Michael Viane, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, and Keynote Speaker, is driven by a mission to help people overcome challenges and find the clarity to act. His Marathon Mindset Framework includes Purpose, Preparation, Pace, and Perseverance—four guiding principles that help individuals and teams sustain momentum and avoid burnout in pursuit of long-term goals.

We dive into Michael’s journey from a 30-year corporate career to coaching, inspired by a desire to live with purpose and help others do the same. He explains how leaders can use the Marathon Mindset to navigate overwhelm, maintain strategic focus, and build resilience. Michael also shares the concept of DMAs (Difference-Making Actions)—intentional, goal-aligned tasks that counter reactive busyness and drive daily progress.

Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Michael Viane, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, and Keynote Speaker, empowering individuals, teams, and organizations to overcome challenges and find the clarity to take action. Michael, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Steve. Thank you for that nice introduction.

I copied it from your LinkedIn page, so it wasn’t my creation, but I think it’s a good one. So as an introduction, by way of introduction, Michael, why don’t you share what is your personal “Why” with our audience?

I will give you a rather lengthy answer on it. My “Why” started after 30 years in corporate America of having the recognition that I was waking up each day without any passion for what I was doing, without any sense of fulfillment at the end of my day. And the recognition that I needed to find the courage to move forward and do something that I deserved. And that was to have passion and fulfillment in my everyday life, to want to wake up in the morning and do things. And I had the very obvious and rewarding recognition that my greatest accomplishments in my career were always in coaching and mentoring people on my team to be greater organizational contributors, to be future leaders. And when I said this to people, they said, let me introduce you to somebody. And I met a coach. I met a business coach who explained to me what he does. And then I was introduced to Focal Point Business Coaching. And at Focal Point, we have the idea that we are a pebble in the pond, and that when we help one person and we drop that pebble into the pond, we see the ripple effect go out.

My “Why” is literally to help others, to teach others, and make even the smallest of difference in their lives and in their business world
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Okay, love it. To be the pebble in the pond and create the ripple effect, that is awesome. And definitely coaching can create that, especially when you coach executives who then coach their direct reports and their family life gets better. Let’s talk about how you do that and one of the things that you talked about earlier when we chatted really struck a chord with me when you talked about the marathon mindset. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And how do marathonists think about the race and how they pace themselves? So, what is the Marathon Mindset and what are the four Ps of the Marathon Mindset?

Yeah, and this was actually the topic of our Focal Point conference this year. The Marathon Mindset and the four Ps. The four Ps are Purpose to begin with. And we just talked about this and “Why.” Our “Why.” So we talk about our purpose. then we talk about Preparation. Preparation is our process, our ability to plan, our ability to practice, to set goals, to have a mental readiness, and to figure out our process that gets us through, whether it’s a specific project or an overall, let’s from an entrepreneurial sense, the preparation for starting and growing our own business. The third P is Pace. I’ve been talking a lot about pace lately, and I’ll come back in a minute because pace is so important. Our business, our project, whatever it is, it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. And to avoid burnout and overwhelm, we have to be very, very aware of pace. I’ll come back and talk a little bit more about that. And then Perseverance is the fourth P. And there are going to be setbacks, there are going to be adversity, whether we’re starting our own business, trying to grow our own business, or even something as simple as trying to complete a meaningful project.

There are going to be obstacles and setbacks and we have to persevere and have the mindset to be able to overcome those obstacles.

It's a wonderful mindset, this Marathon Mindset, that can teach us how to think about not only how to be a key executive or be a business owner.
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Okay, that’s very fascinating. So purpose, preparation, peace and perseverance. So how do you implement that Marathon Mindset? How do you build that Marathon Mindset for your clients? What does it take?

So it takes diving into each one of these in a very big way. I always try to start with purpose. And I thought it was great that you started our conversation today with Mike, what’s your “Why?” I find that most people don’t want to work with me because of what I do, but why I do it. So let’s take that and apply it to our own businesses. What is your purpose? There’s a line that I believe I heard from Rob Dial on one of his podcasts and he said, if your “Why” is strong enough, it will reveal your how. So when we talk about how to do something and that comes into preparation. How are we going to accomplish this? How are we going to build your business? How are we going to grow your business? How are we going to conceive and start your business from ground zero? If your “Why” is strong enough, your how will reveal itself. I love that idea because if we are all driven by that “Why,” that how just tends to come in naturally.

But one of the four Ps that I’ve really been honing in on lately, and it just seems to be a real topic right now with what everyone’s going on in their lives and in their businesses, is pace. Pace is very, very important. And here was something that I keep referring to our conference, but it was a very powerful conference, that I heard. And there was a panel of coaches up front, but they had all run marathons. And one of the questions was, what do you do when you hit that wall at mile 20? Because we’ve all heard about that wall that marathon runners hit. And one of the coaches said, if I think about the finish line, when I hit that wall, I quit. What I do is I focus 100 feet in front of me and I run that 100 feet. When I get to the end of that 100 feet, I do it again and again and again until I regain a rhythm so that I can continue moving forward towards my ultimate goal of finishing this.

Where this comes in and applies to our lives and our businesses is that so many times we become overwhelmed, we spin out of control in stress and anxiety because the uncertainty of how we’re going to create our business, grow our business, finish this marathon, or even simply finish a project that we’re in, the uncertainty overwhelms us and we quit. And I love that line when she said, if I think of the finish line at mile 20, I quit. We have to shrink our focus. It could be 100 feet at a time, it could be many different goals that we’re setting, but

we come up with small wins through strategy and tactics to get through a smaller period of time so that we can continue to move forward.
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He’s a Navy SEAL and he would talked about their training and they have to carry the boat above their head and they go for three hours on the beach with these boats on their head and if that hour one you start thinking about how am I going to get through hour two and three, you will quit. He would start to shrink his horizon and say, I want to get to the end of that sandbar. When I get there, I will reward myself for getting there. And then I will set pace and do it all over again until I can recreate a rhythm where I can move forward and finish. I love this concept for everybody right now. My son went to his first year of college away last year and there was uncertainty in his mind for sure about how he was going to get through a full year away from home and with all of these academic and social pressures that were going to be on him. And we talked about this very mindset. Sometimes, we need to shrink it down to one day. How do I get through my test tomorrow? How do I get through this week?

But rather than let the overwhelm of an entire year or an entire semester overwhelm you, let's shrink that focus and create these small strategic wins.
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Yeah, that’s very true. And this also, I think, connects to this idea of compartmentalization.

Yes.

How do you compartmentalize all your other problems so that you just focus on this small slice of it, which you can really, if you focus your energies, you can break through there, you can make an impact. I recall that my business was going through financial challenges and I had all these bills that I had to pay and the debt and there were just so many headaches. And what I decided was, at the same time, the only way forward was to make sales. Now, if I allowed myself to be overwhelmed, I couldn’t make sales. So I decided that I’m just going to do compartmentalize everything. I’m going to deal with my financial situation in the company Friday mornings for three hours. And that’s the place for it. And all other times I’m going to ignore the whole thing.

I’m just going to focus on sales and positivity and going forward. And I had a discussion with a client yesterday who was going through the same thing, and I told him, just look at your bank balances at the end of the months and the bank balance at the beginning of the month. Did you make money? If you make money, you’re moving forward. If you lost money, okay, let’s decide what to cut. But if you made money, just keep doing more of what you’re doing and don’t worry about all the debt that you have. So this is great.

Yeah, I know it’s very powerful what you just said. And it’s something that we all need to do is when you talk about that, look at that bank account at day one and day 30 of that month. It’s important for us to to reward ourselves for making that money and the recognition that we are moving forward, because that teaches us to start to enjoy the process of growing our business and running our business so that we’re not just trying to, oh my gosh, I want to make a million dollars this year, I’m never going to do it. Well,

if you make a thousand dollars in month one, reward yourself as you just said, because it's a micro small win towards this larger goal. It's a great concept.
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Yeah. And it’s basically that’s what builds momentum. So say, okay, I go through this month, she made some money. Okay. Let’s do it again. Let’s do it again. Let’s tweak the dial and make a little bit more and keep moving because sometimes there are mountains that you have to climb.

Absolutely.

Now, let’s dig a little bit deeper in this Marathon Mindset. I love it. In the purpose we discussed it, the pace, it’s really important to keep the pace, to keep moving. Jim Collins talks about the 20 mile march, so every day do your 20 mile march. But there’s also, you share the concept about preparation, which I found fascinating. You call these DMAs. So what are these DMAs and why are they important?

So, I first learned about DMAs through a group out of Minnesota. It’s the Trust Edge Leadership Institute. And I am actually a certified partner and coach with them. And David Horsager, he introduced this concept to me of DMAs, meaning Difference-Making Actions. Let me digress for one second and just talk about what many of us have happened to us every day. We find ourselves reacting all day rather than being intentional about our actions. And right now, this world is pulling us in that direction. Even when we try to be intentional, text messages and emails demand our immediate attention. Social media is always distracting us. Our phones ring. There’s all these things trying to draw us away and create distraction. What DMAs do is they create meaningful intention that’s going to create a positive impact towards our business, towards our goal, and towards our own personal growth.

Now, one thing I do want to point out about DMAs is it’s not a to-do list and it’s very important to separate it. A to-do list is typically a bunch of tasks that we need to complete and our human just sort of like reaction to a to-do list is I’m going to find the three, four, or five things on this to-do list that I can wipe out in the next 15 minutes. I’m going to check them off the to-do list, and I’m going to give myself a false sense of accomplishment. And I always ask this to groups that I talk in front of. I say, how many people in the room have said to lives I was busy all day but I don’t feel like I accomplished anything and, Steve, everybody’s hands go up there oh yeah that happens to me all the time and it’s because we’re just reacting to things. We go into work, oh my gosh, I have a hundred emails I need to catch up on. There’s two phone messages I need to come up with. An emergency meeting gets called. Two people walk into my office and I deal with that and we look up, it’s the end of the day and all we’ve done is react to things rather than being intentional.

So DMAs are specifically aligned to our goals. And what I try to teach anyone I’m working with is either at the end of a day or at the beginning of the day, this is your choice. Sit down and remind yourself of your goals. These goals could be both short-term and long-term. And then write one, two, or three Difference-Making Actions that will move you closer and have a positive impact towards those goals. You talked about just a couple minutes ago about when you were struggling in your business and you said, okay, I am going to focus on sales in the morning on a particular day, a particular time. In many, many ways, those were your DMAs. You said, the only way that I’m going to move closer to my goals and to keep this company going is through sales. So what are my Difference-Making Actions that I can take to move me there? Now I’m going to give you the rules of engagements of DMAs. So, the first thing I’m going to just remind everyone of is DMAs reduce and sometimes, eliminate hesitation because it’s on paper, you know what you need to do. When you have these things written down you need to apply a number to your DMA and what I mean by this is you might say I’m going to spend one hour working on a new contract for one of my clients. I’m gonna spend a half hour with one of my employees in a one-on-one meeting. I’m gonna write four employee reviews.

Whatever it is, I’m gonna work for one hour on the marketing plan. This tells us when we’re done because the next rule of DMA is if you’ve written down two or three, you cannot move on to number two or three until you have completed number one.

So these numbers help us recognize when we have finished a DMA. You get through one, you can move on to two.
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Yeah, lovely. 20 years ago, I was running my own business and every morning I would get up at 4 a.m. and I did a couple of things. I read something, I was writing, whether my newsletter or book or something like that and I created the stuff, came up with ideas. And I did that every morning between, I don’t know, 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. And basically by 8 a.m., by the time my family, I had young kids, and by the time they would come down, I have done the most important thing that I had to do that day for my business.

And then I went into the office and then I was in the action. There was a bunch of meetings and I had to work with colleagues and fix problems. And I do remember that was a very strong, powerful feeling that I felt that I was making progress.

And you’re moving forward every day and going back to that marathon mindset. Like even if these DMAs are small wins, it’s moving us forward. And I always say DMAs can sort of track down and trickle down into that pace mindset we were talking about. If we have to shrink our area of focus and we can only look at the next 100 feet of our business, let’s create the DMAs each morning that get us that 100 feet down the road. If our goal is 100 feet, our DMAs are what do I need to do to gain those 100 feet? I think that when I go back to thinking about that shrinking of focus, Steve, just think about businesses in the pandemic just a couple of years ago. All that uncertainty that I talked about with duration, pathway, and outcome. When people ask themselves, duration, how long is this pandemic going to last and how long is my business going to be shut down or running at an anemic level? What’s the pathway in and out? And what’s the outcome? None of us knew the answers to any of those. We didn’t know those answers. So, some people became overwhelmed by that uncertainty and gave up and they quit. Or others said, all I can do is figure out how to get through this week and this month and look at that bank statement. And when I’ve made money, I’m going to keep going to the next month. So

I love how DMAs can come in and help you get that extra 100 feet each and every day as well.
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Okay, that’s awesome. This DMAs, I love them. We are almost at the end of our conversation, but I wanted to ask you something personal. What was the hardest thing that you ever had to do in business? If you look back on your career, the most toughest situation that you had to deal with?

Well, there are certainly times that I could tell you I had some very difficult and stressful deals to make with people. And those seemed to be very difficult at the time. But those definitely weren’t the most difficult because if I didn’t make that deal, the company was still going to move forward and we might need to pivot in another direction. But we were going to still survive. The most difficult thing I’ve ever done in business is being able to recognize that I had so much discomfort in being in a corporate role in a corporate world. And on paper, Steve, I looked very successful, but inside I wasn’t and I couldn’t find that passion. My brain wants to tell me, you know what? Live with that discomfort because you’re doing fine.

But I chose a different discomfort and that discomfort was leaving that situation and starting my own business and figuring out how to make it successful
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Yeah, I love that. Actually, I was chatting with ChatGPT this morning and I was trying to come up with a good CTA for my offering and then ChatGPT suggested the sentence which was that, turn your drag into a strategic advantage. So I asked him, how do you turn a drag into a strategic? Basically, it explained that when you have drag, you basically have an opportunity to identify what is holding you back. And if you remove the drag, then you can go forward. So it’s basically a trigger for improvement actions. So I love that because you may have felt the drag in this old job. And that was a wake up call that, hey, I have to fix this. I have to do something. And sometimes you have to take a step back before you can take two steps forward. And you were willing.

Yes. And with that, we in the Marathon Mindset, I think one thing I didn’t share was this line that perfectly aligns with the drag concept, which is sometimes you have to slow down to speed up and I just love that concept and it’s identifying that drag so many times. When I work with a business owner, we have to find that underlying problem in drag before we can move forward they might not even recognize it. They just say I’m stuck and I need to create traction. But until we figure out why they’re stuck and what that drag is, that’s keeping them spinning their wheels in the mud. We can’t move forward. So you said it perfectly.

Yeah, I mean some companies they get new customers all the time, but they have churn on the other side. So, it’s kind of drag. So, they can get even more customers, but it’s much better to figure out why they are losing the customers. And then the past is much easier. That’s awesome. So, Michael Viane, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, Keynote Speaker. So, check him out on LinkedIn and you can see how he can speak about DMAs and other great concepts, the four Ps of Marathon Mindset and stuff. He would be a great keynote speaker for you if you’re listening to this. So Michael, thanks for coming. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you give us a follow, you subscribe on YouTube, you give us a review on Apple podcast and stay tuned, because every week, there’s a new wonderful individual business executive or entrepreneur or coach who will share their frameworks with you. Thanks for coming, Michael. And thank you for listening.

Thank you, Steve.