What if the solutions you’ve already created could generate value for decades—without more of your time? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals how packaging, naming, and protecting your ideas transforms them into scalable intellectual property. Learn why your “second company” (your multiplier) could soon be worth more than your entire business—and how to make it happen.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How to make your solutions valuable by protecting them through intellectual property law.
• The thinking tool that lets you find the right person for the right role.
• How you can easily turn your ideas into intellectual property.
• The importance of sticking to your business model.
• How you can franchise your ideas.
• The future of Strategic Coach® over the next 20 years.

Show Notes:

Your first company, your R&D company, creates solutions for people.

Your second company, your multiplier company, packages your solutions as your intellectual property.

If you record, package, and name a solution you’ve created, it will have massive ongoing value.

Before you put your ideas out into the world, you must protect them.

Boredom with your own solutions is a hidden risk—document them before you move on to the next idea.

The value of Strategic Coach’s patents will soon surpass 55 years of coaching revenue—proof that IP compounds value.

Protecting your creativity isn’t just a multiplier; it’s an accelerator of long-term wealth.

A two-company structure makes you immune to market chaos because you control the value of your ideas.

Your biggest breakthroughs will come from technology multiplied by teamwork, not from grinding harder.

The same business model that built your success can scale infinitely—if you focus on IP, not just execution.

Resources:

Unique Process Advisors by Dan Sullivan

Instant IP

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

Unique Ability®

Perplexity

This Tool Will Help You Make Sense Of The Past AND Take Charge Of Your Future

Everything Is Created Backward by Dan Sullivan

Extraordinary Impact Filter by Dan Sullivan

Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Do you feel torn between the company you have and the one you wish you had? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals The Second Company Secret—how successful entrepreneurs leverage their first (real) company to fuel a second (multiplier) company built on intellectual property. Discover how to eliminate tension between the two, protect your creativity, and unlock exponential growth.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why your real company frustrates you.
• Why your imaginary company seems perfect.
• What you can do with the new Second Company Secret thinking tool.
• What you’ll come to realize if you closely examine your two companies.

Show Notes:

Entrepreneurs often undervalue their real company while idolizing an imagined “perfect” version.

Your real company isn’t the problem—your thinking about it is.

Your most creative breakthroughs feel tied to this unrealized vision, but it lacks traction.

Your second company allows you to see the value of your first company.

You could be making money at one company while still resenting how much of your time it takes up.

Your second company thrives through collaboration, not through your time and effort.

Structure and partners are non-negotiable—they’re the multipliers of your vision.

You bring the vision and capabilities, and your partners bring the reach.                 

When your second company succeeds, it fuels even greater creativity and innovation in your first.

The solutions you create are your intellectual property. Take steps to protect them.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

The V.C.R. Formula

Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

What Is An Impact Filter?

Are you prepared for the biggest economic shift in 80 years? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reveals how the new global tariff landscape creates unprecedented opportunities for agile entrepreneurs. Learn why the post-WWII economic order is over, how to adapt your business model, and why being alert, curious, and resourceful is the secret to success in this emerging era.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The real history behind today’s tariffs—and why it matters for your business.
• How WWII transformed the U.S. economy into a global powerhouse.
• Why the U.S. dollar leads world trade (and why that’s changing).
• Why the U.S. Navy started protecting trade routes around the world.
• Five critical strategies every entrepreneur must adopt now.
• A simple framework to help clients regain confidence in uncertain times.
• Why China faces unprecedented challenges in this new era.

Show Notes:

On April 3, the U.S. announced tariffs of 10% for most countries, with higher rates for nations with significant trade imbalances.

Post-WWII, the U.S. economy was self-sufficient, yet other countries charged tariffs on U.S. goods while enjoying tariff-free access to American markets.

One-sided tariffs led American corporations to offshore factories, costing U.S. jobs and prosperity.

Trump’s tariffs are a negotiation tactic to reset unfair trade terms and bring manufacturing back to the U.S.

China’s current trade practices make it the primary target of aggressive tariffs (now 125%).

U.S. companies abroad face tariffs unless they relocate production home—creating a surge in domestic opportunities for entrepreneurs.

You want to be the buyer in every negotiation. The buyer is the one who can walk away from the table.

The United States is the best place to sell a product created anywhere in the world because it has the most customers.

Tariffs aren’t about fairness. They’re about trade.

Entrepreneurs are skilled at responding very quickly to new dangers and new opportunities and developing new strengths in the process.

Global supply chains are fracturing, forcing businesses to source locally and regionally.

During uncertain times, people feel as though they’ve lost their future.

You can help clients and customers rebuild confidence in their future by focusing on their dangers, opportunities, and strengths (D.O.S.®).

The 1945–1992 economic order was a historical anomaly, and we won’t see anything like it again.

AI reduces labor costs (and creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs as a result).

Resources:

Perplexity

Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald J. Trump and Tony Schwartz

The D.O.S. Conversation® by Dan Sullivan

The Great Meltdown by Dan Sullivan

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss and Tahl Raz

What if leadership isn’t about titles, but about creating new capabilities others can observe? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller break down the shift from bureaucratic management to self-leadership in the networked economy. Learn the four-step process to transform uncertainty into confidence—and why focusing on problems is the death of innovation.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The four-step process that always makes you an inspiring leader.
• Why a goal isn’t a destination.
• The big difference between a role and a job.
• Why there are no orders in the network economy.
• How Dan is finally revealing his process in a new book.
• Why unique skills are generally wasted in bureaucracies.

Show Notes:

Self-leadership starts with creating new capabilities—not waiting for permission.

Anytime you’re doing something that creates a new capability, and other people observe you doing that, that's leadership.

Your activity of creating a new capability gives others the confidence that they too can have the courage to create a new capability.

The pandemic created a network economy.

Great technologies like Zoom have enabled people to work remotely.

Many management activities within a company can now be handled by apps.

Bureaucracies punish boundary-crossing, while networked teams reward it.

When people get possessive about their territory, it shuts down creativity.

Instead of trying to fix problems (or worse, just complaining about them), create solutions that make problems irrelevant.

Confidence comes after courage—not the other way around.

Resources:

Growing Great Leadership by Dan Sullivan

The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan

The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

The Strategic Coach® Program has been helping entrepreneurs achieve accelerated growth and personal freedom for over 35 years. Now, Strategic Coach® is excited to welcome a new coach to the Program. In this episode, Associate Coach Erik Solbakken shares his unique journey from chartered accountant to successful entrepreneur, and what excites him about connecting with fellow entrepreneurs.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How Erik responded after his professional dream was decimated.
• How Erik’s clients inspired him to become entrepreneurial.
• What led Erik to The Strategic Coach Program and how it changed his life.
• How Erik is helping accountants create better business models.
• What allows an entrepreneur to focus on their purpose.

Show Notes:

The way to create your future is by reflecting on your past.

Entrepreneurship isn't always easy; it's a journey with ups and downs.

Your ideal client wants the authentic you, not the pretend you.

Self-discovery is a lifelong journey.

Capabilities and confidence come from commitment and courage.

Being part of the Strategic Coach community means being surrounded by entrepreneurs who can support you through tough times.

Strategic Coach thinking tools help you clarify and simplify your thinking.

Each time you use a Strategic Coach thinking tool, you gain deeper insights.

Every coach at Strategic Coach is also a client, applying the tools and concepts to their own business.

Our eyes only see and our ears only hear what our brain is looking for.

Strategic Coach is one of the world's greatest philosophy programs wrapped in a business blanket.

Resources:

The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

How To Sell Transformation Using This One Question

Unique Ability®

What You Can Learn From Failure

“Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

What Is A Self-Managing Company®?

Viking Academy™

The Accountant Success Formula™

Accountants Kelowna BC

Is complaining holding you back from your full potential? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the surprisingly simple choice between complaining and creating when facing obstacles. Discover how shifting to a creative mindset, embracing courage, and taking full responsibility can unlock new capabilities and exponential growth.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How complaining allows you to avoid responsibility by justifying why you can't move forward.
• The Strategic Coach® thinking tool for transforming obstacles into capability and confidence.
• Why you need commitment and courage before you can gain capability and confidence.
• The kinds of people that give creativity a bad name.

Show Notes:

An obstacle feels like something is blocking your progress.

There are only two ways of dealing with obstacles: creating or complaining.

When you’re in creativity mode, you’re fully engaged with transforming or bypassing the obstacle.

To deal with an obstacle, you have to create something new.

Taking 100% responsibility is essential for creative problem-solving.

Complaining involves blaming external circumstances or people.

Committing fully to complaining offers a sense of freedom because you’ve absolved yourself of any responsibility for improving your situation.

Few people are entirely creative or entirely complainers. Most are a mix of both.

Creativity requires courage; complaining does not.

Creators are more likely to be honest with themselves.

You attract what you are: complainers attract complainers, and creators attract creators.

Resources:

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Organizations have changed a lot over the past 50 years, and it’s vital for entrepreneurs to be aware of these changes if they want to achieve great business success. In this episode, Dan Sullivan, who has been coaching entrepreneurs for 50 years, talks to fellow business coach Shannon Waller all about the changes in companies that have taken place over the past half-century and the very different position that entrepreneurs are in today.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• What gave Dan confidence to become a business coach.
• How Dan’s desire to coach got married to entrepreneurism.
• How Strategic Coach® helps entrepreneurs thrive in the current economy.
• The way to give your team members roles, not just jobs.

Show Notes:

The invention of the microchip allowed entrepreneurs to have a lot of power and capability they’d never had before.

The introduction of the microchip meant large corporations would start to fracture and wouldn’t be as effective or useful.

It might take three months to get a decision from large organizations, but entrepreneurs can decide to hire you, and write you a check, in the moment.

About every 15 years, the number of employees required in an organization is about half of what it was 15 years previously.

Now that small companies with microchip power can be powerful economic forces, government has adjusted to make the process of incorporation faster and easier.

We’re partway through a 50-year period in which we’re shifting from large, pyramid-shaped organizations to network-based organizations.

Artificial intelligence can do work that used to require many people to do.

A lot more people can own companies and have leadership positions now than they used to.

Canada, especially Ontario, is one of the easier places in the world to incorporate.

Being a bureaucrat in a large pyramidal organization used to be the safest job in the economy, but is now among the riskiest.

Being an entrepreneur has become the safest role.

Resources:

The Great Crossover by Dan Sullivan

Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Unique Ability®

Do you believe in luck, or do you make your own success? In this episode, Dan Sullivan explores the concept of luck in entrepreneurship. Drawing from 50 years of coaching experience, he reveals how successful entrepreneurs create their own paths, often starting young by seeking opportunities to grow their wealth. Discover how self-made success intertwines with luck in the entrepreneurial journey.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The top ways Dan has been lucky.
• Why it’s more difficult for someone born into wealth to become an entrepreneur.
• The new Strategic Coach® thinking tool that will help you recognize and increase your luck.
• Why being an entrepreneur requires a lot of courage.
• How Strategic Coach is run like a live theater company.

Show Notes:

50% of your success comes from luck, and 50% of it comes from the ability to take advantage of the luck you've had.

An entrepreneur’s success is an act of self-creation.

Entrepreneurs create their own income streams and their own capabilities.

Entrepreneurs understand intuitively that freedom requires money.

It’s difficult to separate luck from skill.

The U.S. is an entrepreneurial country created by entrepreneurs.

Even the challenges you’ve faced have shaped who you are today.

Recognizing the luck you’ve had keeps you centered and grounded.

Whether your capability drives your luck or vice versa depends on your perspective.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Do you believe ambition fades with age, or can it actually grow stronger? In this episode, Shannon and Dan discuss how ambition evolves over time, share Dan's desire to be even more ambitious at 90, and reveal how transforming ambition into action can lead to growth and fulfillment at every age.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How Dan’s strongest ambition relates to ambition itself.
• What you can gain by sticking to what you’re great at and love doing.
• How Dan came up with the goal of living to the age of 156.
• Ways you can lean into expanding your ambition.
• Why it’s easier to move forward than to maintain your position.
• Why some successful entrepreneurs get discouraged when they think about their ambition.
• The dire consequences of giving up your ambition.

Show Notes:

People begin to feel old when they stop making commitments—and stop prioritizing courage.

When entrepreneurs focus exclusively on doing what they’re great at and love doing, their impact multiplies. When combined with technology, the results are exponential. 

Since your skills and capabilities will be much greater 10 years from now, your goals can be much bigger in 10 years too.

When you’re ambitious, all sorts of unexpected opportunities and experiences become available to you.

When you view ambition as an action, it becomes something you can invest your talent, skills, and time into.

Ambition is a skill made up of a number of subskills.

When your brain normalizes the idea that you’re going to live far longer than normal expectations, it changes your understanding of the present.

Time only speeds up when you think you’re running out of it.

Being unable to imagine yourself with more ambition in the future robs you of your power in the present.

No one’s interested in being in teamwork with someone who’s stopped growing.

Your real age has to do with what lies ahead of you—and your imagination.

What human beings most look for in other human beings is commitment and courage.

Commitment and courage create capability.

If you’re more committed and more courageous, it’s easy to be more ambitious.

Confidence is the reward for acquiring a new capability.

With a higher level of confidence, you can make greater commitments.

To make any significant improvement or change in your life, you have to be 100% committed to doing it.

You only truly start aging when you give up your ambition.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

My Plan For Living To 156 by Dan Sullivan

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Entrepreneurs always want to be moving forward. What determines whether they’ll be able to is their understanding of the difference between cost and investment. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about the growth mindset that lets you improve for the rest of your life—versus the mindset that means you’ll forever be stuck right where you are.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The reason why small entrepreneurs are small entrepreneurs.
• Why you won’t get a return on investment if you think of team members as a cost.
• Why becoming a Strategic Coach® member isn’t a cost, but an investment in yourself.
• Why it’s dangerous for your team members if you think of them as a cost.
• How to switch from operating in costs to operating in investments.

Show Notes:

Some entrepreneurs have essentially only created a job for themselves that doesn’t go anywhere.

If you see hiring people as a cost, you might just do all of the work yourself.

When entrepreneurs do everything themselves, 90% of what they do doesn’t actually make sense for them to do.

Investing in team members means you’re freed up to do better work, and that will easily pay for the investment.

When you hire someone, you’re investing more in yourself than in the other person.

If you consider someone to be a cost, that person will know it.

Making an investment is a risk, and it can require courage.

Someone who treats other people as costs treats themselves the same way.

With an investment, you'll put an enormous amount of thinking into it to guarantee that it’s successful.

When you’re making an investment, have a goal for the return and a deadline for that goal.

Resources:

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff