Last updated on 1 May 2020
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interesting humans podcast: episode eight
When I played tennis in high school, my coach was a guy named Ed Deitch. Ed was a new teacher and had never coached any sport before.
Yet he remains to this day one of the best coaches I’ve ever had. Because Ed didn’t grow up playing tennis and never competed in the sport in his life, he had a pretty steep learning curve. What I loved and admired about him is that he didn’t have an ego. Ed spent as much time off the court learning tennis and coaching as he did on court leading his players.
In the summer between my junior and senior years Ed introduced me to a top USTA regional and national coach. Ed drove an hour from his home in Virginia to pick me up at my home in Maryland, drove me to my lesson, grabbed a bite to eat with me to debrief then dropped me off and drove back to Virginia.
Ed was committed to whatever success he could create for each of his players rather than himself. That’s what made him a great coach.
Years later I was introduced to Nick Hansen. Nick coaches real estate agents all over the country to higher levels of success in their professional and personal lives. Nick started his coaching career training swimmers and was a hair’s width from becoming the U.S. Olympic Swim Coach.
To hear Nick talk about it, there is great art to coaching, especially coaching well. Whether it’s swimmers or other athletes or real estate agents, the ability to see each individual’s strengths, weaknesses and where they are rather than adhering strictly to coaching dogma is what contributes to the success, however defined, of the coaching client. Nick also notes that it’s a coach’s job hold his mentee accountable. To know when they are not “on board” with the program. Not giving their best efforts.
While every person is different, there are fundamental aspects every athlete—or Realtor®—needs to do to put them into position to succeed. Nick calls it winning the day. The harder you train, the more time you spend in the pool and the more intensely you are committed to doing the boring work, the more likely you’ll be to touch the wall first.
Coaching is partly cheerleading, partly therapy and even partly parenting sometimes.
One of Nick’s proudest moments which he recounts in our conversation was when one of his swimmers placed in a Big Ten Championship and scored points for the team. Though she wasn’t one of the top swimmers, Nick was proud of her because she contributed by working as hard at being her best as the most gifted swimmers on the team.
Nick’s coaching career began when he as a national class swimmer at Iowa State and coached a public program during the summer in Madison, Wisconsin while he trained at U-W for the college season. He later had coaching stints at the University of Arizona and at Wisconsin. His success putting several swimmers onto the national team led him to being that close to becoming the U.S. Olympic swim coach.
He transferred his coaching mindset to real estate when he and his wife, Debbie, and their two youngsters moved to northern Colorado to join his uncle and aunt as part of a real estate team. Though he did a ton of real estate transactions, the coach never left him. Nick soon found himself leading two, then three real estate offices. Eventually Nick started his own coaching practice in which he still thrives today.
Nick is a friend and has been my real estate coach. He guides his real estate clients like he coached his swimmers: by understanding what each person’s interests, commitments and abilities might be. For Nick, though he is committed to their success, the focus isn’t touching the wall first, it’s mastery of the details that puts them in position to touch the wall first.
How do you refine whatever talents, interests and skills one possesses to succeed in the way that makes sense for that individual? Nick addresses this and other questions faithfully in our discussion today.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nick Hansen.
Links:
Real estate:
https://www.hansenteamrealestate.com/agent/nick-hansen/
https://www.hansenteamrealestate.com/about/
https://www.hansenteamrealestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RE-Coaching-Book-Hansen.pdf
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-hansen-002201117/
As a high school swimmer: https://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/swimming-and-diving/college/hansen-inducted-into-swimming-hall-of-fame/article_46809a87-1adb-5d23-a446-605f950cceab.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nick.hansen.54922
Nick is awesome! Glad to have worked with him.