ABOUT YOUR COACH

About Your Coach

Robert Scanlan

My business life began with a brief sales “career” at age seven, where I earned not only commissions on the raffle tickets sold to benefit the Sisters of Mercy, but won a shiny silver dollar as the top seller in the school. Mom was very proud, but was aghast to learn my success came by selling the tickets inside the many Chicago blue-collar Irish taverns nearby. What’s a boy to do when he has already visited every home in the neighborhood? An early lesson to grow, change, adapt!

My first steady job, five days a week with set hours, started at age nine. Ever since, I have managed to stay busy, usually productively. I earned an MBA from the University of Southern California and was trained in commercial lending. Next came building and managing the nation’s largest (at that time) SBA lender, and the market introduction of selling government guaranteed commercial loans., which has become a billion dollar industry. As an entrepreneur, working with vast numbers of other entrepreneurs, I learned the creative potential of the human spirit in each of us.

I then spent a decade successfully founding, growing and managing a commercial business loan company. My experience included financing hundreds of small to medium sized businesses, and consulting with many hundreds more. Studying the patterns of successful men and women revealed that they had different skills, but common patterns in their methodology . A successful method always includes goal setting, planning, resource gathering, effective activities, self-monitoring, attitude, focus, and flexibility .

I was then invited to be CEO at the west coast’s largest manufacturer of hotel furnishings. Under my stewardship, a thirty year old company, with 100 employees and on the verge of bankruptcy, was turned around to profitability and cash flow in less than six months.  (I still cannot tell oak from ash.)

My experience, achievement, and method had evolved in a varied, and highly results oriented, environment. My success with a furniture manufacturer, an industry where I had no prior familiarity, confirmed my belief that a wide spectrum of businesses, and most of life’s issues, can be successfully managed with a common methodology. I also recognized that a key skill to business success has been evaluating, hiring, firing and counseling employees and businessmen to achieve their best .

Much of my personal satisfaction during this period came from coaching boys’ baseball, and ultimately watching my son play nine seasons in the major leagues. Together, father and son learned that commitment, attitude and focus can take an unpretentious boy to fulfillment of a seemingly impossible dream…..another lesson in personal power methodically applied to attain a vision.

Again enjoying the blossoming of a new business (investment management) at age 55, I was suddenly stricken with liver failure. A liver transplant was performed, and after nearly six months hospitalization and two years rehabilitation, I had lost my ability to work and all my possessions. This was a time of deep introspection, of evaluation of life’s purpose and personal values. Each day took the nature of a precious gift to be used wisely.

After several failed attempts to re-start at even menial jobs, I became a salesman with performance results in the top 1% in Southern California. The process of re-building my middle-aged life was a great lesson in the value of attracting the best people and environment into one’s life.

Life seemed good again, until 10 years later the new liver failed, and another transplant of a liver plus a kidney took place. Shortly afterward, I determined that the methodology I learned through my experiences, changes and adaptations should be shared for the benefit of others.

I am currently in process of attaining certification from the International Coach Federation, and am coaching individuals from all walks of life. I bring my life lessons to each individual I have the privilege of coaching.

I also do public speaking on behalf of the organ donation program, and weekly invest time supporting transplant patients and their families in crisis, in both group and one-to-one situations.

I have known considerable success, and I have known considerable un-success. I am wealthier today in the matters that I value, than at any prior time in life. My joy is in being my best today, and my purpose is sharing my experience, knowledge, training and education so my clients won’t endure fifty years “figuring out some of life’s issues” as I did.

I see challenges as opporties to grow. I would like to partner with you as you face your challenges.