Free Zone Frontier

What if your ambition isn't a finite resource you're destined to deplete? Dan Sullivan introduces a transformative idea that ambition is a muscle that strengthens with use. Learn how to grow this core capability at any age, why contentment and ambition can coexist, and how to build a collaborative environment that fuels your future.Show Notes: Ambition is a fundamental capability that enables all other capabilities. Many people misunderstand ambition, thinking it’s a natural gift (and a finite resource) rather than a muscle to develop. It requires significant energy to maintain your ambition entirely on your own. Being surrounded by ambitious people fuels greater ambition and makes big thinking easier. Contentment and ambition are not opposites; both can be present when personal growth is the focus. Social norms often discourage ambition after 60, but real impact happens when entrepreneurs defy those expectations. Transitioning from solo effort to teamwork, then to external collaboration, marks an entrepreneur’s real growth journey. Strategic Coach® is where already ambitious entrepreneurs become even more ambitious. Collaborative ambition multiplies results and helps entrepreneurs expand their reach by combining capabilities. The Strategic Coach community supports entrepreneurs by enabling collaborative, not competitive, growth. Facing headwinds around ambition is normal; Strategic Coach offers tools to overcome them and extend longevity in business. Your “here” is always expanding into “there”—ambitious entrepreneurs never settle at a finish line. Resources: How To Foster A Longevity Mindset & Reap The Benefits Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy Free Zone Frontier by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability®

The importance of intellectual property is undeniable, but not everyone knows as much about their own IP situation as they should. Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein chat with Keegan Caldwell, the founder of an intellectual property law firm, who explains how IP law can benefit entrepreneurs beyond just protecting their creations.Show Notes:An entrepreneur’s mindset is crucial because that’s what determines their behavior.Never fall in love with your creation until check writers fall in love with your creation.There’s value in long-term growth companies, but they need to have the revenue to support their plans.If you have a concept or idea that’s differentiating you in the marketplace, you likely have some IP that's worth discussing and protecting.In addition to protecting your innovation, IP can be used to create licensing and fundraising opportunities to drive up value for an IPO or an acquisition.Many companies don’t even think about intellectual property issues until they’re some ways down the road.One way to show you really believe in a technology you’ve created is to take the initiative to protect it.Resources:Learn about Keegan CaldwellWho Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben HardyHow To Live To 156 by Dan SullivanThe Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Why do some companies continually grow while most fail? You need more than a great idea; you need to surround yourself with others who are thinking the same way. Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein discuss the successes of Steve’s unique, collaborative StartUp Health network, the mindsets entrepreneurs need in order to achieve the greatest success, and the things they do that most entrepreneurs won’t even think about. Medical breakthroughs are happening at such a fast rate that the most knowledgeable person really only knows how ignorant they are.“Free Zone” collaborations aren’t about the money that’s exchanged.True collaboration bypasses a lot of problems entrepreneurs normally think about because there’s no competition.There’s probably no industry on the planet that has less collaboration than health care.It can be difficult to maintain a transformative mindset when you’re surrounded by resistance to transformation.If you’re working at effecting change over the long term, you need to have a long-term view to feel good waking up every day.There are entrepreneurs who are coachable and open to the idea of lifelong learning, and there are entrepreneurs who aren’t there yet.Even at their most competitive, entrepreneurs are more collaborative than people who aren’t in the entrepreneurial marketplace.Real intelligence isn’t what your individual brain does; it’s how your brain accesses the brains of other people.Resources:Unique Ability®The Strategic Coach® ProgramWhat Is Rugged Individualism? And Why You Might Be Guilty Of It

Innovations in the realm of age reversal are accelerating. Getting physically younger while getting older in years is a real possibility. In this episode, Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein explain the advances, discuss what’s needed for further breakthroughs, and share why age reversal developments are critical for entrepreneurs to be preparing for. Show Notes:Many entrepreneurs retire out of social or societal expectations.Setting a goal that might seem crazy serves as a magnet for what you need and as a repellent for what you don’t.You treat your remaining years differently depending on when you think you’re going to die.Thinking about your legacy means you’re thinking about being gone.There’s the expectation in society that once you turn 65 or 70, you don’t take on anything new.The solution won’t be possible if you don’t have the goal.Medicine is going to become the fastest growing industry in the United States.There are thousands of solutions that need to be worked on to enable true age reversal.There's been an incredible drop-off in venture capital funding of all areas except health and medicine.American progress in all areas is driven by adventuresome consumers.Mission alignment is the single most important predictor of success in long-term health-related entrepreneurial ventures.Resources:The Strategic Coach® Signature ProgramLearn more about Steven Krein at StartUp HealthMy Plan For Living To 156 by Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein delve into the power of the “When Are You Great?” tool, discussing how it serves as a crucial planning aid and a potent marketing resource. Using real-world examples, they explore the implications for crafting compelling offers, narrating impactful stories, and leveraging a marketer’s secret weapon.Show Notes:To figure out what gets talked about, you have to combine everything you’re telling with everything you’re being told.You share when you’re good because you have competition. Others share when you’re great because they don’t think you have any competition.Saying when you’re good is trying to make a convincing argument. Being told when you’re great is your compelling offer.How you're making people feel transcends what you do for them.Your messaging should include both what you do and what happens when someone participates.Measuring impact is hard in the short term, but unavoidable in the long term.Resources:The Four FreedomsThe Self-Managing Company by Dan SullivanThe Strategic Coach Entrepreneurial Time System®The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan

In one of our most popular episodes, Steve and Dan revisit why there’s a big difference between convincing someone with an argument and compelling them to take action with an offer. And in the market world where we all live, people don’t want to be convinced—they want to be compelled.Show Notes:A convincing argument is about the speaker, but a compelling offer is about the listener.In the education system, you convince someone with your argument, but it doesn’t get them to take any action.Characteristics of a compelling offer are that it happens very fast, and the clients don’t have to do much work to get it.Humans aren’t computers, but meaning makers.The basis of a compelling offer is that everyone is thinking in one direction, and then you present a message that changes the way they’re thinking about things.Data is what you need to make an argument convincing.Some people see situations in black and white (it happened or it didn’t happen), and don’t see the progress being made.When you make a compelling offer, people want to be involved regardless of when the success will come. When someone is facing a new experience, it will be a good experience if they have something new as a solution, and a bad experience if they don’t. Resources:Deep D.O.S. Innovation by Dan SullivanYou Are Not a Computer by Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein explore the powerful 4 x 4 Casting Tool™, which can transform how you integrate new team members into your company—and galvanize your current team members to take ownership of their roles. Discover how treating your company like a theater project ensures you have the right people in the right roles for maximum impact. Show Notes: An entrepreneur's primary job is to push things forward, not get stuck in bureaucratic processes.The least productive thing you can say to your team as an entrepreneur is, “I’m unhappy with you, but I’m not going to tell you why.”The 4 x 4 Casting Tool tells people how you expect them to show up, how they show progress in terms of getting things done, how they can be a hero to you, and how they can drive you crazy.It also empowers team members to take ownership of their roles within the company.When someone new joins your team, it's your job to tell them what the game plan is and what's expected of them. People can’t read your mind.Traditional job descriptions are impersonal and technical, and they fail to capture the nuanced working relationships that can (and should) develop in a growth-focused team.Having a Self-Managing Company® means that every team member is managing their constant growth and contributions in the company.You can’t complain and create at the same time.Remote work has fundamentally changed team dynamics, and it will take more effort to ensure team members feel connected to each other—and your vision. Resources: Anything And Everything PodcastWhat Is A Self-Managing Company®? Unique Ability® Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson Entrepreneurial Operating System® Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage The Impact Filter™ The Great Crossover® by Dan Sullivan

Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein discuss the Free Zone Frontier® and the StartUp Health programs. They both believe it’s crucial to have the right people in the room, sharing their experiences and collaborating. Connecting like this with a community of ambitious, calm entrepreneurs makes it possible to experience five years’ progress in three months. Show Notes:What happens backstage is more magical than what’s seen on stage.Gutenberg's invention of the printing press was a revolution that led people to start having conversations with themselves.Fifty years into the microchip revolution, a “team consciousness” is emerging.In any group, the individuals’ mindsets are the most important factor.Entrepreneurs tend to be isolated. In Steve’s StartUp Health and Dan’s Free Zone Frontier, it’s understood that you can't go it alone.Belonging to a community of confident, ambitious, and calm peers helps entrepreneurs make the next leap.In the Free Zone Frontier, entrepreneurs report making five years’ progress in three months.Dan predicts that technology will increasingly go “maximum global,” and that people will stay closer to home and focus on their own communities. Resources:Learn more about Steve’s company, StartUp HealthThe Strategic Coach® Signature Program

Ever wondered what the success formula is for top entrepreneurs? Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein discuss “The 25-Year Framework” and how it benefits entrepreneurs by helping them prioritize their biggest goals and measure progress every quarter. They explain how having a quarterly rhythm can be transformational, and provide insights into how to achieve long-term goals, adapt to advancements in technology, and overcome crises in the marketplace. Show Notes: Measuring your past progress and planning out the next quarter, every quarter, helps simplify and multiply your efforts.This kind of self-accountability and measurement allows for compounding results.Growth entrepreneurs must engage in quarterly reflection to achieve their goals.Entrepreneurs who treat every quarter in business as a 90-day period of progress, recalibrating and staying committed to their goals, are much more likely to weather market disruptions (such as a global pandemic) and will fare better in the long run.Quarterly review and recalibration are essential for achieving not only professional goals, but personal ones as well, and help you build meaningful relationships.Your social circle can either support or obstruct your goals. Curate it regularly.Avoid making major decisions on Friday afternoons. Everything feels much bigger and scarier when you’re tired from the week, whereas you have a fresh perspective and more energy at the start of the week.To reach your quarterly goals, you must commit to weekly improvements. Resources: The 25-Year Framework by Dan Sullivan The Strategic Coach® Program StartUp Health Free Zone Frontier by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management (Free Days™)

Should businesses be focusing more on engaging their customers virtually or in person? Since some customers prefer one and some prefer the other, you’re alienating people if you go too far in either direction. Dan Sullivan and Steven Krein discuss the incursion of digital elements into various aspects of human life and what this has your potential customers feeling—and seeking out. Show Notes: There was an industrial phase where everything old was torn down to build something new. And then there was pushback. A good city is for both the people who live there and the people who only come for a few hours, then go home. There’s a 50% renewal rate for Strategic Coach® clients who stick to virtual, and a 75% renewal rate for Strategic Coach clients who attend in-person workshops. Some people have decided to just not travel anymore. Virtual strengthens what happens in real life; it doesn’t replace it. Testing something out on 50 people gives you a good idea about whether it works. People are now pursuing what they’re interested in, and it’s harder to get their attention for what you want to share with them. News stories disappear from public discussions much faster than they used to. In the 1940s, the notion that you were supposed to enjoy your work didn’t exist. There’s become a complete disconnection between higher education and the job market. When people don’t know where they’re headed in the future, they go back to what they know and defend it. Resources: Thinking About Your Thinking by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® The Transformation Trilogy set by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Unique EDGE® Program

For most people, entrepreneurship used to feel out of reach. Now, technology has provided the necessary tools for anyone to start a company that has all the potential to give them freedom. Dan Sullivan and Steven Krein discuss the many invaluable ways AI can be used by business leaders, and how it’s opened doors for dreamers.  Show Notes: Entrepreneurism by its very nature creates disruption and inequality. Entrepreneurs like talking to other people who are entrepreneurial about their ideas in order to develop them further. AI is creating a whole generation of people learning how to learn differently. It might be more interesting to consider what using AI does to your brain versus what it does to your business. Ten years from now, everybody's going to be using AI just as a matter of interacting with their computer. People who would never use ChatGPT are going to have AI built into what they’re already doing on their phones and computers. AI will eventually become so normal that it’ll become boring. Resources: Perplexity.ai The Kolbe A™ Index The Impact Filter™ Blog: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage Book: AI As Your Teammate by Evan Ryan The Transformation Trilogy: Who Not How, The Gap and the Gain, and 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy

As of this year, Dan Sullivan has been a business coach for half a century, and Strategic Coach® has been helping entrepreneurs lead their best lives for 35 years. In this episode, Steve Krein and Dan discuss the inaugural CoachCon event that recently took place in Nashville, how the three-day conference came together, and the secrets that made it a resounding success. Show Notes: When people are committing to an event that requires traveling, they give it a lot more thought than they did before COVID. You’re going to see that almost all businesses have three tracks: a technology track, a teamwork track, and a coaching track. Technology does not coach itself. Teamwork doesn't naturally expand itself. Dan sees it as a form of progress when great things can be created in his company that he has no involvement in. Most conventions and conferences are overloaded with content with no time to think. What gets talked about in free periods during conferences is a more important takeaway than anything heard in the panel discussions. Sponsors of communities are not always authentic members of those communities. If people have a great experience, they'll tell a few people about it. If they have a bad experience, they'll tell a lot of people about it. Resources: Article: Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage The Impact Filter™ The Strategic Coach® Program Visual Capitalist

Ever been to a concert where everyone sings along to every song? That's the power of community. Dan and Steve explore the emotional side of entrepreneurship, discussing the benefits of building a strong community. It’s an environment of shared language, shared opportunities, and shared experiences where everyone can gain and grow. Show Notes: In any community, shared language and experiences create an environment where people feel more comfortable. When you bring entrepreneurs together, there’s a shared language and also shared challenges that they’re all deeply familiar with. When entrepreneurs share networks, it’s an instant capability. Entrepreneurs can have shared opportunities not only individually, but collectively. Questions are more powerful than answers. Technology is actually about taking things that already work and putting them into a new form. You can create a new lesson and a new course of action out of any three of your past experiences. You want your existing clients to be part of your marketing team. When you get involved with investors, there are two numbers that really matter: 51% and 49%.  Resources: The R-Factor Question® The Entrepreneurial Time System® Unique Ability® Genius Network® Abundance 360® The daVinci50 Mastermind® Perplexity.ai The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Serial entrepreneur Lior Weinstein returns to the show. Teaming up with Dan and Steve, he shares his systematic approach for tackling business challenges and leveraging AI alongside human capabilities. Three entrepreneurs operating at the top of their game promise valuable takeaways to transform pains into new revenue streams and fuel your success. Show Notes: Every company has a history and constraints they bring along. Good marketing requires empathy. Too many entrepreneurs overthink, overengineer, and overbuild. Though it may seem counterintuitive, it’s better to build the website before building a product. When an amazing technology launches, people make predictions without appreciating or understanding the actual engineering problems that underpin the technology.  The rate at which the open source community is creating competitive products is incredible. You’re only as smart as the quality of your questions. Search engines are becoming answer engines. We're going to learn more and more about human intelligence by interacting with AI technology. Resources: Book: The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan Article: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs Unique Ability® Perplexity.ai Book: The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy

Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein welcome Lior Weinstein, a serial entrepreneur who specializes in simplifying complex concepts into actionable steps. Lior shares his background, starting in Israel and moving to the United States, where he expanded his entrepreneurial career after serving in the IDF's Intelligence Corps. Lior's experiences taught him about teamwork, tackling big missions, and winning with small teams.Show Notes: Strategic Coach® clients learn to prioritize being happy first.Focusing on meaningful relationships is the key to personal happiness and business success.Adopting an owner’s mindset in consulting leads to deeper problem-solving empathy and holistic client solutions.Curiosity is essential because it fosters innovation, adaptability, and continuous learning.When you’re not focused on short-term profit, it’s a lot easier to engage on all sides.Meeting in person isn’t a requirement for most knowledge-based businesses.Entrepreneurial community is a powerful multiplier that can accelerate business growth, innovation, and shared success.You don't have a community unless you have a common language.It's difficult for most entrepreneurs to avoid tunnel vision when they encounter a problem.Looking toward the future is something entrepreneurs do organically. Resources: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy Podcast: Anything And Everything with Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff Article: The 4 Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs Unique AbilityⓇ The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss Total Cash Confidence by Dan Sullivan The Impact Filter™

Many entrepreneurs don’t hire well, and those that do mostly dread the activity. Dan Sullivan aims to change that. He explains a mindset shift about hiring differently as entrepreneurs, exploring how thinking of hiring as casting a play creates a new perspective on team building and collaboration. Show Notes: Most entrepreneurs view hiring as a cost rather than an investment.An entrepreneur’s attitude toward hiring shapes the future of their relationship with their team.The notion of casting, as opposed to hiring, highlights the importance of finding the right fit for a role within the team.When entrepreneurs view the hiring process as casting, they shift their focus from simply filling a position to selecting individuals who will fit well within the existing team dynamic.It also helps them identify areas for improvement, reallocate roles, and ensure that the team functions cohesively toward common goals.It pays to view your business as a theater production, where the success of the team depends on how well each member fits into their role and collaborates with others.It doesn’t matter what anyone is doing on their own. It’s all about how you’re producing something as a team. Resources: The Impact Filter™ The Front Stage/Back Stage Model® Unique AbilityⓇ 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy 

Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein delve into the power of the “When Are You Great?” tool, discussing how it serves as a crucial planning aid and a potent marketing resource. Using real-world examples, they explore the implications for crafting compelling offers, narrating impactful stories, and leveraging a marketer’s secret weapon. Highlights: To figure out what gets talked about, you have to combine everything you’re telling with everything you’re being told. You share when you’re good because you have competition. Others share when you’re great because they don’t think you have any competition. Saying when you’re good is trying to make a convincing argument. Being told when you’re great is your compelling offer. How you're making people feel transcends what you do for them. Your messaging should include both what you do and what happens when someone participates in it. Measuring impact is hard in the short term, but unavoidable in the long term.  Resources: The Four Freedoms The Self-Managing Company by Dan Sullivan The Strategic Coach Entrepreneurial Time System® The End of the World is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan 

The end of a year and the beginning of another is a great time to reflect and plan. Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein discuss effective ways entrepreneurs can look back on what’s happened and look ahead to what they want to accomplish, sharing insights from their own experiences running successful businesses. Highlights: A lot of people feel uncomfortable talking about long-term planning. You can use the new year to reflect on the progress you've made over the last 12 months and what you need to do over the next 12 months while fitting it into the context of what your long-term mission is. You can reuse your past any way you want. It’s much easier to think about 25 years as 100 quarters: a quarter is enough time to get stuff done, but not so long that you’ll lose your way. No one can predict the future. It’s all just guesses and bets. Consistency over time in your past is crucial for building your future. For the most part, entrepreneurs starting a new business don't have any structure or process that works. There's a quick deviation from values sometimes when you're trying to just get financial return. The more you plan backwards from the future, the better you get at it. Resources: 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy Learn more about Steve Krein and StartUp HealthThe Strategic Coach® ProgramLearn more about Unique Ability® 

No matter how long a company has been around, it’s vital that everyone is clear on and maintains their core values. Dan Sullivan and Steve Krein explain why this is so important, discuss why all team members need to be aligned, and share some of their own companies’ core values. Highlights: In the U.S., core values used to be structured into the environment you lived in. Reminding team members of the company’s specific purpose can help avoid distraction. The value reinforcement of a company today is 10 times more important than it was in the 1950s. You either do or don’t have passion for, have conviction for, and are inspired by a mission. People who aren’t aligned with a company’s mission wreak havoc during times when things shift. Company leaders need to represent the values they want their team members to have. Every entrepreneur is in the continual process of hiring or removing wrong-fit people. In a period of high flux, you go to the organizing structure that actually works.  Resources: Everyone And Everything Grows by Dan Sullivan Unique Ability® The Entrepreneur’s Guide To Time Management “Geometry” For Staying Cool & Calm by Dan Sullivan Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Strategic Coach® is approaching its 50th anniversary, and Coach co-founder Dan Sullivan is coming up on 50 years of coaching entrepreneurs. In this episode, Steve Krein and Dan share some of the significant changes to entrepreneurism that have happened over the past 50 years and what the future holds.  Highlights: Steve and Dan discuss what is currently the number one resource on the planet If you look at cultural heroes in the business world and American life itself, they’re the great entrepreneurs. The original definition of an entrepreneur is someone who takes resources from a lower level of productivity to a higher level of productivity. If you don’t have an appreciation for what it means to be an entrepreneur, it can look intimidating and mysterious. Government, corporate, and large non-profit bureaucracies see unpredictably innovative entrepreneurs as their main enemy. Big breakthroughs in technology empower entrepreneurs, not large bureaucracies. When single individuals and small groups create something that goes viral in the marketplace, it upsets everything. Most of the obstacles to becoming an entrepreneur that existed 50 years ago have been removed.  Resources: The Strategic Coach® Signature Program The Impact Filter™ tool Article: The Four Freedoms That Motivate Successful Entrepreneurs Learn more about Steve Krein and StartUp Health My Plan For Living To 156  by Dan Sullivan