What’s the difference between being in charge and being in control? In this episode, Dan Sullivan shares his surprising insights on managing teams and creating a productive work environment, offering practical strategies for empowering team members, fostering independence, and creating a thriving organizational culture. Tune in to discover Dan's proven approach to entrepreneurial leadership!

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

• Why self-managing has to be built in from the very beginning.
• What gives Dan confidence in his concepts and tools.
• What people rely on entrepreneurs for as leaders.
• Why Dan doesn’t intervene when a team member might fail on a project.
• The difference between leadership and management—and being in charge versus being in control.
• How Strategic Coach® makes sure their team members don’t get burned out.
• Why Dan doesn’t even think about anyone who might be competing with Strategic Coach.

Show Notes:

• The number one skill for having a Self-Managing Company® is profound ignorance. The number one structure is Unique Ability Teamwork®.
• If you don’t get everyone’s roles right, you won’t get anything else right.
• It’s hard to correct a mistake you’ve made from the beginning.
• Confidence in your concepts and team is more crucial than trust.
• Confidence can come from knowing that you’ll always transform when you fail.
• A truly Self-Managing Company operates successfully independent of your constant oversight.
• Giving your team members the freedom to innovate, contribute, and pursue their Unique Ability® is essential to long-term business growth and success.
• Many entrepreneurs pride themselves on being hands-on with everything that happens at their company, but it’s important to resist the urge to rescue struggling teams.
• Being hands-off means allowing your team to learn from failures and trusting that they’ll develop problem-solving skills.
• Trust means that you’re taking a risk, and entrepreneurship is founded on risk.
• Everything that Strategic Coach needs to be is organized on teamwork.
• Strategic Coach has great institutional habits and institutional wisdom.
• In science, the experiment cannot depend upon the experimenter. The same applies to business.
• Being in control is management; being in charge is leadership.
• Make sure the little things that have to be there every day are right—the freedoms and supports that allow team members to thrive—and everything else will fall into place.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company®?

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

Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs (Effective Strategies Only)

Blog: Transforming Experiences Into Multipliers

A Free Day™ is a 24-hour period with no work-related activity whatsoever. A great many entrepreneurs struggle with taking true Free Days™. In this episode, business coaches Dan Sullivan and Shannon Waller talk about The Entrepreneurial Time System®—which consists of Free Days, Focus Days™, and Buffer Days™—and why it’s essential for you to provide structure to your Free Days if you want the greatest business success.

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

• The purpose of each of the three types of days in The Entrepreneurial Time System.
• Some non-work activities you can use to structure your days.
• Why it can be much easier to work than to take a day off.
• Why entrepreneurs are so resistant to taking days off entirely without work.
• Why you shouldn’t have an unplanned Free Day.

Show Notes:

You gravitate to the part of your life that has the most structure.

Taking a day as if it were a Free Day, but structuring it with activities that are business activities, means that you're not going to be rejuvenated by the day.

You can have a lot of structure to your days even when you’re not working.

You can do activities on Free Days that you would never touch on a workday.

Structure means that you’ll be supported by things that are already planned.

If you have an idea on a Free Day, wait to see if it sticks with you until a workday.

It’s a lot easier to set out to write 100 books than to set out to write only one book.

An idea that is really great bothers you because it wants to be born into the world.

You can still use all your strengths when you’re on a Free Day.

Profitability means you’re not only making money, you’re keeping money.

Your plans regarding retirement affect how you take your Free Days.

Resources:

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

Perplexity app

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

The Impact Filter™

In this episode, Shannon Waller interviews Associate Coach Ben Laws, exploring his entrepreneurial journey and insights on self-discovery. Ben shares how intentional structures and relationships have fueled his success across multiple businesses and offers a unique perspective on business, life, and family. Tune in to uncover the mindset that drives impactful entrepreneurship and personal growth!

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

· How Strategic Coach®has influenced much of how Ben’s personal life functions.

· What Ben considers to be the ultimate freedom.

· How Ben demonstrated an entrepreneurial attitude at just four years old.

· The key to Ben’s exponential growth.

· Why setting out as an entrepreneur didn’t seem that risky to Ben.

· What to do if you’re considering becoming part of the Strategic Coach community.

Show Notes

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

Forming connections and helping people solve problems are entrepreneurial social skills.

Entrepreneurs seek to innovate and drive change. Business owners try to maintain the status quo.

If you name the game, you own the game.

The further your company gets from where you started, the greater the risk of diluting what made your company great.

Experience is the one thing that can’t be commoditized.

Entrepreneurs are always discovering who they want to be.

There's no greater call to loving your neighbor than being an entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs are always being challenged.

Entrepreneurs are exponentially more self-aware than other people.

People often think that life is happening to them rather than for them.

As an entrepreneur, your number one job is to protect your confidence.

Resources

Unique Ability®

Book: The Team Success Handbook by Shannon Waller

Book: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Book: The Wealth Of Nations by Adam Smith

Perplexity

Blog: Time Management Strategies For Entrepreneurs

Blog: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs

Blog: What Is A Self-Managing Company®?

The Six Ds Of Exponentials