We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Collette Portis a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Collette, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
In the coaching industry there are no licensing requires or regulations. As a result, anyone who decides to help others in any way can set up shop as a coach. One of the greatest challenges in the coaching industry is not understand who you serve, why you serve them and what outcomes you seek to achieve with them. Oftentimes when a coach is engaged what the client gets is a lot of great ideas, but not many usable practices and tools to help those ideas impact the audience they seek to impact. As a result, revenue is greatly stalled making the average annual revenue of a coaching company around $25,000.
Collette, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
When your Grandparents are entrepreneurs and your parents are entrepreneurs. Is it really a surprise when you become a serial entrepreneur? That is what happened to Collette Portis. She has business in her DNA. The drive she inherited has always pushed her to reach for new accomplishments. Earning 6 degrees including a Masters, completing her Doctorate in Transformational Leadership, author of G.O.A.L.I.E., her own business strategy system, radio host, and a contributing writer and influencer for PRiME Women and The Metro Report Magazine are only some of the things Collette has accomplished.
As Founder, CEO and Master Business Coach of RED Development Group, Collette has proven that her entrepreneurial roots run deep helping her to take her company from $0 revenue to more than 6 figures in just 9 months. With over 27 years of experience as a master business coach and strategist, she has helped business owners, entrepreneurs, and executives expand and build capacity and sustainability. This year alone she was awarded an induction into the 2021 Career Mastered Women’s Leadership in Action class and under her leadership RED has won the 2021 Non-Profit & Corporate Citizenship Award. It is her heart’s desire to help business owners realize the full potential in their
business, gain their freedom, and implement the steps to generational wealth and
legacy. Collette Portis has proven to be a champion for business owners globally.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
When working to grow my clientele it’s always important for us to look at our relationships. My grandparents always said, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” After earning 5 degrees and working to finish my doctorate, I slowed down enough to realize that my greatest wins came through my relationships and not the degrees that I earned. As a result, when my team at RED Development Group is working to grow our clientele our first step is to tap into the relationships we have. Our company is big on growing external teams, sometimes referred to as collaborative partners. It’s one of our super powers. When building relationships we are on purpose about ensuring that our core values are at play. Most importantly, we build relationships based on the Win! Win!! Win!!! Rule. This rule says that a win-win situation is not satisfactory because someone has to lose, but if we spend a little more time at the table we can ensure that our collaborative partners win, our collective client bases win, and RED wins. Winning is not a zero sum game. If we are intentional we can ensure that everyone wins in one way or another while doing what’s best for the greater good. So we nurture our relationships, share with them the amazing tools and resources we have to help solve the biggest problems in the business community and the impact we’re making with our client base. This causes them to recall the names of companies, founders, business owners and executives that need the solutions we provide. It’s then that they become what we call rabbis, the person pushing the RED gospel to those who need it. This allows our leads to be warm when we receive them and 90% of the time they are ready to partner with us to remedy their issues.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’m big on community. So, my community service hours are high because I know that I am directly impacted by those around me and the environment we’re in. Therefore, I’m responsible for adding to that community in a positive way. I sit on the board of one of the greatest organizations in our country and it was time to fundraise to support the organization, its programs and the community it serves. I set a very low personal goal which meant asking my network for donations as low as $50. I pushed my campaign being intentional about sharing all of the amazing things the organization does as well as all of the awesome ways we were planning to impact the community. After 5 weeks, I had raised $50 from the network that I had given so much to. That was a pivotal moment for me. I understood that I may have had an extensive network, but I had no influence. I understood the importance of influence. I also learned that I have to be a better steward of where I placed my wisdom, knowledge, and connections. At that point I knew a change needed to be made. I changed the way I built my relationships including the Win! Win!! Win!!! Rule and implementing a vetting process for those interested in joining my community and sphere of influence. Three short years later my network has blossomed into one that many envy. Now, clients pay to have access to my network and to have me assist them with learning to develop relationships in the way I do.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.reddevelopmentgroup.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reddevelopmentgroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reddevelopmentgroup
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reddevelopmentgroup/?viewAsMember=true
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/reddevgroup
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDHVvZkz76gsk8ob4LqNRAg?view_as=subscriber
Image Credits
Maxx Sejour Photography