Vincent Moiso With VIS Aspire Inc

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: [00:00:33] 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 Vince Moyosore and he is with Vis Aspire. Welcome, Vince.

Vincent Moiso: [00:00:44] Thanks, Lee, I appreciate you having me on.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] Well, I’m excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us a little bit about vis aspire. How are you serving, folks?

Vincent Moiso: [00:00:52] Yes, I’m focused on on really small business. I’ll tell you this, it’s a funny statistic. Less than four percent of all the small businesses in the U.S. even make it to a million dollars, and most entrepreneurs don’t know how to even get there, and they certainly don’t know how to get past that point. So I help them scale, and I do it through a people first approach, and I’ve been doing that about eight years at this point since I exited from my previous business and just enjoy getting people to that vision of success.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] Now, can you talk a little bit about your journey from entrepreneur doing the work and, you know, being the CEO of your company and growing that successfully to then transitioning over to being a coach for other people to help them kind of experience similar results that you you experienced?

Vincent Moiso: [00:01:46] Yeah, you know, Leigh, I have no idea if this is typical or not, but of course, it’s one of those entrepreneurial stories where it happened organically. So I was I was in a flooring business distribution business for roughly over a decade. I had two partners in that business and I really was looking to grow the business in a different direction. So we just hit that point where somebody had to exit and I did so gracefully. And when I exited, I was immediately looking for the next thing, right? You know, typical entrepreneur. And and there was a business client of mine, longtime client of mine, that he needed help. And I was thinking about jumping into the business and taking some of that money and reinvesting. And it just didn’t pencil. So I looked at all the finances and put together a plan, and it didn’t look like that business was going to cash flow with me in it. And so I gave him the bad news, and then he looked at me and he said, You know, I, I could use the help. Like, I just I would love to do all this stuff that you presented to me in this plan. Would you consider consulting and coaching me? I kind of scratch my head and said, Hmm, that’s a business. And yeah, I would love to do that. So I did it, and he was my first client, and I took on two more right after him pretty quickly and I realized, Wow, I had this transfer of trust and that there were a lot of people that looked up to me and needed that help. And I really love coaching. Like, I’m just I. I have it in me. It’s it comes very easy and natural to me. And so I organically started. That’s when business fire started. I formed my S-Corp within weeks of that first engagement. And then the rest is history.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:40] So now when you’re working with a client in that in that manner, is it coaching where you’re just kind of that objective third party asking questions, helping maybe nudge, but not actually rolling up your sleeves? Or is it kind of bleed into some consulting where, OK, you do this? I’ll do this. You focus on that. I’m going to get a team working on this and then you’re kind of doing some of the work too. Or is there? Is it specific to that or is it kind of very engagement to engagement?

Vincent Moiso: [00:04:14] Yeah, it does vary, but it is the answer to that is both right. I am definitely rolling up my sleeves and get my hands dirty, and at least I have found with my clientele. You got to do it because there’s a lot of blind spots, right? And all of a sudden, you know, think of it. And most of my clients have been running their businesses for decades, right? And so they’ve got all kinds of blind spots, right? It’s their baby. They started it and they just they can’t see the forest through the trees, so to speak, right? And and I inherently, as I dig in to find those pain points and ask those questions, I’m absolutely coaching because I want them to find the way on their own, of course, because I don’t want to do it for them. Otherwise, I’m not really coaching, right? They’ve got to figure that out, and it’s something that they’ve got to continue to execute on long after I’m gone. That being said, I still have to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty because some of it requires that you’ve got to really dig in deep.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:16] Now, when you’re working with folks, your background was in flooring, tile, things like that. Does it transfer to like, say, I have an ad agency or in my case, I own Business RadioX, I have a media company like is that something that’s transferable or is it kind of play better in the kind of the industry that you started in?

Vincent Moiso: [00:05:36] Yeah, great question. I love that question, and I did. I have to preface that with just some context. I did a short stint. I was lucky enough to be captured to do a reality television show called The Moment. And as a result of that show, I got to spend six months. I took a six month hiatus at the time to the University of Notre Dame. So I mean, couldn’t be two polar opposites, right? I’m running a flooring business and then I spent six months and I’m working with the football program and I’m working with the marketing department in athletics and meeting a lot of high, high end people out of the University of Notre Dame. And they all were looking at me as this treasured business entrepreneur guy that could come in and help them because they don’t they don’t think that way. And I was I honestly, I was tripping out. I’m literally scratching my head going, I cannot believe these guys at the University of Notre Dame are looking to me for advice and coaching. And it was it was the first time my eyes got opened to that whole concept, and I understood that the skills transfer doesn’t matter what it is a widgets or widget and you’ve heard that term before. It really doesn’t matter because when you strip it all out and you just start to talk about running a business and how to treat people right and how to retain key employees and how to do the things that are going to grow, scale and and and bring your business ultimately to success doesn’t matter what the business is.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:13] So now let’s let’s have you roll up your sleeves a little and talk about what are those first conversations look like when you’re talking with a new business owner that you know gets on your radar, you think it’s a good fit. You have kind of that initial discovery type conversation where you’re kind of explaining what you do there, explaining where they’d like to be. How do you kind of help them see the forest for the trees?

Vincent Moiso: [00:07:37] Yeah, I shut up and listen. By the way, so I definitely do not start the conversation by telling them all the stuff, my whole background and my CV. I figure if they’ve done their homework at all or I’ve been referred, I’ve either already got that transfer of trust or they’ve gone online and seen my resume. So I really shut up and listen, and I asked this one question Please tell me about you. Tell me about your business. And most importantly, tell me about the pain points in your business. So like, what is holding you back? And I just listen and I take notes and I’ll ask questions in between as things come up, because it might be they’re just struggling with some of their some of the people that are working for them. It might be. They just don’t understand how to read their financial documents. They’re not inputting, they’re not bookkeeping appropriately. It might just be I’ve hit a wall. I don’t know how to develop a sales forecast or plan, or they’ve never done a strategic plan session. They haven’t created mission or vision or values. You know, it’s I could go on and on. You’ve heard it before. Reality is is the best thing for me as a coach that I could possibly do from day one and continuing throughout any relationship that I have is listen.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:59] All right, listen, so you listen and they have a laundry list of challenges or things that are keeping up at night. How do you help them prioritize to say, You know what? Let’s start here because we have to start somewhere. You can’t, you know, kind of get them all at once. You’ve got to begin with one of them. How do you decide which is the one that is going to be the lever to unlock maybe the potential of this firm?

Vincent Moiso: [00:09:24] Yeah, I’m always identifying. So as I’m listening, I’m identifying where, and I do that through where I’m watching body language, listening to tone, where we spend the most time on. And I’ve already identified in that conversation a top three priorities. Then I repeat what I heard, right? And I say, here’s the top three things pain points, whatever you want to call them that I heard and now tell me really, which is the one that you want to spend the most time on. What’s the one that’s going to move the needle for you? And and depending on what that is, that’s really what we’re going to focus our time. So it’s just, you know, again, it’s just a line of questioning. But if I’m listening, if I’m doing my job and I’m really listening, then I’m listening for all those cues. I’m watching for all those cues, and I’ve already written down the top three now. So so the way that my process works is I’m only going to focus on those top three and sometimes only the top one as as a starting point. And I’m looking for a long term relationship.

Vincent Moiso: [00:10:26] And while I’ll do certain things like strategic plan sessions and other coaching that might only be in 90 day increments because I like to, I follow a very, very specific plan. I follow the 12 week year. It’s great, great way to do it, and I feel like we can. We’re better off. We’re more inclined to take things in small doses. So I work that way, but I’m looking myself for a long term relationship, so I know we’re going to hit that starting point, priority number one, whatever that is. And that might be the first thing we focus on in the first 90 days. And that’s all we’re going to focus on. But I’m know I’m going to break that off in tranches and move on to the next thing and have a long, long running relationship as long as I’m a fit. I mean, I know I know pretty quickly if I am a fit because I know what my skill set is and I and I don’t ever want to take somebody’s money unless I know I’m going to add the value that I’m promising.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:20] Now you mentioned that you kind of target three things. If you were to look back at all the people you’ve had this conversation with, are those three things similar across the board? Are there ten that you see a lot and then it could be anyone? It could be three of any of these five. You kind of going, do entrepreneurs kind of have the same problems?

Vincent Moiso: [00:11:42] Pretty much they all they all pretty much have the same same problem. First, two questions I always get right, because as it starts off kind of a little top level right, everybody wants to know how they pay less, how they can pay less taxes. And then the second question I get is how do I exit out of my business? And they don’t they don’t necessarily want to get out of their business at that point. They just know they don’t know what they don’t know and and they want to hear, is there an even an exit for me? And once I get past that, because that’s not really the pain point, right? Ok, great. If you if you really and truly want to build out an exit, great. Let’s figure out what’s going on in your business right now and we can determine what that is. I find that financials are typically number one, especially in the small business arena. And when I say small business, I’m talking in that I’d say my sweet spot is in that one to 10 million in revenue and say less than 10 employees on up to about 50 employees. That’s that’s those are the businesses that I really target. And then I have big impact on and they they struggle, really understanding how to read a P&L, how to read a balance sheet, how to forecast appropriately, how to plan appropriately and really how to reduce expenses to optimize profitability. That’s absolutely number one. People are number two. They struggle to manage people. They they struggle to manage themselves. And and therefore there’s a conundrum right of Wow, I’ve got this revolving door of employees and I don’t understand why that’s happening, right? And then the third is time, you know, everyone, everyone complains about not having enough time and or exhaustion, exhaustively working way too many hours. And so I tend to focus on those three things finance, financials, people and time.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:48] So now having done this, you put together a playbook to help entrepreneurs kind of self manage, I guess a little bit if they don’t. Have you around?

Vincent Moiso: [00:14:01] Yeah, or at least to get him started? I mean, ultimately, the the book that I wrote that will get released later this month is it gives you a taste of of Wow, I want to recognize these things that I can do and potentially on my own in the end. So as you get to part three of the book, I’m very explicit and very direct. You can’t do it alone. And anyone who thinks that they can is crazy. I mean, just I I was a collegiate athlete. I played football in college LA and I was I was talented enough to continue my career for about four seasons out in Europe. And you know, when I was most effective in my athletic career, I had a coach. I had a coach. And and what was so funny to me is I spent a decade as an entrepreneur, more than a decade as an entrepreneur, without a coach. And when I finally got introduced to the concept, I was like, Wow, I just reflected on when I was the most productive in my life, and it was when I had a coach and the moment I got a coach, it completely changed the trajectory of my business and the success within my business, and I continue to have a coach to this day. I’ve I vacillate back and forth. I’ve had two coaches at times because I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of having a coach and the success that that brings because we all need that level of accountability. So my book, while it does give a lot of nuggets and a lot of self-directed opportunity, in the end, you’re going to hear me loud and clear tell you that once you understand those concepts, get a coach, it will. It will get you to the next level that much faster.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:59] Yeah, there’s a saying that says if you think hiring a professional is expensive, try hiring an amateur. And if people are trying to be their own coach, they’re hiring an amateur.

Vincent Moiso: [00:16:09] Totally. I mean, it’s it’s so funny, I mean, you think of I mean, you’ve probably got a laundry list of success stories, not just in business, but I think of even athletics and you think of the top top athletes in the world and they have nothing but coaches around them. And so why is it in business that we think that we can just do all this stuff on our own? It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, and I always laugh, I laugh at myself for spending so long without one.

Lee Kantor: [00:16:43] So now in your kind of growth as a coach and you’re moving from, you know, your practitioner now you’re coaching other practitioners and obviously this coaching business is its own business. And then now you have the book. How are you seeing kind of coaching evolve through you in this team that you’re building around kind of your methodology?

Vincent Moiso: [00:17:07] Yeah, that’s a really good question, I. The other thing I started a podcast this this summer to and my and my podcast is just a partner. My he’s a PhD, he’s also a coach. And we were sitting in our backyard having a beer. And, you know, it was five minutes of how’s the family? And then we immediately got into business, you know, so we laugh at each other all the time because it’s like you get to entrepreneurs in a room. What are they going to do? Well, they’re going to talk business, right? And and so we got into this concept of because we’re huge believers in transparency in the workplace accountability, communication being so critical, talking about email etiquette, just really simple things that I think people in any organization, just they they want, right? They want clear direction. They want communication, they want transparency, they want visibility, they want all these things. And so we talk about all these, all these topics. And I have a I have a lot of fun doing it. And the reason I bring that up and the question that you asked is I see myself evolving as I get into these concepts and I practice one hundred percent of what I preach. Otherwise, why would I why? Why coach it right? And I think what really differentiates me is I’ve been an entrepreneur for a long time, runs successful businesses and I and I practice one hundred percent of the things that that I coach. And I don’t coach on things that I don’t practice, and I think that’s where it’s evolving otherwise. You know what? I start to feel like the professor that I had that had zero, you know, back in college, my undergraduate study, you know, that had zero practical application of what he was teaching, right? And and and that’s that’s hard right. And I find that that my clients relate to me because they know that I’ve done it and what I’m teaching is has been put into practice successfully.

Lee Kantor: [00:19:10] Right. It’s not a theoretical. There’s kind of evidence behind every, every thought. Now, when a person comes to you, how much kind of self-awareness do they have to have to even kind of get into your orbit? Like, is this something that some they’re going to share with the friends? Hey, hey, you know what? I’m really struggling and they’re like, Oh dude, you got to call Vince. I mean, he really helped me like because to me, a lot of entrepreneurs have that kind of lone wolf mentality where they’re like, Look, this is my thing. I built this. I can do this, and then I’ll just try harder. I’ll just, you know, like it’s they don’t they have personal accountability in that they don’t want to ask for help and where it may be part of their accountability should be to another person, not just themselves.

Vincent Moiso: [00:20:03] I’m laughing the whole time you’re saying all that, it’s just it’s a great it’s a great example, and yes, there has to be some self-awareness and I can tell within five minutes if that self-awareness is there or not. So early on I made I made a lot of mistakes. I took on just about every quiet client. So there was there was quite a bit of that as I dude, you got to talk to Vince, right? And and I would just take them on and not really do the listening that I told you about Lee. So that part of my process has radically evolved and gotten so much better. And now I just listen where I think I threw up too much in those first meetings and then I would just take the client on. I have to know that they’re going to execute on what we talk about. Otherwise, I just don’t have the time. I just don’t. I mean, I’m the Lee. I took on one of my clients. I became the interim president of the business, so I’m turning a 28 year old business around right now. So the last four years I’ve been the interim president, took them through two acquisitions and now I’m really working, working on on creating an exit for that business and and the two other partners that are in it. And that takes time, right? So so I also have to be a purveyor of my own time and respect others time. And in doing so, I I’m very selective with the with the clients that I take on.

Vincent Moiso: [00:21:29] And so in that first meeting, I really have to know that their self-awareness, that they’re ready to do the work because if they’re not ready to do the work and they’re not ready to execute, I just I just can’t do it. I don’t have the patience for it. And I know that they’re not getting the true value out of the money that they’re giving me. And I’d rather be with somebody because I’ll tell you, you know, again, I’m going to use. I always use athletics football specifically. There’s no prouder moment than watching your team execute on everything you just worked on all week in a game, right? And same goes in business. There’s no prouder moment for me than to watch this company blossom and get the success exactly the way that we set it up for that. So if if I’m not going to, if I’m not going to get there with somebody and they’re not and they’re not ready to embrace that, I move on now and I made that mistake early, early on where I didn’t created a lot of agony and a lot of anxiety. And then you get into this mode of, Well, I’m just going to make it work, right? Well, no, it’s it’s a two way street. It’s just like having a relationship, right? It takes two to tango. And so if that other person isn’t ready and willing, then it’s not going to work.

Lee Kantor: [00:22:48] Now, can you share a story, maybe a success story in the and it doesn’t have to be. Oh, they made the most money ever, but maybe they were struggling with something. And maybe you help. Maybe it was a blind spot. Then you help them kind of overcome and they got to a new level. And for you, it was kind of rewarding. It was something that said, You know what? This is resonating with me in terms of my values, my philosophy, and this allowed me to really kind of let that blossom.

Vincent Moiso: [00:23:17] Yeah, my my favorite, my favorite client story. And they’re still my client. You know, now going on six years, I think roughly five or six years. But in the first year, they doubled revenue with me and the blind spot was they just they were they were in the mode. They had already been in business for eight years. At the time that that I came came in and they had no idea that they were just taking on. Every project was a design firm and they were taking on every project that they could and they just weren’t charging enough because they were basically fear based selling and fear based pricing. So their whole business was around fear. And it was great. I’m just going to grab and capture whatever I can. I’m going to be one hundred percent customer focused and great. It’s good to be customer focused in the healthy way. They were customer focused in the unhealthy way, so the customer was driving everything that happened instead of them being in control of their own destiny as as a business. And so you can imagine they were running on a hamster wheel and they just could not figure out how they could not get to the next level, raise raise revenue to where they wanted it to be. So I just got that the light bulb turned on by letting them see that they weren’t charging the right price.

Vincent Moiso: [00:24:47] They were allowing customers to rule the roost. They were not in control of what they were doing as a business and with each other. There’s three partners in that business and with each other. They had an established, very specific role and responsibility with each other. So as as simple as those concepts may sound, to many people, it was a total blind spot for them. And it was funny. For me, it was great because I shifted just those three simple things just the organizational structure, getting clarity around role and responsibility among the partners and employees, and then changing their pricing structure and then shifting how they communicate externally. And they doubled revenue in the first year. I was with them and I was just like, we were high fiving at the end of it. It was awesome, and I just loved seeing their success and their eyes open to what’s possible. And now as they sit, anything’s possible, right? And and the business that they’re doing in the clients that they have and what they’ve created is is great there. Ironically, they’re they’re looking for an exit at this point among the three partners. So I’m helping them through that. But that’s that’s definitely my top of my list as as one of the funnest engagements.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:06] Good stuff. Well, congratulations on all the success. If somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or get a hold of any of the resources that we talked about. Is there a website?

Vincent Moiso: [00:26:17] Yeah, just check out if they just go to Vince. So that’s the easiest and you’ll they’ll jump on to, you know, that’s the the parent company business buyer Inc.. So does Vince moist, super easy. And then you can check out my other site, which is more dedicated toward the launch of my book and everything surrounding that specific process. And that is sort thrive, U.S. start, thrive or thrive us. So either one of those websites will get you all the information you want.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:49] And that’s Vin CMO. I sohu.com.

Vincent Moiso: [00:26:53] You got it right.

Lee Kantor: [00:26:55] Good stuff, Vince. Well, thank you again for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you, Lee.

Vincent Moiso: [00:27:00] Thanks for having me on. I really, really appreciate it. That was fun.

Lee Kantor: [00:27:04] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you next time on Coach the Coach radio.