Category: Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs Share Their Strategic Coach Results After Year 1

This is probably the easiest blog post we’ve ever written or ever will write! Three open and articulate entrepreneurs talk candidly about joining Strategic Coach — all experiencing initial “leap of faith” fear — and about their Year 1 experience that followed, including their results.
If you’ve been thinking (and thinking and thinking) about The Strategic Coach Program and whether it’s right for you, read every word of this blog and watch the video. We’re trying hard to stay objective, but we admit these three Coach entrepreneurs make it difficult.
Real experiences straight from Program participants.
Hugo, Shawn, and Scott each focus on a different perspective of their Year 1 experience in Strategic Coach, hitting on the three key areas that make Strategic Coach the top coaching program for successful entrepreneurs.
1. Hugo Brooks — One-Of-A-Kind Community
Company: Brand Dynamics Ltd., London, UK
Industry: High Tech/Brand Development
Insight: Hugo knows he already has what it takes to succeed (we call it “batteries included”), but says Strategic Coach gives him the extra clarity and support to accomplish even his biggest goals.

 

In his words:

Strategic Coach is a safe environment with entrepreneurs just like you, trying to accomplish the same thing as you.
Everyone who shows up is willing to participate in something that is going to improve their life.
Comprehensive entrepreneurial tools cover everything you can think of — all your questions will be answered.
The Program is real and relevant to today. I walk away knowing how to interpret everything — tomorrow. I think that’s amazing and powerful.
Your coach is not a teacher, but an experienced entrepreneur like you and me. They’re one of us.
It seemed like a huge commitment to make at first. Looking back after a year, the reward has been exponentially greater than the investment. I can prove that in money terms.

“Being in a room with people who have the same objective, who are also from different backgrounds and places in their journey, is incredibly rewarding, stimulating, and supportive. I don’t get that anywhere else in my life.”
2. Shawn Shepheard — Noteworthy Growth
Company: Shawn Shepheard: Coach, Speaker, And Author, Pickering, ON
Industry: Coaching and Training
Insight: As a coach himself, Scott had an “aha!” moment and asked himself, “How dare I coach people and not seek out coaching for myself?’”

 

In his words:

What’s different now is that I have a structure in place that makes me work on my future every single day.
“What’s different now is that I have a structure in place that makes me work on my future every single day.”Click To Tweet
The workshops actually keep you on track, which leads to new opportunities and growth.
Coach is a brilliant combination of lessons and learning in the workshops, and time in between the quarters to apply what works for you.
The beauty of the experience is that we talk about our real life struggles and can learn from each other and grow.
There’s an immediate connection. There are very honest conversations; nobody holds back. We address the big questions in life. As entrepreneurs, there is nowhere else we can do this.
We’re not spoken to; we work together as a group. You hear about and even see the changes in people — like weight loss for example!
Embarrassingly, it took me nine years to join. I regret waiting so long — this is home for me.

“A lot of people who are really close to me personally and professionally have said, ‘Something’s changed about you, what’s different?’ The answer is Coach. This is ridiculously the best business decision I’ve ever made.”
3. Scott Proposki — Coaching Support Network
Company: Head Shots In A Minute, Lawrence, MA
Industry: Photography
Fun Fact: Scott has worked with National Geographic, Google, and The White House! (He was invited to the White House to photograph former President Barack Obama!)

 

In his words:

Before Strategic Coach, I was on the go all the time. It’s helped me slow down and strategically plan my next moves on my goals and to restructure my life in a way that is more aligned with who I am.
I now find peace in slowing down, which was hard for me to do. The pressure is off, and I have comfort in knowing that I have time to do everything I want to do.
A serendipitous moment: On my way to my first Strategic Coach workshop, I met Ray Bourque, one of the greatest NHL hockey players, at the Boston airport. In answer to Ray’s question, I told him was on my way to see my business coach. He shared his insights about having coaches since he was 12 years old, and how coaching played a huge role in his success. This chance encounter really solidified my decision to join Strategic Coach. I showed up 100% excited and committed.
A 911 call to Coach! I was in the middle of a huge business deal that wasn’t going according to plan. I couldn’t even think straight about what to do. I made what I call my “911 call” to Kory, my Program Advisor. She helped me to slow down and make the strategic decisions that were needed, and I ended up making a lot of money on that deal — with great support from Coach. Gosh! It just makes so much sense to have a coach!

“As I wheel into the peak performance of my life, to have such a supportive structure in place, and with everything I have learned so far, I’m really excited about the next three years of the Program. There is just no turning back.”





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A Winning Resolution To The Capitalism Debate

Listen to the podcast below or subscribe to the Inside Strategic Coach podcast on iTunes.
A Winning Resolution To The Capitalism Debate


As long as I’ve been alive, the most dominant contentious issue that people debate has been capitalism.
I’ve read all of the major books on the subject, and I understand the thoughts of those who think of capitalism as a generally negative force in the world. They think that capitalism creates enormous amounts of inequality, that it creates a wide gap between the wealthiest people and those that don’t have much.
I realized about 20 years ago that there’s never going to be a resolution to the debate about capitalism. The people who are pro-capitalism seem religiously fanatical about it, and the people who are against it are also very doctrinaire and dogmatic in their ways.
So I began entertaining the idea in a new way, and in observing things in the entrepreneurial world, I got an entirely new perspective on it.
Putting the focus on “Capableism.”
The word “capability” kept occurring to me as I noticed that entrepreneurs grow by expanding their own capabilities and then having such success that they can use some surplus earnings to acquire the capabilities of others. The latter can happen by hiring team members or specialists out in the marketplace.
Right from the beginning, the central force of human progress has been the growth of individual and then organizational capability. Throughout human history, the most successful individuals, groups, and societies have been the ones where there’s been a constant build-up of cooperating capabilities.
So capitalism is not the central force on the planet; it’s just one of the capabilities that’s been sparked from what I’ve termed “Capableism.”
“I think every person on the planet desires to be more capable.” – Dan SullivanClick To Tweet
All about capabilities.
People love being in situations where they can focus on their best capability and have a lot of other people’s capabilities support what they do. Together, they can produce much bigger and more enjoyable results than they could otherwise.
Some say that this is a result of capitalism, but capitalism is simply the organizing structure that’s being used. The dominant motivation for everyone in the situation is to be more capable.
Capability means control, it means results, and it means cooperation.
With a Capableism structure and philosophy, you don’t have to do things you’re not good at. Other people can do things they’re good at, and you can get the benefits of the results of one another’s work. Together, you can exponentially create things that you couldn’t do individually.
At its best, capitalism is an operating system that maximizes the diversity of human abilities to create much larger results than any other operating system that’s ever been created.
It’s ever-expanding, and at the center of it is cooperation at a new level: among strangers.
Nowadays, things happen for us in a way that’s faster, easier, and cheaper. Capitalism is an enormous factor, but at the heart of everything is something that’s universal, and that’s Capableism.




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Why Every Good Leader Has Learned To Let Go

Listen to the podcast below or subscribe to the Multiplier Mindset Podcast on iTunes.
Why Every Good Leader Has Learned To Let Go


Giving up any type of control in their business whatsoever is one of the most difficult things you could ask many entrepreneurs to do. Yet, to grow their businesses, and to grow themselves and their team members, it’s exactly what they have to do.
This is one of the most challenging issues we solve when entrepreneurs first come to Strategic Coach.
Gary Mottershead, a Strategic Coach client for over 25 years and one of our associate coaches for over 20, had been doing some thinking about entrepreneurs and their businesses. He was looking at his role in his own successful business — and what that role should be now and in the future.
The analogy he drew for himself clearly illustrated what his role had to be — and it was far, far from the obsessive-control end of the spectrum. It’s a very relatable analogy that’s worth sharing.
Taking care of business.
Gary told us, “It occurred to me one day that no one teaches you how to be an entrepreneur. Strategic Coach, in fact, is probably the closest I’ve come to learning about how to be a good leader and entrepreneur. I began to think about my business, which I’ve had now for about 17 years, and suddenly it struck me that having a business is like having children. I’m a father of two grown children, and no one gave my wife and me a blueprint for raising them either!”
In the beginning, like a baby, your business needs constant nurturing. It can’t survive on its own. So, like a parent and their child, it’s up to the entrepreneur who brought this fledgling into world to not only keep it alive, but to make sure it thrives. And this is where it can get tricky.
In charge, not in control.
If a business is to grow, it has to have its own life, just like children, who slowly but steadily have their own lives. With their parents’ modeling and support, they begin to have their own values, their own opinions, and their own words. As a parent, you slowly allow them a bit more freedom as they grow.
In an entrepreneurial business, this same process is happening with your team. You begin to see that as they learn more and more and you’re giving them a bit more freedom to be responsible, they’re not going to do things exactly the way you would because they have a different experience of life than you do. They’ve grown up in a different way.
The danger, and it’s a big danger, is that if we keep imposing our experience on them, we’re going to stifle them and their potential to grow, just as some parents can stifle their children.
Let it go.
“To have the opportunity to be a father, to have two great children, and to have a great business is fantastic,” Gary says. “I think of the business as I think about my children: It’s going to grow up, and it’s going to have its own life, which will also help me at the next stage of my entrepreneurial career. I’m not always going to be there.
“Someone else is going to run the company, and they’re going to run it differently than I would. Is that good or bad? I’d say it’s good because all of us have a time in life when we’re more useful than at others, and maybe we’re even more useful doing other things. Knowing your unique talents that create the most value for others allows you to move on and leave an opportunity for others.”
That’s the secret all good leaders know: Be in charge, but not in control. Let go. Here’s how:

Know what you do well — and what you don’t do well. If you’re having fun, do more of what you’re good at. That means you’ll have to give up those things you’re not good at. Have confidence in the people you’ve hired to support you, and give them freedom. Teach them and allow them to learn.
Don’t always be the savior. Avoid exposing them so much that they constantly go into failure mode, but enough to understand what it feels like to win and to lose, to make decisions that don’t work out. You’ve got to stand back and decide that you’re not going to step in. If they fail, talk about it and assess it afterward. Failure is a great teacher.
“Failure is a great teacher.”Click To Tweet
Trust your gut. When you have that feeling that something isn’t working for you, that it doesn’t feel good, there’s a reason we have that instinct. You need to follow it.

What’s next?
Gary’s analogy that likens nurturing children to nurturing a business is a great way to not only think about your business today, but also its potential in the future.
“I don’t have grandchildren yet,” he says, “but following my analogy and looking at my business from that perspective, it looks pretty appealing! What does every grandparent say? That it’s so wonderful to be a grandparent because you can show up and look after the grandchildren, you can have fun with them, and then you can hand them back to the parents! Why not be the grandparent in your own business? If you’ve been the parent and ‘raised’ your team well, they can run it.
“Show up when you need to show up, do the things you’re really good at doing, and then leave and let the ‘parents’ you’ve brought in and groomed to take care of the business take over again. And have fun, because it will be fun, but be there when you can provide counsel and support, and be the helping hand when it’s necessary.”
He goes on to say, “I look at the people who work with me as my children in the broad sense of the word. I want them to succeed, and empowering them to succeed is the best way to do that. And guess what that’s meant for me? It makes my life an awful lot easier. I have a lot more freedom, a lot more flexibility, a lot more fun. And there’s also been a lot of opportunity — both financial opportunity and the opportunity to do things I wouldn’t have even thought to do if I were spending all my time and energy trying to control it all myself. It’s a good life.”



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How To Be A Successful Entrepreneur

There’s no point in being an entrepreneur and doing it half-heartedly. If you don’t go at it full-bore, you get caught between two worlds with none of the advantages of either. In order to be successful, you need to shift your thinking and behaviors about who you are and what your intended future will look like.
There’s no alternative.
Back in 1978, just four years after I’d gone out on my own, I went bankrupt because I just hadn’t learned yet how to be a successful entrepreneur. I went to see my bank manager, who was a very nice man, but he’d been a banker for 30 years, and it was the only world he knew. In our meeting, he said to me, “Why don’t you stop this nonsense? You’re a writer, you’re an artist. Why don’t you go back and get a job?”
“Because there’s just no possibility of that,” I answered.
“Well,” he said, “I guess that’s the difference between an entrepreneur and someone in my position: I believe there are always alternatives.”
I replied, “No, there’s no alternative. Whatever pain or hardship I have to go through, I’ll go through it until I’ve learned whatever I need to learn in order to become really successful.”
Arriving at this decision signified a real shift in my thinking, because from that point forward, I simply couldn’t be distracted. I wasn’t open to alternatives—I was going for it.
“There’s no point in being a half-hearted entrepreneur.” – Dan SullivanClick To Tweet
Make the commitment — and don’t look back.
I’m reminded of the Greek generals who, on reaching enemy shores, sent their men into battle and ordered their own boats to be burned. They said, “The only way we’re sailing back to Greece is in their boats.”
That’s a very entrepreneurial attitude. What the generals did was cut off the alternatives. They decided in the literal sense of the word “decide,” which shares the same Latin root as “homicide”: “to kill.” When you truly decide, you kill off the alternatives. They’re no longer available to you.
Many human beings never make a fundamental decision about anything and thereby deprive themselves of the enormous motivation and focus that come from fully committing yourself to an endeavor.
It’s not about you anymore.
One of the key things I learned since making those first two decisions—that there was no alternative and that I would persist until I’d learned how to be successful—is that it can’t be about you.
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, your business has to be about using your talent to help someone else move toward their goals so their life becomes better. Then, as a result of creating that value, you’re rewarded.
This is where the money proposition comes in. It’s a loop: You create value, you’re rewarded, you create more value, you receive a bigger reward. And it all comes down to mastering the right attitudes.
If you want to know how to be a successful entrepreneur, start with making these three resolutions:

Decide that there is no alternative.
Commit to going through whatever it takes to learn how to be successful.
Realize that it’s not about you.

When you have these attitudes, the world suddenly looks different. It’s not about your security; it’s about their opportunity. There’s a simplicity that enters your life when you realize that.


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