We’re a board game kinda family. Although as everyone’s getting older, it’s getting tougher for me to dominate.

When I’m not getting waxed at Chess by my sons, I’m getting beat at Sleeping Queens by my youngest daughter.

(That said, my extensive writing experience makes me an ace Scrabble player. And I’ve been known to have some epic rolls in Farkle.)

But one of our all-time favorite games (and one we can all play together now that the kids are 13, 11, 9 and 7) is Apples to Apples. We love it, even though there’s a 90% chance we can all predict the winner - my lovely, somewhat unassuming but absolutely cutthroat game playing wife, Susan.

In fact, I’m writing this on a plane from DFW to Minneapolis, and just before takeoff, she messages me that they’re playing right now.

I asked how she did, and this is what transpired:

Now, what does her experience with DISC have to do with her Apples to Apples domination?

If you know how the game works, you’re probably already putting the pieces together.

Players take turns reading a green clue card, then everyone else plays a red card from their hand that best ties-in some way with the clue. Those get put in a stack and get shuffled.

Then the person who played the clue card reads from all the red cards and chooses the one that’s most funny / ironic / accurate / etc. Whoever played that red card gets a point. First one to five points wins.

But Apples to Apples champions (like Suz) know the trick: when you play your red card, you have to strategize around “what does the CLUE GIVER think is funny / interesting / accurate?”

Or as one of America’s great philosophers Joe Dirt so accurately stated - “it’s not what YOU like. It’s about the consumer.”

And that’s where her DISC skills come into play. DISC is often lumped in with Myers-Briggs and Enneagram (all handy systems) as a way to “understand yourself.” And that’s true, but it’s just the tip of the DISC iceberg.

When you use it the right way, DISC allows you to identify other people’s personality styles, so you can tell what’s important to them. What their priorities are. What kinds of things they are interested in.

It equips you to “think like them.”

Which is great for games like Apples to Apples, where “thinking like someone else” is the entire strategy for winning.

It’s also super useful in any sales position. And that’s probably why Susan had a 90% close rate on refractive consults when she was a surgery scheduler, and then went on to be a sales trainer for Alcon for a number of years.

Susan will be the first to tell you that DISC is the number one tool in her tool belt for understanding the person in front of her and zeroing in on exactly what’s important to them. It’s a novel approach we teach in a specific DISC framework we call “DISC for Doctors and Teams.”

And our DISC approach applies to everything from surgery conversions to team communications to marital disagreements to make-your-kids-cry-because-you-destroyed-them-on-family-game-night situations.

You’re not gonna make much money becoming a board game champion (I don’t think). BUT you can create a lot of revenue when you use DISC (the way we teach it) in your consult booking and surgery booking processes to plug your leaks and get more patients across the finish line on surgery day.

Not only that, but it makes everything feel NOT salesy, which is a fun bonus.

So make sure you're using our DISC for Doctors & Teams approach in your patient journey. And if your team needs a refresher, ping me and we’ll get you taken care of. Summer is a great time to do that.

-- Troy “no Apples for me” Cole

PS - I’ve been floating the idea of Susan doing a joint coaching series with me where we dive into our DISC approach together. We’ve not done that before (save a couple of high-ticket, private coaching sessions, and those are always “absolute bangers” as the kids like to say).

Knowing her DISC skillset and what a fantastic teacher she is… and how dynamic we are when we speak together… I’m confident it would be epic.

…I just need your help talking her into it.

So if that sounds interesting to you, reply to let her know. I’ll make sure she sees every reply.