The Game of Business: A Playbook for Success, According to Coach Chot Reyes of Coachcom, Inc.

While foremost known for his illustrious sports career, Coach Chot Reyes has integrated key learnings and strategies into a whole other playing field: business.

The name Coach Chot is synonymous with basketball, as he is the former Head Coach of Gilas Pilipinas and the man responsible for making puso (heart) the national battle cry. Having been exposed to both sports and business early on, his foundation stems from his graduate degree from the Ateneo de Manila University—where he played in basketball championships during his high school and college days—and his further education at the Edinburgh Business School in the United Kingdom.

With successes dating back to the Philippine national basketball team’s historic silver medal finish at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship and their subsequent appearance at the 2014 FIBA World Cup (the country’s first in 36 years), among many other achievements, Coach Chot has firmly established his reputation in the basketball court.

What’s more, his success in the court is backed by certifications as a Global Leadership Coach, Executive and Team Coach, SCRUM Coach, ICAGILE Certified Professional Agile Coach, Red Team Coach, and High FLOW Coach.

Beyond his illustrious career as a basketball coach, however, Coach Chot is also known as a seasoned executive and businessman—having taken on the role as the President and CEO of TV5 Network, Inc. in the past and presently managing a salon franchise together with his wife—alongside expanding his passion project: Coachcom, Inc.

Thus setting his sights on a whole new ball game, he takes his expertise in coaching and his sharp business acumen—bringing the two together in his business and executive coaching company, where he takes the helm as its Founding CEO. A business that has been going strong for over 20 years, Coach Chot takes on the role of mentor by sharing strategies with aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners and coaching and priming them up for the win.

In this exclusive interview with The Business Manual, Coach Chot reveals winning strategies that guarantee surefire success in the playing field that is business.

Being a Two-way Player in Sports and Business

Sports and business are seemingly two different concepts. On one hand, sports are public events, whereas companies are less open about their dealings and business operations. After all, businesses are not spectator events. They likewise do not compete in one-on-one arenas the way sports teams do, as the playing field is much, much bigger than that.

The common denominator, however, lies in the philosophy that governs these two schools of thought. This became the foundation for Coach Chot when he started Coachcom—a business and executive consultancy that helps build business owners and entrepreneurs for success.

“My mission is to develop the next generation of world-class Filipino leaders who will lead their organizations—not just to make a profit, but to make a difference,” Coach Chot begins. “Building teams. That’s what Coachcom does. It’s right in my wheelhouse, and I’ve been able to parlay that into a pretty good business.”

When asked about the similarities between running a business and playing a sport, Coach Chot begins by talking about his approach at Coachcom. “The foundation of most of the things I talk about with executives and organizations is that there is no business or organization that can be successful without teamwork—without the members, executives, managers, or players working together as a team towards one direction, towards one goal.”

“Number two is effort,” he says simply. “You cannot succeed just by envisioning it, by thinking about it, or by wishing it. You have to put in the effort, and then you have to execute it. That’s the second similarity.”

And finally, the human factor that ties the two together. “Especially now in the age of technology—of digitalization and artificial intelligence—I think in the end, what makes organizations and businesses work…what makes teams win are the people: the players, coaches, management, and support staff.”

Leveraging the Puso (HEART) Mindset in Doing Business

For Coach Chot, having a strong team—a strong foundation—is one thing when starting or running a business, but the mindset is just as important. He then echoes the principles of puso (heart), a battle cry he popularized during his time with Philippine national basketball team Gilas Pilipinas.

“Puso in English is ‘heart.’ So I put together my research, all my certifications, my experiences working with organizations, and talking to clients [to create] a leadership model. And I call it the HEART model,” Coach Chot explains. “HEART is an acronym for health. For me, the foundation of all great success in business, sports, and life is [one’s] health, and I keep reminding executives, business owners, and entrepreneurs of that fact. [The] number one most important thing: take care of your health.”

“How can you be successful when you’re always on sick bay? How can you be successful if you cannot focus? If you have no attention span? So that’s the number one thing. The problem is we take our health for granted,” he goes on to add.

Health, for him, does not just encompass the physical state—rather, it is on a holistic level that includes mental, emotional, and the overall wellness of a person. “We have a lot of programs around health, and even if you take a look now, a lot of our issues on mental health problems and on wellness. Most of them have a physical component. So, for me, the foundation of all great leadership is health.”

“Letter ‘E’ stands for emotional intelligence,” Coach Chot explains. “To be a good leader, you have to have great people skills. You have to first have an intense self-awareness of who you are, how people perceive you, and how you relate to others as well. Without that emotional intelligence, without that awareness, then you cannot be agile.”

The next letter in the HEART model? Agility. While this refers to being able to move easily from a sports perspective, the same applies in business. In problem-solving, in responding to an emergency, and even more so in making important decisions. “Today—more than any other time in our history—agility is so important. Being agile as a leader. So for me, leadership agility and agile coaching are important. We have a lot of programs around that. That agility allows you to be resilient.”

“The letter ‘R’ is resilience. If you are not agile, you cannot be resilient,” the coach continues. “When the storm hits, bamboo—because it’s resilient—it bends. It doesn’t break. If you’re not agile, then you’re going to break; so if you’re not agile, it’s hard to be resilient.”

“In today’s day and age, we live in an age of disruption,” Coach Chot explains. “We always have that funny discussion with a lot of executives. ‘Planning tayo ng planning. Budgeting ng budgeting. None of our plans are going to work anyway!’ But who can predict what’s going to happen next year? In six months, we can’t even predict what’s going to happen, but we can prepare for it.”

This is why he stresses the importance of resilience. “[While] I don’t know if we can future-proof ourselves or our organization, we can be future-fit.” We can prepare for it,” he declares.

Building a Strong Team

Health, emotional intelligence, agility, and resilience. These traits are innately built within you, or as Coach Chot would say, “they’re scaled by your ability to build great teams.” As that is the most important trait in business. Team leadership—the last “T” of the HEART model.

“The letter ‘T’ of my model is team leadership. No executive can be successful because the deluge of information today is so fast and so vast. No matter how good you are, or how smart you are, you cannot do it alone,” Coach Chot says simply. “The best leaders are the best team builders. You build great teams around you. You build your people.”

Within the HEART model, however, is the Gilas TEAM model—another series of acronyms that Coach Chot believes can build a business owner for success. “When I started coaching Gilas ten years ago, I asked the players what it was going to take for us to be successful. The players themselves said, ‘Coach, we need to become a team.'”

So, what does TEAM stand for? “T stands for trust, E is for effort, A is for accountability, and M is for motivation. In summary, that’s essentially everything that I work with with organizations and leaders. The HEART of the leader and the TEAM model,” he explains.

Accepting Both Success and Failure

Given his vast experience in coaching teams in the world of sports, Coach Chot has been on both the winning and losing side of the field. Having experienced his fair share of successes and failures, however, has not deterred him from powering through. “The most important part of my experience is that I’ve won on the biggest stage, but I’ve lost as well, and I’ve failed in a lot of things. Everybody knows that. And yet, I’m here,” Coach Chot says simply.

“In sports, it’s such a cliche [to say how] failure builds character and all that,” he continues. “Victory also builds character. But more than anything, sports teaches us what school does not—how to recover from failure.”

Beyond sports, Coach Chot has experienced highs and lows in doing business, with successful ventures like Tony & Guy—the British hairdressing salon chain that he and his wife brought into the Philippines—and businesses that didn’t do well.

“I’ve had businesses that I put up as well that went under, that I actually lost money in, and those are the businesses wherein I was not fully present—not fully engaged,” he admits. “We had to cut our losses and write it off. Fortunately, it was something that we could afford.”

However, not everyone is as lucky. While most prefer to quickly move on and put the past failure behind them, Coach Chot stresses on the importance of accepting failure and even learning from it. “That’s very important—to look at failure as a learning experience. They say that success isn’t final and failure isn’t fatal. ‘Yun lang ‘yun eh. If it doesn’t kill you, it should make you stronger—if you learn the lessons from it.”

Keeping an Open Mind When Faced With Criticism

As a public figure in the world of sports, Coach Chot has heard it all—praises, compliments, criticisms, and in worse-case scenarios, scathing comments from his critics.

Despite all this, he remains unperturbed—choosing to do things his way regardless. “The most important thing is that you have to understand whose voice matters,” he opines. “Who are the people around you whose voice matters? For me, that’s the most important thing. All the criticisms I get—a lot of it on social media and all that—they don’t matter to me.”

“They can speak all they want. It doesn’t affect me. They don’t have any say, they don’t have any voice, and they don’t have any influence at all in my life, in my circle,” he declares, adding that the same mindset should be applied when doing business so nothing can dissuade you from your goals.

Next is to know where these comments are coming from. “A lot of criticisms are really from a point of ignorance. A lot of people on social media don’t know what’s happening. They don’t know, but they’re going to comment on something just because they heard somebody else say this. That’s how fake news gets magnified.”

“I’ve long learned that those things are from people who don’t matter, so I don’t stress myself with it,” he adds. “I’ve also learned to understand that there are a lot of people out there who don’t know what’s going on. So it’s something that I’ve just learned to let slide off of me.”

Finding the Right Business Coach and Mentor

Just as a coach exists to guide a team to win, Coach Chot stresses the importance of having a mentor—someone experienced who can teach you the ways and means of running a business. After all, having a business coach and mentor will not only allow you to grow your knowledge and experience but he or she can help you develop your leadership skills and build your confidence as a business owner.

Plus, having a mentor can help minimize the chances of failure, especially since he or she can easily forecast it based on experience.

“Mentorship is a skill. It is a skill, but it starts first with a desire. You have to want to do it first, and then that skill can be easily learned,” Coach Chot explains.

“I, myself, have been a recipient of it very early on from my days in high school and college—from the coaches and professors who have had a profound influence in my life,” he adds. “Very early on, when I established Coachcom, I also got mentored by a very well-established executive coach from the US.”

This became the driving force of Coachcom. Having been around for 20 years, the consultancy is Coach Chot’s way of paying it forward. How? By nurturing a new generation of leaders. “I think that’s what my purpose in life is. To really provide value to as many people as I can influence. To hopefully inspire and help develop the younger Filipino people—young Filipino leaders who are able to make an impact not only for their organizations.”

“They’re not only here to make a profit, these leaders, but to make a difference as well,” he states.

Knowing That The Grind Never Ends

Achieving success is one thing, but maintaining that level of success is a whole other ball game. Not one to rest on his laurels, Coach Chot believes that the grind never stops—especially since one setback can make and break a business, just like it can for a coaching career, or even any career for that matter.

“When I was appointed the CEO of TV5, I got a question from one of the business media,” he recalls. “They asked me, ‘What’s going to be your approach, and what is your thinking as you take on this job as the CEO?’ Very simple. I’m a coach, and I know coaches are hired to be fired. That’s just my thinking.”

“You’re here, you do a good job, then you’ll stay on,” he says matter-of-factly. “But the minute that you don’t achieve what has been expected of you, it doesn’t matter what you did last year. You’re going to be dispensable. That is always what I remind leaders in my talks.”

The same applies in the field of business. “We’re only as good as our last win. We’re only as good as our last championship. Maybe it’s not as drastic as sports coaching [that lasts] one season or one year,” he elaborates. “But I think that’s a good reminder for every leader and business owner to have—that no matter how successful you are this year, or these last few years, you’re only as good as your last championship. You cannot rest on your laurels.”

The solution? To continue growing and learning.

Learning Lessons in the Field of Business

Having been well-versed in the strategies of both a basketball game and running a business have equipped Coach Chot with the right skills to lead a team—whether a team of basketball players or a team of employees.

Thus taking all these nuggets of insight, he sums up his discussion with The Business Manual into these three important thinking points for aspiring entrepreneurs and business owners.

On Banishing the Misconceptions of Running a Business

This mindset of constant learning and growth applies to starting your own business, too. This is why Coach Chot encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to banish the common misconceptions that come with being a business owner.

And that includes being able to relax once the business is put up.

“If you want to go into your own business, you have to be prepared to put in the time and the effort,” he warns. “Take away the myth that if you have your own business, you can put up your legs and relax. A lot of people say that they don’t want to be in corporate because ang dami kong ginagawa. There’s a lot to do. ‘I’m too busy. I do a lot of work.’”

Based on Coach Chot’s experience, these people say that they would rather put up their own business. “Then you’ll be even busier if you run your own business,” he exclaims. “Because in corporate, somebody’s going to do the registration [and the works]. But when you’re putting up your own business—especially as a startup—you’ll be doing all of that. There’s nobody who’s going to do that for you.”

On Checking Your Appetite for Risk

The next thing that Coach Chot advises is to check in on your appetite for risk. Business is a whole other game, especially with money in the equation. And given that the level of risk is not for the faint-hearted, he thinks that this is an important factor to consider.

“What is your appetite for risk? I think that’s very, very important as well because being an entrepreneur, being a businessman, it’s kind of romantic. Di ba ang ganda…[it’s nice] to have your own business,” he says. “I’m my own boss. We give employment to a lot of people. But there’s a lot of risk involved.”

“So you have to be prepared to take on that risk. Can you afford to lose that whatever, whatever your investment is that you put in there? Those are the things that you have to think about. If you’ve thought about those things, then I think on the flipside, it’s something that you’re passionate about. It’s something that’s in your wheelhouse.”

On Starting a Business Based on Passion

Doing what you love and loving what you do is the end goal, but not everything can be monetized—let alone turned into a business. This is the reality check that Coach Chot cautions aspiring entrepreneurs, given that the idea of passion projects is being romanticized.

“A lot of people always say if you can make money doing something that you love, okay, di ba? But of course, not everyone has that opportunity,” Coach Chot clarifies. “I’m lucky I was able to do that with Coachcom because I like doing what I do. I like giving talks, doing my workshops, and conducting leadership development sessions.”

“So, number one, if it’s something within your passion that you can make money with, well and good,” he continues. “If not, then you’ll have to be able to find the why—what’s really in it for you. And let’s be honest. Pera-pera lang ba yan? Gusto mo lang ba kumita? [Is it just about the money? Do you want to earn?] Or do you want to help others and provide employment for those who need it?”

But what is rarely talked about in the world of business, which Coach Chot believes is just as important, is knowing your limits. “Knowing when is the time to get into business [is important and all], but it’s also just as important to know when to get out of a business. I’ve done that as well. Sometimes you’re already losing money, but saying that ‘Yeah… I started this. I love this.’ is not enough. Maybe it’s time to get out of this business. Time to cut your losses. And I can say that with confidence because I’ve been there.”

“Next play. Next play tayo,” he ends.

Text DIANE NICOLE GO

Photography KIERAN PUNAY of KLIQ, INC.

Videography KIM ANGELA SANTOS of KLIQ, INC.

Video Producer GRANT BABIA

Art Direction MARC YELLOW assisted by ANDREA SANGCO

Sittings Editor RJ LEDESMA

Shot on Location MORO LORENZO GYM