2# Insights from a Retail Business Coach – Alvin Narsey

hello Alvin how are you great NZ thanks

for having me on buddy nice to reconnect

again yeah man you too it’s been it’s

been some time so nice to nice to get in

touch with you um really really happy

you came along uh for everyone who

doesn’t know you you’re a business coach

um for in the retail sector can you tell

us a little bit about what you do and

how that works and who you help on

absolutely so yeah I’m a a a retail

business coach so uh all that fancy term

what it means is basically I’m a

business coach for bricks and mortar

retailers

specifically and so that’s uh my day job

and uh my other fun thing that I do is I

also invest in businesses and acquire

businesses but not in the retail Niche

um focusing mainly on manufacturing and

transportation businesses so they’re the

two hats uh that I wear nice one man

amazing how long you how long you been

in in uh acquiring businesses and how

long have you been in retail

yeah sure thing so actually my

background is uh as a pharmacist I

studied Pharmacy in mothern Australia

and so I bought my first business when I

was 27 years old which is which was I

Big A Part in of retail pharmacy so I

guess I’ve been in retail since I was 27

I’m 45 now my math is not so good but

you know for they’re about that long and

the acquisition side of things finally

enough when I was when I bought my first

business and I started working with my

business coach and we set up system and

procedures and then from there it was

just a natural process of acquiring new

businesses so I guess I’ve been doing

this tandemly being in the retail space

and also acquisition space you know for

about um 28 OD years now amazing amazing

I’m really glad 18 18 math doesn’t

matter we won’t worry about the math I

want to jump straight into it and ask

you um if you could go back when you

were younger and you could go back with

a time say when you’re 20 years old what

advice would you tell yourself at the

tender AG of 20 yeah uh going back 25

years and knowing what I know now really

I’m not really I don’t think I’d really

change much you know because I it sounds

so cliche and it sounds so esoteric but

really I needed to go through all the

things that I needed to go through to

sort of get where I am so maybe I would

say to myself you know be a little bit

gentle on yourself like I was really

pushing trying to Red Line trying to

create things and I guess I was a little

bit disappointed a lot at my lack of

success whatever that meant to me at

that time so I’ll would probably go back

and say you know go through everything

make all the mistakes that you’re going

to make but just be a little bit less

harsh on yourself and just really

understand that ah failing or you know

really understand that you know all the

hiccups are part of the journey and uh

for me it’s definitely been a lot of

hiccups so yeah I wouldn’t really change

much but just to and as I’m a little bit

wiser just to be a little bit more

gentle on yourself don’t beat yourself

up too much but definitely go through

all the crazy stuff that I went through

is and so for people listening you

you’ve got a lot of experience in

business you running we up

businesses teaching and coaching

mentoring retail businesses and

obviously now acquiring businesses if

you were to look from a business aspect

or standpoint and say maybe let’s go

outside himself and say someone who’s 20

years old and is looking at your career

path or your your journey and they say

what I really like what Alvin’s doing I

really want to do something similar what

would be some advice or wisdom you could

share to someone someone like that yeah

I think uh I think great uh definitely

go ahead and do it for some of us and it

was certainly for me at some time you

can get a lot of analysis paralysis and

trying to create the right environment

before you start to even execute and I

and I see that in some of my clients as

well and I was certainly like that in

the beginning I think if you really want

to get into business and if you want to

look at ways of acquiring businesses

growing businesses I think the best way

to do it is just to get your feet wet

and just really get into it sure you can

plan you can you can do a whole heap of

planning and I love planning as well but

if you’re just starting out I think pick

something you’re interested in maybe

something you’re passionate about or

something you have you know or you know

somebody that’s doing something and and

just really go for it because I truly

believe that’s where you’re going to to

learn all the skills that you’re going

to be using moving forward and that’s

you know while you’re failing

understanding how business Works

understanding the importance of you know

your customers how you serve your

customers systems processes so I think

my main advice would be to justest don’t

overthink it and just really get into it

just jump in the deep end and do it St

so yes work out how yeah I can do that

yeah I can help you there sure I know

how to do that and can give it a go

that’s what I’m hearing give it a go so

you talked about AB already quite a

couple of times I mean look back there’s

probably been a lot of challenges and

failures so can you tell me about a

specific like what are your strategies

now over the last 2 longer than 25 years

but that you’ve built up of overcoming

when dealing with failure and overcoming

with failure what sort of strategies do

you have in place or do you have

conscious things or is it more just like

you pull on experience how do you how do

you go about it yep absolutely so yes I

I had so many failures uh when I was

running my businesses running the

pharmacy businesses and it’s just been a

constant not constant but you know just

little trials and tribulations that you

need to work through and how I deal with

it now really and it’s it’s cliche but

it’s all about really about mindset and

I think mindset is really important

because this is the the guiding force

that will move you forward so mindset

for me encompasses a few things so it’s

making sure that I’m not beating up on

myself making sure that I uh am

understanding my wins if you will so

that’s one of my big uh processes that

I’ve been doing for quite a long time uh

part of that mindset is making sure that

I have a Clear Vision for myself on what

I’m trying to achieve and as I’ve gotten

older that vision and this is this is

not my uh not thanks to me but thanks to

the business coaches I was working with

at the time and really the it’s about a

vision for myself what do I want my life

to be like what do I want to create and

so making sure that I have that North

Star on why I’m doing everything that

I’m doing has made it super useful for

me to continue to move forward

especially through times of adversity so

mindsets really important under that I

would put journaling I I do like a um

like a 15-minute diary every day which

is uh just basically my wins for today

just three wins and what I want to

achieve tomorrow

and that sets me up really really well

for the day because you know I’m I can

be that guy still and I do slip into it

where at the end of the day and I’m like

damn I haven’t done anything today but

really taking the time out to write and

really reflect on the day you like oh

yes I went to the gym today oh I I did

this uh marketing piece or I really

helped this client today really brings

me back down and creates a positive

mindset for the next day so I think

that’s really important and another

thing is uh meditation meditation has

been very important for me I’ve been

meditating for over 20 30 years now and

so I think that’s been a really big gr

uh grounding uh Force for me amazing you

you said something which was quite

interesting I’m really curious to kind

of dig into a little bit

around your your kind of your major

challenge like maybe one of your major

challenges that you’ve gone on your

journey yeah absolutely I think one of

the one of my um one of my examples

which I share a lot which is why I

started my coaching business was when I

was growing mycies at one stage I was

going through this really bad cash flow

issue right I was just trying to figure

out where all the cash was going in my

business and this was really really hard

because all of a sudden I couldn’t uh

pay my bills I couldn’t pay my staff I

couldn’t pay myself for sure and I was

struggling to you know make the loan

payments in uh to the bank and so this

was a very very tough time very a lot of

juggling and I was for a few moments

panicking quite a lot on what what I

should do now I had to like without I

had to sell some other property and a

few things to to pay down the loan so

that was really really challenging for

me and the way I went through that was

basically and I think it my meditation

practice helped but really just really

having a look at what exactly laying out

the process ahead of me and really

understanding the consequences of what

would happen if I did nothing and what I

needed to do but for me I work best when

there’s a plan so I was able to sit down

properly and just really sketch out or

map out the possible opportunities and

the possible ways I could deal with this

and that for me that works really really

well because I can see visually a clear

picture it’s basically like process

mapping and then really chucking it down

into small steps and basically just

working on each step at a time so I

really knew that I needed to get out of

this cash flow hole that I found myself

in I had put my myself I’d put together

a plan so you know just basic things

like okay I need to get some outside

help I probably need to talk to my

banker I probably need to talk to my

suppliers um and that kind of thing and

just junking it down and then it was

basically every day just tackling a

little bit so something really basic

like calling my banker and saying hey

I’m in trouble uh what can we do and

then the next day it was like calling my

suppliers and saying I don’t think I’ll

be able to pay the bill this month um

you know I’m going to have to talk about

some extension terms and so on and so

forth and having that plan for me worked

really really well because every day I

knew I was doing something to sort of

come towards a solution rather than

drowning in it all and then trying to

get into a state of panic which I did at

many times really falling back onto my

little plan which is a malleable plan

for me because I don’t get everything

right the first time and so you know

just having some sort of structure works

really really well for

me really cool way I haven’t thought

about I mean it seems so seems quite

simple in theory but that that thing

that you said around you panicked and

then you realized okay how do I just

strip this back that’s what I’m hearing

how do I just strip this thing back what

I have to do tomorrow call some supplies

get some maybe get some extensions call

my bank call these people you really

looked at them objectively and I think

in that stressful situation that I say

cool how do I then obviously you’ve used

Jing and used those tools to to ground

you back into where you’re at right like

where you want that Panic is quite easy

abely panic panic panic panic do nothing

stress and then just wait for you know

the the notice like you are not bankrupt

or whatever like the the outcome to

comeing EIT you versus you didn’t you

went you actually went okay how do I

break this down into actionable man

manageable steps yes absolutely and I

find that works best for me it it also

you know as a coach now I kind of do

something similar with my clients and um

you know for most people that resonates

that chunking down it makes it very very

clear it reduces the overwhelm a lot of

people like to see the next steps ahead

and just the simple step of uh you know

the task of just a simple tick every day

that you’re working towards a solution

you know can take a a load off your

stress uh especially when you’re in a

funk you know yeah you Le it’s really

great really great stuff really great

strategies thank you for sharing what

are some books that inspired you and

potentially what books have you given to

people and who maybe had an impact on

them what are some books that you can

share with me okay so rich dad po Poor

Dad Robert Kaki that was uh for me just

really blew my mind about the fact that

there were different quad quadrants

right and uh you know whether you’re an

investor or you’re a business owner and

that kind of thing so I think that’s a

really uh seminal book for me on to

change my thinking when I was reading

that at a very young age and to show me

what was possible and you know as you

grow on in your business Journey then

you start to get businesses and then you

figure out okay what do you do with the

cash in the businesses then you buy

commercial property so that was still a

really foundational book for me I don’t

really give out books I don’t know why

but I recommend books um just as an

aside like with all my clients and I do

the same thing I really encourage people

to read at least 20 minutes every day

that’s part of my daily routine and I

really encourage my uh clients to do the

same there’s something magical about not

a story book but just something related

to business or what you’re doing but the

book that I like to recommend a lot

Believe It or Not which suits my

personality is meditations by Marcus

aurelus uh I really love this book yes I

like meditation but what I

um what I really love about this book is

it forces you it shows you the context

of staying in the moment and how you can

work through adversity and basically how

you can live your life now this book was

written like ages ago ad1 121 right so

nearly 2,000 years old but he talks

about a lot of things marus aelius who

was a general uh at the time in the

Roman army it talks about a lot of

things which are so relevant today and

you know a lot of it goes towards

introspection how to run your business I

think there’s a lot of nuggets in here

and so this is the one I don’t

necessarily gift it but I recommend it

to all my clients I recommend it to

everybody if they haven’t and I because

I read so much I have a kindled um but

this is one of the few books where I

still have as a paperback copy and it’s

something that’s always next to my

bedside like there’s like scribbles and

underlines and highlights everywhere so

this is a book I’m constantly reading

over and over and over again so this is

this is my big tip when I talk to

clients it doesn’t resonate with

everyone uh I’m but for me and I tend to

attract people in my coaching program

who are very similar to me have the same

values so you know this works really

really well for them as well so have you

read this uh I I think I started it and

then I got a little bit confused by it

because the way it was I’m not sure what

version I was reading but my friend um

he’s really he’s into like

stoicism he’s it’s one of he’s a couple

of books that are very similar to you

that he that he’s like you have to read

them so I probably need to give it

another shot and and give it some more

of my energy in time

Yeah it’s you’re right it’s written in

it’s written in Pros so it’s like short

bits and really if you can just get away

with reading a couple of paragraphs

that’s what I do a night again and

there’s always good nuggets in there but

yeah that’s that’s the one I always

recommend to

people will you read um will you read

that and then reflect on like a certain

paragraph or certain ex is that what you

do that’s that’s what I do yeah I when I

say reflect you know it’s funny when I

I can always relate it back to something

that’s happening during my life or

during my day when I’m reading it and

and you know sometimes I’ll read it and

it just goes over my head because you’re

right it’s written in the olden Star

right but um sometimes there’s like

massive underlinings and and that kind

of thing so many gold nuggets in here

really um so yeah just little bits at a

time you know a couple of paragraphs a

night before I go to bed perfect for me

nice thank you for sharing that

than that’s that’s all we have for today

man thank you so much for coming on I

really enjoyed our chat was really

really flowy really organic I got I

learned a lot just from talking with you

also really just nice to to see you and

and have you on the podcast again and

reconnect with you so thank you so much

thanks n thank you so much for having

cheers man