From the start of his career, Zack Oliva has deliberately moved toward where he sees the next wave of growth. Now co-owner of a national energy law firm, he shares how he makes major career and business decisions, builds a focused niche, and uses entrepreneurial thinking to stay in the right position for long-term expansion.

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

• Why Zack says he “wasn’t a real person” when he started his firm in 2013.
• How focusing on the right people allowed Zack’s company to grow exponentially.
• Zack’s attitude toward every person who comes through his organization.
• How The Strategic Coach® Program has helped Zack and his business partner grow their company 3-4x.
• Why Zack thinks joining Strategic Coach® is one of the best investments you can make in yourself.

Show Notes:

Becoming a professional takes years of study, but becoming an entrepreneur starts with choosing to keep growing beyond your credentials.

Most professionals follow best practices, while entrepreneurs create their own rules and go where the future growth will be.

Entrepreneurs are people who want to grow.

Your personal growth as an owner sets the ceiling for how big and how fast your company can grow.

Choosing a growing niche creates a powerful platform to multiply opportunity.

Casting for roles, not hiring for generic jobs, helps you find A‑players who fit your vision and teamwork standards.

Treating your team members as whole people, not just employees, creates loyalty, creativity, and staying power.

A business becomes more valuable when it runs increasingly well without the founder at the center of everything.

Trusting your intuition is a learnable skill that gets stronger when you pay attention to past decisions and meaningful coincidences.

Entrepreneurship is largely a game of confidence, and protecting that confidence is one of your key responsibilities.

Strategic Coach thinking tools and workshops give entrepreneurs and teams a shared language that accelerates connection and progress.

Investing in your team’s development produces more creative, capable people who free you up for higher-level work and a fuller life.

Resources:

Casting Not Hiring by Dan Sullivan and Jeffrey Madoff

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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

The Entrepreneur's Guide To Time Management

When life partners become business partners, tension can quickly intensify—or multiply everything that matters. With the right tools and mindsets, that partnership can become extraordinary. In this episode, Kerby Skurat and Cristina Edelstein share how Strategic Coach® has helped them build a thriving business and a strong marriage at the same time.

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

• How life partners Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith co-run Strategic Coach.
• What Strategic Coach has helped Cristina and Kerby achieve with their business.
• How Cristina and Kerby grew their real estate business into a $10‑million‑a‑year company.
• Cristina and Kerby’s core values.
• What led Kerby to the decision to shut down a $16-million company.
• Why both members of an entrepreneurial couple should attend Strategic Coach workshops.

Show Notes:

Many entrepreneurial couples end up with an almost adversarial business relationship that spills into their personal life.

Unique Ability® gives each partner a clear lane, so “best with best” teamwork becomes possible instead of competitive.

Entrepreneurism usually shows up early in life and quickly becomes a lifelong way of operating.

Choosing the entrepreneurial path means you’ve opted out of the job market and into creating your own game.

Strategic Coach provides the structure, tools, and community that support this unique way of life.

There’s an art to staying in your lane, especially when both partners are strong‑willed and driven.

Every individual has a distinct way of creating results, and honoring those differences turns conflict into collaboration.

Real data, real statistics, and real projections give you the confidence to make clear decisions and smart adjustments.

A business can be big and profitable and still be the wrong one for you.

Shutting down a good company can be the smartest move if it frees you up for great opportunities.

Time away from your team, in a room with other entrepreneurs, often leads to the biggest strategic decisions.

Hearing other entrepreneurs’ success stories can inspire you to take action on your own goals.

Strategic Coach workshops create a thinking space where you can focus on what could be, not just what is.

Getting help at deeper personal levels, like marriage counseling, can dramatically improve your business teamwork.

Strategic Coach tools work just as well at home as they do in the office.

In a team of any size, the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack.

When both partners are in the same coaching environment, it’s far easier to stay aligned on vision and decisions.

Resources:

Unique Ability®

Your Business Is A Theater Production: Your Back Stage Shouldn’t Show On The Front Stage

Everything Is Created Backward by Dan Sullivan

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller

EOS® Worldwide

Who Not How by Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy

How To Sell Transformation Using This One Question

Do You Know What’s Keeping Your Clients Awake At 3 A.M.?

Your Life As A Strategy Circle by Dan Sullivan

As a six-year-old exploring the woods alone, Dan Sullivan discovered that freedom plus responsibility creates confidence, creativity, and self-trust. In this episode, he connects that childhood experience to the way entrepreneurs grow today—by choosing freedom over fear, embracing intelligent risk, and creating environments where exploration and imagination can thrive.

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

• The kind of childhood freedom Dan was given to explore on his own.
• How that early freedom directly connects to how he created and continually expands The Strategic Coach® Program.
• Why it might seem like the world is more dangerous for children than it used to be.

Show Notes:

Giving a child room to explore something a bit risky teaches them to take responsibility for their own safety and choices.

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When parents are ruled by fear, they overprotect their children and tightly organize every activity, unintentionally blocking growth.

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Constant surveillance and control erode a child’s sense of freedom and make independent decision-making feel dangerous instead of natural.

Being trusted to “go into the woods” on your own is an early version of entrepreneurial freedom: you decide, you act, and you own the consequences.

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Making up your own fun in unsupervised environments trains the same imagination entrepreneurs later use to invent offerings, markets, and business models.

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Today’s world isn’t objectively more dangerous than it was 75 years ago, but 24/7 media makes rare tragedies feel constant and personal.

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Dan’s parents made a conscious decision to tolerate risk in exchange for developing a strong, independent, and confident mind.

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That parental mindset mirrors great entrepreneurial leadership: you protect against true catastrophe but don’t smother initiative with control.

Overprotective environments create compliant rule followers, while freedom with responsibility creates self-managing value creators.