October 8, 2025 • 41 mins
Have you ever wondered how entrepreneurs can achieve massive growth while navigating personal challenges? In this episode, we explore the intersection of business strategy, personal resilience, and recovery. David Greer shares actionable strategies to accelerate your business in 90 days, the lessons he’s learned from overcoming alcoholism, and how to reclaim your dreams no matter your circumstances.
This episode is with David J. Greer.
David J. Greer is an entrepreneurial coach, author, and facilitator specializing in helping entrepreneurs accelerate business growth while navigating personal challenges, including alcoholism and addiction. A recovering alcoholic with 16 years of sobriety, David combines his experience as a former executive, angel investor, and co-owner of Robelle Solutions Technology with actionable coaching strategies to help clients reclaim their dreams and achieve measurable results in 90 days. He is the author of Wind In Your Sails, a guide offering practical strategies to harness effort and momentum in business. Based in Vancouver, Canada, David enjoys family adventures, sailing, hiking, and inspiring entrepreneurs to live boldly while achieving high-growth success.
Find out more about David Greer by visiting: https://coachdjgreer.com
Book a free, no-obligation one-hour coaching session with David Greer to gain clarity, actionable strategies, and a roadmap to accelerate your business growth over the next 90 days.
🔑Rob Z Wentz is a Leadership Communication Expert. Rob teaches, trains, and develops people and organizations to become exceptional communicators and leaders. With Rob, leaders find clarity, take action, and succeed with integrity, making them “the expert” in their industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:22):
Music Welcome back to the Unstuck Movement, true
testimonies of breakthrough. As always, I am your host, Rob Z
Today we have the incredible David Greer with us on the
podcast and we're going to be diving into some really, really
good stuff today. Strategic planning, harnessing
(00:42):
your dreams, making your dreams a reality, overcoming addiction
and mindful leadership. Mindful leadership in our lives
personally and professionally. And I want to encourage
everybody as we kick this thing off right now.
Just to let you know that David offers a free one hour coaching
call at coachdjgreer.com. That's also in the show notes
(01:02):
for you to take advantage of that whenever you feel inclined
to. But I'd love for you to stick
here with us. Listen to this amazing
conversation because you're going to get so much value out
of this breakthrough for your life.
And David, I'd like to jump in with a powerful question off the
jump. You know, a motto that you live
by is to make conscious choices about how you want to live your
(01:22):
life. And I'm curious for yourself
what conscious decision that youstuck with changed your life and
you found incredible breakthrough in?
So one of the biggest conscious decisions I made was on my 50th
birthday. I hired an amazing coach, Kevin
Lawrence, and I worked with Kevin for nine years.
But after 18 months, we had kindof cleared all I I hired him
(01:46):
because I was stalled in my career and we did a lot of work
to get me going again. And we cleared all the clutter
off of the table and the only thing left was the elephant in
the room. And on January 27th, 2009, I
admitted for the first time everto another human being that I
had a drinking problem and I hadbeen a daily drinker for at
(02:12):
least 20 years by that point. You know, the my truth is I'm an
alcoholic and Kevin, so the conscious intention was I hired
a coach to make a change in my life.
And, and you know, I hired him to make this change in my
career. But it turns out we made this
massive change in my life and heand his life had encountered
(02:35):
other people who are in 12 step recovery.
He coached me to go to 12 step recovery, that it happened.
The coaching call was on a Tuesday.
I committed to go to a 12 step meeting by that Friday.
And then later in the afternoon I knew I had a networking event
downtown that finished at 8. And being the overachiever that
(02:56):
I am, I went online and lo and behold, there would be a 12 step
meeting half a block off the road.
I would be driving down on the way home from the networking
event downtown to start at 8:30.So I went and, and you know, I,
(03:16):
I went into that meeting. It probably took me 5 years to
admit how scared I was. You know, this was all
completely new, unknown. I didn't know how I'd survive
single day without alcohol. And, you know, I'd put, I'd had
my last drink like at 10:00 the night before.
And, you know, I ended up sitting in the room and 3/4 of
(03:39):
the waist for the meeting. The chairperson asked, is there
anyone new to the fellowship would like to stand and
introduce themselves? And I sat on my hands.
And I sat on my hands for about 20 seconds.
I finally jumped up and said, I'm David.
I'm an alcoholic. And you know, I've since
learned, like, that's my truth. I don't think in the moment I
actually really understood what I was admitting to.
(03:59):
And that's OK. But I eventually learned that it
was my truth. And as it so happens, last night
was a Tuesday night. And I made that group, what's
called a Home group. So anytime I'm in town, I commit
to go. I'd be of service there.
And I was there last night. And now 16 years, 8 months and
(04:19):
some odd days later and there were two people in the room last
night that were there the night that I walked in all those many
years ago. That's been my same Home group
for my entire sobriety. Man, David, that's incredible.
Thank you, first of all, for sharing that.
That is powerful. And I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
(04:42):
dive into all that. So I'm just, I'm gonna save it
here for a second. I wanna welcome everybody to the
show. That's a great way to start the
show. Powerful way to jump in.
Like I said, this is a show all about breakthrough.
True testimony is a breakthrough.
That's why I created the unstuckmovement, so you can have
examples. Whoever's watching or listening
for you in your life, that breakthrough is possible for you
wherever you're stuck. We're sponsored by the Connected
(05:04):
Leaders Academy. Check out Connected
leadersacademy.com, over 500 heart centered entrepreneurs all
helping each other grow and alsothe pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who wants to launch a podcast, but you
don't know how to do it, you're not sure all the nuts and bolts
of how to get things done, I would love to help you through
that process. To have a platform that creates
massive impact in people's lives, makes incredible personal
(05:27):
and professional connections foryou, and also makes you the go
to authority in your space. And listen, if you have a
podcast, you want to streamline it, make it easier to do, you
want to monetize it and make it a real revenue source for your
business. I'd love to help you do that.
You can check out the Pro Podcaster Academy at
robzwentz.com today with us on the show, as we've already dove
(05:48):
in a little bit, here is David Greer.
He helps entrepreneurs accelerate business growth while
navigating personal and professional challenges and
recovering alcoholic and seasoned executive.
He combines strategy, experienceand mentorship to help clients
reclaim their dreams and achievemeasurable results.
And now I want to go back to this because it's, it's so
important that we talk about the, the moments when we finally
(06:10):
admit something that we may be maybe we don't even know we
needed to admit to get it off our chest to create that massive
change in our life. What was it that that led you?
What was it about the coach thatyou had?
And what was it that led you to finally admit this thing that
you'd never said out loud for 20years?
My bottom, so I, you know, I still had a house, I had a
(06:34):
couple cars, you know, I had three kids.
So it's not like I'd lost it all, which a lot of people come
into recovery. That's their story.
But my story is I lost myself. So I was sick and tired of being
sick and tired. And I think, you know, this work
with Coach Kevin and, like, justcontinually clarifying and, you
(06:57):
know, cleaning up things and getting rid of distractions and
drains, you know, led to, you know, up to that point, I just
wasn't willing to even admit to myself because because here was
the challenge for me was I couldn't imagine a life without
alcohol. And so if I admitted it to
(07:18):
myself, it's like, where do I gofrom there?
Like, there's nowhere to go if you can't imagine a life without
alcohol and you admit to yourself that you're an
alcoholic. Like, because I wasn't ready to
quit. But on that day, like, I just
reached that point where I just couldn't do it anymore.
(07:39):
And, you know, I'd also built a strong enough trust relationship
with Kevin that I knew Kevin being the kind of guy that he is
in the relationship we had and still have, he was never going
to let me off the hook. Like I knew once, once I put the
secret out there to Kevin, I didn't know what that would look
like, but I knew he, he wouldn'tlet me let it go because he's
(08:04):
that kind of guy, right? And, and you know, he would have
circled around as he is as an amazing coach if I hadn't gone
to his 12 step recovery, but he would have kept bringing it up.
And so I, I knew that it was a one way door once I admitted it
to Kevin. And I think the truth is the
(08:26):
universe put Kevin in my past toget sober, and I was ready to go
through that door. Man, that's so good.
You can apply this to so many different places in your life.
But what I heard you say there was, you know, building trusting
relationships with people that won't let you off the hook is
one of the best things you can have in your life.
(08:47):
Now that could be terrifying because like you said, when
you're not ready to I admit something or get through
something, then you don't want somebody to not let you off the
hook, which is why you don't tell anybody, right, Because you
don't want that to happen. But when you're finally at that
place and you and you and you tell the right person, that's
that's the part of this man thatI go back to all the time.
I look for themes and these shows.
And one of those themes is, it'sa classic one, but you know,
(09:09):
you, you sum total of your 5 closest friends, that the
people, you, 5 people you're closest with.
If you have really good people that are close to you, they're
gonna help pull you through the hell you're going through, even
when you're not ready to or you don't want to, right?
And they're, and they're gonna be there for you and they're
gonna be that safe space that you have that trusting
relationship. And I, I think that's also a
(09:30):
testament to the power of what coaching can be, because there's
a lot of misconceptions about coaching.
And one of those things is this the a real good coach is a, is a
real solid person in your life, like a mentor in your life, a
trusted person that can take youthrough incredibly difficult
things. And I guess I want to ask that
question just for a minute. So how, how did that affect you
(09:54):
now, now that you're a coach? And how did that affect the
relationships that you other relationships you've had in your
life? Do you have other people like
that in your life? Did you try to intentionally get
people around you that you knew would hold you to the fire and
not let you off the hook? Or was that an intentional step
in your life? Or how has that played out since
(10:15):
that moment? So I think it was intentional
when I hired Kevin, I'm not certain as an entrepreneur.
Like I was accountable to my former partner and we're like we
were accountable to each other, but we didn't have anyone else
outside who we were accountable to.
And there's limits to that in a partnership, I think.
So Kevin was probably one of thefirst people that I really let
(10:38):
in in such a big way. I mean, I had some very early
mentors, one of my dad's best friend who's an entrepreneur.
I still remember some of the very early lessons from him, but
not in like a regular basis, like a regular interaction.
And you know, I, I have it on mywebsite, you know, I'm the
(10:59):
catalyst that gets you to live your dreams now.
And, and earlier. And before we pressed the record
button, I talked about the fact that from 2001 to 2003, my wife
and I commissioned a sailboat inthe South of France and we took
our three kids and we homeschooled them for two years.
And that came out of I'd sold out of this business I've been
(11:20):
with for 20 years. But this person sat me down and
said, David, your kids will never be 11-9 and five again.
And I had one of the proverbial,like, aha moments where I did
not realize how much of A dream this was for me.
Like, I'd read all sorts of books about going offshore with
(11:41):
your kids and sailing around theworld.
Like I had been nurturing that dream unconsciously for years
until someone like just put thisone question in front of me that
shifted everything. And then as I pursued that, I
started to realize, like, if I'dstayed with the business, I
(12:03):
don't know if I'd ever lived that dream of going offshore and
sailing with my kids. But it like took the end of the
business, which was very emotional.
And it was very a lot of finger pointing and a lot of ugliness.
Bob and I only had one major disagreement in 20 years, but it
was a doozy. And it ended in divorce.
(12:24):
But it opened up this beautiful opportunity.
Yeah, it's amazing too. It sounds like the getting away
on a boat for a couple of years is exactly what you would need
after something like that too, right?
Just a complete disconnect and areconnection with your family
and another sounds like another conscious choice, like a really
(12:44):
powerful conscious choice. So as an entrepreneur, once
getting sober, once the drinking's out of the way,
because there's a lot of unconscious decision making that
goes on when you have addictions, how did it start to
reshape the decisions you were making, the choices you were
making in your business and in your life?
Like did you did you see things clearly after that or did the
(13:06):
walls start to come down to helpyou maybe find more blind spots
in your life? I think for me it's much more a
slow unveiling or revealing, like I've had a long slow like
(13:29):
process in recovery. And you know, I used the 12
steps of recovery. I did some therapy work with a
personal therapist. I kept working with the coach.
Like all of these things just kept me moving on a path where
more of my true self was revealed.
(13:49):
Like, and obviously it starts like when you drank as much as I
did, just like getting the alcohol into the house and then
'cause I mostly drank at home and getting the empties out, it
turns out like the empties make more noise than the full ones.
So, and you know, I drank a lot every day.
So it's like a lot and, and justplanning it and like all of that
(14:14):
energy that gets consumed and, you know, not right away, 'cause
right away like you're just trying to go to meetings and
just like figure this thing out and everything sounds really
weird and you're just trying notto have a drink for today.
But you know, over time it let me be more present to my
children, let me be more presentto my spouse.
(14:35):
Let me think about other things maybe to pursue or how I wanted
to be and slowly letting go of my need to be in control of
everything, which is still an ongoing challenge today, which,
(14:55):
you know, I think 80% of the world has control problems.
But it, you know, it's, it's definitely an ongoing work in
progress. But I'm, I'm so much better than
I was, you know, 16 years ago. And so this slow unveiling, this
slow letting go. And then, you know, my young
children, my children were teenagers when I got sober.
(15:16):
You know, now they're all like in their 30s.
You know, one of our, our oldesthas two grandkids.
And I can interact with them andI can just be very present.
And I don't have to, I don't have to like control things.
I don't even make suggestions very often.
Or if I do, I say, would you like a suggestion about that?
And my children now you know, know me well enough.
(15:39):
They just say they can say no and it's fine.
I won't make it. Like, I'll just keep it to
myself and let them make their choice with whatever group of
advisors they want to work with.And.
And if it doesn't include me, it's like I don't take it
personally whereas I used to. What do you mean my child is not
listening to my advice? Yeah.
(16:00):
Who do you think you are? That's part of the it's part of
the journey. It's part of the journey.
It's also part of letting go. I think you have children
growing up. I see a lot of parents who have
kids in their 30s, they haven't let go.
They're still trying to manipulate control and or, you
know, be the advisors. And it's like, maybe I should
(16:23):
be, maybe I shouldn't, but it's,it's, it's up to them.
And, and so it's all of these things together.
It's, it's like hard for me to like pinpoint this one thing,
but I just show up as an individual very differently than
I used to. I can listen, wait.
And I am also a way better listener.
(16:44):
I can really listen powerfully and hear it all and be able to
reflect it back. And if I get triggered by
something that said, I don't need to react like it's just
that's my issue. And it's the same in the
coaching call. Someone might say something, it
might trigger something from your past, but I just can easily
let that go and let it off and get back to just being present
(17:06):
to the person who I'm on the call with.
Yeah, it's so powerful to be able to let those things go.
And that's, I mean, that's wherewe get hung up.
That's what gets us stuck, literally that, that is the
places where you get stuck. You can't let those things go.
And usually those things culminate in overwhelm.
I think right now especially, itseems like there's so much
overwhelm in our, in our culture.
(17:28):
How do you handle that with, with people that you're working
with? And, and how do you handle it
differently now than you used to?
Because it sounds like you're able to kind of let things run
off. And I, I think overwhelm is that
one thing, especially people whohave anxiety, who are
entrepreneurs who want to do a lot and they're, they want to
maximize overwhelm creeps in a lot.
(17:48):
How do you handle that? So several things probably my
favorite question I asked a lot of my one-on-one coaching
clients is do you want to be right or do you want to be
happy? And it, our need to be right is
just, it can be so baked in right from our family of origin
(18:10):
and, and, and in business too, Like as entrepreneurs, we start
the business and we started withnothing and then we built it up
And now it's like actually bigger than than me, the
entrepreneur. But I don't want to let go of
that control. I, I still want to, I want to be
right. Like it's got to be my way or
the highway. So some of my work with
(18:30):
entrepreneurial clients, it's like, well, you can, but maybe
your, your business is probably going to stay stuck on these
things you've told me you're stuck on.
So maybe it's time to let go. The other thing about overwhelm
is I do a lot of work with strategic planning and
facilitation. And I think one of a couple
things happens. One is you don't do any
(18:51):
planning. So it's all just by the senior
plants. No one in the rest of the
business really knows where you're going or what you're
supposed to do because you haven't been clear.
And or you do a bunch of planning and you try and get 20
things done and 1/4. And I'm like, you know, no more
than five major goals for the year and no more than five major
(19:13):
goals for 1/4. And, and then I believe in a
planning process that's every quarter to set a new set of
goals for the next quarter. Because my assertion is 13 weeks
is long enough to get a lot of stuff done and short enough that
if you went wildly off in the wrong direction, you won't kill
the business. Like if you re circle back after
13 weeks, you see what you learned.
(19:35):
You see what new brutal facts there are.
Like you can course correct likeenough, but if but you don't
want to course correct every week because you don't get
anything done. And the other thing with
entrepreneurs is we love maximumfreedom of movement.
So we hate writing things down. Yeah.
(19:56):
Right. So part of my work is just to
get them to write it down and share it with their team and
then stick with it, you know? And sometimes coaching calls
are, oh, there's a shiny red ball or AIAI, you know, and it's
like, OK, Mr. or Miss Miss Entrepreneur, which of your five
(20:16):
goals for the quarter are you going to give up so you can go
chase that shiny red ball? Like you told me at the
beginning of the quarter, these are the five most important
things to move the business ahead.
Like what's changed? You've seen the shiny red ball.
OK, if it's so important, what will you give up so you can have
that? And most of the time it's like,
oh, it's a shiny red ball. I shouldn't go chase it, or I
(20:40):
should at least let the quarter roll out and then I can think
about whether I want to chase it.
So the overwhelm comes because we don't like limit ourselves
and get focused and write thingsdown.
And as entrepreneurs, we think we, we minimize risk by kind of
this maximal like freedom. And I argue, you actually take
(21:03):
on more risk because you're not super clear about where you're
going and what you're going to achieve.
And obviously the people around you, they can't follow you
because you're not making it clear what it is that you're
trying to achieve and where you're trying to go.
And so they do their best, but they do their best without the
most critical information. Yeah, if you're following
(21:24):
somebody who's scattered chasingshiny red balls, that's that's
going to be a struggle for you too.
Now you're now you're now everybody's chasing shiny red
balls. Nobody's knows what they're
doing. There's no real point to what
you're doing. That's that's good advice.
And have you ever heard of the book The 12 Week Year?
I have not. 'Cause you just described that
perfectly. It's, it's, it's one, it's one
of the books I use for myself and in coaching.
(21:46):
But it's, it's that, it's that premise.
Exactly, David. It is you build out 12 week
years because then you have timein that 12 weeks if something's
really good and you make it a goal in those 12 weeks and you
can keep going with it. But like you said, if it's a bad
idea within 12 weeks, you'll know if it's a bad idea if you
stay to it, right. So that that's, that's very
(22:08):
sound advice. It's kind of like building your
building your days like that. If I and that's, you know, it's
like quarters basically 12 weeksis pretty much 1/4.
Yes, exactly. And it's a, it's a great way to
function because you can get so much done and it keeps you
focused and it keeps you moving forward.
And entrepreneurs usually have some form of ADHD or shiny ball
(22:29):
syndrome, whatever you want to call it.
So that's, it's time. It gives you enough time for
freedom to regroup and somethingelse I heard you say in there
too, which is always, I, I, I say this so much, but you can
only have freedom whenever you have structure.
If you have freedom without structure, you have chaos.
But if you have structure, you can have freedom inside of that
(22:50):
structure. And that allows for that
creativity to flow and allows for you to, you know, whatever
freedom you need in there, it makes that possible.
But often times we just want total freedom, which really is
just like anarchy. And, and anybody who's an
entrepreneur who's done that to themselves knows that, right?
Well, another thing for like successful, you know, owner,
(23:13):
founder owner businesses who youknow, built a pretty successful
business. It's like maybe you should like
become, think of it as you become chairman of the board.
So you still set the big picturestrategy.
You're probably still the personwho understands the market the
best, but like you lead the quarterly planning, but you
(23:35):
actually step back from being CEO and you hire like a really
good COO or general manager or CEO, like whatever we want to
call the role. And you get out of the
day-to-day operation of the business and and you actually
step back because you're actually holding the business
back. And that way you can focus on
(23:55):
the high value things that you add the most value to and you
can let others like operate the business.
And that can be very effective, although usually it frees up a
lot of time. And then because then
entrepreneurs typically have a lot of energy, then I have to
help them figure out where do you want to direct that energy?
And, and maybe it's like Angel investing.
Maybe it's go get involved in another business like like so
(24:20):
anyways, I, that's one of the ways I help entrepreneurs to
like see like how their role could be very different, you
know, and propose that to them. And some it's like it doesn't,
you know, it, it doesn't relate and they're not willing to go
there. And that's fine, right?
Like I, I just try and present opportunities or, you know,
(24:43):
other perspectives to people andthen leave it up to it's, it's
their life, it's their business.I, I don't judge it.
It's again, it's back to the opening statement that you had
about making conscious choice. What I do ask is that like you
choose, I'm not going to become chairman.
I'm going to stay head of the business.
And I choose, you know, to run it this way.
(25:04):
And if that's how you want to run it, great.
I may point out some potholes and some things you might run
into if you continue down that path.
And if you still want to do it, great.
As Coach Kevin told to me beforeI hired him, he said at the end
of the day, I'm going to let youmake your decisions.
And if you make some decisions that end up where you crash and
burn, I'm going to be there to help you pick up the pieces.
(25:28):
And I thought, wow, that's like really powerful, right?
Yeah, because you can't have somebody in your life who's
going to, you know, a coach is not going to force you into
doing things. It's just.
And I and I never like I told you so.
Yeah. It it's like, OK, you went down
that path, you crashed and burned.
(25:49):
What do we do to help pick you up?
Like, where do you want to go next?
Like it's just, you know, I may ask them is, is there any
learning you want to take from this that you want to apply in
the future? But again, I'd, I'd leave it for
them to try and figure most of that out, like maybe just shine
a little bit of light because again, I don't want to be in
(26:13):
like I told you. So it's I, I'm, it's your
journey. I'm just there to help
facilitate it and and help you be the best you can be in any
given moment. Exactly.
I love that, that mindset and strategy, That's the way to look
at it right now. We're going to pause to shout
out the sponsors of the show. When we come back, though, I
want to talk about high growth and strategic planning because
(26:36):
we all want to grow. Anybody who's watching or
listening to this show is has a desire to grow at a high level.
So I'm curious on your end, how do you create high growth
strategic outcomes for people, for businesses?
I'd love to dive into that when we come back in one minute.
Are you? Struggling to make consistent,
valuable content for yourself? Do you want to have an efficient
and effective? Way.
(26:56):
To create content that attracts the people that you want to
connect with in life. The people you want to build
relationships with in business. Do you want to be the go to?
Authority at what you do, At what you're great at?
Would it be helpful for you? If you had a platform that
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without you having to beat down anybody's door or blow up
(27:18):
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(27:40):
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(28:03):
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We look forward to having you join us.
Take care. David, loving this conversation,
man, talking about high growth, how do you create high growth
strategic outcomes for people and for businesses?
Do you have a strategy steps yougo through that can guarantee
(28:26):
those sort of breakthroughs? I don't think I can't guarantee
anything, but I can help you aimin that direction.
So I met Coach Kevin at this event put on by guy Vern
Harnish, who has something called the One Page Strategic
Plan. And I had so many of my
entrepreneurial friends tell me about it and I didn't know what
(28:47):
it was. So I went to this event to learn
about the One Page Strategic Plan.
And Vern's books are The Rockefeller Habits and Scaling
Up, which I highly recommend. And you know, the software
company I joined when I was still in the university and
built for 20 years, You know, Bob and I basically did what
most entrepreneurs do for strategic planning, which is we
(29:09):
kind of looked at last year and well, let's kind of do it 5%
better. And, you know, and we grew the
business that way and it was highly effective.
And it's the way a lot of entrepreneurs grow their
business and know, like, I have no problem if that if that's
what you want to do. But Vern presented a different
(29:29):
idea, especially for high growthcompanies, which is you figure
out, you pick a future date, at least three years, but maybe
it's four or five years out. So you know, we're so you you
just figure out that dates, let's say three years and then
it's like, where do you need to be in three years time?
(29:53):
So for example, Vern is a big proponent that strategy really
equals marketing. Like you really need to
understand your markets and everything flows from that.
So let's say you're in a business that's growing at 10% a
top line revenue every year, butyour markets growing at 30%.
(30:13):
Well then in three years time like you are going to lose a lot
of market share. Like if you just want to
maintain your market share, you need to grow at 30% a year.
And you're not probably going torealize this unless you take
this idea of where is the marketgoing to be in three years?
Where do we need to be in three years?
(30:33):
And we talked about like what are the key thrusts or
capabilities? Like do you need to expand
geographically? Do you need to expand product
line? Like do you need to expand to an
adjacent market? So that's really all that
thinking about where you need tobe in three years time and then
coming up with again, maybe fivekey thruster capabilities, like
(30:55):
maybe you need to hire a real master of VP of sales who can
manage like a much bigger sales team and make them really
productive. And like that's the, that's one
of the capabilities you need to build is you need to build sales
leadership. And again, it's like that's
(31:16):
where we need to be in three years.
And then you work backwards fromthat to what do we need to
achieve this year so that we're going to end up where we want to
go in three years time. And then, then once we're
clearing where we need to go this year, then we work out.
And again, like no more than 5 calls.
And then we work out like, wheredo you need to go this quarter
(31:38):
to get to where we want to go for the year so we can get to
where we want to go in three years.
And that's the essence of this planning mechanism, plus what
we've talked about previously, which is you make sure it's not
a one and done like it's it's about the rhythm and the process
of continually doing it. So you're continually facing new
brutal facts facing, you know, that the markets have changed,
(32:01):
that some new fact has come to light that, you know,
governments have changed or markets have changed or like
whatever it is. And, and you incorporate that
into your like, there's new information.
So now we might need to adjust where we're heading.
And so that's the primary mechanism that I used to help
(32:24):
people to be to get on the high growth trajectory.
Like, and again, you might not get in that higher growth until
you're 3, but you have to lay all that groundwork like you
have to be clear that that's where you want to end up.
And then you have to be making sure you're laying the
groundwork between now and then to get you to that place.
Yeah, it's being super clear, right?
(32:45):
Having a really clear vision of where you're going gets you to
where you want to go. The opposite of the shiny ball
syndrome that we were talking about earlier, right?
It's it's and it's daily discipline.
It's just the daily sort of things that they're and you've
heard of the million times. They're not fun, they're not
special, they don't look like anything, right?
They just like you do these things that get you to the place
(33:07):
that you want to go to. And I'm I'm curious, the old you
right this the the old guy, the guy who was was drinking and who
you still had success then, but maybe not as much clarity has
that has that clarity become so much more into focus?
Is that what led you into coaching through that process?
Yeah, I mean, I so I hired CoachKevin because I, you know, I
(33:31):
went away to the Mediterranean, went sailing for two years.
I came back, I did a bunch of Angel investing, you know, I and
then I met Kevin and he made me realize in about two minutes how
completely unfulfilled I was. So I hired him.
How did he make you realize that?
He said, I think he said, you know, there's 100 entrepreneurs
(33:52):
in this room and they probably all need your help.
And I'd like being trying to find entrepreneurs who I could,
you know, be hired for and to help for three years without
success. Yeah, partly looking in the
wrong places, partly showing up in the wrong way.
And I had tears in the corner ofmy eyes.
Like I did not realize how unfulfilled I was till Kevin
(34:14):
pointed it out to me. And and Kevin's found this with
a lot of entrepreneurs, Like we don't do that well-being on
boards of directors, like, especially as people have really
been operational people like we need to be in the thick of it.
That's that's what makes us tick.
And so he helped me get into a few executive gigs.
(34:35):
The last one of those was I was VP of marketing for a 35,000,000
a year publicly traded tech company.
And I came out of that and realized that in my mid 50s, I
had worked harder than I probably had worked in my entire
career. And I made a commitment to
myself that I did not need to prove to anyone that I can work
hard. And so I worked with Kevin for a
(34:59):
while and we and I decided in the end that I wanted to give to
other entrepreneurs the gifts that Kevin had given to me.
And so I decided to become an entrepreneurial coach like him.
I'm a coach and a facilitator because by then I started using
the one page plan in my own workand I've been helping other
people use it. So by then I had like 1/2 a
(35:20):
dozen years experience with the one page plan.
So, you know, I, I built a, a facilitation practice around
like for the entrepreneur and senior leadership team around
the one page plan. And yeah.
And so then that was 10 years ago and I wrote my book Winding
Your sales, Vital Strategies that accelerate your
(35:41):
entrepreneurial Growth, which actually 1/3 of that is other
people's stories. Every chapter ends in a case
study of an entrepreneur friend of mine.
So it's not just like my experience in business, you're
getting 10 and 10 plus I interviewed more than 45 people.
So there's quite a bit of depth and breadth in that book.
So I launched the book, I launched my coaching practice
(36:03):
and, and and then I've discovered in the intervening 10
years that not working hard is really hard work for a guy like
me. Undoing, undoing all the doing.
That's, yes. So that's still an ongoing work
(36:23):
in progress. My Taskmaster spirit, which is
what I've named it, is very alive and well, but we have
conversations, usually multiple times every day that Taskmaster
Spirit can stand down. We're just doing fine and we're
doing plenty of things and don'tneed to do more.
Yeah, and that awareness is so good, man.
And you know, what I hear you talking a lot about too, is the
(36:44):
simplicity, the one page plan. You know, it's, it's simple,
right? Keeping things, uncomplicating
things, less goals, one page, keep it simple.
That's how and and that, and like you said, though,
interestingly enough, that's notalways easy because our ego
wants to do a lot, right? We want we want to do, do, do
and being able to break it down,staying focused on simple things
(37:10):
that are going to drive real results is everything.
And that that even goes that simplicity even goes to stop
drinking. Not drinking is a part of that
process. A simple thing.
Don't drink can be one of the hardest things in the world to
do right. So we try to pile so much stuff
on top of simple things. If we can just see those simple
(37:30):
things and and tackle them everyday and find little wins
throughout the day, little goalslike little chipping away at
that, reverse engineering, whatever that big goal is like
breaking it down day-to-day is so powerful.
And that's, that's where the mundaneness of it comes in.
But that's where the the secret sauce is.
So I love that, David. That's so good.
(37:51):
So, and they, the other part of that the, the thing with
entrepreneurs that I coach around is make the number one
thing be the number one thing. And, and that can also be very
challenging right now for me as a recovering alcoholic, it's the
biggest achievement of my life. However, I need to achieve it
(38:11):
every day. Like I can't rest on what I did
yesterday. So for me, when I start my day,
I ask something bigger than me to help me stay sober today.
And I know that today my number one goal is to stay sober.
So in some ways that's a gift because like I know what my
number one goal needs to be and then everything kind of flows
(38:34):
from that. But I need to refocus on that at
the start of every day. Like that's how I've stayed.
I can't speak for anyone else, but that's how I've stayed sober
as long as I have is with that very clear.
I need to re achieve my biggest achievement every day.
And if I do, all these good things will come, but I just
(38:56):
need to stay focused on the number one thing.
I love that you need to re achieve your biggest
achievement. That's that's really good too.
That's that's a that's a piece of the puzzle, man, re
achieving. I'm always looking for those
themes. I'm writing that down right now
because that is the best thing you can do is re achieve the
biggest achievement in your lifebecause it that number one, it
(39:19):
keeps you grounded, keeps you steady, it keeps you winning and
keeps that momentum going, right.
There's so much power to that. So I love that.
So as we wrap this thing up, I want to encourage everybody once
again they can jump on a call with you free one hour coaching
session at coachdjgreer.com. And as I always do at the end of
the show, you know, say we neverconnect again and you never get
(39:41):
a chance to share a message withanybody who's on this platform
again. What is a lasting message that
you would leave them with? I.
Actually want to leave them withtwo.
First is no matter how dark it seems, there is light at the end
of the tunnel. Even if you don't believe it,
even if you can't see it, I wantyou to know there is a way out
(40:03):
of whatever difficulty you are in, in business, in life, with
alcohol, with drugs. And the second thing I want to
leave you with is like, certainly around alcoholism, the
mind that got me to be an alcoholic is not the mind that
can Get Me Out. I had to do it with someone
else. So my other message I really
(40:24):
want to leave with people is reach out for help.
As hard as that is and as hard as it feels, especially when
we're super motivated, high energy, high performing, you
know, entrepreneurs, last thing we want to do is get help.
And it's the number one best thing you can do.
(40:49):
Yeah, 100%, man. I agree 100%.
That's good advice. Thank you, David.
Great to meet you. Great to have you on here.
Another true testimony, A breakthrough.
Until next time. This is the unstuck movement.
Music Welcome back to the Unstuck Movement, true
testimonies of breakthrough. As always, I am your host, Rob Z
Today we have the incredible David Greer with us on the
podcast and we're going to be diving into some really, really
good stuff today. Strategic planning, harnessing
(00:42):
your dreams, making your dreams a reality, overcoming addiction
and mindful leadership. Mindful leadership in our lives
personally and professionally. And I want to encourage
everybody as we kick this thing off right now.
Just to let you know that David offers a free one hour coaching
call at coachdjgreer.com. That's also in the show notes
(01:02):
for you to take advantage of that whenever you feel inclined
to. But I'd love for you to stick
here with us. Listen to this amazing
conversation because you're going to get so much value out
of this breakthrough for your life.
And David, I'd like to jump in with a powerful question off the
jump. You know, a motto that you live
by is to make conscious choices about how you want to live your
(01:22):
life. And I'm curious for yourself
what conscious decision that youstuck with changed your life and
you found incredible breakthrough in?
So one of the biggest conscious decisions I made was on my 50th
birthday. I hired an amazing coach, Kevin
Lawrence, and I worked with Kevin for nine years.
But after 18 months, we had kindof cleared all I I hired him
(01:46):
because I was stalled in my career and we did a lot of work
to get me going again. And we cleared all the clutter
off of the table and the only thing left was the elephant in
the room. And on January 27th, 2009, I
admitted for the first time everto another human being that I
had a drinking problem and I hadbeen a daily drinker for at
(02:12):
least 20 years by that point. You know, the my truth is I'm an
alcoholic and Kevin, so the conscious intention was I hired
a coach to make a change in my life.
And, and you know, I hired him to make this change in my
career. But it turns out we made this
massive change in my life and heand his life had encountered
(02:35):
other people who are in 12 step recovery.
He coached me to go to 12 step recovery, that it happened.
The coaching call was on a Tuesday.
I committed to go to a 12 step meeting by that Friday.
And then later in the afternoon I knew I had a networking event
downtown that finished at 8. And being the overachiever that
(02:56):
I am, I went online and lo and behold, there would be a 12 step
meeting half a block off the road.
I would be driving down on the way home from the networking
event downtown to start at 8:30.So I went and, and you know, I,
(03:16):
I went into that meeting. It probably took me 5 years to
admit how scared I was. You know, this was all
completely new, unknown. I didn't know how I'd survive
single day without alcohol. And, you know, I'd put, I'd had
my last drink like at 10:00 the night before.
And, you know, I ended up sitting in the room and 3/4 of
(03:39):
the waist for the meeting. The chairperson asked, is there
anyone new to the fellowship would like to stand and
introduce themselves? And I sat on my hands.
And I sat on my hands for about 20 seconds.
I finally jumped up and said, I'm David.
I'm an alcoholic. And you know, I've since
learned, like, that's my truth. I don't think in the moment I
actually really understood what I was admitting to.
(03:59):
And that's OK. But I eventually learned that it
was my truth. And as it so happens, last night
was a Tuesday night. And I made that group, what's
called a Home group. So anytime I'm in town, I commit
to go. I'd be of service there.
And I was there last night. And now 16 years, 8 months and
(04:19):
some odd days later and there were two people in the room last
night that were there the night that I walked in all those many
years ago. That's been my same Home group
for my entire sobriety. Man, David, that's incredible.
Thank you, first of all, for sharing that.
That is powerful. And I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
(04:42):
dive into all that. So I'm just, I'm gonna save it
here for a second. I wanna welcome everybody to the
show. That's a great way to start the
show. Powerful way to jump in.
Like I said, this is a show all about breakthrough.
True testimony is a breakthrough.
That's why I created the unstuckmovement, so you can have
examples. Whoever's watching or listening
for you in your life, that breakthrough is possible for you
wherever you're stuck. We're sponsored by the Connected
(05:04):
Leaders Academy. Check out Connected
leadersacademy.com, over 500 heart centered entrepreneurs all
helping each other grow and alsothe pro podcaster Academy.
So if you're somebody who wants to launch a podcast, but you
don't know how to do it, you're not sure all the nuts and bolts
of how to get things done, I would love to help you through
that process. To have a platform that creates
massive impact in people's lives, makes incredible personal
(05:27):
and professional connections foryou, and also makes you the go
to authority in your space. And listen, if you have a
podcast, you want to streamline it, make it easier to do, you
want to monetize it and make it a real revenue source for your
business. I'd love to help you do that.
You can check out the Pro Podcaster Academy at
robzwentz.com today with us on the show, as we've already dove
(05:48):
in a little bit, here is David Greer.
He helps entrepreneurs accelerate business growth while
navigating personal and professional challenges and
recovering alcoholic and seasoned executive.
He combines strategy, experienceand mentorship to help clients
reclaim their dreams and achievemeasurable results.
And now I want to go back to this because it's, it's so
important that we talk about the, the moments when we finally
(06:10):
admit something that we may be maybe we don't even know we
needed to admit to get it off our chest to create that massive
change in our life. What was it that that led you?
What was it about the coach thatyou had?
And what was it that led you to finally admit this thing that
you'd never said out loud for 20years?
My bottom, so I, you know, I still had a house, I had a
(06:34):
couple cars, you know, I had three kids.
So it's not like I'd lost it all, which a lot of people come
into recovery. That's their story.
But my story is I lost myself. So I was sick and tired of being
sick and tired. And I think, you know, this work
with Coach Kevin and, like, justcontinually clarifying and, you
(06:57):
know, cleaning up things and getting rid of distractions and
drains, you know, led to, you know, up to that point, I just
wasn't willing to even admit to myself because because here was
the challenge for me was I couldn't imagine a life without
alcohol. And so if I admitted it to
(07:18):
myself, it's like, where do I gofrom there?
Like, there's nowhere to go if you can't imagine a life without
alcohol and you admit to yourself that you're an
alcoholic. Like, because I wasn't ready to
quit. But on that day, like, I just
reached that point where I just couldn't do it anymore.
(07:39):
And, you know, I'd also built a strong enough trust relationship
with Kevin that I knew Kevin being the kind of guy that he is
in the relationship we had and still have, he was never going
to let me off the hook. Like I knew once, once I put the
secret out there to Kevin, I didn't know what that would look
like, but I knew he, he wouldn'tlet me let it go because he's
(08:04):
that kind of guy, right? And, and you know, he would have
circled around as he is as an amazing coach if I hadn't gone
to his 12 step recovery, but he would have kept bringing it up.
And so I, I knew that it was a one way door once I admitted it
to Kevin. And I think the truth is the
(08:26):
universe put Kevin in my past toget sober, and I was ready to go
through that door. Man, that's so good.
You can apply this to so many different places in your life.
But what I heard you say there was, you know, building trusting
relationships with people that won't let you off the hook is
one of the best things you can have in your life.
(08:47):
Now that could be terrifying because like you said, when
you're not ready to I admit something or get through
something, then you don't want somebody to not let you off the
hook, which is why you don't tell anybody, right, Because you
don't want that to happen. But when you're finally at that
place and you and you and you tell the right person, that's
that's the part of this man thatI go back to all the time.
I look for themes and these shows.
And one of those themes is, it'sa classic one, but you know,
(09:09):
you, you sum total of your 5 closest friends, that the
people, you, 5 people you're closest with.
If you have really good people that are close to you, they're
gonna help pull you through the hell you're going through, even
when you're not ready to or you don't want to, right?
And they're, and they're gonna be there for you and they're
gonna be that safe space that you have that trusting
relationship. And I, I think that's also a
(09:30):
testament to the power of what coaching can be, because there's
a lot of misconceptions about coaching.
And one of those things is this the a real good coach is a, is a
real solid person in your life, like a mentor in your life, a
trusted person that can take youthrough incredibly difficult
things. And I guess I want to ask that
question just for a minute. So how, how did that affect you
(09:54):
now, now that you're a coach? And how did that affect the
relationships that you other relationships you've had in your
life? Do you have other people like
that in your life? Did you try to intentionally get
people around you that you knew would hold you to the fire and
not let you off the hook? Or was that an intentional step
in your life? Or how has that played out since
(10:15):
that moment? So I think it was intentional
when I hired Kevin, I'm not certain as an entrepreneur.
Like I was accountable to my former partner and we're like we
were accountable to each other, but we didn't have anyone else
outside who we were accountable to.
And there's limits to that in a partnership, I think.
So Kevin was probably one of thefirst people that I really let
(10:38):
in in such a big way. I mean, I had some very early
mentors, one of my dad's best friend who's an entrepreneur.
I still remember some of the very early lessons from him, but
not in like a regular basis, like a regular interaction.
And you know, I, I have it on mywebsite, you know, I'm the
(10:59):
catalyst that gets you to live your dreams now.
And, and earlier. And before we pressed the record
button, I talked about the fact that from 2001 to 2003, my wife
and I commissioned a sailboat inthe South of France and we took
our three kids and we homeschooled them for two years.
And that came out of I'd sold out of this business I've been
(11:20):
with for 20 years. But this person sat me down and
said, David, your kids will never be 11-9 and five again.
And I had one of the proverbial,like, aha moments where I did
not realize how much of A dream this was for me.
Like, I'd read all sorts of books about going offshore with
(11:41):
your kids and sailing around theworld.
Like I had been nurturing that dream unconsciously for years
until someone like just put thisone question in front of me that
shifted everything. And then as I pursued that, I
started to realize, like, if I'dstayed with the business, I
(12:03):
don't know if I'd ever lived that dream of going offshore and
sailing with my kids. But it like took the end of the
business, which was very emotional.
And it was very a lot of finger pointing and a lot of ugliness.
Bob and I only had one major disagreement in 20 years, but it
was a doozy. And it ended in divorce.
(12:24):
But it opened up this beautiful opportunity.
Yeah, it's amazing too. It sounds like the getting away
on a boat for a couple of years is exactly what you would need
after something like that too, right?
Just a complete disconnect and areconnection with your family
and another sounds like another conscious choice, like a really
(12:44):
powerful conscious choice. So as an entrepreneur, once
getting sober, once the drinking's out of the way,
because there's a lot of unconscious decision making that
goes on when you have addictions, how did it start to
reshape the decisions you were making, the choices you were
making in your business and in your life?
Like did you did you see things clearly after that or did the
(13:06):
walls start to come down to helpyou maybe find more blind spots
in your life? I think for me it's much more a
slow unveiling or revealing, like I've had a long slow like
(13:29):
process in recovery. And you know, I used the 12
steps of recovery. I did some therapy work with a
personal therapist. I kept working with the coach.
Like all of these things just kept me moving on a path where
more of my true self was revealed.
(13:49):
Like, and obviously it starts like when you drank as much as I
did, just like getting the alcohol into the house and then
'cause I mostly drank at home and getting the empties out, it
turns out like the empties make more noise than the full ones.
So, and you know, I drank a lot every day.
So it's like a lot and, and justplanning it and like all of that
(14:14):
energy that gets consumed and, you know, not right away, 'cause
right away like you're just trying to go to meetings and
just like figure this thing out and everything sounds really
weird and you're just trying notto have a drink for today.
But you know, over time it let me be more present to my
children, let me be more presentto my spouse.
(14:35):
Let me think about other things maybe to pursue or how I wanted
to be and slowly letting go of my need to be in control of
everything, which is still an ongoing challenge today, which,
(14:55):
you know, I think 80% of the world has control problems.
But it, you know, it's, it's definitely an ongoing work in
progress. But I'm, I'm so much better than
I was, you know, 16 years ago. And so this slow unveiling, this
slow letting go. And then, you know, my young
children, my children were teenagers when I got sober.
(15:16):
You know, now they're all like in their 30s.
You know, one of our, our oldesthas two grandkids.
And I can interact with them andI can just be very present.
And I don't have to, I don't have to like control things.
I don't even make suggestions very often.
Or if I do, I say, would you like a suggestion about that?
And my children now you know, know me well enough.
(15:39):
They just say they can say no and it's fine.
I won't make it. Like, I'll just keep it to
myself and let them make their choice with whatever group of
advisors they want to work with.And.
And if it doesn't include me, it's like I don't take it
personally whereas I used to. What do you mean my child is not
listening to my advice? Yeah.
(16:00):
Who do you think you are? That's part of the it's part of
the journey. It's part of the journey.
It's also part of letting go. I think you have children
growing up. I see a lot of parents who have
kids in their 30s, they haven't let go.
They're still trying to manipulate control and or, you
know, be the advisors. And it's like, maybe I should
(16:23):
be, maybe I shouldn't, but it's,it's, it's up to them.
And, and so it's all of these things together.
It's, it's like hard for me to like pinpoint this one thing,
but I just show up as an individual very differently than
I used to. I can listen, wait.
And I am also a way better listener.
(16:44):
I can really listen powerfully and hear it all and be able to
reflect it back. And if I get triggered by
something that said, I don't need to react like it's just
that's my issue. And it's the same in the
coaching call. Someone might say something, it
might trigger something from your past, but I just can easily
let that go and let it off and get back to just being present
(17:06):
to the person who I'm on the call with.
Yeah, it's so powerful to be able to let those things go.
And that's, I mean, that's wherewe get hung up.
That's what gets us stuck, literally that, that is the
places where you get stuck. You can't let those things go.
And usually those things culminate in overwhelm.
I think right now especially, itseems like there's so much
overwhelm in our, in our culture.
(17:28):
How do you handle that with, with people that you're working
with? And, and how do you handle it
differently now than you used to?
Because it sounds like you're able to kind of let things run
off. And I, I think overwhelm is that
one thing, especially people whohave anxiety, who are
entrepreneurs who want to do a lot and they're, they want to
maximize overwhelm creeps in a lot.
(17:48):
How do you handle that? So several things probably my
favorite question I asked a lot of my one-on-one coaching
clients is do you want to be right or do you want to be
happy? And it, our need to be right is
just, it can be so baked in right from our family of origin
(18:10):
and, and, and in business too, Like as entrepreneurs, we start
the business and we started withnothing and then we built it up
And now it's like actually bigger than than me, the
entrepreneur. But I don't want to let go of
that control. I, I still want to, I want to be
right. Like it's got to be my way or
the highway. So some of my work with
(18:30):
entrepreneurial clients, it's like, well, you can, but maybe
your, your business is probably going to stay stuck on these
things you've told me you're stuck on.
So maybe it's time to let go. The other thing about overwhelm
is I do a lot of work with strategic planning and
facilitation. And I think one of a couple
things happens. One is you don't do any
(18:51):
planning. So it's all just by the senior
plants. No one in the rest of the
business really knows where you're going or what you're
supposed to do because you haven't been clear.
And or you do a bunch of planning and you try and get 20
things done and 1/4. And I'm like, you know, no more
than five major goals for the year and no more than five major
(19:13):
goals for 1/4. And, and then I believe in a
planning process that's every quarter to set a new set of
goals for the next quarter. Because my assertion is 13 weeks
is long enough to get a lot of stuff done and short enough that
if you went wildly off in the wrong direction, you won't kill
the business. Like if you re circle back after
13 weeks, you see what you learned.
(19:35):
You see what new brutal facts there are.
Like you can course correct likeenough, but if but you don't
want to course correct every week because you don't get
anything done. And the other thing with
entrepreneurs is we love maximumfreedom of movement.
So we hate writing things down. Yeah.
(19:56):
Right. So part of my work is just to
get them to write it down and share it with their team and
then stick with it, you know? And sometimes coaching calls
are, oh, there's a shiny red ball or AIAI, you know, and it's
like, OK, Mr. or Miss Miss Entrepreneur, which of your five
(20:16):
goals for the quarter are you going to give up so you can go
chase that shiny red ball? Like you told me at the
beginning of the quarter, these are the five most important
things to move the business ahead.
Like what's changed? You've seen the shiny red ball.
OK, if it's so important, what will you give up so you can have
that? And most of the time it's like,
oh, it's a shiny red ball. I shouldn't go chase it, or I
(20:40):
should at least let the quarter roll out and then I can think
about whether I want to chase it.
So the overwhelm comes because we don't like limit ourselves
and get focused and write thingsdown.
And as entrepreneurs, we think we, we minimize risk by kind of
this maximal like freedom. And I argue, you actually take
(21:03):
on more risk because you're not super clear about where you're
going and what you're going to achieve.
And obviously the people around you, they can't follow you
because you're not making it clear what it is that you're
trying to achieve and where you're trying to go.
And so they do their best, but they do their best without the
most critical information. Yeah, if you're following
(21:24):
somebody who's scattered chasingshiny red balls, that's that's
going to be a struggle for you too.
Now you're now you're now everybody's chasing shiny red
balls. Nobody's knows what they're
doing. There's no real point to what
you're doing. That's that's good advice.
And have you ever heard of the book The 12 Week Year?
I have not. 'Cause you just described that
perfectly. It's, it's, it's one, it's one
of the books I use for myself and in coaching.
(21:46):
But it's, it's that, it's that premise.
Exactly, David. It is you build out 12 week
years because then you have timein that 12 weeks if something's
really good and you make it a goal in those 12 weeks and you
can keep going with it. But like you said, if it's a bad
idea within 12 weeks, you'll know if it's a bad idea if you
stay to it, right. So that that's, that's very
(22:08):
sound advice. It's kind of like building your
building your days like that. If I and that's, you know, it's
like quarters basically 12 weeksis pretty much 1/4.
Yes, exactly. And it's a, it's a great way to
function because you can get so much done and it keeps you
focused and it keeps you moving forward.
And entrepreneurs usually have some form of ADHD or shiny ball
(22:29):
syndrome, whatever you want to call it.
So that's, it's time. It gives you enough time for
freedom to regroup and somethingelse I heard you say in there
too, which is always, I, I, I say this so much, but you can
only have freedom whenever you have structure.
If you have freedom without structure, you have chaos.
But if you have structure, you can have freedom inside of that
(22:50):
structure. And that allows for that
creativity to flow and allows for you to, you know, whatever
freedom you need in there, it makes that possible.
But often times we just want total freedom, which really is
just like anarchy. And, and anybody who's an
entrepreneur who's done that to themselves knows that, right?
Well, another thing for like successful, you know, owner,
(23:13):
founder owner businesses who youknow, built a pretty successful
business. It's like maybe you should like
become, think of it as you become chairman of the board.
So you still set the big picturestrategy.
You're probably still the personwho understands the market the
best, but like you lead the quarterly planning, but you
(23:35):
actually step back from being CEO and you hire like a really
good COO or general manager or CEO, like whatever we want to
call the role. And you get out of the
day-to-day operation of the business and and you actually
step back because you're actually holding the business
back. And that way you can focus on
(23:55):
the high value things that you add the most value to and you
can let others like operate the business.
And that can be very effective, although usually it frees up a
lot of time. And then because then
entrepreneurs typically have a lot of energy, then I have to
help them figure out where do you want to direct that energy?
And, and maybe it's like Angel investing.
Maybe it's go get involved in another business like like so
(24:20):
anyways, I, that's one of the ways I help entrepreneurs to
like see like how their role could be very different, you
know, and propose that to them. And some it's like it doesn't,
you know, it, it doesn't relate and they're not willing to go
there. And that's fine, right?
Like I, I just try and present opportunities or, you know,
(24:43):
other perspectives to people andthen leave it up to it's, it's
their life, it's their business.I, I don't judge it.
It's again, it's back to the opening statement that you had
about making conscious choice. What I do ask is that like you
choose, I'm not going to become chairman.
I'm going to stay head of the business.
And I choose, you know, to run it this way.
(25:04):
And if that's how you want to run it, great.
I may point out some potholes and some things you might run
into if you continue down that path.
And if you still want to do it, great.
As Coach Kevin told to me beforeI hired him, he said at the end
of the day, I'm going to let youmake your decisions.
And if you make some decisions that end up where you crash and
burn, I'm going to be there to help you pick up the pieces.
(25:28):
And I thought, wow, that's like really powerful, right?
Yeah, because you can't have somebody in your life who's
going to, you know, a coach is not going to force you into
doing things. It's just.
And I and I never like I told you so.
Yeah. It it's like, OK, you went down
that path, you crashed and burned.
(25:49):
What do we do to help pick you up?
Like, where do you want to go next?
Like it's just, you know, I may ask them is, is there any
learning you want to take from this that you want to apply in
the future? But again, I'd, I'd leave it for
them to try and figure most of that out, like maybe just shine
a little bit of light because again, I don't want to be in
(26:13):
like I told you. So it's I, I'm, it's your
journey. I'm just there to help
facilitate it and and help you be the best you can be in any
given moment. Exactly.
I love that, that mindset and strategy, That's the way to look
at it right now. We're going to pause to shout
out the sponsors of the show. When we come back, though, I
want to talk about high growth and strategic planning because
(26:36):
we all want to grow. Anybody who's watching or
listening to this show is has a desire to grow at a high level.
So I'm curious on your end, how do you create high growth
strategic outcomes for people, for businesses?
I'd love to dive into that when we come back in one minute.
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I'm the founder and CEO of the Connected Leaders Academy.
(27:40):
We're a growing tribe, a community of entrepreneurs all
over the world, globally. If you're an entrepreneur and
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(28:03):
Check me out on Instagram and onFacebook the at symbol Jasco 25.
We look forward to having you join us.
Take care. David, loving this conversation,
man, talking about high growth, how do you create high growth
strategic outcomes for people and for businesses?
Do you have a strategy steps yougo through that can guarantee
(28:26):
those sort of breakthroughs? I don't think I can't guarantee
anything, but I can help you aimin that direction.
So I met Coach Kevin at this event put on by guy Vern
Harnish, who has something called the One Page Strategic
Plan. And I had so many of my
entrepreneurial friends tell me about it and I didn't know what
(28:47):
it was. So I went to this event to learn
about the One Page Strategic Plan.
And Vern's books are The Rockefeller Habits and Scaling
Up, which I highly recommend. And you know, the software
company I joined when I was still in the university and
built for 20 years, You know, Bob and I basically did what
most entrepreneurs do for strategic planning, which is we
(29:09):
kind of looked at last year and well, let's kind of do it 5%
better. And, you know, and we grew the
business that way and it was highly effective.
And it's the way a lot of entrepreneurs grow their
business and know, like, I have no problem if that if that's
what you want to do. But Vern presented a different
(29:29):
idea, especially for high growthcompanies, which is you figure
out, you pick a future date, at least three years, but maybe
it's four or five years out. So you know, we're so you you
just figure out that dates, let's say three years and then
it's like, where do you need to be in three years time?
(29:53):
So for example, Vern is a big proponent that strategy really
equals marketing. Like you really need to
understand your markets and everything flows from that.
So let's say you're in a business that's growing at 10% a
top line revenue every year, butyour markets growing at 30%.
(30:13):
Well then in three years time like you are going to lose a lot
of market share. Like if you just want to
maintain your market share, you need to grow at 30% a year.
And you're not probably going torealize this unless you take
this idea of where is the marketgoing to be in three years?
Where do we need to be in three years?
(30:33):
And we talked about like what are the key thrusts or
capabilities? Like do you need to expand
geographically? Do you need to expand product
line? Like do you need to expand to an
adjacent market? So that's really all that
thinking about where you need tobe in three years time and then
coming up with again, maybe fivekey thruster capabilities, like
(30:55):
maybe you need to hire a real master of VP of sales who can
manage like a much bigger sales team and make them really
productive. And like that's the, that's one
of the capabilities you need to build is you need to build sales
leadership. And again, it's like that's
(31:16):
where we need to be in three years.
And then you work backwards fromthat to what do we need to
achieve this year so that we're going to end up where we want to
go in three years time. And then, then once we're
clearing where we need to go this year, then we work out.
And again, like no more than 5 calls.
And then we work out like, wheredo you need to go this quarter
(31:38):
to get to where we want to go for the year so we can get to
where we want to go in three years.
And that's the essence of this planning mechanism, plus what
we've talked about previously, which is you make sure it's not
a one and done like it's it's about the rhythm and the process
of continually doing it. So you're continually facing new
brutal facts facing, you know, that the markets have changed,
(32:01):
that some new fact has come to light that, you know,
governments have changed or markets have changed or like
whatever it is. And, and you incorporate that
into your like, there's new information.
So now we might need to adjust where we're heading.
And so that's the primary mechanism that I used to help
(32:24):
people to be to get on the high growth trajectory.
Like, and again, you might not get in that higher growth until
you're 3, but you have to lay all that groundwork like you
have to be clear that that's where you want to end up.
And then you have to be making sure you're laying the
groundwork between now and then to get you to that place.
Yeah, it's being super clear, right?
(32:45):
Having a really clear vision of where you're going gets you to
where you want to go. The opposite of the shiny ball
syndrome that we were talking about earlier, right?
It's it's and it's daily discipline.
It's just the daily sort of things that they're and you've
heard of the million times. They're not fun, they're not
special, they don't look like anything, right?
They just like you do these things that get you to the place
(33:07):
that you want to go to. And I'm I'm curious, the old you
right this the the old guy, the guy who was was drinking and who
you still had success then, but maybe not as much clarity has
that has that clarity become so much more into focus?
Is that what led you into coaching through that process?
Yeah, I mean, I so I hired CoachKevin because I, you know, I
(33:31):
went away to the Mediterranean, went sailing for two years.
I came back, I did a bunch of Angel investing, you know, I and
then I met Kevin and he made me realize in about two minutes how
completely unfulfilled I was. So I hired him.
How did he make you realize that?
He said, I think he said, you know, there's 100 entrepreneurs
(33:52):
in this room and they probably all need your help.
And I'd like being trying to find entrepreneurs who I could,
you know, be hired for and to help for three years without
success. Yeah, partly looking in the
wrong places, partly showing up in the wrong way.
And I had tears in the corner ofmy eyes.
Like I did not realize how unfulfilled I was till Kevin
(34:14):
pointed it out to me. And and Kevin's found this with
a lot of entrepreneurs, Like we don't do that well-being on
boards of directors, like, especially as people have really
been operational people like we need to be in the thick of it.
That's that's what makes us tick.
And so he helped me get into a few executive gigs.
(34:35):
The last one of those was I was VP of marketing for a 35,000,000
a year publicly traded tech company.
And I came out of that and realized that in my mid 50s, I
had worked harder than I probably had worked in my entire
career. And I made a commitment to
myself that I did not need to prove to anyone that I can work
hard. And so I worked with Kevin for a
(34:59):
while and we and I decided in the end that I wanted to give to
other entrepreneurs the gifts that Kevin had given to me.
And so I decided to become an entrepreneurial coach like him.
I'm a coach and a facilitator because by then I started using
the one page plan in my own workand I've been helping other
people use it. So by then I had like 1/2 a
(35:20):
dozen years experience with the one page plan.
So, you know, I, I built a, a facilitation practice around
like for the entrepreneur and senior leadership team around
the one page plan. And yeah.
And so then that was 10 years ago and I wrote my book Winding
Your sales, Vital Strategies that accelerate your
(35:41):
entrepreneurial Growth, which actually 1/3 of that is other
people's stories. Every chapter ends in a case
study of an entrepreneur friend of mine.
So it's not just like my experience in business, you're
getting 10 and 10 plus I interviewed more than 45 people.
So there's quite a bit of depth and breadth in that book.
So I launched the book, I launched my coaching practice
(36:03):
and, and and then I've discovered in the intervening 10
years that not working hard is really hard work for a guy like
me. Undoing, undoing all the doing.
That's, yes. So that's still an ongoing work
(36:23):
in progress. My Taskmaster spirit, which is
what I've named it, is very alive and well, but we have
conversations, usually multiple times every day that Taskmaster
Spirit can stand down. We're just doing fine and we're
doing plenty of things and don'tneed to do more.
Yeah, and that awareness is so good, man.
And you know, what I hear you talking a lot about too, is the
(36:44):
simplicity, the one page plan. You know, it's, it's simple,
right? Keeping things, uncomplicating
things, less goals, one page, keep it simple.
That's how and and that, and like you said, though,
interestingly enough, that's notalways easy because our ego
wants to do a lot, right? We want we want to do, do, do
and being able to break it down,staying focused on simple things
(37:10):
that are going to drive real results is everything.
And that that even goes that simplicity even goes to stop
drinking. Not drinking is a part of that
process. A simple thing.
Don't drink can be one of the hardest things in the world to
do right. So we try to pile so much stuff
on top of simple things. If we can just see those simple
(37:30):
things and and tackle them everyday and find little wins
throughout the day, little goalslike little chipping away at
that, reverse engineering, whatever that big goal is like
breaking it down day-to-day is so powerful.
And that's, that's where the mundaneness of it comes in.
But that's where the the secret sauce is.
So I love that, David. That's so good.
(37:51):
So, and they, the other part of that the, the thing with
entrepreneurs that I coach around is make the number one
thing be the number one thing. And, and that can also be very
challenging right now for me as a recovering alcoholic, it's the
biggest achievement of my life. However, I need to achieve it
(38:11):
every day. Like I can't rest on what I did
yesterday. So for me, when I start my day,
I ask something bigger than me to help me stay sober today.
And I know that today my number one goal is to stay sober.
So in some ways that's a gift because like I know what my
number one goal needs to be and then everything kind of flows
(38:34):
from that. But I need to refocus on that at
the start of every day. Like that's how I've stayed.
I can't speak for anyone else, but that's how I've stayed sober
as long as I have is with that very clear.
I need to re achieve my biggest achievement every day.
And if I do, all these good things will come, but I just
(38:56):
need to stay focused on the number one thing.
I love that you need to re achieve your biggest
achievement. That's that's really good too.
That's that's a that's a piece of the puzzle, man, re
achieving. I'm always looking for those
themes. I'm writing that down right now
because that is the best thing you can do is re achieve the
biggest achievement in your lifebecause it that number one, it
(39:19):
keeps you grounded, keeps you steady, it keeps you winning and
keeps that momentum going, right.
There's so much power to that. So I love that.
So as we wrap this thing up, I want to encourage everybody once
again they can jump on a call with you free one hour coaching
session at coachdjgreer.com. And as I always do at the end of
the show, you know, say we neverconnect again and you never get
(39:41):
a chance to share a message withanybody who's on this platform
again. What is a lasting message that
you would leave them with? I.
Actually want to leave them withtwo.
First is no matter how dark it seems, there is light at the end
of the tunnel. Even if you don't believe it,
even if you can't see it, I wantyou to know there is a way out
(40:03):
of whatever difficulty you are in, in business, in life, with
alcohol, with drugs. And the second thing I want to
leave you with is like, certainly around alcoholism, the
mind that got me to be an alcoholic is not the mind that
can Get Me Out. I had to do it with someone
else. So my other message I really
(40:24):
want to leave with people is reach out for help.
As hard as that is and as hard as it feels, especially when
we're super motivated, high energy, high performing, you
know, entrepreneurs, last thing we want to do is get help.
And it's the number one best thing you can do.
(40:49):
Yeah, 100%, man. I agree 100%.
That's good advice. Thank you, David.
Great to meet you. Great to have you on here.
Another true testimony, A breakthrough.
Until next time. This is the unstuck movement.
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