River City Six – Jim Barger

Meet Jim Barger, certified business coach for ActionCOACH.

Tell us a little about your business.

ActionCOACH is an international franchise with over 1,000 coaches worldwide in over 80 countries. With over 25 years of proven success with business owners, ActionCOACH is the largest business coaching firm in the world. I have been an ActionCOACH for over 10 years in Omaha and have had the honor to have coached over 100 businesses in both Omaha and Lincoln. I am now building a team of coaches and trainers to teach the 6 Steps to a Successful Business to the Omaha area, including training for employees, managers, and salespeople through the Success Omaha initiative.

How did you get started in the business?

I had read ActionCOACH books and attended ActionCOACH training in New Zealand, and when I returned to the US, I decided that being a business coach was a great way to use my experience.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced professionally?

Developing a belief that I can succeed. At successive steps in my career, I learned more and was able to take on bigger and bigger goals.

What has been your most important achievement professionally?

I moved my family to New Zealand, bought the Burger King development rights for the country, and opened 60 Burger King restaurants in six years, creating a $100 million company with over 3,500 employees.

Tell us a little about your family.

I have a very understanding and forgiving wife, Janet, who has traveled with me and put up with my many big ideas for over 37 years. I also have two delightful daughters here in Omaha, one-and-a-half son in laws, and my granddaughter Ruby who gets all my jokes and encourages my silliness. I couldn’t ask for more!

What do you see as one of the biggest turning points in your life?

There are multiple: letting Christ into my life, quitting my job to go get my MBA, ignoring my fears and moving to other countries to take questionable positions, and retiring from employment to become a business owner. I haven’t worked for anyone else for over 25 years.

What is the most unique or interesting thing about you that most people probably don’t know?

Flying across the Pacific, you cross the dateline. Once I left the day before my birthday and arrived the day after. No birthday that year. Another time I flew on my birthday and arrived on my birthday. So two birthdays that year. I’m even.

Who inspires you?

People who have a dream and then build it.

If you could choose only one descriptive word to be remembered as, what would it be?

Visionary.

If you could have a super power, what would it be?

Time travel.

What local nonprofit organization(s) are you passionate about or involved with, and are there any special reasons why?

Deaf Child Hope works with deaf children in poverty around the world. These are amazing people who have no way of communicating and are living in poverty. They are treated as less than animals.

What is your favorite book or the last good book you read?

I highly recommend The Road Less Stupid by Keith Cunningham. You will change the way you think about your business.

What is your favorite TV show?

NCIS.

If you could have dinner with one famous person from the past or present, who would it be?

Jesus is the obvious answer for me. What I would learn in that hour!

If our readers would like to contact you, how should they do so?

Phone: (402) 676-8809; Email: JimBarger@actioncoach.com; Website: www.jimbarger.coach.