How Challenges Define Your Growth
Turning Struggles into Defining Moments – A Blueprint for Business Growth
Welcome to another insightful piece from The Coaches Plaza, where we explore real-world strategies to grow your coaching practice or entrepreneurial venture.
Today, we’re diving into an inspiring conversation between Amanda Kaufman and Andrew “Doza” Handosa, a seasoned entrepreneur and business coach known for his no-nonsense approach to helping fitness studio owners scale their businesses.
Our discussion shines a light on navigating the tough seasons in business, embracing authenticity, and unlocking transformational growth.
The Turning Point: A "Jerry Maguire" Moment
Doza recounts a pivotal night that forever changed his trajectory. Standing in the storm (literally), overwhelmed by financial stress and a million-dollar mortgage, he had a realization: What if this was happening for me, not to me? Instead of retreating or succumbing to fear, he pulled an all-nighter and outlined the plan that would triple his gym’s revenue. That moment marked the birth of a proven formula for growth that he later replicated in multiple ventures.
His story is a reminder: when faced with challenges, we have three choices—retreat, do nothing and blame others, or turn the adversity into a defining moment by taking massive action.
Authenticity: The Secret Sauce
Doza’s success isn’t built on gimmicks. As he puts it, "I’m full contact, zero filters." This unfiltered approach means cutting through the noise, skipping the “guru advice,” and focusing on actionable strategies rooted in real-world experience. It’s not about being perfect—it’s about being authentic. People can sense when you’re coming from a place of truth, and this authenticity is rewarded in the marketplace.
The Three Levels of Growth
Doza outlines a powerful framework for navigating growth as a coach or entrepreneur:
Toolset: The templates, checklists, and resources you use in your work.
Skillset: The abilities you develop to wield those tools effectively.
Mindset: The foundation that enables you to take action and build resilience.
Mindset is where transformation begins—it’s the catalyst that activates skillsets and tools. But as Amanda wisely notes, this isn’t a “mindset-only” game. True growth requires aligning mindset, skillset, and toolset to drive results.
Lessons for Surviving the Beginner Season
For those starting out, Doza emphasizes a relentless focus on sales and product-market fit. Instead of getting bogged down in creating the “perfect vision” or overthinking strategy, he advocates for action:
Start Small: Don’t overcomplicate it. Create a Stripe account, offer your services, and build momentum.
Focus on Value: Begin with what you know you can help people with, then expand your expertise as needed.
Execute Relentlessly: Mistakes are inevitable, but each misstep becomes a learning opportunity when paired with decisive action.
As Amanda highlights, the key isn’t just consuming knowledge—it’s executing on what you learn, inviting connection, and solving problems for your audience.
Defining Success on Your Terms
Both Amanda and Doza agree that while success begins with solving “money problems,” it evolves into something deeper. Entrepreneurship is one of the greatest personal development tools, allowing you to align your business with your values and purpose. However, this clarity often comes later in the journey, after you’ve weathered the storms and gained perspective.
Doza leaves us with a thought-provoking lesson: The problem is thinking you shouldn’t have problems. Growth at any level comes with challenges, but each new problem is an opportunity to elevate yourself and your business.
Final Takeaways
Embrace the Struggle: Your toughest moments can become your greatest catalysts for growth.
Be Real: Authenticity and connection trump perfection every time.
Take Action: Momentum is built through doing, not overthinking.
If this story resonated with you, share it with three friends who are navigating their own entrepreneurial journeys. And remember, the road to success isn’t about avoiding challenges—it’s about learning how to turn them into defining moments.
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📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hey.doza
🌐 Website: https://thegeronimoacademy.com/
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📌Key Chapters:
00:00 The Unfiltered Approach to Coaching
07:40 Defining Moments in Entrepreneurship
13:12 Surviving the Beginner Season
17:50 The Importance of Sales and Authenticity
22:27 Finding Purpose in Business
Full Transcript
Amanda Kaufman (00:00)
I didn't know how to tell Michelle that I think I've completely ruined our financial future. my God. So.
I didn't. I went inside, kissed a hello, went straight upstairs, pulled an all-nighter and had a full Jerry Maguire moment, like when he wrote his manifesto about how he was going to do it. I did the same thing for our gyms and tomorrow morning when we woke up, It started what effectively became how I developed this formula to effectively triple our business.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And we're continuing our conversation on coaches that don't suck. And we have another coach who does not suck. Thank you so much, Doza for joining me. Doza, Andrew, and Doza, known as Doza, is a seasoned entrepreneur, business coach, and email marketing expert dedicated to transforming how studio owners and entrepreneurs approach growth.
and growth is one of my super favorite subjects, so I can't wait to get into that. As a CEO and founder of the Geronimo Academy, he specializes in helping clients build profitable businesses that align with their lifestyle, yes please, eliminating overwhelm and burnout. And with over a decade of experience in launching and scaling multi-million dollar ventures, Andrew has developed a unique no-nonsense approach that combines for coaching and others to create
fulfilling impact-driven businesses. And through Geronimo unfiltered podcast in his Stop Doing It the Hard Way Club, I love that so much, Andrew delivers unfiltered insights empowering business owners to take control, gain financial freedom, and achieve sustainable growth. His approach is grounded in authenticity, community building, and living a life by design. So basically, we are new best friends. I'm really excited to have you here, Doza.
Welcome to the show. Thanks Maya, thanks for having me. Yeah, so okay. I'm so curious, you you have a lot of clarity about your message, about being unfiltered, just even the name of what you do, Geronimo, you know, it really inspires a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Like, just take 30 seconds and help us understand, that is your take. Why so? Why do you believe so?
I think, especially in this world of coaching and the internet, it's so easy to be, I guess, bombarded by conflicting messages and to get confused. Take five seconds on Instagram or any two social media platform of your choice. And now we've got AI, right? Like it's, it is so, you know, as young business owners, is so easy to get confused and overwhelmed in terms of like what
next step to take. I went down that path and thought that I needed to be like everyone else and on social media and did the hook, did the mess, did all that kind of stuff. And ultimately, I didn't feel like it was me. I'm like in life, I am a full throttle guy. am full contact, zero filters. And in my industry, the health and fitness industry, it's kind of synonymous with a lot of filters.
That I mean, on every level, right from a visual filter on the Instagram to like withholding on all of the details of what it really takes to create. You you you refer to yourself as a full content kind of guy. Like, what does that what does that mean? Like in your in your day to day life means means like I am. Yeah, I'm I'm a big dude. And and like, when I'm on my coaching calls with my clients,
I am, you know, they call me spicy dozer because I just want these guys to win so much that I'll probably step over the boundary of like what is proper and you know, what might be professional. How dare. I will literally like size 13, got size 13 shoes. was like, I'll literally size 13 these guys and they love it. Like.
the unfiltered approach in the industry that I'm in and cut through all the bullshit, to cut through all the guru advice with people that have never done it before. I call them like the virgin sex therapists and there's- My brain just caught up with that. That's so funny. We said we had a clean audience. No, lovely guys. I'm big heart, big love, get in here, big bear hug, but also like I told you to do this and you haven't done it yet. So that's-
sort of odd and that truth telling is so palatable and so powerful. know, one of the things that I really struggled with in the first few years of coaching was people pleasing. And my mentor was like, Hey, they pay you to push. And I was like, really? It's like, yeah. And when I allowed myself to challenge the paradigms, challenge the thinking, challenge the accountability in my way,
you know, but still do it. It absolutely transformed not just my business, but also my own experience of my business and the results of my clients. Like, it's so powerful to do that. Let me ask you this.
Who else is doing it now?
Can you repeat the question? Who else is doing that in their life? This is what I continually kind of reinforce with my team of coaches. Guys, they're in here because they obviously need us, right? And we're here to sort of show them the hope and yes, the belief and yes, all that. And we've got all the content, we've got an amazing academy, we've got all the curriculum and stuff like that. But ultimately,
What we know is there's three different levels of coaching that we've sort of stumbled upon. There's the tool set, which is the templates and the checklists and the bits that everyone froths about. But then it's the skill sets and the skills to be able to use that tool sets. But ultimately, it's the mindset. And that part of that mindset piece is really around holding them to a standard of who they need to become, because they told us that they wanted to, so that they can develop the skill set to then use the tools.
probably. So I'm getting a great visual in my mind of a pyramid or something that's describing that, you know, and I see a lot in our space of coaching and influence. It's all mindset, it's 100 % mindset, but I completely agree with you that it's a mindset that allows you to activate into the skillset, into leveraging the tool set. And that makes so much sense.
As you were coming up, what brought you to coaching? Why did do this? I didn't want to be a Perfect. You're probably great. I'm almost like the anti-coach. Not as in I'm anti to coaches because I love... One thing I always say to people who are maybe a little bit of objection handling, training with my sales team.
is you know, you think LeBron doesn't have a coach? Like do you think Rafael Nadal doesn't have? Like obviously we're not talking about should people have coaches or not. They just either don't believe in you or they don't believe in themselves. So coaching, big fan of. I probably just, so I'll go right back. I'm a practitioner. So like the thing I coach about, I did. And I feel, like already I feel like in this industry of coaching, the wider industry, and I think some of your audience might be like nodding their head and yelling at the radio right now, like,
there's this kind of split in the market of people who have actually done the thing and now they want to like coach people on it or mentor people on it or advise people on it. And then those that have kind of and controversially might have just, you know, become a coach and have picked a niche.
So true. I often tell people, I am a business coach. I've also been in business for like 18 years. So I love business, I breathe it, right? And the thing I'm often telling and reminding my clients is like, hey, coaching is a really low barrier to entry, very high barrier to success, place to play. Correct. Because people can smell it. Like if you're shoveling something,
People can smell it and like they know that you're full of it and that you're just kind of reciting some kind of a script which isn't so bad to have a script but if it's not coming from a place of truth, if it's not coming from a place of authenticity, people smell it a mile away and you get rewarded accordingly in the market. completely agree. Completely agree, mate. So how kind of I accidentally became a coach and I'm
not even, if there's a certification, I don't have it, right? Whatever certification is, is like the receipts of what I've done. And that is ultimately why people do come to us. So we've built, we obviously help studio owners, gym owners, yoga, pilates, mixed martial arts, all that, all those people that are in the health and fitness, wider health and fitness industry. We're on a quest to kind of impact through those people, every million people and know what it's done for me.
I kind of went into gyms. was like my background is in corporate marketing, brand, a bit of sales, technology, that kind of stuff. My business partner, his background was in like corporate finance, banking and all that sort of stuff. At some point we got together and went like, kind of want to get a bit more out of life. can't be stuffed shoveling more dog food and he couldn't be, he just didn't love the banks. was like sucking his soul.
I had a bit of a heart complication one day and I came out of that and then just had this thing about like a car definitely want to get a bit more out of life. So I wanted to do more helping stuff rather than again selling more dog food or chocolates. So my business partner and I decided to open a gym. Now we're two guys that had no business having a gym. When we came home and told our wives that we've
just bought a gym and they're wrong. we have to start somewhere, right? that's actually something we want to ask you about. Qualifications. So anyway, 2014, we opened our first gym. If there was a mistake to be made, Amanda, we made it. Okay. If there was a wrong decision, we made it. And things got worse before it got any better until this one day I had this full Jerry McGuire moment.
I remember like, and it was proper movie scene, storm, rain, howling winds on my driveway of a house that we just purchased, million dollar mortgage, and I've got a pregnant wife inside, and we were broke, and I didn't know how to tell Michelle that I think I've completely ruined our financial future. my God. So.
I didn't. I went inside, kissed a hello, went straight upstairs, pulled an all-nighter and had a full Jerry Maguire moment, like when he wrote his manifesto about how he was going to do it. I did the same thing for our gyms and tomorrow morning when we woke up, the storm had passed, the birds were chirping again, the sun was, the blue sky wasn't back. It started what effectively became how I developed this formula to effectively triple our business.
Wow. Record time, but a whole bunch of awards for it. And then we did it again with the second studio that we took over and did it again for that one. And so along the way, people went, how are you doing this? And I just started to kind of my natural instinct was to teach people how to do it. I guess that's how I became a coach. It started with one person up the road that I kind of knew from a different world. And then went to two and then through COVID.
through all the lockdowns where gyms in our country got shut down and we had to go online. I posted something in an internal Facebook group of the network that I was part of and just wanted to help people and 200 customers turned up next day knocking on my front door going, those can help. That's outstanding. That story really tells about the discovery of that alignment.
it talks about that discovery of like, this is the kind of service that it requires. know, one thing I really wanted to ask you about is the survival of that beginner season, you know, because you're right, I think in this space, there's the kind of clunky, find that niche statement, kind of not really doing the work that matters. And then there's like, people that are
showing up as pros, right? And they're professionally of service to other people. I've noticed that, because I do help a lot of people that are transitioning or pivoting from another career into entrepreneurship and coaching, so they do have high competence, high intelligence. It's just that, they've never done this before. And so,
Can you talk to me a little bit about surviving that beginner season? Like you mentioned that you made so many mistakes, but you clearly turned that into an alchemy of turning it into gold. Like all these mistakes informed your process. So can you talk to me a little bit about that, like surviving that season? I call it...
I call those moments, if I look back on our journey, my journey, and think about those moments that delivered not just incremental growth, like transformational growth, I can link it, I can quite distinctively link it back to a series of defining moments. Now, I've got a bit of a formula for it. So, when...
you get smacked in the face along the journey of being an entrepreneur. Which will happen. That is absolutely guaranteed for anyone who's just starting out. Guaranteed. And if you don't like the idea of that, like with all life, get a job. And if you think it doesn't happen over there either, like... I was gonna say, you're still gonna get smacked around with a job. Unless you're in more control within your own business. Anyway, I've got a whole thing about that.
When stuff happens and when that moment happens and there's been multiple times where that's happened to us, you've got three choices. You can either retreat.
You can do nothing, blame everything else and become the victim or you decide what if, what if this was the best thing that happened for me? So, nuance language there. What if this is happening for me, not to me? What would I need to do to turn this into a defining moment and then literally write it all down and then take massive action?
That's been our things. We've always turned shit situations around into defining moments because we've always chosen defining moments. We've always chosen massive action. Now I'll go a bit further on that. When you're at the start, to all your listeners, if you're at the start, you know you've got a good heart, you know you've got a good product, you know you can genuinely help people.
The single biggest tactical thing that I believe you should be focusing on, so the single biggest tactical thing that I believe you should be focusing on is product market fit, making sales. Making sales. was constantly, Amanda, like Geronimo Academy started off as a content. used to be a photographer and a videographer back in the day, I had a spare camera that I used to use for weddings.
It started off, my very first invoice was $200 and it was to do a video of someone's studio. So from that, they went, what else do you know? And I went, what else are you struggling with? That's the question. My teams, know, they're not really planned out. It's like, okay, cool. So I go back into my files in my head, my files of like my previous life in the corporate world and company that I was a director of before this was an agency and
through that, they put me through this training for Rockefeller habits, this scaling out with Vern Harnish. So they put me through that and I was like, this was gonna come in handy one day. So I like looked at my phone of all the screenshots that I took of all the training that I was doing and I basically applied it to their studio. And they paid me a little bit more money to do some day planning with them. And I used to meet them at a breakfast cafe and we would do these meetings and look what else do you do? I was like, do you run Facebook ads? I was like, yeah, of course I do.
quickly learn how to run Facebook ads. And then just like product market fit and then now we've got like now we've got another one, you know, Studio Accelerator in Australia and New Zealand. He says so casually, I love the story so much because there's so much rhetoric, there's so much baloney content out there that suggests that you have to have so many different prerequisites to helping other people. Make sales.
That's it. know, I just before this, was sitting down with my little mastermind and we were talking about the nature of learning and how so many times people get swept up in learning, learning, learning, but they think that they're learning. They're not really learning. They're simply consuming. And that, you know, the number one thing that I was offering the folks at the mastermind is I'm like, make sure you're inviting people to connect and to talk.
and to share and find out what they're working on. Find out if you can help. Find out if you can make a connection. You know, like I'm even thinking about like how these podcasts that I've been doing has come about. It's simply by just asking, you know, what are you working on? How can I help? Right? It's just the fundamental of business. Yeah, that's it. Like, don't you don't when you're at the start, you don't need to get swept up in and on the vision guide, big vision values, culture, I'm big on that because I'm gonna a team out right. But
You don't need to spend four weeks mental masturbation around what your vision might be or what your purpose is and what you might like. What is the thing that you think you can help people with? Who needs it? Swap up on Stripe, get yourself a bank account, get some Stripe links. I love Stripe links. I'm super tactical as well, Amanda. I can go up here, I can go down here. Stripe links are the bomb. Friend of It's just easy. Just sign it up. Mr. Damantel. You just look at your phone and it takes your money. It's the best thing ever.
Literally that is true. Yeah, yeah Don't worry about charging like a wounded bull at the start either like like You know and I know some other people will tell you as well like maybe just do some stuff for free to get some case studies out of it and then snowball it that's fine and that's for you I've never done anything for free. I just I just had needed to right because I've always been decent at selling only because I again back to the
big heart, people kind of, you know, feel like this guy, he would just got, he was just fine. way to make this thing work. Like, yeah, I think they've just kind of believe in the energy. and I also choose my audience. I choose, you know, people that I think I can genuinely help. I'm not going to walk up to the dentist up the road here and go, I think I can help you your practice. Like I probably could, but not my, not my bullseye just yet. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. And I think like something that
I'm thinking about from my own journey was I really wasn't Geronimo. I really wasn't like this big gregarious kind of personality and I still figured it out. And I love the contrast here because I think what is common that we both have is this authenticity and desire to help other people. know, listener, please listen to that. You have a way that you connect with people. You have your favorite people. You know, I wouldn't go to different people because that's not necessarily my people.
But I love what I do with whom I do it and the circles that I run in and I serve in that circle. And if you find yourself in a circle that's like really low energy, doesn't want your help, it's all negative, that's a mess. You've got to clean up. Yeah. Yeah. And you know,
I really think about, you know, the role of business is to, well, the role of entrepreneurship, you're an entrepreneur if you can solve problems and make a profit, like solve problems at a profit. So I think there's a lot of great to be had around being part of circles and masterminds and things like that. But only if you execute and implement and then apply that to what you're doing that day.
tomorrow, day after and generate sales. Like right at the start, you have a money problem at the bottom. We've talked about, we've got this thing called the three levels of growth or three levels of business and right at the bottom, it is like you have a money problem. Now eventually when you get past it and to solve the money problem to get to the second level, which is like a time problem, the money problem is about how you generate leads, how you make sales, how you kind of tweak your product market fit, how you track that to actually know what's working, what's not working.
And then effectively you've solved your money problems. Congratulations, you've solved your money problems.
then you're gonna get other problems after that. exactly. Every level, know, there's a, I think it was, Grant Cardone wrote the book, The 10X Rule, and it was the first time that I really heard the lesson that you're always gonna have problems, so why not play for bigger ones? Like, have bigger problems that are more appealing than the same old dumb problems that you hate. I know, yeah. And I think some of it is like, this might...
resonate with your listeners, think the problem is that you think you shouldn't have problems. The problem is you think you shouldn't have problems. I love that. Accept it. Accept it. And it gets bigger. It gets bigger at every new level. They're bigger problems. I think that's where you start. Once you've solved the money problems, then it gets deeper within you, what it is that you're trying to solve. There's a lot of people that I've helped scale out of their business. I've scaled out of two businesses.
And I can see how it will be very easy if you didn't have a driving purpose eventually. You don't need it at the start, but eventually along the way you'll sort of synthesize as you learn about yourself, because I do believe business is one of the most powerful personal development instruments. Eventually you'll find what it is that you are driving for. Without that, it is very easy to lose a bit of yourself towards the top.
whatever your top may be or when you kind of exit, it's quite common to see people just go,
And the biggest anti-climax of that is like, so you've got stood out for 10 years to eventually like do the thing, exit. And now you've kind of depressed. So that's not to scare anyone. That's just to go at the start. I think all you really need to focus on is making sales, finding customers, doing a great job and then building some momentum.
Along the way to sort of carry that journey, carry that journey with you is really about a lot of self-reflection, being more self-aware and finding out what it is that you are really driving for in life. What truly matters to you as a person? And then how can you apply all these amazing skills that you can't read about? You can read as many books as you want, right? But ultimately, it's just being in it and developing the character set that you need to.
my gosh, Dosa, I could seriously stay here for a three hour episode, but I only booked you for a short one. So we might just have to, we might just have to do this again sometime. But how can people follow you? you know, you're just, you're soundbite after soundbite. Yeah. Instagram, hey.dosa. Hey.dosa come and say hello. Hey.dosa. H-E-Y dot D-O-Z-A. I love it. I love it.
And listener, do us a favor, go ahead and share this gem of an episode with three of your friends who are building their business and they want to get to it. And they want to, they want to just jump in, Geronimo. And go ahead and do us a favor, make sure that you subscribe so that you don't miss the next episode and leave us a five star review because it helps people find episodes like this that can really help them in their journey. Thanks so much for joining me. We'll see you next time.
