299: Make a Difference Each Day with Mike Viane
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Michael Viane, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, and Keynote Speaker, is driven by a mission to help people overcome challenges and find the clarity to act. His Marathon Mindset Framework includes Purpose, Preparation, Pace, and Perseverance—four guiding principles that help individuals and teams sustain momentum and avoid burnout in pursuit of long-term goals.
We dive into Michael’s journey from a 30-year corporate career to coaching, inspired by a desire to live with purpose and help others do the same. He explains how leaders can use the Marathon Mindset to navigate overwhelm, maintain strategic focus, and build resilience. Michael also shares the concept of DMAs (Difference-Making Actions)—intentional, goal-aligned tasks that counter reactive busyness and drive daily progress.
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Make a Difference Each Day with Mike Viane
Good day, dear listeners, Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast. And my guest today is Michael Viane, Executive Coach, Strategic Advisor, and Keynote Speaker, empowering individuals, teams, and organizations to overcome challenges and find the clarity to take action. Michael, welcome to the show.
Thank you, Steve. Thank you for that nice introduction.
I copied it from your LinkedIn page, so it wasn’t my creation, but I think it’s a good one. So as an introduction, by way of introduction, Michael, why don’t you share what is your personal “Why” with our audience?
I will give you a rather lengthy answer on it. My “Why” started after 30 years in corporate America of having the recognition that I was waking up each day without any passion for what I was doing, without any sense of fulfillment at the end of my day. And the recognition that I needed to find the courage to move forward and do something that I deserved. And that was to have passion and fulfillment in my everyday life, to want to wake up in the morning and do things. And I had the very obvious and rewarding recognition that my greatest accomplishments in my career were always in coaching and mentoring people on my team to be greater organizational contributors, to be future leaders. And when I said this to people, they said, let me introduce you to somebody. And I met a coach. I met a business coach who explained to me what he does. And then I was introduced to Focal Point Business Coaching. And at Focal Point, we have the idea that we are a pebble in the pond, and that when we help one person and we drop that pebble into the pond, we see the ripple effect go out.
My “Why” is literally to help others, to teach others, and make even the smallest of difference in their lives and in their business world
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so that it creates that pebble in the pond ripple effect and it affects and makes people who work for this business owner, their lives better, their family lives better, the community stronger. This is my goal, this is my “Why,” this is my passion.
Okay, love it. To be the pebble in the pond and create the ripple effect, that is awesome. And definitely coaching can create that, especially when you coach executives who then coach their direct reports and their family life gets better. Let’s talk about how you do that and one of the things that you talked about earlier when we chatted really struck a chord with me when you talked about the marathon mindset. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. And how do marathonists think about the race and how they pace themselves? So, what is the Marathon Mindset and what are the four Ps of the Marathon Mindset?
Yeah, and this was actually the topic of our Focal Point conference this year. The Marathon Mindset and the four Ps. The four Ps are Purpose to begin with. And we just talked about this and “Why.” Our “Why.” So we talk about our purpose. then we talk about Preparation. Preparation is our process, our ability to plan, our ability to practice, to set goals, to have a mental readiness, and to figure out our process that gets us through, whether it’s a specific project or an overall, let’s from an entrepreneurial sense, the preparation for starting and growing our own business. The third P is Pace. I’ve been talking a lot about pace lately, and I’ll come back in a minute because pace is so important. Our business, our project, whatever it is, it’s not a sprint. It’s a marathon. And to avoid burnout and overwhelm, we have to be very, very aware of pace. I’ll come back and talk a little bit more about that. And then Perseverance is the fourth P. And there are going to be setbacks, there are going to be adversity, whether we’re starting our own business, trying to grow our own business, or even something as simple as trying to complete a meaningful project.
There are going to be obstacles and setbacks and we have to persevere and have the mindset to be able to overcome those obstacles.
It's a wonderful mindset, this Marathon Mindset, that can teach us how to think about not only how to be a key executive or be a business owner.
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It can also teach us how to have bigger and better relationships in our lives, how to be a better husband, how to be a better father. All of these things I try to implement in my life, but this overall mindset is the recognition that it’s a journey. I’m looking behind you right now and I see one business’s journey. And that is exactly what we’re talking about. It’s not a business’s sprint. It’s a business’s journey and how they got from where they were to where they wanted to be.
Okay, that’s very fascinating. So purpose, preparation, peace and perseverance. So how do you implement that Marathon Mindset? How do you build that Marathon Mindset for your clients? What does it take?
So it takes diving into each one of these in a very big way. I always try to start with purpose. And I thought it was great that you started our conversation today with Mike, what’s your “Why?” I find that most people don’t want to work with me because of what I do, but why I do it. So let’s take that and apply it to our own businesses. What is your purpose? There’s a line that I believe I heard from Rob Dial on one of his podcasts and he said, if your “Why” is strong enough, it will reveal your how. So when we talk about how to do something and that comes into preparation. How are we going to accomplish this? How are we going to build your business? How are we going to grow your business? How are we going to conceive and start your business from ground zero? If your “Why” is strong enough, your how will reveal itself. I love that idea because if we are all driven by that “Why,” that how just tends to come in naturally.
But one of the four Ps that I’ve really been honing in on lately, and it just seems to be a real topic right now with what everyone’s going on in their lives and in their businesses, is pace. Pace is very, very important. And here was something that I keep referring to our conference, but it was a very powerful conference, that I heard. And there was a panel of coaches up front, but they had all run marathons. And one of the questions was, what do you do when you hit that wall at mile 20? Because we’ve all heard about that wall that marathon runners hit. And one of the coaches said, if I think about the finish line, when I hit that wall, I quit. What I do is I focus 100 feet in front of me and I run that 100 feet. When I get to the end of that 100 feet, I do it again and again and again until I regain a rhythm so that I can continue moving forward towards my ultimate goal of finishing this.
Where this comes in and applies to our lives and our businesses is that so many times we become overwhelmed, we spin out of control in stress and anxiety because the uncertainty of how we’re going to create our business, grow our business, finish this marathon, or even simply finish a project that we’re in, the uncertainty overwhelms us and we quit. And I love that line when she said, if I think of the finish line at mile 20, I quit. We have to shrink our focus. It could be 100 feet at a time, it could be many different goals that we’re setting, but
we come up with small wins through strategy and tactics to get through a smaller period of time so that we can continue to move forward.
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