Changing Your Game with Dan Sullivan - Genius Network Episode #45

Welcome to the Genius Network show. In this episode you'll discover how to change your game. A tool for getting clear on where you are in your business, increasing your cash flow and growing your business. One action you can take to increase your capabilities and confidence. How to make your competitors your biggest customers and promoters and more with Genius Network member Dan Sullivan. Dan is the co founder of Strategic Coach, author of over 30 publications, a visionary innovator and gifted conceptual thinker. Dan has over 35 years experience as a highly regarded speaker, consultant, strategic planner and coach to entrepreneurial individuals and groups. If you'd like access to the full feature presentation in the show notes and the special resources for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com 45 that's geniusnetwork.com 45 Now.

Joel Weldon mentioned the footprints on the moon and the footprints being left on the stage over these two days. No one I know has left more footprints on the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs and than one of my closest friends on the planet, Dan Sullivan. Through his awesome program called Strategic Coach which I have attended now for about 18 years, this one of a kind coaching program which he leads with his wife Babs, has helped me personally generate tens of millions of dollars in business and even more importantly has made me a better leader, employer and a better person. Dan's quiet like business manner and deliberate speaking style belie the dynamic, hard charging and relentless entrepreneur that he is. So he hang on to every word, which I think you're just gonna do because that's how Dan is and thought. And so get set and welcome my dear friend, Mr. Dan Sullivan.

Thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it. Yeah, well it's about changing your game. And you know, back in 1974 when I first started coaching, I developed a role model and the role model was the microchip, which people were just talking about the microchip around 1974. And the microchip basically takes the speed of information and puts it into a smaller space. So the constant evolution of microtechnology over the last going on 50, 60 years now has constantly pumped more and more information to more space. Well, since that was taken care of by the microchip, I decided to focus on another area and take the most actionable wisdom and pack it into the shortest period of time. And so in order, what this does is that as you do this, you actually increase your impact on the planet. And so my thing just little quote here from George Bernard Shaw that progress is impossible without change. We know that the microchip is causing change. The question is, are you changing with it. So it really requires mind shifts all the time, actually changing your mind. So I'm going to pack 41 years of coaching well, my original attempt was to pack 41 years of coaching into 50 minutes. That was my goal. But as I got thinking about it over the last month, I decided to pack it into 30 minutes and then leave some room for your wisdom in response to what I'm showing you. So I've taken my entire coaching career and broken it down into three graphics. One of them is a circle, the other one is four boxes, and the other one is a curve. So I'm going to go to the circle first and what this circle really represents. And what I want you to do is to actually get your pen out because we're going to actually write here. And the thing I'd like you to do is to consider this circle all of your time and all of your activities as they're presently devoted to your business. So the circle represents just where you are right now. And so in 15 minutes, I'm going to get you to change your mind about where you are right now. And then I have four boxes I'm going to show you, and in 10 minutes, I'm going to show you how you're going to change your mind about what you're going to do during the next 90 days. And then the upward curve that I spoke about. In five minutes, I'm going to show you how you're going to change your mind about what you're going to do for the next 25 years. So this is basically what I'm going to do in the next half hour. So the first thing I want you to do is to imagine this circle that it actually has three parts. And what this circle really represents is your emotional reaction to different things that you're actually doing right now. Snapshot of where you are right now. And what A stands, what the first outer circle stands for, we call this A is. And the second one we call B. And the third one we call C. And A stands for everything in your business right now, all the time that you're spending that really irritates you. So this is the irritating part of your life right now. How many of you can relate to that right away? Okay. Yeah. And it's very important to actually tell the truth about what irritates you, because if you don't tell the truth about what irritates you, you can't actually do something else. The second part of what your life is right now is B. And this is the okay. Part of your business, and usually the okay. Part of your business is related to cash flow. Okay. How many of you are okay with cash flow? Okay. It's not irritating, but it's also. Some of it is not very exciting. Okay. And then the third part, C really represents the part of your business where you're spending your time and your action with that is really fascinating and motivating. Okay, so you're very fascinated with this. It's new, it's got a lot of promise, and it's very motivating because it looks like it's going to be really big. It's going to be a lot better. Okay, how many of you have all three of those right now? You have irritating. You have. Okay, good. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to have you actually do a little list of the three most irritating things right now. Okay. And people can be irritating. So how many of you have people who are irritating? Yeah, situations. How many of you have situations that are irritating? Right. And how many of you just have activities or tasks that are very irritating? You know, maybe obligations. How many of you have obligations that are irritating? Yeah. So anyway, it's just your truth, and I'm just going to give you an example of three of mine. And one of mine is spending any time with entrepreneurs who don't have any ambition. Okay. It seems like a wasted effort to me. How many of you realize that being an entrepreneur is a life sentence? How many of you know you can't go back? How many of you know they won't have you? How many of you wouldn't hire you? Okay, so that's really. So I tell people it's a life sentence. There's no out out. And so don't do your life sentence in an irritating fashion. Actually get rid of the irritations. That's why you became an entrepreneur in the first place. Okay, so the second one for me is meetings that don't have any impact. Okay? So we have a tool in Strategic coach which is called the impact filter. And, and what I require is that before we have a meeting, I want your impact filter the day before. Because I don't want to spend half a meeting trying to figure out what the meeting's about. I want to know what the meeting's about the next day. And I don't ask anyone to meet with me unless they get an impact filter. And then the next one is non strategic days and hours. So I have a time system where I only do three important things a day. Okay, so Sometimes I get my three important things done by 11 o' clock in the morning and that's my day. The rest of the day is not for work. Okay? And the reason why I figure three hours, three things a day is that in a five day work week, I get 15 important things done. How many of you, if you got 15 important things done in a week, that's a good week. Okay? And I work 210 days a year. Babs and I. Babs is she who decides. So anyway, she who decides decided about 25 years ago that we take 155 free days a year. So we have. Which gives me 210 days. And if I do three important things, that's 630 important things. Six important things in a year. How many of you, if you did 630 important things in here, it would be a good year. And do that for 25 years and good lifetime for a life sentence. Okay? So that's yours. Now I want you to write down right now where you are. This is October 26, 2015. It really irritates you now and there's a huge bonus for telling the truth here, okay? Just tell the truth about what irritates you, okay? If you don't tell your brain what irritates you, your brain can't take action. Your brain can't see any solution to it. So just write it down. The moment you write it down, your brain starts finding the solution. Could be big or small. A lot of people won't write what irritates them because they think there is no solution. But the truth is there is no solution until you write it down. So our brain just wants to know what to work on and you're the only one that can tell it. That's it. Now I'm going to move on to okay. And for me, okay is is I like intro sales presentations. We started off where I had to travel all over the world actually to do sales presentations. Now they're closer to home and they don't irritate me, they don't excite me, but they're great. I mean, they're great for cash flow. And I'm still in a position where that's important for my company. So I do it, but it's not. I'd like to see a future where I don't have to do this anymore. And that's usually what okay, things are for you. You'll do it right now. Another one is coaching the basic concepts. So we've been coaching for 41 years and I personally coach 6,000 people. And there's basic concepts related to time and money and relationship and purpose. And I don't mind coaching those. I mean, I'm more excited about the new stuff that's being created, but I'll do it. And then the third one is there's new knowledge products that I'm creating, and there's parts of the process that's okay for me. Lots of parts of the process are fascinating and motivating, but there's still some things that are okay. Okay, so this is a good area. This is a tremendous area. And what we want to do, as part of the logic of what I'm showing you, this ABC model is you want to always, every 90 days, be eliminating your current irritating. And then you want to systematize and automate the B's. The okay part. So that's kind of a progression. Eliminate the as, systematize and automate the Bs. The Four Seasons Hotel has a great line which is systematize the predictable and humanize the exceptional. So the more you can systematize the predictable part of your business, it frees you up to humanize, which means creativity and all sorts of new kinds of innovation. And it's really great. And then the third one, C, is what I love. I've come up with this fabulous new idea. I'm so excited, and it's been about the last six months where I've discovered how you can score mindsets. And basically what I'm really discovering is that the whole world actually runs by mindsets. It doesn't run by products or services. It actually runs by people wanting to graduate in their lives to a particular type of mindset. And I figured out how to create the mindsets. But not only that, I can teach anyone else how to create a mindset, a scorecard for mindsets that are important to you. So I'm very, very excited about this. Next thing is we have a part of the program which is called the 10 Times Ambition Program. And I really love it because I'm about 90 days ahead of my clients and I have to constantly come up with new stuff. And I'm very excited about that. And my final one is I've got a whole group growing number of my 10 times clients. A lot of them are in the room right here. Joe very much so. I've got Dean Graziosi here. I've got Stefan Visenbach. I've got lots and lots of people here, and they're really changing games for other people. So I really, really love Robin. Robin's over here. Robin's a game changer. So I really, really, really love working with people who are game changers. And my definition of a game changer is that where all of your competitors actually become your customers and promoters, when you have changed the game of the entire industry, then your competitors actually become your biggest customers and your biggest promoters. And you can tell that's one of the telltale signs. How many of you would really like to do that? You would actually. Yeah, that's a huge thing. I really don't like competition. I like everybody else to be competing, but I just really don't like doing it. I'm the fifth child of two fifth children and we kind of. I wasn't born with a competitive chip, so I was just born with a sneaky chip. Sneaky chip. I know how to bypass trouble and I never thought competing was really a good use of time. So the big thing here now how many of you. This is clarifying. It's kind of clarifying where you are. And you do this every 90 days. This gives you 90 days of work. And you can make a big shift. How many of you, if you eliminated the A's, automated and systematized the Bs, and then focused a lot more time on the Cs, this would be a big deal for you. This would be a big shift. Okay, well, how are we going to figure out where we are right now? So what I want you to do, you'll notice the little boxes right under A, B and C. Your activities. What I want you to do is say what percentage out of 100% of your time right now? What percentage are you spending in A? What amount of time are you spending in B? And what amount of time are you spending in C? And these are my real numbers for this quarter. And what I want to tell you is no matter how good you get at getting rid of A's, next quarter there will be a new bunch of as that irritates you. Some of the OK's right now will become irritating next quarter. And the reason is because as you get more and more into fascinating and motivating, okay, things become irritating. Does that make sense? Yeah. Okay, so what I want you to do now is this is where you are right now. And what I want you to do is say what percentage of your time next time in 90 days do you want to be spending on A? And for me it's zero. Okay. Those activities, what percentage of those activities do I want to be spending? And I want to drop it down to 10. So I've gotten rid of 10, I've gotten rid of 10% there. And so next time I want to spend 90% of my time on this. Okay, really good. How many of you can see the shift? That's a big shift. 20% of your time being shifted to fascinating and motivating. That's a big deal. How many of you can get excited right now by the prospect of doing that? Yeah, that's really super. Now I'm just going to have you come down below this and I want you to say how you're actually going to do this. So one of our things is that the scorecard concept that we have, we've really developed it very well at the 10 times ambition level. And now over the next quarter, I wanted to go throughout the program, everybody on a scorecard, impact filter only rules, okay? So sometimes I let people meet with me without an impact filter and I'm getting mad as hell and I'm not going to put up with it anymore. And so the next quarter, no meet, no impact filter, no meeting. And the next one is just to reinforce my three things a day, okay? Three important things. And you know, if you restrict the number of things that you do in a day to a fixed number like 3, you only have one way improving, and that is the since you can increase the quantity of things that you're doing, you have to increase the quality. Okay? So I'm an enemy of busyness on the planet. I'm a huge enemy of busyness. I think busyness interferes with people's growth of ambition. And I think busyness interferes with people's sense of courage. Okay? You can fool yourself by being busy that you're actually making progress, but it's a bit of a treadmill. Okay? And then I'm just going to put these in more of this as my information. But I want you to say the three things that you're going to do to automate and systematize B. And then with the 90% that I have here and you have another percentage, what I want you to do is to actually say what you're going to really focus on and what these activities are. So we've identified nine possible areas for growth, and we've identified nine activities that would lead to growth. And this is really super. We're really moving very, very nicely here. Okay? So this is cool. And now if you could only do one thing over the next quarter, if you could only do one thing, I'll let you. I know some of you are writing furiously, okay? 60% of my client base historically have been adding. And so I found that with ADD people, you got to do it really fast, and you got to get them to write in small boxes that you can keep them almost forever and have them only write about themselves. I find the greatest way to engage another human being is have the entire conversation be only about them. How many of you are quite engaged when it's about you? Yeah, that comes from being a fifth child. I have a rule. I'm number 21. So when I meet a new person, I automatically assume that they have 20 more important things in their life than meeting me. Then if they are going to move me up into the top 20, it's because I am creating value for them that actually engages them, but it has to be about them. So that makes life a lot simpler. The worst illusion in life that any of this was created for you. Okay, so what I want you to do now is zero in on the one thing that would actually be a game changer. What would be a game changer here? Okay. And you can only pick one. You'll do more than one, but I want you to have your focus on one. Okay? So for me, it's the. I have three game changers, and I want to get them into a digital platform. So not only do they have a scorecard, but they have a digital platform. And by December, January 31st, I want three of my game changers with a scorecard in a digital platform. And I'm working with Stephan here, bright guy from England. Not all of them are. You know, They stick out. All right, that goes for Americans, too. All right, so how many of you. This is revealing. So this is kind of like a really, really fast way of taking a look at your quarter. Now here's a real tip for you. How many of you have teams? Okay, go back. There's an extra blank one of these in your pack. Go back and do this with your team and allow your team the movement now to get rid of the irritating work. And a lot of the irritating work really is what your company used to do, but it's not really necessary.

You.

You know, it's kind of like your wardrobe. 80% of it, you haven't worn in a year. Okay, so why do you still have those clothes around? Okay, just get rid of it. And how many of you have people in your life that are like clothes? 80% of them. 80% of them, you feel some sort of obligation, but you actually don't act on it. So we get rid of that. Okay, now we got to do another thing. So we're going to go to the four boxes right now. And this is a little thing that I discovered probably over the course of my life. But most people want a change delivered to them so they can always stay in a state of capability and confidence. And that's what perfectionism, by the way. Perfectionism is absolutely the enemy of entrepreneurism because perfectionism is the demand that you be guaranteed up front with success before you'll actually commit yourself to it. How many of you have done that where you absolutely demand that success be guaranteed to you before you'll actually commit to the project, okay? And the world doesn't work that way. It needs you to actually commit before the success can actually be created. And what that requires is courage. Okay? So commitment requires courage. So I want you to take the game changer breakthrough from the previous one, and I want you just to write from the bottom of the ABC page, write what you have in the bottom box and put that at the top, okay? And so we have the create one on one game changer coaching process by December 31st. Okay? So we'll have that in place. And then this is really part of getting them digital, okay? And then my commitment now, a commitment is the statement to yourself that I am going to commit to this even though I don't have the guarantee of success. And that's what entrepreneurism is, that you commit yourself before you have a guarantee of success. Okay? And I've coached entrepreneurs all over, all over the world, from 60, 70 different industries. And one of the things I notice is when entrepreneurs start to die is when they start thinking of having a courage free future. When you start thinking you're going to have a courage free, the universe notices. It's a bit like the Terminator. The light's going out like this and the universe starts wanting the parts back. When you tell the universe I want a courage free life, the universe wants the parts back, okay? And you start dying. Okay? In life. So with mine, by the end of 2015, I used all my experience from individual game changing coaching sessions over the past two and a half years to create a unique process that standardizes everything I know will be working for all existing and new game changer sessions in 2016. Okay? So game changer is the scary part of my life right now, okay? And I'm really. I just have to create it out of courage right now, the moment you start creating stuff. And each of you can analyze the five biggest breakthroughs in your life with this card, okay? Every time you took a Big breakthrough in your life is because you committed before there was a guarantee of success which required courage. The difference between courage and confidence is that confidence feels really good. Courage doesn't. How many of you, when you're feeling really shaky and you're feeling really, really scared and you're saying, oh, this is really terrible. Actually it's courage. It's actually courage. And that's why a lot of people don't like courage, because it feels lousy. Okay. But the more you commit 100%, the shorter the courage that's required. That's really interesting. So I'm into short courage. I've tested long courage and I like short courage. I like courage that's maybe 24 hour courage. Okay. 15 minutes is even better. 15 minutes is better. Then there's some people, crazy people like Peter Diamantis, who has a lifetime of courage, lifetime of courage. I'm not. I'm not that advanced yet. Okay, then the courage is that I hate going back. First of all, I have to go back and do an activity that I actually hate. And I have to collect all my notes over the last two and a half years. And I got to organize them because I'm the only one who knows where they are and I'm the only one who knows how they actually connect with each other. So part of courage is for a while doing a particular type activity that moves you to the next level. But you're going to have to put in the time to actually do that. How many of you have something right now that it requires a very unpleasant activity on your part for a period of time. But if once you get it finished, then you never have to do that again in your life. And it puts you in a position where you can take a jump. Yeah. And so everybody thinks about courage, you know, like in a very heroic, medal winning terms. But a lot of courage is just what it is in your life right today that is required to go through to get to the next level. There are 7.3 billion people on the planet right now. And each of them got up during this 24 hour period and they're facing something that represents the next jump for them. Okay, so one of my goals, I'll talk to you a little bit later, is that this is an exercise that's going to be online. It will be an online app by the end of this month, probably by November 1st. And it's for phones, it's for pads, and it's for computers where you can just download this and use it. But what I'd like you to do is to distribute it to everybody in your network. Because I have a goal, and this is my influence from Peter DIAMANTIS, that by 2039, we have a billion people on the planet using this exercise to basically grow on a daily basis. It'll be one out of nine people. And if you have one out of nine people actually going through courage on a day makes everything better. Just makes it. What they're doing, I have no idea, nor do I care. I just want them moving forward on the thing that gives them courage. That's all I want to do. And then once we get this, you get a capability out of it. So it's the commitment and the courage that actually creates capability. So it's a bit like the commercials. Apply, lather, rinse, reapply. This is the same thing here. So the same thing is you have to. Commitment creates courage, Courage creates capability. Capability creates confidence. So the next one is confidence, okay? And see, this is what people really, really want. But they want confidence given to them. Nobody can give you confidence. You have to create confidence by going through commitment, courage, and developing a new capability. And it's the three of those. And once you get the higher level of confidence, then you can commit at a higher level. Okay? As long as you keep doing this for the rest of your life, you'll always be young. No matter what age you are, you'll always be young. People get old when they try to have capability and confidence without commitment and courage. Okay? So that's just how the world works and what it means to be truly human. Okay? So that's it. So I've. This is what your next 90 days is about. How many of you, if you did this during the next 90 days, that would be a real breakthrough. Yeah, And I've got a lot of people here. We have 300 in the room. And each of you is working on something else. And it's you working on something else that makes the world go round. Because you influence a lot of other people while you're doing it. It's not big stuff. It's the thing that you have to deal with right now. Okay, now I'm going to take you to the next one. And this is an upward arrow. And this is really important. So I did the 90 days. You've just done the ABC to set this up. And then you did the four Cs. And now I'm going to show you that if you do the ABC and you do the four Cs every day or at the beginning of every 90 days that just locks you in just for the next 90 days. So in my program at Strategic Coach, the time period I get everybody to think about is 25 years, okay? So for me, I started a new 25 year period last year, 2014, and I'm going to 2039. But for you today, what you're doing, you're doing 25 years from 2015 to 2040, okay? So last year I was 70. So my next growth period, and this will be my biggest growth period, is from age 70 to age 95. So when I'm 95, I'm more energized. I'm a lot smarter, I'm a lot more ambitious than I am right now, okay? And the reason I want to do that is because I want to do it. People say, well, why do you need to do that? I say, I do not need to do that. I. I want to do it. Okay? Most of you in this room are beyond the borderline of need. You're into the world now of want, okay? And want doesn't have anything to do with other people thinking about what you should do. Want is simply, this is what I want to do. And the reason why you want to do it is because you want to do it. How many of you that's actually relieving? There's no justification in the world of wanting, in the world of needing, there's total justification because you're expecting other people to do it in the world of wanting. Strictly your game. So you got the 90 days, and then you do 100 quarters like this. So you do the ABC. So this quarter, which goes right up until the beginning of 2016, you do that, okay? And then you jump to a higher level. And then the beginning of the next 90 days, you do that. And you do this for 100 quarters in a row. How many of you think it would really take you somewhere? Yeah. And remember, each One of those 90 days is just 1% of 25 years. So if you blow one, it doesn't really matter. So what I do is every quarter, I do five things. This is my number one thing. But I actually do five things, five multiplier projects, and it's like compound interest. See, people really grasp compound interest when it comes to money, but they don't actually understand compound interest when it comes to capability. So every 90 days, I want to ratchet up my level, first of all, of operating in the area of fascinating and motivating. And I want to ratchet up being in a continual cycle of commitment, courage, capability and confidence. And do that every quarter and it's like investing now in something that's going to keep paying over. One of the big problems of living in the microchip age is people's reduced time frames. And if you reduce your time frames, time speeds up. If you lengthen your time frame, everything slows down. Okay. Okay. So this is October 26, 2015. I'd like to take you down back to October 26 in 1990. And what I'd like you to do is tell me the three things that were really ticking you off that day. Nobody remembers how many of you though, can remember what generally you were really excited about in 1990. How many of you can get a handle on that? So here's a tip. Our brain only remembers excitement. It doesn't remember getting ticked off. That being the case about the future, don't try to remember getting ticked off in the future. Just remember. See, the only memory worthy things that are things that are fascinating and motivating. Nothing else is worth reminding. Doesn't last more than a couple of days. Okay, this is it. Wow, that was quick. That's quick. How many of you? This is kind of interesting thinking. Yeah.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Genius Network with Dan Sullivan. If you'd like access to the full feature video presentation, the special resources and show notes for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com that's geniusnetwork.com 45 if you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network annual event, please visit geniusnetworkevents.com that's geniusnetworkevents dot com don't miss out on more insights, strategies and wisdom like this on Genius Network. Subscribe to Genius Network today by visiting geniusnetwork.com subscribe that's geniusnetwork.com subscribe SA.