Grow Your Company By Growing Yourself, with Teresa Easler

Shannon Waller: Hi, Shannon Waller here, and welcome to Inside Strategic Coach. Today, it's not with Dan Sullivan, it's with our fabulous Program Coach Teresa Easler. So Teresa, I am thrilled to have you on this podcast, this show, because you have been a Strategic Coach coach for a very long time.
 
Teresa Easler: I'm one of the OGs.
 
Shannon Waller: You're one of the OGs, and I have actually known you since I was a teenager.
 
Teresa Easler: I know, I know, I can hardly believe this. Isn't that crazy?
 
Shannon Waller: In a totally different life, I might add. But anyway, it is such a pleasure.
 
Teresa Easler: You're the one who got me into Strategic Coach.
 
Shannon Waller: Okay, I've forgotten that story. I don't know if you remember that. Okay. Yeah. Well, let's start there. So our goal here is to pull out all the juicy bits about you, Teresa, what you're up to. You've also been my coach in terms of communication and speaking and presenting. So I can't wait to talk about that. But let's start with, how did you become an entrepreneur? And then we'll get into how did you start Coach? ‘Cause that's going to come after. But you're an entrepreneur. You have been for a very long time. Tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial story, journey, whatever word works best for you.
 
Teresa Easler: You know, I've been doing entrepreneurial things, I think, my whole life. Like most entrepreneurs, it's like, if you look back in your childhood, you know, I mean, I had, with the neighborhood kids, a lawn service, selling things out in front of the house on a table, from lemonade stands to whatever. So I think it was always there. And where it became official was I left my corporate job. The last job I had, I left in 1984. You know, that was a long time ago, yeah. But even at that time, I had a side gig. I always had side gigs. So, when I left, I was a vice president at Bank of America, and I had a side consulting gig. And I moved. I got married and moved from San Francisco and moved to Florida. And there weren't really any corporate jobs that fit the kind of work that I was doing. So I said, I guess this is the time that I'm going to just start something on my own. And it wasn't consulting. It was a completely different thing. I was getting ready to start a family. So I started a cheesecake business. I ran it out of my home and I provided really gourmet desserts to all of the top restaurants in the town and for the catering companies in the skyboxes at the stadium for the football teams and the baseball teams and all that. So I had this cottage business that I did while becoming a mom. All of that stuff, yeah. So I think it's always been there.
 
Shannon Waller: That's amazing, because I used to have a cleaning service business with my sister. I don't think I was very good, let's be clear.
 
Teresa Easler: You had Julia there, so she was the one who was keeping you in line and making sure that you actually did everything.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, she was more organized as always, but it starts early. Now, cheesecake business and catering is completely separate from what you do now.
 
Teresa Easler: Oh, so different.
 
Shannon Waller: You are a phenomenal communication coach. Your company is Connect To The Core. And so how did you morph from that into what you are doing now? And I know your absolute true passion for how you can help people express themselves better.
 
Teresa Easler: Well, again, I think for a lot of us as entrepreneurs, sometimes we step willingly into being entrepreneurs and sometimes we're dragged into it. In my situation, the real dragging into it, like a full burning the boats kind of moment, was my husband at that time and I moved to Canada from the U.S. and we moved for his career. He was a television executive. And so we moved for his career. And as it went, the investors in this new-fangled thing called cable television pulled the plug. And we were left in Canada with no work, a baby, and it's like, now what are we gonna do? I said, I think this is time for us to start our own thing. We have what I felt was a really fantastic, unique value proposition. I'm a strategic thinker. I'm a business thinker. It's like hardwired into me. I understand business, I love business, I'm excited about it. And my ex-husband was a brilliant director, producer, like really brilliant. And so I said, we combined those two things and this is a really winning combination. So that's what we did.
 
We started a company, sold our house, used the equity from our house to fund our business. It truly was a burn the boats situation. It's like, we're taking everything. We're all in. And we started our company, and it was a really extraordinary ride. I would cold call. I would just cold call companies and try to get them to be interested in what we are offering. At that time, we were offering high-end, strategically-based video production services. Now it sounds really quaint. It was leading-edge technology then. Nobody was doing it. And by chance, one of the cold calls I made was with a start-up technology company that was one of the beginning companies, the founders of the computer graphics industry, and a software company that was like the grandfather now of all of that. And that became the beginning of expanding in and really becoming experts in communicating for technology.
 
Shannon Waller: Nice. I love that. Wow. What a cool start. And how long did you do that company for?
 
Teresa Easler: Until I started the current company in 2008. So that company started in 1986 and it operated up until really 2008. And then I started the new company.
 
Shannon Waller: Fantastic. So tell us about the new company and then you can remind me how I introduced you to Coach because I forgot.
 
Teresa Easler: Okay. So the new company, you know, it's like those times in life where, you know, if you were looking ahead, you'd say, I'm not going to choose that. In retrospect, you go, that was one of the amazing things that happened in my life. And at that point for me, my marriage was ending, which was a really tough time. He was not only my life partner, but he was my business partner. So that also meant the dissolution of our business. And so I had a choice at that point in starting a new business. So when I started this new business, I'd had a lot of years under my belt with Strategic Coach, both as a participant coming from my own business, but also as a coach. I was all in on the stuff that we coach, particularly Unique Ability. So at that time I said, what does my Unique Ability company look like? What am I taking with me and what am I leaving behind? So I started the new company that was entirely and only Unique Ability. I was like, everything I'm doing, I'm only going to do the things that I really, really love to do, and I'm not going to include all of the things that I don't love to do. It was a very scary time because all of those non-Unique Ability things generated millions of dollars in revenue. And walking away from it, there were a lot of sleepless nights, I will say.
 
Again, in retrospect, it's like, I'm so glad that I stuck to my guns, that I stayed with it as frightened as I was, as scary as it seemed. I am so happy that I did that, because the idea of having to do so many things that just drained me and even the things that were in my area of excellence, but those things that just didn't light me up, that didn't excite me, that I didn't wake up going, okay, I get to do this today—leaving those behind and choosing that more courageous path of, I'm only gonna do what I'm really awesome at. And so that was in 2008. That's when I started Connect To The Core.
 
Shannon Waller: Amazing. So how do you define what Connect To The Core is? What does it do? What difference does it make? With whom do you work? All the goodies.
 
Teresa Easler: All those things. Well, let me step back a little bit about what drives it all. What really drives it all for me is I'm passionate about communication. What I'm passionate about is when people actually connect with each other. I'm not passionate about data exchange. I'm not passionate about, let me give you my information, you give me your information. That doesn't excite me. It really is pretty meaningless to me. I know it's important, but it's not the stuff that really has me get up every day. But that purpose of changing the way people communicate so that it's actually from a place where we are connected with each other and it's out of our connection, it's out of our partnership with somebody else where they know that they've got somebody who's there shoulder to shoulder with them and understands them. When we communicate from that, that's when magical things happen.
 
So that's really at the essence of the work that my business does, that my team and I do, all of it is grounded in making sure that all the communication comes from that place of connection and being in partnership with whoever they're communicating with so that everybody gets what they want, and that's possible. So that's like the broad thing, but there are specific ways that we do that. You spoke to one thing, which is as an individual communicator, how do I be a great communicator? How do I be in my communication that people really get what it is that I have to say? We break it down into being and doing. So being who you're being, authentic, allowing your creativity to come through in those sparks of genius and that connection, but also marrying that with good mechanics. There's some how-to's that when you take those and you put them together, really great things happen. So being really methodical and systematic and understanding the elements that are consistent that make things really great.
 
So that's in personal communication, but it's also in the way that you craft your go-to-market message as a business, so that it's not just a whole listing of all the products and services. It's like, really, what are you promising? What are you telling people that if they do business with you, what can they count on you for? So it's like getting to that essence, getting to the real stuff, that secret sauce that makes your business different than everybody else's and being able to tap into that so that you can feel confident speaking about it. And then also the communication within teams. Because a lot of our clients said, you know, you've really got us set up for, we're talking to our clients and our customers in ways that we never did before, but we really are bad with our teams. And it's like, okay, let's work on your internal communication too. So that how you are interacting with each other, how you are influencing and persuading each other actually comes from that same kind of place because that's where communication happens.
 
Shannon Waller: It's so gratifying to hear you talk about this because it's communication that's grounded, that's real, that's genuine, as you said, and authentic. And so many people just talk. It's just not actually connected to anything. And I would agree with you on the team stuff because we have that in common.
 
Teresa Easler: I know, that's your sweet spot, yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: Which is really fun. And you're talking about, how do you communicate the value out in the marketplace, and it's really hard to do on your own, right? You need a coach, someone who's going to reflect it back to you to be that mirror. Otherwise, you're navel-gazing and you're like, I don't know what we do because we're too close to it.
 
Teresa Easler: I know this because every time we do it for ourselves, we're like, oh, I need a me for me, right? It's hard to do for yourself. 100 percent.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love it. Thank you for sharing that. All right, so let's circle back. You were a client of Strategic Coach for being a coach, because that's one of our requirements. So when did you join Coach? And remind me what I had to do with it.
 
Teresa Easler: I think it was either ‘92 or ‘93. And the reason I know it's something like that, because my youngest son, Carter, was an infant. So it was right after I had a baby. And he was born in 1992. So I don't remember if he was a couple of months old or he was six months old. So it was somewhere in that timeframe. And you, at that time, were a salesperson.
 
Shannon Waller: Yep, sure was.
 
Teresa Easler: And because we knew each other in another life before all of this, my ex-husband Chuck and I were on a list and you called us. And you said, Teresa Easler, it's me, it's Shannon Waller. I work for Strategic Coach. I can't believe you're on the list. So you were doing a sales outreach to me and it's like, oh my God, Shannon. So old home week, and the rest, as they say, is history.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh my God. I love that. I'd forgotten that. So thank you. I like that I get to take credit.
 
Teresa Easler: I know. I know. You're the one. You're the one. Exactly.
 
Shannon Waller: You've already talked about unique abilities. So how have you used Coach is one question I have, which is kind of a gigantic question, just to be clear. But you also have been a coach for a long time. And I know that some people listening to this, they're like, hmm, I wonder if Teresa would be a good coach for me kind of thing. So let's talk about Strategic Coach and the difference it's made because unless it makes a difference for you, you don't want to coach it anyway. That's true of anywhere. And then I want to talk about your experience as a coach because I know my experience as a coach and I'm sure it's very similar to yours. It's something you've included in your life and you have made room for, for many, many, many years. So I know we don't do that unless it's something you truly love doing. So tell me about what difference Strategic Coach made in your life and your business. I remember you talking about Free Days with Chuck, actually.
 
Teresa Easler: Oh, my God. Which was entertaining. You know, I still tell some of those stories.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh, good.
 
Teresa Easler: Because it's funny and it's relatable, like how many people can relate to that. So I'm not going to tell that story on this. If somebody wants to hear that story, they're going to have to be in one of my workshops.
 
Shannon Waller: Love that, okay, good. You can go into specifics if you want, but what difference did participating in Strategic Coach make to you as a client? How did it impact you? How'd you change things as a result of the Program?
 
Teresa Easler: You know, 30 plus years that I've been doing this, so that's not one thing. If I look at it at a more macro level, one of the things, and I think that this is a really important thing, is I don't work with anybody that I don't wanna be with. If they're not somebody that I wouldn't like to go out and have dinner with, or I wouldn't like to hang out with for a long period of time, I don't work with them. It doesn't mean that there aren't other people that are really valuable. I just know that there's so much of the heart and soul of myself and my team that we put into our relationships with our clients that we gotta really, really want to be with them. So I think having the courage to do that; I think the big thing is having the courage to say no is a big thing. That's been a muscle that I have learned over the time being in Coach. What do I say no to? Because that then opens up what I can say yes to. So I know that's really general, but that's really been like a guiding principle for me.
 
Shannon Waller: Just to add to that, Teresa, just for a moment, it's because that allows you to keep things, I'm going to say simpler. So many of us, especially people during the Program, our lives are so complicated. We talk about simplify, multiply, complicate. Simplifiers, multipliers, complicators. And because we've said yes or sure, I have a whole podcast on sure, why never say that, because it's only a half-hearted yes, is things get complicated. So what you've done is taken a very simple but very, very difficult thing to do. You've had standards. You've been very clear on who you want to be a hero to, which is another way we talk about it. You've engaged our 4 C's of Commitment, Courage, which develops Capability, and then finally Confidence, not the other way around. You've made guesses and bets, right?
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah, quite a few.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, especially on yourself. So, you know, if I'm listening to this and we're not as familiar, I'd be like, whoa, that's hard to do. We talk about cleaning up messes at the beginning of the Program. It's all things we've said yes to that we probably shouldn't have. Mess is equal to an obligation without a commitment. You're actually keeping yourself, like, clean and focused and centered.
 
Teresa Easler: I love it.
 
Shannon Waller: So I just wanted to expand on that because I think it's such a crucial point.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah. And it's been a muscle that I have over time. I mean, I would say at the beginning, I wasn't very strong. I would say I'm pretty strong now. There are some people in my life who think I'm too strong. It was like, no, I don't do that. Nope, I don't do that. You won't even consider it? Nope. No, no, no, don't do that. That's one of the things that's been one of the really important things is that I value myself so much that I am not going to spend my time with people or doing things that are not aligned with what I value. That's been a journey that I've been on with this. And everything in Coach aligns with supporting that. And I emphasize, man, it wasn't one day I decided, oh, you know what? I'm gonna be way more discerning. I'm gonna be way more honoring of myself. You know, I probably did wake up and say that one day, and it's been an iterative process. It's definitely been an evolutionary kind of process for me.
 
But I feel in a state of a lot of mastery around it now that I didn't when I started in Coach. And I owe the guardrails and the continual look at myself thinking to that. So I'd say that's one of the really big things. The other thing is that I have completely transformed how I think about my business in a couple of ways. One is I spoke about it before about Unique Ability. So everything, everything is through the lens of Unique Ability for me. It's just automatic. And that simplifies that ability to say no, because it's like, is this Unique Ability or is it not? You know, no. So that's been a really important part about it. And tied to that is the whole shift in thinking about my business, as I am an intellectual property company.
 
Shannon Waller: Interesting.
 
Teresa Easler: And everything is through that lens, is like whatever I do, everything that we create, my team is the same way. Everything that we create, it's never thought of as a one-off. It's always like, how do we take this? How do we package it? How do we turn this into IP? How do we think of it that way? So everything, everything that I do, everything my team does, is all through that lens too. So that has been a huge shift. And for an entrepreneur, that is a massive shift, because we as entrepreneurs get really anchored to the products and the services that we sell. And this takes it and accelerates it to a whole different level.
 
Shannon Waller: I'm so glad you said that. I mean, someone was actually telling me about, because of Dan and being in his workshops, it was the day he wrote down the term intellectual property, but intellectual was little and property was big. And it was like, boom, would you protect your real estate? All of us would protect our real estate. We've got surveys and we've got laws and we've got all the things, but we tend to be very casual about that. The other throughline that I'm hearing, and I get to talk to Dan and interview him often, but he talks about agency. And he talks about taking your own experience seriously, your own ideas seriously. And he's a brilliant model for this. Because it's so easy to just give it away in a product or a service, but not package it as an ongoing deliverable, as something that has innate value. And that can be made useful by more than one person. There's a whole multiplier impact of IP that's kind of spectacular. What I'm hearing is like, you don't take any of that for granted, where we might have, I'll put myself in the same bucket.
 
Teresa Easler: Earlier, you're like, oh, that's just like, all I wanted to do is figure out how to make more money.
 
Shannon Waller: Yeah, and how to help people.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah, and how to help people. Like, how do I build my business? And it's very much more intentional and deliberate now. And how that's going to happen. All of these things have coalesced. It's like, how do I do business? What activities am I engaged in? Who do I surround myself with? It's like all of those pieces have built over the years. We were speaking earlier, it's like, man, I have a really good life. I have a really good life. And people ask me the R question. It's like retirement question. When are you going to retire? And I said, retire from what? I only hang out with people I like. I make a lot of money and I only do what I want to do. What should I stop? Which part of those things am I going to stop?
 
Shannon Waller: I love it. People ask me that question too. And I'm like, well, I love being creative and I like getting paid for it. Why would I stop? No matter what I do, I may change the time. Actually, I don't really trust myself if I'm not doing those things to be perfectly honest. I'm a better person when I'm contributing.
 
Teresa Easler: You should not be left unsupervised, right?
 
Shannon Waller: Right. 100 percent. All right, I want to touch on a couple things. Now, you said you have a great life and I happen to know that that includes some pretty stellar Free Days.
 
Teresa Easler: Yes.
 
Shannon Waller: So it's not that you work all the time. You're this productive and profitable. So just talk about your free time for a moment. I know some other things, so I'm curious what that is.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah. As soon as I got introduced, day one, to the time system and I heard about Free Days, I went, I can do those.
 
Shannon Waller: Sign me up.
 
Teresa Easler: Yep. Free Days and me, we're buddies. I got this. And I am one of those oddballs I know in Coach where it was never a problem for me. I booked him in my calendar and I was like, that's it. I'm offline. And it has never, it has never stopped. So I take about 160 Free Days a year, right around that time, which I'm really happy with. That's a really good amount for me. But a few years ago, I increased it a little bit. And how I increased it is I don't work weekends and I work a regular workday. I start my day at nine. I finish my day at five. I don't work 12-hour days. I don't do that. So I work a pretty, for me, normal. I guess for most entrepreneurs, that's not normal, working nine to five. But a few years ago, my first grandchild was being born. And I knew that I wanted to be very active in his life. So I decided at that point that I was going to work only a four-day week. And I thought, I'm not set up yet to work four-day week. What do I need to do so that I can do everything nine to five, four days a week? And so I did it.
 
You know, he's five years old now, but I don't work Fridays. Fridays are my day off. Now I've set as a goal within the next two years, I'll be down to three days a week. Now, the thing that's interesting to me about this is it's not because I necessarily want to work less. That's not what's driving this. What's driving it is, how do I have to grow as a leader? What do I have to do differently as a leader of my business? And how do my team have to grow in order for me to only work three days a week? So I'm coming at it more from what growth is this going to be a catalyst for rather than I need to work less. So for me, it's an interesting problem I'm solving. And it's not even a problem, that's overstating it, but it's an interesting thing that I'm figuring out and my team is figuring out too for, you know, what are we gonna do? Okay, I'm not available. It's like, what do we do with all that work that you do? And they figured it out. And so now it's, what are you going to do with one less? How are you going to manage that one?
 
Shannon Waller: How am I going to manage that? Right? I know. That's very cool. I love that goal. So you've been talking a little bit about your team. And the thing that I know, you and I have talked about this, is that for me to do my Unique Ability and only my Unique Ability—if you're almost not familiar with the term, super quick definition, it's what you'd love to do and are best at. So it's not just your ego talking. So you have superior skill and passion. You're a hero to other people. You get well rewarded for it, all the good things. And it gives you energy. And no part of it drains you. And then the next one's excellent—superior skill, no passion. Then we go down to competent, incompetent. You can fill in the blanks for that. So that's what we're talking about when we talk about Unique Ability. So for either of us to do our Unique Ability, other stuff needs to happen. Just because we're not doing it does not mean it magically evaporates.
 
Teresa Easler: No, things still have to happen.
 
Shannon Waller: Exactly. So we need to be surrounded by people who love to do and have superior skill at the things that we don't. So tell us about your team because it sounds like what you've built or are building is a Self-Managing Company, which is something we talk about in Coach. And that's been a pursuit of yours. And I love the question, who do I need to be as a leader? I get excited. So talk to us about your team and having a Self-Managing Company and how that plays out.
 
Teresa Easler: One of the things, and this is maybe some background thinking that informs this, but one of the things that I absolutely believe about business for myself, this may not be true for everyone, but it is definitely for me, that being in business, being an entrepreneur, is my laboratory for learning everything that I need to know about myself. It is my transformational and spiritual journey. There is nothing that I need to learn about life that I'm not getting right in the middle of being in business, working with my team, working with my clients. It's all right there. It's my fertile ground.
 
Shannon Waller: Can I add to that for one second? And I love, we are so aligned. No one's watching this, but I'm cheering in the background here. I have always said, so, and this is so cool. As far as I'm concerned, entrepreneurial work and business is the number one place for personal development. Oh my God. So that exact sentiment, I love it.
 
Teresa Easler: Absolutely. Yes. So because that's kind of a foundational thinking that I have, I make a lot of my choices based upon, where's my learning edge? What's the next thing that's there for me to transform about myself? So I make those—I don't make all of them deliberately, but I make many of them deliberately, recognizing this is a place for me to grow. So my previous company, Corporate Vision, was a big company, you know. We had 30 staff members. We had a huge team of on-call freelancers. There was a big group of people that we operated. When I started Connect To The Core, I said to myself, I know how to do that. I've done that one. I've done that, bigger teams, all that. Let's see how far I can take this one with a small team. Let's see how far I can take it, because I don't really aspire to have that big team again. Let's see where my limitations are, where we push up again. So that, you know, was a deliberate decision for me in 2008 to have a smaller team.
 
So I have a small core team and we have, again, a number of people that are on speed dial for us that we bring in who have other expertise that when we need it, they're there for us. So the team is all focused on their Unique Ability, too. And we actually just recently had this conversation about, I'm completely protected about my Unique Ability. I spend very, very little time in anything outside of Unique Ability. And I'm not a bottleneck anymore. So I'm not a bottleneck. I'm not holding things up. But now you start cascading it through the team and they're the bottleneck. So we're doing exercises about where and what is it time for you to let go of. You know ,making those tough decisions and who's going to do it and whether we bring them on board, on payroll, or whether or not we bring them in as consultants or we bring them in on a contract basis or whatever it is. But really to cascade that down from not just me—I'm so protected, but they have to build that muscle themselves. I'm not building that muscle for them. They have to build that muscle really well for themselves.
 
So we're exploring that and they're figuring a lot of those things out too, because I don't want them doing anything other than their Unique Ability. I don't want them to do anything that doesn't light them up. And anybody who comes to work for me, you'll appreciate this because this is how you operate. Anybody who comes to work with me has got to be ready to grow. I was sharing with one of my clients, a CEO of a company, and I said, you know, I have a particular management style that you may be familiar with because I think it's yours too. And I said, that's the deep end of the pool management style.
 
Shannon Waller: Yep. That's how I learned.
 
Teresa Easler: I know. I know. Right. Yep. Throw them in there. I'm going to be on the side of the pool cheering them on. I'll have the life preserver if they need it. You know, there'll be lifeguards, but you know what? I'm throwing in, you know, here you go. What do you need?
 
Shannon Waller: And I actually find in entrepreneurial companies that that is what works. It had to do actually with some event stuff. And the person who I was wanting to see grow turned out hadn't been to a live event for us. I was like, oh my gosh. So then she and I went on 10 together. I did 10 speeches. She accompanied me to all of them. And then, man, she learned so fast and she was brilliant. So she just grew so fast when I was working directly with her rather than through someone else. And it was so fun to see. And you and I both, I think, know profiles. We know better than sometimes they know, because we have the language for it. You know, oh, this is how you'll respond in this situation with your Kolbe, your Fact Finder, Follow Thru, Quick Start, Implementer. This is how your personality is probably going to play out in this situation. This is going to satisfy your most innate deepest motivations. We know that we've got to read on to people and then we help them connect their experience with what the profiles are saying. And they're like, oh, I can count on this. So it's fine. We get to coach people up to that. But what you're talking about is Unique Ability Teamwork. And it is such a joy to work in an organization where everyone's lit up every day coming into work. Like I get to do this rather than I have to do it. And just thank you from a team perspective for being that leader who sees that and wants that for her team and will help them get there.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah. I'm cheering you on. Thank you. Thank you. But it goes back to what we spoke about earlier is establishing those boundaries and being really clear about here are the boundaries. And I don't even have to entertain it very much anymore because my team, they just wouldn't have me do anything other than what I'm supposed to do. It's to their benefit.
 
Yeah, it's like you're not allowed. No, Teresa would not.
 
Shannon Waller: And it's fun when they tell other people, oh, no, no, her security clearance doesn't go that high.
 
Teresa Easler: Right, right, yeah. It's like, yeah, I better not do this.
 
Shannon Waller: That's really fun. You better not do this. Thank you for sharing all of that. We are so aligned, it's ridiculous, which I love every second of. Well, we've been friends for so many years, right?
 
Teresa Easler: Right?
 
Shannon Waller: I know. I love it. And you have a great team, by the way, too. And I have benefited from your coaching. I'm so grateful. There are lessons I learned, like the need for relevance. If I'm giving a talk, then I need to know how my message is relevant to that audience. ‘Cause it could be very different. One of your team said to me, and this is a perfect description of our PRINT profiles, by the way, she was Shannon, you're lighthearted and serious minded.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: And that has been with me for 30 plus years. It perfectly encapsulates me at my best and I love every second of it. So much gratitude for those takeaways that I got. Thank you. Oh, it's amazing. So if you get a chance to be coached by Teresa on anything, take it. Last thing in terms of coaching is, what do you love about coaching Strategic Coach entrepreneurs? Because you are very picky about with whom you will work. I sign up to that as well. But I'm curious, what Strategic Coach clients fit the bill for you? And what are you getting out of it? And what do you love about it? What do you love contributing? What are you learning? I'm curious about that coaching dynamic and relationship.
 
Teresa Easler: Boy, there's so much.
 
Shannon Waller: I know. It's a big question.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah. To see the contribution. You know, it's really funny, and I know you have this experience. I have an imprint in my brain of how people come in to Coach on day one and what they're struggling with and what they're aspiring to and where the challenges are and all of the wants that they have. Like, I'm coaching some people in my groups that I started coaching them in 1997. Almost 30 years. And they're there. Right? Looking at them is like, I still remember you. I remember stories that they told and things that happened to them way back when. They don't even remember it, but I remember when this happened and when you had this event and when you were figuring this one out and when you had these questions. I said, I remember those things. It's like I'm an archive for those experiences, because somebody has to appreciate all of that for them. Sometimes they don't appreciate it for themselves. So I feel like that's one of the contributions that I can make is that I'm the archivist of the before and after.
 
Shannon Waller: Right.
 
Teresa Easler: And how the journey has unfolded and how much has been accomplished over that period of time. As a coach, that is like watching your children grow up and turn into these amazing human beings. It's just like incredibly gratifying. The other thing about it is it's part of my own development too. When I'm coaching, how I really view myself isn't the one who has all the answers. I'm really like an older sibling who's just further down the road. And I've had some more experiences and that I get to share some of those things. I can share, here's what really worked. If you want to fast track it, these are the things that I know fast track it. If you're not able to do that, I understand, and know that these are some of the challenges you're going to face and you face them as you can face them. So I think that just understanding my own journey and having some grace for myself allows me to really have a lot of grace for other people and not impose, this is how you have to do it. We're all doing this for ourselves. We're all doing this and it's going to unfold in its own way. So it gives me an opportunity to be a better person over and over and over again.
 
Shannon Waller: That's how I feel. I actually said that to Dan yesterday. This makes me a better person. These thinking tools, because they're not forms, everybody. There's not a single form of Coach other than maybe the registration. It's thinking tools and I'm better as a result of that. So getting to coach that and see other people go through their own transformations based on their own Unique Ability and taking their own experience seriously. We get to ask good questions and point out the pitfalls and point out the opportunities. But I love what you said: this is not a best practices. That's irrelevant. Because what's the best practice for someone else may not be the best practice for you. And we get to support people and help them through all the ways and get to see their transformations as they grow. Yeah, I love that.
 
Teresa Easler: Yeah, it's just one of the most extraordinary experiences to have, to just be part of that, to be a guide along the way. It doesn't get much better than that.
 
Shannon Waller: Amazing. So on that note, it's a perfect place to wrap up. So thank you. Clearly you would recommend Strategic Coach.
 
Teresa Easler: Oh my gosh. Yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: So if you're interested in upcoming workshops and seeing when Teresa is on the calendar, please log in to strategiccoach.com. Check out the dates and registration page. All the coaches are there. We got to know you even better today. And I learned some things, which is super fun, Teresa. And I just wanna say thank you. Thank you for being you. Thank you for the mindset that you shared, like this is the best place to grow, right, as an entrepreneur. And then in the Program, you can fast track away from some of those in-your-face challenges, or at least handle them better. And thank you for all your contributions over the decades to Strategic Coach clients. Your clients rave about you. Clearly they're stuck with you for almost 30 years.
 
Teresa Easler: We're stuck with each other.
 
Shannon Waller: Exactly right. Can't go anywhere else. So much, much, much appreciation for two of us who are still around decades later after we found Coach. So that says something in and of itself.
 
Teresa Easler: Thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me in to be part of all of this.
 
Shannon Waller: My pleasure. Thanks, Teresa.