Advertise on podcast: Inside Strategic Coach: Connecting Entrepreneurs With What Really Matters

Description:Since 1989, Strategic Coach® has been helping entrepreneurs find greater happiness and business success. In this episode, Gord Vickman and business coach Dan Sullivan talk about how the company has grown over nearly 35 years and how they’re catering to the needs of successful, collaborative entrepreneurs with growth mindsets.Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode* What entrepreneurs get out of each of the three Strategic Coach program levels.* Why additional program levels were created*  Why there’s no competition for entrepreneurs in the “Free Zone.”* Why Dan considers himself only 50% of the creative team when it comes to innovating new thinking tools.* How entrepreneurism is like jazz music.*  The future of The Free Zone Frontier® Program.Show Notes:Thinking tools enable structured thinking. Strategic Coach thinking tools are all about entrepreneurs thinking about their thinking. Strategic Coach has 240 trademarked thinking tools. And by this time next year, they’ll have 50 patents. A Self-Managing Company® is one where team members manage what already exists, and the entrepreneur creates what's higher, better, and bigger. A Self-Multiplying Company™ is where individual team members create new productivity, creativity, and profitability in the world. For entrepreneurs in the “Free Zone,” their competition wants to be their customers. Sometimes, your mistakes are your biggest breakthroughs. Strategic Coach’s ideas come from ongoing experimentation with entrepreneurs. All entrepreneurs are outliers. The more thinking tools you have, the more flexible an entrepreneur you are. Intellectual property—copyrights, trademarks, and patents—is backed up by major governments.Resources:The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

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 anywhere* How to know your own standards.* How Strategic Coach® clients learn about themselves.* The way to strengthen your position using opposing views.Show Notes: When you pick a side, you immediately begin learning an enormous amount about the side you’ve chosen and why you’ve chosen it. If you try to be a neutral person, you just disappear because you’re not for anything. A lot of people have very strong opinions about their thinking but have no real foundation or basis for their thinking. The most successful entrepreneurs bet on themselves 100%. You only become successful by making increasingly more successful judgments. Obstacles are the raw material for achieving your goals. Every person is a complete universe of experience and learning. Other people do things for their reasons, not your reasons. You can only have a conversation if you show respect for who the other person is. It’s only if you respect other people’s opinions that you can reverse your own. Emotions come before our thinking. You don’t pick a side out of thinking; you pick a side out of feeling.Resources:The Impact Filter 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 (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/videos/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® (https://uniqueability.com/)The Positive Focus® (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/mindset/the-positive-focus-2)The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/time-management/entrepreneur-time-management-guide)

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® (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/mindset/the-positive-focus-2)Unique Ability® (https://uniqueability.com/)The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan  (https://store.strategiccoach.com/store/products/256)Strategic Podcasts (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/podcasts)The Impact Filter™ (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/goal-setting-and-success-habits/the-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  (https://whonothow.com/)The Gap and the Gain (https://gapandgainbook.com/) 10x Is Easier than 2x (https://10xeasierbook.com/)The Transformation Trilogy (https://private.strategiccoach.com/store/products/521)

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 Freedoms (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/the-multiplier-mindset-blog/unlocking-entrepreneurial-freedom-the-four-phases-of-the-freedom-cycle)The 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® (https://uniqueability.com/)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, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain why the answer is “no.”Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode:* What busy people are really after.* How busy people are actually wasting energy.* How to achieve results more easily using teamwork.* Why there’s a real cost for entrepreneurs who are focused on being busy.Show Notes:People try to establish their value by always being busy.Being busy has nothing to do with any kind of results.As results oriented people get better at what they do, they achieve their desired results by being less busy.Depending on the rules you set up in your company, either being busy or achieving results will be rewarded.Busy people see it as dangerous to not be seen on any workday.In large bureaucracies, you get promoted on the basis of your busyness because the organization’s purpose is to be seen as busy.Entrepreneurial companies get connected to the marketplace very quickly.There’s no progress without measurement.Entrepreneurs tend to make for really lousy employees.We’re always ignorant and incapable when we start anything new.Resources:“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan SullivanThe Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/time-management/entrepreneur-time-management-guide)Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/the-multiplier-mindset-blog/your-business-is-a-theater-production-your-back-stage-shouldnt-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 Growth (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/guides/the-entrepreneurs-guide-to-10x-growth)‌The Multiplier Mindset® Podcast (https://resources.strategiccoach.com/the-multiplier-mindset-podcast-with-dan-sullivan)‌