Dan Sullivan: The Only Way To Strategically Achieve What You Want!

That's the whole point, is if you don't say what you want, you won't get it or you'll get everything. Gilda Radner, the very famous and funny one of the founding cast of Saturday Night Live, she said, you know, when I was little, I really wanted to be somebody. And now that I'm older, I realize I should have been a lot more specific. So I just do this with everything. Every workshop I do, every book I write, every podcast I do, you know, coming to Strategic Coach, and I do a couple other conferences during the year. And I just tell myself a day before what it is that I want. And then my eyes and ears, you know, as the saying says, my eyes are just picking up on what my brain is looking for. And I always get some bonus, too. So when I get extra things besides what I came for, then I'm in bonus territory.

The thing that I love about Dan is that he. There's this line, is the juice worth the squeeze? And many of you have heard that before. Dan has this great ability to squeeze the most out of every experience possible, including negative experiences. See, everyone has a purpose in life, even if it's to serve as a bad example. How many of you have learned incredible things from people that really did bad things to you? And how many of you have had something happen that as a result of it, it totally shifted the way you collaborate, exchange, share ideas, do things? Right. So Dan always fills out an impact filter before he comes to Genius Network or now the 100k group, which is Genius X. And he gets great results because of it. And it's very similar to what Robert Cialdini talks about with Pre Suasion. When you're trying to sell something to somebody, it's not the sales techniques or the methodology, what he has found. And I'm going to. He's going to do a talk on this on Sunday. So Cialdini is going to talk on Sunday. It's going to be awesome. So it's Pre Suasion. And so I've thought a lot about the whole concept of pre suasion because Robert's been filming an online program in my office over the last few months, and it's the first time he's ever put together an online program. And if you don't know who Robert Cialdini is, he wrote the book Influence. He's literally done the most research on influence and compliance of any professor, any researcher in the world. And so he's a genius at it. And his latest book is called Pre Suasion. And how you set up the selling moment has more to do with the effectiveness of it than before. And I'll talk a little bit about something me and Jason Fladlin have been doing with doing sales calls. Some people are actually in this room as a result of conversations. And the pre suasion that we did in advance had a lot to do with it. Well, I think pre sueding yourself is one of the most incredible things that you could do. And I think the impact filter is the ultimate way to do it. And so Dan fills out an impact filter. So here's an example of what an impact filter looks like. We had you fill out a computer one, but I'm going to show you a screenshot of. So the first box is purpose. What do you want to accomplish? So this is what Dan wrote prior to coming here. This is Dan's impact filter. I go into this conference totally clear about eight crucial results I want to leave with on Monday, especially new ways of simplifying on the one hand and multiplying on the other. So, you know, simplifying and multiplying are two areas that Dan is looking for by being here at this Genius Network annual event. Than the importance. What's the biggest difference this will make? Dan wrote Joe and his team bring together the best lineup of useful innovators and practitioners in the world. I want to clearly capture the eight strategies and tools that will be most useful for me, my team, and my strategic coach entrepreneurs. Then his ideal outcome. What does the completed project look like? So Dan wrote, by Monday at noon, I have eight new resources and capabilities that can be productively and profitably utilized by Babs and me and within our company and program over the next 12 months. Now, what's the theme here? He's looking for eight things, right? I'm holding up one hand that says five. Okay, eight things over the next 12 months. So then this is great. What has to be true when this project is finished? These are some of the examples. Babs and I feel that we've gained $1 million in value that will show up as cash over the next 12 months. So he's looking for a million dollars out of this thing. Another example use of the impact filter ranks in the top three takeaways that participants say were their highlights. So he's hoping that doing the impact filter is one of the big takeaways that you all get out of this. So if you've actually done it and you go into this event thinking about what you wrote on your impact filter, you're going to get a lot more out of the event. And this is another example. We as a team Capture and implement 20 significant capabilities that impact the company over the next 12 months. And then I meet three strangers who become 100 times. Free Zone Frontier is what FZF stands for, which is Dan's newest program, Free Zone Frontier Collaborators whose capabilities grow over the next 25 years. So he's looking for relationships with people he doesn't even know. Three of them. Not everyone. Three of them that could be collaborators over the next 25 years. So with this level of thinking, he's going to interact with coming to this event. So some people, I'm just going to go to another seminar, then I'm going to be on my phone, then I'm going to meet some people, and I'm going to try to, you know, I'm going to try to figure out who can buy shit from me here in the hallway, in the room, and I'll see how we can knock off this event for our own, you know, and launch programs based around it. Or we can actually come in, very intentional and figure out how to be really valuable to other people and have them be really valuable to us. So what has to be true? Another one. Joe has convincing evidence that the use of the impact filter by conference participants added to Genius Network success. And then let's go here. So the best result if you do take action. So here's what's great about the impact filter, and Dan's thinking it's a sales job, that you're selling yourself on the best result. You. And you're also selling yourself on the worst result. Because a lot of the motivation to actually do something has a lot to do with if you look at the rewards and you look at the pain of what will happen if you don't do it. So the best result. Babs and I and our strategic coach team are convinced that this has been the most valuable Genius Network event that we've invested in since starting in 2011. Dynamite, right? And this is the worst result. I think it still says best result. This is the worst result if you don't take action. I feel that because of my lack of alertness, curiosity, responsiveness, and resourcefulness, I failed to capture many great resources and opportunities that were abundantly available throughout the conference. Bummer, right? So with each mindset, okay, best, okay, we're convinced that this has been the most valuable or the worst because you're not alert, you're not curious, you're not responsive. So tonight, don't go out and get all liquored up. I mean, I know some of you, this is a requirement for you to go to a conference. However, get some decent sleep. Listen to the advice that I talk about with Dr. Andrew Wall. You know, be in a healthy state of mind. Right. And so you're going to get a lot more out of it. So the beauty of the best and worst result is selling yourself and the Impact Filter. I would love everyone to actually become a master in this level of thinking, which is why I, I want to ask Dan Sullivan to come up and speak to this. I really just want to either ask you questions or have you speak to. You know, it's funny, they give me a little space here to stand. I didn't realize at the beginning. Then they went up and put some tape up for me. So it's about intentions, it's about being intentional about how you go into things. And you more than anyone seem to take any experience and get the most out of it. And that's what I've learned from you. And that's what I'd love you to share with everyone, how to do that.

Yeah, well, just an observation. So I have been at this for 45 years and I got really interested in the early 1970s of the impact that technology was having. And it seemed to me that one of the things that was going to happen more and more was just the sheer increasing complexity in people's lives. And you know, when I was born, I was born in 44, 1944, and there were 2.2 billion people on the planet. And now there's eight. And you know, more than half of them have cell phones. So there's a lot of complexity that comes out of that. So the real individual ability is really knowing what you want in a world where there's just. And you, Joe, you know why everybody is here this year. And you spend a whole year actually connecting people and bringing them here. So in your mind, this is all connected, this all makes sense. But if you're just showing up here, then it feels like a tsunami. What Joe does, I mean, Joe is like a one person tsunami. And then he brings other people here and you say, geez, geez, geez, you know, and you don't know what you want to do with that. So I'm just going to tell three short stories of how I got on this.

Hey, I hope you're enjoying this video. And I want to let you know that I have a new book that's come out and if you'd like to get it absolutely free, there's a link below in the description. Or you can wait till the end of this video, or you can Simply go to joesfreebook.com and you can get a copy there.

First of all, August 15, 1978, I was both divorced and bankrupt on the same day. And I like to simplify things. So I just put it on one day and I arranged for the divorce in the morning so I could keep my credit card for lunch. And then I had to hand it in in the afternoon because of. And I had about three or four months to think about this because when you're divorced and bankrupt, people give you a lot of privacy. So anyway, I came to the conclusion after about three months that both of these had happened, both the divorce and the bankruptcy, because I was depending on other people to tell me what I wanted. And I said, I have to get a handle on this. And the first thing is you just relieve other people of the responsibility for what's happened. I think that's a very necessary thing. If you're going to transform your life. You have to take all the responsibility for yourself. And what I came up with was a 25 year goal. So I would start it right at the end of 78 and I'd go till the end of 2003. And every day I was going to write at least one sentence in a journal about what I wanted. But I wouldn't say I want this because I just say I want it. And I noticed that I had a tendency that I wanted something, then I'd have to justify it. And I said, I'll just try for 25 years not to say because. And I did it every day for 25 years. And it's 9,131 days. And I missed 12 days, but 9,131 days. And what came out of it is I became a really good wanderer. Yeah, a really good wanderer. And I just noticed that it was just like working out for 25 years. You get very muscular. And I met Babs Smith. Babs will show up because she, you know, she radiates. And so Babs is here. And that changed my relationship. Without Babs, I'm just a smart drunk worried about the rent. And so my whole turning point in my life was meeting Babs. And then we created Strategic Coach. And I got to meet Joe. And Joe is my Rolodex. I don't have a lot of names. I just called Joe and I said, I'd like to meet someone new. And he introduces them to me. Very simple. So that was one story. So that's where I got it. And this whole notion of wanting and just stating what you want, like I'm very clear, you know. And I met someone yesterday morning that it struck me that probably this is one of the people I meet that's going to work for the next 25 years. And that just happened because I was looking for it. Now the second story I'd like to tell you, the third story is about Joe on Genius Network. But the second story is about a client of mine who a year ago in February, this was the. So I have a lot of clients who have really done well in coach and they start second companies and they sell their first company. So this person had created a very, very powerful prototyping tool that he could create industrial parts in six weeks for a company, a manufacturing company, where it usually takes about six months. So the offer was for $1 billion. That's the biggest I've ever had. And so he was really kibetzed about this because he was saying they're going to want me to stay on for three or four years and I'll have to sign a non compete and everything. I don't want to do that. And I said well just do an impact filter on everything you want. And he said well I don't know if I'll get it. I said well it doesn't matter, you won't get it if you don't save what you want, so why don't you just say what you want? And he put it on the impact filter and then he had three or four meetings and he told them that he wanted the one billion and one check and he wasn't there tomorrow and there was no non compete. So he told the company, big corporation what it was and I said oh no, no, I mean that's not how this works. And he said well he said I'm going to make the billion anyway by just keeping the company. And he said I like the company, I just want to be freed up. He said I'm not doing this because I need the money, I'm doing it because I want the freedom. And so he folded up the impact filter. In every meeting he had it next to his heart. And so they said no. And then one day, two day, three day, and he was really nervous because I mean it takes a lot of courage to not accept what people want. And on the 10th day they phoned him and said okay, whatever you want. And the thing was they really needed what he had. He wanted freedom and he actually did that. And he said, if I hadn't written the impact filter stating everything I wanted and put it in my pocket, he said, I would have given in. So that's the third one. But the first day that I came to Genius with Babs, in the first half hour, Joe said, you're paying 25,000 for the year. And if you don't do 10 times, if you don't do 10 times in the first year being here, he said, I'm not going to let you come back for the second year. He said, you're just a loser. You're a bad person. And I was sitting there and we had an exercise, a thinking exercise in the entrepreneurial program that actually took you 10 times, but it was about three hours. And everybody said it was a great impact. I said, why don't I just create a whole new programming coach for 10 times? And so we added up all the money that we paid in the first five years of 25K, Babs and I, and this was 64 times. This program actually gave us 64 times return. And I got it in the first half hour. And I walked up to you at the end of the first hour, I said, I just got my 10 times. But it turned out to be 64 times. So when Joe said, we're not going to charge 100,000, Babs and I were the first ones to sign up. We actually signed up. And so Joe asked me to do an impact filter of my intentions for the 100K. And I said, well, I'll add it up for five years at the new price. And my goal is to get 64 times on the new price. And in the first meeting, Ben Hardy came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and he said, I love your little books. He said, but would you like to write a big book? And he said, I'll write the book with you and Tucker. PAX is in the room. So we have a collaboration.

Yeah. There's Tucker right there.

There's Tucker right there.

Don't applause for him. He's not a good guy.

No, I'm kidding.

Tucker's awesome.

Yeah. Well, I'm telling you, I'm the advocate here for the new Tucker. I don't know what he did in the past, but I'm an advocate for the new because we've just put together a collaboration with Ben Tucker and Reed Tracy, who were all at the same genius network. And that's a 64 times easy. And this is my third year in the program. So that's the whole point is if you don't say what you want. You won't get it, or you'll get everything. Gilda Radner, the very famous and funny one of the founding cast of Saturday Night Live, she said, you know, when I was little, I really wanted to be somebody. And now that I'm older, I realize I should have been a lot more specific. So I just do this with everything. Every workshop I do, every book I write, every podcast I do, you know, coming to Strategic Coach, and I do a couple other conferences during the year. And I just tell myself a day before what it is that I want. And then my eyes and ears, you know, as the saying says, my eyes are just picking up on what my brain is looking for. And I always get some bonus, too. So when I get extra things besides what I came for, then I'm in bonus territory.

No, thank you. And one question for you about this. So everyone here sitting here, we're in.

10 minutes, by the way. So he wanted me up and off in 10 minutes. So you just got what you wanted.

This is important, I think, for the value that everyone. So if someone's brand new, like you said, it might be, oh, you know, trying to just feel comfortable here and what is all this and how do you make the most out of it? But everyone here is investing their time, their money and their energy, and I certainly want them to get a far greater return for that than when they leave here saying, oh, was it worth. Worth it? People have had trouble sleeping. Some people feel awesome right now. Some people are their businesses just going phenomenal. Others, you're immersed in struggle. And what recommendation or advice as it relates to mindset and getting the most out of this, either if they've been in Genius Network for a long time, which many people here have, or they're brand new. I mean, you've already said it, but I'm just.

Yeah, well, they've got the forum, and because you're part of Genius Network, you can do the forum. And if you want to go a little bit deeper into the thinking behind this, we have books at the booth and you can read it through. And there's also a two hour audio interview and there's a 45 minute video of me talking through it. But one of the big things is the vast majority of people go through their life only asking for what they need. Okay. And usually they're trying to fulfill a deficiency, you know, and something's missing and they need it. But the people who really change the world are strictly want people. So I see two economies actually Developing and entrepreneurs are the greatest wanters in the world. A lot of people just want to have a job. They want to have an income. Well, that's what they get because they didn't say what they really wanted. And then they're very frustrated that other people aren't giving them what they want. But nobody can give you what they want because your brain hasn't even bought into it yet. And you haven't told yourself what you want. And there's no possibility of what you want happening unless you actually tell your brain to look at. Because Ben has a great concept from his psychology work, and it's called selective attention, that every one of you in this room lives in a totally different universe. You have a different brain that's looking for different things, and what you will see and what you will hear is completely unique to you. But if you don't tell your brain what to look for, your eyes and ears pick up on everything and it just leads you to confusion. Yeah, yeah.

Well, see, the other thing too is that I've. I mean, when did you first create the Impact filter?

It's about 15 in its present form, about 15 years.

Okay. So I've been doing this for a long time and it's still is hitting me with now different applications and different ways to use this. And I really believe how much you're going to get out of this event has everything to do with the intention and the place you actually put yourself in. And this is an investment, and it's either going to be a great investment for you or it's going to be a bad investment, totally based on how you show up and the time that you put into it. So that's why I wanted Dan to talk about this. And so I'm going to interview Keith Cunningham here in a little bit. And Keith, his book the Road Less Stupid, which I'll repeat this again, is one of the best things about this book is it's about thinking time. And I'm immersed right now in Keith's thinking time process. And here I am doing the Impact filter. So part of my thinking time process is incorporating the Impact Filter into my thinking time, because that's what. See, Dan has a lot of great lines, but one of them is, you know, the problem is not the problem. The problem is how you think about the problem. Right. And so any problem, any challenge, any opportunity that you have while you're here, it's what you think it is versus how you actually think about it and the thinking of other people that are here that you can collaborate with is some of the biggest. It's one of the biggest rewards here because at the end of the day, this is a connection network. So anything else?

Well, I just wanted to tell you that you have been saying something for about two years in the addiction recovery, and my mind has just been playing with this, that we're looking at addiction as a problem when actually it's a solution.

Yes.

And what you want to find out, what is the actual problem that addiction is actually the solution? And I was thinking about it. We were in really lousy traffic in Toronto because Toronto really has lousy traffic. And everybody talks about the congestion problem. I said, what if congestion is actually a solution to another problem? And I started talking to people about that, and they said, you know, sitting in traffic, and these are people who maybe put in 90 minutes, 100 minutes a day. And they said, you know, it's the one. It's the one hour and a half or two hours when I can actually have privacy and I'm actually sitting is when I'm in congestion. And I say, what if all this congestion is actually deliberate? Because the only time people actually get privacy and they can just sit there and they're not going fast enough for anything to be dangerous. And I said, what if we took every problem in the world and said, this is not actually a problem, it's a solution. And then you backed up to what? It's a solution because there's a lot of other addictions besides the, you know, the marquee addictions. There's just weird things that happen in the world, and people say, well, why can't we solve this problem? I said, probably because it's not a problem, it's actually a solution. You have to go deeper. So I think that's the sort of thinking that you're doing here.

Oh, yeah. And Gabor Mate, who I brought here to this conference in 2017, he has this great line where he says the question is not why the addiction, but why the pain? And if you understand what the pain is, then it makes sense with the addiction. There's a doctor here, Donald Wood, Don Woods. Where's he at? Somewhere in the room over here. Okay, we'll talk about him later. I met him at the Spartan World Championships, and he talks about the atmospheric conditions. He's brilliant at articulating it. But if you look at the atmospheric conditions, conditions of someone's life, it actually makes sense why they do the things that they do. So in a lot of ways, you.

Know, and Ben really deals with that. Willpower doesn't work.

Yes.

So, anyway, Ben's got the new book out, which is called Personality. It's not.

Yeah. Personality isn't permanent. Which will become.

Personality is not permanent. And he was staying with us, and we were driving to work, and I said, let me get this straight, Ben. You've taken away their willpower and you've taken away their personality. What's left at the end of it?

Hopefully a better person. Well, so, last thing I'll say. So you're the first one that, like. So the original definition of an entrepreneur, the first recorded usage was in 1804 by John Baptiste. Say, a French guy. Yeah. Economist. Who said the.

No, he wasn't an economist.

What was he of? What was he. What the hell?

Oh, I thought you said communist. No, he wasn't. Yeah, those.

You know, those. Those communist entrepreneurs. Boy, that.

That's actually not a communist.

We could start a whole movement right now. Right?

Well, he said an entrepreneur is someone who takes resources from a lower level of productivity to a higher level of productivity. And they said, well, what kind of resources? He said, any kind of resources. So, you know, Genius Network is a entrepreneurial process that takes really bright, creative people from a lower level of productivity to a higher level. So this is a pure entrepreneurial.

Exactly.

And bureaucracy does just the opposite. Bureaucracy is a process that takes resources from a higher level of productivity to a lower level of productivity. And that explains why I tell entrepreneurs don't use the word give back, because you didn't take anything. But civil servants, I think many of them should give back, at least their pensions.

I agree. Yeah. If someone takes your shoes, you should give them back. But if you've not taken anything, I'm all for giving. I just don't like giving back. We did a whole podcast on that.

Yeah. And that was one of our most popular podcasts. Was good.

Thank you, sir. Yeah.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Okay. I hope you found that video awesome and useful. So if you want to get a free copy of my book, I want you to click here. And if you want to watch some more videos that will be useful and awesome, click here. Go ahead. You're over here. Do it now. Come on. Thank you. Watch them.