Strategic Coach in Chicago: 10X Workshop Notes

The 10x Ambition Strategic Coach Program in Chicago

Last updated: September 13, 2024

My notes from the 10X Strategic Coach workshop on 9 April 2018 taught by Dan Sullivan at their Chicago headquarters.

Random Stuff

  • One of the reasons I love attending Strategic Coach and other business improvement workshops is that I get to be in the same room with other successful people worth millions and tens of millions of dollars.
  • Strategic Coach currently has 15 coaches, 130 employees, and 2500 clients. Wow!!
Group of Strategic Coach staff and coaches in Toronto, May 2017. Credit: Facebook page

  • Babs (Dan’s wife) told me about “PRINT” and the PRINT SURVEY: “PRINT, short for motivational ImPRINT, is a transformational tool that uncovers the core motivations for people’s behavior that usually operate at an unconscious level.”
  • Dan told a story about his personal history sitting as a child outside a luxury hotel in Cleveland. It inspired within him a great desire. This story reminded me about the importance of dreaming big. I need bigger dreams!
  • Dan Sullivan believes you cannot teach someone how to be an entrepreneur in college. (OMG SCANDAL!)
  • Event planning is a core, core, core competency for Strategic Coach. They are so very good at it.
  • Hotel: For the first time I stayed at the Sheraton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel which is right next to the Strategic Coach office. Literally a 90 second walk. I like it because I could use my SPG points (7,000) and the gym was good.
Sheraton Airport Hotel next to the Strategic Coach Chicago offices. It was fine. Nice-ish. Good gym. Good value for SPG points.

Intro Quote

Each of our 10X workshops has started with a large quote on the screen. Today’s was:

Inside the Strategic Coach offices in Chicao
“Your eyes only see, and your ears only hear, what your brain is looking for.”

Nick’s note: For more about the neuroscience behind this, check out this blog post about the brain’s Reticular Activating System. I originally heard about this “RAS” at a Tony Robbins conference.

The Who, Not The How

The main lesson from the day was around this one concept: Stop thinking about the HOW!! Focus on the Who.

Simple line drawing that says You, Who, How, and a poorly-drawn gold star
It starts like this: We try to figure out the Who and the How to get to bigger and better things.

 

Similar as the above drawing, but just Who is the place of How
But really it should be this: focus on the Who!

Later, we did worksheets around this core concept. Including one called Best “Who” / Worst “How”, and another called “Procrastination Breakthrough.”

The Quotable Dan Sullivan

Some good things I wrote down that I heard Dan say:

  • “Your network is your net worth.”
  • “All of us, every day, use 100% of our time.”
  • “There are two outcomes from any experience: you win, or you learn.”
  • Dan on Joe Polish: “He’s got an addiction, but it serves him well.”
  • “Are you playing a game of business that you made up?” (many hands are raised) “Well, design it so that you can win.”
  • On the importance of using Impact Filters: “It is impossible to pick up on a person’s intention unless they take time to write it down.”

Awesome Clients of Strategic Coach

I love meeting business owners.

Are you a business owner? Email me to say Hi!

Here are a few of the neat and new people I met at this workshop:

  • Noah, owner of multiple grocery stores with a total of 1,000 employees. He’s an incredible power user of Trello. I was amazed to see his home dashboard and incredibly detailed organizational skills. He told me, “The trick with Strategic Coach is to immediately share the most valuable lessons with your team. You have to get them off your chest and into your organization.”
  • Giselle, who gives the best hugs and has great energy. We talked a lot about our Kolbe scores and what her high score in fact-finder means (versus my leading score of quick start).
Me and Giselle, clients of the Strategic Coach 10X program
  • Brian, a marketing guy who leads two Mastermind groups for business owners. He produces five major live events each year. “Never work with ad agencies.” I won’t include the exact reason why he said not to, but it relates to individuals and their motivations.
  • My friend Jay, who recently sold his business for $100 million+. Now flush with too much money and time (my words, not his!) Jay is heading to Africa in a week to look at how he can support anti-poaching efforts. I was very proud of myself for telling Jay about FlightFox, my favorite service to help you book award travel flights. Even hundred-millionaires like to get a great deal! I also told him about Google Fi, a great phone service from Google that works amazingly well for overseas internet access.
  • Alex, wearing a pin that says “I Love Fossil Fuels.” He wrote a popular book about the negative moral implications of green energy. “I believe that we should change nature a lot. I’m interested in humanity flourishing, not only a green perspective.” People pay him a LOT of money to speak at conferences.
Like this shirt, but as a pin!
  • Ken, who produces an amazing New Year’s Eve spectacular for a major casino every year. We talked about performers and corporate events. He volunteered to give me some advice for Museum Hack about big-ticket outbound sales.
  • David, the most passionate person I’ve met about healthcare. I had the opportunity to sit with him, Dean Jackson, and two others for lunch and LOVED the discussion. David runs a business that helps companies with low-wage employees provide healthcare, improving retention and wellbeing. He had some very innovative ideas – as well as scary thoughts about Medicare, Medicaid, and big insurers. Also I now sort of believe in a stem cell conspiracy, and/or I want to try stem cells.

Activity: The Moving Future

Nearly all Strategic Coach workshops start with The Moving Future exercise. This is where we talk about Morale (last 90 days), Momentum (right now), and Motivation (next 90 days).

I’m most proud of the work that the Museum Hack team has been doing, I’m confident in my sleep scores improving, and I am excited about some parties and social calendar events ahead.

Dan Sullivan: What is his Net Worth?

Many people have asked me what I think Dan Sullivan’s net worth is. He has publicly stated that his company does over $30 million in sales per year. This is a very high-margin business, so his net worth is likely a very large multiple of that sales figure.

Summary and Conclusion

It was a well-produced event. Great food, great venue, and great people. I didn’t want for anything.

I found the most value in the first few hours of course material. My mind was wandering later-on, and I got sidetracked with some personal and work-related emails and communications. It would be interesting to try a full workshop day limiting myself to no internet and phone access.

Read more of my posts about Strategic Coach workshops here. I’m a happy customer of the 10X program.

 

Comments:

  • Michael Simacek: Enjoyed it!

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