In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Gregg Schuliger, president of 3G Leadership Consulting. Schulier shares a formative personal story about spending a prep‑school year before West Point, emphasizing the value of trusting and believing in the process. He highlights the powerful impact of sales coaching, citing research that coaching can boost sales productivity by nearly 90% while noting that most sales managers allocate only 5% of their time to coaching. Schulier advises listeners not to fear failure, describing it as essential for learning, and stresses the importance of seeking mentors and coaches, checking ego at the door, and investing in those relationships. He defines happiness as rooted in unconditional love and giving, recommends John Kotter’s book What Leaders Really Do for its critique of an over‑managed, under‑led corporate America, and shares his favorite quote, “Always go the extra mile, it’s never crowded,” illustrating it with the simple act of writing thank‑you notes. The episode concludes with Schulier’s website, 3Gleadership.com, for listeners to connect with him.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Greg Schilliger with us. He's the president of 3G Leadership Consulting, which is based in Northern Kentucky. So welcome to the show, Greg.
Tyler, thank you for having me.
Of course, thanks for joining us, man. And we'll dive in. The first question I have for you, Greg, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Best story from my life. So the message I would tell you would be to trust and believe in the process. After I graduated from high school a long time ago, I spent a year and attended a prep school before I entered West Point. And that was a tough time for me because all my friends were going on to their freshman year in college and I was essentially repeating senior year. Looking back though, it was the best thing for me to experience. And though it was not the journey that I had envisioned at that time when I was 18 years old, that extra year really prepared me academically, athletically, and really emotionally for the next 4 years during my time at West Point and then really beyond. So sometimes the process is not immediate, nor is it quick, but if you trust and believe in it, Good things will happen to you.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, my expertise is in sales leadership coaching, and there's some mathematics I wanted to share with you today that says sales coaching can increase sales productivity by nearly 90%, but only 3 out of 4 sales managers in industries today spend 5% on coaching. So they realize it's productive, but they're not utilizing it. And coaching is not the same as training. Sales training is very transactional and they forget about it within 2 or 3 weeks. But somebody who has a long-term committed sales coach can actually meet their quota 2 out of 3 times more than somebody who doesn't have it.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice, and not necessarily industry-specific?
Best piece of advice, without question: don't be afraid to fail. It's the one time when— whatever you fail at, it's the one time you're going to learn. And it's all part of what I mentioned earlier, the process. So We don't do a good enough job of failing, in my opinion, in this country, and we need to fail more.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
You know, I would take time and really invest in a mentor or a coach and ask for help. We all think we know it all, especially when we're younger. You know, I think all of us go through a phase of life where you know it all, you think you know it all, and believe it. You get to my age and you realize, guess what? You know a lot of stuff, but you still don't know it all. So I would check your ego at the door, ask for help, and invest in that mentor-coach relationship no matter what aspect of your life you're trying to improve. Yes.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
You know, I think happiness is simple as long as you understand that unconditional love and unconditional giving, which are very unselfish, are going to lead you to happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Best book I've read, so, and this was a long time ago, but this book rings true today. It's called What Leaders Really Do by John Kotter. I think I read it back in 1990, and his message today, or his message then, is same and resoundingly true today. And that's America is still overmanaged and under-led. Corporate America has not done a good job of creating more leaders. And if you have more leaders who understand it's important to build more leaders, corporate America would be performing much more better than it ever has. But unfortunately, unfortunately, we need more strong mentoring and coaching programs to really get to the point where we have more leaders within organizations and less managers.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is, "Always go the extra mile, it's never crowded." I love that. Doing more than is required is a challenge for many folks. For example, it only takes 2 seconds to say thank you, and it probably takes 2 minutes to write a thank you note, but I'm surprised and shocked at how many times people don't. Reply with a thank you, or don't reply with a thank you note. And that's going the extra mile. So do more than is expected, do more than is required. And that all fits into that saying, always go the extra mile, it's never crowded. Yes.
Thank you so much for coming on, man. Such a valuable, uh, episode. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Online, you can visit my website, it's www. The number 3, the letter G, leadership.com. 3Gleadership.com.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Tyler, you're very welcome. Have a great afternoon.
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