What if your company could create value for clients without depending on you to deliver it personally? Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explore why Strategic Coach® is an invention-producing enterprise, how intellectual property creates lasting value, and how entrepreneurs can turn their unique knowledge into capabilities that grow beyond themselves.

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

• How patents changed Dan’s thinking about Strategic Coach’s position in the marketplace.
• Some of the tests the U.S. Patent Bureau applies before awarding a patent.
• How and why Strategic Coach members are creating their own invention-producing enterprises.
• The steps to take before seeking a patent for a new idea.

Show Notes:

Strategic Coach has thousands of copyrights, hundreds of trademarks, and 85 patents.

Strategic Coach isn’t just a coaching company; it’s an invention-producing enterprise that creates new thinking tools for entrepreneurs.

Many coaching companies build their reputation through marketing and networking, while Strategic Coach’s intellectual property provides an additional source of marketplace credibility.

The U.S. Patent Bureau takes an adversarial approach, searching for reasons an invention may not qualify for a patent.

To receive a patent for a thinking tool, you must show that it’s unique, useful, non-obvious, and capable of producing consistent results.

Start by creating a product or service, then build the customer experience, create intellectual property, and turn it into intellectual capital that others can use.

Members experience Strategic Coach as an invention-producing enterprise through its thinking tools, teamwork, workshops, and the details of the overall experience.

Strategic Coach’s tools are tested with thousands of entrepreneurs and produce consistent results, even when taught by different coaches.

When your ideas become intellectual property, the value you create is no longer dependent on your being there personally.

Personality-based companies can grow only as far as the founder can show up, perform, and deliver the experience.

A system-based company gives other people the ability to create and deliver value using a proven method.

Ask yourself: For your company to have 10x the impact without clients ever interacting with you, how would your knowledge and capabilities have to be packaged?

Naming, documenting, and protecting your Unique Process™ is a practical first step toward making your company less dependent on you.

Resources:

What Is A Self-Managing Company®?

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

Casting Your 4 x 4 Company by Dan Sullivan

Entrepreneurs like being in action, but too often they get stuck in an in-between phase on a project. Business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller discuss the dangers of maybes and the benefits of making clear-cut decisions.

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

• The new Strategic Coach® thinking tool that reveals where you’ve been successful saying either yes or no—not maybe.
• What’s led to Dan having very few maybes in his life.
• A question you can ask yourself to lead you into action.
• Why having made a wrong decision can still be a good thing.

Show Notes:

Both yes and no are strategically useful. In your past, you either said yes and took a complete action, or you said no and prevented yourself from getting into trouble.

Paralysis is in the middle of yes and no. This is where maybe is.

When you’re saying maybe, you’re not committed or certain, so you keep yourself in a state of suspended animation.

Your brain is what directs you toward and enables action, and it operates incredibly quickly.

You can give your brain some help by deciding yes or no, and eliminating everything in the middle.

Every week, look at your list of prospects and keep the yeses. “Maybe” kills you, “yes” rewards you, and “no” teaches you because you’re developing discretion.

For some entrepreneurs, their research phase doesn’t start until they’ve made a decision and are in motion.

When someone’s stuck in the maybe phase, it might be because they’re scared of making the wrong decision. They favor definitely not failing over potentially succeeding.

Instead of worrying about making the right decision, you can make a decision and then work to make the decision right.

Discovering what works for you leads to increased discernment.

No matter how long you spend on research and planning, you won’t know if your idea works until you engage with the marketplace or your clientele.

Resources:

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Multiplication By Subtraction by Shannon Waller

What if the best way to create a better future is to focus on making today a great yesterday? In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller explore a simple, rewarding way to approach time that can reduce stress, sharpen focus, and help you feel more satisfied with each day as it happens.

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

• Why the last seven months have been the best of Dan’s life.
• Why engaging in this process reduces stress.
• Why Dan hasn’t been feeling any pressure from his ADHD.
• How this system creates a more satisfying daily experience.

Show Notes:

What you do today, and how you think about it, shapes your experience of tomorrow.

Start each morning by deciding what would make today a great yesterday when you wake up tomorrow.

When you focus on creating a great yesterday, tomorrow becomes less about worry and more about the commitments you make today.

Creating great yesterdays can reduce the stress and regret you carry from the past.

When tomorrow takes care of itself, you can feel less pressure and anxiety about the future.

Getting emotionally attached to future possibilities can create anxiety because those possibilities don’t yet exist.

Each future possibility you become attached to competes for your attention today.

Focusing on today can improve your concentration by freeing you from stress about the past and future.

A simple point system can make daily progress more visible, playful, and satisfying.

There are no punishments in this system—only rewards for actions that move your life forward.

An activity is more valuable if you do it consciously.

Resources:

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

Not Being Bothered by Dan Sullivan