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One of the most genuine, positive, and enthusiastic people you’ll ever meet, Shannon loves nothing more than seeing people become better, happier, more successful versions of themselves and facilitating the honest, practical conversations that help them get there.
Since joining Strategic Coach in 1991 as both a team member and participant, Shannon has helped grow the business beyond what founders Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith ever imagined possible, far surpassing the initial goal of reaching 500 clients. She’s the creator of The Strategic Coach.
Shannon showed us how to make a huge difference in our lives by harnessing the power of collaboration. Forget about trying to go it alone – Shannon helps you break free from that ‘I can do better myself’ mentality and level up with teamwork!
She also delivers a reminder that life is about focusing on the things you’re naturally good at and giving it your all. Find what energizes you instead of draining you in order to make work enjoyable! Rewire yourself, know yourself, and watch how many improvements you can make.
In This Episode
- Shannon’s story and how she started The Strategic Coach.
- Shifting your mind to ‘teamwork’.
- Identifying and doubling your strengths.
- Shannon’s piece of advice on how to make personal progress.
Welcome to today’s show on Wealth Strategy Secrets. We’ve got another fantastic episode for you today, featuring Shannon Waller. I’m incredibly grateful to have Shannon on the show. She has been with Strategic Coach for many years as a personal coach. Shannon is one of the most genuine, positive, and enthusiastic people you’ll ever meet.
She loves nothing more than seeing individuals become better, happier, and more successful versions of themselves. Shannon excels at facilitating honest, practical conversations that help people achieve their goals. As she explains, being able to speak frankly about problems, obstacles, and mistakes is vital for the success of both entrepreneurs and their teams.
When you’re dealing with reality, you have power. But when you’re dealing with pretense, not so much. A pragmatist at heart, Shannon has a talent for simplifying complex issues and transforming obstacles into opportunities for connection, learning, and growth. Shannon, I’m excited to have you on the show. Welcome!
Thank you so much, Dave! I’m delighted to be here and spend some time with you. This is going to be fun! I know you’re usually on the other side of the mic, trying to corral Dan Sullivan.
It’s true! Facilitating him is a unique ability that I didn’t even realize I had. For those who aren’t familiar with you and your background, could you share how you got into coaching and a bit about your journey?
I joined Strategic Coach in 1991, which is well over half my life ago. Before that, I was focused on people in business—it’s always been my passion since I was 18. My education is related to that, and I love working with anyone in business. I genuinely believe it’s the number one arena for both professional and personal development. When you throw yourself into the marketplace, you learn a lot about yourself. It’s always been my playground, much more so than any other industry I could imagine.
So, through a fortunate happenstance, I met Babs Smith and Dan Sullivan, co-founders of Strategic Coach, back in June of 1991. Long story short, they approached a friend of mine to see if he wanted to work with them. He went to a presentation, loved what Dan said, and got back to the office where the salesperson at the time, Susan, asked if he knew how to get a hold of me.
He said, “Yes, she’s right here,” and passed the phone over. Susan asked me if I enjoyed the presentation, and I replied, “Yes, I loved it!” It was stuff I had known but hadn’t integrated that way—one of Dan’s unique abilities. Then she asked me a brilliant question: “Are you happy with what you’re doing?”
Out of my mouth popped, “No. I’m bored.” Five weeks later, I joined Strategic Coach, initially supporting her in sales. Eventually, I realized I was good—not unique—at sales, and in 1995, I started coaching team members. I noticed a massive disconnect between entrepreneurs who desperately wanted to grow their organizations and their ability to communicate that vision to their teams, which proved incredibly difficult.
It sounds a bit lofty to say it’s part of my life’s work, but it has certainly been one of my passions since 1995 when I created, pardon me, the Strategic Coach team programs. Since then, I’ve been working with entrepreneurs and their executive teams, whom I call 10x team leaders. Recently, I took over coaching the 10x level of the program from Dan as he moves up to what we call the Free Zone. Coaching is truly what I love to do, and for the reasons you described at the very beginning, my passion lies in helping people maximize their strengths, capabilities, results, and, most importantly, their happiness and enjoyment.
I get to do that through the incredibly effective tools we have at Strategic Coach. Entrepreneurs are the business people I enjoy working with most because our minds think alike. I don’t understand the corporate world very well; entrepreneurship is the most enjoyable playground for me.
That’s so amazing! One thing that struck me about Strategic Coach is how it shifted my perspective after building businesses without it. Early on, I found myself navigating the corporate realm, particularly in corporate America, which felt like everything I was trying to escape. I sought autonomy, freedom of purpose, and freedom of time.
However, as you start building a business in the traditional world, you keep hitting these ceilings of complexity, as Dan likes to call them. The bigger your business gets, the less fun it becomes. But with Strategic Coach, there’s this incredible focus on not just your professional life but also your personal life, and how you can integrate the two to drive fulfillment, unique ability, team dynamics, and truly make an impact.
It was such a relief to realize that there is another way to approach this. It doesn’t always have to be the brute force method; you don’t have to be a rugged individualist banging your head against that ceiling. There are ways to 3x, 5x, or even 10x your income, revenue, and profit while also enhancing your freedom, enjoyment, and relationships.
It doesn’t have to be about working longer and harder. We can achieve this through what we call the 10x framework. You can think about how to do things differently, tapping into what you mentioned earlier about unique ability. Unique ability is a multiplier. When you engage in what you love to do and what you’re best at, you naturally get more out of it than you put in. Every human being has a unique ability. While some people might need more freedom to apply theirs, that’s just one aspect.
When you combine your unique ability with other methods for quickly accelerating and maximizing the elegant parts of your business and your team, you create the life you want—not just the one you dreamt of. There are many ways to build a business; some, to quote Joe Polish, are hard, annoying, lame, and frustrating. What you want is a business that is easy, lucrative, and fun. So, you can choose between a hard business or an E.L.F. business—Easy, Lucrative, and Fun.
Yes! I’ll take E.L.F. every day of the week.
Exactly! There’s so much to unpack there, and I want to come back to a unique ability. But first, let’s help the audience understand the concept of being a rugged individual. Can you break that down for us? I know a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with this mindset.
Let’s be clear: being a rugged individual isn’t necessarily bad. It’s often the natural starting point for many entrepreneurs. When you first start a business, especially if you don’t have the funds to invest in others, you end up wearing many hats—you’re the chief cook and bottle washer. That’s not a terrible thing because you learn what it takes to run a business and understand the intricacies at a level that most people in corporate environments never do.
However, there comes a point where that mindset becomes limiting. The thought that runs through the mind of a rugged individualist is often, “I can do it better myself.” For very few activities, that notion might hold, but for most effective activities, it’s simply not the case. What happens is you end up hitting that ceiling you were talking about.
Initially, you might experience some upward momentum, but then you reach a point where the more time and effort you invest, the more tired you become. Since you’re not good at many of these things, you start to go downhill. Before you reach that point, you need to recognize, in our vernacular, that you’re not the “who” for this task.
That’s when you need to make the mental shift from being a rugged individual—thinking, “I can do it better myself”—to understanding that collaboration can yield better results. We all know people who resist help, almost like they have an allergy to it. They insist, “I can do it better myself.” It’s reminiscent of a three-year-old who insists on putting their clothes on backward. They have that fierce independence. I was one of those fiercely independent kids—always wanting to do things on my own. Not much has changed since then!
Being a rugged individualist is a very natural phase of growth. There’s nothing wrong with it, but being stuck there can be limiting, especially if you genuinely want to grow and find yourself capped by your mindset. That’s when it’s time for a mindset shift. Instead of thinking, “I can do it better myself,” the shift should be toward embracing unique ability teamwork—“We can do it better together.”
We have this fun book called Who Not How, which I’m a huge fan of. Many people view delegation as a chore, a task that never works well. You invest in someone, they leave, and you end up doing everything by yourself again. However, when you find the right “who” who loves to do the tasks you don’t, you create a powerful collaboration.
Think about a new ambition or goal you have. The typical approach is, “How do I do it?” This mindset often leads to decreased energy and increased fatigue. Instead, if you ask yourself, “Do I know a ‘who’ who knows how to do this?” you shift your perspective. I mentioned this morning the idea of “hooing it up.” You can hire someone, trade, borrow, or barter—there’s something you have that they want, and vice versa.
Making that mindset shift to unique ability teamwork can be challenging. It sometimes feels like flying through the air without a net until you find your footing. It’s easy to get trapped by the rugged individualist mindset; we’ve all been there, and in some activities, we still are. It’s not all or nothing, but the more you free yourself up—what we like to call “whoing it up”—the more liberating it becomes. You gain more freedom of time, money, relationships, and purpose.
If you think about it, we all have unique abilities we’re meant to express. There are many things we can do well, and many we’re just okay at. And frankly, there are things we weren’t meant to do at all. You can put in time and effort, but if it’s not aligned with your unique abilities, you won’t see the results you want. By focusing on those few areas where you excel, you can create a multiplier effect.
When you find others who are unique in the areas where you are not, your freedom expands exponentially. It’s one of those things that’s hard to believe until you experience it, but once you do, you realize you can’t go back. I’m sure you have your own stories about this, Dave.
For sure! Shannon, unique ability is easily one of the top five insights I’ve gained throughout my career. To help listeners understand unique abilities better, you can rewind and listen to one of our previous episodes with Julia Waller, where we dive deeper into the concept. Also, you can visit kolbe.com, where there’s a quick 20-minute test to help you figure out your conative ability—essentially, how you’re instinctually wired.
I’ve had the experience of hiring employees based on this approach. Everyone in my family has gone through it. Wherever you are in your journey or life, even if you don’t have a business right now, I can’t emphasize enough how powerful this is for learning more about yourself and creating teamwork. In our family, it’s amazing. For example, I have one high implementer, my oldest daughter.
When we tackle family projects or trips, we say, “You know what? Adelaide’s in charge.” She takes care of the planning and logistics, which frees the rest of us up. Each person stays in their lane, creating so much harmony. With six people in our family, this harmony is invaluable.
From a team perspective, in my first business, we traditionally hired based on skills, assessing different skills for various roles. But now, we focus on unique abilities. I have fact-finders doing tasks I don’t want to do, and they love it; they excel at it better than I could. This approach acts as a multiplier by adding capabilities.
I love what you mentioned about family dynamics. It allows even younger children to feel valued and that they have a purpose because they contribute in ways others might not. How amazing for a young person to have that sense of intrinsic capability, especially in a world dominated by social media. I think you’re truly equipping people by doing this.
Before I married my husband, I profiled him using the Kolbe profile. We turned out to be almost identical—fact-finders and follow-throughs. He’s a 2-2-1-0, and I’m a 3-2-9-5. So, if anyone is going to plan or organize this family, it’s not us! The cool thing about this, Dave, is that it freed us from guilt. Many wives feel guilty for not being handy, while husbands often feel guilty if they lack those hands-on skills. Women might feel guilty if they don’t enjoy organizing, meal planning, or doing laundry—all of which I can’t stand! But I have no guilt about that because I understand how my mental energy plays out.
If it involves having an innovative conversation with you, Dave, I could engage in that all day! You and I are already excited about three different topics we could discuss endlessly. It’s a freedom from guilt that I didn’t even think to mention, but it’s significant. This applies to team members too; you get to value people who might traditionally be lower on the totem pole but bring unique capabilities to your team and company.
For instance, my support partner, Katrina, helps me stay organized and show up when I’m supposed to. She loves scheduling—it’s like Tetris for her. For me, it’s torture, and I’m not great at it. I probably have too many appointments booked in three different cities on the same day!
It’s great because it allows us to appreciate our talents and others’ talents while constructing strong teams. Of course, you need smart and committed people. Commitment comes from the heart and intelligence from the brain. Understanding how someone naturally strives and takes action is essential, and Kolbe is the only validated instrument that does this. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
I even Kolbe my kids. My daughter Charlotte, who is now 19, printed her Kolbe profiles in grade three, organized them in plastic folders with colored duct tape, and handed them out to all her teachers! She was saying, “This is who I am.” She’s a quick-start implementer—very spontaneous and not particularly book-driven. It’s just fun and validating, showcasing the benefits of this process. It provides a language.
There are many other great profiles and tools we use to help label and articulate unique abilities, and it’s exciting to see how both of us are maximizers on CliftonStrengths. Suddenly, we know how to connect and communicate with one another, which shortcuts the process of getting to usefulness.
Absolutely! Most of us are raised in a traditional academic environment that teaches us to work on our weaknesses. But we realize in the business world that it’s all about identifying strengths and doubling down on them. As entrepreneurs, as Dan says, it’s all about finding shortcuts because we aim to be faster, better, and cheaper at every level. To do that, we must maximize our strengths.
I love one of Dan’s early expressions: “If you work on your weaknesses for a long time, what you have are really strong weaknesses.” This mindset of trying to be all things to all people is limiting. We are unique individuals, and when you take that seriously, as Dan often emphasizes, and appreciate it, the world looks different. You get unhooked from traditional mindset programming, whatever you want to call it.
This freedom allows you to operate differently, and soon people will notice. They might ask, “How are you so successful while taking so much time off? Did you just go on a trip? How did you contribute to that charity?” It sparks curiosity, which is fun.
That is the core ethos of our company and what we strive to help our clients with—breaking free from conventional wisdom, not just in finance but in every aspect of life. It’s about dismantling paradigms we learned because they were the norm, often taught by our parents or employers.
We need to unhook our thinking from the factory mindset we were trained in, and we need to encourage our kids in this regard. They’re not entering a factory world anymore; they’re living in a networked world where they can find, research, and tap into capabilities globally.
We need to unhook our own thinking from how we were trained. We definitely need to encourage our kids because they’re not working in that factory world.
I recently saw a chat within our coach community where one of the program advisors said, “One of our clients wants to have this work processed overnight so that when his team comes in the next morning, they can work on the process quotes.” This is incredible! We can tap into specialized talent like never before.
We need to encourage our clients to validate their unique capabilities, to explore how they make a unique contribution. This changes the conversation completely and creates some of the most enjoyable dialogues in my world.
Absolutely! Another aspect we shouldn’t underestimate is the energy component of unique ability. It’s amazing. When you think about certain tasks—like administrative work or high fact-finding, such as reading contracts—you can spend hours without accomplishing much, feeling drained and tired.
But when you’re in your unique ability zone, it’s unbelievable! You can go all day and keep going because it feels natural to you. It can easily take up 50% or more of your energy. People often say, “Well, everyone has things they don’t like to do.” But is that true? Maybe until you figure out the right “who,” that’s true. But really? I think we get a little sucker-punched into believing we have to be depleted, that there has to be pain, that it has to be hard.
I can already hear people listening to this, as it’s such a common message. But the truth is—we’ve all had days where somehow the stars aligned, and the universe seemed to be designed with us in mind. Everything we did was just a joy; there was a great state of flow, as the expression goes. We might wonder, “Whoa, what just happened?”
You were likely operating in your unique ability, probably with your right audience. That’s the key part of unique ability—you end up more energized at the end than when you started. I had a long day yesterday, but all of it was in my sweet spot—my area of unique ability. This isn’t common, and I don’t recommend it, but it was a 15-hour day. That’s not my normal day, just to let you know. It may have been because I have some free days coming up, so that might have something to do with it. But I could coach all day. I could talk about these concepts and tools endlessly because they energize me. That’s the cool thing about unique ability.
If you look at the categories of incompetent, competent, excellent, and unique:
Incompetent: This is when you put in the time and effort but don’t get the result. You aren’t put on this planet to do this.
Competent: This is rampant in corporate environments. We want these core competencies. Sure, if it’s reading, writing, and arithmetic, I can understand that. But really? Competence is a minimum standard. You’re adequate, you’re okay, but no one’s ringing any bells for you on that one.
Excellent: This is where most people get trapped, and I’m guessing most of your listeners are here. You have superior skills; you’re better at it than most. There’s a lot of teamwork, a great reputation, and financial rewards. But internally, you’re experiencing what I call a “brownout,” not a burnout. You might be thinking, “I already have 15 t-shirts from this; do I need to keep doing this?”
Unique Ability: This is that same superior skill but with passion. You love it; it lights you up. People’s eyes light up. I pay attention to when people’s eyes light up or when they lean in because that’s what I’m looking for.
It’s really fun. To your point, you can always see room for improvement because you care about it. At the end of a coaching day, like I had on Tuesday, my feet were tired—I’m not used to standing in heels anymore after two and a half years of lockdown. But psychologically, emotionally, and mentally, I felt alive. It’s the best feeling, and it’s all internally generated. Sorry, that was a long addition to your point, but it’s so true and so great.
And for the listeners out there, a great way to characterize what Dan talks about is that it’s something fascinating and motivating to you. This encapsulates the idea well. There are so many people who, on the surface, appear to be successful—perhaps they’re a doctor, an executive, or a business owner. Yet they struggle with fulfillment, purpose, and everything that comes with it.
In our concept, Shannon, we talk about the holistic wealth strategy, which is also the title of my book. It’s really about freedom—specifically, freedom of money. But that freedom is what allows you to access all these other things, like freedom of time, purpose, and relationships.
When you can peel back the layers and understand yourself through the lens of your unique ability, it’s incredibly insightful. You can then rewire your focus to prioritize those unique abilities—things that are fascinating and motivating, energizing. It’s amazing how work can become fun. Work can be a blast.
There’s a fun statistic that I think you and your listeners will enjoy. Lewis Schiff, connected with Inc. Magazine and a fabulous author, studied ultra-high-net-worth individuals—those worth roughly $30 million and above—as well as the middle class.
He and his colleague, Allen Prince, asked each group how many things they were really good at. The middle-class respondents typically said they were good at about 5 to 6 things. When they asked the ultra-high-net-worth individuals, the average response was 1.9.
Wow! They admitted to being good at less than two activities. Does that tell you something?
Exactly. We might want to take a page out of that book. They understand their “who” vs. “how.” They said, “Oh, no, I’m only really, really good at one or two things.” I don’t think that correlation is a coincidence. I just find that fascinating.
And research supports this, which is fun. It’s so true. However, it’s challenging for people to let go of limiting beliefs. I’m even seeing this with my kids now. They’re in their early twenties and struggling with purpose and figuring out where they fit in, and what they like to do. They didn’t enjoy school and all these other challenges.
It’s really about trying to find that. The more you can truly embrace and understand the concept of unique ability, the more significant it becomes. I love working with people in their 20s; it’s one of the audiences I enjoy the most.
My eldest is 22, and I love talking to her and her friends. I’m buddies with some of them, and they’ll meet with me for dinner. I’ll have them do their Kolbe profiles; I’ll do everything I can to support them. I understand what it’s like to be confused between the ages of 18 and 24. We live in a big, complex, multidimensional world, and it can be really hard to figure out how to create value.
It’s essential to give young people the tools and mindsets to see things from other people’s perspectives. They need to understand: What does the world need from you? Where is there a challenge you can address? What opportunities can you maximize? How can you reinforce others’ strengths? How can you create value? What problems are you passionate about solving? Finding a problem you find endlessly fascinating can keep you engaged for 25 years.
For me, the problem of entrepreneurial teamwork and the lack of harmony in it has kept me fascinated since I was 18—that was 39 years ago. I know, it’s been a long time. So, when you find a problem you’re interested in tackling, and you apply your talents and capabilities, building connections and using the strategies we’ve all learned for success, it becomes powerful. However, I think it’s extra challenging for kids today because they face so much external influence—social media and media in general—without clear direction. Helping them develop a strong sense of who they are internally and what their goals are can set them up for success.
Sure. Shannon, with all the years you’ve spent coaching if you could boil it down to just three concepts, what would you say are the most powerful?
Probably unique ability teamwork is one. I’m going to cheat a little because “who, not how” combines the concepts of unique ability and unique ability teamwork. So yes, I would say that’s one.
The second would be what I just talked about: our value creation formula. It’s about using your unique ability to create value for your audience by understanding their dangers, opportunities, and strengths. All of these are driven by emotions like fear, excitement, and confidence, which lead to your value creation. That essential formula is another core concept for me. When you know that, it’s powerful. I believe that was the first concept that attracted you to Strategic Coach.
Yes, How do I choose between the Gap and the Gain and the 4C’s? Were the 4C’s in there?
Yes. so why don’t you go through each of them?
The 4C’s is something you’ve experienced, but one of Dan’s geniuses is being able to take what is common but not obvious. Everyone has gone through this experience, but then he names it, and you realize, “Oh, right!” You can then apply it consciously.
When you set a bigger target, the first step is commitment. Some people say clarity, but Dan emphasizes commitment. You have to commit, and commitment is a term that Colby uses. It’s when you decide to take action, sometimes without knowing everything.
Then you go through this challenging stage called courage. We love feeling confident and capable, but the problem is we often don’t know how to get there. This is what trips up kids all the time. You need to be willing to make that commitment and navigate the feelings of courage.
You know that feeling when you commit to something, and suddenly you think, “Oh, no, what have I just done?” Whether it’s promising to give a speech, be an emcee, join a board, or contribute a chapter to a book, you might have jumped in out of excitement, only to realize you don’t know how to execute it, which can be pretty daunting. That’s the courage phase.
Interestingly, Dan has a great way of framing this: you can have short courage or long courage. The more fully you commit, the shorter your courage phase tends to be. I prefer short courage—I’m not into long-suffering. When you fully commit and dive in, you quickly build the capabilities you need. It’s akin to learning to swim by being thrown into the pool!
Eventually, you develop confidence. I remember the first time I hosted a webinar; I was terrified. I needed a whole team supporting me, and Julia would make my little stars and emblems, giving me awards just for participating. Now, I can host them in my sleep; I even did one before lunch today! Once you’ve built that confidence, you’re ready to scare yourself again by making the next commitment. That’s the essence of the 4 C’s.
Then there’s the concept of the gap and the gain, which is crucial for high achievers. We often get trapped in measuring ourselves against our potential, which can be very dangerous. We can be incredibly successful yet still feel unhappy because we’re constantly measuring against our goals. As you work through the 4 C’s, you might find yourself setting bigger and bigger goals—idealizing your perfect week, client, house, kid, spouse, or body.
However, “perfect” lasts only a moment. When we measure ourselves against an ideal that’s constantly shifting—like the horizon—it can feel like an endless chase. The ideal is useful but ultimately a mental construct we’ve created. Instead, we should look back to see how far we’ve come and measure our gains.
When I speak to audiences I’ve never met, I often start with the gap and the gain. Many people realize they’ve been stuck in the gap for decades, projecting their frustrations onto their spouses, children, or teams. It’s essential to learn to measure progress from where you started. When you do that, you can appreciate what you’ve accomplished and recognize your capabilities. Celebrating wins and using that confidence to set new, exciting goals is vital for mental health and well-being.
As you go through the 4C’s, you start to develop a capability and a muscle for this mindset. You begin to think about how to embrace challenges in every area of life. For instance, Joe Polish emphasizes doing something scary every day. Whether it’s at work or home, stepping outside your comfort zone requires courage.
This is especially true in the investing world; you have to muster the courage to ask questions and explore new approaches that make sense for you. I also love your approach to reflection. I’ve attended many of your Monday morning calls where you set up your weekly planner.
It’s great that you emphasize reflecting on wins from the previous week—focusing on accomplishments in health, relationships, and work. This positive focus helps build momentum. My wife and I have a routine; when we walk the dog, we discuss our three wins for the day.
Totally! I do that with my husband too. He starts his mornings sharing his sleep scores from his Oura ring and Apple Watch—that’s his positive focus. I can be in five meetings with you, and we could cover five different topics of focus on that day. Starting the week with this perspective is crucial because we all have significant things on our plates.
It’s easy to begin feeling overwhelmed, thinking about what we haven’t done or should have achieved by now. Words like “could,” “would,” and “should” keep us in the gap.
My mother, Marilyn Waller, who you know, always considered “should” a four-letter swear word in our house. I could get away with swearing much easier than using that word! When I met Dan, he explained that “should” reflects an externally imposed expectation—not something we created ourselves.
It’s vital to assess what you’re measuring and determine if you’re comparing yourself to an unrealistic ideal or looking back to appreciate your progress. Starting the week this way allows you to build from a place of confidence, maximizing the value of your achievements.
You’ve heard me say this before: last year was a gold mine, and your job is to go find that gold and write it down, both personally and professionally. That will set you up for success and give you the confidence to try new, scary things. It’s kind of like the 4 C’s in action, right? You’re identifying what gives you confidence, which will propel you to step out of your comfort zone. On that note, I think you’ll enjoy this.
I was coaching a workshop for 10×10 clients, and they mentioned that if they aren’t a little bit scared or nervous, it worries them. If there’s not a bit of fear, uncertainty, and discomfort, they start to feel uneasy because they are used to living on that edge. That’s where they feel most alive and creative, and frankly, when they’re doing their best work.
Now, if you push yourself to the point where you can’t function, that’s not healthy. And if you’re too comfortable, you risk falling asleep, which isn’t good either. So, there’s a nice balance to maintain in the middle of the 4C’s. The psychology behind this is fascinating.
Isn’t it? The way the brain works is really interesting, especially if you look at our natural wiring as humans. We are naturally on the lookout for danger and want to react to potential threats. We live in a world filled with uncertainty—especially as we start 2023, with questions about a possible recession, ongoing wars, and other global issues.
It’s crucial to build skills that drive out what is certain in your life and focus on that momentum. When you do, you’ll see amazing results unfold, regardless of external factors. I think that’s a very important point. Dan and I recorded a podcast for Inside Strategic Coach, and I loved our conversation. I told him I wanted to discuss the upcoming recession. Interestingly, Dan decided to stop watching television four and a half years ago. He noted that since then, he’s found the world to be a much nicer place.
He’s gained something like 400 to 800 hours a year back, which he now uses for reading, exercising, and other activities. He said, regarding the recession, that we talked about various strategies that go back to being super clear about your unique contribution. How can you create value for your audience? It’s about understanding your economic system, regardless of what’s happening in the world, and figuring out how to create value for others.
We also discussed a great question we use called the R-Factor question, which is a future-based inquiry. So, if we were to meet here a year from today, what has to happen for you, both personally and professionally, for you to feel really happy with your progress? Your job then is to listen.
When people are scared, and their amygdala is triggered, they tend to feel like they are running out of the future. Those who lack a sense of the future often stop spending, investing, and taking action; they tighten up as a natural safety response. When you help people envision their future, you can create something together.
We discussed a few more strategies on this topic, and I said to Dan, “This is a great way to be recession-proof.” He replied, “Recession oblivious!” I laughed. It was fun because when we take control of our experiences seriously, we can impact what we can influence. We also need to tune out the negative narratives out there, which often aren’t in our best interest.
The media is designed to scare us; it thrives on sensationalism. Instead, focus on your achievements, your clients’ successes, your family’s accomplishments, and your neighbors’ achievements. Build on that. Consider how you can be intentional and create more value. When you do that, you start to realize, “My life is fine, and I’m helping those around me improve too.”
With this kind of mindset, we can shift the tides. However, it requires stepping back and taking your own experiences more seriously than the news or other people’s narratives. To tie this together and make it actionable for our listeners, Shannon, if you could give just one piece of advice for making progress with the concepts we’ve discussed today, what would that be?
That’s a challenging question! This is my coaching audition. It’s a good question, though. My advice is less about exercise and more about something to remember: take your own experiences seriously. Reflect on where you’ve succeeded, where things have been easy, where they’ve been hard, and what you aren’t designed to do. Ask yourself why you are still doing it.
When you start to take yourself seriously and appreciate what you’ve been given—what’s factory-installed, as we like to say at Coach—life begins to change. You’ll pay more attention to your narrative instead of someone else’s. One of my mottos is “know thyself,” which is why I value all personality profiles. When you do this and take yourself seriously, things begin to shift for the better. You’ll become clear about what you want, not what others want.
I have some unusual hobbies. I don’t have many domestic talents, but baking is one of them. However, I didn’t want to eat a ton of sugar, so I thought I needed something else, and I like to use my hands. I also get frustrated by dead limbs on trees at our cottage property, so I went and bought a battery-operated chainsaw. I love chainsawing; it’s really fun! I do it on my property and for my friends.
My husband was no help at all. His chainsaw doesn’t work as consistently as mine, so I’ve got some great pictures of my chainsaw in action. Then I picked up watercolor painting. Is that a common set of hobbies to have? No, but I don’t care—it’s me! It’s fun, which I also enjoy.
What am I good at? I’m good at coaching a certain type of person on a specific mindset and conversation. That’s why I’m here. Other stuff? Not so much. Each of us could have a conversation about what we are uniquely superb at. I think it all starts with taking yourself seriously. If you don’t, none of this is available; if you do, all of it is. That would be the starting point.
I love it, Shannon. I really appreciate you coming on the show today. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share your wisdom with the audience. If people want to learn more about Strategic Coach or connect with you, what’s the best place for them to do that?
Just search for strategiccoach.com. We have all the resources there. There’s a resource hub packed with valuable information. If you’re interested in applying the tools and concepts, like you do, Dave, and integrating them into your own life, check out the website and then book a call. We have a great process where we ask you a future-based question about where you want to be in three years—not just one year—to help you figure out your goals. Then we’ll see if what we offer aligns with that. If it doesn’t, we’ll tell you.
We’re not for everybody, and not everybody is for us. So that would be the number one thing to check out with Strategic Coach. Additionally, I host the Inside Strategic Coach podcast, and I have a team success podcast because I’m passionate about all things entrepreneurial and team-related.
You can also find me on LinkedIn, just search for Shannon Waller, and you’ll see all the resources. Yourteamsuccess.com has some fun free downloads if that’s something you’re interested in, too. So yeah, that’s the best way to get ahold of me.
Awesome! Thank you so much, Shannon. I appreciate it.
My pleasure, Dave. It’s such a joy to talk to someone who takes himself seriously, knows his unique ability, and employs the DAS, does Kolbe, all the things. Thank you for being my kindred spirit; I appreciate it.
You bet!