On this Flashback Friday episode, Jason Hartman welcomes Dan Sullivan, co-founder of The Strategic Coach®. He is also the author of The Great Crossover, The 21st Century Agent, Creative Destruction, and How The Best Get Better®. Dan shares how his company helps individuals create the personal and professional future they want by offering practical thinking tools and support.
Announcer 0:00
This show is produced by the Hartman media company. For more information and links to all our great podcasts, visit Hartman media.com.
Announcer 0:12
Welcome to the creating wealth show with Jason Hartman. You’re about to learn a new slant on investing some exciting techniques and fresh new approaches to the world’s most historically proven asset class that will enable you to create more wealth and freedom than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine self made multi millionaire who’s actually been there and done it. He’s a successful investor, lender, developer and entrepreneur who’s owned properties in 11 states had hundreds of tenants and been involved in thousands of real estate transactions. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to your financial independence day. You really can do it on now. Here’s your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate Date investors.
Jason Hartman 1:01
This is Jason Hartman and I’m glad you’ve joined us here today. Before we get into the show today with a very special guest, Dan Sullivan, who heads up a company called the Strategic Coach. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, and I’m sure you’ll get some very valuable information from him. He’s going to talk a little bit about general life and business. And by the way, I have to announce a slightly new focus of the show that we will be hearing from from time to time we’ll have some guests on this topic. We want to talk a little bit about creating wealth in some other ways you clients have expressed or I should say listeners and clients have expressed some interest that I am listening to and wanting to cater to on home based business on entrepreneurship and on internet marketing, social media, marketing and other ways that you can earn money more of an income based approach, rather than a creating wealth approach for investments. And there we of course, focus on real estate, which is without a doubt the most historically proven asset class In the history of America, if not the entire history of the world, but before we get into our interview with Dan Sullivan today, which I think you’ll really enjoy, I have for the first time ever, our editor in the office here with me, and that is Ari, and he is an investment counselor here. And on the side because his prior life he was a sound engineer and has a background in editing of audio and sound production of audio does a great job at that. So say hello, Ari, this your first time on the show.
Ari 2:28
Yep. Hi, Jason. Thanks for having me on today. I’m so used to actually editing the show, but today, I’m actually gonna be on the show.
Jason Hartman 2:34
I know and I’ve asked you to be on before and you never seem to want to very much but I’m glad you’re here today. And also you’ve heard from her before, but our investment counselor and also rental coordinator, Sarah is here with us. Hi, Sara.
Sara 2:46
Hello.
Jason Hartman 2:47
So before we get into the show today, we want to talk a little bit about the Masters weekend. It’s now Wednesday and we just ended the Masters weekend on Sunday evening, and I tell you, it was a great weekend. I really enjoyed it. What did you guys think?
Ari 3:00
I agree it was a great weekend. We had a lot of a lot of new clients come in, and a lot of past clients come in. The room was packed. And we had a lot of great speakers a lot of great information. This is my second Master’s weekend I’ve attended. And I have to say, even though we had a few speakers that were there last time, they always speak about something different and always take away something really great from every time that they’ve presented. So I like that.
Jason Hartman 3:23
And we had some great new speakers too. We had our newsletter editor who flew down from Portland and he gave a speech and talked about packaged commodities and buying below construction cost and comparing the stock market to real estate and just all kinds of great things there. Sarah, what do you want to say? You look like you want to say something?
Sara 3:41
Yeah, I have to say Doug’s presentation was one of my favorites. I thought he did a great job being one of my clients in the past and actually having invested with us, but he really drove home the inflation topic and you know, I was able to take it back. I had a long discussion with my grandmother this morning about inflation, and so I had to give shout out to my grandmother because she’s a podcast listener too.
Jason Hartman 4:02
Well, that’s great. Hi, Granny, how you doing?
Ari 4:05
Well, one thing I want to say, Jason is that I think the best part of all the Masters weekends are the testimonials from clients and get up there and speak about their experiences with Empowered Investor. And I have to say, Richard from England, that was an amazing testimonial, because not only is he investing out of his backyard, but he’s investing out of the country.
Jason Hartman 4:24
Well, and not just that he flew out here for the Masters weekend. So Richard, again, we appreciate you coming. You are so far the furthest away guests we’ve had. And we had guests also from all over the country, we had area experts, our local market specialists from some different areas and other speakers. And when you say the panel and you know, I really want to not say that’s not testimonials. And the reason I say that is because that panel is really kind of the good, the bad and the ugly Tales from the edge. The real story about investments and it’s it’s not all good, you know, there are a few bumps in the road, but we’ll help you get over them. You know, This is not a perfect thing in terms of income property investing, but it is the best thing you know may not be perfect it’s just better than everything else.
Sara 5:07
Well, we have to be sure to thank Joan for her brutal honesty you know. She’s had a little bit of a you know, story and a journey with her real estate investing but at the end of the day, she’s been able to get most of it resolved and, you know, move forward and do well with her investment.
Jason Hartman 5:22
Remember, you’re listening to flashback Friday. Our new episodes are published every Monday and Wednesday.
Well, let’s just I want to go over just kind of how the weekend progressed. And first I gave the opening speech, which I usually do and I talked about financial self defense. And then we had our first local market specialist who flew out from Atlanta, Georgia, and that was read and read talked about the properties we have in Atlanta that you can purchase with as little as $5,000 down return on investments fantastic on those and then we had Peter who’s been on the show before, talk about tax secrets of wealthy investors and talk a little bit about the go zone, which is Just kind of coming to a conclusion here. But we still have investors that are interested in goes on investing. If you are go to Jason hartman.com, and contact us that way. And then we had Danny and he was a first time speaker who talked about the secrets of credit restoration and credit enhancement. We had him on the show before, but this is the first time we had him speaking at a Master’s weekend, and we got really good reviews on Danny’s talk, your credit is an asset and you want to use that credit as much as possible. If you don’t use it, the asset isn’t worth anything. So you want to use it, you want to protect it, you want to enhance it. And in some cases, and we’re seeing this more and more Nowadays, people are actually being told that if they want to get a loan modification, they have to let their payments fall behind. That’s a risky deal folks. But I will tell you lenders are telling people to do that out there and we’re seeing people do it more and more but it is risky. And you want to make sure you have a consultation with a credit enhancement and restoration expert if you’re going to pursue that route.
We had my friend Cory come and talk about mobile home parks cell storage and vesting, that was a real highlight. He’s got between all his mobile home park pads and all his self storage units. He’s got 2700 units. He is a multi multi millionaire and has really done some great things in the mobile home park and self storage world if you’re interested in finding mobile home parks or finding self storage facilities, contact investment counselor here at Empowered Investor investor network at Jason Hartman calm and we’ll be glad to help you do that. Of course we’ve had breaks and lunches in between here that were really fun. And then we had our Indianapolis presentation. Of course, Angela and Joe came out as they always do. And we showed some pretty funny home videos there that I made when I was in Indianapolis before huh?
Ari 7:39
Yep.
Sara 7:39
Yeah. And it was really great to have David kind of come out and tell his experience. He’s purchased several properties.
Jason Hartman 7:45
Yeah, you know, David, I’m sure you’re listening. You’ve been on the show before I had you on several shows ago, but you got to diversify. You’re done with Indianapolis. Okay, you’ve got enough properties there. You’re gonna own the whole town soon.
Sara 7:56
He found out later that that this was actually an intervention.
Jason Hartman 8:01
Yeah, some people do become a little addicted to this topic.
Sara 8:04
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. He’s looking at some other markets now. And he’s traveling around. So we’re just glad that he made it out and you know, told us great stories.
Jason Hartman 8:12
Yeah, that was a great story. And by my home videos, I mean, when I was in Indianapolis and some of these markets, I’m taking little videos on the iPhone, and you know, they come out pretty good, but one of them was kind of funny. We’ll probably get that out to you soon here and you’ll see it, you’ll get the laugh. By the way, I want to mention, you know, listeners, we have a video podcast, make sure you are subscribing to our video podcast. If you’re using iTunes, just type in Jason Hartman in the search bar, you’ll get the holistic survival podcast, the speed of money, podcast, of course, the creating wealth podcast you’re listening to now but also the creating wealth video podcasts, and there’s some good stuff on all of those. So make sure you subscribe to all of them. They’re free, so why not? Okay, so we had Angela and Joe talk about Indianapolis and funny home videos there too. Then we had Cathy do her presentation, and she’s spoken at Every masters weekend on the power of analysis, how to evaluate properties and make sure that you’re making decisions. rationally. You’re using logic and you’re using metrics to evaluate investments. So you don’t make mistakes. Everybody like that, huh? I agree. Everyone like that. Yeah, she’s she’s really great. Kathy, we really appreciate your involvement. We talked about organizational techniques, and how to organize your investing business. We had Randy who’s been on the show before talk about mortgage lending and some of the ins and outs there and really mortgage planning and financial planning. And he’s got a very special take on the borrowing side of the real estate investment world, which was interesting. And by the way, chime in if you guys have any comments, I know I tend to do all the talking, but
Sara 9:41
Yeah, well, I mean, I’ve been working with Randy now for at least a good two years. He’s great. He’s helped a lot of our clients with the financing and financial planning aspects. So we really enjoy working with Randy. He’s pretty sharp.
Jason Hartman 9:53
Good. And then we had of course, you know, questions and interaction throughout the day and we had the 1031 exchange presentation. Remember with income property investments, folks, they’re not only taxed advantaged in the fact that you get non cash write offs or Phantom write offs through depreciation, which you don’t actually have to pay for. That’s a wonderful thing. But you can trade your investment properties all your life and just defer tax forever. We say defer till you die. Okay. And that’s a great deal. Can’t do that in the stock market or with mutual funds. And then we had some fun after that didn’t we? What do we do Saturday evening?
Ari 10:28
Cash Flow? Yeah,
Jason Hartman 10:30
We had the cash flow game we served adult beverages.
Sara 10:33
Yes, we may have served too many. I won’t mention any names. Okay, Doug Lee.
Ari 10:40
But the cashflow game great game if no one’s played that before. It teaches you a whole lot
Jason Hartman 10:45
Yeah, that’s that’s Robert Kiyosaki cashflow one on one and cash flow 202 games. And folks, those games are pretty good. They’re they’re very real. They’re like a contemporary version of Monopoly. And the point is to get out of the rat race and get into the fast lane. And that’s what we help you do here at Empowered Investor investor network?
Sara 11:03
Well, I have to say I’m still a little bitter because I just lost my first cash flow game last weekend due to the fact that I had three babies.
Jason Hartman 11:09
Well, you know, kids are expensive. They’re mighty cute, aren’t they? Alright, so we had fun doing the cash flow game. And then we ended at about 9pm on Saturday night. So that was a long, long day. You know, that was that was a good 12 hour day. And then Sunday, we started with my presentation on keeping the faith with your investments. Of course, we did continental breakfast both days. And then we had our first area presentation, Luke came out from Phoenix. And again, that’s a market that we shut down for three and a half years or so. And then we reopen it because it’s a half price sale in Phoenix, and things are good there. Again, it’s good time to be looking back at that market again. Right.
Ari 11:45
Yeah, actually, a lot of people liked the presentation because a lot of good property management stuff involved and it’s a great market to go in right now.
Jason Hartman 11:51
And Ari, you just spent about a week in Phoenix for the Masters weekend. And well a business week, then five days, not seven. And what did you think when you were out there? You looked around at properties. You met with our manager, you met with her local market specialists. What were your impressions?
Ari 12:06
I’ve been doing a lot of research on Phoenix in the last few months, just reading a lot about the the trends of job growth, what’s going on there. And not only do I feel that the market is at the bottom there, I feel that there’s so much growth there for continued housing, there’s a lot of land still out there that’s going to be built on and a lot of people are moving there. I think it’s kind of a perfect storm out there right now prices are so cheap, like you said in your previous podcasts are cut in half, if not more, I know I’ve seen values drop 60% and with the combination of our property manager out there, and low interest rates, it’s it’s a perfect storm right now to invest out there.
Jason Hartman 12:43
And I think Phoenix really is especially comfortable for the California investor because it’s so nearby, it’s an hour on a plane. It’s five hours in the car, and it’s just comfortable. Everybody in California has been there
Sara 12:55
Except for me.
Jason Hartman 12:57
Really. Wow. That’s amazing.
Ari 13:01
Surprise. Okay, if you’re gonna go out there, this is the best time to go. The weather’s perfect.
Jason Hartman 13:04
Yeah, in the fall, it’s really nice. Okay, so we had our Phoenix presentation with Lou. And then Doug spoke on limiting risk using my risk evaluator model. But Doug really took it to a whole deeper level with a lot of very specific kind of analytical approach. Whereas it was just presented more conceptually before that you want low land values, high improvement value, and you want to buy at or below the cost of actual construction. So that was really interested. And you know that that was using my technique called package commodities investing. And then what did we have? We had Brenda talk about property tracker and property evaluator, and then we had lunch and then our panel discussion was Patrick, Richard, Joan and Joe, and that was fantastic. We thank all of you for participating. I’m sure you’re listening now.
So we really just want to say thanks again for participating in that and after the panel discussion, we talked about investing in real estate using your IRA so you can with certain qualified retirement Plans use them to invest in real estate. And that is a much better deal than it used to be actually because the way the mortgage market has changed. So talk to an investment counselor here for details on that. Then we had pumpkin pie and carrot cake. I love this.
Sara 14:15
I’ve been having carrot cake for the last three days.
Jason Hartman 14:18
Yeah, well, I think it’s probably done know. You know. No more carrot cake. And then we’d had Glenn come in and talk about the lending market in terms of private money and private money borrowing and non owner occupied property lending. We talked a little bit about prepaid legal, that’s such a great service. You know, folks, we’re not pitching it. But that’s just a bargain for 26 bucks a month. If you have questions about that great system that gives you a lawyer in 50 states when you’re investing across state lines. It’s a really handy handy service to have for less than $1 a day so we highly recommend that service. And then we had our last area presentation, which was Phil who talked about the Dallas market and we used to be very active in Dallas and then we sort of, you know, we weren’t doing as much there and now we’re really back into the Dallas market again, as there are some really good opportunities there right now. So all in all, you know, I think it was a great masters weekend, huh?
Sara 15:12
Yeah, it was absolutely great. I didn’t want to add, you know, I was actually very surprised about the Dallas presenter, Phil. I mean, I talked to him before I met him before. And I know they’ve got really the one stop shop there. But when I saw all the different intricacies of what they do, the rehab of the properties and getting them rent ready. I mean, they’re they’re pretty sharp out there too. So I was really excited about that.
Jason Hartman 15:35
You know, You’re absolutely right about that. I mean, the last time I was in Dallas, I was with them. I was looking at the properties in August, so just a month and a half, two months ago and they do things to make the long term maintenance cost of that property really low. I’ll give you a one example. If they’re replacing the flooring in say the kitchen. What they do is they use a vinyl hole that looks like wood flooring. And it looks really good nowadays, folks. But here’s the reason for that if you use a typical linoleum or vinyl type product, and you had one little tear in it, say the little leg on the refrigerator, and it tore the vinyl, you would have to replace potentially the whole floor, you couldn’t really patch it. But the reason they use the woodgrain look, is because it’s in the form of planks, just like a real wood floor would be. So you can literally take a razor blade and cut out one quote unquote, plank, if you will put another one in, glue it down, and you fixed it. And there are all these little tricks like the paint you use, that really make the long term maintenance of a property much more affordable. So we’re always looking for contractors who practice these kinds of best practices in their business so that your long term investment experience is a good one. Anything else on the Masters weekend?
Ari 16:57
Well, I just like to say that I always say this to my clients that they can only go to one event that we have the Masters, we can be the best event to go to. And the reason I said that is because
Jason Hartman 17:06
No, I’m gonna disagree with you, they need to come to the creating wealth bootcamp first.
Ari 17:11
But overall, whatever I do, but the reason why I say that, Jason is because it gives our clients a chance to actually meet our network. Physically meet them, shake your hand and know that we’re actually working with somebody there. Because there’s a lot of companies that are just one-man operations, although they say and they look like they’re bigger, but we actually have people that were physically doing work with. So
Jason Hartman 17:31
Well, you know, that’s a really good point. I’ve got to caution you, listeners, a lot of these investment groups out there, these people never even go to the markets, they never see the properties, much less buy properties in these markets, which we do, you know, 90% of the time we own properties in the markets that we’re talking about. Sometimes right on the same street, as you know, we’re recommending that you buy so we practice what we preach. You know, over the years, I’ve made millions and millions of dollars investing in real estate and I’m made millions of dollars in business to and that’s why we’re going to talk a little bit more about some business stuff on this show. So you’ll see a few shows here and there talking about the business topic. And I think you’ll like that because it’s not just about creating and perpetuating your wealth. It’s also about making money making income. And so that’s really kind of what this interview coming up is about. But be sure to join us for the next masters weekend. It’ll be in March, we’ll get that on the website here at Jason Hartman comm slash events and we’d love to see you there and get into our coaching program. We’ve got a great coaching program, and thank you for all of your interest.
By the way, if you’re interested in just an introductory one time coaching session with me personally, assuming you want me personally, but I think you do, right, right. Yes, you do. Ah, you can do that for just 100 bucks and I’ll be glad to coach you personally and tell you a little bit about the program and we’ll analyze your goals your situation and the shortest distance from point A to point B which is where you want to be in your financial So we’ll help you get there. And we really appreciate your listening and joining us for our events, and you’re interested in our products newsletter, coaching program, etc, all of that. So Jason Hartman calm let’s go to the interview with the Strategic Coach, Dan Sullivan.
Just a reminder, you’re listening to flashback Friday. Our new episodes are published every Monday and every Wednesday.
It’s my pleasure to welcome Dan Sullivan to the show. I’ve been a longtime fan of damn since I met him originally at a young entrepreneurs organization conference in New York City out eight, nine years ago, around 2000 or 99. He heads up a company and a program called the Strategic Coach. Dan was doing coaching before coaching was popular. And he’s been doing it for well over 30 years now. He’s out with a new book that I just received, entitled The Dan Sullivan question asked Get and transform anyone’s future. Dan, welcome to the show.
Dan Sullivan 20:03
Thanks a lot, Jason, real pleasure to be with you today.
Jason Hartman 20:06
Well, pleasure to have you, you really teach entrepreneurs how to be more successful, and to move from sort of the first level of their business to the big, big successful level. And I know a lot of my friends in the entrepreneurs organization are followers of yours and, and they attend your programs and so forth. Tell us a little bit about what your your new book covers.
Dan Sullivan 20:28
Well, what I’ve discovered during the downturn, especially Jason is that a lot of people who are what I would call commodity fixated, I’ve had a really difficult time in other words that they, they’re used to just selling one kind of product or service in their industry, and they become masters of it. I mean, a lot of people have become very, very successful, especially during this first decade of the 21st century, they become very successful. But when the downturn came, all of a sudden, people weren’t buying what they had learned how to sell. And I saw this coming, not the downturn. But I saw a general problem in all entrepreneurial industries starting in the early 1990s, that everything was becoming commoditized. In other words, over time, the price of everything is going down, the amount of competition is going up, marketing costs are going up. And I began to say, Is there something that they can sell, that escapes from commoditization and escapes from commoditization? And what I came up with was the question, you can sell a question. At least you can sell the conversation that comes around a particular question. And this question really transforms things as a single question. You can learn it in about, you know, a half hour you can master it in about a day and it can be producing money for you in a matter of a couple of weeks. And it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in this question works. I’ve got over 60 different industries in Strategic Coach and I have really large volumes of evidence about how well this question works in every single industry, there’s not one that I’ve ever run up against where in a matter of a month someone has just transformed their business by basing the entire structure of their client relationship on this particular question, and the answer that comes out of it.
Jason Hartman 22:19
So Dan, you’re really building the suspense here. And I noticed the question I’ll just preface it with this is a future pacing sort of a question. And it gets people to really think and makes an advisor or an entrepreneur, or the person, I guess, who’s in the position of being the consultant or the salesperson. Listen to the client, or listen to the customer and what they’re looking for. Do you want to tell the listeners what the question is?
Dan Sullivan 22:45
Yeah, that actually has two parts, then it may seem a little long The first time I say it, but after you’ve done it a few times, it becomes quite natural. And the question is, if we were having this discussion three years from today, and you were looking back or Three years, what has to have happened in your life both personally and professionally? Where you feel happy with your progress? That’s the first part of the question. And the second part is specifically, what dangers Do you have now that needs to be eliminated? What opportunities need to be captured and what strengths need to be maximized? So that’s that’s the question. And Jason, what I’ve found is that, first of all, there’s a resistance on the part of any entrepreneur to ask that question. Because they’re not selling something. What they’re, what they’re actually doing is asking a question, and that fact alone is automatically differentiating them from 90% of their competition, right in their first five minutes when they’re talking to someone. So that that’s the biggest thing is just to differentiate yourself immediately.
Jason Hartman 23:48
Why are they afraid of asking that question?
Dan Sullivan 23:51
Ah, because because it’s an open ended question. And a lot of entrepreneurs have been trained never to ask a question that you don’t already have the answer to because What you’re trying to do is to narrow down the options on the part of the prospect or the customer, so that they’re forced to consider your product or service. So the basic training and all industries is to cut the customer off from escaping from your logic. And the reason why this question is scary in the first instance, is because you’re actually liberating the person to actually speak their mind. And then you’re seeing as the person answers, what is it that I have to offer that can actually match up with what this person is trying to achieve in their future? So what you’re doing is that you’re allowing the person to actually control what is going to be talked about, but the question actually controls how that is actually going to be talked about. So the subject matter is determined by the client or prospect but the process we’re talking about that is actually determined by the question. So they’re in charge of the conversation because it’s entirely about them, but you’re in control because the question controls the process.
Jason Hartman 25:04
Very, very good. What do you find? How do you find? Let’s talk about the financial services world maybe because that, would it be fair to say, Dan, that that’s your Genesis is from the financial services industry?
Dan Sullivan 25:16
Yeah, they talk to each other. Jason. I think one of the reasons why we’ve had so many financial advisors is that they go to a lot of conferences, they go on to a lot of study groups, they chat with each other a lot. They share information. And I think the reason is because Financial Services is such a relationship based business that most aren’t most financial advisors don’t see other financial advisors really as their competition to the degree that you would see in other industries, for example, residential real estate or something like that, which is essentially selling a commodity. Whereas the, it’s a little bit it’s much more relationship based for the most part last year. Just You know, selling as much financial product as you possibly can, and then it’s just commoditized get out. So over the years, I’ve gotten a tremendous number of invitations to speak to groups of financial advisors in all sectors, investment, insurance, even the mortgage industry. In some respects, it’s very much part of the financial services industry now. And so the word spreads. We have a really good track record, we get great referrals. We have we’ve really established a very powerful and positive reputation in the marketplace for what we help people do. And I think that’s the reason why we have so many financial advisors.
Jason Hartman 26:42
Okay, so since the financial advisor is a big part of your client base, what do you find, Dan, are the types of answers that advisors are getting to this question. You know, they asked a client future pace at three years what has to happen? Then how are they providing solutions for that?
Dan Sullivan 27:03
Well, they get a great, a great variety of answers. And usually the answers are, first of all about the experience of being asked question. And people will say, Oh, I have never been asked a question like that before? Or that’s really a great question. Or I don’t want to answer that question. And one of the things that I point out in the book, Jason, is that every financial advisor, any entrepreneur at all, what they wanted, what they want to avoid at all costs, is going too far down the road, with anybody who does not want to have a relationship with them. And the question immediately get that on the table. You asked this question to someone who doesn’t want to have a relationship with you. They’ll immediately cut off the meeting, they’ll say, Well, I’m not going to answer that question. And that immediately tells you that they don’t want to have a relationship. So sometimes when I’m doing presentations of this question to my Entrepreneurs I say if all of you could have all the time back that you wasted on people that you should have never gone past the first meeting with how many years of your career would you get back and someone say, like five years? Yeah, right. Right. And so what this question does is that nipped in the bud, any possibility that you’re that you’re going to proceed after the first hour with anyone who really, really isn’t appropriate for you to go forward with and that that is just a huge amount of confidence. So essentially, Jason, what we’re doing is that we’re asking a question that and ask them, disqualifies all those people that you don’t want to have a relationship with, which is a huge time saving for financial advisors.
Jason Hartman 28:40
So would you think that some of the advisors or you know, entrepreneurs, salespeople, whatever, really are afraid to hear the answer to this question, because maybe they don’t want it. It’s really a disqualifying question to some extent.
Dan Sullivan 28:52
Oh, yeah. Well, they don’t. Yeah, but you’re the one doing the rejecting. I mean, if someone said I didn’t want to answer that question, I say well Thank you for your time. But I in order for me to help you, I need to I need to know what’s really important for you in the future. And since you don’t want to give me that information, I just thank you and you leave well, who did the rejection there? They didn’t do the rejection, you did the rejection, right? So all I’m doing is sorting out real fast. If I’ve got a player that I can play with, and I want to know that right off the bat in my business, I want to know that, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to go back and forth with someone who says, Well, I might do a coaching program. I don’t might not do a coaching program. And I asked him the question, he says, Well, I think it’s too early to give you that kind of information. And I know it. You don’t want to tell me that information. I can’t do anything for you. It wouldn’t be a good use of my time wouldn’t be a good use of your time.
Jason Hartman 29:44
So tell us, let’s cover a little more on the Dan Sullivan question. And then let’s talk a little bit about you know how the best get better because I just love that program. It’s such a foundational thing for any entrepreneur to know and understand, and it’s Just it’s just really interesting work, but more about the book on the question, what else is involved?
Dan Sullivan 30:04
Well, once I just want to go back to the point to say why they’re afraid, the other reason that or they’re afraid they’re afraid that the person is going to answer with issues that they’re not trained to deal with. And they think that somehow by asking the question, they’re taking responsibility for what the person might say. But nobody holds us responsible for that what we’re actually doing is giving the person a tremendous opportunity, maybe for the first time in their life to really say what’s on their mind. And that in itself is a tremendous value and the the person sitting across from you that you’ve asked the question to, and they answer that all of a sudden, they’re having a conversation that they would really like to have a very deep and very, very expansive conversation. And boy, there aren’t many of those around these days, Jason and people will value that from the very first moment. And then what we have a whole process that you follow the question up with Where you where you basically reflect back in the conversation, you structure the person the answers, you take the worksheet that you compiled during the conversation, you go back, you create a little game plan and send it back to them. Some of that game plan may involve you, but it’ll probably involve a great number of other people as well. And I have a client, for example, who just went through a business breakup, where he has a non compete. He’s in the financial services industry. His name’s Doug MacPherson, you know he’s from, he’s from Washington, DC, and Doug is a master of this question. And so he has a non compete where he really can’t go back out and sell financial services to a great Neil, great number of clients. But what he has done is he’s just gone out and sold them on having this conversation based on the DOS every 90 days. And Doug does this. He charges them for that and one client pays him you know, in the 10s of thousands of dollars, just to have this conversation on a quarterly basis over the course of the year. I have to tell you, Jason, if I lost my business, I just get a whole bunch of these worksheets that I have these with are called das worksheets because we talk about dangers, opportunities and strengths. And I could I could be parachuted into Orange County, and I bet I probably create $500,000 worth of first-year fees just by going around and asking people this question on a 90-day basis.
Jason Hartman 32:28
Yeah, that’s fantastic. Okay, so more about the question, because, you know, this is the book is short, and that makes it a nice, easy read. It’s just under just over 80 pages. But there’s got to be more to it than just that question, right?
Dan Sullivan 32:45
Well, actually, it’s what happens to the other person that it has to do with the question and that that’s why a lot of people I tell them this question will change your life and they say, Well, how is that possible? And I say, it’s not about you. It’s about the other person actually. being asked the question, and that is that we live in a world where conversations are superficial conversations are manipulative conversations are product focused conversations. They’re, you know, they’re very, very utilitarian. And what people really want to do is get some clarity, competence and capability into their life about their future right now, especially with all the complexity that occurring because of the economic and technological changes that we’re going through. And a lot of people are just feeling very, very confused, isolated and powerless. Very powerful people, very successful people feel that they’re up against the wall, and they don’t have anyone to talk to. So when you create the framework with this question, all of a sudden, you become perhaps one of the most valuable person in this individual’s life and whatever it is that you’re selling as a matter of your occupation. They they have open ears because you’re so valuable right in the first part of your relationship that they’ll allow you to Have an ongoing relationship after this question. And that’s what makes it so powerful is that the question differentiate you in the marketplace, it totally transforms the client’s view of, of who you are, it totally transforms the possibilities for ongoing problem solving. So that’s why it’s so powerful. And it’s so simple. You know, I mean, if I’m a passenger in a car, I can drive from Santa Monica to Newport Beach, and I’m finished by the time I get to Newport Beach, right.
Jason Hartman 34:28
Yeah, very good. Very good. Talking about the best get better, you know, you have several strategies. And I love the way you title them. You talk about a vision of the future, the ceiling of complexity, the biggest check the no office solution, and then I have to tell you, I’m just about to start practicing the no office solution. I have never done that before, but I’m really gonna do it.
Dan Sullivan 34:51
Well, that’s a good one. So why don’t we start with that one. I’ve just discovered that most entrepreneurs make their money by either coming up While they do it in three ways, they, they do it by coming up with really great ideas. They do it by establishing really powerful relationships. And they do it by designing really powerful solutions. And none of those require an office actually, you could do that at, you know, you could do that at a coffee shop, you could do that sitting on the beach. And I find where most entrepreneurs get bogged down is when they walk through the doorway into their office. And and I think it’s a carryover from the old days when entrepreneurs were really insecure because they were sort of marginal creatures in society. And they’re really big deal. People in society were corporate executives who sat in corner offices, so people’s notion of their security and their status has to do with the size of their office and how much stuff is in their office. And I think that that, you know, that that, you know that that may be a 19th century concept, but it’s certainly a 20 20th century concept. I think in the 21st century. You know, you have You’re, you know, you have your PDA, and you have your network of relationships and you have all your ideas. And that’s your business. So why did why do you need an office? So in my case, I don’t have an office I haven’t had an office for 20 years, but in my complex here in Toronto, and also in Chicago, we have a coffee, a really excellent cafe we, in Toronto, we have like a 50 seat cafe. And in Chicago, we have a 20 seat cafe. And what I do is I just go in and take a table and I just get a chair and I just work and, and some people that would be hard because they wouldn’t want to be out in the open. So I say well, that space that you have, that’s your office now, you can keep that space you can close the door on it, but inside get rid of everything that looks like an office, get rid of the desk, get rid of the credenza, get rid of all the pictures on the wall, get rid of all the files and everything like that and have a beautiful sort of circular table with four really Nice chairs, have really good art on the wall, have put some plants in there, make it real simple, real clean, nothing in there. And then just, if you have to work, you got your laptop in there, you can bring a phone jack in, you can be messy during the day, but at the end of the day, it’s all cleaned up. Don’t have any of the files in there unless you have secure reasons for having the files. Have them with the people who can get your files for you. And that brings up the other thing is that you should have really great teamwork that’s supporting you so that you’re just on stage, creating value for your best relationships, developing really big opportunities so that you can get really big checks.
Jason Hartman 37:40
Yeah, that’s, that’s fantastic. So you, you were mentioning the three ways entrepreneurs make money, and I and one is great ideas. I’m not sure if I heard the other
Dan Sullivan 37:48
Great ideas, great relationships and great delusion.
Jason Hartman 37:52
Oh, okay. Excellent. Excellent.
Dan Sullivan 37:54
Yeah. I mean, you have to have an idea to interest somebody. I mean, we’re living in an age now where people are buying unique, interesting idea. Okay, and so we differentiate ourselves with our ideas to get in the door. And then we have to have a real tremendous ability to develop relationships. And I’m suggesting the Dan Sullivan question is probably the superior way on the planet right now for developing relationships. And then you have to have real meaty issues on the part of the client to actually come up with great solutions. I find that most entrepreneurs, when they are being told the Absolute Truth by prospect, a customer or a client, and they can really get their mind into it and come up with extraordinary and come up with extraordinary solutions for that client which are custom designed very specific for the client and let them set themselves apart from everybody else in the marketplace,
Jason Hartman 38:50
You know, on the no office solution concept. I think that you are so right about that because when I walk into my office, I get bogged down Of course, I have an office At home too, and sometimes I’m just far more efficient there. Sometimes I’m more efficient when I’m traveling, believe it or not, I can be in an airport or on a plane and I, I just will get stuff done with my laptop or talking to people meeting with people. That’s where most of the value seems to really be created in a business
Dan Sullivan 39:19
And I’ve been dealing with thousands of entrepreneurs over the years and everybody says exactly the same thing that you just said.
Jason Hartman 39:27
Yeah, yeah. You know, in the office, it’s a busy work process, you know,
Dan Sullivan 39:30
Well, not only that, but you got all this stuff. And they’re all you know, all the stuff has been completed project. I mean, people will have 50 open files on their desk, while every one of those files is attached to a part of your brain and the moment you walk through the door, that each of them wants to be first in line, but you’re totally jangled. You know, you’re totally confused. And I find most people they are least productive when they’re in their office. They are most tense, most frustrated and least productive when they’re in their office.
Jason Hartman 39:59
That’s very interesting. Another one of your, your items, I don’t know if I should call it a strategy or a concept because I know you divide those and I can’t remember which one this is. But maybe this is a concept on the the biggest check. Yeah, tell us about the biggest check. I love that one.
Dan Sullivan 40:14
Wow, this, this, again goes to the basically that if you grew up in an industry, there was sort of a what I would say an average and maybe perhaps even mediocre notion of what a good result in your industry, you know, because you don’t have many people who are superstars and the people were hanging around hanging out with each other, basically just get average results. And so there’s a kind of a, you know, there’s sort of a limitation in people’s thinking about what’s possible in their industry. But it’s not a function of your industry, about what kind of checks you can get. It’s only a function of what kind of check writers you’re actually hanging out with. And so big check writers write big checks. And so what happens with all entrepreneurs when they start their in their career They’ll take any check they can get because we have to, you know, we have to make a living, we have to pay the rent, we have to make it through our first year or second year or third year, we got to start building an organization around us. And so the emphasis in the early part of your career is always on quantity of checks, we I just want a lot of checks, just get me a lot of checks. Big, you know, as many, if there are little checks, I want as many little checks. problem with that, Jason is that it fills your time up with kind of average or mediocre results. And then when you run into a big opportunity, where you could get a bigger check, two things come into play one as you don’t have the time because you filled all your time with little checks. But the other thing is that you’re not used to getting big checks because you’ve only practiced on level checks. And so what we do is that we basically get people to say, first of all, we’re going to look at all your checks, and we’re just going to take five of them as what you can really do and that would be the best five from the previous here. And that’s it. Average. And so what we, what we basically do is get people to say whatever your average at your best five checks over the last 12 months, what we want you to do is have a goal of doubling that average over the next six months or the next year. And the moment that you have in your mind that you’re going to take your best average now and double it, all of a sudden, your eyes, ears and mind open up to all the opportunities that are available, and then you get a bigger check. And all of a sudden, you get a bigger check than you’ve ever had. And you say, Wow, that was actually easier than getting one of my little checks, then your mind starts to put two and two together and start saying, isn’t that funny? It is easy as easy or easier to get big checks and it is little checks. And then you got to make a decision at a certain point. Well, if I want more and more big checks, I gotta stop getting so many little checks. And gradually what happens over a period of years and this is one of the multipliers in Strategic Coach our program, Jason. Strategic Coach has just a whole series of multipliers, multiplying time multiplying relationships, multiplying staff support multiplying technology, you know, multiplying your vision, first of all model multiplying your personal input impact. That’s what strategic coaches about, it’s all about the multipliers that really great entrepreneurs use and what we’ve done is documented them. So one of the big multipliers is just going for larger and larger checks. And what you find is that usually the relationships are a lot better, the work is a lot more enjoyable, the work is usually a lot easier to do that. And then gradually you begin restructuring your whole company around and your whole future around getting larger checks, which in many cases means that you have to get better staff. You got to get better technology around you and so you just it’s almost like a winch, you know, a lot of these SUVs that go out in the wild have a winch and what you’re doing is that you you attach the winch does something ahead of you, and then you allow the winch to pull you forward. So weapons largest check Is the winch that continually pulls you upward as an entrepreneur to higher and higher levels of company and personal income.
Jason Hartman 44:08
Yeah, that’s fantastic. What what would be some of your other favorite concepts? Actually, you know, Dan, I have one that I’d like you to talk about, because it is so applicable. And I know you recorded and wrote about it a long time ago, but I think now it’s, it’s more applicable than ever. And that is the concept of entitlement, the entitlement mentality. And I know you did a small book and program on gratitude. So maybe those two kind of interplay together in your answer.
Dan Sullivan 44:37
Yeah, well, the their mutual opposite. entitlement is the lack of gratitude. Okay? And if you have gratitude, you don’t have any entitlement. But, you know, I mean, we live in a wealthy society. I mean, we’re going through a bit of a speed bump right now in North America and you know, some of the other countries were going through a bit of a speed bump, but We live in a very wealthy country, and that wealth was created by a fairly small number of human beings. You know, I mean, a lot of people do the work, but there’s only a few people who think up the work, you know, who actually create the opportunities and think, think of the work. And so a lot of people come along, there’s a phrase that I use, a lot of people are born on third base and think they hit a triple, you know, and, you know, in other words, that they think that they are, they’re actually deserving of all the advantages and privileges that they get. And so their basic attitude towards life is that of takers, you know, they, they, they want more, they want to take more, but it never occurs to them, that the basis for all the wealth that’s actually making their life easy, is actually created by people who are givers. Okay. And giving really starts with an attitude of gratitude. Okay, and that and you know, Jason, a lot of people you know, words really mean something, and what gratitude is that Actually, it comes from an even deeper word and that’s appreciation. And what appreciation means is that you really value something. Okay? I mean, we actually have that in you know, in economic terms appreciation of a of a, you know, of a value in the marketplace, Doc’s appreciate, well, that means the value of a stock went up. So for most people, their passive gratitude in other words, somebody does something good for them and they feel gratitude. But the what I practice is they, it’s what I call proactive gratitude, what proactive gratitude is, I choose to constantly create and appreciate the value of things in my life. And this is just 180 degrees from the whole attitude of entitlement. I mean, you can see all this stuff in Washington that’s going on right now, you know, is that we have the right to this and we have the right to that we have the right to that we have the right to that everybody talks about their rights, you know that you know, we have a right to health care, we have a right to If we ever write all this stuff down, well, well, actually, none of those are right. So those are things that are actually earned. But, you know, if you grew up in a society that’s just entitlement minded, then everybody started, never gets the other attitude. They never get the attitude, right. They go to the school system, the school system, you know, tells them how oppressed they are, and how the cause of all the problems that greedy businessmen, you know, and all, we’re deserving of this and we’re deserving of that. So, you know, entrepreneurs, for the most part are at the far end of the spectrum, from the entitlement side, and that is that there are people who realize that they have to create value before they get an opportunity, and that they’re actually responsible for their own financial security. I call those the two entrepreneurial decision that every entrepreneur if they’re going to be really successful, has to be very conscious about making these two decisions. Number one, I am totally responsible for my own financial security and number two, I will never, I will never expect any kind of opportunity unless I first created value for someone else.
Jason Hartman 48:06
So Dan, what I find so important about this that you’ve identified is that this takes a huge burden off of someone’s shoulders, oddly enough, you would think it would be almost counterintuitive to think that way because the burden is the burden of victimization is lifted. So someone can go out and then be proactive in life and, and create value when they don’t feel like the world owes them a living.
Dan Sullivan 48:35
I mean, why do you what you’ve just said, is just so so true. I mean, that’s enormous freedom that come from not having the entitlement attitude. It’s very burdensome, because every day if you have the entitlement attitude, you’re feeling deprived. Because because someone hasn’t given you something. You know, you live in a family and you’re in I mean, a children. Their parents haven’t been And then the school isn’t giving them that’s, you know, nobody’s giving them what they want. Well, that’s a, that’s an incredible burden to go through life with because everything’s going to make you unhappy. Whereas if you take the other attitude that I’m actually not really deserving of anything, but I have my intelligence, I have my abilities, I have my opportunities, I can go out and I can actually create my future and nobody owes it to me. But I have the enormous opportunity to create it for myself. I mean, what greater freedom is there than that?
Jason Hartman 49:31
That is that almost goes in with Viktor Frankl and his concept of the last human freedom is that you know, we have the choice to decide how we want to feel about any given situation how we want to react.
Dan Sullivan 49:44
Yeah, I mean, that little book I pass out to all my lovers, you know, I mean, I said you know, anytime you’re feeling like the world is doing badly, just get that book out and read it, you know, man search for meaning. I mean, what uh, you know, here’s the guy in the worst part. A circumstance anybody’s ever been in, and he can create meaning out of that job, because they chose to.
Jason Hartman 50:06
It sure puts it in perspective.
Dan Sullivan 50:07
It sure does.
Jason Hartman 50:08
Yeah. And, you know, you know what I find, like, I’ve had various girlfriends over the years. And, and sometimes I’ll have a relationship that just isn’t right, where, you know, it’s kind of more about keeping score than it is about really giving freely, you know, and that keeping score in business and in in life is, it’s incredibly it’s a big burden, isn’t it to to do it. It’s not just the way you feel about it, but it’s sort of a big burden to just mechanically, and people do it in their minds. They’re always kind of counting
Dan Sullivan 50:39
Well, yeah, you know, the reason is you never have the score you want.
Jason Hartman 50:42
Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. Well, what other concepts would you like to talk about? You’ve got so many and you’ve got such a big body of fantastic work. And I want to maybe circle back toward the end of our talk today to the question again, But you know, maybe just what you where would you like to go with things?
Dan Sullivan 51:03
Well, I’ve got a couple and they’re actually related to each other. And one of them is called unique ability teamwork. And the other one is called value creation monopoly. And an inability teamwork is kind of like the heart and soul of Strategic Coach program. And that is that I believe that every individual should organize their life on Christ four by four criteria as far as what they do, number one, it should be a superior skill. So don’t fool around with stuff that you’re not any good with. Okay? You know, pick the thing that you do best. Number two, pick the thing that you do best that you’re passionate about, you know, that you just love doing number three. If that’s true, it’s a superior skill, and you’re passionate about it, then it’s going to be very energizing for you your whole day. from morning till night is going to be energizing to you and what’s more, everybody who’s around you is going to be energized. By your performance. And then number four, if you choose the activities that have the first three qualities, superior skill passionate and you’re energizing, then you’re always going to get better at it. So you’ll be better at 40 than you were at 30, you’ll be better at 70 than you were at 40. And I believe I’m going to have people in my program, Strategic Coach who are better at 100 than they were at 70. You know, so it’s, it’s what, it’s what makes life worthwhile, his unique ability, and then when you zero in on what that is, you give everything else up. And then you surround yourself with a team and each of the team members picks up something that you were doing that they just love doing. And in fact, they’re a lot better at it than you were. And they they have the same feeling of superior skill, passion, energy and constant improvement. And then you have a team together where everybody as a team is experiencing those things together. And that’s my idea of putting together an entrepreneurial organization. Then, with that you’re going out into the marketplace. You as an entrepreneur using the Dan Sullivan question you’re going out and asking the question, and then you’re putting together a problem solving team, a team that creates really elegant solution. And you do such a marvelous job for your clients and customers, but they have this phenomenal experience that’s uniquely positive that they’ve never worked with anyone in the world like you. They see working with you is absolutely crucial to their future. And they know they can’t get this anywhere else at any price. And that’s what I call value creation monopoly. It’s where the client is so overwhelmed by the positive experience of dealing with you that they cut off all the competition, the monopoly means that you’ve cut off the competition. In most cases, people want to sort of enforce a monopoly so that the customer has no choice. But here what you’re doing is that you’re creating so much value for the client or customers that They are voluntarily choosing to cut off all the competition because they know that none of the competition can possibly match what you’re offering.
Jason Hartman 54:08
Very interesting. You know, one of the distinctions I would like you to make there, Dan, if you would, is when you talk about that first concept, and I know in the original basket better program, you talk about moving from that very American ideal of rugged individualism to the concept of unique teamwork, which, which sounds like it is a another way of saying what you just said, Do you want to distinguish that a little more?
Dan Sullivan 54:33
Yeah, well, you know, I mean, first of all, I I really don’t think that basic characteristic of American rugged individualism, as a matter of fact, I think that the reason why the United States is as powerful and dominant as it is, is because it’s a country where strangers can work together better than almost any other country on the planet. I mean, you could throw any group of Americans together from any part of the country, and they’ll work together better them people from other countries and other regions. So I think Americans math is I think the secret that most people don’t realize that the secret to American success has actually been unique ability teamwork, but a lot of entrepreneurs. I mean, there’s a danger when you start off as an entrepreneur because, you know, when you’re first starting, you don’t have the money to have a team around you. So you get used to doing everything yourself. And because, you know, we turn the necessity into virtue, you know, people who, and we say, well, since I have to do everything myself, that must mean that I’m the only one who can do it. And that’s what keeps entrepreneurs small. Jason, there’s an organization out of Kansas City called the Kauffman Foundation, and they are the number one researchers of entrepreneurial life in America. They just focused on American entrepreneurs. And they they have a startling statistic and that is that 50 of that 95% of all entrepreneurs, that is anything Who’s self employed has their own business? 95% of them never make more than $50,000 take home.
Jason Hartman 56:06
Wow. That’s, that’s startling. Yeah, they’re just buying themselves a job.
Dan Sullivan 56:10
And yeah, they didn’t create a business, they created a job. And the reason is why they can now some of them choose that. In other words, they choose to be that small, but I would say the vast majority of them, the reason why they can’t get above $50,000 is because they’re rugged individualists. They can’t get that they’ve gotten so habituated to doing everything themselves that they can imagine that anyone else can do any part of their work any better than they can’t and they don’t trust them to do it besides them.
Jason Hartman 56:39
Dan, so how where did the American or the American ideal of the rugged individual come from then you say Americans are really such team workers but that’s so known in our history, and I know your interest. You’re a student of history and you towns things in interesting Wait, why did it evolve that way? Why wasn’t the So
Dan Sullivan 57:00
there’s a great there’s a great writer by the name of Daniel Burstyn, he’s dead now but he was the Librarian of Congress and he wrote an extensive series of books on American history and he just takes one, I mean, he just uses various interesting examples, like cattle drives. And he says cattle drives were one of the most interesting organizational forms ever put together in the United States. And he said it was basically consisted of about nine specialists who got together and they they formed at the beginning of a, you know, they formed at the beginning of a cattle drive. And these people eat out especially one of them was good at being out in front of the herd and other one was good to be in behind the herd and everything else. And they would put a whole bunch of strangers together and they would take these cattle 1500 miles up to Kansas City, usually where the dock yards were and then they would return they break up, they go into other, they go into themes, and he just showed the amazing teamwork. Another one I mean, modern day is the movie industry. I mean, the movie industry is all a bunch of strangers being put together for, you know, to produce a result. It’s almost like they put a little company together, start the company, put it together, create a product, and then they disassemble. After six weeks or two months, I live in an area of Toronto, where we have dozens and dozens of movies every year, you come down there, and these people don’t work together. Normally, they just got thrown together. And there’s just this phenomenal ability for strangers to work together. Actually, Jason, one of the great thinkers on capitalism is fa hyack. Right, you know, who wrote the great well deserved road deserved the Road to Serfdom. And he said that capitalism, the great tragedy of capitalism is that it was named by an enemy. He says capitalism actually isn’t about capital. Capitalism is actually about cooperation. It’s just never ever increasing cooperation among strangers, that’s basically what capital is that if you can get strangers to cooperate more and more, it produces enormous amounts of surplus income, which we call capital. And then it gets reinvested back in the system. So it’s just the opposite of what most people think of is that it’s these greedy, selfish, you know, isolated individuals, just the opposite is the massive amount of cooperation that’s going on among people who are all motivated by their own dreams and by their own goals, but they they know, they have to have other people around them to pull it off.
Jason Hartman 59:34
Yeah, that’s very, very insightful. Very interesting. No question about it. Well, Dan, tell us a little bit about your program, if you would, or your different programs.
Dan Sullivan 59:42
Yeah, well, we have one main program and it’s just for entrepreneurs. And so our criteria is that one is that we’re looking for three things, actually. First of all, we’re looking for someone who’s already good enough that they’re making more than $100,000 per year. So that’s the first part If you have to be making more than 100,000 per year, and secondly is that you’re you’re a growth entrepreneur. What I’ve noticed, because I’ve been coaching for 35 years since 1974. And what I’ve noticed Jason of all the entrepreneurs that I’ve dealt with that there’s three kinds of entrepreneurs, they’re the first kind of kind of entrepreneurs are called survival entrepreneurs. And these are the kinds of people who really are distrustful of other people. And that is that they have a sort of a negative attitude towards future. They don’t really trust other people with their future. And they kind of worry from day to day, and they don’t really take big risks, or anything else. I don’t deal with survival entrepreneurs, there’s nothing I can do for a person like that. Then there’s another kind of person The second type of entrepreneur that I call a lifestyle entrepreneur. And this is an individual when he or she was younger had a notion of a particular lifestyle that they wanted to get to and they realized very Quickly, they don’t get that by working for someone else. So they started their entrepreneurial business, they made enough income to get up to that lifestyle. And then they stopped their whole life is just about maintaining their lifestyle. They don’t have any bigger dreams about developing their business. And then there’s a third group that I call growth entrepreneurs, and their whole motivation is just to continually grow. So as soon as they hit one level, they’re immediately have visions for themselves of going to another level and their enjoyment is in growing from one level to another. And they don’t have any notion of retirement. They see themselves doing this for the rest of their life. And that’s, that’s who comes to Strategic Coach. So over $100,000 with growth, and then you have to have the aspiration of becoming a net million dollar per year person. In other words, we want someone who if they use the tools and the concepts of the program, within a number of years, you know, maybe two years and maybe five years, maybe 10 years, but as some years They’re going to come and they said, I made a million dollars last year. And every year after that they make more than a million dollars so that they would have to have that as part of their vision. Now I’ve personally coached over 1000 entrepreneurs who are making in the hundred 200 $300,000 range when they came into the program went over a million dollars. And then and that’s basically it. That’s basically it and that type of individualized, you know, Jason creates jobs creates tax revenues. They’re big community contributors. They’re great role models. They’re, you know, that that’s what makes America America, those individuals who are entrepreneurial who are really successful, but they just want to grow all the time.
Jason Hartman 1:02:43
I only wish the collectivists running Washington said it that way, Dan, because
Dan Sullivan 1:02:49
Now, do they listen to your radio program, Jason?
Jason Hartman 1:02:51
I doubt it. Yeah, I doubt it. They’re not into self reliance and value
Dan Sullivan 1:02:56
No. They believe government should do it for you.
Jason Hartman 1:03:00
Right, and take value away.
Dan Sullivan 1:03:02
Yeah, we’re living in different worlds.
Jason Hartman 1:03:03
We really are. We really are. Dan, circle back, if you would to maybe the the Dan Sullivan, question in any final thoughts that you’d like to leave our listeners with today?
Dan Sullivan 1:03:13
Yeah, well, you know, just not just on the question, you know, this is a rather minor investment for anyone to make. And I would really recommend that, you know, you just give us a call, you know, at our office Strategic Coach, actually, you can just go to our website, just go to our website, which is Strategic Coach calm, I think the Jets get the complete philosophy of Dan Sullivan and get the complete plus B of Strategic Coach. I would really recommend that everybody just get a copy of the book, The Dan Sullivan question. And the reason the reason is that it’s a real quick read, you can do it in an hour, but it’ll really change your vision towards your entrepreneurial future. So that that would be the first thing that I would say, and that that you know, that sort of self serving on my part, but the other thing I would like to say as we’re all the entrepreneurs, just to hang in there during these two or three years when we’re dealing with essentially, what I see, and I can’t say it any other way as the enemies in Washington, because this entire bunch of people that we’ve got now in the administration never had a business, never started a business, never created a product, never created a service never hired anybody, never met a payroll, never created solutions for customers or clients, and yet, they’re putting the country in debt. They’re trying to put extraordinary restriction on everybody who does all the things that I just named.
And my feeling is that people have to get politically involved right now. I think you have to support all the elected officials who really support entrepreneurial principles, but I think people have to do what you’re doing, Jason. I mean, you get to talk to 350,000 people, you know, on a continual basis and get out The message that we’re going to get through this because the basic nature of the United States, and all the influence that it has around the world is that it’s an entrepreneurial Republic. It was created by entrepreneurs. It was I think it was created for entrepreneurs. And we’re in that stage now, we’re having some opposition to that. But, you know, the polls are changing daily. I mean, you can just see the, the everything going in the opposite direction right now and our direction right now. And so we have to hang in there, but next time when, you know, we get the right people there, what they have, they have to continue doing the right things and that go to sleep at the wheel like happen, you know, so often happens.
Jason Hartman 1:05:43
Yeah, that’s, that’s good advice. Dan, I think I think we are seeing that most of America really doesn’t feel the way the news media would portray it. And the way that Washington would portray it’s, you know, most of America they want to be able to do what it says in the founding page. of the country, they want to be able to pursue happiness without massive restrictions. They don’t want to be coddled you know cradle to grave they want to go out and, and take their chances and make things happen. And that’s where the excitement is in life. You know, that’s where the value is created. That’s where light lives are extended and improved, and it’s just better for everybody. It’s a true win-win, isn’t it?
Dan Sullivan 1:06:24
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’m totally confident that this is just a very short interim that we’re in right now. And they the tide is turning, I can feel it coming I’m I’m a big political junkie. So I look at you know, the the polls this afternoon, where is all time lowest in terms of, you know, where whether the unfavorability was at its highest and the favor ability was at its lowest and i think i think it’s just the American people waking up.
Jason Hartman 1:06:54
That’s, that’s for sure. I agree with you, Dan. Hey, just before you go, repeat the question for us, will you?
Dan Sullivan 1:07:00
Yeah, the question is, if we were having this discussion, and it was three years from today, and you’re looking back over the three years, what has to happen in your life, both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress? Specifically, what dangers do you have that need to be eliminated? What opportunities do you have that need to be captured? And what strengths do you have that need to be maximized? That that question will lead to, in the best circumstances to about a 10 or 20 year conversation with somebody who wants to pay you all along the way?
Jason Hartman 1:07:35
That’s a that’s a great thing to leave our listeners with. And I’d encourage all of our listeners to think of that to that question for themselves. Dan, Dan Sullivan, the Strategic Coach, thank you so much for joining us today. Great interview. appreciate having you on.
Announcer 1:08:02
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