“If you don’t love working with people, it’s unlikely that you will flourish.”

As co-owner of the ActionCOACH Small Business Coaching firm in Miami, Jody Johnson, works with clients to help them realize their dreams through thriving and successful businesses.

Perhaps the best representation of Jody’s accomplishments is the success of her clients. Using ActionCOACH’s proven methodology she routinely gets double and triple digit growth. Most importantly she inspires and motivates her clients and woman entrepreneurs to work to their strengths and passionately pursue their dreams while maintaining balance and wellbeing in their lives.

ActionCOACH Team Sage is South Florida’s #1 Business Coaching Team servicing Miami, Doral, the Gables, and Coconut Grove. ActionCOACH Team Sage has a mission of changing Florida’s economic landscape.

BusinessInterviews.com: What are some of the most common issues you see your clients facing?

Jody: The most common issues I see clients facing is clarity and accuracy around their financials, a lack of focus on business development efforts, an unwillingness to hold themselves and their teams to account for results, and a slow response to changes in their industry requiring them to examine and modify their business models.

BusinessInterviews.com: Do you think that watching your parents work as civic and social activists in your community helped influence your career path?

Jody: Absolutely, my parents were and still are civic and social activists, even in their 70s and 80s, they were also business owners for over 30 years here in Miami. Early on I became very clear on the fact that well run businesses make a huge contribution to the overall health of a community. When I learned about ActionCOACH I immediately saw the connection between having resources to help a business run better and the subsequent impact on the owner, their team, their families, and the community at large.

BusinessInterviews.com: Can you talk about the economic wave of opportunity that is coming to South Florida in the next decade and some of the ways that you’re trying to prepare business owners on how they can capitalize on this trend?

Jody: The advent of Miami Growth Advisors was to inform and support the small business owners in South Florida about what’s happening over in Panama with the expansion of the Panama Canal lock system, the Port of Miami, the airport, the railway, and educate them on what the massive investment in growth here means to their small business. The assertion is that big businesses, both public and private, are very aware of the opportunities flooding into our city, and most small business owners are not. However, if they become informed, apply the critical thinking and take action to get their businesses ready, a great deal of wealth will be created in our community, but they have to be prepared. The first white paper “Miami’s Economic Wave of Opportunity” downloadable at www.miamigrowthadvisors.com outlines the 7 steps a business owner must take to be ready.

BusinessInterviews.com: What advice would you give to someone who is contemplating becoming an Action Coach (business coach)?

Jody: First of all you have to love people and want to help them. If you don’t love working with people, it’s unlikely that you will flourish. Secondly, be prepared to take massive action to launch your dreams, and thirdly, close off all other options. I once heard Brad Sugars, founder of Action Coach, answer a question about who makes it in this business. He said people who have to, whether you have to make it for external reasons or internal reasons like me, it’s the drive of I’m going to make it in this game, there are no other options. Having a back door is a leak of power and will sabotage your best efforts.

BusinessInterviews.com: What are some of the unique challenges and advantages working with family owned businesses?

Jody: I have worked with a relatively large percentage of family owned businesses since I started this firm eight years ago, and there are definitely challenges and advantages to running a family owned business. One of the biggest challenges I see is because they’re family they act like family members in the workplace. Family dynamics in the workplace may have nothing to do with today yet impact the day in and day out running of the business. Having a coach to moderate conversations with clear metrics and a transparent way of holding one another to account goes a long way to addressing this common issue. In terms of advantages, when the family members are operating at a high level of maturity, knowing that your team has your back is priceless.