Podcast Script: Why Business Leaders Should Be Coaches, Not Captains

Intro Music Fades In

Host: Welcome to BusinessIsGood, the podcast where we explore the ideas and practices that help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and create lasting success. I’m your host, Chris Cooper. Today, we’re tackling a big question: should you lead your business as a “captain” or as a “coach”?

To illustrate this, I want to start with a story from hockey. Bobby Hull, nicknamed “The Golden Jet,” was one of the greatest players to ever lace up skates. Known for his blazing speed and powerful slap shot, he dominated as a player in both the NHL and WHA.

But Hull also took on a rare challenge: he tried to be both a player and a coach at the same time while leading the Winnipeg Jets in the WHA during the early 1970s. He had incredible success as a player and later achieved even greater success as a coach, but his tenure as both didn’t work out the way he—or the Jets—had hoped.

Segment 1: The Player-Coach Dilemma

Bobby Hull’s time as a player-coach highlights an important leadership lesson: you can’t do both jobs effectively at the same time. As a player, your focus is on performance—executing plays, scoring goals, and being in the action. But as a coach, your role is to oversee the big picture, strategize, and make tough decisions to guide the team to success.

Even some of the most celebrated names in hockey, like Larry Robinson, achieved greatness as both players and coaches—but never at the same time. Why? Because these are two fundamentally different roles that require completely different mindsets and skill sets.

Segment 2: The Captain vs. Coach Paradigm in Business

This same distinction applies in business. Many entrepreneurs try to lead as captains when they really need to be coaches.

Let’s break this down:

1. Limited Perspective on the Ice:
2. When you’re in the trenches with your team, you can only see what’s directly in front of you. You don’t have the big-picture context that a coach has from the bench. In business, this means getting too caught up in day-to-day operations and losing sight of long-term strategy.
3. Emotional Proximity:
4. As a captain, you’re shoulder-to-shoulder with your team. This camaraderie can make it hard to make tough decisions—like moving someone to a different role or cutting an underperformer. A coach, however, has the necessary distance to prioritize what’s best for the organization as a whole.
5. Distraction by Small Tasks:
6. Captains are busy tying their skates, taping their sticks, and focusing on their personal performance. Coaches are busy drawing up game plans, scouting opponents, and thinking about how to improve the team. In business, staying stuck in “captain mode” means you spend too much time on the wrong things—handling tasks that someone else could do instead of focusing on growth and vision.

Segment 3: Why Being a Coach Wins in Business

Here’s the truth: real leadership isn’t about scoring the most goals. It’s about enabling your team to win.

As a coach, your job is to:

• Make hard decisions that benefit the whole organization.
• Delegate tasks and trust others to execute them.
• Hold your team accountable and provide constructive feedback.
• Focus on strategy, vision, and the next big opportunity.

Many entrepreneurs default to being captains because it’s what they know—it’s comfortable. They’re great at doing the work, but they shy away from the harder, more abstract job of coaching. But this mindset limits growth. Your business can’t scale if you’re always on the ice.

Think about it: players are replaceable. You can hire someone else to score goals. What you...

You're buried in work. Who has time to work out?

Being a good entrepreneur doesn't just mean making money. It doesn't mean out-grinding the competition, or even loving your work every day. But it does mean:

Selling your service

Negotiating

Leading others

Focusing

Thinking with a clear head

Overcoming procrastination

...and more.

These are all entrepreneurial skills. No one is good at all of these when they start their business; they must develop their skills with practice. But there's a reason almost every successful entrepreneur has a workout routine: exercise can make you instantly better at all of these skills.

Immediately after a workout, it's easier to focus.

Medium-term, a workout can calm you down and help you make objective decisions.

Long-term, working out builds your confidence.

But what workout should you do?

Your workout prescription will change over time. But here's a solid starting point.

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2. Get yourself a heart rate monitor. Chest strap is best, watches are better than nothing. This is the watch I use. Yours doesn't have to be that fancy.
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8. Calculate your max heart rate. Here's a video from my gym on how to do it.
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14. Three days per week, exercise in heart rate Zone 2: about 65-76% of your max heart rate. Here's a video from my gym explaining why Zone 2 is so important.
15. For entrepreneurs, Zone 2 is great for helping you calm down; work through problems in your mind; and regulate your blood sugar. If your blood sugar is under control, you'll have fewer mood swings, and make decisions with a clearer head. You won't get "Hangry"--which is just a side effect of riding a carbohydrate roller-coaster. If you can metabolize fat for fuel more easily, you won't get "hangry" anymore.
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21. Once or twice per week, go as hard as possible. This is heart rate Zone 5. Here's a video from my gym explaining what Zone 5 is, and why it's important.
22. For entrepreneurs, Zone 5 is a mental break. It's so hard that you literally can't think about anything else. It's important for longevity, but I have to be honest here - I use Zone 5 workouts to "clear the decks". When I'm stressed out or feeling overwhelmed, a really hard workout gives you a mental break. It also triggers all of those calming endorphins you read about. And, long-term, I swear it gives you perspective on what 'hard' actually means.
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28. As often as possible, go for a walk. This is heart rate Zone 1, and it's really the entrepreneur's secret weapon. This is really easy exercise - just enough to distract your body and let your mind float. Many experts would call this "flow state", but you might call it "being in the zone".
29. You know how your best ideas come while driving, or cutting the grass, or in the shower? That's zone 1 exercise....

How To Calm Down

Every entrepreneur gets triggered sometimes.

The reasons might be obvious: a late employee, a missed detail, a poor customer experience.

Or they might not be: we could show up to work escalated; we could be carrying dread or guilt around; we could have a fight with our spouse before we left for work.

Many days, our emotional meter is already cranked up to 9 before we start our day, and one little thing pushes us up to MAX 10. Then we have an over-the-top response to some little thing; our staff thinks we fly off the handle; and we feel guilty about it later; and then we overcompensate. That makes us feel even worse, and we keep escalating.

We need to calm down.

I’m not going to tell you to start meditating or get into shape – those won’t help you TODAY, and you already know that you *should* be doing both.

Here’s how to do it in the short-term, long-term and medium term.

Short-term (the quick deescalation):

1. Box breathing. Breathe in through your mouth, as deeply as you can, for 4 seconds. Hold your breath. Breathe out through your nose, trying to empty your lungs, for 4 seconds. Hold your breath. That’s 1 round. Repeat for 10 rounds. Watch this:

2. Imagine the worst-case scenario. can you live with that? Put yourself in the scenario for a few seconds. Then come out of it. This is a Stoic process of acceptance. It doesn’t calm your unconscious right away, but it will calm your conscious mind quickly.

3. Tell yourself that you’re excited instead of nervous or angry. Your body can’t tell the difference.

4. Break the rumination cycle. Go have a conversation about something else, or distract yourself with a story. Rumination just escalates you. Here’s a quick meditation that will break the rumination cycle for a few seconds.

5. Think of the next step instead of what might happen later. Break the problem down into “what will I do in the next minute?” instead of “what might happen if/then?” See the ‘domino’ analogy later.

6. Go outside, eat a banana and have a walk. This is my wife’s advice whenever I’m stressed.

Medium-Term

1. Adopt a meditative practice. I start the day by writing 750 words. That’s a ‘brain dump’. You can do this forever, but you’ll start to see the benefits within a week.
2. Slow down your thoughts. One reason we stress is because our thoughts line up like dominoes, and we quickly amplify the worst-case scenario.
3. “If I say this, she’ll say that. And I’ll respond with this other thing. She’ll get mad, but I can’t back down. So she’ll walk away and not speak to me for a day. I’ll have to address that. It’s not acceptable in a workplace. I’ll deal with it Monday.” Then you spend all weekend ruminating, imagining Monday’s confrontation.
4. Imagine each of these thoughts as a separate domino. Space the dominoes out, so that each doesn’t automatically push the next one over.
5. “I will say this.” – full stop. You can’t predict how people will react, and trying to do so just escalates your stress.
6. My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened. ~ Michel de Montaigne

Long-Term

1. Watch your thoughts. In “Drive”, Daniel Pink says that most people never have a single positive thought all day. It’s a constant cycle of judgment, guilt and resentment. “That guy shouldn’t have made a turn without signalling!” – and then the domino effect happens: “He must be a jerk! Since he’s a jerk, he probably treats everyone disrespectfully! I bet he did that on purpose! He clearly doesn’t care about other people!”
2. When this happens, don’t judge yourself: just shift your thoughts to something you like.
3. Stop keeping score. We tend to remember the bad things...

In this episode of *Business Is Good*, I explore the concept of self-leadership and why it’s the foundation of all other types of leadership. I share that while a business's efficiency helps it survive tough times, it’s the strength of its leadership that determines its success in the good times. Often, the biggest limitation to growth is the founder or CEO—their personal knowledge gaps, emotional control, or mindset can be what holds the business back.

I walk through different forms of leadership, including team, brand, and niche leadership, but emphasize that self-leadership is the one we must master first. Drawing from my own experiences, I talk about the importance of financial literacy, staying emotionally disciplined, and confronting uncomfortable realities in business. For example, I share how I navigate challenging employee situations and manage my own emotional responses when faced with overwhelm.

Many gym owners, like those I work with, struggle with distractions and the excitement of novelty, which can pull them away from proven growth strategies. To counter this, I talk about the power of building focus-driven habits, such as setting aside a dedicated hour each day for high-priority work, to create lasting momentum.

To help you practice self-leadership, I’m introducing a 30-day challenge with daily prompts for self-reflection and actionable growth. I’ll provide questions and exercises to encourage honest self-assessment. Whether you’re writing in a journal or just taking a few moments to reflect, this is your opportunity to improve your self-leadership skills and build the discipline and focus that lead to lasting success.

This November, join me for a 30-day GOLDEN HOUR Challenge to grow your business!

To participate:

Commit to participating in our Facebook group (join here)

Post "done!" under each daily GOLDEN HOUR CHALLENGE post when you've completed the work for the day!

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Chris Cooper discusses the motivations and challenges of gym owners, who often sacrifice higher-paying careers to pursue their passion despite low earnings. He argues that wealth creation is essential for personal and societal progress, emphasizing that wealth enables freedom, problem-solving, and opportunities for others. Cooper highlights the importance of entrepreneurship in driving economic growth and democracy, noting that wealth creation is necessary for job creation and tax generation. He advocates for building wealth to solve personal financial issues, compound wealth, create opportunities for others, and ultimately, to give back through philanthropy.

https://otter.ai/u/gI_vGIJuGHfXY77z5D1AzbS4MD0?view=transcript

• [ ] Develop the skill of making money.
• [ ] Aim to have a personal net worth of $20 million to be able to give away $1 million per year.

• Chris Cooper discusses the low earnings in the fitness industry, with average wages for trainers at $28,000 and gym owners at $42,000, unchanged in recent years.
• Despite the low pay, gym owners often leave lucrative careers in banking, teaching, or firefighting to pursue their mission-driven work.
• Gym owners are willing to sacrifice personal financial stability to help others improve their lives, even going hungry to keep their gyms running.
• Chris Cooper emphasizes that gym owners are less interested in becoming millionaires due to their mission-driven mindset and the challenges of their profession.

• Chris Cooper argues that wealth creation is essential for prosperity and peace, driving our way of life and democracy.
• He explains that entrepreneurship, not government or unions, creates jobs and wealth, which in turn support the economy and democratic processes.
• Cooper highlights the historical context of wealth creation, noting that even 100 years ago, many Americans were still struggling with poverty and poor working conditions.
• He stresses that wealth creation is a fundamental driver of human progress, allowing for improvements in healthcare, education, and other essential services.

• Chris Cooper defines wealth as the freedom of resources and time, not just money, and explains that true wealth involves balancing both.
• He shares that solving money problems is crucial for entrepreneurs, as financial struggles can follow them home and impact their personal lives.
• Cooper provides a personal example of how solving money problems allowed him and his wife to afford Christmas presents and other necessities.
• He emphasizes that wealth solves many problems in Western society, such as access to clean water and child brides, though some issues like boredom and addiction are more complex.

• Chris Cooper explains how wealth compounds over time, using his own experience of paying off a mortgage in seven years instead of 25.
• He describes the snowball effect of eliminating debt, where extra money saved from debt repayment is applied to other debts, creating more financial freedom.
• Cooper shares a story of buying a car with cash, highlighting the long-term benefits of wealth compounding.
• He discusses the importance of setting up opportunities for others, such as creating jobs and investing in the future.

• Chris Cooper argues that wealth creates opportunities for others, contrasting bureaucratic jobs with entrepreneurial jobs that add

why you want the hard times

Dave tate: business is a battle of attrition

what determines who lasts and who doesn't? the hard stuff

nobody wanted covid lockdowns, but when they reopened there was far less competition

Tadej Pogacar - I want the steepest, hardest climbs becuase they're the separator

when you ahve stafff quit - so do they

when your rent goes up - so does theirs

maybe not the same day, but over the 3-year span, everything that happens to you will happen to your competition

They might not survive it

You also don't have to create hardship by attacking them or running them down. They have enough. eVen if they don't show it, they're facing the same stuff you are. and many won't survive

also, you need the reps

you want to practice the hard stuff when the stakes are low

there are reasons things tget hard. one is they're new. one is they're personal. one is the stakes are high.

Break them apart. If the hardship you're going through is because you've never faced that problem before, get a mentor. Don't take advice from someone else who's never done it before.

If it's hard because it's personal, get an objective perspective. don't ask your mom or your bff or your husband. ask a mentor.

if it's hard because the stakes are high, you might need a different kind of mentor to help with perspective, but you still need a mentor

After the trouble is over, you have two jobs:

one - never repeat it

two - learn what you can from it. You've heard the term 'if I win, I win, if I lose, I learn' - or some variation. But most people don't actually learn becaues they don't pick apart the elsson. They keep repeating the same mistakes. so here's how you do an AAR

Connect with Chris Cooper:

Website - https://businessisgood.com/

Episode Summary:

In this episode, we’re talking about how business owners—especially gym owners—often make the mistake of overcomplicating their businesses. It’s easy to add unnecessary options, details, and management layers, but that can slow down growth, create confusion, and reduce profit. Many of us became entrepreneurs to flex our creative muscles, but there’s a point where experimentation becomes a barrier to success. We’ll dive into why simplifying back to a minimum viable product (MVP) is essential for increasing profitability and reducing stress.

Key Takeaways:

• How business owners complicate their businesses by adding unnecessary features.
• The importance of going back to a minimum viable product (MVP).
• Why every product you sell should be easy to explain and fulfill with minimal resources.
• How complexity takes you further away from product-market fit.
• Practical steps to simplify your business.

Episode Outline:

1. Introduction

• Today’s topic: How overcomplicating your business is costing you time, money, and stress.
• Entrepreneurs often treat their business as a creative outlet, adding options or details that hurt growth.
• We’ll talk about how to get back to your core product and maximize profit by simplifying.

1. Story 1: Back to Basics – Creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

• A gym owner struggled with offering too many services, confusing clients.
• Solution: They stripped the business down to focus on 1:1 personal training, which was the highest-margin service.
• Result: Simplifying increased their revenue per client and reduced operational headaches.

1. Problem: Complexity Hurts Product-Market Fit

• Adding more services, features, or options may feel creative, but it confuses buyers and slows purchasing decisions.
• Imagine you’re starting from scratch—what is the one product that solves a clear problem?
• Your core offer should be easy to sell, easy to explain, and require minimal resources to deliver.

1. Story 2: Unnecessary Features

• Example of a business owner who kept adding services and packages, hoping to appeal to more clients.
• The result: More complexity, slower sales, and clients were unsure of what to choose.
• Lesson: Simplifying the offering brought more clarity and increased client retention.

1. Avoiding Unnecessary Management Layers

• Many owners add managerial staff too early because they think it’s a sign of growth.
• This adds extra work for the owner (training, managing) and cuts into profit.
• Story 3: A gym owner added a layer of middle management that created bottlenecks and made decisions slower, instead of solving problems.
• The result: They ended up with more tasks on their plate and less profitability. Once they scaled back, their business ran smoother and profits increased.

1. Practical Exercise: Designing Your MVP

• Take a step back and imagine you’re building your business from scratch.
• Ask yourself: What would the minimum viable product look like?
• It should solve one clear problem, be easy to explain, and maximize profitability without adding complexity.
• Tips on how to focus on the core offering, eliminate unnecessary layers, and create a more streamlined operation.

1. Closing Thoughts

• Complexity kills growth. Simplify your business down to what really matters: solving your clients’ problems.
• Reminder: The goal is to focus on what drives the most profit with...