In keeping with the theme of the New Year and getting your ship sailing in the right
direction, making necessary and often tough changes and decisions, this week I’m
going to take you behind the scenes of how I get so much done and manage so many
different projects, businesses, income streams, and relationships.
The short answer is, I work. Hard, long, often, relentlessly. But, that’s not the
sexy answer you are looking for and to leave it at that wouldn’t be telling you all
the truth.
My business is pretty much divided right down the middle in terms of getting money
and fulfilling for the money we get. My primary responsibility is being me, going
out and getting clients and expanding relationship into bigger opportunities,
creating enough demand to raise fees and become more valuable.
That’s all another way of saying creating chaos, running around causing trouble, and
doing a whole of stuff then having to figure it out after the fact. That’s the way
it goes if you want to get a lot done, we are valuable to a lot of people, and
create above average income.
But, there is after all another side to the business. You can never fully do the
“work on the business” versus “in the business” thing entirely. It’s impossible.
At least someone has to pay attention to the details, deliver on the goods, fulfill
for the money.
Without some backend support, someone taking care of the ying while you’re out
yanging…you’ll go nowhere fast and hit a ceiling in your business quickly leading
to frustration and unhealthy stress. I say unhealthy because too many people think
stress is avoidable and crumble under pressure. Not so. Everything happens under
pressure and stress is inevitable but it doesn’t ever have to be unhealthy.
Back to my point, and my brother, who is my business partner and really life partner
as friend and confidant. I mean, he keeps me alive, out of jail, and relatively
sane.
Yet, I seldom see him, less than once a month now, this year. We talk one
structured time each week and have more random conversations about football and
politics than business, because we have a system for working together, for building
businesses.
We divide things right down the middle both using our own specialized and developed
skills, maximizing our talents, things we prefer to be doing, we do.
Ryan acts as COO and master implementer and I as CEO and Spokesperson, Celebrity
Talent, and hired gun locked in a cage to produce what’s needed for everyone else to
be able to work their magic.
One without the other can’t survive.
Now, you can serve both roles yourself as long as you clearly identify BOTH roles
and divide and conquer with your own time and effort.
Okay, let’s keep this short and sweet, here are my rules of engagement for getting
things done and working through others.
1. Reprioritize Weekly – what can NOT go undone another day
2. As tasks and opportunities expand and you create more you must delegate
responsibility…you can only handle so much, bring on people to help you
3. No Two People work on the same thing – a critical reason why Ryan and I are
rarely in the same place, that would mean only one thing is getting attention
4. Have a diversified business model – some intense labor with high dollars, and
other limited effort for less. For example: my monthly workshop versus private
client business development. Neither could exist without the other – and I couldn’t
exist by doing just one of them all of the time
5. I must dictate my agenda, my to-do list (and my TEAM’s agenda) without exception
6. You must understand opportunity cost and know what your time is worth – and
therefor what an project/opportunity must be worth to say “yes”
7. Be obsessed with results – good or bad – often it’s a fear of an outcome that
prevents us from taking action, eliminate that fear
My team, all of them, are key people in every way. Without each person I could not
perform at my best without a doubt.
And, here’s the big and main point for you this week – YOU MUST BE OPERATING AT YOUR
PEAK and DOING THE HIGHEST LEVEL WORK YOU ARE CAPABLE OF all the time, that’s the
key and secret to achieving maximum results and profits and creating more
opportunities for yourself.
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