Growing the Future

Values Driven Leadership: Caring is a Competitive Advantage

Episode Summary

Trevor Muir co-founded SurePoint with nine friends in Grand Prairie, helped take it from $4 million to over $120 million in revenue, and woke up on the bathroom floor of a downtown Edmonton condo with an overwhelming desire to end his life. This conversation traces the arc from that floor to the concept he calls terminal uniqueness -- the belief that nobody could possibly understand what you are going through, and the slow, expensive way most of us learn it isn't true. The session covers the SurePoint near-bankruptcy and pandemic turnaround (where caring became a provable competitive advantage), the Kilimanjaro porter and the billionaire (who answered the same questions about family, love, and heartache in exactly the same way), the three-affirmation mirror practice, and Trevor's poem and concept "Change Your Someday to Today." It is the conversation Dan decided to record after he broke down in the opening session of the leadership course they took together in February 2026, and a room full of oilfield and farm guys opened up alongside him.

Episode Notes

Content note: This episode includes open conversation about mental health, suicidal ideation, and personal crisis. If you are struggling, please know you are not alone. In the U.S., call or text 988. In Canada, call Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566.

A conversation with Trevor Muir -- leadership coach, keynote speaker, poet, and co-founder of SurePoint, the Alberta-based company he helped scale from $4 million to over $120 million in revenue while holding on to its people through a near-bankruptcy and a pandemic.

This is not an episode about farming or fuel prices. It is a conversation about what happens when you get everything you thought you wanted and still feel empty on the bathroom floor of a condo you own. It is about terminal uniqueness -- the belief that nobody could possibly understand -- and the slow, expensive way most of us learn it isn't true.

Trevor and I met earlier this year in a leadership course he was teaching with Corliss Russell. I broke down in the intro. A room full of oilfield and farm guys went there with me. This episode is the conversation I wanted to have with Trevor once the dust settled.

 

Topics and Timestamps

0:00 -- Introduction: Trevor Muir, Lean In to Lead, and why this episode exists

6:57 -- SurePoint: how ten farm kids from Grand Prairie built a $92M company

8:17 -- The bathroom floor: Edmonton, 2011, the worst and best day of Trevor's life

10:44 -- Dr. Gons and the life coach: "I get it. I totally get it."

13:13 -- Terminal uniqueness: the belief that nobody could understand your pain

14:21 -- Mount Kilimanjaro and the billionaire: testing whether all humans feel the same

20:00 -- SurePoint near-bankruptcy: going full-vulnerable with team, vendors, and clients

23:00 -- Buying the company back in 2018 and the pandemic decision

25:43 -- The pandemic pay cuts: 10%-35%, keeping every employee

27:39 -- $30M to $98M to $125M: how caring became a competitive advantage

30:00 -- Scale Like You Give a Shit -- Trevor's book in progress

37:00 -- "Change Your Someday to Today": the poem, Marty's CPR story, and Brian's car

43:11 -- The three A's of change: awareness, acceptance, action

44:34 -- The flooding basement analogy

51:00 -- Affirmations: "I am enough, I deserve abundance, I love you [name]"

57:02 -- 30 days in the mirror: the NASA research and Jack Canfield connection

1:00:04 -- Gratitude as the number one brain hack

1:07:29 -- Wave of fortune: Dan's Thailand story and Vadim Zeland's Transurfing

1:15:00 -- Walking one kilometer every day for 365 days

1:27:00 -- How Trevor works with business owners now, and where AI fits in

1:35:12 -- Trevor's closing challenge: change your someday to today

 

Resources Mentioned

Addiction to Poetry -- Trevor Muir (book, available on Amazon)

Lean In to Lead -- Trevor's podcast, launching soon

Scale Like You Give a Shit -- Trevor's book in progress on the SurePoint story

Jack Canfield -- affirmation and manifestation framework

Mindvalley / Vishon Lakhiani -- gratitude research

Wim Hof Method -- 90-day cold exposure and breathwork program

Transurfing -- Vadim Zeland (wave of fortune concept)

12 Rules for Life -- Jordan Peterson (lobster and serotonin, referenced by Dan)

Corliss Russell -- Conversations with Corliss podcast; LEED event Saskatoon, November 2026

 

Connect with Trevor Muir

LinkedIn: search Trevor Muir -- he reads his messages and responds, especially from people who are struggling

Lean In to Lead podcast: launching soon

Connect with Growing the Future

Website: growingthefuture.ca

YouTube: Growing the Future

Instagram: @growingthefuture

LinkedIn: Growing the Future

 

Crisis Support

If you or someone you know is struggling:

Canada -- Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566

U.S. -- Call or text 988