Testimonials

Colliers International

Dan Coughlin’s coaching helped me to transform my business. Together, we developed processes and systems that I was able to immediately put to work which have enhanced training, recruiting, retention and business execution. I highly recommend working with Dan if you are a business owner, an entrepreneur or interested in becoming one!

McDonald’s Corporation

Dear Dan, I want to thank you once again for your compelling presentation to our East Division leadership group of franchisees and staff at our Division Leadership Council meeting. All of us agreed that we walked away with a refreshed enthusiasm around how we can accelerate our impact as leaders. One of the most insightful concepts from my perspective was the idea of owning our leadership styles versus trying to be chameleons. It’s not about trying to be everything to everyone, but instead it’s imperative to listen, engage, be transparent and collaborate to drive results. In addition, the idea that ‘great business leaders are great historians’ – meaning we need to remember what and who got us to where we are today – really resonated with me and I think the reminder was key for everyone in the room. Your simple, actionable direction re-grounded us and reminded us to focus on what we’re all trying to achieve. Thank you for sharing your insights and spending the afternoon with our leaders.

I have had the pleasure of working with Dan Coughlin for 4 years. He has a unique ability to provide both individual and group development. As my Business Coach he has developed tools that I use which challenge my thought process and enhance the effectiveness of my decisions. While his perspective is wide ranging, he also is very effective with specific situations. He customizes processes based on your specific needs and then stays focused on using the process effectively to help you achieve the desired result. He does a thorough job of understanding his audience when working with a group. The amount of prework and preparation including getting to know each player has been very effective. His style of coaching leaves the group feeling that they solved the issue and truly own the process. Dan’s ability to partner with an organization through focusing on opportunity is one of his many strengths that help you get to the result.

Corporate Catalysts has great practical steps to mold a more effective and influential leader. Since Dan Coughlin has been my Executive Coach for the past few years, I have acted upon many of the recommendations in this book such as the subtle management tips and tools of influence that have yielded great results.

Dan Coughlin hits the mark with practical insights and tools to help you be a more effective leader. His presentation enlightened and inspired our members to accelerate their impact as leaders. Dan tailored his presentation to the group which made his lessons relevant and actionable.

Dan Coughlin is a phenomenal executive coach. In the crazy business world, with the need to build and balance customer satisfaction, top line sales, bottom line income, franchisee relationships, and staff development, Dan has a way of teaching you to develop a plan that focuses in on the most important elements in order to achieve long-term profitable business results. He is especially astute at tapping into one’s individual strengths and showing them how to accentuate their leadership style in order to cultivate a culture for success.

The Coca-Cola Company

Dan, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your keynote address at the Denny’s Franchisee Association (DFA) annual meeting in Maui. You delivered on your opening promise that your keynote would provide all of the attendees with some practical, user-friendly ideas that everyone can use right away to improve results for their respective organizations. You gave the audience a variety of practical and powerful ideas that we can all turn to and use at any time to strengthen our thinking time, enthusiasm, and sense of purpose. You also shared some useful ideas on continuous improvement; most notably, the importance of stopping less effective action on a lot of good activities in order to focus time and energy on the few great activities that will have the greatest positive impact on our most important desired business outcomes. Additionally, you reminded us all of the importance of really collaborating in order to improve sustainable business results. It was wonderful meeting you and thanks again for a powerful and useful keynote speech.

Dan, thanks for all your support in helping me and our team build our Midwest Division Team. Your insights, coaching and guidance, as well as different approaches were very impactful. You did an excellent job facilitating a workshop for our team and providing coaching support to follow-up with individuals on my team. Thank you again for the difference you made.

The candid input and personal coaching you provided me was helpful in understanding the improvements I can make as a team leader and how it will enhance team performance. Your seminar and team activities helped the entire group understand their individual roles and responsibilities in improving team cohesion.

GE Capital

Dan, I want to thank you for the tremendous job you did presenting at our recent GE Capital Retail Finance Leadership meeting. Your session, “Accelerate Your Strengths: Practical Ideas to Boost Business Momentum”, provided numerous insights for the team to work on personally, and actionable ideas for them to take back and implement into the organization. The extensive pre-session research you conducted into our organization prior to our meeting proved to be a great investment of your time. In addition to our conversations, you spoke with 12 members of our group on the phone, received e-mail input from more than 25 attendees, and spent five hours at our Merriam, Kansas site to learn more about the Retail Finance business. You were able to take learnings from those interactions and seamlessly weave them into your session, which made it all the more impactful.

As you know, we’re big proponents of process and believers in simplification. Importantly, your session gave us numerous practical process-orientated exercises that will help us further develop our strengths to accelerate performance and deliver results for the business. Thanks to your pre-session work and your straightforward teaching approach, the presentation was tailored to our audience and business, and, as a result, the team was fully engaged for three-plus hours – no small feat.

Finally, I want to personally thank you for the help you provided after the session with respect to our forthcoming Develop U Week. Your willingness to sit down and be videotaped for an interview immediately following the session after a long day was greatly appreciated, as was your follow-through in writing a whitepaper article for use during our learning and development week. On behalf of the organization and our team, thank you again for helping make our meeting such a success.

Toyota Financial Services

Dan, on behalf of the entire Toyota Financial Services Team, I’d like to personally thank you for your keynote presentation at this year’s National Sales Conference. You left an outstanding impression on everyone you worked with at TFS. Your passion, follow-up and attention to detail are tremendous and helped to make this year’s sales conference a success. In fact, in the feedback survey from the conference attendees, we received excellent remarks on your efforts. Thank you again for your personal commitment to accelerating TFS to even greater levels of success! Oh yes, driven by the enthusiasm generated from the sales conference, we had the best all-time month in sales of both finance and insurance products! It was great and you helped ‘accelerate’ us to get there!

Dan Coughlin lives up to his promise of being an accelerator. He definitely puts the pedal to the floor when it comes to putting in the extra effort needed to exceed expectations and deliver a first-rate learning experience. This is extremely important to us as an organization. We value motivated individuals that can help inspire our already high performing associates to even greater levels of achievement. Dan cares about the people he works with and this shines through when he leads a team.

Marriott International

It has been a few weeks since our Sales and Revenue Leaders meeting. As I’ve been speaking with members of my team around the region, I’ve heard them say things like, I tried my new influence skills based on the buyers personality type, and I used the agenda Dan showed us for my last meeting and I had great results. I thought I would share this with you because the sign of a great class is when people put the learnings into action. Your scores from our training survey were fabulous 5’s across the board. I don’t think I have ever seen such consistent scores with outstanding comments.

Thank you for the very important role you played in our recent Sales University. These events are very important to me personally, and I believe critical to our future success. Your message was very well received as rated by our participants. I appreciated your willingness and diligence in doing ‘your homework’ on our group, the people, the ‘politics’ and the jargon. It was if you had been with Marriott for years. You were very well prepared, and I feel that was a major key to your success. The Leadership session was a huge success. The participants have already spread the word to those that missed the class. I hope to be one of your next class members!

Dan, thank you for the great job you have done over the last six months assisting me as a professional coach. You have been a great catalyst for creative thought. Our time together each session went by very quickly due to the lively discussion that always ended in great ideas which allow me to move forward. I have found your coaching technique to be very effective. You allow me to think out loud and always have thought provoking questions that help me find the answers. Your feedback is inspirational and honest, which I believe has helped me grow. I would highly recommend you to anyone that is interested in putting time and energy into their own development and professional growth.

Your work with Mike has surfaced his high potential leadership to a level where it is the predominant characteristic observed in his interaction with others. With your assistance, Mike has successfully moved to a level where he demonstrates his fullness as an Executive Team Member… I continue to hear rave reviews on your presentation at our Market Meeting. You did a great job of connecting with a diverse audience. Thanks for your totally awesome and large scale leadership coaching.

Dan, your course ‘Keys To World-Class Leadership’ is the most powerful class I have taken in my 15 year hotel sales career! It has, without a doubt, been the tool that I utilize throughout each day in both my professional and personal life. The knowledge I gained through the highly interactive class has strengthened my communication skills and helped me achieve better results in my sales career with Marriott International. It’s truly an inspiration and I recommend ‘Keys To World-Class Leadership’ to anyone wishing to be a successful leader.

Traffix

Coach Coughlin has been a critical component to my professional development. His coaching technique has been crucial to shaping my mindset and in doing so, he has had a huge influence on my effectiveness as a business leader. Dan’s approach to breaking down complex business problems into their core components has had a tremendous impact on my ability to successfully manage change in a high growth environment.

Destination Hotels

A note of thanks from the three of us on how your keynote session at our ENFINITy conference for Destination Hotels last week was a shining example of excellence at its best. Dan, your message, delivery, and ability to comprehend and connect with our company’s culture in such a short period of time was simply amazing. We are still receiving positive feedback on your session from our attendees. Thanks again for joining us last week and making a difference.

Anheuser-Busch InBev

When I first met with Dan Coughlin to talk about my team, I had no idea what I was getting into. I was surprised and ecstatic with the depth of research Dan used to plan our day-long seminar on leadership. The day flew by thanks to Dan’s enthusiasm, willingness to listen, and the diverse plan of activities. Dan has a very simple approach to leadership and provided my team with some good, repeatable strategies to improve performance. The feedback I have received has been all positive. I look forward to working together with Dan in the future.

RE/MAX

Dan Coughlin was a pleasure to work with and was very well prepared when he spoke to our group. Dan took the time to ask the right questions long before his speaking engagement and had several in-depth conversations within our membership educating himself on the challenges within our business. Our Broker/Owners are a tough crowd to please, but Dan connected with them immediately and most importantly held their attention and the group was deeply engaged during the entire session. Dozens of positive comments afterwards about a morning well spent. I look forward to working with Dan again in the coming years.

Our company has been very fortunate to have celebrated many successes over the last few years; however, with continued growth and success also come new challenges. We knew that some of our internal processes and methods of communication were suffering with our expanding operation, but we were not sure where to begin to identify and resolve those issues. At our request, Dan Coughlin took the time to research our business, our corporate structure and dive deep into the day to day issues that our employees were struggling with. The process was followed up by Dan facilitating a full day workshop with the management team of our company. Dan’s detailed preparation and analysis of his research made for a very effective workshop. Dan immediately impressed us by knowing everyone by name after having only met most of us once prior to the workshop. This was an early demonstration of his professional demeanor and the diligence of his preparations. The eight hour workshop flew by as Dan easily kept the participants engaged throughout the day. His calm and respectful disposition provided a comfortable atmosphere for positive discussion and an exchange of ideas even though we explored some challenging subjects. Overall, Dan brought us great insight and helped us trouble shoot some of our corporate challenges. Most importantly, he helped us create a new dialogue amongst the management team of our company, which could then be expanded upon in our day to day communications, both in the office and with our external customers. Thank you Dan!

It has been an absolute pleasure working with Dan Coughlin over the past 18 months, both individually and across the organization. It is rare to find someone who will take the time to dive deep into organizational behaviors. In particular, Dan recently led a workshop with our fast-paced and geographically diverse technology team. As a result of his acute understanding of the individual roles and needs he immediately earned their respect, while providing a fresh perspective toward teamwork and collaboration. It was an immediate success; our team has a renewed interest in working together which will ultimately improve the lives of our Franchise Owners and their Agents

Koller Enterprises Inc.

After Dan successfully completed several management coaching engagements, we asked if he could help with our strategic planning process for our four divisions. He met with me to define the outcome we wanted and parameters for the process over several weeks of discussion between he and I. These results were sent out to the management team before the first meeting, and Dan spoke with everyone to make sure they knew what was expected. During the meeting, Dan was in charge and made sure that we stayed on point in our discussions and also asked probing questions to better define the presentation. Each division was then tasked with a three-month assignment to further define their strategy, and Dan worked the leaders to help their efforts. A second follow up meeting was then held, with Dan again running the meeting. It was very satisfying to see what each division had developed with his guidance and the respect that everyone had for each other during the process. Our management team thoroughly enjoyed working with Dan and the relationships they built with him.

Prudential

Dear Dan, thank you for your keynote speech at The Prudential Forum in Scottsdale, Arizona. I have received terrific feedback regarding your presentation based on our theme of Accelerate, Generate, Innovate as well as your follow-up workshop. We’re still collecting audience feedback, but some of the comments were:

‘He is one of the best presenters I have ever seen. Lots of ‘steak’ with the sizzle.’

‘He really did his research and the audience was really engaged.’

‘Great speaker … very inspirational and it was helpful that he left us with tools to apply.’

‘The extensive research that you did to not only tie your message to ours, but to make it relevant and timely to our audience showed in everything, up to and including the handouts that you formatted to support our secondary theme of Sustainability.’

‘Thank you again for sharing your boundless energy and insights with our audience… your presentation not only lifted spirits, but also provided focus to deliver results in a very challenging market environment.’

Shell Oil

Dear Dan, thank you so much for the excellent keynote leadership presentation in Houston. You really helped bring our theme of ‘Making Winning Connections’ to life in the way you connected with our North American Shell Retail marketing team before, during and after your session. I had many positive comments from the team about the impact your session made and the valuable takeaways that each of us will get real business benefit from as we take action on them moving forward. Your content is so practical! For me, it was an excellent reminder about leading from my own authentic leadership center, being more effective as a leadership listener. Thank you in particular for the pre-work you did gathering perspectives from the team and the effort you made to get to know the team, even by name. This greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the leadership learning event and it set a great tone for the day. I know there will be other key events that Shell will engage you for in the future. We are really striving to evolve our leadership DNA and your key messages really resonated with our team and aided us in that change journey. I would recommend your services to any growth-minded company that is serious about making a lasting impact in their leadership approach and communications.

Dan Coughlin with Rick Altizer, GM of Shell Oil’s Retails Fuels for the Americas.

BJC HealthCare

Dan, on behalf of the entire leadership community at BJC HealthCare, I want to thank you for your inspiring keynote session. The top 300 leaders in our organization greatly benefited from your messages and actionable steps presented during your ‘Lead the Way’ presentation. Personally, I enjoyed the way you connected the tenants of leadership between today’s leaders and historical leaders whose styles and approaches have stood the test of time. As we continue to transform our organization, these leadership lessons will help us lead the way to success. Thank you again for a wonderful session.

Dan, I want to sincerely thank you for the incredible leadership session you led during our recent human resources conference with over 120 of our top human resources professionals at BJC HealthCare. Being the closing speaker of an all-day meeting is certainly no easy task, but your energy and positive messages closed our meeting on an exceptionally high note. We received lots of feedback from our attendees who expressed their enjoyment for the many lessons learned from your Accelerate Your Impact as a Leader session. The simple and practical steps you shared that we could immediately put into action were very well received. As a result of your session, I personally am carving out my own ‘thinking time’ on a regular basis! On behalf of the entire human resources community at BJC HealthCare, thank you again for a wonderful session! I would not hesitate to highly recommend your services to other colleagues seeking a proven motivational keynote speaker who knows how to connect with the audience and help accelerate their leadership impact.

I have had the pleasure of working with Dan Coughlin during the last fifteen months. I engaged Dan after hearing him speak at a leadership retreat and being impressed with his knowledge and perspective on leadership. At the time, I was beginning a transition from chief operating officer to chief executive officer in a new organization. I did not want to underestimate the challenge of moving into this new role nor assume that the leadership characteristics that had allowed me to succeed previously would be equally successful in this new role. I felt that having an executive coach at the time of this transition could be very beneficial. Dan was very helpful in providing feedback and guidance for my on-boarding process to the organization. He provided me with initial 360-degree feedback after my first 100 days that allowed me to develop a specific action plan to address the gaps that were uncovered. >From there, and using some of the feedback provided, Dan helped me break my time into the key components of my work. There were some aspects of my role that I naturally gravitated towards and exceled, and others that were more challenging and less natural for me, but equally, if not more important. Dan helped me identify the key objectives and tactics for each of these areas and I became more intentional in the use of my time and for those parts of my role that were not as natural a fit for me. What I have found most beneficial with Dan have been the discussions on key issues that have arisen during my first year in the organization. It was helpful to identify the strategies to address the issues, but more importantly, identifying the leadership traits and characteristics that were necessary for the situation. From my time with Dan, I have become much more introspective about my leadership skills and developmental needs and more discerning about how to be the best leader I can be for my organization. In short, I am a better leader today than I was fifteen months ago, and Dan is a large part of that maturation.

Cardinal Health

On behalf of Medicine Shoppe International and our six hundred franchisees, I want to thank you for playing a key role in our National Meeting in Seattle as our keynote speaker and also leading a breakout session on branding. Your keynote address contained a message that every business owner needed to hear in today’s pharmacy environment. I am also pleased that it dovetailed perfectly with my message. The quality of your remarks reflected the research and effort that you put into the presentation. Visiting our pharmacies as a customer and in your capacity as our keynote speaker allowed you to personalize your address. I believe that your personalization resonated with our franchisees, giving your presentation more meaning and more impact. Your connection with our franchisees was also evident in your breakout session on branding. You were the only session to ‘sell out.’ Your keynote presentation left them wanting more, and you didn’t disappoint them in your branding session. As a matter of course we debriefed the staff after the meeting soliciting feedback on a number of topics, but, most importantly, the speakers. For the record, you received the most comments and they were all very positive. Thank you for contributing to the success of our National Meeting.

Abbott Laboratories

Dan, I wanted to write to say thank you for a wonderful and inspiring discussion on leadership that you gave at our annual meeting. The fact that you started your talk by memorizing everyone’s name really got the team’s attention! I particularly appreciate the time that you took to understand what we were looking for, and to tailor your remarks to the audience. In fact, looking over our survey responses, almost everyone rated your session with the highest possible score. As we discussed, the team is already performing at a high level, and one of our goals was to keep “the pedal to the metal”. Your comments on continual improvement and staying motivated while motivating others are the ones that I know will resonate longest with the group. Thanks again for a great session!

Dan Coughlin took time to understand our needs and challenges through interviews and discussion prior to the meeting, then tailored his talk on accelerating leadership to us in a very engaging manner and gave us approaches that we could readily put to use to improve our leadership skills. He received the most positive and highest remarks on our feedback survey for relevance and engagement. One attendee said, ‘I have already used the information that was provided to us by the Keynote speaker to accelerate the leadership of a new issue to help us move the business forward.’ Thanks again for your excellent talk at our Global Regulatory Conference.

American Cancer Society

Dan, I want to thank you again for your compelling presentation ‘Accelerate Your Impact as a Leader’ at the American Cancer Society Corporate Impact Conference. I continue to use and re-use the information and material to improve my leadership capabilities. The Conference Planning Committee, as well as my many colleagues at the session, agreed that your practical advice, along with the Leadership Action Guide, hit the mark. As leaders, one of our primary roles is to have an impact on how other people think, and you provided excellent insight and actions to help us make that happen. After the session, many participants talked about the various styles you presented, and how this will help them tremendously in the future. Your passion on this topic, the pre-work you did in getting to know the audience, and your partnering with us along the way, are only some of the reasons for your success. We definitely walked away with a new enthusiasm in our roles as leaders. Thank you.

Shawnee Mission Medical Center

Health care is a changing industry. To remain the leading hospital in our community, we need nimble managers ready to make the next move to enhance patient care and increase volumes. We invited Dan Coughlin to our annual board and leadership retreat to jump start the process. Dan’s message was a hit with the entire audience, from our front-line managers to board members, many of which are business and community leaders. Dan’s practical and easy to grasp message provided great take-home tools to accelerate their ability to lead. We are now incorporating those tools in our day-to-day management.

VHA

Mr. Coughlin, as promised, I’m sending the results of the speaker evaluations from our meeting in May. Your presentation was very well received and I want to extend our thanks for a job well done.

Wheaton World Wide Moving | Bekins Van Lines

Dan, thank you for such an inspiring keynote presentation at our conference – lots of positive feedback. Our audience could tell the time you took to get to know them and our staff and understand not only our business but our culture as well. Very much appreciated. Below is a testimonial if you would like to use it with potential clients.

‘Dan Coughlin is both an informative and entertaining keynote speaker with the energy to keep a crowd engaged. He took the time to get to know some of the key players within our network, interviewed our executive staff and gained a solid understanding of our business before solidifying his keynote speech. Based on the fact that we work in a complex business, these were all things we appreciated. In the end, our agents were motivated and walked away with some key, actionable items to implement at their own businesses. Coughlin was a great success.’

Dan was the keynote speaker at our annual conference for Wheaton and Bekins van lines, helping our network of 350 agents across the country strive to achieve new levels of greatness. What separates Dan from typical motivational speakers and business advisors is his ability to really dig in, understand the market dynamics and key drivers – and simplify complexity into actions that everyone can take. He truly understands an individual can make a difference in the success of a business and their personal life for immediate impact, and over the long haul. Dan is a key resource for our success.

Lewis Tree Service

Dan, I am very impressed with your approach and delivery of your keynote message to our leadership team. You invested a significant amount of time with many of our leaders to obtain a clear understanding of their day to day issues and leadership challenges. The time you devoted to site visits, phone interviews and written questionnaires was more than I’ve ever experienced with other leadership training and presentations. Our team spoke highly of the quality of your message and the ‘Leadership Action Guide’ you developed for the entire team. Thank you again! If I can ever be of assistance please feel free to contact me.

Kaplan University

Dan Coughlin presented at our annual Kaplan Higher Education Group leadership meeting in January, 2014. He has wide experience in talent development and leadership, and his presentation reflected the depth of his experience, as well as the serious and extensive commitment he made to preparation ahead of time. Over the course of about 2 1/2 hours, Dan took about 150 people through a series of short interactive exercises on setting priorities, communicating across functional divisions, and providing effective leadership. I found the exercises to be an excellent way to boost attitudes and focus interpersonal communication. He provided an important reminder of key management principles to the leadership of Kaplan University and the assembled team. In the weeks following the meeting, I have returned often to the commitments we made then as a team and to the helpful suggestions imbedded in the materials Dan provided.

Cisco Systems

Dan Coughlin is a highly engaging speaker, dedicated to taking the time to understand his audience, to deliver a truly personal, customized presentation. He brings the experience of a successful business leader and mentor/coach who has faced those life-shaping challenges and successes that resonate deeply with his audience. The hour-long presentation was not nearly enough, and I look forward to the next opportunity to hear Dan speak.

Haverford Trust

Dan Coughlin conducted a seminar for our senior leadership team entitled ‘Accelerate Your Impact as a Business Leader’. Dan was extremely well prepared for our session. He tailored his presentation to the group by first interviewing the attendees and drew from them their needs. This made his materials and insights extremely relevant and timely. The practical tools and approaches to better address leadership challenges were put in place immediately. These tools are geared toward driving solid and sustainable business results from our entire company. The feedback and reviews on Dan from our team are very positive.

Jack in the Box

Dan, on behalf of the Jack in the Box Franchisee Association and myself, we appreciate your full of energy and interactive presentation at our annual convention in Hawaii. I have seen and heard many keynote speakers, but your presentation and content were aligned with what we are facing in today’s environment. We loved the fact that you actually worked in one of our Jack locations in order to prepare. You truly understood our culture and process. As a speaker, your back-to-basic and specific approaches to our daily challenges were perfect. You also shared many useful ideas on continuous improvement and reminded us all of the importance of collaborating in order to improve and sustain long-term business results. Our group walked away with a refreshed enthusiasm around how we can accelerate our impact as leaders.

Land O’Lakes

Dan is a great presenter and a master of ‘simple’. In his keynote speech, he delivered 7 crisp suggestions to our sales group – and they ate it up. His ‘Business Action Accelerator Guide’ offers practical ideas that will help us move the ball forward in an increasingly cluttered world. Nice job Dan!

Bunker Hill Capital CEO Forum

Once a year, Bunker Hill Capital (BHC) brings together about 70 members of our executive network for our annual CEO Summit, where speakers present current topics of interest to operating executives. This year, BHC was pleased to have Dan Coughlin from The Coughlin Company join the summit and deliver his engaging and interactive ‘Beat Yesterday’ presentation. Dan’s presentation provided practical ideas on branding and innovation and set up a strong framework in which to think about driving profitable growth for companies. Dan’s effective message resonated well at BHC’s CEO Summit in a room full of C-level executives who have to apply such strategies and tactics on a daily basis. Dan uses a practical approach to thinking that would serve any C-level executive well who is looking to find that next gear towards higher profits. Moreover, Dan’s interactive style engaged the audience with thoughtful exercises which allowed for a great session during the day.

Holder Construction

Dear Dan, I wanted to take a moment and thank you for speaking with all of us at our Leadership Meeting in August. With our focus on improvement and innovation, your conversation on the leader’s role was both timely and inspiring to the group. You shared techniques to help us, as leaders, fuel the efforts of our associates and be accountable for innovation success. Clearly you spent a lot of time prior to our event to get to know us and we appreciate your focused message as a result.

St. Louis Cardinals

When we first met I was torn between the ‘management mentality’ of I can deal with any situation and the ‘there’s got to be a better way’ philosophy. Dan, through your unique way of coaching, questioning and, most important, listening, you combined both areas of thought and have definitely changed both my approach and outlook. Thank you. You have made a difference.

Denny’s

Dan, on behalf of the Denny’s Franchisee Association and its Board of Directors, we appreciate your energizing and action-provoking presentations at our recent annual convention. Our Board endeavors each year to provide our members and strategic partners with a keynote address that will elevate their performance as leaders and enhance their personal fulfillment. You delivered just what we wanted and needed.Your keynote address challenged us with practical and workable ideas that can truly accelerate the success of our Brand. Your preparation for the meeting, including visiting restaurants and integrating examples from those experiences, reflected your professionalism and commitment to be more than a speaker. Your format (including notes) along with the workshops for our attendees was meaningful and impactful. Thanks for being an outstanding resource to position the Denny’s Brand for accelerated success!

Rave reviews would be an understatement of Dan Coughlin’s keynote address at our Denny’s Frachisee Convention, which was held in Maui, Hawaii. Aside from being extremely well informed, Dan was articulate and responsive, uplifting, entertaining and enlightening – a hard combination to achieve. What a refreshing Keynote, and one that should be shared with all! He would be a huge asset to ANY group who is looking for an amazing keynote speaker. His ability to connect to a variety of personalities, our corporate culture, and gender, ethnic and age differences is a true gift! It was truly an enjoyable experience.

Dan Coughlin receives a birthday cake from Craig Barber, President of the Denny’s Franchisee Association, in Maui after giving the keynote address at the DFA Convention.

VAI

Dan, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for a superb job at our recent VAI user conference in Las Vegas. As a keynote speaker, you gave the group a very organized approach to goal setting and problem solving within the organization. I just completed reading your book, “The Management 500” which was full of insightful ideas about how to better run the organization by asking the right questions and having the right analytical approach. In addition, your comments about the importance of family prioritization and personal fitness goals were an important reminder as well. I also found your article, “An open letter to aspiring leaders around the world” quite inspiring and very true in regards to recognizing the importance of making a difference at home, in the workplace and the community. Dan, thank you again for a great job!

Holiday Retirement

Our business is a 40-year-old start-up with all the fast moving and dynamic change often seen in smaller, high-tech companies. The quick pace of the business and amount of change has an impact on people, especially the leadership. Dan Coughlin rolled up his sleeves and dug right into our business issues to help craft a customized and meaningful discussion with 160 of our regional, district and home office executives. He visited a few of our 300 retirement communities, talked with executives and reviewed materials. The presentation itself engaged the attendees with real take aways and interactive table top exercises to help participants understand how to apply what they were learning. Dan delivers real value!

Assisted Living Federation of America

Dan, as you can see from the comments below you were a huge hit! Several attendees came up to me and felt your sessions were the best of the conference. You had a difficult time slot it the late afternoon but still kept everyone’s attention and breathed life into them. Thank you for presenting and doing such an amazing job of research on senior living prior to this event. Here are the comments we received on your two programs for our national conference:

“Accelerate Innovation: How Increased Value Drives Sustainable Growth”

• Loved It! Great energy for the end of the day.
• Awesome presenter!
• Very content rich presentation.
• Dan is an exceptional presenter and should be invited to speak at future conferences.
• Please have him provide follow-up articles for the Assisted Living magazine.
• Excellent real world strategy and advice.
• Speaker had researched senior living – that is much appreciated.

“Accelerate Your Impact as a Leader: How Leaders generate Sustainable Improvement in High-Priority Desired Outcomes”

• Presentation was delivered in a fun and captivating manner.
• Very good information presented in an excellent format.
• Information presented was very relevant.
• Best presentation at this conference.
• Great presenter.
• Very well done session! One of the best at this conference.

Snow Magazine

We couldn’t be more thrilled with our choice of Dan Coughlin for our annual conference. The professional snow management industry, while appearing simplistic to outsiders, is much more complicated than people realize. Our attendees, entrepreneurial business owners ranging from $1 million to $200 million in sales, expect a high-end business conference from us. Dan delivered!”

From his in-depth research of our industry, site visits, and interviews with our attendees, Dan came more than prepared to lead and educate. His presentations were built with industry knowledge and incorporated sound fundamental ideas to help ‘accelerate’ the growth of our attendees’ businesses. I look forward to working with Dan again soon. He is a true professional.

Bodycote

Dan delivered as the keynote speaker at our Bodycote Global Leadership Meeting. His straight-forward approach, coupled with pre-session interviews, allowed him to truly engage on our key themes. We believe deeply in continuous process improvements and are big proponents of simplification. Dan’s material was spot-on, providing several exercises that will help us accelerate performance and deliver results.

Rockwell Collins

Dan, on behalf of the Rockwell Collins Leadership Club, we thank you so much for your “Accelerate Your Impact as a Leader” presentation. Not only did you spend time getting to know our company, the members of the club, and tailored the message for our organization, but you offered practical advice on how to be a more effective leader. I personally received many words of praise on your behalf after the event. I wholeheartedly believe our members will incorporate your ideas into their leadership style and enable better leadership throughout the organization.

First Midwest Bank Business & Economic Conference

Dan Coughlin’s presentation at the First Midwest Bank Business & Economic Conference was right on target. The content was very timely and applicable. The business owners and operators left the conference with practical, smart, and real ideas on how to accelerate their business….starting TODAY! The customer responses have been awesome and so was Dan!

SolidWorks Corporation

Dan, thank you for delivering a great message to our global sales and operations team last week. You had instant credibility as a result of the hard work you did in advance to understand our business. And, you gave our team advice that they can turn into action immediately after they return. I know this will help us achieve our goals for the second half of the year!

Salomon Smith Barney

What an amazing year last year was for me! I accomplished the high set goals and I am prepared to set higher goals and accomplish this year. I have to thank you for all the coaching you provided. The practical tools you taught me made my accomplishments easier. At times, we all believe we work in a very complex environment, whatever that business may be. However, through working with you I am able to streamline my thoughts to what is most important and, therefore, to stay focused on driving my career forward. I am learning through working with you that I need to be looking forward at where I want to be instead of the constant reflection on what I have done. Through this change in mindset, I am able to see where I want to go and how I will get there. My revenue last year exceeded the year before by 150%. My life has changed considerably in all areas. I am truly happy with where I am and where I am headed. Now I have the tools to make it happen.

McCarthy Construction

Dan, thank you very much for the input you have provided me over the past year. You approached the issues on a very creative and insightful basis. As I look back on the start of your coaching services and my anticipated benefits, the final results surpassed all of my anticipations. I believe the focused approach, as well as the on-target discussions followed-up by your summary letters, were the keys to me achieving the results. I am amazed at how quickly you were able to relate with the issues we discussed and then work through a very succinct action plan to address the issue. I appreciate your interest and dedication to helping me grow.

GSD&M

The pressure was on. My company, GSD&M, was in the running for acquiring the national advertising business for BMW North America.

As one of the most prestigious car accounts in the category, we turned all our efforts, time and resources towards winning this business. As the leader of the pitch, I had the opportunity (and challenge) of managing a very large and diverse group of people with varying strengths and of course, personalities. Dan Coughlin guided me in several ways to be an effective leader in this high pressure situation. The most important piece of advice given to me by Dan was about staying the course and focus solely on the desired outcome of winning. As you can imagine, with such a diverse group of team members, there will always be personality conflicts and challenges in keeping everyone on the same page while trying to put together a comprehensive marketing solution for the prospective client. It’s called the 80/20 rule. If 80% of your time is focused on the desired outcome and only 20% is about internal politics, etc, you’re on the right path. Any deviation from that number requires a leader to reshift the efforts and thinking back to the desired outcome. My job was to keep everyone focused on winning–above all the disagreements, timing challenges and ultimately strong personalities.

Dan also encouraged me to not lose sight of the details. Details like making the process inspiring and rewarding and where the team members can connect and build stronger relationships over time. There is nothing like going through the trenches with a team you trust and respect. To build that kind of team, it takes an effective leader who acknowledges and gives people a chance to do their best work. Dan’s tips helped me to create that very environment.

Dan’s coaching motivated me to be a better coach that delivers the goods–winning. And in case you’re wondering, we won the business.

National Quality Review

Dan, thank you again for helping to make our conference a great success. In fact, your Keynote presentation was among the highest rated of all Keynotes from previous conferences over the years! Great job! Also, you were quoted by many presenters and audience members during other sessions throughout the conference. That’s pretty powerful! Here are some comments that were written in the conference surveys:

“Dan Coughlin was a great way to start the conference. I hope his book is as engaging as his speaking.”

“Dan Coughlin was the best way to open the conference.”

“Keynote speaker was excellent!”

“The keynote address was excellent. The 5 minute exercise was great.”

“Dan Coughlin was a great speaker and I learned from his sessions.”

“I thought the first keynote speaker, Dan Coughlin, was excellent. I enjoyed the opportunities to talk with others in the industry, as well as the access to the speakers.”

Dan’s keynote presentation was the perfect way to start our client conference. He brought energy and insight into the room. Dan engaged all of our clients and set the stage for what became one of our most successful conferences. His keynote was laced with the right mix of solid input and cross-industry examples to appeal to a wide audience. He got everyone talking, and through an exercise he ran at a breakout session, he got everyone talking to each other. His session was among the highest rated for the entire conference – and he had some stiff competition.

Ronald McDonald House Charities – St. LouisM

The Ronald McDonald House hired Dan Coughlin to facilitate a 6 month effort to help build team work and develop a true cross functional approach to improving results within our organization and with our staff. Dan was excellent. His upbeat demeanor, insight into our folks and their tasks at hand, as well as, his ability to empower people to participate and “open up” was simply phenomenal. Dan helped us tremendously and we have plans to have him do additional work with our staff and organization in the future.

Boeing St. Louis Leadership Association

Dan Coughlin’s ability to combine leadership concepts with direct and actionable applications to everyday workplace situations kept the audience engaged and riveted throughout his presentation. His dynamic and energetic speaking style struck such a positive chord with the group that time literally flew by. The consistent question after his visit was, ‘When can he return and can he stay longer next time?’.

Dan Coughlin is one of the favorite Boeing St Louis Leadership Association (BSLLA) guest speakers! He continues to motivate, educate, and inspire our Members in terms of Leadership as it applies to them in their daily roles. Our attendees at his recent workshop walked away with practical examples that they can apply right away since Dan makes things so relatable, whether you’re a new-hire or have been with the company for a while. His knowledge regarding what makes leaders at all levels successful was shared thru his passionate real-world stories that kept our Members engaged and learning valuable insights!

YPO

As Education Chair of the Ozarks Chapter of YPO I used Dan for one of my first events. Dan created a program that was meant for both our members and their spouses. This event turned out to be very well attended and I received exceptional feedback on how much everyone got out of the evening. Even though we have members from very different industries, everyone could relate to the presentation and many adopted practices from it that they will use in running their businesses and their lives. I know that sales of Dan’s book “Accelerate” went up since quite a few members bought books for their entire company.

The MENTOR Network

As Chief Development Officer for a national human services organization, I am always on the lookout for new ways in which to both develop our leadership and accelerate our business. Dan’s workshop at our company’s Mid-Atlantic leadership meeting ignited a spark in all participants. Dan not only took the time to understand our company and the challenges we face, he also tailored the day’s activities and discussions to have immediate relevance for us. Thanks for helping us develop our bench, Dan! We look forward to working with you in the future.

For our leadership quarterly meeting this year, Dan Coughlin presented a workshop entitled “Accelerate Profitable Growth through Effective Leadership” to the Mid-Atlantic management staff. I truly cannot think of a laudation worthy enough to express Dan Coughlin’s riveting performance. His passionate deliverance and the effort he makes to improve every facet of one’s role as well as his outgoing personality cohere to create an infectious aura of perseverance and results oriented leadership. He truly helped revitalize the focus and passion of the management team, helping us to “accelerate” our potential exponentially. Thank you Dan.

Jiffy Lube International

Dan, thanks again for delivering the keynote to open our recent national Jiffy Lube franchisee meeting. I was impressed with both the friendly casual tone and knowledgeable informed perspective that you demonstrated in your speech. I was also pleased with the practical impact of your key messages. The feedback that I have received from the Jiffy Lube franchisees and our own JLI staff has been unanimously positive. I have heard quite a few “experts” and “leadership guru” types present at franchisee conventions before, but this was the most helpful and motivational content I have seen in that setting. Thanks again for creating such a nice start to the meeting. Your address really set the tone for the entire conference and I look forward to working with you again in the future.

PPG Architectural Coatings

Dan did an excellent job at our leadership training for our high potential store managers. What impressed me most was the time Dan put in prior to the meeting learning and understanding our business. It made his seminar much more practical to our employees as he was able to take theoretical tools to improve their performance as a leader and turn those into real world situations our employees deal with everyday. Because of this, our employees left with useful actions to improve their performance they could confidently implement immediately.

SkillSoft

Dan, on behalf of our global sales and marketing organization, thank you again for your keynote presentation this week on the practical approaches to improving business momentum. I very much appreciated the prework you put in to not only understand our business but to provide a context that our entire team could easily relate to. The feedback has been nothing short of excellent. Your seven step process was succinct and something our team can put into immediate use and will serve as a key catalyst as we kickoff our selling year. Thanks again.

What a pleasure to work with Dan Coughlin. Even with such limited advance notice he clearly made it a priority to understand our business and audience to ensure a successful presentation and meeting. He met with our team in advance and on-site to learn our product and goals, and built those ideas into his presentation. While his content is hard-hitting and pragmatic, he delivers his lessons with wit and humor which keeps everyone engaged. Our sales and leadership group is still buzzing about his presentation.

Midwest Litigation Services

Dan Coughlin was the keynote speaker for our court reporter and staff training conference. His message of acceleration provided a positive spin on the importance of building on existing successes by moving beyond the comfort of maintaining our status quo. He did his homework and learned about the nuances of our customer driven and focused business before his presentation. This attention to detail enabled him to provide unique, meaningful and personalized methods for enhancing the delivery of our client services. All in attendance felt energized and revived by Dan’s energetic and insightful remarks and left the conference eager to implement his ideas!

Restoration Industry Association

I’ve worked in the non-profit association sector for nearly 25 years. Half that time has been spent booking speakers and subsequently dealing with the nuances and idiosyncrasies of this particular group of professionals. I’ve paid the big prices and was promised the moon, only to be delivered a keynote session that missed the mark because my high-priced speaker didn’t LISTEN to me. Communicating to potential speakers about the necessity of understanding our audience and adapting their canned speeches to our discipline is a high priority for me. Getting speakers to actually follow-through on that is essential to my association’s success and the speakers. After 25 years, some might say I’m jaded. I say I’m realistic. When you pay a speaker their big fees and their travel expenses, you expect them to put forth some effort and deliver a product (the keynote address) that will make you proud. Few do that.

Dan Coughlin does.

I knew within the first 10 seconds of watching his video on-line that Dan could deliver. After talking with him, things got even better. Dan agreed to participate in “advance preparation work” by attending one of our association events last fall with the express purpose of getting to know our industry. Additionally, he spent a full day with one of our members, being hauled around in a van to various restoration sites throughout the city of St. Louis. Just to learn more about RIA members.

Finally. A speaker who “gets it.” A Speaker who understands the need to know the industry he’s speaking to and tailor his keynote, Dan spoke at our annual convention. He was a hit. Within the first 5 seconds he grabbed our ADHD, attention-deficit crowd who abandoned their blackberries and cell phones and listened to him. Why? Because he spoke their language and engaged them – he took the time to know their business. His presentation was on-point, succinct and motivating. Dan was worth every penny RIA spent to book him and I feel we got great value. Not only was Dan a delight to work with, he presented RIA, you and me very, very well and I’m just so pleased to have had the chance to work with him. Dan is awesome!

IKON Office Solutions

Knowledgeable. Thorough. Interested. Professional. Polished. That would be part of what Dan Coughlin would bring to the table. His presentation to our All Sales Meeting went very well. I would say our group is a tough crowd, especially at 8:00 in the morning. His presentation was such that the reps could relate to it.

TheLadders.com

Dan Coughlin is one of many career experts we work with at TheLadders to provide advice and guidance to our audience of nearly 4 million job seekers. But our relationship with Dan is by far the happiest. His knowledge of the job search is unequalled and our readers are enriched by his contribution.

More importantly, I like to consider a Dan a good reporter. He takes direction on topics and always delivers his assignment on target. He accepts editing and the rare criticism, when necessary, with good grace and works to answer and all questions to improve his submissions prior to publication. He also provides intelligence about the job search that inform our decisions about what to assign him.

TheLadders community is a richer one because of Dan’s contributions and my job is easier for having known him.

American Management Association

Dan Coughlin is a wonderful writer. From a publishing perspective, his work demands little editing—he knows what executives and managers want in the way of subject matter. As important, his articles contain the practical ideas that we as a publishing organization like to offer our readers. Time is precious and our readers want Monday morning actions that will better position themselves and their organizations professionally. If I only had more writers like Dan.

Effective Executive Magazine, India

It is my pleasure to write this to you about one of our esteemed contributors over the last 3 years, Dan Coughlin. His articles have been exceptionally insightful and well received. We have received such overwhelming response for his articles that we keep requesting him to write for every issue of Effective Executive. His breadth and depth of coverage of topics is absolutely wonderful. I am sure his association , at whatever capacity it may be, would just be a feather in the cap. With his vast consulting, writing and speaking experience, it would just be great to have him speak about all that he writes with such passion and forethought.

Ronald McDonald House Charities

On behalf of Ronald McDonald House Charities, thank you for your participation in the RMHC International Conference “Strength in Numbers”. Building the capacity of our local Chapters is a core function of the RMHC Global organization. A primary way that we do this is through our Educational Sessions. The mission of our educational program is to provide relevant, practical and needs-based programming to our network of worldwide organizations. As a speaker during this year’s International Conference, you were a vital part to achieving this goal and we would like to thank you. The time and expertise you put into developing your session truly paid off as overall evaluations were very positive. As a means of providing you with feedback and to assist you in preparing for future conferences, below is a numerical summary of your evaluations for your sessions and a few of the statements from the participants who attended your session.

Session Ratings(Accelerate Your Impact as a Leader):
76 Excellent
12 Very Good

Participant Comments:

• Interesting, dynamic speaker — loved it.
• Fantastic session — Dan is fabulous! — will absolutely look to buy Dan’s books for reference materials.
• Excellent use of my time — very well done.
• Terrific story teller.
• Great session — please come back in 2013.
• Great session — could listen to Dan all day — would love to have the opportunity for a one-on-one discussion.
• Very informative and practical.
• Excellent workshop and presenter.
• One of the best sessions I’ve ever attended on any topic.
• Great, great, great — bring Dan back!
• Very high regard for this session.
• Awesome!
• Great audience interaction — lively and interesting — inspiring speaker.
• Great speaker — inspiring and thought provoking.
• Relevant not only to RMHC but to my professional job as well.
• Excellent orator using real examples — thanks.
• Great interaction with other participants — this was best part of session.
• Best presenter ever!
• Exceptional session and thoroughly enjoyable — feel as if I now have a greater understanding of utilizing my abilities.
• Would love you as my executive coach.
• Passionate and effective — easy to apply solutions.
• Slow it down a little — felt like we were flying although I wouldn’t have wanted to miss any of it.
• He was brilliant — very relevant, great stories.
• Great speaker — motivational — three hours well spent.
• I didn’t want the session to end!
• Group fully engaged the entire session.
• Energized and learned a lot — thanks for showing your passion — loved it!
• Pragmatic exercises — simple and usable.
• Excellent — thank you for the interactive part to talk with others and share and forcing us to think about how our values/strengths can be used in our work.
• That was inspiring and more importantly me start down the practical path of writing down concrete steps to take.
• Outstanding — fabuloso!!
• The only thing that would improve this session would be . . . a picture of Cezar.
• Shared great stories, samples of leadership.
• Dan is fantastic — bring him back.

Early Warning Services, LLC

Dan, thank you for sharing your expertise with our attendees at the Early Warning Summit. It was due to the high quality of speakers like yourself that helped make our event a success. We appreciate the time you took to research our industry and audience to develop a customized, outcome-focused presentation. Because of this research, your hand outs and interactive discussions, your session provided practical and relevant value to the audience members. Once again, we want to thank you for your participation.

BillGuard

I have been working with global speakers for well over a decade and finding the right balance between interesting and relevant content is always a challenge. Working with Dan was such a delight! Not only did he take the time to understand the needs of my audience but he delivered practical ideas for leadership and innovation that my attendees were able to put into practice immediately. One of the most useful talks I have heard!

Intermec

As our keynote speaker, Dan Coughlin really helped us round out our messaging to our value partners during our Intermec Partner Conference. In addition to the focus on products and solutions, Dan brought a more personal touch to bring forward important ways partners can look to grow their business. His anecdotes and actionable advice were a perfect complement to our messaging. In addition, Dan’s follow-up articles have continued to drive home his philosophy. We now include them in our bi-weekly communications to our partner base.

Texas Bankers Association

Dan, you were a valuable addition to our annual convention! I believe our bankers walked away with useful tools to create growth within their organizations. You are a gifted speaker and did a good job engaging with our audience, and to that we thank you.

Dan, it was a pleasure meeting you and hearing you speak at TBA’s Annual Convention in Colorado Springs. Your topic ‘Strengthen Your Bank’s Brand to Generate Sustainable Profitable Growth’ was very timely and well-received. You offered some very valuable suggestions for ‘feeding your brand’ that bankers will take back to their banks and put to good use. Again, thank you for addressing our bankers and providing valuable information.