Inside Strategic Coach: Connecting Entrepreneurs With What Really Matters

Many entrepreneurs use negatives to make a sale. But why sell fear when you can sell opportunity, and why sell pain when you can sell growth? Dan Sullivan reveals why positive messaging attracts the best clients, how ambition fueled by principles keeps you young, and why your community determines your growth. Learn why the most successful entrepreneurs never retire—they just keep reinventing themselves. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How selling is both an intellectual and emotional activity.Why fear isn't something to avoid—but a sign you're growing.The mindset shift that keeps successful entrepreneurs innovating.How Strategic Coach® accelerates growth for already successful entrepreneurs.The surprising link between ambition, aging, and fulfillment (and how to stay "young" at any stage).  Show Notes: Most sales pitches use fear—but fear attracts the wrong clients and limits your growth. Selling has two parts to it: intellectually connecting people to a desirable future result, andthen emotionally engaging them to take action to achieve that future result. To be effective, a sales pitch has to be both convincing and compelling. Instead of pitching that you can remove a negative, focus your pitch on amplifying something positive. You're ambitious because of your passion. You'd like to see your passion have an impact out in the world. Who you surround yourself with determines your trajectory: growth-oriented people keep you young, while stagnant people age you. Status entrepreneurs, as opposed to growth entrepreneurs, eventually run out of ambition. Ambition is driven by strategy. Growth is driven by principles. Your principles are your way of being. The moment you retire from fear, you also retire from excitement. Fear and pain go together, as do opportunity and growth. The biggest thing you're putting at risk when you're growing is your own past. In the Strategic Coach community, you're not the exception—you're the norm.  Resources: 10xTalk Podcast with Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish Anything And Everything Podcast with Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff The Mindset Scorecard by Dan Sullivan The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan

What if the solutions you've already created could generate value for decades—without more of your time? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals how packaging, naming, and protecting your ideas transforms them into scalable intellectual property. Learn why your “second company” (your multiplier) could soon be worth more than your entire business—and how to make it happen. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How to make your solutions valuable by protecting them through intellectual property law.The thinking tool that lets you find the right person for the right role.How you can easily turn your ideas into intellectual property.The importance of sticking to your business model.How you can franchise your ideas.The future of Strategic Coach® over the next 20 years. Show Notes: Your first company, your R&D company, creates solutions for people. Your second company, your multiplier company, packages your solutions as your intellectual property. If you record, package, and name a solution you've created, it will have massive ongoing value. Before you put your ideas out into the world, you must protect them. Boredom with your own solutions is a hidden risk—document them before you move on to the next idea. The value of Strategic Coach's patents will soon surpass 55 years of coaching revenue—proof that IP compounds value. Protecting your creativity isn't just a multiplier; it's an accelerator of long-term wealth. A two-company structure makes you immune to market chaos because you control the value of your ideas. Your biggest breakthroughs will come from technology multiplied by teamwork, not from grinding harder. The same business model that built your success can scale infinitely—if you focus on IP, not just execution. Resources: Unique Process Advisors by Dan Sullivan Instant IP Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff Unique Ability® Perplexity This Tool Will Help You Make Sense Of The Past AND Take Charge Of Your Future Everything Is Created Backward by Dan Sullivan Extraordinary Impact Filter by Dan Sullivan Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan

Do you feel torn between the company you have and the one you wish you had? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals The Second Company Secret—how successful entrepreneurs leverage their first (real) company to fuel a second (multiplier) company built on intellectual property. Discover how to eliminate tension between the two, protect your creativity, and unlock exponential growth. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:Why your real company frustrates you.Why your imaginary company seems perfect.What you can do with the new Second Company Secret thinking tool.What you'll come to realize if you closely examine your two companies. Show Notes: Entrepreneurs often undervalue their real company while idolizing an imagined “perfect” version. Your real company isn't the problem—your thinking about it is. Your most creative breakthroughs feel tied to this unrealized vision, but it lacks traction. Your second company allows you to see the value of your first company. You could be making money at one company while still resenting how much of your time it takes up. Your second company thrives through collaboration, not through your time and effort. Structure and partners are non-negotiable—they're the multipliers of your vision. You bring the vision and capabilities, and your partners bring the reach.                  When your second company succeeds, it fuels even greater creativity and innovation in your first. The solutions you create are your intellectual property. Take steps to protect them.  Resources: Unique Ability® The V.C.R. Formula Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage What Is An Impact Filter?

Are you prepared for the biggest economic shift in 80 years? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals how the new global tariff landscape creates unprecedented opportunities for agile entrepreneurs. Learn why the post-WWII economic order is over, how to adapt your business model, and why being alert, curious, and resourceful is the secret to success in this emerging era. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: The real history behind today's tariffs—and why it matters for your business.How WWII transformed the U.S. economy into a global powerhouse.Why the U.S. dollar leads world trade (and why that's changing).Why the U.S. Navy started protecting trade routes around the world.Five critical strategies every entrepreneur must adopt now.A simple framework to help clients regain confidence in uncertain times.Why China faces unprecedented challenges in this new era. Show Notes: On April 3, the U.S. announced tariffs of 10% for most countries, with higher rates for nations with significant trade imbalances. Post-WWII, the U.S. economy was self-sufficient, yet other countries charged tariffs on U.S. goods while enjoying tariff-free access to American markets. One-sided tariffs led American corporations to offshore factories, costing U.S. jobs and prosperity. Trump's tariffs are a negotiation tactic to reset unfair trade terms and bring manufacturing back to the U.S. China's current trade practices make it the primary target of aggressive tariffs (now 125%). U.S. companies abroad face tariffs unless they relocate production home—creating a surge in domestic opportunities for entrepreneurs. You want to be the buyer in every negotiation. The buyer is the one who can walk away from the table. The United States is the best place to sell a product created anywhere in the world because it has the most customers. Tariffs aren't about fairness. They're about trade. Entrepreneurs are skilled at responding very quickly to new dangers and new opportunities and developing new strengths in the process. Global supply chains are fracturing, forcing businesses to source locally and regionally. During uncertain times, people feel as though they've lost their future. You can help clients and customers rebuild confidence in their future by focusing on their dangers, opportunities, and strengths (D.O.S.®). The 1945–1992 economic order was a historical anomaly, and we won't see anything like it again. AI reduces labor costs (and creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs as a result).  Resources: Perplexity Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump and Tony Schwartz The D.O.S. Conversation® by Dan Sullivan The Great Meltdown by Dan Sullivan Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

What if leadership isn't about titles, but about creating new capabilities others can observe? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller break down the shift from bureaucratic management to self-leadership in the networked economy. Learn the four-step process to transform uncertainty into confidence—and why focusing on problems is the death of innovation. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:The four-step process that always makes you an inspiring leader.Why a goal isn't a destination.The big difference between a role and a job.Why there are no orders in the network economy.How Dan is finally revealing his process in a new book.Why unique skills are generally wasted in bureaucracies. Show Notes: Self-leadership starts with creating new capabilities—not waiting for permission. Anytime you're doing something that creates a new capability, and other people observe you doing that, that's leadership. Your activity of creating a new capability gives others the confidence that they too can have the courage to create a new capability. The pandemic created a network economy. Great technologies like Zoom have enabled people to work remotely. Many management activities within a company can now be handled by apps. Bureaucracies punish boundary-crossing, while networked teams reward it. When people get possessive about their territory, it shuts down creativity. Instead of trying to fix problems (or worse, just complaining about them), create solutions that make problems irrelevant. Confidence comes after courage—not the other way around. Resources: Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan

The Strategic Coach® Program has been helping entrepreneurs achieve accelerated growth and personal freedom for over 35 years. Now, Strategic Coach® is excited to welcome a new coach to the Program. In this episode, Associate Coach Erik Solbakken shares his unique journey from chartered accountant to successful entrepreneur, and what excites him about connecting with fellow entrepreneurs. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How Erik responded after his professional dream was decimated.How Erik's clients inspired him to become entrepreneurial.What led Erik to The Strategic Coach Program and how it changed his life.How Erik is helping accountants create better business models.What allows an entrepreneur to focus on their purpose. Show Notes: The way to create your future is by reflecting on your past. Entrepreneurship isn't always easy; it's a journey with ups and downs. Your ideal client wants the authentic you, not the pretend you. Self-discovery is a lifelong journey. Capabilities and confidence come from commitment and courage. Being part of the Strategic Coach community means being surrounded by entrepreneurs who can support you through tough times. Strategic Coach thinking tools help you clarify and simplify your thinking. Each time you use a Strategic Coach thinking tool, you gain deeper insights. Every coach at Strategic Coach is also a client, applying the tools and concepts to their own business. Our eyes only see and our ears only hear what our brain is looking for. Strategic Coach is one of the world's greatest philosophy programs wrapped in a business blanket. Resources: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs How To Sell Transformation Using This One Question Unique Ability® What You Can Learn From Failure “Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan 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 What Is A Self-Managing Company®? Viking Academy™ The Accountant Success Formula™ Accountants Kelowna BC

Is complaining holding you back from your full potential? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the surprisingly simple choice between complaining and creating when facing obstacles. Discover how shifting to a creative mindset, embracing courage, and taking full responsibility can unlock new capabilities and exponential growth. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How complaining allows you to avoid responsibility by justifying why you can't move forward.The Strategic Coach® thinking tool for transforming obstacles into capability and confidence.Why you need commitment and courage before you can gain capability and confidence.The kinds of people that give creativity a bad name. Show Notes: An obstacle feels like something is blocking your progress. There are only two ways of dealing with obstacles: creating or complaining. When you're in creativity mode, you're fully engaged with transforming or bypassing the obstacle. To deal with an obstacle, you have to create something new. Taking 100% responsibility is essential for creative problem-solving. Complaining involves blaming external circumstances or people. Committing fully to complaining offers a sense of freedom because you've absolved yourself of any responsibility for improving your situation. Few people are entirely creative or entirely complainers. Most are a mix of both. Creativity requires courage; complaining does not. Creators are more likely to be honest with themselves. You attract what you are: complainers attract complainers, and creators attract creators. Resources: The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan

Organizations have changed a lot over the past 50 years, and it's vital for entrepreneurs to be aware of these changes if they want to achieve great business success. In this episode, Dan Sullivan, who has been coaching entrepreneurs for 50 years, talks to fellow business coach Shannon Waller all about the changes in companies that have taken place over the past half-century and the very different position that entrepreneurs are in today. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:What gave Dan confidence to become a business coach.How Dan's desire to coach got married to entrepreneurism.How Strategic Coach® helps entrepreneurs thrive in the current economy.The way to give your team members roles, not just jobs. Show Notes: The invention of the microchip allowed entrepreneurs to have a lot of power and capability they'd never had before. The introduction of the microchip meant large corporations would start to fracture and wouldn't be as effective or useful. It might take three months to get a decision from large organizations, but entrepreneurs can decide to hire you, and write you a check, in the moment. About every 15 years, the number of employees required in an organization is about half of what it was 15 years previously. Now that small companies with microchip power can be powerful economic forces, government has adjusted to make the process of incorporation faster and easier. We're partway through a 50-year period in which we're shifting from large, pyramid-shaped organizations to network-based organizations. Artificial intelligence can do work that used to require many people to do. A lot more people can own companies and have leadership positions now than they used to. Canada, especially Ontario, is one of the easier places in the world to incorporate. Being a bureaucrat in a large pyramidal organization used to be the safest job in the economy, but is now among the riskiest. Being an entrepreneur has become the safest role. Resources: The Great Crossover by Dan Sullivan Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage Unique Ability®

Do you believe in luck, or do you make your own success? In this episode, Dan Sullivan explores the concept of luck in entrepreneurship. Drawing from 50 years of coaching experience, he reveals how successful entrepreneurs create their own paths, often starting young by seeking opportunities to grow their wealth. Discover how self-made success intertwines with luck in the entrepreneurial journey. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:The top ways Dan has been lucky.Why it's more difficult for someone born into wealth to become an entrepreneur.The new Strategic Coach® thinking tool that will help you recognize and increase your luck.Why being an entrepreneur requires a lot of courage.How Strategic Coach is run like a live theater company.Show Notes: 50% of your success comes from luck, and 50% of it comes from the ability to take advantage of the luck you've had. An entrepreneur's success is an act of self-creation. Entrepreneurs create their own income streams and their own capabilities. Entrepreneurs understand intuitively that freedom requires money. It's difficult to separate luck from skill. The U.S. is an entrepreneurial country created by entrepreneurs. Even the challenges you've faced have shaped who you are today. Recognizing the luck you've had keeps you centered and grounded. Whether your capability drives your luck or vice versa depends on your perspective. Resources: Unique Ability® Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage

Do you believe ambition fades with age, or can it actually grow stronger? In this episode, Shannon and Dan discuss how ambition evolves over time, share Dan's desire to be even more ambitious at 90, and reveal how transforming ambition into action can lead to growth and fulfillment at every age. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How Dan's strongest ambition relates to ambition itself.What you can gain by sticking to what you're great at and love doing.How Dan came up with the goal of living to the age of 156.Ways you can lean into expanding your ambition.Why it's easier to move forward than to maintain your position.Why some successful entrepreneurs get discouraged when they think about their ambition.The dire consequences of giving up your ambition. Show Notes: People begin to feel old when they stop making commitments—and stop prioritizing courage. When entrepreneurs focus exclusively on doing what they're great at and love doing, their impact multiplies. When combined with technology, the results are exponential.   Since your skills and capabilities will be much greater 10 years from now, your goals can be much bigger in 10 years too. When you're ambitious, all sorts of unexpected opportunities and experiences become available to you. When you view ambition as an action, it becomes something you can invest your talent, skills, and time into. Ambition is a skill made up of a number of subskills. When your brain normalizes the idea that you're going to live far longer than normal expectations, it changes your understanding of the present. Time only speeds up when you think you're running out of it. Being unable to imagine yourself with more ambition in the future robs you of your power in the present. No one's interested in being in teamwork with someone who's stopped growing. Your real age has to do with what lies ahead of you—and your imagination. What human beings most look for in other human beings is commitment and courage. Commitment and courage create capability. If you're more committed and more courageous, it's easy to be more ambitious. Confidence is the reward for acquiring a new capability. With a higher level of confidence, you can make greater commitments. To make any significant improvement or change in your life, you have to be 100% committed to doing it. You only truly start aging when you give up your ambition. Resources: Unique Ability® My Plan For Living To 156 by Dan Sullivan The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan

Entrepreneurs always want to be moving forward. What determines whether they'll be able to is their understanding of the difference between cost and investment. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about the growth mindset that lets you improve for the rest of your life—versus the mindset that means you'll forever be stuck right where you are. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:The reason why small entrepreneurs are small entrepreneurs.Why you won't get a return on investment if you think of team members as a cost.Why becoming a Strategic Coach® member isn't a cost, but an investment in yourself.Why it's dangerous for your team members if you think of them as a cost.How to switch from operating in costs to operating in investments. Show Notes: Some entrepreneurs have essentially only created a job for themselves that doesn't go anywhere. If you see hiring people as a cost, you might just do all of the work yourself. When entrepreneurs do everything themselves, 90% of what they do doesn't actually make sense for them to do. Investing in team members means you're freed up to do better work, and that will easily pay for the investment. When you hire someone, you're investing more in yourself than in the other person. If you consider someone to be a cost, that person will know it. Making an investment is a risk, and it can require courage. Someone who treats other people as costs treats themselves the same way. With an investment, you'll put an enormous amount of thinking into it to guarantee that it's successful. When you're making an investment, have a goal for the return and a deadline for that goal. Resources:Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

When Patti Mara graduated from university in the recession of 1989, she couldn't get a job—so she made one up instead. In this episode, Patti shares how she's achieved entrepreneurial success, the exciting new project she's launching to support local businesses, and what she's learned as a long-time coach in The Strategic Coach® Program. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:The invaluable resource that Patti turned to when she realized she didn't know how to build a business.Some of the most helpful tools Patti learned in her first year at Strategic Coach®.The difference between tasks and results.The value in separating the fault from the problem.“magic” that happens in every Strategic Coach workshop. Show Notes: Entrepreneurship often emerges out of necessity, but being good at making up a job for yourself doesn't mean you know how to build a business.Strategic Coach concepts can dramatically shift an entrepreneur's mindset and ability to build a thriving organization.Every coach at Strategic Coach is also a Program member who uses Coach tools and concepts in their own business.What you sell is actually the vehicle for how you create value.Your business is the value you create to the people you want to work with.Everyone wants to feel like they're winning.When team members feel like their roles serve a greater purpose, the whole company culture shifts.And once you recognize team members as experts in their roles, you can encourage their innovation and sense of ownership.When you empower team members to solve problems rather than to focus on who was at fault, customer interactions get much better.Awareness and mindset are more impactful than specific skills when training team members. Resources: Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only) Unique Ability® The 10x Mind Expander by Dan Sullivan Turning Teams into Heroes and Customers into Raving Fans by Patti Mara UpSolutions Team Success Program Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company®?   Tool: The Positive Focus® Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Podcast: Team Success pattimara.com wechooselocal.com

Entrepreneurs need to be ambitious. But what happens when you achieve your ambition? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain the drawbacks of having ambition as a destination and describe the incredible benefits you can expect when you see ambition as a capability. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:Why Dan sees ambition as an internal capability.Measurements you should be making every day.What's made Dan's life simpler over time.How Dan gifts Strategic Coach® members extra years to their entrepreneurial lives.What you need to avoid to be continually ambitious, and why. Show Notes: Ambition is a capability, not a destination.Simply by continually improving your ambition each day, you'll experience exponential growth over time.Dan Sullivan feels more ambitious at 80 than he did at 50.To strengthen your ambition, it's important to measure your daily accomplishments and strive for continal growth.You can measure your progress not just in achievements, but in the ability to accomplish more in less time with greater impact.Ambition itself should be measured in terms of increased capability and confidence.Simplifying life by eliminating distractions (like television) can reclaim valuable time for personal development and ambitious pursuits.Surrounding yourself with growth-oriented individuals, often younger, can inspire and fuel your ambition.To be continually ambitious, there are three things you should avoid: celebrity, retirement, and legacy.It's important to focus on being useful and impactful in the present rather than worrying about future legacy.Viewing ambition as a capability can also help you feel more fulfilled personally—and have a greater impact on your community.Every day, ask yourself what you can do so that you're more ambitious tomorrow.Being around people who aren't invested in growth is an obstacle to your ambition. Resources:CliftonStrengths®Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

For many entrepreneurs who achieve business success early in their lives, repeating that success can be difficult. It's called the success trap, and in this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain what the success trap is, why it's difficult to escape, and how you can safely avoid falling into it. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Why some entrepreneurs eventually go on auto-pilot.How experiencing a crisis can actually be beneficial to an entrepreneur.Why Dan doesn't take people who are growing and succeeding in their thirties as seriously as people who are growing and succeeding in their sixties.How inheriting wealth can lead to a success trap too.What's allowed Dan to be fitter, healthier, and more ambitious at 80 than he was at 50. Show Notes: Entrepreneurs who are motivated solely by status will stop once they reach a certain point. You can lack purpose and the motivation to keep growing yet still find it hard to make a change because the money is good. Setbacks can be a wake-up call to reinvent yourself and reclaim your drive. Success is comfortable, while failure is scary, painful, and frustrating. Failures are prompts for new learning. Entrepreneurs who are successful over the long haul have learned how to turn failure into a new form of success. When someone's successful early in life, it can be difficult to tell how much of that success was due to their capabilities and character and how much of it was simply investment from others. For some, entrepreneurism is a freedom only from where they came from. Status-motivated entrepreneurs are very boring, and usually a bit depressed. Creating wealth is only valuable because it makes you more capable and confident as an entrepreneur. You need resistance in order to grow. Growth has to come from within. For growth-motivated entrepreneurs, the lifestyle that comes with success is just a happy by-product of their drive, not the destination. Ambition isn't a destination, it's a capability.

The best entrepreneurs want better teamwork so they can achieve greater success, growth, and freedom within their business. But teamwork is even more important and valuable than that. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the many ways entrepreneurs can take advantage of teamwork, and outline the extraordinary benefits that come with having great teamwork at your company.Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:How Dan involves himself less and less with what Strategic Coach® team members are doing.Why Dan doesn't worry about how team members achieve results.What opportunities open up for entrepreneurs when they rely on team members.The greatest compliment Dan can give a team member.How Dan communicates the goals of a new project.The three questions Dan asks himself every time he gets an idea for a new achievement.Show Notes:The more you work on teamwork, the more you can refine what you're uniquely good at.It's useful to think of your entrepreneurial business as a theater production, regardless of what industry you're in.There's a vast amount of teamwork happening back stage in theater to make the whole production work.Teamwork on your projects can improve but only if you're improving too—and providing maximum support to your team members.We are taught from an early age that we have to do the work on our own goals ourselves.Instead of taking on an activity yourself, ask who can do it better than you.At the heart of it, Strategic Coach is designed to get you to think about your thinking.When you decided to become an entrepreneur, you declared to the world that you're not going to play other people's games—you're going to play your own game. By communicating clearly, you leave so much room open for teamwork.Generally, when entrepreneurs have a big possibility and they're uncertain about it, they get paralyzed.Uncertainty is not a lack of confidence. It's just a lack of knowledge or information. A lot of entrepreneurs live their lives very certain, but not confident.Don't try to sell your team on an idea until you're sold on it yourself.Resources:Unique Ability®Blog: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front StageBook: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin HardyTool: The Impact Filter™The Kolbe A™ Index

Entrepreneurs always want to be moving forward. But sometimes it's like their feet are stuck to the ground because something is holding them back. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain how you can always use friction, the very thing that seems to hold you back, to achieve the next step of your business growth. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:Several types of friction commonly encountered by entrepreneurs.The Four Freedoms that all entrepreneurs are striving for.The difference between obstacles and friction.Why you need other people in order to deal with friction.How control issues can get in an entrepreneur's way.The real role of an entrepreneur at their company. Show Notes: All entrepreneurs have an overriding purpose. Having friction that you can't solve is very frustrating. Obstacles don't have the emotional hit that friction does. You can define friction as anything that stops or slows down progress. The reason entrepreneurs do anything is for freedom. Friction is not something you can work around. When you're experiencing friction, you don't have full use of your capabilities. Anytime you venture into new territory, there's immediately friction. To transform friction, you have to identify it, then face it squarely. Transforming friction is energizing for entrepreneurs. Greater freedom only comes if you have teamwork. Most entrepreneurs have to start as lone individuals. Other people pausing and being indecisive causes friction for entrepreneurs. It's the job of the entrepreneur to give a vision to their company, but it's the job of their skilled people to actually turn the vision into reality. Entrepreneurs create value by transforming friction for other people. Boredom means that you're not looking at the next big friction that you have to transform. At the heart of boredom is the terror of taking the next big step. Resources: Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan Article: “The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs” Unique Ability® Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy Shannon Waller's Team Success Podcast

EOS®, the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, was developed by a Strategic Coach® member who envisioned an extension of the Coach Program. Now, EOS and Strategic Coach are on parallel tracks in helping entrepreneurs live their best lives. In this episode, Strategic Coach business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller are joined by EOS Worldwide's leadership duo, Kelly Knight and Mark O'Donnell, to discuss all the ways entrepreneurs can benefit by taking advantage of both EOS and Coach. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:·     How Mark and Kelly each became involved in EOS.·     What led to EOS being implemented in Strategic Coach.·     How Strategic Coach was pivotal in the development of EOS.·     What's allowed EOS to scale enormously over the past few years.·     The strategic by-products that came from EOS becoming a franchiser. Show Notes: Roughly 30% of the EOS community is in The Strategic Coach® Program. There is no point in competing in the marketplace. Benefiting from EOS was a very profound shift for Strategic Coach. Being able to conduct sessions virtually has opened up a tremendous opportunity for EOS Implementers®. Today, EOS has over 850 Implementers doing business in 40 countries, and there are quite a few virtual-only EOS Implementers. To get the most out of EOS, everybody at the company has to be using it. Strategic Coach is very much a mindset program. Team members don't always know that they need to have an entrepreneurial attitude. To connect teamwork and technology, you need coaching. Coaching is to the 21st century what management was to the 20th century. Resources: Traction by Gino Wickman CliftonStrengths® Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy Strategic Coach Team Programs The Experience Transformer®: “Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers” The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller The Impact Filter™ Unique Ability® 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 Company by Dan Sullivan Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan The DIKW Pyramid The Positive Focus®

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: Unique Ability® Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff The Unique EDGE® Workshops for young adults The Impulsive Thinker™ The Impulsive Thinker Podcast ADHD: A Hunter in a Farmer's World by Thom Hartmann The Positive Focus® The Impact Filter™

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: Unique Ability® 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 

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: Unique Ability® 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 

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: Unique Ability® Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company®? Blog: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only) Blog: Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers

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 The Impact Filter™

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 Unique Ability® 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®? The Six Ds Of Exponentials

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: Unique Ability® 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

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: PerplexityThe Kolbe A™ IndexThe Impact Filter™

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: Unique Ability®The Strategy Circle®The CliftonStrengths® AssessmentThe Entrepreneur's Guide To Time Management

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. ResourcesThe Experience Transformer®More about ColleenC&J InnovationsUnique Ability®

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: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs [Article] Unique Ability® 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] The Impact Filter™

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 Unique Ability® 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

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 The Impact Filter™ Article: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

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 episodeWhat 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 HardyPodcast: Podcast Payoffs with Dan Sullivan and Gord VickmanPodcast: 10xTalk with Dan Sullivan and Joe PolishPodcast: Shannon Waller's Team SuccessThe Team Success Handbook by Shannon WallerAI As Your Teammate by Evan RyanWho Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardydescript.comArticle: “Scary Times” Success Manual: How To Be A Leader When Times Get ToughArticle: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front StageThe Positive Focus®Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good by Sarah Lacy

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 The Impact Filter™ Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Unique Ability®

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Ⓡ Article: Your Business Is a Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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 The Impact Filter™ Unique Ability® Article: Your Productivity At Its Best With This Guaranteed Hack

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 Confidence by Dan Sullivan Article: This Tool Will Help You Make Sense Of The Past AND Take Charge Of Your Future The Impact Filter™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 The Positive Focus®The Entrepreneur's Guide To Time Management

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 episodeWhat 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

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 Unique Ability®

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 anywhereHow 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 Your Life As A Strategy Circle  The Entrepreneur's Guide to Time Management  The Communist Manifesto 

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 Positive Focus® The Transformation Trilogy by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Unique Ability® The Impact Filter™

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 SullivanYour Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

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 HardyYour Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan SullivanUnique Ability®The Positive Focus®The Entrepreneur's Guide To Time Management

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®Unique Ability®The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan Strategic PodcastsThe Impact Filter™

Dan Sullivan and guest co-host Gord Vickman explore the innovative conceptswithin 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 2xThe Transformation Trilogy

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 HardyThe Four FreedomsThe Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

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:Unique Ability®Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

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, business coaches 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 SullivanThe Entrepreneur's Guide To Time ManagementArticle: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show On The Front Stage by Shannon WallerThe 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan

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.‌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.‌10x entrepreneurs constantly think, “What we have now is great, but what does it look like when it's 10x?”‌The reward for going 10x is that you get to do it again.‌10x entrepreneurs aren't looking for quick fixes; they're looking to put in the work and time to get to a higher level.‌Over time, you get better at recognizing what's worth your time and what isn't.‌Only one out of every 400 entrepreneurs would be a good fit for The Strategic Coach Program.‌Status is a byproduct of capability.‌You only know you have greater capability if you're getting greater results.‌People who are always striving for greater capability never stop growing.‌A person who is growth-minded might worry about outgrowing someone who isn't growing.‌What makes a business complicated is the social pressure from outside of you.Resources:The 4 C's Formula by Dan Sullivan‌The Entrepreneur's Guide To 10x Growth‌The Multiplier Mindset® Podcast‌

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® articleWho Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Experience Transformer® toolScary Times Success Manual by Dan Sullivan

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 SullivanCliftonStrengths®ENVY: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut SchoeckWho Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin HardyUnique Ability®Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon WallerThe Kolbe A™ Index

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 SullivanUnique Ability®The Strategic Coach® Signature Program

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:Unique Ability®Anything And Everything Podcast with Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff