Today’s blog post is by Kathleen Patten, the President and CEO of American Target Advertising.

This is taken from Chapter 21, a chapter she authored, in my book GO BIG: The Marketing “Secrets” of Richard A. Viguerie.

Would you believe that it’s easier to grow your organization or your business or you personally by 1,000% rather than by 100%?

The world’s best and best-known coach for entrepreneurs is Dan Sullivan, founder and president of The Strategic Coach® Program, a Toronto- and Chicago-based coaching organization for entrepreneurs.

When I first heard Dan Sullivan say it would be easier to grow our company 1,000% than 100%, it didn’t make any sense. However, Dan reminded me that we had done it several times previously. And he was right.

Richard Viguerie started the company with one employee and within a few years he had 10, which is a 1,000% increase. A few years later he had 100 employees, again a 1,000% increase. Then a few years after that, 250 employees.

Richard joined Dan’s Strategic Coach program in 2003, and I have been in Dan’s program since 2010.

In different places in GO BIG Richard stresses the importance of having mentors. Of his four mentors, three are deceased; however, the fourth, Dan Sullivan, at age 80, is at the top of his game helping thousands of entrepreneurs grow some part of their business, organization, or life 2x, 5x, 10x, and even more.

So how do you do this? Well, the best way is to join The Strategic Coach program, but since only a few will become a part of The Strategic Coach program.

Buy and study all of Dan’s 12 mini-books available online. You don’t read Dan’s books once. You underline the parts that resonate with you, then return to the book for a review two, three, or maybe even four times a year to the underlined parts.

Growing 10x is not something most people were born knowing how to do. It isn’t normal thinking. The idea of growing 10x is scary and intimidating to most people.

You can’t grow 10x by doing the same things you always do. Starting your day a little early or working a little later, putting in more weekends at the office, etc., are all things that can bring you incremental growth, 2x or 3x growth, but not exponential growth.

Leading an organization or a project to exponential growth requires a shift in your mindset. “Your mindset is the most essential tool you have,” is another quote by Dan Sullivan. A linear mindset goes from 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5. Exponential growth is simply doubling: 1 to 2 to 4 to 8 to 16 to 32.

To grow 10x you have to make major shifts in your thinking. Major shifts in your business. Major shifts in how you use your time and who you spend it with.

Dan Sullivan says, “If you want to be great, make the extraordinary normal.”

You don’t naturally know how to grow exponentially any more than a cardiac surgeon naturally knows how to perform open heart surgery. Cutting people open is abnormal behavior. The surgeon trains himself or herself to do something abnormal. Through that training, the skills and thinking become normal to them. And he or she can do something extraordinary that most others never will.

So how do you change your mindset?

In next week’s blog post, we’ll continue this conversation with Kathleen’s seven things to have 10x (1,000%) growth.

Your feedback is helpful, appreciated, and needed.  Please email me at rviguerie@americantarget.com with any thoughts or comments you may have.