Inside Strategic Coach: Connecting Entrepreneurs With What Really Matters

Employment opportunities for people with blue collar skills are going to keep growing. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk to Kenny Chapman, CEO of The Blue Collar Success Group, about his entrepreneurial path and how skilled blue-collar work is going to be much more crucial, popular, and needed going forward. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: Show Notes: In the 1940s, being a plumber was a valued career. Blue-trade industry covers hundreds of different specialized skills. It takes good leadership to have a good company. If you don't operate an effective, good model, you're not going to have what you need in order to pay people top of market and above. Mindset drives everything, and clarity drives direction. Identity limits us a lot. You're much more valuable the more you learn and the more you see. When we hear the word “education,” we've automatically trained our brains to think “higher education.” Like colleges, skilled trades are not created equal. Customers complain about price no matter how much it is. So you might as well get customer complaints at a profitable number. Resources: The Blue Collar Success Group Blue Collar Success Laws by Kenny Chapman The Six Dimensions of C.H.A.N.G.E. by Kenny Chapman Visual Thinking by Temple Grandin Kolbe CliftonStrengths® GravyStack The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan The Impact Filter™ Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Unique Ability®

Every great entrepreneur wants (and deserves) to have a dependable team around them so they can be freed up to develop new ideas and focus on growing their business. But how do you get one? After all, the first question most entrepreneurs ask when they join The StrategicⓇ Program is, “Where do you find such great team members?” In this episode of Inside Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller finally answer this question in-depth. From identifying and nurturing your team’s areas of Unique AbilityⓇ and creating a positive and collaborative work culture to investing in team members’ growth, Dan and Shannon share everything that makes Strategic CoachⓇ a magnet for skilled and passionate talent—and how your business can become one too. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: Show Notes: At Strategic Coach, you’re always either winning or learning. There are a lot of Coach tools that support having a great team. Everybody's on their own unique growth path in terms of who they are and the kind of work they’re most likely to enjoy and excel at. Strategic Coach team members can continually focus their time at work on doing what they’re excited about. The moment someone is hired, Coach invests in learning about who that person is and how they can grow their skills. At Strategic Coach, if something doesn’t work, the system gets blamed, not the individual. The four core values of Strategic Coach (PAGE) are: positive and collaborative teamwork; being alert, curious, responsive, and resourceful; getting results; and providing an excellent first-class experience. Strategic Coach has uniformly very helpful and very positive team members. Some Coach clients have been with the company for 15, 20, 25 years, and so have some team members. The educational system generally disparages successful business people. Almost all Coach team members are directly in contact on a person-to-person level with the company’s clients. A team member can’t be at their best if they don’t feel safe. If you want great team members, you have to be a great entrepreneur. And that also includes being a great person. Great team members who want a bigger future aren't interested in being with someone who doesn't have any future. If you're going to be able to attract and retain the best people out there, you can’t have an entitled attitude. Resources: Unique AbilityⓇ Article: Your Business Is a Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

When things need to get done, it doesn’t mean that you, as the entrepreneur, need to do them yourself. In fact, for the best kinds of business growth and business success, you need to do as little as possible. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller share the three rules for having a friction-free future. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Strategic Coach has a lot of tools for creating teamwork where other people do work that you don't like doing. For every task, there’s someone who’s great at it, loves doing it, and finds it energizing to do. There are times in your past where you’ve done a lot, but someone else would have done it if you’d done nothing. Friction is where you’re moving, but you’re being resisted by forces. When a new thing has to be done, ask yourself three questions: Is there any way this can be achieved by me doing nothing? What’s the minimum I have to do for this to be achieved? Is there anyone else who can do my minimum? The more you stick to the three rules, the more gets achieved by things you instigate. Rather than having pride about the things that get done, some entrepreneurs have pride about doing the things that get things done. An entrepreneur is only required for the activities they love doing. Resources: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Impact Filter™ Unique Ability® Article: Your Productivity At Its Best With This Guaranteed Hack

Everything that humans create is done with tools. But the skill level people have for using tools varies drastically. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss why it’s essential to be good at using the tool of language for both thinking and communicating, and share the thinking tools that all entrepreneurs can use for both business success and business growth. Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode: Show Notes: One of the reasons to get really good at language is because it gives you the tools for thinking and communicating. If you don’t have the language to think about things, you’re trapped by your emotions. If your language skills aren’t good enough, people can only respond to your emotions. A lot of small businesses stay small because they never really comprehended what entrepreneurship really was. Some things that are impossible can become possible if you change your thinking. Strategic Coach currently has roughly 250 thinking tools in the company’s 35th year. Every quarter, Dan creates three or four new thinking tools. New thinking tools address new things that are happening to entrepreneurs where there isn't a structure for thinking about it. Questions about the future are tools for instigating a thinking process. You always have to have a bigger and better future to bounce your present off of. In today’s world, ideas and processes have tremendous value. Resources: Total Cash Confidence by Dan Sullivan Article: This Tool Will Help You Make Sense Of The Past AND Take Charge Of Your Future The Impact Filter™ Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan The Transformation Trilogy by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Article: The Four Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan The Positive Focus® The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management

Description: Since 1989, Strategic Coach® has been helping entrepreneurs find greater happiness and business success. In this episode, Gord Vickman and business coach Dan Sullivan talk about how the company has grown over nearly 35 years and how they’re catering to the needs of successful, collaborative entrepreneurs with growth mindsets. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode 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: 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: 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: Show Notes: A company can create the structures and the processes where any good person can decide to be a great person. If you trust in your team members, you’ll save yourself a lot of worry. Envious people feel inferior from birth. The ultimate proof that people aren't envious is that they innovate new things that everybody applauds them for. The outlook that you’re born with is very much subject to the circumstances you’re born into. In all your teamwork interactions, make sure everyone else knows where you’re coming from and what you’re trying to achieve. Team members should be freed up to focus on what they’re uniquely good at and love doing. People who are relaxed and confident can be more creative. If your company does new things, you need people’s creativity. In bureaucracies and large corporations, you’re expected to be very good at doing several things. Resources: Video: Tips For Exceptional Company Performance The Positive Focus® The Transformation Trilogy by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Unique Ability® The Impact Filter™

Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller cut through the predictions of unlimited business growth. They explain why the cost of four key elements crucial to business success are on the rise. It's a straightforward conversation about what entrepreneurs should anticipate, and practical steps you can take to navigate the changes ahead. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: 90% of all transport happens on water. And the cost of water transportation is going through the roof right now. Over the next 25 years, the only place where energy will be guaranteed to be cheap is the United States. The four crucial MELT factors are money, energy, labor, and transportation. The costs of the MELT factors are going to rise over the next 25 years. It’s important to find a way to finance yourself that doesn’t involve debt. You shouldn’t be giving up a lot of your company just to get your growth money or your survival money. The U.S. is going to start using tariffs for foreign-produced goods. We're now in a period where the whole world is going through the greatest loss of skilled knowledge and skilled know-how in history, and this period will probably continue for another decade. It’s going to get more and more expensive to hire really great people. The last three years have seen the fastest, biggest growth of new industry and new manufacturing in the history of the United States. Entrepreneurs are successful to the degree that they solve the D.O.S.® issues (dangers, opportunities, and strengths) of their client base. Automating what used to be strictly human work is a very slow process. Resources: Deep D.O.S. Innovation by Dan Sullivan Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

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: Show Notes: Strategic Coach clients learn in a community where everyone is a successful, talented, and ambitious entrepreneur. Nothing turns a person off more than someone not practicing what they preach. All the thinking tools that Strategic Coach clients master are the same ones that Strategic Coach team members master. Strategic Coach clients use Coach thinking tools to organize both their business and work lives. Strategic Coach clients and Strategic Coach team members advance in their careers in the same way. Strategic Coach clients learn how to have complete congruity between their behind-the-scenes activities and what clients see. The obstacles to your goals are your raw material for achieving them. Quantitative measurements really focus entrepreneurs’ brains. In 2024, Dan Sullivan will have been coaching entrepreneurs for 50 years. An entrepreneur in one part of the world totally understands an entrepreneur in another part of the world. There’s a whole relationship that develops from a coach helping a client think more clearly. Resources: Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan — coming December 2023! Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® The Positive Focus® The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management

Entrepreneurs have more to be grateful for than most people who experience business success. In this episode, guest host Gord Vickman and business coach Dan Sullivan share entrepreneur ideas about all there is to appreciate about running your own business. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Entrepreneurs tend to be a lot more grateful for their work lives than people who haven't created their own companies. You can’t be complaining and grateful at the same time. If you’re saying you’re excited about something, it’s implicit in that that you’re grateful for it. Strategic Coach clients use Coach thinking tools in their personal lives as well as their work lives. The entrepreneurial instinct starts before age ten. Entrepreneurially minded people know that money is the key to gaining independence. A lot of entrepreneurs are trying to escape from their beginnings. Negative experiences can be uniquely valuable for you if they lead to course corrections. Everything we're grateful for is because we appreciate the value of it. If you measure your progress against the ideal, you eliminate all the value of what you’ve achieved. Resources: The Positive Focus® Unique Ability® The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan Strategic Podcasts The Impact Filter™

Dan Sullivan and guest co-host Gord Vickman explore the innovative concepts within the Transformation Trilogy and the collaboration behind their success. Discover the driving force behind Dan's creation of Who Not How, The Gap And The Gain, and 10x Is Easier Than 2x, as he shares personal anecdotes, inspiration, and insights gained along the way. He also delves into the evolution of these books, their impact on entrepreneurs worldwide, and the invaluable lessons you can apply to your own successful journey. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Work always takes the time that’s allotted for it. Life is taking advantage of everything that wasn’t planned. Dan first had the idea for books as something to assist and support what the other Strategic Coach coaches were doing. Recognizing that consumers want to get information very quickly, Dan came up with the 60-minute book format. When Dan was 70, he committed to putting out one book every quarter for the next 25 years. There’s now a 10-person team around Dan on the Strategic Coach quarterly book project. The origin of every Strategic Coach thinking tool is Dan asking entrepreneurs a question about their experience. Everything in the Strategic Coach Program and the way the company is run is a function of equipping people with thinking tools to improve their entrepreneurial life. The number one rule governing the Strategic Coach universe is free Dan up to focus on what he does best. Resources: Who Not How The Gap and the Gain 10x Is Easier than 2x The Transformation Trilogy

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: Show Notes: The world is progressing on the basis of new tools, new technologies, and new opportunities. We’ve all gone 10x many times in our lives. It’s useful for entrepreneurs to look at how they’ve grown within the framework of their entrepreneurial lives. You can look at massive growth as a series of 10x jumps. If you don’t have a deadline for it, it’s only a wish. Entrepreneurs don’t drive themselves crazy with their goals, they drive themselves crazy with their deadlines. Money you make can be good or bad depending on the activity and who is writing you the check. The four entrepreneurial freedoms are freedom of time, money, relationship, and purpose. All entrepreneurs seek the freedom to focus on whatever they want to focus on. Looking ahead doesn’t tell you how to go 10x. Change is a natural part of being an entrepreneur. Resources: 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Four Freedoms The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

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: Show Notes: There are two timeless ways of learning and improving yourself: imitating other people's performance, and repetition. Humans are the only species that can use their brains to access the uniqueness of other people's brains. We all imitate other people, whether we like to admit it or not. If you're creative, and you come across someone who's more creative, you imitate, but at a certain point, you make it your own. What an imitating person does, and for how long they do it, tells you whether they're just an imitator or whether they're creative. If you appreciate someone else’s skills, you can translate them into your own world. Creative people can be polarizing. You create a new capability using vision and obstacles. The combination of two people’s uniqueness creates something brand new. People who imitate but aren’t creative are stealing. In a world of AI imitation, creative people are going to get wildly more creative to differentiate themselves from robots. Resources: Unique Ability® Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

A lot of people go to great lengths to always appear busy. But should you really see being busy as a badge of honor? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain why the answer is “no.” Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: People try to establish their value by always being busy. Being busy has nothing to do with any kind of results. As results oriented people get better at what they do, they achieve their desired results by being less busy. Depending on the rules you set up in your company, either being busy or achieving results will be rewarded. Busy people see it as dangerous to not be seen on any workday. In large bureaucracies, you get promoted on the basis of your busyness because the organization’s purpose is to be seen as busy. Entrepreneurial companies get connected to the marketplace very quickly. There’s no progress without measurement. Entrepreneurs tend to make for really lousy employees. We’re always ignorant and incapable when we start anything new. Resources: “Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage by Shannon Waller The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

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: 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 Sullivan ‌ The Entrepreneur’s Guide To 10x Growth ‌ The Multiplier Mindset® Podcast ‌

Every entrepreneur should expect surprises because surprises are a part of reality. How you respond to them is key to whether you’re a happy, successful entrepreneur. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss how entrepreneurs can use both good and bad surprises for business success and business growth. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Being taken by surprise means nothing you were preparing for, or nothing you expected to happen, actually happened. You can do different things with a good surprise than you can with a bad surprise, and vice versa. More clearly than almost anything else, surprises tell you what kind of person you are. With bad surprises, you have no choice about how you have to respond because your survival may be at stake. You can decide that whenever you’re inconvenienced, you’ll get a much bigger result instead of just getting back to where you were. People who are entrepreneurial take greater advantage of bad surprises than good surprises. Good surprises can help you up your level of ambition. You have very, very little control over events outside of yourself. Resources: The Front Stage/Back Stage Model® article Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Experience Transformer® tool Scary Times Success Manual by Dan Sullivan

The world has become more competitive, and many people are focused on the concept of fairness. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explain what fairness really means and what every entrepreneur needs to understand to avoid certain dangers. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: No one knows what it’s like to be someone else. Who you are can be modified by who other people are. Reactive and creative are opposites. The word “fairness” is a fairly recent creation. The present understanding of fairness touches on equality. Fairness is a social term, not a descriptive term. A lot in our world supports the fact that things should be fair. Uniqueness means looking inside and knowing who you are. If you’re looking for fairness, you can’t find out who you are. Resources: “Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan CliftonStrengths® ENVY: A Theory of Social Behaviour by Helmut Schoeck Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Unique Ability® Unique Ability® 2.0: Discovery by Catherine Nomura, Julia Waller, and Shannon Waller The Kolbe A™ Index

Every entrepreneur needs to be careful about who they choose as their role models. Your choices speak to your mindset, your business motivation, and your business success. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannan Waller talk about why each of Dan’s five role models made the list. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Your role models should have qualities you aspire to. The one law that really governs everything is that gravity respects no angle except a 90-degree angle. Our entire physical world has been based on one book by Euclid. You need to understand each one of Euclid’s principles before you can understand the next. Being exploited with food is better than dying from no food. The vast majority of great people are not widely recognized as great during their own time. Nobody in particular is in charge of the U.S. The rules are in charge. The pursuit of happiness is not the same as happiness. Being inspired by someone doesn’t mean trying to imitate them. Edison created the model for how to systematically invent new things. Mindsets create habits, and habits are things that work that have become automatic. Resources: “Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® The Strategic Coach® Signature Program

If you want business success, you have to take good care of your clientele. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the difference between customer service and hospitality and reveal the right way to treat clients and customers to keep them coming back. Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode: Show Notes: Hospitality means making people feel at home. There’s a movement where people are trying to make human beings more like machines. The more dependence there is on technology, the less there’s a sense of personal connection. If you have to write out customer service rules, the rules aren’t a habit. The point of hospitality is showing appreciation for your clientele. Remembering small details about your clients can make a huge impact. There’s a lot of competition to be interesting, but there’s almost no competition to be interested. Every person is smart in their own way. Resources: Unique Ability® Anything And Everything Podcast with Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff