Dream Teams Archives – Sunwapta Solutions

2 Jul 2019

19 Years – Our Big Mistakes Are Your Powerful Lessons

By Doug Wagner|2020-05-28T18:45:40-06:00July 2nd, 2019|Categories: Business Strategy, Current Events, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, Mindset and Motivation|Tags: business, business advice, Business Culture, Business Performance, Business Planning, business strategy, Corporate Culture, entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship lessons, sales, sales process, small business, small business owner, strategy|

A little over 19 years ago, my two business partners and I set off on the entrepreneurial journey that became Sunwapta Solutions. Over the years, we’ve had some successes, made some (costly) mistakes, and sometimes learned a few things.

People typically don’t learn much from easy success, aside from a false sense of security and overconfidence. Nor do they believe they will make the same mistakes you did – until they do.

I can’t prevent you from making any mistakes. Nor […]

1 Mar 2016

Stop Hoping For a Hero to Save You

By Doug Wagner|2020-08-11T13:07:29-06:00March 1st, 2016|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, The Good Men Project|

As an entrepreneur, you have more problems than time. So you try to hand your biggest problems to someone else to make them disappear.

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We love our heroes.

In the movies, sometimes they start out as hero material, and sometimes they are reluctant heroes; forced into the role.

In sports, our heroes range from the all-star lineup of the favored team to the quarterback on the opposing side who leads the underdog team in a playoff run.

We want […]

7 Jan 2016

3 Ways To Be Happier Than A Fly In Your Soup

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:13:43-06:00January 7th, 2016|Categories: Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Mindset and Motivation, The Good Men Project|

Fly on Soup - Business Lessons

The illusion of success can trap you in a business that keeps you buzzing but doesn’t fuel your passion.

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“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” ~ Howard Thurman

Sunday evening I was sitting at the kitchen table, reading a good book on my Kindle, and eating my […]

27 Nov 2015

Great Teams Need a Purpose

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T12:10:36-06:00November 27th, 2015|Categories: Business Strategy, Dream Teams, Leadership, Manifast|

With Purpose

We don’t build great teams in business for the sake of building great teams. It would be like hiring all the best hockey players and then not playing hockey.

Great teams need a purpose or goal.

We build a great hockey team to win the Stanley Cup.

The same goes for business.

For business, the purpose is to serve clients in exchange for revenue. If we do that efficiently, we know we are winning because we generate profit and growth according to our goals.

Brand, Clients and Teams

Our brand is how […]

13 Nov 2015

Does Your Workplace Encourage a Culture of Codependency?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T12:13:17-06:00November 13th, 2015|Categories: Current Events, Dream Teams, Leadership, Manifast, Mindset and Motivation|

A dysfunctional culture can doom your organization to mediocrity or outright failure. How can you tell if you should be worried?

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“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” ~Peter Drucker

We often see a sports team that seems to have a great pool of individual talent, yet it can’t seem to win consistently and fails to get very far in the playoffs. Then we have the underdog team that surprises everyone with a playoff run, sometimes even taking the top prize.

The difference between winning and losing in […]

9 Oct 2015

What Happens At Work Doesn’t Stay At Work: That Can Be Good

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:15:04-06:00October 9th, 2015|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Leadership, The Good Men Project|

Work is a big part of our lives. What if we can create our business in a way that creates good?

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What can happen when people feel disconnected from others and lack a sense of purpose or significance?

If you are aware of events making the news recently, it turns out things can get pretty ugly at the extreme.

The average full-time employee spends one-third of their weekly hours either at work, traveling to and from work, or preparing for work. If you are a […]

6 Jan 2015

Delegation: How Successful Leaders Do More With Less

By Guest|2017-04-03T11:01:16-06:00January 6th, 2015|Categories: Dream Teams, Leadership, Manifast|Tags: business, delegation, leadership, success|

By Corey Jahnke

“Can you do me a HUGE favor?” my Pharmacy District Manager (Kelly) asked.

“Anything for you my friend!” I responded hoping to make a good impression.

“Well, as you know, I’ve recently taken over your district and I noticed that the last employee satisfaction survey showed that our pharmacists are very unhappy. I took over shortly after the survey was taken and I don’t think things are any better…” […]

26 Nov 2014

Giving 110%: Walking the Edge Or Holding Back?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T12:31:15-06:00November 26th, 2014|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Dream Teams, Mindset and Motivation|Tags: business, effort, Give 100 percent, results, success|

I hear a lot of people saying I gave 100%. Some can even apparently give more then everything they have, 110% or 120%.

Physics, economics, logic and math aside, how do you know you are giving it your all?

Effort Or Time

Is it time spent? Are you spending every waking moment dedicated to achieve your goal. Is this effective?

Exertion or Exhaustion

Are you going until you collapse into exhaustion? Are you sprinting or running the marathon?

Brainpower and Smarts

Or maybe you are dedicated to learning everything you can about the subject and succeeding because everyday you out think your competition. At the end of […]

18 Nov 2014

Tick Tock, Punching The Clock: How To Engage A Team

By Guest|2017-04-03T11:03:35-06:00November 18th, 2014|Categories: Dream Teams, Leadership, Manifast|Tags: Barbara Abramson, culture, employee engagement, leadership, performance, team building|

Three of the top reasons people feel disengaged at work include: don’t like their boss, don’t feel connected with other employees and don’t feel they matter. In this post connection expert and coach Barbara Abramson shows you some ways to engage your team and turn this around.

By Barbara Abramson

Disengaged Employees Bored Team Presentation I used to work for a media company that was divided into several autonomous departments, each overseen by a mid-level manager who reported to the division manager. We operated pretty independently of each other and were in essence, our own […]

6 Nov 2014

Sorry, I Prefer the Dishonest Feedback

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-12T12:42:45-06:00November 6th, 2014|Categories: Dream Teams, Leadership, Manifast|

Be careful what you ask for. Some folks are way too happy to dish it out!

Most of us crave feedback and validation of ourselves, our work and our art. We seek it out either by overtly asking, or through self-deprecation, and we always hope the response will be, “You rocked it!”

The more we are putting it out there and pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone, the more we crave that validation, and the more it leaves us vulnerable to receiving (and believing) destructive […]