By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
Strategic Coach has run since 1989. It charges US$15,000 a year, asks for US$200K of personal income and three years in business, and meets four times a year. What the site does not tell you is how many people will sit in your room, or what holds you between the quarters.
I run the CEO Mastermind at Leaders ADAPT, a virtual room of at most 14 members with no revenue gate, so I sell to some of the same owners Strategic Coach does. Read that as a disclosure. This page describes the program fairly, with every figure sourced, and marks the gaps as gaps.
Quick answer: Strategic Coach is a quarterly group coaching program founded in 1989 by Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith. The program fee is US$15,000 a year with a US$2,500 non refundable deposit, due in full before the first workshop. Entry requires US$200K of personal net income and three years in business. Group size, member count and refund terms beyond the deposit are not published.
What Strategic Coach is, field by field
Strategic Coach is a quarterly, full day group coaching program for established entrepreneurs, built on Dan Sullivan's thinking tools, with a Program Advisor call between workshops. Every value in the table comes from the program's own pages, read in October 2026, with the gaps left as the organisation leaves them.
| Field | On the record | Source |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Quarterly full day group coaching workshops built on Dan Sullivan's thinking tools, with a Program Advisor between workshops | Strategic Coach |
| Cost and year one | US$15,000 including taxes, US$2,500 non refundable deposit, due in full before the first workshop. Year one US$15,000. Canada CA$15,000, UK £9,000 | Membership |
| Gates | Personal net income of US$200K, CA$200K or £150K a year, three years in your own business, must be an owner, a professional in practice or a high commission salesperson. No revenue, age or employee minimum published | Membership and dates page |
| Group size | Not published. One member blog from 2013 described about 30 other entrepreneurs in a Chicago group | The Strategic CFO |
| Time commitment | One full day workshop a quarter, a quarterly one to one Program Advisor call, an online portal. Retreats not published | Membership and London workshop page |
| Facilitator model | Associate Coaches who are entrepreneurs and program participants, 16 coaches plus the two co founders listed. Employee or contractor status not published | Coaches |
| Contract and cancellation | Annual fee, deposit non refundable, fees due in full before the first workshop. Other refund terms not published | Membership |
| Format and geography | In person and virtual. Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Vancouver and Virtual | Membership |
| Industry mix | Mixed. Owners, professionals in practice and high commission salespeople | Strategic Coach |
| What members say | "If I had known then what I know now, I would have paid double" (unnamed entrepreneur, vendor video). "I met so many wonderful people" (member blog, 2013) | Vendor blog and The Strategic CFO |
| Founded and size | Founded 1989 by Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith. Member count not published | 35 years post |
| Best for and not for | Best for established owner operators who want a quarterly thinking discipline in a large mixed room. Not for founders under three years in, anyone below the income gate, or anyone who wants a small confidential monthly forum | Index assessment |
This program is one of the profiles in the CEO Peer Group Index, where the same fields are filled for every organisation.
What the Strategic Coach program does well
The quarter is the right unit for a thinking discipline. Ninety days is long enough to run an experiment and short enough that you cannot hide a bad one. A full day away from the business every quarter, with a structure you did not design yourself, forces the review most owners skip.
The gate is personal income, not company revenue. That lets in a lawyer in her own practice, a commission salesperson and an owner at US$2 million, people a $5 million revenue line would turn away. It is a different crowd from a CEO peer group, and for some owners a better one.
The coaches are entrepreneurs who are also participants. The coaches page lists 16 Associate Coaches plus the co founders, and states that all of them are active in the program themselves. That is a stronger claim than most coaching companies make about their facilitators.
The program has run for more than 35 years, which the company marked in its own anniversary post. Few programs in this category have survived three recessions. On price, US$15,000 a year sits in the middle of the range covered on the executive coaching cost page.
What Strategic Coach does not publish
Group size. The site does not say how many people share your workshop. The only public number is one member's 2013 account of about 30 other entrepreneurs in a Chicago group, which may be nothing like your room in 2027.
Member count. The 35 years post celebrates longevity, not headcount.
Refund terms beyond the deposit. The membership page says the US$2,500 deposit is non refundable and the full fee is due before the first workshop. What happens if you leave after workshop two is not published.
Prices for the higher program levels, the employment model of the coaches, and whether retreats exist. None of this is an accusation. It is a list of what to ask before the deposit leaves your account.
Is Strategic Coach worth it, and who is it not for?
The best known idea in the program is that an owner should take real days away from the business. That is their language and their intellectual property. I did my own operational version of it at Arcules, without a program.
I cut my week from 60 hours to 45 while we scaled from founding to more than 150 people. I took a 10 day vacation with zero calls. Not because I read it in a workbook. Because I had built a leadership team that could run the company without me and I wanted proof that it could.
That is the part a quarterly workshop cannot do for you. It can give you the idea and a day to plan it. The proof comes from the people who hold you to the plan on the Tuesday in week seven, and in this program that is a quarterly Program Advisor call and an online portal.
So who is the program not for? A founder under three years in, and an owner below the income line, because the gate says so. And an owner who wants a small, confidential room that meets monthly and remembers what you said last time, because the format is quarterly workshops in a large room, not a forum. The executive coaching vs mastermind vs peer group page lays out that difference in full.
The structural gap: 90 days between rooms
A quarterly workshop is a lighthouse. You can see it from far out, and it fixes your position four times a year. It does not steer the boat between sightings.
Most of what breaks in a growing company breaks between the quarters. A key hire resigns in week three, a customer concentration problem shows up in month two.
By the next workshop the decision has already been made, usually alone, usually late. A quarterly discipline does not signal a weak program. It signals a program built for thinking, not for execution.
That gap is the one thing to check against your own calendar before you pay. If your problem is the quality of your thinking, a quarterly room fits. If your problem is that you decide alone in between, you need something that meets more often, which is also the argument on the reclaim time as a leader page.
The Leaders ADAPT room, by the same fields
Fair is fair, so here is my own room described the same way. Nothing in it is better in general, only different in structure.
| Field | Leaders ADAPT CEO Mastermind | Source |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A virtual CEO mastermind run by an operator | CEO Mastermind |
| Cost and year one | Shared on a fit call, not published on blog pages | As above |
| Gates | No revenue gate. Fit is judged on what you have built and the drive to build the next thing | As above |
| Group size | At most 14 members | As above |
| Time commitment | A monthly virtual session plus weekly office hours | As above |
| Facilitator model | Operator led. I scaled a company to 150+ people and exited to Canon, and I run the room myself | As above |
| Contract and cancellation | No multi year contract | As above |
| Format and geography | Virtual, members chosen by fit rather than city | As above |
| Industry mix | Home care, flooring, title services, aviation services, wellness, logistics, lending | As above |
| What members say | Not quoted on this page. Members are described by industry only | As above |
| Founded and size | At most 14 members by design | As above |
| Best for and not for | Best for owners of $1M to $20M+ companies leading teams of five or more, including owners of several businesses or founders between companies. Not for anyone who wants a large in person room, a quarterly cadence, or a famous program behind the brand | As above |
The room that meets between the quarters
The Leaders ADAPT CEO Mastermind is virtual, at most 14 members, with no revenue gate, run by an operator who scaled a company to 150+ people and exited to Canon. There is no program fee tiered by income and no workbook. There is a monthly virtual session plus weekly office hours.
Each session runs a check in score tracked across months, a hot seat where one member presents against a fixed template, feedback on five set prompts including what the presenter is not seeing, and one committed action per member with an owner and a date.
It is not for an owner who wants a large workshop with a well known name on the door. It is for one who wants to be held to a plan by people who will notice when the score drops.
Strategic Coach FAQ
How much does Strategic Coach cost?
The published program fee is US$15,000 a year for the USA and Virtual programs, including applicable taxes, with a US$2,500 non refundable deposit. Canada is CA$15,000 with a CA$2,500 deposit and the UK is £9,000 with a £1,000 deposit, all due in full before the first workshop of the year. Prices for higher program levels are not published.
What are the Strategic Coach program requirements?
Three things. A minimum personal net income of US$200K or CA$200K a year, or £150K in the UK, plus at least three years in your own business. You must also be an entrepreneur, which the program defines as a business owner, a professional in your own practice, or a high commission salesperson. There is no company revenue minimum, age limit or employee minimum published.
What is the Dan Sullivan Strategic Coach program?
It is a group coaching program founded in 1989 by Dan Sullivan and Babs Smith. Members attend a full day workshop each quarter, in person or virtually, built around Sullivan's thinking tools, with a quarterly one to one call with a Program Advisor and an online portal between workshops. Coaches are entrepreneurs who are also participants in the program.
Is Strategic Coach worth it?
It depends on what you need. For an established owner who wants a quarterly thinking discipline and a large mixed industry room, members quoted on the vendor site say yes, one saying they would have paid double. For a founder under three years in, below the income gate, or wanting a small monthly confidential forum, the format does not match the need.
How big is a Strategic Coach group?
Group size is not published on the Strategic Coach site. The one public member account found, a 2013 blog post by a participant in a Chicago group, described meeting about 30 other entrepreneurs at the first workshop. Treat that as one member's experience of one group in one year, and ask the current size for your location before you pay the deposit.
What do Strategic Coach reviews say?
Public reviews are thin and mostly come from the vendor's own pages. The positive themes are the thinking tools, the quarterly reset and the people in the room. The cautions are the unpublished group size, the unpublished member count, the non refundable deposit, and the 90 day gap between workshops, during which support is a quarterly call and an online portal.
The verdict on Strategic Coach
Strategic Coach is a serious, long running program with a published price, a published gate and a clear format. If you are three years in, above the income line, and what you want is a quarterly day of structured thinking in a large mixed room, it does the job it describes, and the one member account on record says the people were the best part.
Before you pay the deposit, ask three things in writing. How many members are in the group you will join. What happens to the fee if you leave mid year. And what support exists in the 90 days between workshops beyond one call and a portal.
Then look at your last quarter and count the decisions you made alone between rooms. Was it the thinking that was missing, or the people?
