All Episodes - Inside Strategic Coach: Connecting Entrepreneurs With What Really Matters
Inside Strategic Coach is a practical resource for entrepreneurs, or anyone with a growth mindset. Hosts Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller share breakthrough insights, educational success stories, and insider know-how, gained from working with thousands of successful business owners, worldwide.
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Why Your Kind Of Smart Is Exactly What The World Needs
Do you ever catch yourself frustrated that other people don’t think or perform the way you do? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller reveal why that difference is actually good news. Discover how appreciating your own uniqueness frees you from comparison, deepens teamwork, and helps you recognize the countless ways other people are smart and useful. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why it’s a good thing that no one else is like you.How comparing yourself to others drains your confidence and progress.Why complaini...
Simple Habits For True Happiness While Building Your Business
Happiness can be tricky for entrepreneurs, especially when the outside world thinks you’ve already “made it.” In this episode, Dan Sullivan shares a simple daily framework for staying genuinely happy as an entrepreneur, regardless of what’s happening in your business, your relationships, or the larger world around you.Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why an entrepreneur’s happiness depends on three simple ingredients.How to measure your daily achievement in a way that actually feels like progress.What excites Dan most about creating and sharing a brand-new thinking tool.Why your greatest value shows up when you spend your time doing activities you genuinely love. Show Notes: Entrepreneurial happiness comes from a way of being that you practice every day, not a goal or a destination. The first ingredient for a happy entrepreneurial life is making real daily progress, not just occasional big wins. Measuring yourself against an ideal future is like measuring your distance to the horizon line—you never feel any closer. You feel genuinely successful when you measure progress against where you started and what you’ve actually achieved. A simple end-of-day reflection on what you accomplished turns an ordinary day into a tangible gain you can build on tomorrow. The second ingredient for a happy entrepreneur is liking who you are, which means appreciating how you handle setbacks, not pretending you’ve never made mistakes.When you give yourself grace for past decisions, it becomes much easier to extend that same grace to other people. Even if you don’t achieve your goal, you can be pleased with how you went about things. Being truly useful to other people each day is the third ingredient that makes entrepreneurial happiness feel complete.Strategic Coach® is built on hundreds of thinking tools that help entrepreneurs reframe situations and recognize the progress they’re actually making. These three ingredients—progress, self-liking, and usefulness—keep you grounded in the present instead of trapped in past regrets or future fantasies. Of the three, liking who you are carries special weight because without self-respect, progress and usefulness don’t feel satisfying.It’s hard to feel useful doing work you’re not good at or don’t enjoy, so designing your role around your Unique Ability® is crucial for happiness. Greater self-awareness helps you like yourself more because you understand which situations you handle well and which ones you should avoid or delegate. Dan describes happiness as living in “local reality”—what’s real, available, and actionable right now, instead of chasing someone else’s reality.Viewing each day through this three-part lens is a practical way to keep your entrepreneurial confidence high, no matter what challenges arise. Resources: The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy Shannon Waller’s Team Success podcast Unique Ability® The Positive Focus®
Feelings Are Fuel For Entrepreneurial Creativity
Today’s media environment constantly tugs at your emotions and makes it harder to think clearly about your future. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller show how to treat feelings—especially being bothered—as raw material rather than reality, and how to quickly turn intense emotional energy into insight, better decisions, and creative projects that expand your future possibilities.Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:How information overload and constant media input affect the way people think.How Dan feeling bothered has led to the creation of powerful Strategic Coach® thinking tools.What taught Dan to flip negative feelings into a new project.How you can actually change the past.A thinking process that helps you separate emotion from any situation so you can respond creatively instead of reactively. Show Notes: Modern news and social media are engineered to grab your feelings, which can crowd out your ability to think about your own future. Constantly reacting to events outside of you makes it harder to think clearly and see where you actually want to go.Feelings are experienced physically and biologically, not intellectually, which is why they can be so overwhelming in the moment. There’s a big difference between simply having feelings and using those feelings to trigger real thinking and new ideas. Strong emotions, whether positive or negative, are early warning signals that something needs to be understood, decided, or created. When you get deeply bothered by an experience, you can either stay stuck in the story or use that energy to design a better future. Many of Strategic Coach’s most powerful thinking tools, including The Experience Transformer®, were created because Dan was determined not to repeat a negative experience.Capturing the energy from a negative event and channeling it into a specific creative project gives you huge momentum—but only for a short window of time. Reinterpreting past experiences through learning changes how they feel and upgrades your capabilities going forward.Taking ownership of your emotional responses gives you power, control, and agency instead of leaving you at the mercy of circumstances or other people. Resources: Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers Not Being Bothered by Dan Sullivan
How Entrepreneurs Are Using AI Without Losing Their Edge
Predictions have been made over the years, especially with the emergence of AI, that computers will be more intelligent than human beings. But humanity is always infinitely greater than anything that humans create. Business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss why computer intelligence can never compete with humanity’s intelligence. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why a person’s intelligence doesn’t include only their own.What “humanity” really means.How successful entrepreneurs are using—and not using—AI.How AI is lessening the importance of experts. Show Notes: Humans communicate in many undetectable and immeasurable ways. A single telephone has no value whatsoever. With the addition of every new technology that allows human beings to interact with one another, the combined intelligence of the planet multiplies. A new technological capability could never be greater than the total amount of thinking that all humans do. You can’t be inside of a system and understand that system. Computers are just a subset of human intelligence. Unlike humans, machines can be consistent and constant in their use of intelligence. Humanity is everything that humans have done over hundreds of thousands of years. Resources: Unique Ability® “Overcoming Delegation Issues: A Comprehensive 5-Step Guide”
How To Build AI Around Your Most Valuable Strengths
Your deepest passion is yours alone, and what lights others up may leave you completely cold. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explore why every entrepreneur is born unique, how your experiences continually shape that uniqueness, and how doubling down on it leads to greater freedom, happiness, and business success. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:How to strengthen and continually reinforce your passion.What actually grows and develops your uniqueness every day.What gets created when two people collaborate.How AI is multiplying individuality and adding even more variety to the world. Show Notes: Every person is born with a Unique Ability®, and that’s the central starting point for all Strategic Coach® thinking. Your entire life is a process of navigating and giving meaning to the uniqueness of your own experience. As an individual, you are constantly reinforcing a central set of interests and capabilities through every experience you choose. When you go deep with anyone, you quickly discover they’re far more unique than you initially assumed. Hundreds of times a day, you’re sorting experiences into “more of this, less of that,” steadily clarifying what matters most to you. Entrepreneurs are the people who have bet the most on the thing they’re uniquely and intensely interested in. To operate in the world, everyone has to learn a basic level of conformity—showing up, keeping promises, and finishing what they start. Thanks to technology, individuals now have more freedom than ever to pursue and deepen their own interests. Whatever someone is passionate about becomes the center of their universe, and they keep reinforcing it by seeking aligned experiences. You’re always looking for experiences that make your passion and Unique Ability even more central and valuable in your life. Powerful collaboration happens when people find shared interests where each can bring their own Unique Ability to create a “third thing” together. Resources: Unique Ability® Perplexity Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
The Community Where Ambitious Entrepreneurs Belong, with Chad Johnson
In this special episode, Shannon Waller sits down with Program Coach Chad Johnson to explore his entrepreneurial journey, what he’s learned along the way, and how he helps Strategic Coach® members grow bigger, simpler, and more rewarding businesses. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why many of Chad’s early entrepreneurial ventures were short-lived.The turning point that made him get serious about building a real business.How Chad defines the entrepreneurial mindset and lives it daily.What sets Strategic Coach Program Coaches apart from traditional business coaches. Show Notes: There’s value around you all the time; often, it just takes a moment of attention to see it. You can’t scale a business on ambition and positive attitude alone. It’s natural for entrepreneurs to want to jump to the next project, but that impulse needs to be managed. The right life partner can act as an accelerant for everything you want in life. In great organizations, everyone makes everyone else better. The work you do as an entrepreneur is closely tied to the growth you do at home. For entrepreneurs, business is not just what you do—it’s part of who you are. Strategic Coach coaches are also members, so they live the tools they teach. Any new concept has to work for the coach first before it’s shared with members. Freedom is often the deepest motivation for entrepreneurs. It can take time for your real-world experience to catch up with your mindset and goals. Long-term success comes from committing to a few important things, not chasing every new idea. The right coach relationship helps you turn everyday experiences into breakthroughs. Resources: How to Win a Heart by Chad JohnsonUnique Ability®The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Impact Filter®10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin HardyThe 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful EntrepreneursHow To Foster A Longevity Mindset & Reap The BenefitsThe Entrepreneur's Guide To Time ManagementThe Bigger Future™ CountdownYour Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan SullivanThe Positive Focus®The Team Success PodcastThe Only Leaders Worth* Following by Tim SpikerG5 SummitThe Big Ski Family
The High Price You’ll Pay For Creative Isolation
Isolation is more than just uncomfortable—it distorts your thinking and drains your creativity. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller open up about the risks of going it alone as an entrepreneur and why strong relationships make all the difference. Listen now to learn smart, actionable ways to reconnect, recharge, and keep yourself moving forward with clarity and confidence. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why isolation causes the mind to invent stories and distort reality.The reasons entrepreneurs are particularly vulnerable to feeling isolated.Why isolated entrepreneurs develop outrageous aspirations.What makes Strategic Coach® the perfect place for entrepreneurs to make long-lasting connections. Show Notes: Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely path, especially without external feedback. When there’s no outside input, your mind starts making things up. Isolation causes your brain to respond just like it would to sensory deprivation. Entrepreneurs thrive on constant change, while most people resist change. An entrepreneur’s creative imagination needs to be rewarded with real opportunities. Many entrepreneurs feel truly stimulated only when they’re working productively. Isolated entrepreneurs use their imaginations to give themselves the sense that they're actually connected to the world. Feeling misunderstood quickly morphs into paranoia and makes isolation worse. Entrepreneurs are better than most at finding their own clarity, even in tough situations. The entrepreneurial journey means creating brand-new ideas and selling them, time after time. Seeing life from other people’s perspectives keeps you connected and tuned in to reality. The more you understand and appreciate other people’s experiences, the richer and more meaningful your own life becomes. Resources: Unique Ability® Always Be The Buyer by Dan Sullivan
The Emotional Edge Top Entrepreneurs Can’t Ignore
Do you ever wish difficult emotions would just disappear? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller reveal why every feeling, especially the bothersome kind, is actually a valuable resource for entrepreneurial growth. Discover how turning frustration into clarity and action can lead to your next breakthrough, and learn the thinking tools that transform emotional energy into future results. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:How technology has increased conversations about feelings in daily life.Why your feelings serve as a built-in warning system for your thinking.How to quickly gain clarity instead of staying stuck when something bothers you.Why others struggle to truly understand your personal feelings.How Dan’s own feelings inspired all of the Strategic Coach® thinking tools. Show Notes: Feelings are signals, not solutions—they alert you to something worth thinking about. Feelings don’t transform themselves; vision and capability do. The real power lies in transforming emotional energy into future-focused action. Feeling “bothered” is raw material for entrepreneurial creativity and improvement. Successful entrepreneurs treat bother as a resource, turning it into planning and innovation. Asking, “If I weren’t bothered, what would I be doing?” can pivot your mindset and open new possibilities. Responding thoughtfully, rather than reacting emotionally, leads to better results for you and your team. You can’t control others’ reactions, but you can fully own your own process and responses. Ignoring your feelings (or acting out impulsively) usually makes things worse. Every feeling brings energy—use it to fuel thinking, problem solving, and the creation of new tools. Mastery comes from skillfully transforming negative emotions into positive action, not from avoiding them. The entrepreneur’s job is to turn low-productivity “bother” into high-productivity breakthroughs. Don’t aim for perfect detachment; instead, get better at using what bothers you for future advantage. Resources: Not Being Bothered by Dan Sullivan The Impact Filter™ The Entrepreneurial Attitude Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller
Why Ambition Is Often A Dirty Word For Entrepreneurs
What if ambition isn’t something you’re born with, but a capability you can keep growing?In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explore why ambition is the single master capability for entrepreneurs and how to nurture it. Learn why talking about ambition is difficult, how to grow it continually, and why community and capability are the true accelerators of progress. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why entrepreneurs rely on ambition more than most people.The most common misconception about ambition.How to navigate the social dynamics around ambition.Why envy threatens ambition and how to spot it.How Strategic Coach® creates a safe space for honest, open ambition. Show Notes: Entrepreneurs succeed because they decide to rely on their own ambition and capability, taking a road most people won’t choose. Ambition is not a fixed trait—it’s a capability, and it grows each time you acquire new skills or take on new challenges. Ambition is the single master capability that enables you to achieve all other capabilities. Openly talking about ambition can be uncomfortable because people often feel there’s a pecking order with ambition, but this discomfort is natural, and moving past it leads to greater freedom and fulfillment. Comparing yourself to others works against ambition; entrepreneurs thrive by measuring progress from their own efforts and growth, not against external ideals or other people. Envy is the true enemy of ambition—it’s driven by comparison and leads to stagnation rather than growth. The Strategic Coach community is designed for entrepreneurs to talk about ambition openly, celebrate wins, and receive genuine support and collaboration. Unique Ability® is central: focus on a few activities that truly make use of your strengths, and surround yourself with others who do the same. Collaboration among unique, ambitious people isn’t accidental; when you support someone else’s ambition, you reinforce your own. Every Strategic Coach tool you master is meant to help you grow ambition, navigate obstacles, and create new opportunities. If you want ambition to keep expanding, focus on what gives you energy and leverage your team so you can multiply your results. Growth as an entrepreneur isn’t about fitting in; it’s about continually becoming more useful and unique in the marketplace. Resources: Always More Ambitious by Dan Sullivan The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin HardyThe Impact Filter™ Unique Ability® Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Why Entrepreneurs Who Keep Playing Always Win, with Lee Brower
Are you thriving or just arriving? In this episode, Shannon Waller and Program Coach Lee Brower explore the lifelong mindset that keeps entrepreneurs in motion long after the initial motivation fades. Discover practical ways to make growth and gratitude central to your business, family, and life—plus the powerful impact of asking the right questions and building strong traditions that last. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:The surprising first job Lee created for himself before he was old enough for a paper route.What sparked Lee’s deep appreciation for entrepreneurship and its ecosystem.How Lee defines the mindset that drives enduring entrepreneurial success.Why motivation and inspiration play different roles on the entrepreneurial journey.How to tell the difference between genuine confidence and mere arrogance.Why great entrepreneurs are more like rivers than you might think.Lee’s most powerful lesson from three decades at Strategic Coach®. Show Notes: Not everyone chooses entrepreneurship—sometimes it chooses you. Money motivates at first, but it’s the freedom it brings that keeps you going. The best lessons come from learning alongside other entrepreneurs, not just from teaching. Successful entrepreneurs focus on making things better, easier to access, and more valuable. Great entrepreneurs don't ask themselves what's wrong. They ask, “What's right?” and “How can I make it even better?” Problems don’t hold entrepreneurs back; they turn problem solving into daily practice. Motivation is temporary. Inspiration and purpose are what keep you going. You can elevate yourself by surrounding yourself with people who have skills you don’t have. Family traditions, shared language, and rituals build lasting culture at home and in business. The most valuable assets aren’t financial; they’re values, learning, relationships, and contribution. Never delegate away your Unique Ability® until you truly know and refine it. Confidence grows from gratitude and from focusing on others, not just on yourself. Great results come from being open to learning in every interaction. Instead of chasing answers, ask better questions. The enemy of thriving is arriving. Resources: Unique Ability® The Impact Filter™ Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World by David EpsteinThe Positive Focus® strategiccoach.com leebrower.com
Entrepreneurs Grow Stronger With Community Over Isolation
Do you feel alone navigating the entrepreneurial journey, even in a room full of peers? This episode uncovers the power of a shared language, showing how entrepreneurs elevate their growth, tackle obstacles, and celebrate wins together. Discover how Strategic Coach’s thinking tools turn isolation into collaboration, making progress possible for everyone—no matter their industry or experience. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:How Strategic Coach® stands apart from other coaching companies.How thinking tools create a shared language for entrepreneurs.A simple approach for entrepreneurs to clarify their ideal role.The story of Dan building an entrepreneurial community in 1982.Why entrepreneurs tend to experience more isolation than others. Show Notes: Entrepreneurs often don’t have words for their experience, and Strategic Coach provides them. A shared language empowers entrepreneurs to interpret and elevate their experiences within a supportive community. At most entrepreneurial coaching companies, every client knows that everyone else in the room is a competitor, and it makes for a toxic learning environment. Most business coaching programs actually make entrepreneurs feel more isolated, lonely, and anxious. Strategic Coach builds environments where each entrepreneur is seen as a resource rather than a rival. Strategic Coach’s 250 thinking tools create a common language and provide practical frameworks for collaboration, growth, and clarity. Strategic Coach members are all making progress within the same framework. Common language shortcuts, like The 4 C’s Formula®, accelerate mutual understanding and meaningful conversation. In creating his thinking tools, Dan Sullivan intentionally avoids jargon so that communication is clear, practical, and relevant to real experience. There are elements common to every entrepreneur’s experience, no matter what industry they’re in. Resources: Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® How To Harness The Power Of Negative Thinking The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
The False Story We Hear About Ambitious Entrepreneurs
Do you see ambition as a fixed trait or an ever-expanding capability? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reframes ambition as the platform for all growth. Discover why ambition expands with every capability you build, how it empowers collaboration, and why this mindset leads to greater innovation, freedom, and lasting entrepreneurial success. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:What inspired Dan to redefine ambition as a capability rather than a destination.Why his greatest goal is simply to become more ambitious over time.How traditional views of ambition create unnecessary burdens for female entrepreneurs.Why seeing ambition as a limited resource holds people back.How shifting your perspective allows ambition to drive every new capability. Show Notes: Ambition is not a destination but a capability that creates all other capabilities. The spark behind every new skill or achievement is your ambition to grow. Ambition expands with use, much like a muscle that strengthens with repeated resistance. Gaining one new capability naturally increases your ambition for the next. You can decide to increase your ambition long before you know the specific projects you will undertake. True ambition is abundant and does not come at others’ expense. Empowering your own ambition can inspire and multiply the ambition of others. Society often misrepresents ambition as competitive or distasteful, yet entrepreneurs can transform how it is understood. Education rarely addresses ambition, leaving many people isolated in how they think about it. Ambition should not be defined by limits, like a “gas tank,” but as an ever-expanding resource. The 4 C’s Formula®—commitment, courage, capability, and confidence—depends on ambition to power growth. Viewing ambition as a capability eliminates gender barriers and unfair expectations placed on both men and women. Ambition grows through collaboration, teamwork, and creativity rather than isolation. Focusing on your next capability creates a self-sustaining cycle of personal and professional growth. Resources: The 4 C’s Formula by Dan SullivanThe Bigger Future™ Countdown The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy Unique Ability®
The Hidden Trap That Steals Your Energy And Blocks Business Success
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve taken complete responsibility for your financial welfare, choosing to make a living based on what makes you unique. When entrepreneurs get frustrated and start focusing on what isn’t working, it means they’ve strayed from their uniqueness. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain how to recognize when this is happening and how to get back to finding business success doing what you love and are great at. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:The specific type of economic role every entrepreneur is uniquely designed to fill.The single root cause behind every problem an entrepreneur experiences.Why entrepreneurs get frustrated without knowing why.How to become hypersensitive to anything that will throw you off track. Show Notes: Your Unique Ability® is the innate talent you’ve been honing since birth, characterized by high energy and exceptional results. When children play, it’s a way for them to discover what they’re great at and love doing. Entrepreneurs create value for other people by doing what they’re very good at and find easy to do. Most people don’t bet their futures on the abilities that make them unique. Frustrated entrepreneurs become preoccupied with what doesn’t work. The most effective way to solve problems is to strengthen what works, not to dwell on the problems themselves. Strategic Coach® helps you become an objective observer of your own performance. You’re the only person you have a total lifetime responsibility for. Once you’ve figured yourself out, you can focus on being in great teamwork and collaboration with others. Powerful external collaborations are simply the linkage of unique capabilities between organizations to create new market value. Your role as an entrepreneur is to use what works for you to solve a "not-working" problem for someone else. Every transaction in the marketplace is ultimately about freeing someone else up to do more of what works for them. Resources: Unique Ability® The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Get Bigger, Better Results By Doing Less, with Gina Pellegrini
Do you think your business must always depend on you? In this episode, Shannon Waller and Program Coach Gina Pellegrini reveal how empowering your team and building a business that runs without you creates true entrepreneurial freedom. Learn why letting go, focusing on your strengths, and shifting your mindset lead not only to business growth but to more energy, impact, and joy.Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: The early clue that revealed Gina’s entrepreneurial spirit.The turning point that inspired her to launch her own business.How she scaled her consulting company to remarkable success.The game-changing impact Strategic Coach® membership has had on her career.How her company transforms the way financial advisors work with their teams.The innovative new project her business is developing.What she finds most rewarding about coaching in The Strategic Coach® Program. Show Notes: True entrepreneurial growth happens when you design a business that thrives without your constant management. Outsourcing key activities like scheduling frees you to focus on vision, growth, and meaningful client relationships. Building a Self-Managing Company® starts with hiring, trusting, and empowering team members to take real ownership. Owning your role as a leader means knowing when to let go and allow others to shine. Team members should be treated as an investment, not a cost. Experienced, long-term team members create trust, efficiency, and a shared shorthand that eliminates friction and builds momentum. Pursuing personal passions outside your main business can energize you and is made possible by the right team support. The Impact Filter™ tool provides clarity, commitment, and a practical road map to execute on new ideas without falling into overwhelm. It’s important to take time to measure how far you’ve come (“The Gain”) instead of only chasing what’s next (“The Gap”). Your journey as an entrepreneur impacts not just your bottom line but your freedom, joy, and well-being. Resources: The Appointment Scheduler by Gina Pellegrini What Is A Self-Managing Company®? Unique Ability® Bella Gina Boutique The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy What Free Days™ Are And How To Know When You Need Them The Impact Filter™Kolbe A™ Index
One Bold Move That Separates Top Entrepreneurs From Everyone Else
Do you strive to stand out or fit in? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller challenge the myth of equality and reveal why entrepreneurs are hardwired to pursue uniqueness. Learn how comparing yourself to others can hold you back, while focusing on being usefully different fuels impact, happiness, and growth in life and business. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:Why developing uniqueness demands a fundamentally different mindset.The most effective way to immediately stand out from the crowd.How the pursuit of equality traps people in endless competition.Which path is right for entrepreneurs, and why.The costly mistake of trying to be both unique and equal. Show Notes: You can choose to be unique or equal, but never both. Entrepreneurs succeed by leaning in to their unique skills, not by blending in. The question of whether to be equal to others or to be unique often arises early in life. Focusing on being useful, not simply “fitting in,” sets you apart and attracts opportunities. Being equal and being unique represent fundamentally different psychological and emotional worlds, and your thoughts and mindset will shift depending on which you pursue. Unique individuals are self-referential, while equal-focused people constantly compare themselves to others. Someone who focuses only on uniqueness creates their own games. Anytime you create something new, it disrupts the status quo. Fairness means consistent rules, not identical outcomes for everyone. The best collaborations happen among unique individuals playing by shared rules. Entrepreneurs will only be successful to the degree that their uniqueness is seen as increasingly useful to other people. Resources: The End of Average by Todd Rose Unique Ability® Bill Of Rights Economy by Dan Sullivan The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy
Business Success Starts With Context Over Content
Worried about competitors copying your ideas? Dan Sullivan reveals why context—not just content—makes your thinking truly unique. Learn how The 10x Mind Expander® tool helps entrepreneurs reframe their past successes as springboards for growth, why AI is creating exciting new contexts for creativity, and how to protect your best ideas while staying ahead of the curve. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:How adding context helps you understand yourself as an achieving entrepreneur.Why stealing content won’t work for you.The best way for creative thinkers to partner with AI.Simple ways to add valuable context to content. Show Notes: For 36 years, Strategic Coach® has delivered new thinking tools every quarter. AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a game-changing context for how we create and communicate. A 10x revenue goal feels impossible until you realize that you’ve already done it before. Past growth holds the clues—look back to see how you’ve already achieved 10x jumps. To grow 10x again, simplify. Keep what works and focus on the few key changes needed. You likely have 50% of what you need for your next 10x leap—your experience proves it. Entrepreneurs accumulate a lot of content (experiences, data) without necessarily knowing what it means. Context transforms content—it’s the difference between “what happened” and “why it matters.” Strategic Coach thinking tools give brand new context to content, helping entrepreneurs reframe their past to unlock their future potential. Recognizing how you made a previous jump allows you to see content differently. You have to be willing to go through fear, uncertainty, and discomfort to get to a new level of normal. Content can be stolen, but it falls flat without context around it. Resources: The 10x Mind Expander by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® Perplexity
Unlocking The Secret Fuel That Powers Entrepreneurs
Do you embrace the fear that comes with chasing bigger goals, or do you let it hold you back? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explore why excitement and fear are inseparable for ambitious entrepreneurs—and how reframing fear as fuel, not a foe, is the key to lifelong growth and fulfillment. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:The specific types of fear entrepreneurs experience when pursuing big goals.How Dan experiences both fear and excitement with a current project.The two things that entrepreneurs can do with their fear.Why status-seeking entrepreneurs eventually lose their ambition.The cost of eliminating fear from your future. Show Notes: Growth is like a coin with two sides: excitement and fear. Entrepreneurs need to normalize fear as a regular part of their journey. Committing to a bigger future goal naturally brings up fear about whether you can achieve it. Real growth requires pursuing something more exciting—and more challenging—than what you’ve done before. Many people lose their ambition because they’re stopped by the fear that comes with it. Entrepreneurs are driven to ensure their future is bigger than their past. Status-seeking entrepreneurs focus on external markers of success while growth-oriented entrepreneurs measure success internally, by their own progress. It takes courage for entrepreneurs to keep moving. Expect failure along the way—it's part of the growth process. For growth-minded entrepreneurs, fear isn’t a necessary evil; it’s a necessary resource. Stopping growth means losing the new capabilities that come with it. When you stop growing, you may feel uneasy about others who continue to grow. For status-seekers, ambition is a destination; for growth-seekers, it’s a capability to develop. Growth-oriented entrepreneurs compare themselves only to who they used to be, not to others. Resources: The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan
The Surprising Reason Great Salespeople Fail At Hiring
Just because someone excels in their role doesn’t mean they should interview new hires—especially if they’re a salesperson. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller reveal why great salespeople often make the worst hiring decisions, how to spot the right evaluators for your team, and the mindset shift that separates a persuasive seller from a discerning buyer. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:The role of a job seeker in an interview.The role that an interviewer should be playing.Why Dan isn’t involved in the hiring process at Strategic Coach®.A secret ingredient in the Strategic Coach hiring process.The powerful question you should ask every prospective customer and team member. Show Notes: Salespeople shouldn’t conduct interviews because they’ll treat every interaction like a sale—focused on overcoming objections rather than evaluating fit. Great salespeople are wired to close deals, which means they’ll prioritize getting a "yes" over finding the right candidate. A sales-driven interviewer risks hiring the wrong person simply because they couldn’t resist "winning" the interaction. As the person doing the hiring, you’re the buyer, not the seller. It’s the job of the applicant to convince you they’re the right fit. It’s not the interviewer’s job to get the applicant excited about the position. Your hiring team should be dispassionate evaluators—think poker players, not persuaders. The best hires are those who sell you on their ability to contribute to your company’s future. Confidence in hiring comes from being decisive, not from convincing someone to join. Trust your instincts—if a candidate feels off early on, that feeling rarely improves over time. Resources: Unique Ability® Free Zone Frontier by Dan Sullivan How To Improve Business By Asking Good Questions Always Be The Buyer by Dan Sullivan Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage
Bad Decisions Beat No Decisions For Entrepreneurs
Are you holding back, waiting for the “right” decision? In this episode, Shannon Waller and Dan Sullivan reveal why taking action—even imperfect action—is the key to entrepreneurial momentum. Discover how making any decision unlocks feedback, reduces anxiety, and activates your best thinking, while indecision keeps you stuck. Plus, learn practical strategies to overcome perfectionism and move forward. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:The importance of making a decision that requires that you take action.How indecision leads to more indecision.What you sacrifice when you refuse to choose.How to get a clear picture of the situation you’re in. Show Notes: Taking action, even with imperfect information, is better than staying stuck in indecision. The problem with making no decision is that you’re not changing the situation that’s paralyzing you. When you can’t make a decision, the pressure builds on you exponentially, as does the feeling of isolation and disconnection from your team and your goals. As soon as you start taking action, you get an enormous amount of information about whether it was a right action or a wrong action.Perfectionism is the enemy of progress. Humans are best when they’re in motion. People become unproductive when they’re not making decisions. You don’t have to make the right decision. You can make a decision, and then make it right. Clarity and confidence come after you commit, not before. Decisive entrepreneurs make mistakes, but they also learn and adapt much faster than indecisive ones. When you’re indecisive, you lose access to your wisdom, experience, and problem-solving abilities. The act of deciding eliminates alternative options and allows your mind to focus on what matters most. Protecting your role and saying no to distractions is a by-product of being decisive about your commitments. The word “decide” literally means to “kill off” alternatives, freeing you from mental clutter and overwhelm. Resources: The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Impact Filter™
How Entrepreneurs Rise Stronger After Setbacks, with Gary Mottershead
An entrepreneur for over 35 years, Gary Mottershead is the founder and president of GCP Industrial Products, the largest U.S. importer of industrial sheet rubber, serving customers across North America. In this episode, he shares the highs and lows of his career, as well as his goals as a Program Coach for The Strategic Coach® Program. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:What Gary considers to be his most important responsibility.How Gary’s entrepreneurial career started with an actual tire fire.How he and his team built up their “crisis muscle.” Why reinterpreting your past and protecting your present is crucial to entrepreneurial success. How Strategic Coach® helps entrepreneurs sharpen their vision. Why Gary chose to write a book—and what he learned from the process.How entrepreneurs can overcome FOMO. Show Notes:If you’re going to bring children into the world, you should look after them.Having a support system at home is vital to the success of any entrepreneurial family.Stability in some areas of your life can give you the energy to handle changes in others.Sometimes, not making a decision is the greater risk.There are things entrepreneurs feel compelled to do without knowing why.Trying to be significant before you’re successful is doing things backwards.The time isn’t up unless you decide it’s up.The mark of an entrepreneur is not how often you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up.You’ll handle a situation more calmly if you’ve experienced something similar before.Being nimble is a mindset.Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.You can rewrite your own story, keeping only what’s important.The future isn’t written yet—which means you can still shape it.Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle, not just a job.Without intention and direction, too much information can paralyze you.The hardest thing for an entrepreneur is being honest with themselves.You can only help those who want to be helped. Resources: Kolbe A™ IndexAntifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Nimble Future: Reinterpret Your Past, Protect Your Present, Engage In Your Future by Gary Mottershead Unique Ability® Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only) The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan
Why Entrepreneurs Should Sell Opportunity Instead Of Fear
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
How To Turn Your Solutions Into Profitable Intellectual Property
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
The Secret Behind Why Every Entrepreneur Has Two Companies
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?
Turning Tariffs Into Your Unbeatable Advantage
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
Growing Great Leadership
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
Clarify Your Thinking To Become A Better Entrepreneur, with Erik Solbakken
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
All Entrepreneurs Need To Have Courageous Creativity
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
Why Entrepreneurship Is The Safest Career Move You Can Make
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:Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan The Great Crossover by Dan Sullivan Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage Unique Ability®
How Lucky Are You As An Entrepreneur?
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
What Ambition Looks Like At 80
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 Can’t Move Forward With Costs, Only With Investments
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
Business Lessons For Creating The Job You Want, with Patti Mara
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
The Right Way And The Dangerous Way To Think About Ambition
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
Success Traps Are Harder To Escape Than Failure Traps
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.
Entrepreneurs Should Spend Less Time Doing What Others Do Better
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
Why Friction Is The Source Of Expanded Freedom For Entrepreneurs
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
Master The Art Of Alignment For Unlimited Business Success With Strategic Coach® And EOS®
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®
Forging Your Own Path To Success When That's Your Only Choice, with André Brisson
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™
Why A Community Is The Secret Weapon In Every Entrepreneur’s Life, with David Braithwaite
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 entrep...
Why A Community Is The Secret Weapon In Every Entrepreneur’s Life, with David Braithwaite
What if the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial potential lies in embracing discomfort? In this episode, Associate Coach David Braithwaite shares his inspiring journey from a "rubbish" student to a thriving entrepreneur and coach. Discover how embracing risk, fostering genuine connections, and prioritizing personal growth can transform your business and life. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: Why David never saw the point of school.How David got into financial planning.What prevents people from becoming incredible entrepreneurs.Why David considers products secondary in his work.What entrepreneurs have the freedom to do that others don’t.What people will remember you for.Why David wishes he’d joined Strategic Coach® sooner. Show Notes: David’s entrepreneurial spirit emerged early, with multiple jobs during school despite struggling academically.Traditional education often overlooks the relevance of real-world skills, leaving many feeling disconnected.Risk-taking is essential for entrepreneurial success, yet many entrepreneurs don’t take enough risks.Being an entrepreneur is a career path for people who don’t fit the typical mold.Your interest determines how much effort you’re willing to put into something.Embracing experimentation can lead to valuable insights and breakthroughs in business. Genuine client relationships are built on trust and honesty rather than just selling products.David's Unique Ability® is communicating complex ideas with empathy and clarity.The definition of community is a group of people who agree to grow together, and community plays a vital role in entrepreneurial success.At Strategic Coach, you’re in a room filled with people who are just like you.Imposter syndrome can indicate you’re in the right environment for growth and learning.Growth and discomfort go hand in hand.People want to learn from other people's mistakes rather than make their own.Every coach at Strategic Coach is also a client.With business growth comes complexity.When you have the right mindsets, the right behaviors follow. Resources:Learn more about David Braithwaite 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