440 Scott Couchenour

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Scott Couchenour is a fourth quarter life and business coach. Drawing from nearly 30 years of experience as a COO and CEO in an unplanned, unwanted business exit, Scott helps business owners over 45 who are successful, yet in the throes of mapping out their business exit and transition And don't know what to run to.

He concentrates on helping owners of small to midsize companies, create clarity and design a comprehensive life and business plan. He helps not only with strategy, but secures solid traction through an iterative approach.

Scott's clients are reaching new heights and accomplishing much more than they ever thought possible. Scott is husband, father, and Pop Pop to his grandkids. He loves to play piano, fly fishing, working on spreadsheets and explore coffee shops.

And before we start this episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Jane, a graduate who says, and I quote, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program prevented me from making what would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I [00:01:00] almost signed on the dotted line with an unsolicited offer that I now realized would have shortchanged my hard work and my future had I accepted that offer. Deep Wealth Mastery has tilted the playing field to my advantage.

Or how about Lyn? Wow, he gets right to the point, and I quote, Deep Wealth Mastery is one of the best investments ever made because you'll get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anyone who doesn't go through this will lose millions. 

And as you're listening to these testimonials, are you wondering if you have the time? Are you even thinking that you've got this covered, you have the advisors or people in your network? Well, I got to tell you, these myths, they're often behind the 90 percent failure rate for liquidity events. Think about it. You have one chance to get it right for your financial freedom. You really want to make it count.

And when it comes to time, let's hear what William has to say. We just got in this testimonial, William says, and I quote, I didn't have the time for Deep Wealth Mastery. But I made the time and I'm glad I did. What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've [00:02:00] experienced. 

So what do you think?

As I hear that, that's exactly what gets me out of bed every day. That's my mission. That's the team's mission here at Deep Wealth to literally change the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time, and my Deep Wealth Nation, what I want you to know, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it isn't theory.

It's from the trenches. It's the only one based on a nine figure deal. And that deal, that was my deal. You know my story. I said no to a seven figure offer. I created the system that later on, myself and my business partners, we said yes to a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal. That's what we now call the Deep Wealth Mastery Program or the Scale For Ultimate Sales system.

It's built by business owners, for business owners, so if you're interested in growing your profits for preparing for a future liquidity event, and that may be two years away, it could be 22 years away, whatever the time may be, you want to do this now, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you.[00:03:00]

To get started, email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success. S U C C E S S at DeepWealth. com. You'll receive all the information about the Deep Wealth Mastery Program or better yet, why not hop on a complimentary strategy call.

We'll go through exactly where your business is today and what's standing between you and your financial independence and your dreams. So that's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you they're looking to grow their businesses, create markets.

Market disruptions and unlock their financial freedom to get what they deserve. And whether you've been in business for three years, 40 years, you're a startup, you're manufacturing you're in high tech, low tech, whatever the case may be, coming in and network with other business owners, it's a safe space.

It's a confidential space with business owners, with businesses just like you, because they all wanna lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment. So again, the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it has your name on it. [00:04:00] All you need to do is take the next step. Please send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Deep Wealth Nation welcome to another Deep Wealth podcast. You know me. I love my rhetorical questions. Let me ask you this. When it comes to transitioning to the different chapters of your life, whatever that may be. Are you just going by the seat of your pants like I was when I was an entrepreneur in my earlier days especially or are you having a special coach for that?

Are you planning that out? Are you looking into that? When you're thinking about your exit, whenever that is, whatever that's going to look like, again, how are you approaching that? And as life throws you its ups, its downs, its challenges, do you have systems, do you have strategies to help keep you on the best possible path and not get off track as much as possible?

And I know if you ask me, especially in my earlier days, the answer to all of that would have been no Deep Wealth nation. What is it for you? And as you're thinking about that, Scott, welcome to the deep up podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. And I'm so excited what we're going to be talking about today, but let's go back to basics for just a moment.

There's always a story behind the story. [00:05:00] What's your story, Scott? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Scott Couchenour: First of all, Jeffrey, thank you for having me on your show. It is an honor and a privilege to be here. My dad was a preacher's kid, and His dad was a preacher going through a building program. They were designing and building a sanctuary. Contractor inflated the invoice, the final invoice and skipped town, leaving grandpa without a finished project and no money to finish it.

So my dad stepped in and found financing and finished the project. And shortly after that, someone said, there ought to be a company exists to see this never happens to churches again. So my dad, being entrepreneurial in a transition of his his career as well, felt the call to start a business that helped churches design and build their buildings.

And so he incorporated in 1970 and started helping churches in the Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania area and grew that I am one of five kids and he determined to build the business big enough so that we would have the [00:06:00] opportunity if we wanted to, The team, we all had to make it out on our own first, of course.

And and so when I joined, I was 24 years old and I spent the next 24 years as the COO taking care of legal license, insurance, safety, bonding, and all that sort of stuff. We designed and built district offices all the way from California to Allentown, Pennsylvania to Clearwater, Florida.

And we were humming along fine until 2008 happened. And that was at the time we didn't know it, but that was the beginning of the end of our family business. Because the next five years we experienced a downward slide in our sales and could not figure it out. What was going on? And I want to come back to that in a moment.

But after about five years of that, the board of directors, by the way, we had a board of directors in place because we knew the third generation of our family business had no interest in running the business. So we wanted to institute a board of directors to direct the CEO, [00:07:00] which would eventually be someone who was not a family member.

So we had that board of directors in place. They asked me to become the CEO of the company. CEO and have one task that I had to complete and that was to reinvent our 40 year old family business because whatever we were doing and had been doing for many years, decades was not working.

And so I got to work doing that. I was about two and a half years into that reinvention of our family business. When the five year slide made us vulnerable from a cash flow standpoint to one project that had to start in June of 2015, even though we had 20 million of work under contract that was at various stages of design, we did not earn much income until it went into construction.

So this was all backlog we were working toward. From a cash flow standpoint, we were backed into a corner and we had to have this project start. I got a call from the project manager expecting him to say we got started. Instead, he said, are you [00:08:00] sitting down? I said, why? He said, well, apparently the pastor's been having an affair with the secretary.

And the news of that came out. My heart sunk because I knew this was the only way forward. Long story short, that led us to closing the business after 44 years, 760 projects, half a billion square feet. And I was 50 years old at the time. And what I experienced was a loss of career of nearly 30 years loss of income.

Both my wife and I worked in the family business and we both lost our jobs. And most importantly, I felt what I went through what I felt was a loss of identity. Because if I'm not the CEO of a multi million dollar national church building company, family owned, who am I? And I was suddenly not that and I didn't know what I was going to be or what I was going to do.

So I struggled for a couple of years with that. As Providence would happen, as God began to continue to direct me, he and I spent a lot [00:09:00] of time together. I spent a lot of time complaining to him. He lovingly showed me some things that I had under my belt. I had become certified as a life coach back in 2000 back in the heyday when we were looking at potential things we could do for our, Employees as benefits and being the youngest of four brothers, I was charged with the responsibility to look into life coaching while I fell in love with the dynamic of coaching, I got my own coach and then I became certified as a coach.

So I had that on the side. I was always doing that as a part time. I was C. O. For 24 years. I was CEO for two and a half years. I know what it's like. Those of you who are listening if you've been through a downturn and you've done what is called a black Monday where you and your HR person go into an employee's office, sit down for five minutes and tell them we have to let you go, not for performance, but because the business can't afford you.

Here's a packet to help you. We get up and we say to them, you can leave whenever you'd like. Then we go to the next office and then the next office. I had to do that a couple of times. [00:10:00] So I understood all that. I understand the pressures of keeping survivors hopeful about their future. And of course, going through the loss of a business and the bankruptcy and the incredible intrusion of privacy and demoralizing effect had.

On us. I understand all that. I've been through that, but coming out of that, I began to realize I've got to do something. I can't just live by Deep Wealth the way I was living prior to 2008. And what I noticed was I had a lot of ingredients. But I had no recipe and a lot of these experiences and wisdom and knowledge, but I didn't know what to do with it.

So I began to work on that and reinvent myself similar to what I was doing and reinventing our family business. That led to a strategic approach to living and I am now on a quest to become the partner I wish I'd had. Back in 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12 because [00:11:00] what I noticed and it's interesting, a little play on words you talk about the deep wealth nation.

I feel like I'm called to eliminate the Deep Wealth Nation, the nation of people who are just taking life as it happens and it happens to all of us. It happens to me even this week where life just takes over and you're so busy in life and in the business that there's no time or margin space to work on life or on the business.

And I'm on a quest to help people bounce back from that Deep Wealth. Perspective and back into a design perspective where they're on their toes, not on their heels, but on their toes, actually making things happen. And that's my story. when I was 50 years old, an enormous life altering event happened.

And it ripped into, and I've got life prior to June 15, 2015, and I've got life after 2015 [00:12:00] and I'm doing my best to make the most of what I've learned.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, Scott, so much there and firstly, thank you for being so open and vulnerable in terms of what happened and the challenging situation that you've been in. Let me ask you this. I mean, there's so many areas to go into, but as you look back on that in hindsight, it's always 2020 and I know this is part of what you do with your systems, which we'll certainly talk about.

As you look back though, is there a strategy or two that you wish you would have known much earlier on that would have helped you through the period? That you went through all that transition, all that up and down and the emotionality that went through that. Anything that really stood out for you looking back now.

Scott Couchenour: Oh yeah there I can answer that in two ways. There's a personal strategy and a business strategy. The personal strategy was, I wish I had defined for myself what ideal, Looked like and not only ideal, but were my aspirations out in the future? And how did that translate to a one year goal and how did that translate to a [00:13:00] 90 day sprint, a series of four 90 day sprints leading to a goal, all of that integrated and coming out of the internal values, my identity.

I learned and have learned. If I had understood what I call moonshine, the principle of moonshine. I don't mean the drink. What I mean is picture the, romantic view of a moonlit night on beside the ocean. You see the moon shining on the ocean and it's very romantic. My wife and I love that kind of scene when we go on vacation.

The truth about that is the sun is actually shining on the ocean. It is not the moon. The moon has no properties that give it the ability to emanate light on its own. It just reflects the light because of its proximity to the sun and to us. So that's our experience of the sun at night. So what I realized was this loss of identity I was sensing, I realized there's no way we can ever lose our identity. What we lose, [00:14:00] what I lost, was the expression. Or the moon, the reflection of my identity and that freed me up. So if there was anything I wish I had learned, it would be to separate my identity from the business role that I played. The business role was just an expression of who I was. It's other people's experience of who I was.

And so how I define the sun is first of all, what do you value? What are your highest values in life? What's your personality? What are your strengths? What fuels your energy? What saps your energy? That's all part of who you are as a person. But can move from business owner to the person who gets down on the floor and plays with my two year old son with Legos.

That's another moon. that's my grandson's expression of who I am. And so it turns out we have multiple moons. And they are all the expression of who we are. [00:15:00] if I had known that, I would not have struggled with this sense of a loss of identity for as long as I did. So that's a personal answer to your question.

The business answer to your question comes from a book by Jim Collins. And most of your listeners will think immediately, oh, he wrote Good to Great. Well, of course he did, and it's a great book. Not many know that he wrote a book after that called How the Mighty Fall. And I read that shortly after we closed our business.

I don't know why I read it. Maybe because I just was in a misery mode and I wanted to read about, what happened to us. And I remember reading that thinking, Oh my word, it's like Jim Collins followed our family business and chronicled everything we went through five stages of decline. And what I want to highlight is the first stage of an organization's decline, according to Jim Collins, is a hubris born of success.

Now, if you're a type A entrepreneurial mindset person who gets things done and succeeds, what you run the risk of is a [00:16:00] hubris that is backed by past success. Hubris meaning it creates a blind spot. That was what we wrestled with for five years before we did something about it because here's the narrative.

Well, for 40 years, we did this successfully. Since 2008, we're struggling. We just need to wait it out until the market catches up with our success, right? Our success narrative. The challenge was 2008 actually changed our market to such a degree that we had to reinvent ourselves. And what was successful in the past was no longer successful going forward.

The problem was it took us five years to figure that out. we had known and learned the art of second guessing and proving yourself wrong and looking at the downside of success. I think we would have done things quicker.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Wow. My goodness. So much going on there. Let me circle back though, to one of the things that you were sharing, because at deep wealth, we say the same thing in [00:17:00] a different way. Somebody comes into the community and particularly when they want to go through our flagship program, the 90 day deep wealth mastery.

One of the first questions that we ask them, does the business run without you? And we preface it by saying, please only a yes or a no, no stories, no in betweens. And regardless of whether you have a leadership team or not a leadership team, does the business run without you? And I got to tell you, Scott, despite that preface, we hear all kinds of stories.

It's very rarely a yes or a no. Most of the time though, after you get beyond the story, the answer is no, even with the leadership team, because to your point, such a crucial point in deep automation, I hope you're listening to that where Scott was saying, and I couldn't agree more for most entrepreneurs, most business owners, they are the business and the business is them.

And on paper. It all sounds okay, but there's two of many consequences. And Scott, you can share Jeffrey on base or off base to the biggest consequences that come from that is number one, we get the golden handcuffs. We started the business for a number of [00:18:00] reasons. One of them is to enjoy a lifestyle. And that usually doesn't happen because nobody's good enough.

Nobody is trusted for a business owner to fire him or herself, to put somebody else in because they are the business is them, no one is going to do it as well. And then when it comes time to transition, when it comes time to raise capital or have an exit or even grow the business, a future investor or buyer is running for the hills as fast as they can because they don't want a second full time job, otherwise known as running the person's company that they just bought because it's falling apart when the next day, They're no longer there and they're off into the sunset with all these zeros or even worse.

They'll say, okay, I'll sure I'll invest in the company. I'll buy the company. There's going to be a significant penalty because there's going to be a mess. I'm going to have to clean up. Would love your thoughts on that. Yeah,

Scott Couchenour: describe themselves as a business owner. They say, I'm a business owner. Or they could say, I'm someone who owns a business. There's a distinct difference in identity. [00:19:00] When you say, I'm a business owner, what you're saying is, my identity is a business owner.

But when I say, I am someone who owns a business, your identity is secondary. Now here's the deal. When my identity is attached to the role that I play, I am going to go kicking and screaming out of the center of that business, because it's my identity. Why would you ask me to give up the very essence of who I am to become deeply wealthy?

How can I be deeply wealthy and lose my identity? That's the big challenge with a lot of business owners. if they catch this concept that their identity is not in fact tied to their role. That their business owner role does not define them. It is an expression of them. It's the moon.

it doesn't emanate light. It just reflects light. Then when you focus on your person as separate from the role, you actually [00:20:00] increase the value of your business because you're no longer wrestling with what you're giving up, but you're excited about what you're grabbing a hold of. Outside of that role?

Jeffrey Feldberg: that makes so much sense. Let me ask you this. Now we're starting to go into your systems from, I love how you took your journey. The triumphs, the pains, everything else in between. And you now put this into, here's the best practices. Here's a done for you system, but it's not so generic that it's useless for you, but it's also not so specific that it can apply to you because of best practices.

It's going to work for you. And I know you talk a lot about living with purpose in the second half of life. Whatever that may mean for someone for the second half part of your journey that you shared with us What was that defining moment where you realize? Okay, you know what second half of my life now I'm gonna make that shift in my own journey 

Scott Couchenour: if I take you back to June of 2015, of course the next six months we were embroiled in all kinds of creditor involvement and all that sort of thing. So coming [00:21:00] out of that, then I spent a couple of years just, I would flip back from do I start a business on my own or do I go to work for someone else?

So I flipped from 10 99 to W2 to 10 99 and back and forth. Keep in mind, my wife also lost her job, but she landed a job. A couple of months afterward, and that helped pay for health insurance and some cash in our bank account. But it wasn't an ideal situation for her. And I knew that. So five years later, 2020, August of 2020, my wife says, Did you know that today is my fifth year anniversary and I could not, Jeffrey, I could not believe how fast that five years went all of a sudden it was like sand through my fingers.

I had just frittered away five years of just flip flopping. Do I work for myself? Not really committed to anything. But in 2021, she said that. It was like a defibrillator that shocked me into a rhythm of beginning to [00:22:00] really sink my teeth into a life strategy and not for my, just for myself, but helping others as well.

That was a wake up call for me. I think we all have wake up calls. I think we all have trigger moments when we become face to face. With the inevitability of the fact that our lifespan is so short. I was 55 at the time. If the life expectancy of an American male is 78 years, imagine if I was looking at a graph paper and every square on that graph.

paper represented one week of life. I was looking at all the weeks I had filled, all those squares I'd filled versus all the squares I had left. That set in motion a, a sense of urgency that I had to make the most of what I had left. And that was the significant point in my journey.

Jeffrey Feldberg: it's a wake up call and whether it's what you're talking about or some people they [00:23:00] will put a marble in a jar and Any day of the particular week, maybe every Saturday, I'm taking a marble out of the jar. And the ones that are left, that's the expected life expectancy. Now, we're not going to dive into the biohacker kinds of things that we talked about on the podcast and extending your life expectancy and all those other kinds of things, but it really is a wake up call.

So let me ask you this as you're working, not just with entrepreneurs, I know you also work with executives and generally speaking, successful people. One of my favorite questions in that kind of scenario, it's good old Pareto's law, otherwise known as the 80 20 rule, and it can be 20 percent of my activities are creating 80 percent of the results, or 20 percent of these issues are creating 80 percent of the so called problems or challenges that I have.

So with that in mind, when you're working with your community, are you seeing some common patterns that you'd want us to know about here at DeepAuthNation? 

Scott Couchenour: Well, I think the most common thing that I run into is this, and I, we've talked about it, is [00:24:00] this identity. Yeah.

Once they come to the realization that their identity is separate from the role, then the natural next question is, well, then who am I? If I'm not the role of business owner, then who am I? I take a concept from the family business called design build. And we first design their identity and in essence, what we're really doing is rediscovering what is already there. So we do a deep dive into values, a deep dive into personality. I do what is called a love hate list, which is basically, what's a list of things that you love doing and being well. What do you love about life? Because that's what fuels our energy and do the opposite. What don't you like? What do you shy away? What saps your energy? What is the Kryptonite in your life coming out of all of that then we build on that design We build upon and I use a six point framework that we look at life from [00:25:00] six different perspectives.

Of course, the first one is the spiritual, being spiritually anchored, and that's where the identity is located. I think that's the biggest theme to answer your question. The biggest, 20% That yields 80 percent of the benefit is in understanding I, as the business owner, am a person and am a human.

we're not talking about soft skills that we attach to the end of all the hard stuff that we're working on. We actually take that soft and put that in the center because. The truth is we are humans first and business owners or executives second. Every one of us was an eight year old on a playground trying to figure it out.

We were all trying to figure out this life and community and getting along with people and who am I and all that. That is not lost on us when we're 40 or 50 or 60. So I bring back the idea that we are humans first and then the expression of that humanity. is how we can [00:26:00] strategize going forward.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And speaking of that, and you actually share this in the very beginning with us, when you were going through your particular challenge in life, one of the biggest challenges in your life where your identity, your career, your livelihood was all put on the line and it was now, okay. Change it and eventually, okay, this is no longer going to be happening for you.

Those are really the perfect storm for everything that could potentially, quote unquote, go wrong, did go wrong for you. Being a person of faith. In Deep Oath Nation, perhaps you call faith God or the universe or your spiritual person, whatever the case may be. We're not talking about religion. We're just talking about faith here, and if you don't believe in any of That's okay.

Why not listen to it as well and just hear what's going on here. Scott, how did your faith, how did your relationship with God help you through that? And as you're sharing that, when you're coaching people who perhaps aren't where you are and have been on the other side of that, perhaps some of the differences that go on with that.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Huh. Huh. Huh.

Scott Couchenour: Absolutely. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Huh.

Scott Couchenour: my [00:27:00] relationship with the God that I serve. That I believe personally has given me this design that is like none others. It's fundamentally changed. Think of it in terms of three phases. The first phase was I had God figured out, as long as I tithe, as long as I do my work, as long as I raise kids the right way, he will then bless me.

It was a great arrangement. I did my part. He does his part. I do my part. He does his part. and then he didn't do his part, he allowed the family business to crumble before our very eyes. So that's the second phase was a season of complaining. God, how could you do this?

How could you let this happen? We weren't building terrorist camps. We weren't building brothels. We were building, our tagline was creating a space for shelter, creating shelter for worship and ministry, right? Doing good stuff, right? Expanding the kingdom. And here you are putting an end to that.

How could you? [00:28:00] Coming out of that was the third phase. I realized. If you got God figured out, your God is too small. There is a mysteriousness about God, and there are questions I cannot answer. But there is a uncertainty and doubt ride side by side with faith. If there's no uncertainty, if there's no doubt, there's no faith. so, on this third phase, I feel like that my faith has grown, because It's not a faith based on outward evidence the way it used to be. It is based on in spite of uncertainty and in the middle of uncertainty my faith is still there. Because I now no longer serve a small God that I have figured out. I serve a God who is bigger than I could ever imagine. Now does that mean I've got everything figured out and everything's going great? No. No. Here's the best way to describe current life now in a faith. Situation. Just take the Dow [00:29:00] Jones Industrial Graph from 1900 to 2025. And that is the journey. There are ups, there are downs. If you were to look at any one given week, you would either be elated or you'd be completely depressed.

But if you step back and look at the whole journey, it's an upward trajectory. that's my faith. I don't pound this into people. It's just, look, my dad was a preacher's kid. I was raised in the church in the Midwest. I married a preacher's kid. It's just a part of my ecosystem.

But this event at age 50 actually eventually deepened my faith like nothing else.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And for someone in the Deep Balk nation who is, simply Scott to be blunt, not on the same page. I'm sure they're asking, well, how would God even play a role in business? That's nothing to do with nothing. Let's save God for the church, if you happen to go, or your synagogue, or whatever that happens to be.

But in business and everyday life, just don't see it not happening. What would you say to that listener?

Scott Couchenour: It's a very personal decision. It's at the [00:30:00] core of everything you do. When I work with clients, regardless of their faith or belief system, the first thing we're after is what does it mean for you to be spiritually anchored? And that means that has more to do with purpose, meaning, and legacy. Given a perspective that the 80 plus years that we will live, Given the decades and years and quadrennium around before us and after us, this small life that we live, what's it all about? Why am I on the earth anyway? And usually when you're answering those questions, it becomes a spiritual experience. But again, it is a personal thing. It's something you have to decide for yourself whether or not this being that you experience Has been given to you, has been a design by something much larger [00:31:00] than, is there a designer? above that made the design or is the design itself its own designer I've made my decision, and it's based on faith, not on appearance, but that to me is it's central.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. My goodness. So much there. And Scott, for the maybe one or two listeners that we now have left listening to us. No fault of your own. Uh Huh. And my questions walk us through now your system. So somebody comes to you. Hey Scott, heard about you on the Deep Wealth podcast. Would love to really have you help me with your system, with your coaching, with your strategies.

for my next chapters for my transition where ever I am in my life, wherever I wanna be and all that is shared what does that look like, what's some of your secret sauce in terms of timing and how long it's gonna take, what can I expect, results, all those kinds of things.

Scott Couchenour: Sure. There are basically two phases. It's very simple. It's design and then it's build work with my clients and in 90 day sprints, three month contracts. So in three months, we have a very clear and distinct milestone that we're working after. And then [00:32:00] when that's done. The clients decide whether or not they want to continue or not.

The first three month term is made of six sessions. Over those six sessions, we move from who are you

Jeffrey Feldberg: Huh.

Scott Couchenour: to what are you going to do? We go from being, and out of that being, we talk about doing. And I use a six part framework if you picture a star in the center of the five point star is being spiritually anchored.

These are actually hallmarks of what I call a fantastic fourth quarter. So they're ways for you to measure how fulfilled your life is. So what does it mean for you to be ideally spiritually anchored? And then the top point of the star is physically fit. What does it mean for you to be ideally physically fit the two left and right points of the upper points of the star are relationally rich and emotionally healthy. The bottom two points of the five point star are vocationally aligned and financially free. So coming out of this [00:33:00] values exercise, which is, I go deep dive into values and we. Identify their identity. That then becomes a definition of what it means for them to be spiritually anchored.

Again, we're talking about purpose, meaning, legacy. What's my faith? What's my belief system? How do I approach life? That's being, that's who you are. And then the five remaining points are how it gets expressed. So if I am this person, what kind of person does it take for me to be physically fit? How does this impact my relationships, my emotions, my vocation, and my finances?

So those are all the doing parts. That then leads to what I call a three Point execution process and that is aspirations, goals, and milestones. Aspirations are usually things that that we want to see happen over three plus years. Now, they're not specific. They're more directional. In general, [00:34:00] where am I headed?

here's an example of a vacation. If we want to go west, what we just ruled out was north, south. And East. So, we're going West. That's an aspiration. I'm in Ohio. So, if I'm going to go West, my next step is to go to Indiana. That's West. That's a goal. That's a one year goal. It's more specific, but it's still open to interpretation because now we're going to break that one year goal into four 90 day sprints.

Jeffrey Feldberg: ok 

Scott Couchenour: we're going to lay out those four. The first sprint is more definite than the three sprints. Following, but we have, it's almost like holding up a lantern on a pathway that light is only going to shine so far, but we know there's a path. So, as we take the first 90 day sprint in execution, we'll know more when we're done with that.

And what I do between sprints is what I call a films review and the film stands for forward. Did we forward the needle? I stands for [00:35:00] intuition. What's our gut feel? L stands for learn. What did we learn in the last 12 weeks and what happened? In life over the last 12 weeks, M is measurement. Did we do everything we set out to do?

And if so, why, and if not, why, and then that all culminates to the S which is so what that's the pivotal question with all the answers to those F I L M questions. How does that then shape next sprint? And so we go into that next sprint smarter than we did. At the beginning of the first sprint and what I noticed in this execution phase is an accelerant kind of thing going on because if your listeners are familiar with a red car effect, the reticulator activating system when you are Turning your attention to something so systematic and strategic, then you begin to pick up on things that otherwise would never have picked up on if I study a red car and I'm looking to buy a red car, I start seeing red [00:36:00] cars everywhere.

That's not coincidence. It's what happened inside of us. Our attention is being shaped so we actually can pursue a one year goal and achieve it quicker because of that accelerant that's going on because we are changing our attention and it's all strategic. So that's what I do with my clients. We are first working on their identity.

And then we're working on the execution. We're first working on the design, and then we're building it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that method to the madness and I know in preparing for this, I was impressed by the three phases. Okay. Let's understand Jeffrey, who you are, then what do you really want? Let's design around that and then, okay, let's build it, but it's not going to be, we build it today and then we're done. Well, we're going to build it.

We're going to, as you move along in your journey, address these different things and then across the six frameworks that you have from spiritual, physical, relational, emotional, vocationally and financially. How that all ties together. And what I love about that, Scott, so many people say that business [00:37:00] isn't personal.

Wow. Do they have it wrong? Everything is personal because if it's not working on the personal side, that is definitely going to spill over onto the business side and vice versa. If it's challenging, tough, difficult on the business side, you better believe, unfortunately, sadly. It's going to spill over onto the personal side to our loved ones, to our family, whether we intentionally mean that or not.

So we're a whole being to your earlier point. We are showing up as a whole being and love how you're going about doing that. So let me ask you this, because as the old saying goes, you can bring a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink. So you have these wonderful strategies. You've put the system together.

It worked for yourself. It works for your community. But that said, I'm wondering, is there a factor or a few factors that really determine if someone's going to thrive or if they're going to stagnate on the second half of life in terms of these programs and strategies that you put together?

Scott Couchenour: Yeah I call it a trigger point. Or an [00:38:00] awakening.

Until you have that awakening, you're not ready. You're just dancing around the edges. When you've reached that awakening, then you're ready to do something. As the old saying is, when I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, I'm doing something.

When the pain of change, Is less than the pain of staying the same, I will change. I usually say to those in my email list, when you're ready, you will know when you are ready. It can always be applied. Then the sooner you apply a strategic approach to life, living by design instead of by Deep Wealth.

The sooner you do that, the less regrets you will experience. Robert Louis Stevenson, is famous for having said in the end. Sooner or later, we sit down to a banquet of consequences,

And if you're living by Deep Wealth, those consequences will be less desirable than if you were living by design.

So, it's a call to the future. The sooner you start living by design, [00:39:00] the less regrets. And the more enjoyable your consequence banquet will be.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So let me run this by Scott and you can say Jeffrey on base or off base and I absolutely hear what you're saying that unless and until there's what some people may call a point in life or there's a challenge in life or something that's really going to be pushing the envelope for you until you have that, you may not necessarily be ready for that.

But the flip side of that, it's not as though we're just doing nothing and idly waiting by for something to happen with your systems. I can give myself the framework and the strategies To be observant. Okay. Wow. Today I'm feeling something different. Oh, okay. Yeah. I spoke about that with Scott. This is one of the telltale signs.

Let me now go into a curious mode and then into a action mode and down the list we go until I'm now able to begin to deal with this and work through this and come out the other side, whenever that may be on a better point, a higher point, a better person, how am I doing with that?

Scott Couchenour: There are some people who I will begin working with and although [00:40:00] they are doing it because it sounds great. They're enamored by, okay, this makes sense to me, right? The journey of growth begins to reveal to you just how your life was when you were living by Deep Wealth by contrast.

And so you begin to a way that becomes a measure of awakening. I've had clients who have really. Hit an awakening moment, two or three months or two or three cycles into three months contracts with me because just being on the journey has helped them to change the way they see their life.

And they say, you know what? I'm ready to kick this thing in gear. Let's get going.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Love that. And like with anything else, and again, Jeffrey, you're on base, off base. It's a personal journey and it's going to be different for everyone. And yes, there's some best practices, some tools, some strategies, how I react, how I view things. That's going to be uniquely personal, perhaps another way of saying that, Hey, everyone [00:41:00] is imperfectly perfect in their own way, in their own manner.

So Scott, before we go into wrap up mode, I know. For a fact, there are so many questions I did not have a chance to ask. Is there one particular question I didn't ask that you'd like to put out there, or even a theme that we haven't yet discussed, or a topic that we haven't covered?

Scott Couchenour: There's one topic that I want to just touch on real briefly, and I call it agency.

We flip in and out of agency. What I mean by agency is when I don't have agency, I feel controlled by circumstances and other people's decisions. it may be an okay place to visit, but it's not a place you want to live. Agency, however, is you feel like you have options and choice. Here's the deal about agency. There is always context to everything we face.

There's always a bigger picture at play. And that means that nothing is ever as bad as it seems. And there is never anything as good as it seems. So if you step back far enough from anything you're facing, whether it's a success or a [00:42:00] failure, you step back far enough, you'll begin to see options.

Options then open the door to choice. Options plus choice equals agency. And living with agency is a byproduct of living by design. You will get knocked off the horse. There are three things you can count on death taxes and the ups and downs of life. There will be moments when you get knocked off the horse, but if you're living by design, you can regain your agency quicker because you know there's a bigger picture at play.

And I think that's important for listeners to hear. Is that if they are listening to this and they're sensing that they're controlled by circumstances and they're unsure of what to do next, the best thing they can do is what I call a download, do a spider diagram of everything that's in your head, get it out on paper.

It distances you from the dissonance. That you're experiencing so that you look down like an offensive coordinator [00:43:00] does from the booth. They can see the entire field that then opens the door to be more strategic.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some terrific advisor. Deep Wealth nation. Wow. So much to take away from there. And actually, Scott, it's a perfect segue into our wrap up mode. And it's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth podcast. It's really my privilege, my honor to ask every guest the same question. So let me set this up for you. It's a really fun question.

When you think of the movie back to the future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So Scott is tomorrow morning. You look outside your window. This is the fun part. Not only do you see this magical DeLorean car curbside, the door is open and it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do.

You're not going to go back to any point in your life. Scott, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. Scott, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or, Hey, Scott, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Scott Couchenour: Oh, my word. The thoughts are flying through my head. There's so many things I would have done different. I [00:44:00] would go back the single. Most important thing that I would do differently is take time to step back and reflect, step back and reflect on everything that's going on. Because I'm doing that now, and had I done that years ago, it would have been totally different. this leads to something I started doing with some clients, I call it NAFTA.

Not North American Free Trade Agreement, but an acronym that stands for Notice and Feel That's All. It's 15 minutes a day. Just notice and feel. That's all. When you get into that reflective mode, there will come some things that you never would have thought of because you're so busy in the business. So I think I would have told myself, go back there and do this again, but this time take the time, make it a priority to pull away from distractions and all the stuff of life and simply reflect on what's going on.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So critical today. And don't get me on my social media soapbox. Other than to say, [00:45:00] everyone is so distracted and made to feel so busy. That life is just passing right by us. And I love what you're saying. Hey, 15 minutes a day, find 15 minutes a day. You have 15 minutes a day. Find it. Think. Reflect. Don't be on the phone.

Don't be talking with other people. Don't be distracting yourself. Just really go within what's going on to check where things are, how you're feeling, what's going on. That is such terrific advice. Absolutely love that. And Scott, before we wrap things up for deep, both nation, they have a question. They want to start working with you.

Where would be the best place online to find you?

Scott Couchenour: You can find me at servingstrong. com. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn, so if you search my name on LinkedIn, you'll see me there. I'd love to chat with you. I, I would love to have conversations with anybody who is interested in just dipping their toe in the world of living life by design.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fantastic. Deep both nation. It doesn't get any better. Go to the show notes. Everything is all there. Scott's website, all the social channels. It's a point and click. It [00:46:00] doesn't get any easier. Well, Scott, it's official. Congratulations. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at deep wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much.

Scott Couchenour: Jeffrey, it's been a pleasure. for having me. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are [00:47:00] designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

And every time you subscribe and a fellow entrepreneur subscribe, it's a testament to how together, Yes, we are. We are changing the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. So don't let the momentum stop here. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast channel.

You'll never miss an episode. You'll be the first to hear from the top industry leaders, the innovators, the disruptors that are really changing and shaping the business world, and maybe you're commuting, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're taking a well deserved break that we spoke all about on this episode.

The Deep Wealth Podcast, it's your reliable source for the next big idea that could literally revolutionize your business. So once again, please hit that subscribe button, stay connected, inspired, and ahead of the curve. And again, your next big breakthrough moment, it might just be one episode away. Maybe it was even this episode.

So all that said. Thank you [00:48:00] so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.