Ep339: Patrick Metzger – Find A Mentor Who Can Challenge You to Do Bigger Things

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk, but to win big, you've got to reduce it. And I bet you're exposed to investment risk right now. To reduce it, go to my worst investment ever.com and download the risk reduction checklist I've made specifically for you, my listeners based on the lessons learned from all of my guests, fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, and I'm here with featured guest, Patrick Metzger. Patrick, are you ready to rock?

Patrick Metzger 00:41
I am absolutely ready to go, Andrew.

Andrew Stotz 00:44
Let's do it. So I'm going to tell the audience a bit about you. So at heart and by profession, Patrick Metzger has always been a teacher and coach, as he spent over a decade as a public school teacher and athletic coach in helping others reach goals and in building high achieving teams. After 11 years, Patrick decided to embark on the entrepreneurial journey as a coach in partnering with and supporting businesses and individuals in discovering and igniting their ultimate potential and highest performance. Within two years, Patrick has built his business from the ground up and was working with clients across North America, as well as performing keynote talks, and professional trainings. Now as CEO and founder of pm and Associates, and one of less than 450, professional eo s implementers in the world, Patrick and his team, help businesses get the most out of their organizations and people by get by helping get everyone on the same page and executing the company vision as well as by creating healthier, more cohesive and higher functioning leadership teams. Patrick, take a minute and tell me further tidbits about your life.

Patrick Metzger 01:59
Thank you, Andrew, lovely introduction. man born and raised in North Dakota, I get asked a lot of times if I'm from Canada, but love the outdoors. I'm a teacher coach at heart exactly like you said in the intro. And my big passion is helping others reach levels that they did not know that they were capable of whether it's individually as a business, whatever it may be, I love getting more juice out of the squeeze, I always say

Andrew Stotz 02:27
yep. And you know, I'm curious, I know, some of my listeners are struggling right now. They're losing jobs. They're afraid of losing jobs, they do have experience, they do have good knowledge. And they're thinking to themselves, wow, maybe I need to, you know, go out on my own. And there's a lot of challenges to that. You know, there's if you say, I'm going to write a book, and I just talked with someone the other day, they said, I'm writing a book, and I'm starting a podcast. And I thought to myself, books don't make any money. And neither do podcasts until they're big, right. And so the result of that is that it could end up in despair. And I'm just curious if you could first talk to us about your, you know, transition that you made, and about professional EOS implementers, of which you're only one of 450 you know, out there that are doing it. And maybe you can just tell us a little bit about that kind of transition and what you're doing.

Patrick Metzger 03:25
Yeah, my transition man, I always say I've kind of lived three different lives. And I'll kind of get into that as part of my worst investment ever here. But you know, the thing, the biggest thing, I've learned Andrew through all of it. And as far as the transition is double down on yourself, man, you know, if you're going to roll the dice, roll the dice on yourself. And I'll get into this a little bit later. But make sure you're rolling the dice in this in the right area. And what I have, kind of what I've taken from that in becoming an EOS implementer is, you know, like I mentioned already, my passion has been helping individuals, teams, whatever it may be, or whomever it may be more so of just getting more out of themselves. And really what I do now as a professional EOS implementers. I work with small to medium sized businesses across the entire nation, and really help their leadership team primarily. And then obviously we do roll it out through the rest of the organization, but really help them function at a much much higher level streamlining things up, optimize things in their business by really helping, like you said, get everyone on the same page. I bring in a business coaching framework, EOS entrepreneurial operating system to really help them do that. It's bulletproof, it's proven. We've worked with over 10,000 companies as implementers. We've implemented over 74,000 session days. And it's been amazing to really see over the last year especially Andrew, of companies, like you said in individuals that have really struggled through COVID and this whole pandemic and such when they've doubled down on themselves and reinvested it themselves, it's made all the difference. And they're the companies that have really come out of this on fire man.

Andrew Stotz 05:06
You know, I really commend you for that transition, because I think that a lot of people get lost when they do their transition. And they think that they're going to create their intellectual property that they're going to be selling, they think that they're going to create that system out there. And I think one of the things, and I'm guilty of that just as much as anyone else, I have a lot of unique things that I want to bring out to the world. But the problem about that is, number one, they're not necessarily proven. So that just a hard sell. And the second thing is that, am I really the best person out there? And this, I mean, is there not another system out there. So I just want you to talk for just a moment for the listener out there, who's been thinking about going out on their own, but they're kind of realizing it's gonna be a lot of work, I've got to come up with my own systems. Tell us just a bit about Eos. And, you know, what's the benefit of that for you as an individual?

Patrick Metzger 05:58
Yeah, it's, it's funny, because when I started researching EOS, Andrew, and started looking at becoming and becoming an implementer, myself, you know, that was a big question I had was, you know, what are the big benefits of this, versus all these other types of consulting, building your own thing, you know, and every single person I talked to said, Man, Patrick, I've been there, I've been the consultant that built his own stuff for 20 years, that put in all the time trying to create his own or her own unique thing. And when I and when they all found EOS, just like I did, you literally took all that stuff. And you kind of threw it out the window, you know, because EOS is such an awesome, complete, proven framework. It's all there, it's all there for a business to really, really excel. Now, we call the knowledge that we've learned from all our other experiences, which is really neat. But it's all run through that EOS system, because it is really so complete.

Andrew Stotz 06:59
So I think the message to the listeners out there is that before you decide, you know, part of the whole purpose of this podcast is about reducing risk. And one way that you as a listener can reduce risk, if you're thinking of going out on your own, is I challenge you to go out and look at EOS and look at other systems and try to think about, is there something that I could leverage here that would bring me you know, credibility, because you know what, what Patrick is saying here is, it's proven, you know, and if you go out with your own system, you can't say it's proven, because, you know, you're just bringing it out. So I really want to challenge people to look at us as well as any other systems out there. And think about how you could plug into that. Now, of course, you may make a little bit less money, but you may spend a lot less on marketing and sales and all that, because you've got something that can really sell. So that's my advice, anything you'd add to that.

Patrick Metzger 07:52
The only thing I would add is, man, it's a lot of energy to reinvent the wheel. You know, and, and when it comes to business coaching, in particular, it's a lot of the same methods, it's a lot of the same concepts, tools, recycled relabeled, you know, renamed, find, find something that that's proven, and it's out there. And like you said, it has a lot of the backing ins and such already. Don't, man, don't bring yourself out trying to do your own thing. You know, don't be afraid to swallow your pride sometimes, I guess really is what it kind of comes down to.

Andrew Stotz 08:27
I just think this is really valuable advice for the people out there who are thinking about going on their own. And this is a really great discussion about how to reduce your risk as you do that. One last question I have, it just popped into my mind. And that is, so you've worked with a bunch of companies now. And you know, of course, you're bringing in systems you're bringing in, you know, all of that. But generally, what are the prot what's the main problem that most of these companies are faced with? I mean, of course, you've got 15 different things that you're going to help them resolve. But there's really that Keystone problem, that really big problem that once they get over that most of it will come together what what would you say that is? Man,

Patrick Metzger 09:09
it's probably something that we address in the very first day with companies is you have to have the right people in your organization. And you have to put them in the right seats. So if you don't have people that fit your culture and values very, very tightly, you're going to have problems. And then second, you have to put them in a place where they are going to be successful doing something they love. If you have good people in your organization, man that love what they do in that love what they're doing. They're going to be efficient. They're going to be high performers, they're going to be bought in they're going to be committed and you're going to have super high performing business.

Andrew Stotz 09:46
That reminds me of the advice about Jim Collins said from good to great getting the right people on the bus. And this is an important point about why you want to use a proven system because a proven system that's also a learning system. As you said you getting feedback. You know, even if you go out there and come up with some new idea, that proven system of people may find that idea and say, Hmm, that's pretty good. How can we incorporate that into what we do? So again, I think it's a great, a great risk reduction to go out at least and look at these types of systems. Well, yeah.

Patrick Metzger 10:18
I love how you bring up Jim Collins, Andrew, because we take a lot of principles from Jim Collins, and it's actually baked into into our EOS framework that we use with businesses because he Yeah, he has a ton of great ideas, man,

Andrew Stotz 10:29
he's, he's amazing. Now, it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one ever goes into their worst investment to get will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, and then tell us your story.

Patrick Metzger 10:44
All right, man. The cool thing about what I'm going to share today is my worst investment ever is literally my story. So they are one in the same. And you're also going to find that my worst investment ever was also the biggest realization and best investment ever that I've come to. So it's kind of back up a ways. I grew up in a family with both my parents or teachers. I grew up around very strong, very strong leaders and coaches, teachers that I admired. My both my parents were huge influences in my life being teachers and such. And I went into college, dead set on the idea that I was going to be a teacher and coach, you know, that's what I was familiar with. That's what I loved. I've always been just a sponge for learning. I'm the kind of guy that always says, like, man, if I could just sit and learn all day, that would be like the optimal job. Just pay me six figures and just read books learn. And that would be like, ideal, right? So anyway, I got out of college, had two teaching degrees, got my first teaching job, was a head football coach did a lot of athletic coaching and stuff. And I loved it absolutely loved it. It's what I thought I had always wanted to do. Fast forward eight years, I started questioning things. I started questioning, man is this is just for me. You know, I started questioning the monotony of teaching. Honestly kind of felt being called to kind of do something else. like something was just nagging at me kind of itching. didn't know if it was teaching, I needed to leave didn't know if it was the environment of the current school I needed to leave wasn't quite sure. So I ended up leaving. The school I was at went to a different school. It was like a brand new start. New coaching job, new environment of teachers, students, everything new school district, loved it got a little over into my third year there. It was, literally September my 11th year of teaching. And it's like I had slammed into a brick wall. And that brick wall woke me up and said, Patrick, this is not it. This is not what you are supposed to be doing. And I thought, wow, I spent 11 years committed to my lifetime career, right? This was when I was supposed to do what I always wanted to do.

Andrew Stotz 13:09
All right. Can you remember that day, or that moment where you thought, holy crap, this is when that light switch went off that moment.

Patrick Metzger 13:19
I don't remember if it was a specific day, but I will never forget the night that I came home. And my wife and I sat in our patio. It was about the third week of September and that 11th year of teaching, and I looked at my wife and I said I'm done. And she looked at me and she goes, What do you mean? I said, I'm all set. I'm done teaching. So this is not for me. I do not see a long term future for me here. I said, I don't know what it is. But there's something else that's calling me.

Andrew Stotz 13:45
What was your wife's response to that?

Patrick Metzger 13:49
It didn't surprise her because we had a lot of conversations. I mean, like I said, kind of in my eighth year is when I started to kind of become awakened to it. But didn't know like i said if it was a change in environment change in professional role. And I and I kind of took that first step to sort of sift that out. And it lasted a couple years and then boom, it came back and truly woke me up and told me what I needed to do. So it was about the first week of October, I resigned from my teaching position, not knowing what I was going to do. So I I've always been a huge believer, Andrew and if you're ever going to roll the dice, roll the dice on yourself. And I'm a guy where one of my personal values is I will outwork anybody. So I knew like man, I'm a smart guy. I'm talented. I can communicate well, I'm not going to have trouble finding what it is that I'm being called to. But I ended up leaving teaching at Thanksgiving about 11th year. I took a job as an executive recruiter. I did that for about six months with an organization right here in Fargo, North Dakota where I'm from or where am I And my wife and I adopted a daughter during that shortly after changing roles there. And so that was a huge life change. My wife and I had been married for man, I believe 10 or 11 years already. And we just become parents, we had struggled with having kids, immensely. Up to that point, we've done IVF four times. So that was a huge struggle of ours through kind of this whole transition and journey and such, but I read the book, crush it by Gary Vee. And that was kind of the final straw that really, really woke me up to what I needed to do. And I started putting together plans to develop an online health, health and wellness coaching and consulting business. And while I was kind of starting to put together that those thoughts in my mind, I got approached to manage a gym, and I kind of saw that as a stepping stone. So I left my recruiting job, took the job as a gym manager did that for nine months. And I got called into a fake meeting on a Monday morning by the owner. And he ended up I made him fire me. And to kind of back up a little bit. He called me into that meeting. And he started pressuring me to basically quit, and I refused to quit, because I would have owed him a ton of money on how my contract was written and back pain and stuff. So I looked at him, and I said, you're either gonna fire me, or I'm going back to my office. And I had no idea if it was a good move to do or not. But he looked at me and he said, Well, we're gonna let you go, Patrick. And it was a shocker. But it was, what it did. Andrew is it absolutely threw me into the deep end of the pool. And it was sink or swim at this point. And luckily, two months before that, I had actually launched my online business. So I was doing health, wellness coaching, consulting, nationwide, already coast to coast. I had clients, I had a client in Canada and such. And again, I was tasked with, do I roll the dice on myself again, and go into my business that I had formed online full time do I go back to teaching? Do I look for something else in business? What do I do at this point, I decided to roll the dice go into my online business Full speed ahead. And like I said, I had a very young daughter, a ton of trepidation. I mean, without benefits without retirement, you know, like ground zero, right? And launched into my business, I got about three months down the road, and I realized I was gonna have trouble scaling this. So I ended up working in contacting a business coach out of the San Diego area. His name is Peter Scott, who specializes in just online automation for businesses, business coaches. And he was an absolute game changer for me. My wife and I didn't know how in the world we were going to pay for it. We ended up putting his fees on a credit card, which we never do. We just said we'll figure it out. This is the path we're meant to take. Just trust the path trust the process, right. Within two weeks, he had already paid for himself with just a little bit of advice in such that he had given me and we were about a month into working together. And I'll never forget today he looked at me. We hopped on our weekly zoom call. And he goes, Patrick, what are we doing here, man? I said, What do you mean? I said, I'm ready for our call. I got all my stuff done. Excited. What are we going to go through today? And he goes, No, no, no, no, no, he goes, what are we doing here? And I said, you got to expand on that. I don't know where you're going with this dude. And he looked at me and he goes, Patrick, I've worked with a lot of people. But he goes, there aren't many people like you that I come across that have so much more gas in the tank. He goes, I get it. He goes you love health wellness. He goes, you're a teacher, you're a coach, that's what you're into. Because you have so much more potential that you are not capitalizing on you need. He goes, I see you in businesses. He goes, I see you on a stage speaking he goes, you have that kind of ability. He goes, we need to start moving into that direction. And it was literally Andrew like the first time ever. Somebody had like ripped out of me everything that I knew was there. But I couldn't put my finger on what it was. How, what do I do with it? How do I take that and use it to the potential that I know is in me, but I just I just don't know how to fully capitalize on it. So it literally kind of woke me up. And it was like boom, within months, we transitioned my whole business into more high performance coaching. That got me into working with businesses and I started doing some keynote speaking and then I ran across the EOS EOS framework when I read the book traction by Gino wickman. And I was actually So late, astounded. I was just like, Man, this is what every single business has been asking me for. Because every business I came into and worked with, they started asking for more stuff do you do stuff around culture? Patrick, do you do leadership coaching? You do strategic planning, you know, all these other things? And I was like, no, no. And I kept wanting to say, yeah, I'll figure it out. Because that's just kind of how I am like, say, yes, figure it out, do a hell of a job. Move on to the next thing, you know. And I found Eos. And I started I'm super analytical. So I started looking into it. And I was like, this is it. This is it right here. Remember the night I told my wife? I go, I found it. I found it. She goes, What now? Yep. I said it's called Eos. I started telling her about it. Her next question right away was, what is it cost? Patrick?

Andrew Stotz 20:55
Exactly. Can we get our money back in a month? Yeah.

Patrick Metzger 20:59
And I go, it's $30,000, roughly, to do the training. And she just I remember, she put her head back. And she took a huge deep breath. And I go, Thanks, Chris. I go chrissa. We've talked about when we adopted our daughter, we borrowed $50,000, against our house for the adoption fees, and all that stuff. And we had since paid all that money back, I said chrissa, there's a reason that that line of credit has been sitting there. And we haven't known why we haven't done anything with it, why we haven't closed it, why we didn't do whatever. I know, I truly honestly believe there's a reason that money stuff sitting there. And this is my calling that I'm supposed to. This is what I meant for. So we buy a 30 grand out of that I went did the training boom, six weeks later, I had my first company on board. And since it's exploded into almost 20 companies nationwide now, and I teach I coach facilitate, it's just not with kids, or on a football field anymore. It's in boardrooms with leadership teams.

Andrew Stotz 22:09
Well, that's just a great story. And also for those that are teaching in schools and stuff, and they want to go out and do more. It's a great lesson. So now, if you could just quickly summarize what lessons you learned from this.

Patrick Metzger 22:23
You know, the biggest lesson Andrew, the biggest lessons I've learned was, number one, I think everybody has just like my coach, Peter had told me Everyone has more gas in the tank, everyone has more potential. But I think so many people have no idea truly what they're capable of. But more so how do you tap into it? And how do you use it, to really pursue your passion and purpose of what you're really meant to do? You know, and he, one of the most powerful activities that I did with that coach was taking myself through my own hero's journey. And I think the biggest learning that I had was, you don't really know what you're meant for until you really have dove into the past and really examine and gotten to know yourself, you know, what are your self limiting beliefs? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What do you love? What do you not love? You know? And from there, it's how do you take all those things, and double down and invest in yourself? You know, and I and I truly believe that we don't reach where we're supposed to get to so many times, whether it's personally or professionally, because we're afraid to walk through some of those fires those tough difficult times we avoid them, you know, and, you know, I love the book by Ryan Holiday, the obstacles away, it's one of my favorite books. And it was like, when I read that book, because it truly speaks to every single one of us of don't avoid the tough obstacles in your life, Blaze right through them. Because those are the things that are going to strip away everything that you aren't about, and truly reveal to you, who you are, what you're about what you're meant to do.

Andrew Stotz 24:03
Well, you've given us some assignments here, we got traction, we got the obstacles away. Excellent. Um, maybe I'll just throw in a few things that I took away from it. I think, you know, one of the things that I could really relate to is that is, you know, we all need our Peter Scott. We all need our Peter Scott, you know, I I can say for myself, I always saw myself as this tall, skinny, lanky kid that was weak and couldn't, you know, fight at school. And, you know, I was just, I always felt outcasts, I always just felt like I didn't fit in. And what I've learned over the years is that in fact, that's the way most people feel. It's just that some people are better at covering that or masking that. And so I did, I did spend my whole life and I've said something, the same thing that you just said earlier, which was, I can outwork anybody. Yeah. Okay. I can and that's, that was my way of trying To compensate for this insecurity that I had about myself, and, and then I was achieving things because I wanted to prove that I wasn't that, you know, I mean, I really could see very clearly what I was doing. And then it wasn't until, you know, many years later, when I've had a couple of different experience, let's call them Peter Scott experiences where trusted people near me sat me down and said, Your, your, you know, you are good. Now, you are great, and you got this potential, and you need to, and I don't didn't look at that. I couldn't look at that, I think. And it was those people along the way. You know, I remember one example was, I lost my job, and at a big bank, and it really wasn't a pleasant ending. And I felt terrible about myself. within two days later, I received a phone call from somebody that asked me, I need to meet you, we've never met before, but I heard you've got some free time, we need to meet, I'd like you to help me sell this business. And within five months, I had dug into their business, sold, it got made more money than I ever made at my prior job, and had a new level of confidence. And another time, you know, I was basically pushed out of a particular place. And it caused me to completely change my thinking about how to prepare myself for a career outside of, you know, banking. And so you know, it is those things that come along that push you, you know, down to the depths of despair, and sometimes depression. And I know, plenty of the listeners are struggling with that right now, particularly during the pandemic time. How can you not get depressed and despair, I just, you know, met with a bunch of young people, young kids, young students, over the last couple of days, and they're terrified. They're terrified. And so I think the point is, though, is that eventually, when that coach comes along, it really gives us a chance to explode. And I think the last thing that I would just say is that, you know, the idea is, you have a lot to give in this life. And just like with any good coach, just for all of us think back to that person, when you were young, whatever that pushed you to put more into it on the track and field, you know, in your painting, in your whatever, that one person that pushes you. And I think that's evidence that we all have so much to give. So I just kind of want to sum up my, you know, my takeaway from that is that, for everybody out there, Patrick is a great example that don't be afraid to quit. I mean, be thoughtful, and be careful about quitting, because right now, it's dangerous to quit. Because, you know, opportunities are less out there. But still, you know, you've got so much more to give, and Patrick's challenging us ultimately. So based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn what what action, would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate.

Patrick Metzger 28:14
And the number one thing I would say that I wish I would have done a long time ago is fine, those mentors, guides, whoever it may be, that will pull the best out of you. Whether it's a coach, personally, whether it's a coach professionally, for your business, whatever it may be, you know, I think unfortunately, a lot of times, we look to people that we know the best for advice, when, honestly, a lot of times, they're the worst people for it, because they care about you, they don't want to see you fail, they don't want to see you suffer, you know, but they're going to sugarcoat things with you, you know, look to the people that have ain't been there, be they've done it, they've experienced it, and aren't going to be SEO, you know, and they're going to challenge you, but they're also going to care about you very, very, very, very much through that process, you know, so, find a guide, find a mentor that's really going to challenge you, but cares about you, and is going to get the most out of you.

Andrew Stotz 29:13
And I think that's I just going to add on to that, that for everybody out there. I'll just tell a little story about that. For me. One of the goals that I have for this year, is, you know, I've met a lot of people through the podcasts and just in my life 1000s and 1000s of people and I look at my, you know, my, my contacts with 1000s of people and I can visualize each person, you know, it's not like they're just a blind person on mine list or something like that. And what I can say is that this year, my goal is to go deeper in those relationships, identify the people that I want to go deeper, I want to talk about business, I want to talk about life, I want to get feedback, and I want to share more with them also. So what I did is I will went out on Facebook and LinkedIn. And I said, I'm starting a mastermind. And I'm looking for a small number of people who would like to be in the mastermind. And, sure enough, I got six people. And for the last four weeks, we've met every Friday. And, you know, we don't have a framework or structure. But we all say that man, we really look forward to this Friday meeting. So I just want to challenge the listeners out there. reach out and ask, and yeah, may not be the perfect person right now. But sometimes we just need people to talk to and share with. And when you do that, amazing things will happen. So I think Patrick's really given us a little bit of a window into that.

Patrick Metzger 30:42
Now, one of my favorite lines, Andrew comes from Billy Zane and Titanic where he looked at jack Leonardo DiCaprio, and he goes, a real man makes his own luck. And there's a lot of truth to it. I think, you know, if you know, don't, don't think about life happening, you know, to you and such make life happen for you, you know, double down on yourself, be proactive, work your ass off, man, good things will happen.

Andrew Stotz 31:08
Beautiful. Alright, last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months.

Patrick Metzger 31:13
My number one goal is I just launched a consulting team and a podcast this past fall. And my goal is when people ask me kind of what my vision is, I always say, you know, that picture of Tony Robbins, where he's standing and it's backlit, and the crowd is out in front of them. I always say that's my goal. That's my vision. And they go, you want to be Tony Robbins, they go No. But I want to make that kind of impact with people, teaching them, showing them empowering them how to get more out of whether it's themselves or their business, I want to make that kind of impact. Beautiful.

Andrew Stotz 31:50
All right, listeners, there you have it another story of loss to keep you winning. Remember to reduce risk in your life by going to my worst investment ever.com right now and download your risk reduction checklist and see how you measure up. As we conclude, Patrick, I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Patrick Metzger 32:21
double down on yourself. kakora

Andrew Stotz 32:25
beautiful words to end it and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create grow and most importantly protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.