What Would You Do If You Were Truly Free with Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan

Episode Summary

Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan continue their conversation on commitment, entrepreneurial freedom, and building company structure that expands creativity instead of restricting it—with a deep dive on hiring, delegation traps, and Dan’s new “Casting Not Hiring” framework.

Here’s a glance at what you’ll discover in this episode:

The “Company vs. Job” Reality Check: Why most entrepreneurs secretly built a high-paying job—and the simple test Dan uses to tell the difference.

Reverse Delegation: The silent trap where your “help” creates more work—and how to spot it fast before it becomes your new normal.

The 90-Day Truth Window: Why Dan won’t let a wrong-fit hire linger—and how acting early saves you months of pain.

Casting Not Hiring: Dan’s theater-style framework that replaces job descriptions with roles, so your company performs like a great production.

Buy Back 10 Hours a Week: The simplest move that can return 500 hours a year—so you finally have time to create, not just cope.

If you’d like to join world-renowned Entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network Event or want to learn more about Genius Network, go to www.GeniusNetwork.com.

Show Notes

The #1 hiring rule

Dan’s rule is simple and ruthless:
Don’t hire someone unless they free up the entrepreneur.
If a hire increases expense but doesn’t increase freedom, the entrepreneur becomes the bottleneck—and eventually the prisoner.

Unique Ability is the center of the system

Dan describes his Unique Ability as concept creation and simplifying complex thinking so entrepreneurs get clearer, more focused, and more confident—fast. Strategic Coach systems (tools, workshops, team roles) exist to keep him in that Unique Ability while others handle everything required to deliver it at scale. Strategic Coach

Systems Without Becoming a Prisoner

Tools create structure—and structure creates scale

Dan describes how he moved from selling hours one-to-one, to building repeatable “thinking tools,” starting with The Strategy Circle, and eventually expanding into hundreds of tools used in group settings. This created a multiplier: one entrepreneur at a time became a room full of entrepreneurs at a time.

Entrepreneurial Time System (Free Days / Focus Days / Buffer Days)

Joe references Dan’s time frameworks as an example of structure that protects creativity rather than constrains it—because it makes creation possible by removing chaos and interruption. Strategic Coach

“Make Dan Happy” (and what that really means)

Joe asks about Dan’s idea that the Team’s job is to “make Dan happy.” Dan reframes it as a cascading principle:

First, hires free up the entrepreneur
Then, as leaders become freed up, they must also be freed up by others, so the entire organization stays focused on the most important activity
In Coach’s case: front stage experience for entrepreneurial clients must be protected; backstage must run without dragging the entrepreneur into operational noise

This is a key reason Dan credits Strategic Coach with long tenure and high trust: people gain responsibility and are then freed up to grow by additional support.

Reverse Delegation (when your “help” creates more work)

Joe names a painful reality: hiring someone who was supposed to reduce work, but instead pushes work back onto the entrepreneur.

Dan’s response:

Diagnose fast—don’t let it linger
Use a 90-day window to evaluate fit and performance
It might be a bad hire, or misapplied strengths
Use assessments where helpful (Dan references Kolbe), but don’t rely on tests alone Kolbe

The two things you can’t test for

Dan’s big warning after decades of building teams:

You can’t test for character
You can’t test for ambition

If either is missing, it will eventually show up as inconsistency, drag, unreliability, or cultural damage.

Why Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be the main hirers/firers

Dan and Joe agree:

Entrepreneurs are often great salespeople
Salespeople “sell the role” in the interview process
Then the entrepreneur has to “unsell it” later when it’s not working
Hiring and firing is better handled by experienced managers who live closer to deadlines, deliverables, and daily reality

New framework: Casting Not Hiring

Dan shares a major new concept: stop hiring to fill job descriptions—start casting roles like a production. Your company is a “play” with:

a plot
a script
an audience
roles that must work together

This shifts hiring from “Can they do tasks?” to “Do they fit the role in relationship to everyone else?” Strategic Coach

The performance scorecard concept

Dan outlines a practical way to measure fit and growth quarter-to-quarter, including:

baseline performance expectations (how you must “show up”)
measurable improvement in results over time
optional “hero” growth (developing new capabilities)
a hard rule: don’t drive other people crazy

He also references four performance capabilities valued in team members: alert, curious, responsive, resourceful. Strategic Coach

Incentives tied to quarterly clarity

Dan shares how they’re operationalizing this internally: team members who complete the quarterly role/performance sheet receive a quarterly reward, reinforcing ongoing clarity and improvement.

Closing recommendation: buy back 10 hours a week

Dan’s simplest action step:

Identify where you want to be freed up
Imagine getting 10 hours back per week you can count on for a full year
That’s roughly 500 hours of regained creation time
Decide exactly what you would do with those hours—because no team can define that for you

Dan emphasizes that freedom is what enables creation—and creation is what sustains growth.

Action Steps

Identify your Unique Ability (the activities that create your highest value and energy)
Make a “freedom list”: everything you do that someone else could own
Add a hiring filter: “Does this role free up the entrepreneur within 90 days?”
Prevent reverse delegation: track whether new hires reduce or increase entrepreneur workload
Use assessments to place people well (e.g., Kolbe), but validate character + ambition in real conditions Kolbe
Adopt a “casting” mindset: define roles by relationships and outcomes, not just tasks Strategic Coach
Build a quarterly rhythm: performance expectations, results improvement, capability growth, and “don’t drive others crazy” standards

Resources

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To go deeper with 10XTalk, access your FREE COPY of the “8 Transformations of a 10X Entrepreneur”, go here.

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10x MULTIPLIERS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

10x MULTIPLIERS TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

EPISODE 243

What Would You Do If You Were Truly Free with Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan

EPISODE 243

What Would You Do If You Were Truly Free with Joe Polish and Dan Sullivan

Episode Summary