 47:41
John. Thank you.
Outro 47:42
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com. And while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.