Built Not Born Podcast · 30 July 2025
Business Coaching Myths Busted: Lessons From Our Year With a Business Coach
Mike Allen joins Chris and Helen to challenge common business coaching assumptions and share practical lessons on goals, strategy, accountability, leadership, teams and thinking time.
FeaturingMike AllenBusiness Coach and Mentor, Stepstone ConsultingEpisode guide
About this episode
Chris and Helen Butler had both encountered the usual stereotypes around business coaching, including the idea that every problem can be solved by putting prices up. After more than a year of working with Mike Allen, who runs Stepstone Consulting, they use this episode to explore what genuinely useful business support can look like and why the right outside perspective can change how an owner thinks about the business.
Mike is careful not to describe himself as a pure coach. His approach draws heavily on experience from leading businesses and teams, along with the mistakes and lessons collected along the way. For him, two ideas sit near the centre of good business support: start with the end in mind, and understand how customers define value. A longer-term destination gives owners a way to judge opportunities and distractions, while a clear understanding of customer problems keeps the business commercially relevant.
The conversation also challenges the habit of turning every business goal into a number. Turnover, profit and eventual sale value matter, but Mike argues that owner-managed businesses need a broader definition of success. That can include how the business feels to run, what it provides for the owner, the sort of employer the owner wants to be, how customers experience the company and the values that guide decisions. Once that future state is clearer, the practical work is to move backwards from it and create a simple route map rather than an over-engineered plan.
Accountability is another recurring theme. Chris and Helen reflect on the value of logging improvements, reviewing small wins and meeting weekly so that agreed actions do not disappear beneath urgent day-to-day work. Mike also shares one question from a former mentor that changed how he thought about his own workload: being busy and completing a to-do list is not enough if there is no protected time to think about whether the right things are being done.
Leadership and people sit alongside strategy throughout the episode. Mike discusses the importance of trust, values, humour, vulnerability and honest feedback, including the need for business partners to make sure apparently shared goals actually mean the same thing to everyone involved. The discussion also covers team feedback, psychometric testing as one input into recruitment, respecting other people's time and the idea that a strong team can be as fundamental to customer experience as the customer strategy itself.
The result is a practical conversation about business coaching without pretending that every owner needs a coach or that one formula works for everybody. The bigger lesson is to create enough space and outside perspective to question assumptions, define what success really means and keep moving towards it deliberately.
Key takeaways
What you'll learn
- Effective business support does not have to fit a single coaching model. Mike combines questioning and reflection with practical experience from leading businesses and teams.
- Start with the end in mind. A clear picture of the business and life you want helps rule out distractions and makes shorter-term decisions easier.
- Do not define success only by turnover, profit or sale value. Consider how you want the business to feel, the role you want it to play in your life and the experience you want for your team and customers.
- Work backwards from the longer-term outcome to create a simple route map. A three-year goal can become a two-year position, a one-year target and then practical monthly and weekly actions.
- Regular accountability helps stop important actions disappearing beneath day-to-day work. Chris and Helen found weekly meetings particularly useful for keeping priorities visible.
- Thinking time is part of the job. Being busy is not the same as making sure the work being done is moving the business in the right direction.
- Trust, values, humour and appropriate vulnerability all matter in leadership because strong working relationships shape how teams perform and how customers experience the business.
Questions from this episode
Frequently asked questions
What can a business coach or mentor help a business owner with?
In this episode, Mike Allen describes support that includes clarifying desired outcomes, challenging assumptions, working backwards from longer-term goals, improving strategic thinking, strengthening leadership and creating accountability around agreed actions.
What is the difference between a business coach and a business mentor?
Mike says he does not see himself as a pure coach. He describes coaching as often drawing out answers the owner may already have, while his own approach also uses lessons from his experience leading businesses and teams. Some of his clients therefore describe him as a mentor.
How can business owners turn a long-term goal into an action plan?
Mike recommends starting with the future outcome and working backwards. For a three-year goal, describe where the business needs to be after two years, then after one year, before turning that first-year position into simpler monthly and near-term actions.
Should business goals only focus on turnover and profit?
No. Mike argues that numbers are useful because they are measurable, but owner-managed businesses should also consider quality of life, values, team experience, customer experience, personal achievement and what the owner wants the business to do for them.
Why is thinking time important for business owners?
The episode distinguishes between completing tasks and making sure those tasks are the right ones. Protected thinking time gives an owner space to review direction, challenge priorities and make decisions that support the longer-term plan.
Is business coaching just about being told to put prices up?
That is one of the assumptions Chris brings into the conversation, but the discussion presents a much broader role for good business support, including strategy, customer value, goals, leadership, accountability, team development and decision-making.