Thane Ringler With Thane Marcus

Intro: [00:00:02] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Coach the Coach radio brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador Program, the no cost business development strategy for coaches who want to spend more time serving local business clients and less time selling them. Go to brxambassador.com To learn more. Now here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:32] Lee Kantor here, another episode of Coach the Coach Radio, and this is going to be a fun one today on the show, we have Thane Ringler with Thein Marcus. Welcome Thane.

Thane Ringler: [00:00:42] Thanks so much for having me, Lee.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:43] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your practice. How are you serving, folks?

Thane Ringler: [00:00:48] Yeah, so my practice is aimed around creating and fostering high performing individuals and teams unlocking their full potential. And we do this through self awareness, self leadership, team communication and putting some objective data to the work itself through partnering with Giant Worldwide. So it’s been a fun journey. A lot of my practice stems from my background in golf, and so a lot of it deals with the mindset and what goes into performing at your best and starting internally.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:22] Now, having been a professional athlete, can you maybe relate to the listener how you’ve seen people, maybe your peers, some of which have all the talent in the world? Maybe some of them have more talent, but at key moments didn’t perform like the mindset was kind of the thing in your mind that kind of kept these people from being as good as they can be.

Thane Ringler: [00:01:47] Yeah, it definitely is one of the biggest contributing factors now at the top tier, really. Golf itself comes down, I’d say, 90 to ninety five percent in your mind, in your head. The body has done the reps it’s put in the practice. At that point, it’s really up to your mind being optimized to produce the best thoughts that will then produce the best shots with your body. And this is really true in life, too. Like you’re like, you pointed out, you know, it’s there’s always a matter of chance that we can’t eliminate. And so just because you’ve optimized your mind doesn’t mean success will immediately follow. But it gives you the best chance of success. It gives you the best chance to capitalize on those opportunities. You know, in golf, the margin for error is so small, and a lot of times it can be one stroke. The difference between success and failure, making it onto the PGA Tour or not winning the tournament or getting second. There’s a lot of things riding on one stroke itself and within a golf tournament, there’s four rounds of 18 holes with on average 70 strokes around. So it’s a lot of reps and they can come down to one stroke, which means that you must be focused, you must be controlling your thoughts and working on eliminating distractions and the things that get in the way from you performing your best. And really, that translates to life, especially today. There’s so much noise in our world. There’s so many things that are vying for our attention and our energy. And if we don’t do a good job of controlling where we put our focus and making sure that we’re focused on keeping the main things, the main things, we’re going to be really limiting our ability to bring our greatest gifts and what the world needs from us to those around us that we want to serve.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:41] Now one of the challenges I think regular folks have when they try to maybe model after professional athletes, a professional athlete typically has a season and they’re trying to achieve peak performance during certain dates. They probably have marked on a calendar ahead of time where the leader of an organization may not have that kind of a structured world where they have certain dates. Maybe if they’re a public company, they have earnings and things like that. But a typical entrepreneur may not have a calendar they can go to ahead of time and say, Oh, on August 3rd, I better be at my best because that’s when it all goes down. Like, I don’t have a Super Bowl that I’m aiming at every year. Or maybe I should. Maybe that’s why I’m not succeeding as much as I am. But I think there’s a benefit from having a structure and there’s a it’s it’s more of a challenge when you don’t have that kind of a season or a structure like that.

Thane Ringler: [00:04:42] Yeah, I think it’s a really insightful point. We appreciate you bringing that up, and I definitely agree. You know, I think as a professional athlete, my expectation and really what I aimed for was ninety five percent plus optimized, right? Like my life was my performance as a normal human. That’s just selfish. That’s not reality. You can’t do that, right? Like that. That is not a way to live. I think as a normal human, if I’m 80 percent optimize now that I’m doing pretty good, you know, and I’d say that’s a good aim to have in in how you perform individually, because that that means it’s more realistic, it’s attainable and it’s fitting what role we’re playing in society. But I think what you mentioned too, alongside that with with having these definite goal posts that we’re we’re aiming towards and that we’re we’re optimizing ourselves for, it can be done in a business setting. Like you said, right, there can be quarterly reviews, there can be year end, you know, some reason statements. Especially if you’re a public company, right, the filing and there’s a lot of things that you can create that are already in place as benchmarks. But beyond that, I think any good leader or manager will have clear and defined objectives for their team, for the individuals on their team with ways that they can measure up their performance against what the goals were, so they can start seeing some objective feedback of how they’re doing and then reevaluate from that point.

Thane Ringler: [00:06:14] And so it’s attainable for everyone. It may be less optimized, right, as a normal human versus a professional athlete, and I think that’s for good reason. But I think what you’re speaking to as well is the nature of seasons and life in the nature of momentum and rhythm in life, which I think are really important concepts. Especially is this idea of rhythms of high performance that high performance doesn’t always entail being maxed out, running in the red or operating at your 100 percent best. It means that you’re recognizing where you’re at in that ebb and flow of life and the momentum that each season has so that we can adjust our aim and our focus and our perspective accordingly. Similarly, on the golf course, if I am in a slump, if I’m playing poorly and I’ve been playing poorly for some tournaments, my aim and focus on the golf course while I’m competing in that round will be different than if I’ve been playing really well and everything is sinking up. And so it requires a different intention for my round because I know that it’s going to be a battle and that I need to be conservative so that I can perform my best, even when I don’t have my best. And if we aren’t aware, if we don’t recognize when we don’t have our best, then we can’t make the adjustments needed.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:37] Now do you find that folks sometimes spend too much energy or put too much pressure on the outcome they desire, rather than just getting the process and the systems right and trusting the outcomes are going to come over time? If I just focus in on what I can control rather than, you know, the environment, the circumstance, my competitors, things like that. If I just get do my job well, then I’m going to win in the long term.

Thane Ringler: [00:08:05] Yeah, that’s a really good point. You know, I think all of us as humans fall into this, and not only that, but our society is really geared around it, especially in the West. You know, we’re very much an achievement based culture and achievements are based on outcomes, right? Achievements come strictly from outcomes themselves, not necessarily from certain efforts, but what we’re wired to care about most are those outcomes, and we’re rewarded or incentivized for those outcomes as well. So it really does take an intentional retraining or rewiring of our our brains and of our thought process of knowing no, you know what, I really am going to trust along the process here. I’m going to play the long game. I’m going to really focus on developing the systems needed. And, you know, I think some of the fuel of that is even just startup culture in general. I think the nature of the last decade or two in the startup world has been scale as fast and at all costs as possible so that you can then exit with a really nice, really nice number behind your name. And that game doesn’t produce the best for you or the best for society. And I think it’s unhealthy for for your normal person, like most of us, that then starts thinking, OK, well, I need to figure out how to achieve this monumental outcome versus how can I just improve one percent of my process today?

Lee Kantor: [00:09:34] And go ahead? Well, I think that when you’re so outcome focused, then the means justify the ends. Yeah. So then when that’s the case, then you’re doing whatever you can to achieve that outcome, whether that’s the right thing and you might lose kind of your true north or the big y of why you’re even doing this in the first place, you’re focusing on numbers that maybe look good and seem good in the room. But they might be you might be doing behaviors that are unhealthy to get to that point and which isn’t helping anybody.

Thane Ringler: [00:10:07] Yeah, 100 percent. You know, I think a quote that I believe is Bill Gates, but I’m sure many other have been attributed to it is that we all overestimate what can be done in one year and underestimate what can be accomplished in 10. And that again, speaks to, I think, this propensity we have for short term reward, short term gain or satisfaction at the cost of the delayed reward and delayed gain that can come. That’s much more sustainable and helpful for others, but especially for ourselves.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:40] Now, how do people engage with you or is it typically individuals that are looking for coaching that they want to become? High performers or there are already high performers who are going to be higher performers, are they organizations or are they enterprises that hire you and a team to come in and work with like the entire sales team? Like what? What is kind of your deliverable to your clients?

Thane Ringler: [00:11:00] Yeah. In the in the past, it’s been primarily individuals and that can be freelancers, entrepreneurs, business owners, employees, even in the most recent. In the last year or so, I’ve transitioned to working with teams and organizations as well. With Giant, there’s a technology and a platform we use that have tools and resources that make that work simple, sustainable and scalable. It can really reach a lot more people within the organization. And my heart has really always been to reach people kind of in the middle tier of society because there’s so many people out there that are settling for status quo or are defaulting to what they’re told to do versus what they’re capable of doing. There’s a lot more high performers out there that aren’t unlocked yet is what I’m getting at. And so my my heart really calls to those people and by working with organizations, I get to reach those people more readily. And so that’s really my focus now is with the teams and with organizations full of people that are operating at a certain level but have a much higher capacity that they can reach to, especially through understanding themselves better understanding how they’re wired and then tapping into it and designing really the way they work based on their personality and the way that they’re best suited to bring results to the world.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] Now on this show, one of the reasons we’re doing this show is to help other coaches learn from each other. Can you share with our listeners how you were able to partner with a company like giant? Because a lot of coaches out there would love to have the opportunity to partner with a big enterprise like that to really work together and maybe take their game up a notch and really serve that larger enterprise and their people. How did that relationship develop and then how did you kind of manage to convince them that you were the right partner for them?

Thane Ringler: [00:12:58] Yeah, it’s a good question, and I’m glad you asked it. You know, like, like many people listening, I’m sure I I know that it’s a hard journey, especially in this space. There’s a lot of people doing this work, and it’s a type of service and work that isn’t necessarily an easy sell, right? People aren’t automatically thinking their greatest need is to have a coach or consultant come in and assist them or give them feedback or help them grow. And so it’s a harder thing. It’s a harder business to run a lot of times. And. And so for me, as an individual, it was me wearing all the hats in my business and it was challenging and lonely a lot of times in doing so in finding giant. It was a really great process because after talking to probably half a dozen people within their organization, I just knew that their language, their heart, posture and a lot of their systems they developed were so parallel to what I’d already been doing that that it was a really seamless transition and a great fit for me personally. But beyond that, just understanding that having teammates, having people that are doing the same work alongside you that you can collaborate with and you can bounce ideas off of, and that you can work together on larger engagements has been such a breath of fresh air.

Thane Ringler: [00:14:15] And and really giant is a company that that wants more coaches and consultants to be a part of them. They’ve developed against some great technology that I don’t have on my own, and a lot of coaches don’t either, and it really allows you to serve the client exceptionally well and focus on delivering and facilitating with your unique gifts alongside the material they already have. And. And so it’s a great fit for other coaches out there who are looking to get involved. You know the best? The thing I would recommend is just visiting. If you go to a giant Steve Thane, that’s my my first name THAAD, you can get set up with a 30 day free trial of their platform and just taste and see some of their materials and their content to get a feel. And if it’s something that resonates with you, I would definitely recommend reaching out. They’ve got a great, supportive staff that would love nothing more than to serve you in your business. So I’ve really been blessed by joining forces with them and definitely would highly recommend.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:19] So now how did you identified them as being a good partner for you? How did they how did you convince them to work with you?

Thane Ringler: [00:15:29] Yeah. So I mean, really, they look for people who are committed to unlocking the potential of others and who are serving heart of service in their work. So really, at the end of the day, if you’re a coach or consultant, that’s aiming to do intentional work. With your clients, you’re going to be a good fit, so there’s not a huge there’s not a huge barrier to entry for them. They really want to make sure that the hard alignments there and then going through their certifications and programs definitely takes some time. But once you are able to get certified and trained, they are 100 percent supportive of your practice and want to do what they can to support you and grow, which has been really cool. So a lot of it comes down to hard alignment, having conversations with them, seeing if it’s a good fit for both parties and then moving forward together.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:25] Now, in your practice, when you’re working with people, can you share a story about maybe the challenge they had? Obviously don’t name their name or their organization, but explain maybe their backstory. What was their challenge? How they found you? Why they partner with you? You started work with them and then you were able to take them to a new level, maybe one that they didn’t even anticipate as being possible.

Thane Ringler: [00:16:48] Yeah, definitely. Know, recently, one of my clients we had been working together for, probably. Four to five months up to this point, and he’s working on growing his team. But in the midst of that, you know, as you start out, you kind of add this piece and that piece and really there’s some dysfunction, there’s a lack of communication, there’s a lack of clear expectations and there’s a lack of alignment as these kind of adjunct pieces all start forming a team. But there really never was a formalized team in the first place or communicated up front. And so what we were able to do is we went actually through organizational clarity, workshop a couple, a couple day workshop just to really get clear about because it’s so common a lot of times, right? We start businesses, we have success, we see holes or gaps. We need to fill in and then we go through the process of finding people that can do that. But but if we aren’t intentional with really creating a structure of vision, mission and the values for our business and our organization, then they’ll never be true alignment with the people that are part of a team because it has been clearly communicated. So establishing those clear values vision and mission for the organization was a really important step just for his team being on the same page. And for these recurring, there’s a lot of recurring issues, especially with certain employees or partners in his business that were remedied through this process of just establishing clarity on what the hard posture is. Because then we can come back, like you said earlier, have that North Star that why for the business that you can unite around, it makes it less personal. It makes it much more objective and clear, and you can get on the same page much faster without it being as confrontational or as an emotional conversation as those often are. So that was really a great win for them and the team as they’ve been growing and adding on pieces, making sure that they’re all functioning together as a unit.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:49] Well, if there is anyone out there that wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team. What is the best website?

Thane Ringler: [00:18:58] Yeah, Thane Marcus is my headquarters for my business and all that I do. That’s a great place to go. See some of the services offered. You can read or listen to some other things I’ve done there and reach out. There’s an email there you’ll find you can also. Like I said, however, giants Thane and that’s a great place to check out a platform. And alongside that, one last thing I’d recommend is with Giant, there’s a personality assessment called the Five Voices. It’s a great tool based off Myers-Briggs technology and research. It’s a great tool for understanding yourself, knowing more about how you’re wired and how that communicates and relates to others. It’s really been helpful for me in my business and my family, and then with my clients as well, but you can take that for free by going to giant DCTV five voices. That’s the number five and then voices slash Thane, and that’s about a 10 15 minute assessment. So if you want some immediate value, that’s a great place to start.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:56] And that website again is Thane Marcus THAAD PMRC, U.S. Thane. Thank. Thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Thane Ringler: [00:20:08] Thanks, Lee. I really appreciate you having me on and you’re doing great work here as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:12] All right, this is Lee Kantor. We will see you all next time on Coach the Coach radio.