The Gift of Complete Freedom | 331

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Dan-Kuschell - 331

August 9, 2021

Dan Kuschell is an accomplished entrepreneur, business advisor, and author. He currently runs Breakthrough3x, a company that helps founders and entrepreneurs triple their profits and impact without multiplying their workload and their stress.

Dan has owned 11 companies since 1992, building multiple businesses with revenues exceeding eight figures before selling. He is also the host of the Growth to Freedom podcast, where he interviews industry leaders and experts in a variety of fields.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • Dan Kuschell talks about the global pandemic and how it has impacted his personal and professional life
  • What does freedom mean to you?
  • Dan shares a story about a time he contemplated quitting ​​— and the experience that changed his mind
  • Three simple questions to help you achieve your next big business breakthrough

In this episode…

What does freedom mean to you? Does it mean the chance to live your purpose, to reach your full potential, or to pursue your passion? For many business owners, the goal of success is to achieve greater personal and professional freedom. So, how can you increase your level of freedom today?

When Dan Kuschell first started in business, he didn’t feel free or successful. In fact, there was a moment in his 20s when he contemplated quitting everything. But, there were three questions that helped him get unstuck, transform his life, and achieve his next big business breakthrough. Today, he’s here to share those questions — and reveal the turning point that led to his business success.

Join Dan Kuschell on this episode of Growth to Freedom as he shares the key to achieving greater freedom and success today. Listen in as Dan discusses a time in his life when he was ready to quit, the turning point that revolutionized his career, and the three questions that helped him achieve his business breakthrough. Stay tuned for more!

Resources Mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com.

Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. You can do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com. That’s breakthroughstrategycall.com.

In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You can get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com. That’s activate.breakthrough3x.com.

If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

Episode Transcript

Dan Kuschell 0:03

Welcome to growthtofreedom.com the show that brings you inspiration, transformation, and leadership. We are helping you connect the dots, see the blind spots, and get unstuck. So you can go out and generate more leads, more sales, more profits. More importantly, so you can go out and have a bigger reach, a bigger impact, and make a bigger contribution. You might be wondering, well, Dan, this is virtual, why are you wearing a mask? Well, I’m wearing a mask for a couple reasons. Right? One, I wanted to get your attention. Number two, it’s kind of a symbol of where we’re at today in history. I mean, let’s face it, we’re in one of the most unique times in human history, aren’t we? One of the most unique times in human history. And it’s kind of a symbol of where we’re at. And let’s face it, I don’t know about you. But if you think about your journey, you know, whether it’s five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years for me, I’ve been in business for over 30 years now. Is it true that maybe at times, we all wear some kind of mask, right? That maybe it’s a symbol that, you know, man, maybe we’re not wearing a mask today, but just a few months ago, we might have been or a few days ago, or an hour ago, we were wearing a mask with our family, our friends or our peers. Right? And I don’t know about you, but the last six months has been a unique time. And for me, maybe like you, I’ve been on a roller coaster at times. Right? I was in at Walt Disney World speaking at an event, a private client event on March 10, 11th, and 12th, when basically the world and the United States kind of shut down. And since that time, I don’t know about you, but I’ve gone through a series of emotions, you know, emotions of conspiracy, emotions of feeling completely alone, feeling lonely, completely isolated. I felt, you know, overly cautious. And then that has moved at times, and especially in the last several months to productive, innovative, in power. I don’t know if you can relate to some of what I’m sharing here about where we’re at in human history and this idea of mass, can you tell us in the chat window for me just a little bit, I just want to, you know, see if, if this connects to you at all, right.

And the other thing that I want you to do thank you for for those, that feedback, is I’d like you to think about freedom for a second. Right? Because this mask is also relative to the idea of freedom or lack of freedom, right? Lack of freedom. So I really want you to think for a moment, what is freedom to you? Right now, in this moment in, in time in human history for you, where you stand running your business, maybe you’re crushing it, maybe you’re killing it, you know, we’ve got dogs, and we’ve got Kevin, these guys are now in it and some of the biggest influencers in the world that help people grow businesses. Or maybe you’re new and you’re just kind of getting started. And maybe you feel stuck. Or maybe you feel you’ve hit a plateau, wherever it is, from ultimate success to just getting started and stuck or anywhere in between. I want you to identify for you write it down, if you have the courage and I hope you do because we create a safe place here is the you’d write what does freedom mean to you in the chat window? I’d love for everyone to be able to see what that is to you. What is freedom to you? Right.

What is freedom to you.? - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

Now, I’ve asked this question for the last 20 years at a lot of events I’ve been blessed to speak at. And then miraculous thing I find is it’s 100% different from every single person. So what is freedom to you to live my purpose fully to reach my full potential to do what I want where I want? Thank you a linka. Right, what is freedom to you please type it in time plays contribution that’s from arrive. Right? What is it to you time to spend with loved ones and pursue my passion, Brandon, right. What is it to you? And now here’s what I want to do is I really want you to tune in, because a great exercise of identifying where you’re at now and where you want to go. Tony Robbins has been teaching this for the better half of 30 years, and so have a lot of other experts. But if you rate your freedom scale right now on a one low and a ten high, whatever your version of freedom is, one low, 10 high, how would you rate it today? Would it be a three because of things shifting? Right Anna says 10. I’ve got eight from Stefan nine from a linka That’s amazing, right? And it varies for every person Seven, eight, you know, see all kinds of different numbers crystal seven from Bruce.

So here’s the thing, I’m gonna share a quick story. Again, there’s all kinds of different, you know, examples here, of success in people’s getting started and a lot in between. But early in my business, I found myself wearing a lot of masks, right, this was probably four or five years into my business. So this is all the way back in like the 1990s. Right. And I remember this was a direct sales business that I had had at the time. And I was on this major roller coaster, like one month, you know, I was, you know, crushing it, the next month was average. And next month was like bottoming out, I was wondering how he’s gonna pay for gas, or pay for my car payment. And then it was crushing it again, it was this up and down kind of roller coaster. And I found myself at a place where I was reevaluating me, because I was looking at a lot of other people in this industry in this company. And they were having a lot of success, where I felt like I wasn’t compared to them. And I remember I traveled to an event where one of my mentors. Her name is Lori was actually speaking. And I had gotten to a place that I was so low, I was so dejected I was so I was so much in my head of like questioning me doubting my own skills, talents and abilities that I want there face to face to tell, essentially my mentor, that I was going to leave and quit. That I just felt like I wasn’t meant to do this. I wasn’t meant to be successful. I wasn’t meant to go this route. And I was going to likely go back home and pursue like being a blue collar worker, like my family, which that’s what my dad had done and his dad had done and kind of this history. And I sat in his hotel room in Louisville, Kentucky, I can remember it like yesterday. I remember, you know, being nervous going up to Lori’s room and knocking on her door and the hotel and I said, Hey, I got to talk to you. And she was on the phone with her boyfriend at the time. And I’ll never forget it because I walked in I was, you know, I’m in my 20s. At this time, I’m nervous. I’m scared here, someone who like she’s multi, multi millionaire. And I say, hey, I need to talk to you. And she’s on the phone with her boyfriend. And she goes, Hey, I’ve got to call you back. I’ve got one of our top people in the company here with me. Now, maybe you can relate to this. And maybe you can’t. But if you’ve ever been in a place where you completely doubted yourself, where you completely, were at a low point where you were like, Man, I’m not good enough. I don’t have what it takes. I don’t know why I’ve worked my ass off for the last five years. But I just am not any further ahead now than I was then. And then someone you admire you respect. A mentor says, I’ve got one of my top people in the company standing here, I’ve got it. I gotta let you go with someone most important in her life, which it was her boyfriend at the time. And so that was kind of a shock to hear her say it. And of course I didn’t at that time. I didn’t have the confidence to own it. But I was still taken by it. And so she invited me and we sit down and she said, Hey, what’s going on? I said, Well, Lori, I’m really reevaluating everything. I really am wondering if I am cut out to do this anymore. I don’t think I’m good at sales. I don’t think I’m good at marketing. I just I keep going up and down and mostly down. And she says, Well, I got a solution. She said, Dan, what if you come to work with me in Clearwater, Florida will work side by side for 30, 60, 90 days. And let’s just see what happens. What if you just give it a shot for 90 days, and we’ll just see where we’re at at that point. I’ll work with you. I know you’ve got the talent. And I was again, I was taken back. And again, if you’ve never been in this situation, maybe you can’t relate. Maybe you can’t I hope you can really connect to this. Because I remember sitting there going wow. She believes in me. She saw something in me before I did. And why is this so important is how you see yourself today. Tomorrow, moving forward is going to make the biggest difference.

How you see yourself today, tomorrow, moving forward, is going to make the biggest difference. - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

To give you the ability to take the stand mask off, that might be holding you back. That might be the one thing that little voice of doubt that has crept in At some point where you might be pushing down your true dreams, your true desires. And I went to Clearwater, Florida, a changed person. Because when I went back, I was actually living in Nashville, Tennessee at the time. And I remember the drive back on Holy shit, holy shit. Now I can’t, I can’t be a poser anymore. I can’t be a fake anymore. And at that point, by the way, for some of you that are more new, at that point, I had invested hundreds of 1000s of dollars in seminars, events, personal development, but I still wasn’t living it. Yeah, I could talk it but I didn’t live it. And I remember on the drive home, I was excited and scared at the same time. I’m like, I gotta do something different. When I go there to Clearwater, I’ve got to show her what I can do.

And I don’t know where I learned this exercise from or this series of questions. I know, I didn’t invent it. Because I had been to hundreds of events. And I don’t know who to give credit for except I’ll just say the industry. And I remember coming back home to Nashville, Tennessee, and I started journaling, which my life today is a journal, everything I do I hand write? Well, I’ll put an asterisk, not everything. Almost everything I do that’s important is in writing in my journals. I’ve been keeping journals now for over 20 some years. And I remember coming back and I’m going, Okay, what am I going to do to go there the right person, to be the right person to be the person that I know I need to be to get results working with Lori, and I came up with these three simple questions, I want to share those with you. Because regardless of tactic tactics, regardless of strategies in business, if these things are not connected your heart with your mind and your body and your spirit, it’s not going to work, at least that’s been my experience.

Regardless of tactics, regardless of strategies in business, if these things are not connected — your heart with your mind and your body with your spirit — it's not going to work. - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

I had tactics down like nobody’s business back then. I had strategies down like nobody’s business, not perfect, but really well. But what was disconnected was this next step I’m going to share with you that I think is as important as anything we’re going to talk about today. So I came back to Nashville, I was scared, I was excited. But I knew I needed to do something different. So I needed a runway for the next couple of weeks between then and what I was going to be there in a couple of weeks, I came up with three simple questions for me, I needed to be simple. I can’t have hours of training and education time, I need micro chunks of minutes. So three questions popped up. Number one, what am I grateful for right now. And I forced myself every day in the morning and every day at night for three weeks before going to write down 10 things I was grateful for in that moment, in the morning, and then I did it again at night, every day three weeks, then identified, what am I happy about right now. Now, first of all, gratitude at that time was not something that was easy for me. Because I was someone and again, if you can’t relate to this, but if you’re someone who is a perfectionist who has a tendency or had a tendency to beat yourself up, you might be able to relate. And really just loving and living life is such a gift. Waking up is something to be grateful for, let alone being able to take a walk and not be in pain or whatever it might be. And then on top of that, if you’re not a happy person, and suddenly you start to look at what you’re happy about, it’s not easy in the beginning, but the more you identify that you’re happy about, the more you will have to be happy about it. And the third question is What did I did do well today. And again, if you’re not coming if you don’t have the DNA of maybe a perfectionist This is might be a little challenging. But if you are someone who has had a tendency to beat yourself up with perfectionism in comparison to others, and then you just start chipping away 10 things that you did well today. And then it starts to build and it starts to build and starts to get easier goes from hard to literally easy and you start moving from stuck to flow or smooth or unstuck. In three weeks, I was doing the same stuff tactically, I was doing the same stuff in my mind in my heart strategically. But when I got there I was a completely different person, a B person, which is when I’m saying B person. It comes from what I recall learning from Mark Victor Hansen so many years ago you got to be to do it. So then habit. And I found that these three questions were probably for me the biggest initial catalyst and breakthrough of my life. It turns It was a transition from a very dark and scary time, a lonely time and isolated time, a time of doubt, to transformation. And that moment, I got, I got to Clearwater, we went on this major run, my business went up, and grant grew up to over six figures than six figures plus and six figures. Plus, then I started a new business in the publishing business, that business within a few years grew to over $100 million in impact. ended up selling not one, but two companies. And I remember what Lori shared with me. At least my interpretation of it, she said, You know, I want to work with you, because I know.

And, by the way, Jewels, I have you to thank for this opening. Jewels asked me such an easy question. Why are you doing trainings Like this? Like I said, I went through every single question. And it’s my goal, I’m gonna get every one of them answered by the time we’re done, or in some of the bonus segments, or both. But Jewels says, Why are you doing this? So I remember Lori saying, I know that if I work with you, you’re gonna go impact a lot of people. And I know you’re here. Because you likely want to have a bigger impact. Yes, you want freedom. But I find that people come into my world more because of making a bigger impact than probably any other thing. If you’re looking at making a bigger impact, why I’m doing this. At this point, my career is not the money, whether someone enrolls in this program or not, is just not going to impact me or my family at all. At this time, and I’m grateful for that. I say that not with arrogance, I hopefully it doesn’t come across that way. But it comes across. Truly what it is. If I can impact one person, the way Lori did. That’s a gift. That’s what I want to give you today. Today, ideally, is the opportunity to give you the gift of complete and utter freedom. And I’m gonna frame it this way for this moment in this time, because we are at one of the most unique times that you can strip the mask, not just this physical mask of fear and uncertainty and in turbulence in this world. But you can step up to be a leader, and you can take your mask off. And you can be free to just be you to be yourself, your best self to be able to do what you want, when you want with who you want, so that you can have a bigger impact.

You can take your mask off and you can be free to just be you, to be yourself. Your best self. - Dan Kuschell Click To Tweet

So you can have a bigger reach. And you can have a bigger contribution. Let me ask you this, who’s with me on this journey today? And tomorrow? Who’s with me? Can you type yes in the chat window? Awesome. Well, I hope you’re ready. Because my goal and the promise that I made to Lori is yes, I’m going to go pay it forward. And she said if you just do one person and since that time, I fallen in love with being able to try my best. And my dad does to have a bigger impact. And I’m very lucky that it’s happened. And so as we take this ride together, it’s about freedom. It’s about helping you get to your perfect clients. So you can have a steady flow of clients daily to get free from the burden of like, how am I going to meet payroll? Or how am I going to make the bills? Or how am I going to get access to take care of my kids or my family? or more importantly, how can I get free so I can go be with my family. The gift today of being able to coach my son’s football team four days a week that’s non negotiable is such a gift and a blessing. That I know when you get a system of selling and marketing and all these other business pieces we’ll talk about today and tomorrow in place, it changes your life. More importantly, because you get to go change other. And it can start with you. It can start with your kids, it can start with your family, and then transcend, to make a bigger difference all over the world. If you’re with me, I’m excited that you’re with me. And I’m excited to be able to share this moment with you today and tomorrow. And the bottom line is, I just want you to get a perspective of why and what we’ve put together here.

Thanks for listening to this episode of growthtofreedom.com. Are you struggling to get a steady flow of new clients every day? Or maybe hit a plateau or hit a wall in growing your business? Well, let’s help you solve this problem today. Let’s review your business and have a conversation. Do that for free today at breakthroughstrategycall.com, that’s breakthroughstrategycall.com. In addition, if you’re looking for a simple way to implement some of what we’ve been talking about in today’s episode, I want to encourage you to get our free small business toolkit. You get that at activate.breakthrough3x.com, that’s activate.breakthrough3x.com. If you’d like access to the special resources and all the show notes for this special episode, make sure to visit growthtofreedom.com.

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