Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dena Patton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Dena, thanks for joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

When I started my coaching and training company 22 years ago, I had just sold my first company, a marketing company, to two men who kept me on to help them grow their customer base and locations. I was blessed to learn a few key elements of growth from that experience: 1. Keep a small team of great people and create a culture of accountability – 5 people can grow a great company. You don’t have to spend tons of money on a huge team. 2. Be clear in the vision because it will keep you on path. Business owners that don’t know where they are going will get lost in the journey. 3. Have systems – especially if you are going to grow you must have systems. 4. . Be clear in the revenue streams and measure your revenue and sales weekly. It’s so easy to do the fun, creative things but I really had to learn that if you aren’t building your revenue you are building a hobby. Money is crucial for the growth and sustainability of any company.

So I took those crucial lessons and built my current company with those 4 elements, which has made all the difference. I work one-on-one with about 20 business owners around the world at once, along with speaking and training too so I have to have well oiled systems, keep my team small, be responsible for the weekly revenue and keep my eyes on my vision. Systems will allow you to scale up and train your team with consistency and ease, and without them we become a tangled mess. All systems (standard operating procedures) are important to create, but two of the most important ones are the sales system and an onboarding system.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an inspirational speaker and trainer, and elite business coach specializing in working with purpose-driven business owners and leaders. I have worked with thousands of clients on a national and global scale. I am dedicated to cultivating great leaders who are at the forefront of building remarkable companies. I have also lived through traumas like a minor stroke at 27, being near the towers at 9/11, and losing my family; mother, father and brother. I feel like a survivor who looks at the gifts and blessings in life instead of being a victim of life ‘happening to me’. My coaching career is not just a successful career, but a mission to help people, and myself, deal with the hard things. Leadership is hard, but when you have life happening around you like a sick child, a divorce, ill parents or cancer it gets even harder. That’s why we build companies with great systems, revenue and leadership, it’s is because we need to lean on those things in the hard times.

My coaching career has span 22 years with a 3-Pillar coaching approach that helps my clients build efficient systems, strategic sales, and great leadership and I love what I do.

Beyond my professional endeavors, I passionately follow my philanthropy calling to make a positive impact on girls through her 501c3 organization, The Girls Rule Foundation, dedicated to helping teen girls grow their confidence, leadership and financial literacy. And she is the co-creator of a bible study series called, ‘Happy Hour With Jesus’. At the heart of her leadership philosophy are six core values: Courage, Accountability, Authenticity, Faith, Integrity, and Fun.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being a business and mindset coach for 20 years I’ve had my ups and downs with this industry because when I started it was very unknown and unproven. It took me many years to build my brand, build awareness of the effectiveness of hiring a coach and build trust. About ten years ago is when this industry started to become saturated with new coaches and I felt the hit and almost closed my company. But instead of ‘raising above the noise to become louder’ with things like social media and youtube, I dug deeper and started doing things that built more trust and impact like writing a best selling book, podcasting and keynote speaking. To build a great reputation I have found that we need to do big things consistently. So many people get caught up in doing many one-off things that don’t make an impression or an impact. I try to keep showing up in bigger ways each year and that’s how I’ve made reputation grow year after year.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Being in front of our ideal market is one of the biggest jobs of a business owner and I would say it’s about 25% of my time. My focus is to serve and impact my ideal market online and offline each week so I schedule that into my calendar. The most effective way I do that is through keynote speaking at events, conferences, and retreats along with podcast guesting, which are the biggest sources of new clients. I have been on 45 podcasts in the last year and have attracted 11 new ideal platinum level coaching clients from it. Marketing is about reach, if you reach 2 people the chance you are going to get one of them as a customer is slim. But when you reach 100, 500 or 10.000 on a weekly basis the chances are huge for you to get many customers from that. I highly recommend podcast guesting (getting on other peoples podcast) if you are a leader/business owner/expert – email me I’m happy to share how to do it. You will reach tens of thousands of people who don’t know you and that way you can start building relationships with them. Additionally, write a book! I can’t say it enough, writing a book not only opens so many doors for you, but it also elevates you as a leader and expert in your niche. These are all things leaders should be doing that bring a massive ROI to their company.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.denapatton.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denamariepatton
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DenaPatton
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denampatton/

Image Credits
Sarah Hoag