Multiplier Mindset® with Dan Sullivan

Up until six or seven years ago, Nikki Fraser’s career consisted of working in large banks. Now, she’s an entrepreneur. Nikki and her husband, Dan, run a company called NextKey Services that provides small and medium-sized businesses with all of their outsourced finance needs. In this episode, Nikki shares what’s allowed her to make the biggest impact she can as an entrepreneur while having the personal life she wants.

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

• What inspired Nikki’s decision to leave corporate America.
• How The Strategic Coach® Program has been fundamental in the growth of Nikki and Dan’s business.
• Some of the business lessons Nikki has learned on her journey.
• Why Nikki and Dan don’t take it for granted that they’re able to work together.
• How to end up in a place where you're really focused on what you do best.
• Why corporate America can never produce the best product or the best service.
• What it’s like attending Strategic Coach® workshops as a couple.

Show Notes:

If something is going to be successful, it requires total commitment.

You have to be committed before you have the capability. And that requires courage.

Corporate America, as most people experience it, is not for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurism means that you're using your own Unique Ability® to create Unique Teamwork that produces really unusual value.

It's important to be okay with not having all the answers.

It’s okay if something you try out doesn’t work. Keep trying.

Finance isn’t a compliance; it's something entrepreneurs or business owners can use as a strategic asset in their business to grow and transform.

You can pass on wealth to your kids, but passing on the right mindset is more important because then they can retain the wealth or even build their own.

It’s important to have time to turn off.

Being in a safe space with supportive, encouraging, like-minded individuals really gives you more confidence.

As you keep using a Strategic Coach thinking tool, it gets easier and easier.

Resources:

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Article: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

Unique Ability

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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

Ann and Sunny Sheu are not only life partners, they’re partners on their entrepreneurial journeys. With their business, Mpowered Families, they help high-achieving entrepreneurial couples to be as intentional about their family lives as they are about their business lives. In this episode, Ann and Sunny share what it’s like to be in business with the person you’re married to, how they apply business lessons to their personal lives, and the benefits they get from business coaches and fellow members in The Strategic Coach® Program.

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

• How Strategic Coach® workshops are like a clarity break for Ann and Sunny.
• Where Ann and Sunny’s work overlaps, and where it doesn’t.
• How Mpowered Families workshops have immediate impact on families.
• What led Sunny to stop being a slave to the business.
• How improving your personal life and improving your business life feed each other.
• The danger of trying to be what you think people expect.
• Why being a Strategic Coach member is really about the mindset shifts.

Show Notes: 

If you want to change your behavior, you first have to change your mindset.

Many entrepreneurs don’t create the time and space to do for their families what they do for their businesses.

Your family is the most important team in your life.

When your family life is strong, then you have the space to give your all to your business.

To build a great family life, you have to first do the work on yourself.

What often happens in families is that people bring a very diluted version of themselves to the table.

If you can’t clearly articulate what you want out of life, you won’t know how to ask for what you want.

Once you're clear about who you are individually, you and your partner can come together and create a shared vision.

It’s not always easy for a couple to have an aligned vision for their family, but there are always commonalities.

Very rarely do people think a decade ahead for their personal lives.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Article: “What Free Days Are And How To Know When You Need Them”

Article: “The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs”

Article: “The Importance Of Collaboration In Business: Leveraging Who Not How”

mpoweredfamilies.com

Ann Sheu on LinkedIn

Sunny Sheu on LinkedIn

From the age of 12, Molly Thompson knew she was different. She looked at the world differently and thought about the world differently, too, and it caused no shortage of problems. Now, she is the CEO of Perrysburg Energy Solutions, a company providing organizations—and communities—with compelling, mission-driven energy solutions. In this episode, Molly shares how she learned to embrace her uniqueness, the driving force behind her business success, and how her current project became a massive community collaboration. She also reveals how, through Strategic CoachⓇ tools and community, she learned to trust her intuition, think 10x instead of being limited by self-doubt, and turn perceived obstacles into opportunities. Tune in to learn more about embracing individuality and staying true to your vision as an entrepreneur!

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

•  How Molly recognized her entrepreneurial mindset from a young age of 12 and saw the world differently.
• Her early entrepreneurial ventures, like co-authoring a book and developing a TV show.
• How she overcame challenges as an entrepreneur who didn't fit traditional corporate molds.
• Her experience being diagnosed with ADHD and how she strategically leveraged it.
• How she used tools from Strategic Coach to understand her unique brain wiring and thought processes.
• What makes for a transformational experience for a customer.
• What happens when an entrepreneur gets bored.
• How Molly took her commercial lighting business to the next level with a visionary solar project.
• Her innovative approach to collaborating with multiple stakeholders across sectors.

Show Notes:

Molly knew from age 12 that she was an entrepreneur at heart, seeing the world differently than others.

Successful entrepreneurs often have a sense of being different or not fitting into traditional molds from a young age.

This early recognition of their distinctiveness can be a driving force behind their entrepreneurial endeavors.

It also helps them develop unique capabilities very early in life— and often makes them unemployable as a result. 

Young people are often pressured to conform and be like everybody else, but successful entrepreneurs learn to tune out the noise.

The biggest danger for an entrepreneur is boredom.

An ideal is like the horizon: you can never reach it.

It's a lot easier to ask for a million dollars than it is to ask for $200,000.

There’s value in taking a step back and thinking about things.

Obstacles are simply opportunities for growth and transformation.

Resources:

Book: I Am Diva!: Every Woman's Guide to Outrageous Living, by Molly Thompson, Elena Bates, Maureen O’Crean, and Carilyn Vaile

Book: The Gap and the Gain, by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan

Book: 10x Is Easier Than 2x, by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan

The Strategic CoachⓇ Signature Program

Glass City River Wall

Greg Griffith has been in risk management and risk control for 38 years. For the past 11 years, he’s been a member of The Strategic Coach® Program, an experience he’s found “life changing and game changing.” In this episode, Greg shares some of the invaluable wisdom he’s gained from Strategic Coach® and why his entrepreneurial life is easier now.

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

• The Strategic Coach thinking tool for getting instant focus on something that's important to you.
• How Greg figured out he could help people dealing with risk.
• The interview with business coach Dan Sullivan that led Greg to Strategic Coach.
• The importance of Strategic Coach clients’ life partners embracing Strategic Coach tools.

Show Notes: 

Entrepreneurs need to have a life partner who gives them total support for what they’re doing in their entrepreneurial life.

For some entrepreneurs, the easy part of their lives is the day at work, and the tough part is the night at home.

An entrepreneur’s best relationship has to be the one that they have committed themselves to for an entire lifetime.

Trying to go through Strategic Coach when the person you're in a relationship with isn't buying into the Program can be a struggle.

The approach in Strategic Coach is that your entrepreneurial life is your entire life.

Only about 5% of the working population ever has the commitment and courage to go out and face the marketplace straight on.

If entrepreneurs don’t succeed, they don’t eat.

Before seeking a partner, get your thinking straight on what makes someone a person you want to be in a relationship with.

Resources:

The Team+ Programs

The Impact Filter™

Article: “What Free Days Are And How To Know When You Need Them”

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Thinking About Your Thinking by Dan Sullivan

The Unique EDGE® Program for 18- to 24-year olds

Article: “The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs”

Deep D.O.S. Innovation by Dan Sullivan

Ken Robinson had a certain idea about how to be a more valuable financial planner than most. And when he couldn’t find anyone to hire him to do it, he created his own opportunity. In this episode, Ken shares the business lessons and entrepreneur ideas that led him to his success in holistic financial planning, and what’s allowed him to bring the greatest value he can to the right type of clients.

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

• Why Ken decided he had to become an entrepreneur.
• Which Strategic Coach® thinking tool Ken has framed in his office.
• How Ken is transitioning to just focusing on what he loves doing.
• What holistic financial planning entails.
• How Ken’s path forward became crystal clear to him.
• Why Ken plans to keep going to Strategic Coach workshops as long as he can.

Show Notes: 

The educational system was designed to make you well-rounded, which means you divide your efforts instead of focusing exclusively on what you like doing and what you’re great at.

It’s possible to get somewhere even if you don’t know what the map looks like.

Your next step requires you to do things you don't know how to do yet.

There are always going to be ups and downs in the economy.

When you get rid of the clients that are a bad fit, you have more energy for your other clients.

An entrepreneur can outsource the assembly of their team.

It’s okay for you to want to improve your experience as an entrepreneur.

You don’t need an advanced degree to understand Strategic Coach thinking tools.

It takes insight to say, “Let's not make this any more complicated than it needs to be.”

Resources:

Unique AbilityⓇ

The Four C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Article: The Four Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

The Gap and the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Almost 31 years ago, 18-year-old Max Emma immigrated with his family to the United States from the former Soviet Union. Now, Max is the CEO of BooXkeeping, a bookkeeping franchise organization operating in the U.S., with offices in Europe, and the Philippines, with plans for expansion into South America. In this episode of the Multiplier Mindset Podcast, in a story that stands testament to the power of entrepreneurial resilience and drive, Max shares how he went from bankruptcy to business triumph, and the many lessons and insights he learned along the way.

Here's some of what you'll learn in this episode

• The ingenious way Max learned to speak English.
• How Max bounced back after bankruptcy.
• Why Max’s company eventually expanded beyond the United States.
• How Max wrote the initial business plan for his company on a napkin in just four hours.
• How his business grew after joining The Strategic CoachⓇ Program.
• Why Max’s unique area of focus has changed.
• The significance of journaling for entrepreneurs.

Show Notes:

The ties between North America and South America are going to be a growth opportunity as we go forward over the next 25 years.

Speaking English is an important entrepreneurial skill in the United States.

What seems like a failure might actually be the beginning of the next step.

When you don’t grow, you die.

Entrepreneurs need to give up doing what isn’t their job.

It’s important to keep investing in coaching because you don’t know what you don’t know.

If your team members are successful, you’re successful.

When someone gives you a tool, consider it sooner than later.

The sooner you join an organization like Strategic Coach®, the sooner you can become successful and take your company to the next level.

Links:

Unique Ability®

Your Business Is a Theatre Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn't Show on the Front Stage

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

Time Management Strategies for Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only)

In one of our favorite episodes, entrepreneur Leslie Fall shares how a team member who helped get her to a certain level of success was no longer helping the company grow. Leslie explains how, by employing the concept of “multiplication by subtraction,” she overcame the problem to great benefit, plus other gains she’s made since taking advantage of business coaching through Strategic Coach.

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

• What Leslie gets out of being in a community of like-minded entrepreneurs.
• The changes a colleague has noticed in Leslie since she joined Strategic Coach.
• How Leslie introduces Strategic Coach thinking tools to her colleagues.
• How her team now gets four months’ worth of work done in under a week.

Show Notes:

Sometimes, you have to let go of what your job typically is in order to let team members grow.

For reasons of fit or reasons of competence, a team member can hold you back.

It can take a fresh perspective to notice inefficiencies in your process.

It’s exciting to see where people will go once their time has been freed up.

When people have the time and mental energy, they’ll be more alert, curious, responsive, and resourceful.

Team members who are freed up have time to think about other opportunities for revenue.

You're probably only relying on your team 50% of what you could be.

The minute you think of a new idea, think about who can help you with it.

Resources:

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Unique Ability®

Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller

Free Days™ – The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management

A few years ago, Chase Dansie found himself limited by Lyme disease. Now, he’s grateful for the experience. In this episode, Chase talks about how Strategic Coach® helped him through a very hard time and how he’s using his orthodontist practice to improve people’s lives.

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

• What allowed Chase to finally join The Strategic Coach® Program.
• How Chase learned that you can take something horrible and turn it into something useful.
• The signs of Lyme disease and the importance of getting the right diagnosis and treatment.
• Some of the positive by-products that came out of Chase having Lyme disease.
• What gets Chase up and going in the morning.

Show Notes:

An entrepreneur going about things alone develops all sorts of bad habits.

The biggest problem for entrepreneurs is being alone and having no one to talk to about both your challenges and your successes.

None of us celebrate our progress enough.

The Strategic Coach Program isn’t centred on the business. It’s focused on you as a person.

When something comes up and you don’t know what to do, Strategic Coach has processes you can follow that will help you get solutions.

You can interpret your past experiences however you want to.

You feel more normal when you’re in a community of people with similar challenges and obstacles to yours.

If you’re experiencing a health challenge, it’s comforting to know you’re not the only one.

Strategic Coach clients have a kind of shared language.

Surrounding yourself with people, and having connections with others, can help you pull through some very difficult times.

When you’re aware of the challenges someone is having, it lets you have compassion for them like you never would have before.

Resources:

How To Measure Success In Business Effectively With A Proven System - The Gap And The Gain

Wanting What You Want by Dan Sullivan

Unique Ability 

Peter Denbigh grew up in what he describes as “the middle of nowhere,” Virginia. He wanted more, and as soon as he was old enough, he used his entrepreneurial mindset to start earning money. In this episode, Peter shares the many business lessons he’s learned from growing his own companies.

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

• How Peter learned to think long term.
• The tech company he founded while he was a university student.
• How Peter recovered from a dark time in his career.
• How he created one of the best-selling games of 2016.
• What The Strategic Coach® Program has given him.

Show Notes:

The Strategic Coach Program was designed for entrepreneurs who are active and “all over the place.”

It’s a tremendous strength to realize that being an entrepreneur is a life sentence.

Luck is involved in entrepreneurial success, but the entrepreneur needs the capability of taking advantage of luck.

The more value they provide, and the faster they can provide it, the more an entrepreneur gets paid for their time.

When you’re a little bored and you have your eyes open, interesting opportunities come your way.

Kickstarter lets you test a product and validate it, and if it works, you get money.

An idea is worthless without persistent and productive execution.

You don’t need permission to say, “This is how I’m going to be in the world.”

The ride is what teaches you to hang on.

Some people are born with the permission to be themselves, but a lot of people aren’t.

If it doesn’t excite you, it isn’t worth doing.

Resources:

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

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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

How to Expand Your Team's Unique Ability® 

The Impact Filter™

Kolbe

CliftonStrengths®

Dan Sullivan and guest Darcy Luoma dive into an extraordinary and unbelievable journey of resilience, reinvention, and triumph in the face of an unprecedented personal challenge. Darcy’s unwavering spirit and strategic approach are a true inspiration for all entrepreneurs navigating their own obstacles.

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

• The initial obstacles Darcy faced when becoming an entrepreneur, and how she overcame them.
• The traumatic experience Darcy had to work through while figuring out how to continue to run her business.
• Why Darcy was in a position to test drive her own concepts in the most extreme way.
• How Darcy prepared for business success before launching her business.
• The big risk Darcy took at a critical time, and how it paid off.
• What Darcy gets out of Strategic Coach.

Show Notes:

Running for elected office is a purely entrepreneurial activity.

We’re not in control of what happens in the world, but we’re in control of our responses to what happens.

Entrepreneurs transform situations from huge negatives to breakthrough positives.

Strategic Coach is a thinking tool culture.

If you have an anchor client, then you don’t have to fear that you need to say yes to everything.

The entire business of an entrepreneur can be based on the entrepreneur’s reputation.

Good people do bad things, and it doesn’t mean they’re bad people.

If you want to handle your challenges thoughtfully, and you want to have strong relationships, you need to train and practice to be thoughtfully fit.

Having an entrepreneurial business means you get to test things.

Resources:

The Strategy Circle® 

The R-Factor Question®

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

The Impact Filter™

Unique Ability®