My heart was racing because I was desperately trying not to lose control of the car and spin out.
Sitting next to me was a man encouraging me to push my foot harder to the floor. He kept repeating, “Give it more gas!”
I was accelerating faster and faster. I was turning tighter and tighter circles. And I was at the wheel of a 640 horsepower Porsche 992. A $250,000 sports car that can do 0-60 mph in barely 3 seconds, with a top track speed of 199 mph.
The man in the passenger seat was a Porsche Driving coach because I’m in the middle of a six-week training called The Porsche Driving Academy.
As I turned the car at greater and greater speeds, the centrifugal force became intense. My body was literally forced towards the door as I accelerated around the figure-of-eight course.
“Go faster, until you lose control,” my coach said to me, with no trace of a smile, “because the only way to discover the limits of your control – and the car’s – is to push beyond them…”
My brain could barely compute. I was fighting against three decades of driving experience that had taught me to stay in control of the car.
The Porsche Driving Academy takes place on a professional-level track, using exercises and data-driven analysis. I’m learning the nuances of corners, brake zones and apexes. I’ve been on the track, the slalom, the low friction handling circuit, the kick-plate, the dry circle and I’ve done exercises like the figure-8.
What a Powerful Coach and a High-Performance Sports Car Have in Common
1. If you want to go faster, look further ahead
As I drove the car in even tighter circles, I started to get dizzy. My instructor told me, “If you want to go faster but not get dizzy, look further ahead.”
Sounds simple but when you are speeding round a circuit it is really hard not to look just a couple of yards ahead of the car. It took every ounce of mental strength to force myself to look where I was heading, not where I was turning. And it worked. Not only was I no longer dizzy, I was able to go even faster.
I knew immediately that was an important lesson because it was so counterintuitive. So I told my coach I was stopping the car to write down his words!
Then I put my notebook away and I pressed my foot back on the gas. The tighter I turned the further ahead I looked. And I had far more control of the car.
2. If you want to go faster, loosen your grip
My second counterintuitive lesson that day was that to drive faster I needed a lighter touch on the steering wheel.
I was nervous and I had been holding the wheel so tight that my hands hurt! My coach told me to relax my grip. “That way,” he told me, “you can remain calm but alert, fluid not tense.”
With a lighter grip, your arms are more relaxed. So more feedback is transferred from the wheel to your brain, where it is translated into more accurate information about what the car is doing. I was learning to feel the car with my body, not my mind.
3. Go slow to go smooth. Go smooth to go fast
There’s a single question everyone asks me when they hear I’m training on the Porsche track, “What was your top speed?”
The funny thing is I have no idea. You see, I’m never looking at the speedometer.
At my very first session, my driving coach told me that racing car drivers are taught, “Go slow to go smooth. Go smooth to go fast.”
He explained that my only job is to make the driving experience smooth. The speed will follow.
The irony didn’t escape me that I was at the wheel of a 502 horsepower car and practicing the lesson that’s had the single biggest impact on my life and business: slow down to speed up.
4. Count what counts
For over 50 years, if you have sat inside a Porsche 911, one thing has remained precisely the same. Staring back at you from behind the steering wheel are five dials mounted into the dashboard. And located directly in front of the driver, is the most important dial of all. The rev counter.
In manual transmission cars this makes the most sense, because the driver has to monitor their RPM far more frequently than their speed. So the rev counter sits in the center where you can’t ignore it because it counts what counts.
That struck me because one of the most important ways I help coaches become successful is to help them count what counts.
Income, like speed, is a glamor number. It’s sexy. How much money did you make? What speed did you go? But income is a lag indicator.
If you want to make more money, track what counts. Track the number of conversations you have, track the number of people you serve, track the number of NOs you receive, and track the amount of money you make in proposals. Income will follow.
5. Longevity beats speed
Next week I’ll be back on the track in a 992 generation 911 Turbo S that can do 0-60 in 2.2 seconds, making it one of the fastest production cars in the world.
But my coach told me to arrive 30 minutes early because we’re going to begin by driving as slowly around the track as we can possibly go – in a golf cart!
I’m not training to be a fast driver, I’m learning to be a better driver.
I’ve been a professional coach for almost twenty years. I’m not in it for speed, I’m in it for longevity. And I never stop learning.
6. IP is everywhere
I’ve been writing every day since 2009. I share my ideas in my newsletter, on YouTube, on stage, on my podcast, in interviews and with my private community.
It’s taken me twenty years to build an audience of 45,000+. It’s taken eight years to have a waiting list for 4PC, a $25,000/year program.
If you want to stand out in this overcrowded world of coaching, create IP. Ideas are everywhere. If. You. Are. Looking. For. Them.
Stimulate and provoke the thinking of your dream clients. Don’t be derivative. Be unorthodox, unusual, unique.
Then share your ideas. Constantly. Volume beats accuracy. You can always change your mind tomorrow.
7. Be like Porsche
Know your audience. Be in it for the long haul. Create incredible value. Have a sense of humor!
- If you want to go faster, look further ahead.
- If you want to go faster, loosen your grip.
- Go slow to go smooth. Go smooth to go fast.
- Count what counts.
- Longevity beats speed.
- IP is everywhere.
- Be like Porsche. Know your audience. Be in it for the long haul. Create incredible value. Have a sense of humor!
Love. Rich