Inside Strategic Coach: Connecting Entrepreneurs With What Really Matters

Kolbe

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

Same as Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes by Morgan Housel

The Self-Managing Companyby Dan Sullivan

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

The DIKW Pyramid

Forging Your Own Path To Success When That's Your Only Choice, with André Brisson Oct 15, 2024

André Brisson was working as a structural engineer when he decided to start his own engineering company. Like a great many entrepreneurs, André knew he needed to be able to do things his way. In this episode, André shares with business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller how he’s found freedom and business success on his entrepreneurial journey.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

How the company André worked for became a toxic environment for him.
What helped André realize that he doesn’t need anyone’s permission.
Why André’s opinions aren’t popular in bureaucracies or in politics.
André’s biggest challenges in the construction site field.
An incredible resource available for entrepreneurs with ADHD.

Show Notes:

If you want to do things differently, you have to find ways of negotiating with people who oppose you.

Entrepreneurial thinking can put other people off because it’s unconventional.

Non-entrepreneurs can only rationalize entrepreneurism.

Entrepreneurism is about freedom, and money is one of the tools you have to have to gain more freedom.

The two types of entrepreneurial freedom are freedom from and freedom to.

Personality and behavioral profiles provide a common language.

It’s useful for people who are different to recognize that the world wasn’t made with them in mind.

Just because something’s been done for a hundred years doesn’t mean it’s applicable right now.

Instead of competing with what someone else is doing, innovate something new.

People will show up if your message is about them.

It’s the check writer who determines whether you’re correct.

If you want to find people who are like you, you have to really know who you are.

Resources:

The Impulsive Thinker Podcast

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

The Unique EDGE^® Workshops for young adults

The Impulsive Thinker^™

ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer’s World by Thom Hartmann

Why A Community Is The Secret Weapon In Every Entrepreneur’s Life, with David Braithwaite Oct 01, 2024

What if the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial potential lies in embracing discomfort? In this episode, Associate Coach David Braithwaite shares his inspiring journey from a "rubbish" student to a thriving entrepreneur and coach. Discover how embracing risk, fostering genuine connections, and prioritizing personal growth can transform your business and life.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

Why David never saw the point of school.
How David got into financial planning.
What prevents people from becoming incredible entrepreneurs.
Why David considers products secondary in his work.
What entrepreneurs have the freedom to do that others don’t.
What people will remember you for.
Why David wishes he’d joined Strategic Coach^® sooner.

Show Notes:

David’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged early, with multiple jobs during school despite struggling academically.
Traditional education often overlooks the relevance of real-world skills, leaving many feeling disconnected.
Risk-taking is essential for entrepreneurial success, yet many entrepreneurs don’t take enough risks.
Being an entrepreneur is a career path for people who don’t fit the typical mold.
Your interest determines how much effort you’re willing to put into something.
Embracing experimentation can lead to valuable insights and breakthroughs in business.
Genuine client relationships are built on trust and honesty rather than just selling products.
David's Unique Ability^® is communicating complex ideas with empathy and clarity.
The definition of community is a group of people who agree to grow together, and community plays a vital role in entrepreneurial success.
At Strategic Coach, you’re in a room filled with people who are just like you.
Imposter syndrome can indicate you’re in the right environment for growth and learning.
Growth and discomfort go hand in hand.
People want to learn from other people's mistakes rather than make their own.
Every coach at Strategic Coach is also a client.
With business growth comes complexity.
When you have the right mindsets, the right behaviors follow.

Resources:

Learn more about David Braithwaite

Podcast: Shannon Waller’s Team Success

Podcast: Inside Strategic Coach

Poem: "The Dash" by Linda Ellis

Book: The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Blog: What Is a Self-Managing Company^®?

Book: The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Blog: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

The Entrepreneur’s Blueprint For Inspiring Leadership Over Management Sep 16, 2024

What’s the difference between being in charge and being in control? In this episode, Dan Sullivan shares his surprising insights on managing teams and creating a productive work environment, offering practical strategies for empowering team members, fostering independence, and creating a thriving organizational culture. Tune in to discover Dan's proven approach to entrepreneurial leadership!

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

Why self-managing has to be built in from the very beginning.
What gives Dan confidence in his concepts and tools.
What people rely on entrepreneurs for as leaders.
Why Dan doesn’t intervene when a team member might fail on a project.
The difference between leadership and management—and being in charge versus being in control.
How Strategic Coach® makes sure their team members don’t get burned out.
Why Dan doesn’t even think about anyone who might be competing with Strategic Coach.

Show Notes:

The number one skill for having a Self-Managing Company® is profound ignorance. The number one structure is Unique Ability Teamwork®.
If you don’t get everyone’s roles right, you won’t get anything else right.
It’s hard to correct a mistake you’ve made from the beginning.
Confidence in your concepts and team is more crucial than trust.
Confidence can come from knowing that you’ll always transform when you fail.
A truly Self-Managing Company operates successfully independent of your constant oversight.
Giving your team members the freedom to innovate, contribute, and pursue their Unique Ability® is essential to long-term business growth and success.
Many entrepreneurs pride themselves on being hands-on with everything that happens at their company, but it’s important to resist the urge to rescue struggling teams.
Being hands-off means allowing your team to learn from failures and trusting that they’ll develop problem-solving skills.
Trust means that you’re taking a risk, and entrepreneurship is founded on risk.
Everything that Strategic Coach needs to be is organized on teamwork.
Strategic Coach has great institutional habits and institutional wisdom.
In science, the experiment cannot depend upon the experimenter. The same applies to business.
Being in control is management; being in charge is leadership.
Make sure the little things that have to be there every day are right—the freedoms and supports that allow team members to thrive—and everything else will fall into place.

Resources:

Blog: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company^®?

Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only)

Blog: Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers

Why Does Structure Equal Freedom In Every Entrepreneur’s Life? Sep 03, 2024

A Free Day^™ is a 24-hour period with no work-related activity whatsoever. A great many entrepreneurs struggle with taking true Free Days^™. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about The Entrepreneurial Time System^®—which consists of Free Days, Focus Days^™, and Buffer Days^™—and why it’s essential for you to provide structure to your Free Days if you want the greatest business success.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The purpose of each of the three types of days in The Entrepreneurial Time System.
Some non-work activities you can use to structure your days.
Why it can be much easier to work than to take a day off.
Why entrepreneurs are so resistant to taking days off entirely without work.
Why you shouldn’t have an unplanned Free Day.

Show Notes:

You gravitate to the part of your life that has the most structure.

Taking a day as if it were a Free Day, but structuring it with activities that are business activities, means that you're not going to be rejuvenated by the day.

You can have a lot of structure to your days even when you’re not working.

You can do activities on Free Days that you would never touch on a workday.

Structure means that you’ll be supported by things that are already planned.

If you have an idea on a Free Day, wait to see if it sticks with you until a workday.

It’s a lot easier to set out to write 100 books than to set out to write only one book.

An idea that is really great bothers you because it wants to be born into the world.

You can still use all your strengths when you’re on a Free Day.

Profitability means you’re not only making money, you’re keeping money.

Your plans regarding retirement affect how you take your Free Days.

Resources:

Article: What Free Days Are, And How To Know When You Need Them

Perplexity app

Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Unlocking The Secrets To Entrepreneurial Freedom, with Ben Laws Aug 20, 2024

In this episode, Shannon Waller interviews Associate Coach Ben Laws, exploring his entrepreneurial journey and insights on self-discovery. Ben shares how intentional structures and relationships have fueled his success across multiple businesses and offers a unique perspective on business, life, and family. Tune in to uncover the mindset that drives impactful entrepreneurship and personal growth!

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

· How Strategic Coach®has influenced much of how Ben’s personal life functions.

· What Ben considers to be the ultimate freedom.

· How Ben demonstrated an entrepreneurial attitude at just four years old.

· The key to Ben’s exponential growth.

· Why setting out as an entrepreneur didn’t seem that risky to Ben.

· What to do if you’re considering becoming part of the Strategic Coach community.

Show Notes

Our eyes only see and our ears only hear what our brain is looking for.

Forming connections and helping people solve problems are entrepreneurial social skills.

Entrepreneurs seek to innovate and drive change. Business owners try to maintain the status quo.

If you name the game, you own the game.

The further your company gets from where you started, the greater the risk of diluting what made your company great.

Experience is the one thing that can’t be commoditized.

Entrepreneurs are always discovering who they want to be.

There's no greater call to loving your neighbor than being an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs are always being challenged.

Entrepreneurs are exponentially more self-aware than other people.

People often think that life is happening to them rather than for them.

As an entrepreneur, your number one job is to protect your confidence.

Resources:

Learn more about Ben Laws

The Six Ds Of Exponentials

Book: The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller

Book: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Book: The Wealth Of Nations by Adam Smith

Perplexity

Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs

Blog: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company^®?

How To Get Paid For Doing Only The Things You Love Aug 06, 2024

In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the philosophical and moral foundations of entrepreneurism, tracing its roots from Adam Smith's theories to present-day insights. They explore the correlation between creating value, self-interest, and moral philosophy, providing valuable insights for entrepreneurs today and proving that entrepreneurship lies at the foundation of a prosperous world.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The rewards—financial and otherwise—for being an entrepreneur.
The prevalent attitudes in higher education that often stand in opposition to entrepreneurialism.
How Dan has used setbacks on his entrepreneurial journey to his advantage.
The type of organization you can create when you embrace the entrepreneurial way of thinking.
Why bureaucratic environments stifle creativity and limit money-making opportunities.

Show Notes:

Being an entrepreneur is a very intelligent way of planning out and living your economic life.

Many successful individuals are often perceived to be driven by past traumas, but entrepreneurship can simply be a means to pursue your passions and get paid for it.

When people within a company feel they can’t be themselves, politicking and bureaucracy take over.

When you work with entrepreneurs, you know when they’re happy and you know when they’re not.

Entrepreneurial instincts can only take you so far. You also need hard, bankable skills in order to be successful.

Entrepreneurism is the only economic forum where you have a direct, interactive relationship with the actual marketplace.

The closer you are to understanding why someone is willing to pay for the results your skills produce, the more knowledgeable, capable, and confident you will become.

When you use your capabilities to continually create increasing value for others, they’ll continually write you bigger and bigger checks.

Every corporation that exists today began with an entrepreneur having a direct relationship with the marketplace.

Dan defines two universal entrepreneurial laws: You must depend upon your own capabilities for your financial security and you should not expect any reward unless you've first created value.

Resources:

Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only)

Book: The Wealth Of Nations by Adam Smith

Book: The Theory Of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith

Book: The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon

The Impact Of Intentional Thinking For Entrepreneurs Jul 22, 2024

In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals his secret weapon for entrepreneurial success: The Impact Filter^™. Learn how this powerful tool can boost your confidence, sharpen your focus, and dramatically increase your productivity. Also, discover how Dan uses it to clarify his thoughts, set intentions, and make decisions rapidly—all while reducing meetings by two-thirds!

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

How Dan Sullivan uses Fast Filters (the “sprint” version of The Impact Filter) to have focused conversations with himself before important events.
The importance of being in teamwork with yourself first to enhance collaboration and productivity with others.
How the Fast Filter can help you decide which ideas are worth pursuing (and which aren’t).
The value of clarifying your thoughts and setting context before meetings, leading to more efficient and productive interactions.
Dan's practice of reviewing five major life goals daily and aligning his actions to support these long-term objectives.

Show Notes:

Dan uses Fast Filters to have focused conversations with himself before important events, boosting his confidence and intentionality.
Engaging in self-conversations can also improve focus and productivity. By defining goals and action steps, you can prioritize tasks, eliminate distractions, and make progress toward your goals.
Being in teamwork with yourself leads to better collaboration and productivity with others.
It can also lead to more intentional decision making in entrepreneurship. By aligning your thoughts, actions, and goals, you can make informed choices that support your long-term vision.
Fast Filters provide mental focus and energy and help you decide which ideas are worth scheduling meetings for.
Clarifying thoughts and setting context before meetings leads to more efficient and productive interactions—and reduces the number of meetings you end up having!
Dan’s approach has reduced his meetings by two-thirds over the past 10 years.
There’s a difference between your "thinking brain" and your "acting brain," and Coach tools help you get them in teamwork with each other.
Focused thinking time directly impacts entrepreneurial success.
Fixating on an unpredictable future limits your productivity in the present, similar to being trapped in the past.

Resources:

Perplexity

The Kolbe A^™ Index

The Impact Filter^™

The Power Of Context Over Content For Entrepreneurs Jul 09, 2024

In this episode of Inside Strategic Coach, Shannon and Dan discuss the profound impact of setting context over focusing on content. Renowned for his ability to create powerful contexts in coaching, Dan shares insights on how this approach shapes thinking and decision making among entrepreneurs. Through real-life examples and coaching strategies, they explore how clarity of context not only simplifies complexities but also enhances community building, personal growth, and self-confidence.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The distinction between context and content in coaching and communication.
How setting a clear context enhances decision making and clarity.
Examples of powerful contextual frameworks in history and technology.
The impact of context on community building and personal growth.
Practical applications of context-setting in everyday communication.

Show Notes:

Setting context empowers people to think independently.
Context allows you to focus on what's most important to you rather than conforming to external influences.
Content is what is discussed or shared, while context defines why it matters and how it relates to personal experience.
Dan offers the example of Steve Jobs, whose ability to redefine contexts, such as with iTunes, simplified music consumption.
Context also simplifies decision making and reduces mental clutter by providing a clear framework for action.
Context ensures clarity in communication by explaining the purpose or relevance of information.
Community building and productive conversations are a natural result of context-setting.
Macro contexts, like demographic shifts and geopolitical factors, significantly impact daily experiences, such as economic decisions made at grocery stores or reactions to political messaging.
Demographic shifts, such as the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation, are altering economic landscapes globally, and understanding demographic changes can help anticipate shifts in consumer behavior, workforce dynamics, and economic policies.
Understanding both these contexts helps individuals and businesses navigate uncertainties and make informed decisions that align with broader trends and changes.
Thinking about your thinking and focusing on context leads to more confidence and independence in all areas of your life.
Contextual understanding also empowers people to resist manipulation and make informed decisions.

Resources:

The CliftonStrengths^® Assessment

The Strategy Circle^®

The Experience Transformer^®

An Entrepreneur's Playbook For Building Trust And Collaboration, with Colleen Bowler Jun 25, 2024

In this episode of Inside Strategic Coach, Shannon Waller interviews Colleen Bowler, a Strategic Coach Associate Coach with over 20 years of experience. Colleen shares her journey from an early entrepreneurial mindset, influenced by her family, to becoming a leader in the financial planning industry. They discuss Colleen's current company, C&J Innovations, and her leadership in the industry, as well as her passion project, Generous Kids. Tune in to learn how Colleen's early entrepreneurial mindset shaped her career and the impact of Strategic Coach on her journey.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The power of collaboration and identifying individual strengths in an entrepreneurial journey.

Strategies for personal and professional growth, emphasizing continuous learning and development.

Insight into building successful firms and the impact of empowering others.

Practical examples and applications of concepts such as Unique Ability^® and strategic growth.

The importance of quick assessments in empowering individuals and advisors for success.

Show Notes:

Colleen shares her journey and early exposure to an entrepreneurial mindset, emphasizing the value of hard work, earning opportunities, and the importance of translating this mindset two her own parenting.
She also highlights the importance of systematizing the predictable to focus on connecting with clients—a key strength for entrepreneurs.
Colleen explains how she built a top financial planning firm by empowering her team and avoiding the "I" mentality, instead using "we" to serve clients.
Colleen talks about how Strategic Coach^® helped her achieve real work-life balance, going from not taking any time off to taking a week's vacation within two years.
Colleen referred 10 people to Strategic Coach before even qualifying herself because she saw how the Program helped people achieve an extraordinary quality of life.
One thing that makes Strategic Coach workshops so valuable is that they’re led by other entrepreneurs who understand firsthand the challenges members face.
Colleen highlights the value of being around like-minded people and getting her "butt in the chair" every quarter for creativity and growth.
Colleen talks about selling her firm and starting her new venture, C&J Innovations, where she creates assessments for financial advisors.
These assessments help advisors align with clients' future goals and mindsets for better relationships and growth.
She also promotes her passion project Generous Kids, teaching the habit of giving to children.

Resources:

Learn More about Colleen Bowler

More about Colleen

C&J Innovations

The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs [Article]

The Entrepreneur's Secret Weapon Is An Elite Thinking Program Jun 11, 2024

For 35 years now, The Strategic Coach^® Program has been helping entrepreneurs to achieve business success and business growth while living happy lives. But Dan Sullivan didn’t set out to create a program for entrepreneurs. He set out to create a thinking program, and entrepreneurs are the ones who took to it the most. In this episode, Dan talks with fellow business coach Shannon Waller about the genesis of Strategic Coach^® and why it works so well for entrepreneurs.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The learning experience created by others that’s had the most influence on Dan’s thinking today.
The ways of thinking on which Dan based The Strategic Coach Program.
How constantly growing in capability and confidence protects you from worrying about the future.
What lets Dan know he’s created a timeless thinking tool.
Where all Strategic Coach thinking tools come from.

Show Notes:

The entrepreneurial game will continue for as long as you’re up to it.

Each person can take the actual experiences of their daily life and develop them into knowledge.

The challenges you face each day are sufficient to create a lifetime learning program.

It's easier to get things created and produced these days than it was in the old days.

Entrepreneurs have to be learning on a daily basis, while many non-entrepreneurs don’t have to do much learning after they get the job.

Some non-entrepreneurs view having to learn new things as a chore, while entrepreneurs see it as an advantage.

The bigger the problem and the faster the solution, the bigger the check for the entrepreneur.

Strategic Coach clients are never told what they should learn from using a Coach thinking tool.

It’s dangerous for an entrepreneur to get bored.

Entrepreneurs get punished most heavily for not changing their minds.

Entrepreneurs can make greater progress from thinking than people in most other lines of work.

As a group, Strategic Coach clients are uniquely confident and feel a unique sense of capability and confidence about the future.

Strategic Coach clients make more money and take more free time than a comparable group of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are the only people whose success depends upon being transformative.

Strategic Coach clients have a shared language thanks to the Program’s thinking tools.

The cause of most entrepreneurial problems is loneliness.

Resources:

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Entrepreneurial Time System^®—The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management

The Experience Transformer^®—Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers [Article]

Simple Steps To Get AI On Your Side And Future-Proof Your Business, with Evan Ryan May 28, 2024

Everyone knows that AI is going to be an increasing factor in business success and business growth, and it’s essential that entrepreneurs are aware of the technology’s limitations as well as its potential. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller speak with special guest, AI expert Evan Ryan, about what’s holding back the productive application of AI and what you can do instead to best take advantage of AI in your organization.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

How to use AI, an intangible, to achieve measurable goals.
Where Evan has seen the most success in companies’ use of AI.
The first question every executive asks Evan.
Ways of thinking that make AI more accessible.
Why many people are hesitating to adopt AI in their businesses.
Examples of where hesitation to use AI has prevented business growth.
Entrepreneur ideas supporting making the change to AI.
How to convince people to take a big leap using AI.
The way AI disrupts established thinking about budgets.
Why the successful use of AI requires a growth mindset.

Show Notes:

No matter how fast the technology itself moves, it's as slow as the humans that are adopting it.

If a solution works for one person, you know 50% of what it would take to work for 10 people.

Humans don't naturally think in terms of exponentials because nothing in our world really operates exponentially.

If you experience sudden growth, and it’s behind you, you can do your own exponentials going forward.

If you don't know where the leadership is, you don't know where the rest of the organization is.

It's hard for people to grasp intangibles unless they're conceptually prone, so you need tangible proof of selling an intangible.

If software is magic, AI is magic times a million.

Something that’s inherently unclear and inherently vague is inherently a little scary.

Technology doesn't become normal until it becomes boring.

We have to normalize our way into the future. And that means that you have to start small and get used to it.

San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and the media talk about AI like it's the end times.

A lot of what goes on in Silicon Valley is getting people to bet on the bet. They're not actually betting on the technology.

One new capability always introduces new capabilities. That's a feature of technology.

The problems we want to solve are the same. We just keep getting better technology with which to solve them.

To grasp future jumps, people need to grasp past jumps.

Technology is automated teamwork.

AI won't necessarily replace people, but people who know AI will replace people who don't.

Resources:

AI As Your Teammate by Evan Ryan

TeammateAI.com

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

ChatGPT

Perplexity.ai

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

Article about The Experience Transformer^®: “Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers”

Article: “What Free Days Are, And How To Know When You Need Them”

Deep D.O.S. Innovation by Dan Sullivan

How Entrepreneurs Can Access A Whole New World Of Thinking May 14, 2024

Do you give yourself time to think? Many people don’t. And for entrepreneurs, the stakes are higher because they’re in the marketplace independently. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about why thinking time is so important for business success and how entrepreneurs can get the highest quality thinking time through The Strategic Coach^® Program.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

· Why deep thinking is scary.

· The question that The Strategic Coach Program was based on from the start.

· Why it’s easier to get entrepreneurs thinking about their thinking than most people.

· Why thinking about your thinking is something that has to be consciously learned.

Show Notes:

Most people only do the kind of thinking done in Strategic Coach^® in extreme emergency.

Most people engage in three levels of thinking: thinking about things, thinking about other people, and thinking about other people’s thoughts. But there is a fourth level: thinking about your thinking.

Higher education is almost entirely based on people who spent their whole lives thinking about somebody else's thoughts.

In any sale, the first thing that people buy is a relationship.

There’s only one expert on what progress is going to make a client happy, and that's the client.

Some people don’t think about their thinking because they’re afraid of their thinking.

For most people, it’s an unnatural act to think about their thinking.

The Strategic Coach Program is about the clients, not the coaches.

Instead of thinking about their thinking, most people just engage with whatever the world throws at them during the day, and then watch TV in the evening.

Thinking about your thinking means taking agency over what actually goes on in your mind.

The more you think about your thinking, the more normal it becomes.

The problem is never the problem; the problem is not knowing how to think about the problem.

Tightly scheduled entrepreneurs cannot transform themselves.

Resources:

Thinking About Your Thinking by Dan Sullivan

The Dan Sullivan Question by Dan Sullivan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Article: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

Podcasting's Move To The Mainstream With Industry Trailblazer Paul Colligan Apr 30, 2024

Podcasting is the future of content. Are you ready to master it? Join Dan Sullivan, Shannon Waller, and industry veteran Paul Colligan as they dive into the business of podcasting, from where it was to where it’s going. With over 20 years of trailblazing experience, Paul shares secrets to podcasting success and the mindsets that separate the amateurs from the pros. Learn how to create a hit show and leverage this booming medium to skyrocket your business influence and growth.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode

What it was like in the early days of podcasting.
The factors that led to podcasting becoming what it is today.
What entrepreneurs love about podcasting.
Dan and Shannon’s early experiences with podcasting.
How podcasts let you find people who share your mindset and values.
The type of people who are plugged into podcasting.
Predictions on the future of podcasts.

Show Notes:

It takes less than five minutes to submit your podcast to Audible for free. And you’re in the directory less than 10 minutes later.

It's always mindset that stops people from trying something new.

The value of the content needs to be understood as greater than its packaging.

The best thing about podcasting is the speed of creation.

It’s easy to tell when a podcaster is following a script.

In a good podcast, you don't know what the second question will be until you've asked the first question.

If you try to control the experience of a podcast, you lose the authenticity of the end product.

Listeners feel like they have a personal relationship with podcasters.

Podcasting has had a profound impact on how politicians speak.

People now use the podcast standard for judging all public speaking.

Podcasts are only popular in countries where they have cell phones.

The only problem with new media is when you treat it like old media.

Resources:

The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Podcast: Podcast Payoffs with Dan Sullivan and Gord Vickman

Podcast: 10xTalk with Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish

Podcast: Shannon Waller’s Team Success

The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller

AI As Your Teammate by Evan Ryan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

descript.com

Article: “Scary Times” Success Manual: How To Be A Leader When Times Get Tough

The Positive Focus®

Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good by Sarah Lacy

Business Lessons From A Tradesman-Turned-Trailblazer, With Kenny Chapman Apr 16, 2024

Employment opportunities for people with blue collar skills are going to keep growing. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk to Kenny Chapman, CEO of The Blue Collar Success Group, about his entrepreneurial path and how skilled blue-collar work is going to be much more crucial, popular, and needed going forward.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

How Kenny’s experience in the military led him to becoming an entrepreneur.
What The Blue Collar Success Group helps with.
How Kenny “leveled up” his self-esteem.
The biggest benefits he gets from being in The Strategic Coach^® Program.
How Kenny used his growth mindset to expand his business and then branch out.

Show Notes:

In the 1940s, being a plumber was a valued career.

Blue-trade industry covers hundreds of different specialized skills.

It takes good leadership to have a good company.

If you don't operate an effective, good model, you're not going to have what you need in order to pay people top of market and above.

Mindset drives everything, and clarity drives direction.

Identity limits us a lot.

You're much more valuable the more you learn and the more you see.

When we hear the word “education,” we've automatically trained our brains to think “higher education.”

Like colleges, skilled trades are not created equal.

Customers complain about price no matter how much it is. So you might as well get customer complaints at a profitable number.

Resources:

The Blue Collar Success Group

Blue Collar Success Laws by Kenny Chapman

The Six Dimensions of C.H.A.N.G.E. by Kenny Chapman

Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin

Kolbe

CliftonStrengths^®

GravyStack

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Article: Your Business Is a Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

No Drama, Just Great Teamwork For Top Entrepreneurs Apr 02, 2024

Every great entrepreneur wants (and deserves) to have a dependable team around them so they can be freed up to develop new ideas and focus on growing their business. But how do you get one? After all, the first question most entrepreneurs ask when they join The Strategic^Ⓡ Program is, “Where do you find such great team members?” In this episode of Inside Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller finally answer this question in-depth. From identifying and nurturing your team’s areas of Unique Ability^Ⓡ and creating a positive and collaborative work culture to investing in team members’ growth, Dan and Shannon share everything that makes Strategic Coach^Ⓡ a magnet for skilled and passionate talent—and how your business can become one too.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The number one tool necessary for building and maintaining a great team.
How to determine if an activity is right for an individual.
Why Strategic Coach team members don’t really need to be managed, monitored, or motivated.
How Strategic Coach creates an incredible sense of safety for its team members.
The two things that team members are looking for.
Why you should think of hiring someone as an investment, not a cost.

Show Notes:

At Strategic Coach, you’re always either winning or learning.

There are a lot of Coach tools that support having a great team.

Everybody's on their own unique growth path in terms of who they are and the kind of work they’re most likely to enjoy and excel at.

Strategic Coach team members can continually focus their time at work on doing what they’re excited about.

The moment someone is hired, Coach invests in learning about who that person is and how they can grow their skills.

At Strategic Coach, if something doesn’t work, the system gets blamed, not the individual.

The four core values of Strategic Coach (PAGE) are: positive and collaborative teamwork; being alert, curious, responsive, and resourceful; getting results; and providing an excellent first-class experience.

Strategic Coach has uniformly very helpful and very positive team members.

Some Coach clients have been with the company for 15, 20, 25 years, and so have some team members.

The educational system generally disparages successful business people.

Almost all Coach team members are directly in contact on a person-to-person level with the company’s clients.

A team member can’t be at their best if they don’t feel safe.

If you want great team members, you have to be a great entrepreneur. And that also includes being a great person.

Great team members who want a bigger future aren't interested in being with someone who doesn't have any future.

If you're going to be able to attract and retain the best people out there, you can’t have an entitled attitude.

Resources:

Unique Ability^Ⓡ

The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller

Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Three Rules That Give Entrepreneurs A Friction-Free Future Mar 19, 2024

When things need to get done, it doesn’t mean that you, as the entrepreneur, need to do them yourself. In fact, for the best kinds of business growth and business success, you need to do as little as possible. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller share the three rules for having a friction-free future.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

The way to achieve more by actually doing less.
Why you need to be clear about what you want to be doing.
How to determine the minimum you need to do for a goal to be achieved.
Why things getting done without your doing them yourself means you’re growing.

Show Notes:

Strategic Coach has a lot of tools for creating teamwork where other people do work that you don't like doing.

For every task, there’s someone who’s great at it, loves doing it, and finds it energizing to do.

There are times in your past where you’ve done a lot, but someone else would have done it if you’d done nothing.

Friction is where you’re moving, but you’re being resisted by forces.

When a new thing has to be done, ask yourself three questions: Is there any way this can be achieved by me doing nothing? What’s the minimum I have to do for this to be achieved? Is there anyone else who can do my minimum?

The more you stick to the three rules, the more gets achieved by things you instigate.

Rather than having pride about the things that get done, some entrepreneurs have pride about doing the things that get things done.

An entrepreneur is only required for the activities they love doing.

Resources:

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Article: Your Productivity At Its Best With This Guaranteed Hack

Discover The Most Essential Tools Used By Successful Entrepreneurs Mar 05, 2024

Everything that humans create is done with tools. But the skill level people have for using tools varies drastically. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss why it’s essential to be good at using the tool of language for both thinking and communicating, and share the thinking tools that all entrepreneurs can use for both business success and business growth.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

Why Dan vowed years ago to never again operate his business with receivables.
Why you’re never starting from zero.
How entrepreneurs can learn what to do in the future by looking at their past.
How Strategic Coach^® thinking tools improve clients’ lives.
Dan’s process for developing and introducing new Strategic Coach thinking tools.

Show Notes:

One of the reasons to get really good at language is because it gives you the tools for thinking and communicating.

If you don’t have the language to think about things, you’re trapped by your emotions.

If your language skills aren’t good enough, people can only respond to your emotions.

A lot of small businesses stay small because they never really comprehended what entrepreneurship really was.

Some things that are impossible can become possible if you change your thinking.

Strategic Coach currently has roughly 250 thinking tools in the company’s 35th year.

Every quarter, Dan creates three or four new thinking tools.

New thinking tools address new things that are happening to entrepreneurs where there isn't a structure for thinking about it.

Questions about the future are tools for instigating a thinking process.

You always have to have a bigger and better future to bounce your present off of.

In today’s world, ideas and processes have tremendous value.

Resources:

Total Cash Confidenceby Dan Sullivan

Article: This Tool Will Help You Make Sense Of The Past AND Take Charge Of Your Future

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

The Transformation Trilogy by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Article: The Four Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan

Do You Know Where The Highest Level Entrepreneurs Look For Collaborations Feb 21, 2024

Description:

Since 1989, Strategic Coach^® has been helping entrepreneurs find greater happiness and business success. In this episode, Gord Vickman and business coach Dan Sullivan talk about how the company has grown over nearly 35 years and how they’re catering to the needs of successful, collaborative entrepreneurs with growth mindsets.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode

What entrepreneurs get out of each of the three Strategic Coach program levels.
Why additional program levels were created
Why there’s no competition for entrepreneurs in the “Free Zone.”
Why Dan considers himself only 50% of the creative team when it comes to innovating new thinking tools.
How entrepreneurism is like jazz music.
The future of The Free Zone Frontier^® Program.

Show Notes:

Thinking tools enable structured thinking.

Strategic Coach thinking tools are all about entrepreneurs thinking about their thinking.

Strategic Coach has 240 trademarked thinking tools. And by this time next year, they’ll have 50 patents.

A Self-Managing Company^® is one where team members manage what already exists, and the entrepreneur creates what's higher, better, and bigger.

A Self-Multiplying Company^™ is where individual team members create new productivity, creativity, and profitability in the world.

For entrepreneurs in the “Free Zone,” their competition wants to be their customers.

Sometimes, your mistakes are your biggest breakthroughs.

Strategic Coach’s ideas come from ongoing experimentation with entrepreneurs.

All entrepreneurs are outliers.

The more thinking tools you have, the more flexible an entrepreneur you are.

Intellectual property—copyrights, trademarks, and patents—is backed up by major governments.

Resources:

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

The Growth Mindset That Extends Your Lifetime Feb 06, 2024

Exciting advances are being made in the area of life extension. Business coach Dan Sullivan, having set a goal for himself in 1987 to live to the age of 156, has been keeping close track of the trends. In this episode, he and Shannon Waller talk about what people should know if they’re interested in living a great life as long as possible.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

Why Dan chose age 156 as his goal.
The profound impact Dan’s growth mindset has had on his thinking.
The simple thinking exercise that can add decades to your life.
Major breakthroughs that have happened in the longevity field.
Why longevity is going to be an area of great inequality.

Show Notes:

The body really pays attention to what your mind is thinking.

The majority of Strategic Coach^® clients are planning to live to at least 100.

Human progress is created out of human aspiration.

People’s longevity goals are having an impact on medicine, science, and technology.

All the longevity breakthroughs have happened within the last ten years.

All of our cells are specialized cells, but they all come from a kind of universal cell.

AI can turn one kind of information into another kind of information.

There's a profound mindset change going on in medicine, that all disease is just an aspect of aging.

Your chronological age and your biological age can be different.

Regeneration is taking what's healthy and keeping it healthy. Repair is taking what's damaged and making it healthy again.

If enough people want to live longer, as a whole, we’re going to live longer.

Resources:

My Plan For Living To 156 by Dan Sullivan

Your Life As A Strategy Circle

Why Entrepreneurs Must Be Clear On Their Own Perspectives Jan 24, 2024

While some people think it’s a good idea to take neutral positions, Dan Sullivan says entrepreneurs need to avoid this. In this episode, he and fellow business coach Shannon Waller discuss the business motivation for always choosing a side.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why trying to be neutral doesn’t teach you anything or get you anywhere
How to know your own standards.
How Strategic Coach^® clients learn about themselves.
The way to strengthen your position using opposing views.

Show Notes:

When you pick a side, you immediately begin learning an enormous amount about the side you’ve chosen and why you’ve chosen it.

If you try to be a neutral person, you just disappear because you’re not for anything.

A lot of people have very strong opinions about their thinking but have no real foundation or basis for their thinking.

The most successful entrepreneurs bet on themselves 100%.

You only become successful by making increasingly more successful judgments.

Obstacles are the raw material for achieving your goals.

Every person is a complete universe of experience and learning.

Other people do things for their reasons, not your reasons.

You can only have a conversation if you show respect for who the other person is.

It’s only if you respect other people’s opinions that you can reverse your own.

Emotions come before our thinking.

You don’t pick a side out of thinking; you pick a side out of feeling.

Resources:

The Impact Filter

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Time Management

The Communist Manifesto

A Step By Step Process For Extraordinary Business Success Jan 09, 2024

At most companies, when something goes wrong, an individual gets the blame. At Strategic Coach^®, on the other hand, we ask whether the individual could have been better set up for success. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain how the Coach environment is set up so that everyone at the company has the best shot of performing at their best and contributing the greatest value.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The positive change that new Strategic Coach team members can take advantage of.
What will cause a new Coach team member to be rejected.
Why envy shouldn’t be tolerated in a company culture.
The importance of congruency in a company.
Why Dan doesn’t want to think about how any of his team members are interacting with clients.
Dan’s growth mindset toward his position at Coach.

Show Notes:

A company can create the structures and the processes where any good person can decide to be a great person.

If you trust in your team members, you’ll save yourself a lot of worry.

Envious people feel inferior from birth.

The ultimate proof that people aren't envious is that they innovate new things that everybody applauds them for.

The outlook that you’re born with is very much subject to the circumstances you’re born into.

In all your teamwork interactions, make sure everyone else knows where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to achieve.

Team members should be freed up to focus on what they’re uniquely good at and love doing.

People who are relaxed and confident can be more creative.

If your company does new things, you need people’s creativity.

In bureaucracies and large corporations, you’re expected to be very good at doing several things.

Resources:

Video: Tips For Exceptional Company Performance

The Transformation Trilogy by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Four Factors That Determine Business Growth Are “M.E.L.T.” Dec 20, 2023

Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller cut through the predictions of unlimited business growth. They explain why the cost of four key elements crucial to business success are on the rise. It's a straightforward conversation about what entrepreneurs should anticipate, and practical steps you can take to navigate the changes ahead.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why we’re entering a working person’s market.
Why energy is going to be cheap only in the United States.
How the four crucial factors influence each other.

Show Notes:

90% of all transport happens on water. And the cost of water transportation is going through the roof right now.

Over the next 25 years, the only place where energy will be guaranteed to be cheap is the United States.

The four crucial MELT factors are money, energy, labor, and transportation.

The costs of the MELT factors are going to rise over the next 25 years.

It’s important to find a way to finance yourself that doesn’t involve debt.

You shouldn’t be giving up a lot of your company just to get your growth money or your survival money.

The U.S. is going to start using tariffs for foreign-produced goods.

We're now in a period where the whole world is going through the greatest loss of skilled knowledge and skilled know-how in history, and this period will probably continue for another decade.

It’s going to get more and more expensive to hire really great people.

The last three years have seen the fastest, biggest growth of new industry and new manufacturing in the history of the United States.

Entrepreneurs are successful to the degree that they solve the D.O.S.® issues (dangers, opportunities, and strengths) of their client base.

Automating what used to be strictly human work is a very slow process.

Resources:

Deep D.O.S. Innovation by Dan Sullivan

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Ignite Unlimited Business Growth The Strategic Coach Way Dec 12, 2023

Strategic Coach® has a unique company culture. Only the best team members stay there, and each has unique capabilities and a growth mindset. In this episode, business coaches Shannon Waller and Dan Sullivan explain how other entrepreneurs can go about creating a Coach-like culture in their own organizations.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why everyone at Strategic Coach must have a growth mindset.
The main value Strategic Coach creates for its entrepreneurial clients.
How Dan helps entrepreneurs focus on doing only what they love doing.
How Strategic Coach clients get added value from comparing notes with one another.
Why many entrepreneurs never get far beyond their own capabilities.
A simple way to ensure every meeting is positive and productive.
How you know you’re not in competition with anyone.

Show Notes:

Strategic Coach clients learn in a community where everyone is a successful, talented, and ambitious entrepreneur.

Nothing turns a person off more than someone not practicing what they preach.

All the thinking tools that Strategic Coach clients master are the same ones that Strategic Coach team members master.

Strategic Coach clients use Coach thinking tools to organize both their business and work lives.

Strategic Coach clients and Strategic Coach team members advance in their careers in the same way.

Strategic Coach clients learn how to have complete congruity between their behind-the-scenes activities and what clients see.

The obstacles to your goals are your raw material for achieving them.

Quantitative measurements really focus entrepreneurs’ brains.

In 2024, Dan Sullivan will have been coaching entrepreneurs for 50 years.

An entrepreneur in one part of the world totally understands an entrepreneur in another part of the world.

There’s a whole relationship that develops from a coach helping a client think more clearly.

Resources:

Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan — coming December 2023!

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

The Positive Focus®

Why Gratitude Is Critical For A Growth Mindset Nov 28, 2023

Entrepreneurs have more to be grateful for than most people who experience business success. In this episode, guest host Gord Vickman and business coach Dan Sullivan share entrepreneur ideas about all there is to appreciate about running your own business.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

How it benefits team members to free up the entrepreneur.
A way to start fresh every day.
Where all of Dan’s gratitude starts.
How to ensure every meeting is positive.
The only accurate way to measure progress.
How AI has changed the podcast production process.

Show Notes:

Entrepreneurs tend to be a lot more grateful for their work lives than people who haven't created their own companies.

You can’t be complaining and grateful at the same time.

If you’re saying you’re excited about something, it’s implicit in that that you’re grateful for it.

Strategic Coach clients use Coach thinking tools in their personal lives as well as their work lives.

The entrepreneurial instinct starts before age ten.

Entrepreneurially minded people know that money is the key to gaining independence.

A lot of entrepreneurs are trying to escape from their beginnings.

Negative experiences can be uniquely valuable for you if they lead to course corrections.

Everything we're grateful for is because we appreciate the value of it.

If you measure your progress against the ideal, you eliminate all the value of what you’ve achieved.

Resources:

The Positive Focus®

The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan

Strategic Podcasts

The Impact Filter™

The Transformation Trilogy: Your Road Map To Entrepreneurial Success Nov 14, 2023

Dan Sullivan and guest co-host Gord Vickman explore the innovative concepts

within the Transformation Trilogy and the collaboration behind their success.

Discover the driving force behind Dan's creation of Who Not How, The Gap And The Gain, and 10x Is Easier Than 2x, as he shares personal anecdotes, inspiration, and insights gained along the way. He also delves into the evolution of these books, their impact on entrepreneurs worldwide, and the invaluable lessons you can apply to your own successful journey.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The people Dan needed to meet in order for these books to happen.
How Dan realized his three major market books were a trilogy.
Feedback Dan’s gotten from clients about the Transformation Trilogy.
Possible plans for more major market books based on Coach concepts.

Show Notes:

Work always takes the time that’s allotted for it.

Life is taking advantage of everything that wasn’t planned.

Dan first had the idea for books as something to assist and support what the other Strategic Coach coaches were doing.

Recognizing that consumers want to get information very quickly, Dan came up with the 60-minute book format.

When Dan was 70, he committed to putting out one book every quarter for the next 25 years.

There’s now a 10-person team around Dan on the Strategic Coach quarterly book project.

The origin of every Strategic Coach thinking tool is Dan asking entrepreneurs a question about their experience.

Everything in the Strategic Coach Program and the way the company is run is a function of equipping people with thinking tools to improve their entrepreneurial life.

The number one rule governing the Strategic Coach universe is free Dan up to focus on what he does best.

Resources:

Who Not How

The Gap and the Gain

10x Is Easier than 2x

The Transformation Trilogy

Can You Guess The One Thing Holding Entrepreneurs Back From 10x Business Growth? Oct 31, 2023

Every entrepreneur would love to go 10x. So what’s holding them back? In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller share the mindset you need to experience major business growth.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The incorrect way that most people interpret 10x.
How you can learn about going 10x from looking at your past.
Why people are currently experiencing 10x greater growth very easily.
How to think of 10x in terms of entrepreneurial freedoms.

Show Notes:

The world is progressing on the basis of new tools, new technologies, and new opportunities.

We’ve all gone 10x many times in our lives.

It’s useful for entrepreneurs to look at how they’ve grown within the framework of their entrepreneurial lives.

You can look at massive growth as a series of 10x jumps.

If you don’t have a deadline for it, it’s only a wish.

Entrepreneurs don’t drive themselves crazy with their goals, they drive themselves crazy with their deadlines.

Money you make can be good or bad depending on the activity and who is writing you the check.

The four entrepreneurial freedoms are freedom of time, money, relationship, and purpose.

All entrepreneurs seek the freedom to focus on whatever they want to focus on.

Looking ahead doesn’t tell you how to go 10x.

Change is a natural part of being an entrepreneur.

Resources:

10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Four Freedoms

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

How To Spot The Copycat Among Creative Entrepreneurs Oct 17, 2023

Entrepreneurs often need to be creative to have a profitable business. What do you do when you aren’t a creative person? In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about the “why” and “how” of imitating other people in order to achieve business success.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why we imitate other people’s performance.
The reason Dan never attends workshops by other coaches.
How real creativity involves grafting.
How uses of technology can be a step back instead of a step forward.

Show Notes:

There are two timeless ways of learning and improving yourself: imitating other people's performance, and repetition.

Humans are the only species that can use their brains to access the uniqueness of other people's brains.

We all imitate other people, whether we like to admit it or not.

If you're creative, and you come across someone who's more creative, you imitate, but at a certain point, you make it your own.

What an imitating person does, and for how long they do it, tells you whether they're just an imitator or whether they're creative.

If you appreciate someone else’s skills, you can translate them into your own world.

Creative people can be polarizing.

You create a new capability using vision and obstacles.

The combination of two people’s uniqueness creates something brand new.

People who imitate but aren’t creative are stealing.

In a world of AI imitation, creative people are going to get wildly more creative to differentiate themselves from robots.

Resources:

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Surprising Business Lessons About "Busy" Entrepreneurs Oct 03, 2023

A lot of people go to great lengths to always appear busy. But should you really see being busy as a badge of honor? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain why the answer is “no.”

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

What busy people are really after.
How busy people are actually wasting energy.
How to achieve results more easily using teamwork.
Why there’s a real cost for entrepreneurs who are focused on being busy.

Show Notes:

People try to establish their value by always being busy.

Being busy has nothing to do with any kind of results.

As results oriented people get better at what they do, they achieve their desired results by being less busy.

Depending on the rules you set up in your company, either being busy or achieving results will be rewarded.

Busy people see it as dangerous to not be seen on any workday.

In large bureaucracies, you get promoted on the basis of your busyness because the organization’s purpose is to be seen as busy.

Entrepreneurial companies get connected to the marketplace very quickly.

There’s no progress without measurement.

Entrepreneurs tend to make for really lousy employees.

We’re always ignorant and incapable when we start anything new.

Resources:

“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan

The Entrepreneur’s Guide To 10x Growth

Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage by Shannon Waller

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Do You Have What It Takes To Be A 10x Entrepreneur? Sep 19, 2023

There are major differences between regular entrepreneurs and 10x entrepreneurs. Do you know which type you are? In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain what makes someone a 10x entrepreneur and reveal the best things you can do if you are one.

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Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

What you can tell about an entrepreneur by how they talk about their goals.
The best types of goals for entrepreneurs to have.
What makes an entrepreneur a good fit for The Strategic Coach® Program.
The entrepreneur motivation and growth mindset that mean you’ll never stop growing.
The question that gives an entrepreneur a bigger future.
How to surround yourself with other constantly growing people.

Show Notes:

Dreams and wishes aren’t measurable, but goals are.

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10x entrepreneurs constantly think, “What we have now is great, but what does it look like when it’s 10x?”

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The reward for going 10x is that you get to do it again.

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10x entrepreneurs aren’t looking for quick fixes; they’re looking to put in the work and time to get to a higher level.

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Over time, you get better at recognizing what’s worth your time and what isn’t.

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Only one out of every 400 entrepreneurs would be a good fit for The Strategic Coach Program.

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Status is a byproduct of capability.

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You only know you have greater capability if you’re getting greater results.

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People who are always striving for greater capability never stop growing.

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A person who is growth-minded might worry about outgrowing someone who isn’t growing.

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What makes a business complicated is the social pressure from outside of you.

Resources:

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

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The Multiplier Mindset® Podcast

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Business Lessons Learned From Both Good And Bad Surprises Sep 05, 2023

Every entrepreneur should expect surprises because surprises are a part of reality. How you respond to them is key to whether you’re a happy, successful entrepreneur. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss how entrepreneurs can use both good and bad surprises for business success and business growth.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why really successful entrepreneurs don’t care if a surprise is good or bad.
How bad surprises can turn into good surprises.
What happens to people who try to make the future free of surprises.
The best way to respond to good surprises.
The best mindset to have when it comes to bad surprises.

Show Notes:

Being taken by surprise means nothing you were preparing for, or nothing you expected to happen, actually happened.

You can do different things with a good surprise than you can with a bad surprise, and vice versa.

More clearly than almost anything else, surprises tell you what kind of person you are.

With bad surprises, you have no choice about how you have to respond because your survival may be at stake.

You can decide that whenever you’re inconvenienced, you’ll get a much bigger result instead of just getting back to where you were.

People who are entrepreneurial take greater advantage of bad surprises than good surprises.

Good surprises can help you up your level of ambition.

You have very, very little control over events outside of yourself.

Resources:

The Front Stage/Back Stage Model® article

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Experience Transformer® tool

Scary Times Success Manual by Dan Sullivan

Seeing Beyond The Myth Of Fairness: Your Key To Business Leadership Success Aug 22, 2023

The world has become more competitive, and many people are focused on the concept of fairness. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain what fairness really means and what every entrepreneur needs to understand to avoid certain dangers.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The different definitions of “fairness.”
Why you shouldn’t compare yourself to others.
How there’s a touch of envy in talking about fairness.
How to recognize your uniqueness and avoid false comparisons.

Show Notes:

No one knows what it’s like to be someone else.

Who you are can be modified by who other people are.

Reactive and creative are opposites.

The word “fairness” is a fairly recent creation.

The present understanding of fairness touches on equality.

Fairness is a social term, not a descriptive term.

A lot in our world supports the fact that things should be fair.

Uniqueness means looking inside and knowing who you are.

If you’re looking for fairness, you can’t find out who you are.

Resources:

“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan

CliftonStrengths®

ENVY: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon Waller

The Kolbe A™ Index

How Your Role Models Relate To Your Business Motivation Aug 08, 2023

Every entrepreneur needs to be careful about who they choose as their role models. Your choices speak to your mindset, your business motivation, and your business success. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannan Waller talk about why each of Dan’s five role models made the list.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The three categories that all five role models fit into.
How Euclid’s principles are timeless.
How the qualities of Dan’s role models influence his creation of Strategic Coach® thinking tools.
Things most people don’t know about Shakespeare.
The uniqueness and intelligence evident in Bach’s music.
The ways in which all five of Dan’s role models were entrepreneurs.

Show Notes:

Your role models should have qualities you aspire to.

The one law that really governs everything is that gravity respects no angle except a 90-degree angle.

Our entire physical world has been based on one book by Euclid.

You need to understand each one of Euclid’s principles before you can understand the next.

Being exploited with food is better than dying from no food.

The vast majority of great people are not widely recognized as great during their own time.

Nobody in particular is in charge of the U.S. The rules are in charge.

The pursuit of happiness is not the same as happiness.

Being inspired by someone doesn’t mean trying to imitate them.

Edison created the model for how to systematically invent new things.

Mindsets create habits, and habits are things that work that have become automatic.

Resources:

“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan

The Strategic Coach® Signature Program

Why Your Business Strategy Should Include Exceptional Hospitality Jul 25, 2023

If you want business success, you have to take good care of your clientele. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the difference between customer service and hospitality and reveal the right way to treat clients and customers to keep them coming back.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why customers should be treated like human beings, not transactions.
The difference a personal touch makes.
The importance of being interested, not just interesting.
Why there’s a big opportunity right now to make people feel at home.
Ways you can show people you’re paying attention.

Show Notes:

Hospitality means making people feel at home.

There’s a movement where people are trying to make human beings more like machines.

The more dependence there is on technology, the less there’s a sense of personal connection.

If you have to write out customer service rules, the rules aren’t a habit.

The point of hospitality is showing appreciation for your clientele.

Remembering small details about your clients can make a huge impact.

There’s a lot of competition to be interesting, but there’s almost no competition to be interested.

Every person is smart in their own way.

Resources:

Peter Zeihan’s YouTube channel

Anything And Everything Podcast with Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

Extraordinary Business Lessons In Three Simple Rules Jul 11, 2023

How do you stand firm in a world that seems to be in flux? It’s easier than you might think. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain the three rules for staying cool and calm so you can achieve business success and business growth no matter what’s happening in the world.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why entrepreneurs don’t need to ask permission to create.
The importance of company ground rules.
Why it’s helpful for entrepreneurs to recognize that life isn’t fair.
Why some people need to be controlled by other people’s laws
The real definition of creativity.
The five “credibility rules.”

Show Notes:

If you want somebody to be in charge, you have to be the one in charge.

If we aren’t enforcing the rules, the rules don’t matter.

All the knowledge that we have was made up by someone.

After you make something up, you have to communicate it in such a way that other people will find it useful.

Entrepreneurs are the masters of making up new things.

Political leaders aren’t in charge; they’re fulfilling a role according to a set of rules.

Your new ideas will advantage some people and disadvantage others.

There used to be so much scarcity in the world that you couldn’t think about things like fairness and equality.

Freedom is maximizing being inside of restrictions.

Nothing you come up with has any value until somebody is willing to write you a check for it.

Economic breakdown usually comes from government mismanagement.

Rules allow you to have your attention on the main thing rather than on the small things.

Resources:

“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan

The Impact Filter™

Don’t Let Uncertainty Get In The Way Of Business Growth Jun 27, 2023

Every so often, there are major world events that affect things economically and can lead to people feeling a lot of uncertainty. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about the best business strategy an entrepreneur can take to make sure their business not only survives, but thrives while other people are feeling uncertain about the future.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

How Strategic Coach^® acquired a whole new capability during COVID lockdowns.
The advice Dan gave clients after 9/11.
What a lot of people’s futures depend on.
The single question that will renew clients’ sense of their future.
Things clients can work on while cash flow is an issue.
Why it’s really easy to compete during an economic downturns.
Why Dan predicts scary times for most of the world over the coming decades.

Show Notes:

Big companies and corporations make all their gains and market share during bad times.

Economic downturns are always going to happen, so it makes sense to develop a skill around them.

Instead of worrying about yourself, you have to give other people a chance to be clear about their future.

As the leader of the company, your number one daily job during uncertain times is to keep everybody's confidence high.

Everybody is coming from different worlds when they come into work.

You should come out of a period of uncertainty with the same team you went into it with in terms of numbers and in terms of the power of your team.

When uncertainty happens, most people lose their ability to take action.

You haven’t solved a problem until you can laugh about it.

Your job during uncertain times is to go out and create new futures for all of your clients and prospects.

A client’s money is frozen when their brain is frozen.

Resistance and uncertainty are normal for entrepreneurs.

If you allow external forces to control your future, you’re not being an entrepreneur.

Resources:

The Positive Focus® tool

Scary Times Success Manual by Dan Sullivan

The Dan Sullivan Question by Dan Sullivan

How Successful Entrepreneurs Turn Surprising Connections Into Business Strategy Jun 13, 2023

Entrepreneurs innovate by drawing connections between things that haven’t been linked before. But how can you go about making such connections? In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain Dan’s latest breakthrough thinking tool, The Triple Play.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

How creativity is a method you can master.
How you can tell whether an activity is creative.
What types of connections get people excited.
Why Dan preferred to make his own toys as a child.

Show Notes:

We don’t discover connections; we make connections.

Creativity is connecting things where you didn’t see the connection before.

Not many people are creative enough to build an independent career in the marketplace.

You’re not really creative if you’re not surprising yourself.

Your brain can’t ignore a question.

Children play according to a method of connecting things that don’t belong together.

People's directed usefulness is achieved at the cost of creativity.

Imaginative thinkers make more money than people who are uniform and predictable.

Creating connections is how our brains get used to the world.

Resources:

Capitalism—And Everything Else by Dan Sullivan

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Capitalism—And Everything Else by Dan Sullivan

Visual Thinking by Dr. Temple Grandin

The Foundation Of A Growth Mindset Is Just Guesses And Bets May 30, 2023

Every entrepreneur would love to be able to predict the future, but of course it’s impossible. The future is always being created by every human being on the planet every day making guesses and bets about their individual future. There's no way of understanding or even detecting what kind of guesses and bets eight billion people are making today, when they weren’t even thinking about it yesterday. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain the importance of understanding why it’s all about guessing and betting, and how you can make the best guesses and bets for business success and business growth in your future.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

Why we’ll never get beyond technology just being reactive.
Why artificial intelligence is based on the past, not the future.
The big bet that Dan and Babs made before starting The Strategic Coach® Program in 1989.
How to find team members you don’t have to manage, monitor, or motivate.

Show Notes:

Humans have always had a desire to predict the future.

Technology can’t be superior to the human thinking that goes into it.

An entrepreneur betting on something means they commit their time, their activity, and in some cases, their money to a particular activity.

People have far more freedom on an individual basis now than they did a century ago.

Individual team members need to take themselves at least as seriously as management does.

Predictions are just guessing and betting based on what’s happened up until now.

You’re making a guess and a bet when you hire a team member.

If you look into how a technology is created, you know what to expect from it and what not to expect.

A great team member has to be great at what they do and great at playing with others.

Some people strive for a role they aren’t good at because in their minds it has higher status.

Resources:

Unique Ability

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon Waller

Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller

Business Success Is Believing That Growing 10x Is Easier Than 2x May 16, 2023

When asked if they think they’re able to 10x their current income, most entrepreneurs aren’t confident that they can. But when presented with a different way to think about it, it becomes clear that it’s actually easier to go 10x than it is to go 2x. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain how to change your thinking so you’re ready to 10x your company’s income.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

The mindset shift that happens when you realize you’ve gone 10x before.
Insights you can gain from your previous jumps in income.
Why your team members might try to prevent change at the company.
How Strategic Coach® has gone 10x more than once.
Why people have to make things up to scare themselves nowadays.
The difference between “status entrepreneurs” and “growth entrepreneurs.”

Show Notes:

Whenever someone goes 10x, they’ve gotten rid of a lot of activities they’d been doing.
Going 10x means hiring people to do activities they’re great at.
Growing your income means going after bigger and bigger check writers.
Entrepreneurs should be using technology to expand the power of their teamwork.
Growing your income might involve new collaborations with individuals outside of your company.
You make up the future, but you don’t make up your past.
The first time you go 10x, what you did couldn’t be predicted. The second time, you have a pattern to follow.
Most people want a bigger result without having to change themselves or what they’re doing.
10x is multidimensional thinking, while 2x is linear thinking.
How other people went 10x is meaningless information because it’s not the way you did it.
You won’t go 10x unless doing so will result in greater freedom.
A 10x quantitative jump is meaningless unless it’s also a 10x qualitative jump.
Entrepreneurial growth calls for constant transformation and change.

Resources:

The 10x Mind Expander by Dan Sullivan

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Article: “The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs”

The Strategic Coach® Program

Entrepreneur Ideas And Business Lessons For Determining Your Marketplace Value May 03, 2023

Get the latest book by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy, 10x Is Easier Than 2x.

What are your time and skill worth to somebody else? The issue of pricing is the biggest hurdle to people thinking about becoming entrepreneurs because most people live their lives with someone else doing their pricing for them. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain the best way for entrepreneurs to determine what to charge.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:

How an entrepreneur can switch mindsets from being the seller to being the buyer.
Why entrepreneurs should actually stay away from competitive pricing.
Why the fastest way to your biggest future is The Strategic Coach® Program.
The question that will take your clients into the future, and you with them.
Why you shouldn’t negotiate unless what you’re offering is unique.
The importance of being attuned to your clients’ futures.

Show Notes:

Most people don’t like negotiating what their value is with someone else.
If you’re applying for a job, it’s generally predetermined what the value is of doing that job.
For entrepreneurs, the combination of time and talent determines the price that needs to be negotiated.
There’s no right price for anything because all pricing is psychological.
If your client doesn’t have a big future, your price is a cost. If they have a big future, your price is an investment.
If you focus on your uniqueness, you aren’t in competition with anyone.
The toughest obstacle to being a successful entrepreneur is getting to where you feel proud and confident about the ways you've priced your value in the marketplace.
Many people don’t have a proper appreciation of their own value, and so they don’t like negotiating.
Some entrepreneurs spend too much time worrying about people who aren’t check writers.
Pricing is a lot easier if you have no competitors.

Resources:

Capitalism—And Everything Else by Dan Sullivan

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan