WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.140 I had this attorney tell me this when I was 21 I said I'm in I've been working so hard and she said she just looked at me and laughed 2 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:10.600 And she said you don't even know how to work and it was such a jarring moment from because she was a partner at this firm 3 00:00:10.600 --> 00:00:14.680 And I was trying to impress everybody and I thought I was like, you know doing a gung ho job and she just laughed at me 4 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:19.880 She's like you don't even know how to work. She's like takes you 10 years just to learn how I feel like now looking in retrospect 5 00:00:19.880 --> 00:00:27.520 I can absolutely agree my capacity has improved but the way to improve that capacity is to start eliminating the things that 6 00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:33.340 I currently drain your focus right now. I've seen this 7 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:41.160 Consistent theme amongst people inside the community and I want I want to I want to talk about it 8 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:47.760 Which is this is something that has happened at multiple stages within my business career and 9 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:51.560 It's extended seasons of saying no 10 00:00:52.360 --> 00:00:59.080 If we define focus as the quality and quantity of things that you turn down or say no to 11 00:00:59.800 --> 00:01:07.200 Then to be the most focused person you would literally do nothing but one thing and so I hear many of you say that you want to 12 00:01:07.400 --> 00:01:14.960 Focus more, but you haven't really even defined what it is you think it's going to be about like trying harder to look at your screen 13 00:01:15.440 --> 00:01:27.360 When most of focus is actually the active removal of things that drain attention and so what happens is kind of like value is created by removing all friction 14 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:35.000 Focus is created by removing all distraction the most focused people it's not that they have will power that you lack 15 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:41.960 They have removed the distractions that you have and so I remember this this this talk with a friend of mine who's an Olympic coach 16 00:01:42.240 --> 00:01:47.760 And you're saying the difference between people who win the gold medal and kind of the other competitors 17 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:55.720 People look at them and say I wonder what they have that I don't but more often it's what do I have that they lack? 18 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:59.240 In those instances it's typically an off switch 19 00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:03.960 But it's also what are the things that I'm doing with my time that they aren't fundamentally 20 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:08.720 It's not even that they're getting a higher return for the time they're putting in they're just simply putting in more time 21 00:02:09.000 --> 00:02:15.880 And what feels incomprehensible for you is that you could put more time into whatever you're trying to pursue right now 22 00:02:16.320 --> 00:02:22.080 But you can by removing things you know one of my favorite quotes is that the heaviest thing in the world is an iron or gold 23 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:23.680 It's an unmade decision 24 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:26.840 That's that's a quote from me. So man super deep 25 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:35.120 But but for real though you probably have a few decisions that you need to make and one of the big fallacies around decision making 26 00:02:35.640 --> 00:02:42.520 Is that it takes time to make decisions and it really doesn't you make decisions in an instant based on information 27 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:48.200 And so by the way for those of you who sell when someone is in this kind of like I need to think about it 28 00:02:48.200 --> 00:02:50.560 It's like what do you need to think about it? 29 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:58.720 And what information would be required in order to make a decision some of you need to define the variables of what would make this a yes 30 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:03.280 And alternatively if you don't know then what would make it a no? 31 00:03:03.280 --> 00:03:10.480 And then you can reverse engineer the s and so in either circumstance some of you need to focus by eliminating the 32 00:03:10.840 --> 00:03:13.000 Unmade decisions in your life by simply 33 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:19.280 Making them and there's this big fallacy at all levels of business of the perfect pick 34 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:23.440 Which is that you're going to be able to somehow pick perfectly 35 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:33.960 Most decisions have to be made with imperfect information and often times if you have perfect information about an opportunity the opportunity has expired 36 00:03:34.680 --> 00:03:40.200 And so one of the things that makes opportunities opportunities is the risk inherent in incomplete information 37 00:03:40.680 --> 00:03:48.400 And so sometimes you just have to move and learn along the way and so one of the easiest visuals I have for this is is 38 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:54.160 The mist is walking through mist right as you walk through mist the next few feet are always 39 00:03:55.320 --> 00:04:00.200 Become clear to you and when you walk your way up a mountain and now imagine a mountain that you're walking through mist 40 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:03.840 Right you keep walking you keep taking the next step you might get to a maximum be like wow 41 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:04.640 This is a mountaintop 42 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:09.640 But then you see a little bit further because the mist and you realize you're at a subtop and you have to take a few steps down 43 00:04:09.880 --> 00:04:17.760 But the thing is is that you will always be further away than the people who are trying to plot the perfect path from the bottom of the mountain without being able to see the top 44 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.600 So you'll always be able to have better perspective after taking action after taking motion 45 00:04:24.280 --> 00:04:32.240 The reason that this has been top of mind for me is that the the big growth periods that I've had in my life in terms of finances 46 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:37.760 I've typically followed or at least happened concurrently with periods 47 00:04:38.520 --> 00:04:41.600 Extended periods of what I call seasons of no 48 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.760 What's interesting is that I'm sure this has been studied in research 49 00:04:45.960 --> 00:04:50.000 We know that people are significantly less effective when they try to do multiple things 50 00:04:50.000 --> 00:04:55.080 So multitasking you're significantly less effective when it comes to output pre-unit of time 51 00:04:55.080 --> 00:05:00.920 You switch back and forth and it kills your efficiency by like 75% if we if we consider our 52 00:05:01.440 --> 00:05:03.960 leverage as the difference between what we 53 00:05:04.560 --> 00:05:08.680 Get for what we put in then skill is a great lever on work 54 00:05:09.040 --> 00:05:14.960 Meaning and if work we define as output then the more skilled person for the time they put in will have more output 55 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:20.960 So scale equals leverage work equals output the more skill you have the more output you get and so if you can get more output 56 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:28.520 Then it means that choosing to do fewer things is in and of itself a skill and I think I bring this up because some of you 57 00:05:28.520 --> 00:05:29.960 Were like man, I'm not that focused 58 00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:35.280 But the thing is is that the focus isn't a trait. It's an action and you can do this on a repeated basis 59 00:05:35.280 --> 00:05:38.760 So that you can become more focused by simply exercising 60 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:45.920 Focus that means choosing to make unmade decisions so that you can resolve them knowing that they may be imperfect 61 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:49.720 But you have the ability to course correct along the way 62 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:55.560 There are very few decisions in business that are truly irreversible and especially when you're starting out 63 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:59.880 Because the stakes are so low and so you're not making bets that are so big 64 00:06:00.400 --> 00:06:06.040 The biggest periods of growth in my life have occurred when I I committed wholeheartedly 65 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:12.400 To periods where I would do nothing else and so like currently I'm actually in one of those periods right now 66 00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:15.200 Which is why it's partially top of mind for me and also in reading 67 00:06:15.800 --> 00:06:21.560 Some of the comments that you guys put out there and I think the big thing that people miss is that it's a trade-off 68 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:28.160 One of the issues is that basically people have a preference problem, which is that they want 69 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:34.560 These results their way they want to have their cake you need it to they want the outcome 70 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:36.800 But they want to change the variables that create the outcome 71 00:06:36.800 --> 00:06:41.200 They want a six pack but they don't want to do the workout and the nutrition plan 72 00:06:41.200 --> 00:06:45.200 But they're like but I want the six pack can I change the can I change the nutrition plan? 73 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:53.200 Can I change the workouts and then I'll get the six pack and the answer is obviously no and so the thing is is that some of you have come to this world 74 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:59.840 With the desire you know my world whatever with the desire to see the to get those outcomes and I applaud you for that 75 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:04.160 That applause is short lived if you want to change the variables 76 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:09.440 Most of you have a huge deficit in work capacity 77 00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:15.360 My point around this and I'll give you a fitness example because a lot of people wouldn't understand it and then I'll translate it back to work like knowledge work 78 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:23.040 Whenever you whenever you work out you you damage a muscle and then it overcompensates and you recover and you get a little bit strong 79 00:07:23.120 --> 00:07:25.920 Right, that's kind of the basic idea. Okay, so think about like digging a hole 80 00:07:25.920 --> 00:07:31.120 You put more dirt back in a little bit a little bit comes on top that little bit extra is kind of the hypertrophy is the gain 81 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:32.400 Okay 82 00:07:32.400 --> 00:07:40.160 So work capacity itself is that people understand it that way and so then people have this fear of overtraining 83 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:46.480 comma overworking right they're like I don't want to work too much right? I don't want to work out too much 84 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.560 I'll damage myself too much 85 00:07:48.640 --> 00:07:57.040 But the missing variable that people have when it comes to building muscle just as much as it comes to working is that your work capacity itself is 86 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:58.240 Trainable 87 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:02.640 Meaning if you're an athlete and you train and you damage the muscle and then it grows 88 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:09.840 You actually over time your ability to withstand the work improves meaning you can add more volume 89 00:08:10.160 --> 00:08:15.120 Without overtraining your recovery capacity to put dirt back in the hole actually speeds up 90 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:18.400 You get a bigger shovel that can move more dirt faster 91 00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:24.160 I had this attorney tell me this when I was I was I was what say a child when I was 21 92 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:28.320 I said I'm in I've been working so hard and she said she just looked at me and laughed and she said 93 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:32.640 You don't even know how to work and it was such a jarring moment from because she was a partner at this firm 94 00:08:32.640 --> 00:08:36.720 And I was trying to impress everybody and I thought I was like you know doing a gun hoe job and she just laughed to me 95 00:08:36.800 --> 00:08:40.160 She's like you don't even know how to work she's like takes you 10 years just to learn how to work 96 00:08:40.640 --> 00:08:43.840 And I remember thinking you know being a little bit disheartened by that at the beginning 97 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:47.040 But I feel like now looking in retrospect. I can absolutely agree 98 00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:52.880 That that my ability to work itself has improved my capacity has improved 99 00:08:52.880 --> 00:09:00.000 But the way to improve that capacity is to start eliminating the things that currently drain your focus right now 100 00:09:01.280 --> 00:09:06.400 And so then all of a sudden you realize once you kind of like have the bear naked truth of your calendar in front of her 101 00:09:06.400 --> 00:09:12.560 You have nothing else left and then you still are struggling to stay focused 102 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:16.320 Then you can begin the work on your work capacity 103 00:09:17.680 --> 00:09:20.640 The big piece number one is the unmade decisions 104 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:23.600 You want to eliminate those by making them 105 00:09:24.160 --> 00:09:28.240 The second big piece is that you want to eliminate the things that are not the work 106 00:09:28.800 --> 00:09:33.280 Right, and so a lot of people obsess about you know morning routines things like that you want to eliminate all that stuff 107 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:36.480 The next category is going to be 108 00:09:37.280 --> 00:09:42.160 Relationships and hobbies, all right, and so some of you guys may have hobbies and I want to be clear 109 00:09:42.160 --> 00:09:45.120 There are hobbies that are basically function as rest 110 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:47.600 So if you were work output 111 00:09:48.320 --> 00:09:51.840 For a unit of time over a long period of time and I want to be clear about this 112 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:54.800 You can always work more in 24 hours if you only had 24 hours to work 113 00:09:54.800 --> 00:09:58.480 You shouldn't sleep you shouldn't do anything take us done as a ton of stimulants and you'd work more 114 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.880 But over a week you lose productivity and so my point here is that you 115 00:10:03.520 --> 00:10:04.960 Not rest 116 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:13.120 You should work as much as you possibly can and then rest as as efficiently as you can so they can resume work at max output 117 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.280 And so for you if gardening is a thing or playing video games is a thing or whatever 118 00:10:19.360 --> 00:10:23.600 I see that as separate from playing video games as getting in the way of work 119 00:10:23.680 --> 00:10:29.360 If you work first and then you allow yourself to reward yourself with video games at the end of your workday 120 00:10:29.520 --> 00:10:34.800 That actually does two things and actually gives you a reward for work and it gives you rest which is nice 121 00:10:35.520 --> 00:10:42.320 And so I would encourage some of you guys to put off extended periods of time before the thing that you might want to do more 122 00:10:42.800 --> 00:10:44.400 And I want to kind of 123 00:10:44.400 --> 00:10:52.080 Disclaim or or to cry actively the idea that everything that you're about to embark on whatever season you're in is going to be fun 124 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:57.680 The vast majority of the things that I do every day aren't that fun. I do enjoy what we build 125 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:01.920 And so if you want to build this big chateau this big castle 126 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:04.480 Laying bricks not that fun 127 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:11.200 Digging moats not digging trenches not that fun like cutting wood nailing it and not necessarily that fun 128 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:14.800 But when you have a castle and you get to live inside of it, you're like this is pretty dope 129 00:11:15.280 --> 00:11:19.120 But the thing is just like so people have this big conflict conflation there 130 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:23.040 Right between the thing that they want to get and the process of getting there 131 00:11:23.520 --> 00:11:28.640 It's just it's a very pithy sound bite to say like you should just you know never never work a day in your life again 132 00:11:28.640 --> 00:11:29.840 If you do what you love 133 00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:34.160 But no one does what they love all the time to do the things to get the things they want 134 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:42.080 And I just like I am actively about this zooming back out with regards to business owners in different in different seasons 135 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:45.440 Right is that when I when I was a consultant 136 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:49.760 So this is all the back to when I had my job and so for some of you this will be relevant 137 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:52.800 I didn't I didn't really go out at all 138 00:11:52.800 --> 00:11:55.040 I would spend four hours a day after my work day 139 00:11:55.680 --> 00:11:59.920 Doing practice problems for the GMAT which was what I thought I was going to do as my next step was 140 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:03.600 Take the GMAT and go to Hardiver and then kind of like go the MBA route 141 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.080 And then that's all I did 142 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:10.080 I took a 100% on my discretionary time and put it into acing the GMAT 143 00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.680 And then once I realized that the GMAT wasn't going to be the next path 144 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:20.640 I then drove across the country that eliminated friends that eliminated family that eliminated anyone who knew me 145 00:12:20.880 --> 00:12:23.520 And then I started a gym and I pretty much lived at the gym 146 00:12:23.760 --> 00:12:25.440 I by default 147 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:29.600 created an environment of focus because there was nothing else for me to do 148 00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:32.720 For that next chunk of time 149 00:12:32.880 --> 00:12:37.840 I was just dedicated to making this gym work and that also meant that during that period of time 150 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:41.920 I didn't read I didn't read like general business books 151 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:46.160 I didn't read I wasn't watching like motivational videos 152 00:12:46.640 --> 00:12:51.440 All I did was just look at how do I get more members? How do I sell better? 153 00:12:51.520 --> 00:12:55.120 How do I price all of my focuses are on the run problem that I had 154 00:12:55.600 --> 00:12:59.440 And so many of you have a specific problem that you know you need to solve 155 00:12:59.520 --> 00:13:04.480 And yet you're not allocating all the resources in your discretionary time and effort forward solving it 156 00:13:05.600 --> 00:13:08.640 What's interesting about this is we've seen on the on the 100 157 00:13:08.720 --> 00:13:14.480 Which is the the little group that Kirby and I are running as a side project to see if we can do anything different on onboarding 158 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:16.480 Um and inside of that group 159 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.280 I think we've had 86% of people make a dollar is that correct 160 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:23.920 Yeah, and so 86% of people have made a dollar and then I think something like 60% 161 00:13:24.640 --> 00:13:27.280 Of people who had never had never made a dollar 162 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.680 So we had three cohorts inside of there we had people who had made money on school 163 00:13:31.680 --> 00:13:34.720 But wanted to compete we had people who had made money outside of school 164 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:38.400 So business owners in general who've made a dollar and then they never made a dollar on school 165 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:41.200 And then we had people who'd never made a dollar anywhere 166 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.360 And so those are the three cohorts now cohort number one people who'd already made money in school all of them have made money 167 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:53.600 So that's a hundred percent of the people who made money elsewhere and then came onto schools you know what the percentage is there 168 00:13:54.640 --> 00:14:03.200 100% the reason that that second category is so important is that it demonstrates that there are skills that want applied to school 169 00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:10.080 The meat like basically school is a great platform to immediately be able to build a business on and so then it's like okay 170 00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:12.160 What other skills 171 00:14:12.160 --> 00:14:16.880 Must to begin or learn and this is what we're trying to figure out is like how many of these extra skills to someone 172 00:14:16.880 --> 00:14:21.840 Have to come in with that we can eliminate so that someone can be successful and so right now 173 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:26.560 I think it's you know what the extra percentage is on the on the bot third box people who had never made a dollar 174 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:30.240 62% just 62% okay 175 00:14:30.880 --> 00:14:34.080 Some of you who are new here would hear that and be like man 176 00:14:34.160 --> 00:14:39.840 I want to get into that the thing is is that most of the times the stuff that we've actually covered in there 177 00:14:40.560 --> 00:14:44.960 We've actually it's already we've already covered it and so you think that there's a secret 178 00:14:45.680 --> 00:14:50.880 And there really isn't and so I think the thing that really separates the people who have made money or more money 179 00:14:50.880 --> 00:14:57.280 Is the expectation of the effort required and I think this is where a lot of people struggle because it's really that your 180 00:14:57.280 --> 00:14:59.760 Expectation can be a hundred x off 181 00:15:00.720 --> 00:15:04.000 Like I've seen expectations truly off by a hundred times 182 00:15:04.560 --> 00:15:07.200 This should happen in one one hundredth of the time 183 00:15:07.680 --> 00:15:10.640 This I should be able to get a cuss if I should reach out to five people 184 00:15:10.640 --> 00:15:14.400 I figure I'll get one customer when you really need to reach out to like 185 00:15:14.800 --> 00:15:17.840 200 people to get a customer and then you're like oh wow 186 00:15:17.920 --> 00:15:23.280 That's a lot more people than I expected and it's like yeah, it is and that first customer might pay you 187 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:31.600 One-tenth what you thought right and so all of these things are our our expectation problems more than they are problems of 188 00:15:32.480 --> 00:15:36.240 They're they're they're declarative knowledge deficiencies people don't know about 189 00:15:37.280 --> 00:15:39.280 Rather than procedural knowledge know how to 190 00:15:40.160 --> 00:15:45.760 I'm making this mostly because a lot I just see this is this really monstrous recurring theme 191 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:50.240 It doesn't end like that season of cutting things off 192 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:55.200 I cut things off when I started you know when I when I did the GMAT to study for to go to business school 193 00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:57.200 Then I cut everybody off when I went to 194 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:01.680 Start my gym and then when I started flying out and doing launches 195 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:05.840 I literally was flying around the country and saw no one like it's all I did 196 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:11.840 And I really stayed in touch with no one besides Leila who was basically my partner in the business when we started it 197 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:15.360 There's a period where I'm in right now where I 198 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:18.720 More or less have said I'm not traveling. I'm not speaking 199 00:16:19.280 --> 00:16:21.520 I'm only taking podcasts if they fly to me 200 00:16:22.080 --> 00:16:23.520 etc etc 201 00:16:23.520 --> 00:16:31.520 There are these things and the easiest way to determine this is look at the time that you spend on a weekly basis 202 00:16:32.800 --> 00:16:37.120 And see everything that is not work like look at the whole calendar 203 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:43.360 Look at every single box of yours that does not drive and here and I want to be clear here 204 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:51.360 If work is the output right and money made is the is the output we're measuring for entrepreneurship right how does money get made 205 00:16:52.320 --> 00:16:54.800 So money get made gets made by 206 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:57.920 At the at the most basic levels 207 00:16:58.880 --> 00:17:03.520 Converting attention into goods and services that are exchanged for money. That's it 208 00:17:03.520 --> 00:17:08.800 That's the that's the fundamental exchange that occurs. There's some some person you have to get their attention 209 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:14.320 And then you have to be able to transact with them to make an exchange that's it 210 00:17:14.960 --> 00:17:18.400 When I say look at your calendar and then determine 211 00:17:19.040 --> 00:17:23.440 How much work you're doing if it's not something that's getting you more 212 00:17:24.080 --> 00:17:29.440 Leads getting you more traffic getting getting more people to come to your site often get contacted 213 00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:32.160 You know give you contact in for whatever and or 214 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:38.560 Increasing the likelihood that they convert and or transact with you aka you sell them something 215 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:41.280 Or increase in the likelihood that they retain 216 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:47.120 They resell they refer or they leave you a review the four hours on the back end 217 00:17:48.000 --> 00:17:51.680 If if the thing that you're working on when you look at your calendar does not 218 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:56.400 Relate to any of those big three buckets which is basically a track convert deliver 219 00:17:56.800 --> 00:17:59.920 If if you don't have anything that's occurring within those three buckets 220 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:02.400 Then this is not work 221 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:04.000 And so it is actually 222 00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:06.800 Unfocused of you to have those things 223 00:18:07.600 --> 00:18:13.760 And I would say it's most common at the beginner level to have these things at the advanced level 224 00:18:14.160 --> 00:18:16.160 It's that you fill your time with 225 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:19.520 Work tasks that are not the constraint of the business 226 00:18:20.320 --> 00:18:23.840 And so it's the idea that you are doing things because you like doing them 227 00:18:24.400 --> 00:18:26.400 Rather than because it's what's required 228 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:30.880 And so I'll give you an example if I for example love 229 00:18:31.760 --> 00:18:37.120 I love I love marketing fine, right? Let's just that's what it is. So if I spend more time 230 00:18:38.080 --> 00:18:42.880 Generating leads for my business, but my constraint on my business is my sales guys 231 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:44.640 I don't have enough sales guys to take the calls 232 00:18:45.280 --> 00:18:48.560 Then me generating more leads adds potential to the system 233 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:51.840 But not throughput because I'm limited by the number of sales guys 234 00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:55.280 And the same would be true if I then increase the number of sales guys 235 00:18:55.280 --> 00:18:58.240 But then I didn't increase my number of customer success or my delivery 236 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:00.800 Team or inventory if I had product 237 00:19:01.520 --> 00:19:06.080 The issue is that in the beginning you just work on a lot of stuff that's not working you call it work 238 00:19:06.960 --> 00:19:12.640 Later on you work on a lot of things that are work, but are not the work that needs doing 239 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:18.240 And so it's a minor difference that happens and I'm telling you this happens at all stages this thought this happens at 240 00:19:18.880 --> 00:19:23.120 A million a year a million a month a million a week all the way through I've seen this 241 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:25.200 Across the board 242 00:19:25.200 --> 00:19:31.120 So you're not too advanced to hear this and I say this because this is something that I struggle with every day is like is this 243 00:19:31.760 --> 00:19:36.320 The most important or highest leverage thing that I could be using with my time and I think many of you 244 00:19:37.520 --> 00:19:39.840 Are simply spending the vast majority of your time not working 245 00:19:40.880 --> 00:19:46.160 You think you're working, but you're actually not and I had a guy email the other day 246 00:19:47.040 --> 00:19:51.200 Because I spent a day with a higher a higher level group of business owners 247 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:54.720 So it was like five to 35 million was the room was 10 guys 248 00:19:55.280 --> 00:19:56.960 And so like decent size businesses 249 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:04.000 And he wrote this very nice email back and he said the biggest lesson that I learned was like I had heard of this amount of work ethic 250 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:08.800 He was like but Alex didn't leave the room for 11 hours straight and he didn't stop the whole time 251 00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:17.120 And he said I'd never actually seen it I'd never seen it right I I bring this up just because you have so much more in you 252 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:21.760 That you can only tap into by removing everything else 253 00:20:22.720 --> 00:20:26.240 And I think that when I've had these big breakthroughs in my life 254 00:20:26.320 --> 00:20:33.120 It's because I was willing to say no and the thing is is that the more things you say no to the more painful it is like man 255 00:20:33.120 --> 00:20:38.240 I really love I love fantasy football with the boys. I I love going out on Friday nights 256 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.920 I'm not saying that you have to do it forever. I'm just saying you do it for now 257 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:44.240 You just do it for a season 258 00:20:44.560 --> 00:20:48.240 Because the thing is is that these dedicated seasons is where sometimes you can 259 00:20:48.320 --> 00:20:52.960 For that you can you can pull four years of the future into your life in a matter of months 260 00:20:53.520 --> 00:20:59.760 But you actually have to stick with it and you have to do it for that period of time because you have to confront the discomfort of not knowing 261 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:02.720 It's the unknown of figuring it out 262 00:21:02.800 --> 00:21:10.080 And so a lot of you continue to think that basically because you want to avoid the pain of not knowing what to do 263 00:21:10.560 --> 00:21:13.520 You think you will solve that pain by doing more research 264 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:20.480 But again, you're trying to solve something with declarative knowledge learning about something rather than procedural knowledge 265 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:22.480 Which is learning how to do something 266 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:25.280 And the only way you learn how to sell is by getting on the phone 267 00:21:25.520 --> 00:21:27.920 The only way you learn how to run ads is by running ads 268 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:30.160 Fine, you can read an article or two 269 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:35.120 But I promise you you'll learn significantly more the day you actually start and you'll look back 270 00:21:35.120 --> 00:21:39.040 And for anybody who's a parent I can imagine that you read a couple parenting books 271 00:21:39.120 --> 00:21:42.320 And then you're like it is not even close to what running 272 00:21:42.320 --> 00:21:45.600 You know, it's actually having a child is like and at the same degree 273 00:21:45.600 --> 00:21:48.640 Those of you who are starting a business now if you read some business stuff 274 00:21:48.880 --> 00:21:51.920 It wasn't anything close to what actually running a business is like 275 00:21:52.480 --> 00:21:58.320 The goal of this if I have one call to action for you guys who who are listening right now is to remove 276 00:21:59.280 --> 00:22:06.080 Everything that is not the work that moves the business forward and at the advanced level 277 00:22:06.560 --> 00:22:12.720 It's making sure that the work that moves the business forward is the work that moves the business the most forward 278 00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:14.480 For unit of time 279 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:20.160 I could have an improvement in CRO that would be like if I split test my landing page and I get a five percent lift 280 00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:22.000 That's an improvement 281 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:27.680 I could try and work with the sales team to get them to close a little bit higher that would be an improvement 282 00:22:28.240 --> 00:22:34.080 But the biggest gains in my life came from asking the question or solving impossible questions meaning 283 00:22:34.560 --> 00:22:39.600 Okay, what would need to occur in order for me to 10 x this thing in a year 284 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:42.400 And then saying what would have to be true 285 00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:47.680 And then oftentimes there's only like one thing that has to be true for that to happen 286 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:55.120 And if I know what that one thing is then the next question is given the resources time and money that I have available to me right now 287 00:22:55.520 --> 00:22:58.800 Is it reasonable that I could accomplish that one thing in the next 12 months? 288 00:22:59.360 --> 00:23:05.200 If the answer is yes, then the highest investors of your time might not be the optimization 289 00:23:05.520 --> 00:23:11.600 But might be the maximization or order of magnitude change that you do to get the outcome. So what I mean is 290 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:15.120 You can opt you can only optimize something to 100% 291 00:23:16.560 --> 00:23:20.720 You're never going to get a 100% conversion on your opt-in page. You're never going to get a 100% close rate 292 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:23.680 But you can 100 x your lead flow 293 00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:29.360 And so again, I see this oftentimes and I see this at different levels to be clear 294 00:23:29.600 --> 00:23:35.680 But I'll see a business owner you guys you'll get stuck on like this obsession around tiny optimizations 295 00:23:36.080 --> 00:23:39.840 And at some point you just got to do an order of magnitude more 296 00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:43.920 You just got to blow more through the top so that you can get a huge increase 297 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:49.600 And the only way that you'll be able to recognize that and dedicate the resources to it is to eliminate the 298 00:23:50.160 --> 00:23:53.760 The hobbies the people the unmade decisions 299 00:23:54.800 --> 00:23:56.800 That are that are limiting you and 300 00:23:57.360 --> 00:24:01.120 Decreasing the time between once you know what you should do or need to do 301 00:24:01.760 --> 00:24:07.680 And actually beginning to do it and I think that a lot of people spend too much time 302 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:13.280 Doing everything else because I think that the people were the most focused when you actually watch them 303 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:18.720 You would be astounded by basically how simple 304 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:22.240 How simple it is it's just that it's very difficult 305 00:24:23.040 --> 00:24:26.480 It's simple in that it's easy to understand difficult in that it's hard to execute 306 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:31.680 If you watch someone write a book for 16 hours straight. They're like okay, that's what's writing a book for 16 hours straight 307 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:40.080 But what you don't see is all of the the prepping the table for the work that happened prior to and in the years leading up 308 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:44.880 So almost every billionaire that I know on my life maintain such a clean space 309 00:24:45.680 --> 00:24:52.320 physically and then more importantly emotionally clean space as in the people that they allow in their circles 310 00:24:52.640 --> 00:24:56.240 They have one razor that they use to judge them which is 311 00:24:57.120 --> 00:25:00.480 Does this person increase or decrease the likelihood that I achieve my goals 312 00:25:01.520 --> 00:25:05.200 So just having this person in my life does having this habit in my life 313 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:11.760 Does having this phone call does having this brunch does having this this weekend trip does it increase or decrease the likelihood 314 00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:16.720 I achieve my goals and I think that a lot of you in the beginning are so afraid and to be fair 315 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:19.040 Even as you progress because it happens in levels 316 00:25:19.840 --> 00:25:24.400 Are so afraid of cutting things out because you have a fear that you'll never get it back 317 00:25:25.360 --> 00:25:27.920 You have a fear that that cut is permanent 318 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:32.000 You have a fear that if you miss out on this fantasy football season that you'll never get invited back 319 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:37.680 But there's two things that you'll have to remember which is that one a more capable version of you will have more 320 00:25:37.760 --> 00:25:39.280 Doors that open than you do today 321 00:25:40.320 --> 00:25:45.520 And so you'll never lack for opportunity lack for opportunity business or lack for opportunity friends if you get better 322 00:25:46.480 --> 00:25:48.480 The reverse is not true 323 00:25:48.880 --> 00:25:53.760 If you get lamer and you stay in fitness football they still may not invite you back, but then you've lost both 324 00:25:54.640 --> 00:25:58.560 I have yet to have more doors closed for me in the future than I have had in the past 325 00:25:58.880 --> 00:26:02.720 Because the trade that you make is becoming better and there will always be more doors for better people 326 00:26:03.040 --> 00:26:06.320 And the only way that you get there sometimes is by closing the doors in front of you today 327 00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:09.360 There's just this fallacy that it's an irreversible decision 328 00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:12.080 But it's not even that it's irreversible 329 00:26:12.720 --> 00:26:15.280 Let's say let's say there is a door that's irreversibly closed 330 00:26:15.760 --> 00:26:18.640 The fallacy is that a better door does not exist in the world 331 00:26:18.720 --> 00:26:21.200 And that a better version of you wouldn't have access to it 332 00:26:21.200 --> 00:26:22.880 And that's the real fallacy 333 00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:28.960 That's my encouragement that means that there is a better friend of yours than your current best friend that exists for a better version of you 334 00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:34.080 There's a better hobby for you than the one that you currently have when you are better 335 00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:40.240 And you are more able and you have more resources. I know how scary it is at any level to cut people out 336 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:44.000 I cut people out today like all the time like in this year 337 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:45.920 I've cut multiple people out of my life 338 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:49.200 So it doesn't end what happens is your standard races 339 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:54.960 Your standard your bar of who's allowed in your space because as your goals get bigger 340 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:58.800 New people or rather old people fail the new standard 341 00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:04.160 So does this person increase or decrease the likelihood that I achieve a million dollar status in my life? 342 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:06.320 Well, I mean I'm already there 343 00:27:06.320 --> 00:27:10.960 So they don't need to hit that bar. They've already kind of crossed. There's no my life already hit it 344 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:14.960 But does this person increase the decrease that I hit the likelihood that I get 10 billion dollars in my life? 345 00:27:14.960 --> 00:27:17.840 No, I don't think this person's going to be somebody's going to increase that likelihood 346 00:27:18.080 --> 00:27:24.000 If not then why keep them a lot of you guys are doing this for different reasons and I can appreciate and respect that 347 00:27:24.320 --> 00:27:28.240 I would I would pause it that the reason that matters most is who you become along the way 348 00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:31.920 I have yet to see a person who accomplishes more 349 00:27:32.560 --> 00:27:36.960 By taking on more the big a lot of a lot of big truths are inverted 350 00:27:37.760 --> 00:27:42.720 Like you you get the most by giving the most you get the most done by taking the least on 351 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:48.320 It's these ideas that like the thing is is what feels intuitive if the intuitive answer were the correct answer 352 00:27:49.280 --> 00:27:54.960 Then everyone would already be achieving it and so it's the counter intuitive solutions that we have to be mindful of 353 00:27:55.520 --> 00:27:58.480 Because those are the ones that don't seem right at first glance 354 00:27:58.880 --> 00:28:02.080 But only people who have the procedural knowledge of having gone through it 355 00:28:02.320 --> 00:28:05.840 Who can kind of lead the breadcrumbs and say no like you really do have to focus 356 00:28:05.920 --> 00:28:10.320 It makes sense that if you did five businesses all five should grow, but it's not reality 357 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:15.680 So it's counter intuitive that one business will outgrow five if you actually focus on it 358 00:28:15.760 --> 00:28:20.640 All of the effort you have also at a micro level you have five tasks in that one business 359 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:24.560 If you focus on the one task that matters most and you put all your research towards it 360 00:28:24.560 --> 00:28:29.120 Will grow the whole business more than trying to do five and so it happens all the way down 361 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:31.520 And the only way you can do that is by clearing the way 362 00:28:31.600 --> 00:28:34.960 And I would say that most of the times when I talk to the portfolio founders that we have 363 00:28:35.920 --> 00:28:38.720 Most of what I talk about is what they're not going to do 364 00:28:39.600 --> 00:28:41.120 Not what they are 365 00:28:41.120 --> 00:28:42.720 Just being very real 366 00:28:42.720 --> 00:28:49.120 A lot of the strategy is what are you not going to do and what one thing if we accomplished it would be so big or so important 367 00:28:49.120 --> 00:28:51.120 That it would make these other things irrelevant 368 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:56.560 And so I try and take our priorities list of five things and say what one thing matters and let's erase the other four 369 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:58.720 And if we just did this one 370 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:00.720 We will succeed and so right now 371 00:29:01.040 --> 00:29:03.040 I'm going to bring this home for you 372 00:29:03.040 --> 00:29:08.640 Many of you have this big let who here and the who here has a big list of things that they know they should do right now 373 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:13.360 Just just give me just give me a little a little shout out in the chat who here has 374 00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:17.200 Best thank you massive list right huge list of things that you know you should do 375 00:29:17.360 --> 00:29:22.560 So lean into this all right, so pay attention this is for you 376 00:29:24.160 --> 00:29:26.400 I need you to take that whole list 377 00:29:27.600 --> 00:29:30.720 And pick one thing and then erase the rest 378 00:29:32.080 --> 00:29:36.560 And then once you complete that one thing you do no other task besides that one thing 379 00:29:37.280 --> 00:29:43.680 That means the next time you sit down you eat you come back you kept back on the task right and if you need to buy a little timer 380 00:29:43.760 --> 00:29:48.720 You do it on your phone get a little timer and actually see what your time on task is 381 00:29:49.840 --> 00:29:56.080 Say how long you think this should take take an estimate and what you will find often times is that something 382 00:29:56.080 --> 00:29:58.240 You think will take two hours sometimes takes 20 minutes 383 00:29:58.800 --> 00:30:00.880 But the pain of trying to figure it out 384 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:05.920 So it might take you might take you 10 actual minutes to figure it out and then two minutes to do it 385 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:08.880 And so the thing is is that a lot of the work that you have right now 386 00:30:08.880 --> 00:30:13.280 Especially when it's the most important work in the business is work you don't know how to do 387 00:30:13.680 --> 00:30:18.000 Because if you know how to do you'd already has started and so it's the unknown that creates the delay 388 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:22.160 It's the fear of being inadequate the fear failure because we have it all the time we all have 389 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:31.520 If you can define part of the problem solving as wrapping your arms around the problem understanding the problem is part of the problem solution 390 00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:38.880 Then you won't feel like you're being unproductive as you as you take 45 minutes to understand the problem than five minutes to solve it 391 00:30:39.360 --> 00:30:43.600 You'd also be amazed at how much easier it is to solve problems when you're only trying to solve one 392 00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:46.080 And so when you try to solve five at the same time 393 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:50.880 You're so spread thin and you're bouncing between different things that that our contingencies one another 394 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:53.680 If you just just solve one 395 00:30:54.320 --> 00:30:59.760 The amount of mental bandwidth like basically said differently you can be a lot dumber and win 396 00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:02.720 If you only try to solve one thing at a time 397 00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:05.200 And so there's a reason that I have this this tweet that would really viral 398 00:31:05.200 --> 00:31:08.720 But a focused fool can accomplish more than a distracted genius 399 00:31:09.760 --> 00:31:11.760 And so I've met a lot of you 400 00:31:11.760 --> 00:31:15.200 And you're very smart but you're distracted you're easy to beat 401 00:31:15.920 --> 00:31:19.360 I'd be grateful to compete against you because I know I wouldn't even be in competing against you 402 00:31:19.360 --> 00:31:22.080 I'd be competing it's all the other things that are competing against you 403 00:31:22.240 --> 00:31:28.000 Because all I got to do is beat one 20th of you not that hard no matter how smart you are a good a good visual for this is 404 00:31:28.800 --> 00:31:33.920 If you think about yourself as the sun right like you're the energy source right in your world 405 00:31:34.880 --> 00:31:39.440 And you need to burn through a hole through a piece of paper like that's what you have to get through 406 00:31:40.080 --> 00:31:42.560 A sun has more than enough power to burn through it 407 00:31:43.120 --> 00:31:45.120 But if the sun is evenly spread 408 00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:48.960 It just warms up the paper, but it doesn't it doesn't even break through 409 00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:54.000 But if you take the magnifying glass even a small a small amount of magnifying glass 410 00:31:54.000 --> 00:31:59.120 You'll be able to burn the whole through but you have to focus all of that of that energy on one point 411 00:31:59.360 --> 00:32:02.560 And so many of you have sons and sons worth of energy 412 00:32:02.720 --> 00:32:05.600 But you're so spread thin that all you do is warm your stuff up 413 00:32:06.080 --> 00:32:08.080 You never cook it you never break through 414 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:12.000 And you would be amazed at how much more you can accomplish when you only have one thing to do 415 00:32:12.000 --> 00:32:15.440 And here's the second one this one's that you want another countertuitive when you want to expect 416 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.200 Is that the speed of doing five things in a row 417 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:23.440 Is faster than doing five at the same time 418 00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:29.040 So if you do number one and then because you know these other four things are still important 419 00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:33.280 So that these other four drive you to do number one faster because you're like, 420 00:32:33.280 --> 00:32:34.560 Shit, I still have to do these other four 421 00:32:35.280 --> 00:32:37.760 So then you get number one done and they're like all right now. I'm going to start at number two 422 00:32:37.760 --> 00:32:40.000 So you start at number two you're like, I still have to do two three and four 423 00:32:40.480 --> 00:32:44.080 But the problem is because you haven't been able to prioritize 424 00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:48.160 You haven't been able to focus on what one thing is the most important 425 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:54.480 You are afraid of having it take too long so you start on all five and instead doing make it take way longer 426 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:56.160 Than it would have taken to begin with 427 00:32:56.160 --> 00:33:02.000 And so I would say if I had to TLDR this this is about how to work and it works at all seasons 428 00:33:02.400 --> 00:33:06.720 Whether you're advanced or you're starting out. It's just that the nature of the distractions change 429 00:33:07.120 --> 00:33:13.920 But the the highest output work process remains the same. It's just the quality and quantity of your distractions improve 430 00:33:14.560 --> 00:33:16.320 the better you get 431 00:33:16.320 --> 00:33:18.320 And so it's a lesson you have to relearn at every level