Are you thriving or just arriving? In this episode, Shannon Waller and Program Coach Lee Brower explore the lifelong mindset that keeps entrepreneurs in motion long after the initial motivation fades. Discover practical ways to make growth and gratitude central to your business, family, and life—plus the powerful impact of asking the right questions and building strong traditions that last.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The surprising first job Lee created for himself before he was old enough for a paper route.
• What sparked Lee’s deep appreciation for entrepreneurship and its ecosystem.
• How Lee defines the mindset that drives enduring entrepreneurial success.
• Why motivation and inspiration play different roles on the entrepreneurial journey.
• How to tell the difference between genuine confidence and mere arrogance.
• Why great entrepreneurs are more like rivers than you might think.
• Lee’s most powerful lesson from three decades at Strategic Coach®.

Show Notes:

Not everyone chooses entrepreneurship—sometimes it chooses you.

Money motivates at first, but it’s the freedom it brings that keeps you going.

The best lessons come from learning alongside other entrepreneurs, not just from teaching.

Successful entrepreneurs focus on making things better, easier to access, and more valuable.

Great entrepreneurs don't ask themselves what's wrong. They ask, “What's right?” and “How can I make it even better?”

Problems don’t hold entrepreneurs back; they turn problem solving into daily practice.

Motivation is temporary. Inspiration and purpose are what keep you going.

You can elevate yourself by surrounding yourself with people who have skills you don’t have.

Family traditions, shared language, and rituals build lasting culture at home and in business.

The most valuable assets aren’t financial; they’re values, learning, relationships, and contribution.

Never delegate away your Unique Ability® until you truly know and refine it.

Confidence grows from gratitude and from focusing on others, not just on yourself.

Great results come from being open to learning in every interaction. Instead of chasing answers, ask better questions.

The enemy of thriving is arriving.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

The Impact Filter™

Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World by David Epstein

The Positive Focus®

strategiccoach.com

leebrower.com

Do you feel alone navigating the entrepreneurial journey, even in a room full of peers? This episode uncovers the power of a shared language, showing how entrepreneurs elevate their growth, tackle obstacles, and celebrate wins together. Discover how Strategic Coach’s thinking tools turn isolation into collaboration, making progress possible for everyone—no matter their industry or experience.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How Strategic Coach® stands apart from other coaching companies.
• How thinking tools create a shared language for entrepreneurs.
• A simple approach for entrepreneurs to clarify their ideal role.
• The story of Dan building an entrepreneurial community in 1982.
• Why entrepreneurs tend to experience more isolation than others.

Show Notes:

Entrepreneurs often don’t have words for their experience, and Strategic Coach provides them.

A shared language empowers entrepreneurs to interpret and elevate their experiences within a supportive community.

At most entrepreneurial coaching companies, every client knows that everyone else in the room is a competitor, and it makes for a toxic learning environment.

Most business coaching programs actually make entrepreneurs feel more isolated, lonely, and anxious.

Strategic Coach builds environments where each entrepreneur is seen as a resource rather than a rival.

Strategic Coach’s 250 thinking tools create a common language and provide practical frameworks for collaboration, growth, and clarity.

Strategic Coach members are all making progress within the same framework.

Common language shortcuts, like The 4 C’s Formula®, accelerate mutual understanding and meaningful conversation.

In creating his thinking tools, Dan Sullivan intentionally avoids jargon so that communication is clear, practical, and relevant to real experience.

There are elements common to every entrepreneur’s experience, no matter what industry they’re in.

Resources:

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

Unique Ability®

How To Harness The Power Of Negative Thinking

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Do you see ambition as a fixed trait or an ever-expanding capability? In this episode, Dan Sullivan reframes ambition as the platform for all growth. Discover why ambition expands with every capability you build, how it empowers collaboration, and why this mindset leads to greater innovation, freedom, and lasting entrepreneurial success.

Here’s some of what you’ll learn in this episode:

• What inspired Dan to redefine ambition as a capability rather than a destination.
• Why his greatest goal is simply to become more ambitious over time.
• How traditional views of ambition create unnecessary burdens for female entrepreneurs.
• Why seeing ambition as a limited resource holds people back.
• How shifting your perspective allows ambition to drive every new capability.

Show Notes:

Ambition is not a destination but a capability that creates all other capabilities.

The spark behind every new skill or achievement is your ambition to grow.

Ambition expands with use, much like a muscle that strengthens with repeated resistance.

Gaining one new capability naturally increases your ambition for the next.

You can decide to increase your ambition long before you know the specific projects you will undertake.

True ambition is abundant and does not come at others’ expense.

Empowering your own ambition can inspire and multiply the ambition of others.

Society often misrepresents ambition as competitive or distasteful, yet entrepreneurs can transform how it is understood.

Education rarely addresses ambition, leaving many people isolated in how they think about it.

Ambition should not be defined by limits, like a “gas tank,” but as an ever-expanding resource.

The 4 C’s Formula®—commitment, courage, capability, and confidence—depends on ambition to power growth.

Viewing ambition as a capability eliminates gender barriers and unfair expectations placed on both men and women.

Ambition grows through collaboration, teamwork, and creativity rather than isolation.

Focusing on your next capability creates a self-sustaining cycle of personal and professional growth.

Resources:

The 4 C’s Formula by Dan Sullivan

The Bigger Future™ Countdown

The Gap And The Gain by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

Unique Ability®