COACH DAN, A GAME CHANGER

When I first met Master Business Coach, Danny Creed who I fondly refer to as "Coach Dan" - I could tell he was legitimate. We were both attending a mastermind event that a book publisher I was working with was hosting in Scottsdale, Arizona. (This was my very first trip to Arizona in September when I first began to entertain the idea of opening an office location here.) When it was Coach's turn to talk, I could quickly see he was the only person in the room worth getting to know better. This guy had taken 3 companies public, worked with over 14 start-ups, and he gave the best advice out of all 20 people in attendance. At the end of the day as I dumped the other business cards from the meeting in the trash, I made sure to hold on to Coach Dans. 

When I decided to come back to Arizona in November for the Arizona Heart Association's Heart Ball, I sent Coach Dan an email and asked if he would meet me to discuss strategies for launching my business in Arizona. Being the stellar individual he is, he happily agreed and we set up a time. Prior to meeting, I listened to his book, A Life Best Lived which I highly recommend and as an added bonus, it is dictated by Coach Dan himself! (It's the closest thing to free, GOOD coaching you're gonna find - go download it!)

Our November meeting was easily one of the most useful two hours I've had the opportunity of taking part in. In such a quick period of time, Coach transformed the way I thought about business and my future success. Dang, who is this magician and how in the world did I find him!? Everything about Arizona has felt serendipitous for me, my new relationship with Coach Dan was no different. 

After this life changing meeting, I returned to DC with my homework from Coach...

He'd sent me a DISC assessment as well as a few other documents to review. I completed my assessment and was astounded to find out that my personality type was the perfect fit for entrepreneurship. Thank God, that means the past six years I've been on the right track! Coach Dan then set-up a call with me to help me dive further into my results so I could utilize them to restructure my business and sales approach. 

I won't bore you all with the details but...WOW, THIS GUY IS GOOD!

As a student of Coach Dan, I am thrilled to be able to pass along some of his wisdom to all of of my readers. His principals apply across the board and there is something applicable to everyone. 

Q: What made you decide to become a full-time coach?
Coach: New statistics state that 90% of new businesses will be broke in two years. The reason for this is because a lot of people who are very good at what they do, have no idea how to run a business. This really frustrated me. Through my 14 start-ups, I decided that I wanted to take that knowledge and help people not lose their businesses and help them thrive vs survive. 

Q: In your book you talked a lot about thriving vs surviving. Tell me more. 
Coach: Survival mode takes place when you're good at what you do but you don't know how to run a business. Thriving is what happens when you learn how to successfully run your business. I like to start with a client by discussing their biggest needs, I never use the word problem. Let's work on the basics, build a foundation, and let's keep revisiting that foundation and strengthening it. 

Q: There are a lot of "coaches" out there, how do you stand out?
Coach: Anyone can call themselves a coach but VERY few people have had actual business ownership experience. Would you hire a heart surgeon who said that your procedure was his first one but he had youtube ready to go to assist? When you hire a coach, you are trusting someone with your business and your life. You need to trust the person you hire, value their past experience and capabilities much like you would with a heart surgeon. 
I want to use all of my experiences and mistakes to help other people. Help them avoid the mistakes I've made and help them transition to achieving an entirely new level of success. 

Q: Talk to me about the folks who give up. 
Coach: When people quit or go into survival mode, they're typically only at 40% of their capacity. I sell hope. I want to be their trusted advisor that gives you the hope that you can take it to the next level, and achieve things you never thought possible. Most people go through life, personally and professionally in survival mode vs thriving mode. You don't have to be thriving to have a thriving mentality. 

Q: What are the three main factors to success in your opinion?
1. Attitude
2. Skills
3. Knowledge
Out of those three factors, attitude makes up 85%. There are a lot of educated derelicts. Knowledge is not power, the application of knowledge is power. You have to put it to use. This is why a lot of entrepreneurs who didn't finish college are extremely successful. People these days also don't know how to work, there are too many distractions. 

Q: Talk to me more about distractions and work ethic.
Coach: It's called interruption addiction. We become addicted to reacting when our phone buzzes, it sets off a dopamine trigger and that has an addictive quality. You need to be disciplined - I will only check my phone at 9am, 12pm, 3pm kind of thing.

Millennials will check their phones 18x an hour on average. Research shows that once you have an interruption, it takes 17 minutes to get back on focus which means you are NEVER back in focus. If you wanna be really successful, discipline yourself to allow fewer disruptions. Run the numbers. If you everyday spend 2 minutes looking at useless emails, you have 50 useless emails, that is 100 minutes a day, and that is an ENTIRE work day gone each week! There is nothing that is going to be SO important that you need to check it instantly. 

Did you know that less than 2% of Americans have written goals. The 2% who do have written goals control 98% of all revenue. Brian Tracy says, everyone else works for the 2% who have written goals. 

Q: What are your top three general tips for readers?
Coach:
1. The world owes you nothing
2. The greatest skill you can have is a work ethic - this whole idea of a 4 hour work week is ridiculous. 
3. You have to know how to sell. I don't care what your ideas are on sales, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur today, you HAVE to know how to sell. 

Q: Top five book recommendations
Coach:
1. Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill this is the BIBLE
2. The 10x Rule, Grant Cardone thinks exactly the way I do - if you aren't willing to work, shut up
3. See You at the Top, Zig Ziglar
4. Eat that Frog, Brian Tracy
5. How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie - this is the book that teaches you how to breathe and walk 
Some people wont read those because they think they're old and the information doesn’t apply anymore and that is where they are completely wrong. It’s the foundational principals that people don’t value. You have foundations you HAVE to build. It's all about understanding and applying the basics. 

 Q: What is the biggest frustration you see often?
Coach: People that are satisfied with mediocrity. Satisfied with OK vs great. In a lot of ways, it’s an issue of their fears get in their way and they become satisfied with their fears.
I hate when I see talent and potential in people and they’re not doing anything about it.
I hate when people whine and moan that life isn’t fair but they aren’t willing to do the things necessary to get there. So I say look, be aware of what you need to do and what you are willing to do, and if you’re aware of that and aren't willing to do what you NEED to do – then shut up. I don’t wanna hear the worlds unfair if you’re not willing to take the steps necessary to change it.
 
I can help you be successful in any economy, country, at anytime – the foundational recipes of success apply across the board – you just have to be willing enough to be disciplined enough to apply to principals. 

Coach Dan is a massive inspiration to me to continue to thrive, stay disciplined, and to stay on top of my game in business and in life. I hope you've enjoyed this free advice from my trusted master business coach and if you're in need of more, you can reach Coach via his website, www.businesscoachdan.com 

P.S. Coach Dan and I will be hosting a radio segment on Phoenix Business Radio together prior to the launch of the Personalized Solutions Scottsdale office next month - stay tuned for how you can tune in or listen later!