I Spent 10 Years Building Businesses (THIS is what really matters)

Summary

This video script offers a decade of business wisdom from a successful entrepreneur. Key takeaways include the importance of planning, effective time management, and the significance of preparation over expectations. The speaker emphasizes the need for leaders to exhibit certainty and clarity in their vision to build trust and commitment among their teams. Additionally, they discuss the impact of decision-making on business growth, advocating for decisiveness over indecision. The script also touches on the necessity of addressing small issues before they escalate and the value of becoming a better leader by becoming a great teacher.

Takeaways

• 📅 Prioritize planning: Top CEOs prepare before the week to avoid falling behind.
• ⏱️ Time management is crucial: Use a calendar to manage time effectively for business growth.
• 🚀 Proactive, not reactive: Successful people plan their days to ensure they make the most out of their time.
• 📈 Value your time: Understand the worth of your time and how it directly correlates with your business success.
• 🔥 Consistent execution: Monday is for execution, not planning. Plan ahead to avoid being reactive.
• 📈 Preparation over expectation: You rise to the level of your preparation, not just your expectations.
• 💡 Show certainty: Leaders who lack certainty can cause a lack of commitment among followers.
• 🔭 Clear vision: Leaders need to show up with a clear vision to instill certainty and clarity in their teams.
• 🛠️ Make decisions: Avoid analysis paralysis. Making decisions, even hard ones, is crucial for business growth.
• 🔄 Adaptability: Show up with certainty without having to control everything; adapt to what the world presents.

Q & A

What is the key takeaway from the video about achieving success in business?

The key takeaway is that successful business leaders prioritize planning, manage their time effectively, and prepare in advance to stay ahead. They also understand the importance of certainty in their vision and the value of being a great teacher to their team.

How does the speaker suggest one should prepare for the workweek?

The speaker suggests preparing before the week starts, as top CEOs do, to avoid falling behind. Planning how every moment of every day will be spent is crucial to making the most out of one's time.

What does the speaker mean by 'if you haven't mastered using a calendar'?

The speaker implies that successful individuals have excellent time management skills, which often involve using a calendar to organize and plan their activities. Mastering the use of a calendar is a metaphor for mastering one's schedule and time.

Can you explain the concept of a 'Time study' as mentioned in the script?

A 'Time study' is a method of documenting how an individual spends every hour of their day to analyze and optimize their time management. It helps identify areas of inefficiency and ensures that time is allocated to planning and strategic activities.

Why is it important to plan the week on a Sunday according to the speaker?

Planning the week on a Sunday is important because it creates a buffer time that allows for pulling future tasks into the present, which helps to get ahead and stay out of reactive mode. It also ensures that Monday, which is a day for execution, is not wasted on planning.

What is the significance of preparation in achieving success according to the video?

Preparation is significant because it sets the stage for success. The speaker emphasizes that people rise to the level of their preparation, not just their expectations, indicating that thorough preparation is essential for achieving goals.

How does the speaker define a good leader?

A good leader, according to the speaker, is someone who shows up with certainty about their vision, creates clarity, and instills confidence in their team. They also avoid being overly stubborn or insecure in their decision-making.

What is the consequence of a leader lacking certainty, as discussed in the script?

When a leader lacks certainty, it results in followers who lack commitment. This can create a ripple effect of uncertainty within the team and other teams, leading to a lack of reliability and progress.

Why is making decisions critical to business growth, as per the video?

Making decisions is critical to business growth because it creates clarity and direction. The speaker points out that businesses don't grow by accident but by intentionally seeking out and tackling hard decisions.

What does the speaker mean by 'every unmade decision is an attention suck'?

The speaker means that unresolved decisions consume mental energy and attention, which could be better used elsewhere. Addressing decisions promptly frees up cognitive resources for more productive tasks.

How does the speaker suggest handling the fear of making the wrong decision?

The speaker suggests focusing on how to handle mistakes rather than trying to avoid them. Successful people respond differently to wrong decisions, using them as learning opportunities rather than sources of fear.

Outlines

00:00

📅 The Importance of Planning and Time Management

The speaker emphasizes the significance of planning and time management for achieving success in business. They share their journey to a $100 million net worth by the age of 28 and running a $500 million portfolio. The speaker stresses that top CEOs prepare before the week starts to avoid falling behind. They highlight how important it is to use a calendar effectively to manage time and stay ahead. A 'Time study' example is given, where a CEO documented his activities throughout the day, revealing that he spent no time planning, which led to a reactive mode of operation. The speaker advises that planning on Sundays can create buffer time and help stay ahead during the week. They also discuss the importance of certainty in leadership and how a lack of it can lead to a lack of commitment from followers. The speaker shares personal experiences and lessons learned about the need for decisiveness and clarity in vision to prevent a ripple effect of uncertainty within teams.

05:02

🚦 The Pitfalls of Indecision and Stubbornness

The speaker discusses the negative impact of indecision and stubbornness in leadership. They recount a situation where a leader's indecisiveness led to team stress and a lack of direction, causing employees to question job security. The speaker contrasts this with the need for certainty in leadership, explaining that certainty creates clarity, which in turn leads to speed, progress, and success. They share their own experiences, including a moment of self-reflection that led to a more confident leadership style. The speaker also touches on the importance of reacting with certainty to uncontrollable events, using their experience during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of maintaining confidence and assurance despite uncertainty.

10:03

🛑 The Consequences of Avoiding Decisions

The speaker highlights the consequences of avoiding decisions and the importance of making choices, even if they are difficult. They argue that every unmade decision is an 'attention suck,' diverting focus away from growth. The speaker shares their realization that making decisions, rather than avoiding them, is crucial for business growth. They differentiate between decision-making by aggression and by omission, stressing that even avoiding a decision is still making a choice, albeit a passive one. The speaker encourages embracing decision-making and learning from mistakes, rather than striving for perfection.

15:04

🔄 Trading Problems, Not Solving Them

The speaker discusses the idea that in business, one is often trading current problems for different future problems, rather than completely solving them. They share their experience of growing a business and the realization that different expansion strategies come with their own sets of challenges. The speaker advises to 'pick your problems, not your solutions,' emphasizing the importance of understanding the trade-offs involved in business decisions. They also touch on the concept of not seeking a 'silver bullet' answer but instead making multiple decisions to find the right path for one's business.

20:04

📈 Quality Over Quantity in Business Growth

The speaker stresses the importance of focusing on quality over quantity in business growth. They share their experience of a business that initially relied heavily on word-of-mouth referrals but saw a decline as they shifted focus to other marketing strategies. The speaker realized that trying to force growth through increased marketing efforts led to lower customer satisfaction and higher costs. They learned that improving product quality and letting customer demand drive growth is a more sustainable approach. The speaker also discusses the importance of measuring the right indicators, such as customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction, to guide business growth effectively.

25:05

🏫 Becoming a Great Leader by Being a Great Teacher

The speaker emphasizes the role of leadership as being primarily that of a teacher. They recount a personal experience early in their career where they were mentored and taught, which greatly influenced their development. The speaker believes that great leaders are patient teachers who focus on educating their team rather than simply giving orders. They discuss the importance of seeing mistakes as opportunities to teach and the value of repetition in mastering leadership skills. The speaker also shares practical examples of how they apply these teaching principles in their interactions with team members.

Keywords

💡Net Worth

Net worth refers to the total value of an individual's or company's assets minus their liabilities. In the context of the video, the speaker mentions achieving a net worth of $100 million by age 28, highlighting their financial success and providing credibility to the advice they are about to share.

💡Portfolio

A portfolio in a business context typically refers to a collection of investments or projects managed by an individual or company. The speaker mentions running a $500 million portfolio, indicating their experience in managing substantial business assets and investments.

💡Preparation

Preparation in this video script refers to the act of planning and readying oneself for upcoming tasks or challenges. The speaker emphasizes that top CEOs prepare before the week starts, suggesting that preparation is crucial for success and efficiency in business.

💡Execution

Execution in a business context refers to the process of effectively and successfully implementing a plan or strategy. The speaker mentions that Monday is a day for execution, not planning, indicating the importance of a structured approach to the workweek.

💡Time Management

Time management is the efficient organization and allocation of time during which individuals can divide their time commitment involving work or other activities. The script discusses the importance of managing time effectively, as the speaker helps a CEO who was struggling with feeling overwhelmed by analyzing his time allocation.

💡Reactive Mode

Reactive mode refers to responding to situations as they arise, rather than planning and controlling them proactively. The speaker uses this term to describe a state of constant catch-up, suggesting that effective planning can prevent operating in reactive mode.

💡Certainty

Certainty in leadership implies having a clear vision and confidently communicating it to the team. The speaker discusses how leaders who lack certainty can create a lack of commitment among followers, using personal anecdotes to illustrate the importance of a leader's confidence in their vision.

💡Stubbornness

Stubbornness is the term used in the script to describe a leader's inflexibility in their approach or vision. The speaker contrasts certainty with stubbornness, explaining how a stubborn leader can cause confusion and stress within a team due to frequent changes in direction.

💡Overwhelm

Overwhelm refers to the state of being excessively burdened or preoccupied such that one cannot perform adequately. The script mentions that overwhelm comes from high demand with low clarity, suggesting that a lack of clear direction can lead to feelings of being overwhelmed among team members.

💡Decision-Making

Decision-making is the process of making choices by identifying options and selecting the best course of action. The speaker discusses the importance of making decisions, even difficult ones, to drive business growth and progress, using the metaphor of 'attention as a jar of marbles' to illustrate the cost of unmade decisions.

💡Trade-Offs

Trade-offs refer to the balance between benefits and drawbacks of different options made when choosing one alternative over another. The speaker advises picking problems, not solutions, and understanding that every decision involves trade-offs, using the example of choosing between building a software business or translating an existing business into different languages.

Highlights

Achieving $100 million net worth by age 28 and managing a $500 million portfolio.

Importance of preparation and planning before the week starts.

Using a calendar effectively is essential for success.

Life's achievers plan their days to maximize time value.

Time study as a method to document daily activities and improve productivity.

The negative impact of reactive mode on business growth.

Planning on Sundays to create buffer time for the week.

Preparation levels determine what we achieve, not just expectations.

Leadership requires certainty to build commitment in followers.

The importance of a leader's confidence in their vision.

Leaders who lack certainty can cause indecisiveness and unclear direction.

Certainty creates clarity, speed, progress, and momentum leading to success.

Leadership is about reacting with certainty to uncontrollable situations.

Decision-making is critical to business growth and clarity.

Every unmade decision is a drain on attention and resources.

Deciding by aggression versus by omission and the consequences of both.

Successful people respond differently to wrong decisions rather than avoiding them.

Decisions involve trade-offs, not necessarily right or wrong choices.

Leaders must be great teachers to cultivate team skills and knowledge.

Teaching is more effective than scolding when correcting mistakes.

Mastery in leadership and teaching comes from repetition and patience.

Transcripts

I achieved $100 million net worth by the

age of 28 and I currently run a $500

million portfolio and in this video

today I want to share with you a decade

of business advice that allowed me to

achieve those things hot take if you are

catching up Monday morning from the

weekend you are already behind the top

CEOs prepare before the week if you are

trying to prepare when you are in a mode

of execution you're already behind the

ball how do you expect to make millions

of dollars if you haven't mastered using

a calendar the people who get ahead in

life They Don't Wait For Life to happen

to them they plan for how every moment

of every day is going to go because they

want to make sure they get the most out

of every day because they know how

valuable their time is I had a portfolio

CEO he came to me and he was like Leila

I am drowning I feel like I have fires

coming at me every day and I don't know

what to do and I said the first thing I

need to do if I want to be able to help

you is I got to look at your time where

is this person putting their time

because where your attention goes is

where your business is going to grow he

did what I call a Time study basically

documents what he does with every hour

of his day and when I looked at it I was

like no wonder you feel like

because you're constantly using Mondays

to catch up from the weekend what he was

doing was that he had no time spent

planning so he was constantly running

the company on reactive mode if you

don't know how to manage your time then

you can't manage yourself and if you

can't manage yourself you certainly

can't manage a company I mean it sounds

simple enough but like a lot of people

don't do it I get this when I first

started I remember this distinct moment

when I was sitting on my couch and I

just had this overwhelming feeling of

not wanting to do what was on my

calendar what I recognized in that

moment was that if I don't have somebody

else telling me what to do I need to be

able to rely on myself to tell me what

to do and so if you wait until Monday

morning what you're doing is two things

one you eat into execution time Monday

is a day to execute it's not a day to

plan Monday is when everything hits your

desk it's not a time to sit back and say

I need to for what's going to happen for

the week the second piece is that you're

in reactive mode if you take 2 to 3

hours to plan your week on a Sunday and

you plan out every meeting then when you

go into the week what you do is you

create all of this buffer time it's all

the time that you can use pulling the

future into the present to get ahead you

have extra time in your days to focus on

doing more than you thought you ever

could we don't rise to our level of

expectations we actually rise to our

level of preparation if you don't

prepare for your week then you're not

going to do the things you expected to

do you're going to do the things you

prepared to do if you're anything like

me I was not naturally gifted with

anything preparation can make even a

fool look like a genius some of the most

successful people that I've known is

that they don't have the advantage of

being the smartest person in the room or

the most talented person in the room but

they do have the advantage of working

their ass off leaders who lack

certainty create followers who lack

commitment when I was running my first

business I was so fearful of making

making people feel like I was stepping

on them that I actually wasn't showing

up certain enough for my team and it

actually wasn't apparent to me until a

friend of mine who who worked for me who

I was actually grooming to be the COO of

gym launch gave me some feedback on a

one1 I asked do you have any feedback

for me and she said sometimes I really

just want you to tell me what to do I've

tried everything and I've thought

everything through and I actually just

don't know what to do and so when I'm

asking you it's because I want you to

tell me what to do and I remember in

that moment I was like I've had so

much fear of overstepping that I've

actually swung the opposite direction

where I have not instilled enough

certainty in my team and that's when I

realized that there's being stubborn and

then there's being insecure and I was

leaning to the side of being insecure

and so for me that was really learning

how to lean more into a more confident

and certain version of myself because

what I recognize is that When leaders

are indecisive or unclear about their

Vision it creates this lack of

reliability within their teams and a

ripple effect not even from their team

but to all the other teams there and I'm

not certain and I'm not confident in

myself and how I present our business

plan and our vision to the team then

think of all the cracks that it creates

along the way certainty creates Clarity

Clarity creates speed speed creates

progress progress creates momentum and

momentum leads to success and it all

starts with showing up certain about the

Clear Vision you have when people come

in and they feel uncertain always guess

what it points back to one person which

is the leader now end of the day that

person is me so if I have leaders who

show up uncertain for their teams what

it tells me is that I'm not showing up

certain enough for them now on the other

side I've had leaders that I've worked

with who sway on the side of

stubbornness so actually I had a

portfolio company we actually do not

have the portfolio anymore the main

reason for that was the leader was so

stubborn about the vision what happened

was that she was very set in her ways of

how she wanted to run the company but

she wanted to run it five steps in this

direction then five steps in this

direction then five steps in this

direction I had people from this

person's team coming to me constantly

they were telling me how stressed they

felt and they asked me as somebody who

owned part of the company do I need to

be looking for another job because

yesterday we were going to become this

kind of company this week we're becoming

this kind of company and it feels like

we're changing direction every other

week and so it was two things that

compounded upon each other which is

being stubborn and not open to feedback

and then being so certain when they

showed up but certain in a different

direction every other day and especially

with people who are newer to business

this is really common you're constantly

looking at a way that somebody's doing

business and saying oh my gosh that way

would be easier than what I'm doing

today if you just committed to what you

did now and stuck with it that would be

easier than changing the path six times

either side of the equation if you go

too far whether you're super insecure or

you're super stubborn about your

direction the uncertainty that either

you create or you exemplify is

contagious and so what both of these

situations do is they create all these

cracks in the confidence that people on

your team have about you and about the

vision that you have and so what happens

is that those people are no longer

committed because the moment that they

feel like they can't trust the leader

and they can't trust the direction of

the company they start looking and

wondering where else they can go where

they can find that security what usually

leads to that is overwhelm overwhelm

comes from high demand with low clarity

and so if you're giving people a lot of

work and they have no idea where that

work is going they're going to feel

overwhelmed half the time it's not even

that there's so much work it's that

there's so much work with a lack of

vision and the last thing I'll say is

this we can show up with certainty

without having certainty is you don't

create certainty by controlling the

world you create certainty by how you

react to what the world does there are

so many things that happen in business

you can't control but you create

certainty by how you react to it and I

can tell you the biggest lesson when I

learned this for myself was how I

reacted to co co was the most uncertain

time I've ever had to navigate in

business because not only did it change

the entire economy but it shut down

every business that I worked with and so

I had a team of a 100 people look at me

and say do I have a job tomorrow I

couldn't tell them that they for sure

had a job in 3 months but I could show

up with certainty and confidence that I

was going to do my damn best best to

make sure that they did and I could

convey that confidence to them and I

could let them borrow my sense of

certainty until they had one for

themselves this is the best trait that

you can have if you're managing people

by setting clear expectations and acting

consistently leaders can build trust

which drives better results the speed at

which you make decisions sets the speed

of the business long time ago back in

like 2016 I joined all these different

business groups when I first showed up

at these events I was like oh my gosh my

business sucks I bet all these people

way smarter than me I feel like I don't

even belong in this room when I came

back for the second event and I remember

watching people who were members of

these groups go up and the problems that

they shared from a year ago were the

same problems that they were sharing now

so many people wouldn't not couldn't

wouldn't grow their businesses because

they wouldn't make decisions what

happens is that if you don't make the

hard decisions you get stuck in that

phase of business because your business

doesn't grow by accident it grows by

intentionally seeking out the hard

decisions and tackling them headon

making decisions creates Clarity but it

starts with making decisions because you

can't get clear on what path you take

until you decide which path it is your

business isn't growing because you won't

make decisions first time I ever got

into business I had a mentor that said

something to me every unmade decision is

an attention suck and so if you look at

your attention like a jar of marbles you

only have so many marbles in the jar and

every unmade decision steals your

marbles if I have an unmade decision

over here an unmade decision over here

all of my marbles are not within my jar

means I have a lot of attention and then

wherever I direct that attention it's

going to grow something what that told

me was like every time I have a decision

to make I need to figure out how do I

get all the information to make the

decision how do I get all the

perspectives to make the decision and

how do I gather all that as quickly as

possible because I know that with each

decision unlocks a new level of growth

for me and for my company there's really

two types of people that I see there's

people who make decisions by aggression

and people who make decisions by

Omission if you're watching this and

you're like well AA I have this decision

I've been avoiding you're not avoiding

it you are making it you're just not

actively making it you're waiting until

it's made for you and so the decision

will be made and it's probably not going

to be made in your favor either way a

decision will be made and the cost of

change and the pain of change will be

incurred it's just a matter of is it

going to get you the result you want or

not in other words you're either

uncomfortable remaining the same in the

state of decision or you're

uncomfortable changing going through the

process of pursuing something new and

unknown both paths are painful but only

one leads to an outcome that you want is

the pain bringing you closer to a life

and to a business that you want or

further so the way that I've always

looked at it is if I do nothing this

decision is going to be made for me then

I might as well do something and have it

work in my favor because I'm either

going to feel pain now making the

decision by aggression or I'm going to

feel pain later waiting for the decision

to be made and then feeling pain later

when I don't get what I want stop being

scared of making the wrong decision

successful people and unsuccessful

people make no less wrong decisions they

just respond to them differently so

rather than putting so much pressure on

making the right decision to avoid a

mistake put all the effort on if I make

a mistake how am I going to handle it

like if we're being really honest right

now it's just us here like you have

something that you've been putting off

it's probably either really small or it

could be really big but like you can

only lie to yourself so long there is no

wrong way to do things there are only

trade-offs one of the most frequent

questions that I get asked is do I go

here or do I go there this all stems

from a fallacy that one path is better

than the other but the reality is is

that they're just different the first

time that I had to make a decision like

this which was gym launch we had grown

it from doing nothing to like 50 million

a year in 4 years and we were at this

point in the road where we said how do

we expand the business business we

talked about building this other arm of

the business and I remember speaking

with a mentor of mine and she said

there's no wrong decisions there's just

tradeoffs to the one that you make so if

you build a software business that's

really different from what you do today

it's going to come with a new set of

problems which is you're have to learn

how to build software now on the other

side we talked about what if we took gym

launch and we translated it into

different languages so she's like okay

well it might not be as valuable as

software so in the long run it might to

have as much Enterprise Value as

software however it is a lot more of

doing more of what you're already doing

but learning how to do it in a different

language and so either path presents

challenges which one takes you to where

you want to go and which one has

problems you wish to deal with a say

that I always tell myself which is pick

your problems not your Solutions it's

not that anyone path is better it's that

they're all different and so instead of

pursuing what solution do I want I ask

myself what problems do I want to live

with every day I saw the gold at the end

of the rainbow I was like software for

sure that sounds amazing I knew that it

was the bilingual would be easier for me

it would have more problems that I was

more equipped to deal with but I was

like oh my gosh but if we did software

the business could get valued at like 10

times what it's valued at now and so I

said let's pursue that and what I

learned is that if you select for the

outcome and not the process you often

make the wrong decision and so when

you're making these decisions of

trade-offs in the business we're

constantly blinded by the payoff at the

end of the rainbow not buy all the

that's going to happen Up Until the End

Business is about learning how to stay

in the game and so if you have

consistent problems that you hate

dealing with you are unlikely to even

get to the pot of gold at the end of the

rainbow and that's what happened to me

there is no right or wrong path in

general you're trading your current

problems for different problems in the

future the reason I wasn't willing to

stay in the game and I wanted to sell

that company was because they weren't

problems I wanted to deal with every day

I think one of the most common questions

I get is I have have a service business

and I want to see if I franchise it or

do corporate owned and the same frame

that I use is the same frame I give

people which is what business do you

want to be in what problems do you want

to solve on a daily basis say you have a

chain of brick and mortar locations and

you're saying do I franchise or do I

have corporate owned well what's more

important to you how much do you care

about culture if you're a dieh hard for

culture and that is the driving force of

your success maybe you want to do

corporate don't whereas if you're like

it and I just want to go as fast as

possible and I'm not big on quality

maybe you want franchise at the end of

the day there's nobody that's going to

be able to give you the Silver Bullet

answer because guess what they probably

don't know you better than you

know yourself beginners get stuck

because they believe that there's a

silver bullet answer to all their

questions about what to do with their

business and the reality is it's like

100 golden BBS and a 100 decisions you

have to make to figure out what's right

for you beginners are paralyzed to make

a decision in the beginning because they

assume the real world and business works

like school and only has one right

answer and in reality there are so many

right answers with only one wrong answer

which is do nothing we always are

trading what we have for something we

believe we want we just have to make

sure that once you get what you thought

you wanted you don't want back what you

gave to haveit end of the day we don't

eliminate problems we trade worse ones

for better ones small problems

unattended to become big problems the

first time that this became real for me

was back in 2018 we had just built our

first business and it had gone from 0 to

17 million in like a year basically our

business was built on teaching gym

owners how to run their gyms part of

that was how to acquire customers and

something that we were really good at at

that time was how to use social media to

acquire customers for gyms it was

something that other people had not

cracked yet when we first started it was

like you could get 50 Cent leads then it

went to like a dollar then $2 and what

was happening was like slowly people in

our community were starting to get

annoyed the thing is is that there's

only so much that we could do because

the cost of advertising on all platforms

always goes one way which is up and what

happened was about a year and a half

after this problem started I remember I

logged into our Facebook group one day

and I saw this thread just talking mad

about us this small nagging problem

and just continued to shove in the back

of the closet or like under the rug what

happened is it had like hair had like

come and like attached itself to the

problem and like mold and like dirt and

like all of a sudden this like little

Dust Bunny became this like disgusting

little raccoon hiding under my couch and

the Raccoon came out and it was like I

hate you and you suck all these people

in our community they were upset they

were talking about how they felt like we

weren't doing anything about the problem

even though the problem was one that I

didn't have direct control over what I

realized in that moment was that I did

have direct control over communicating

about it I could have explained and

educated my customers on what was

happening and all the things that I knew

that made it obvious to me why it was

happening that they didn't know they

didn't know that across all Industries

costs were actually Rising much faster

than they were to them and so what

happened was I let a small problem get

big because I didn't address it any

major issue starts as a minor issue so

if you don't address the small problems

they turn into big ones anytime I feel

something's off I address it right then

so something that I ask myself a lot is

I say what small nagging issues have I

avoided most days but especially by

Friday because what I want to do is I

want to go into the weekend having

cleared my plate of all small problems

you know there was a portfolio CEO that

had this happen I noticed that he was

over sales and marketing and he'd been

doing that for about a year at first

everything was great but here's the

thing about business is that what we did

6 months ago is what we see the results

of today what happened was about 6

months from then all of a sudden sales

start dropping all of a sudden leads

start dropping why I know exactly what

it is is at 6 mon months ago he started

paying attention to this new thing and

then these small little cracks all these

little things that start happening

because his attention was split then

have mounted into big things and so when

we looked the team had been working at

like 100% capacity and 6 months later

the team was working at like 55%

capacity that means because he put his

eye on something else all of a sudden

the team felt like well he's not paying

attention to us we're not going to pay

attention to the job created this big

problem we had this huge cultural shift

that we needed to make what he learned

from that situation ation was that it's

much easier to address those things when

they're small but it's like it always

pays off to solve a problem earlier

rather than later so if you're watching

this right now ask yourself this

question what am I avoiding what am I

ignoring that's getting worse not better

the better you get the bigger your

customers will demand you become quality

creates demand and demand creates growth

I did not understand this concept in my

first years in business I thought that

in order to get bigger you needed to

push push push as hard as possible to

force yourself into the marketplace but

there's a point at which you want people

to pull you into the marketplace when we

had gym launch and we were first

starting off there was about a year and

a half where 45% of our business came

from word of mouth and I thought it was

like the best thing that could have ever

happened at one point in time I remember

getting on a meeting and someone pointed

out our referrals dropped from 45% of

our sales they were about 30% of our

sales rather than saying how do we get

back to 45% we said great let's run more

ads let's start email let's do SEO let's

do all these things and what happened

was that number went from 45 to 30 to 20

and our satisfaction went from like 90%

to 80 to 70 and it also started to drop

and then what I was noticing is that all

these people coming in who weren't

referrals they cost more money to get

and they weren't as good and didn't stay

as long on the back end about a year

into doing this thinking to myself gosh

what did I do wrong I then found this

quote that really stuck with me which is

you have to get better and let your

customers demand you get bigger and I

looked and I recognized I was like we

have not gotten better we basically

band-aided a wound that needed to be sew

and shut and what we didn't do was fix

the quality and instead we just tried to

continue pushing ourselves into the

marketplace and the biggest lesson I

learned is that if you create something

that is good enough people will demand

you expand your business and I learned

this for acquisition. comom what I

wanted is to create a business that was

Supply constrained not demand

constrained meaning we have so much

demand that we can't even fulfill it the

constraint is how do I build a business

fast enough to meet the demand of the

market doing that is a far easier way to

do business than the opposite because if

people really they're banging at your

doors wanting what you have it makes

everything easier and being able to

measure that and say great here's what

our customer satisfaction scores are

here's our NPS scores here's our

portfolio performance that is the

Northstar metric not how many leads we

get not how many sales we convert if you

want to get better in order to get

bigger look at what you're measuring and

that is one of the foremost things that

I have changed is that when I was

running my first business I constantly

was looking at measuring incoming sales

inbound leads sales conversions now my

Northstar metric NPS score customer

satisfaction and employee satisfaction

those are leading indicators of

marketing efficiency sales efficiency

lead generation demand generation if I

build an amazing product and people tell

their friends about it and I build an

amazing culture and people want to work

here all the rest of Things fall into

place now how do you know when you are

forcing your business to get bigger

rather than letting customers demand it

get bigger often times the biggest

indicator is this Everything feels

hard marketing is hard sales is

hard customer success is hard everything

is hard because when you are forcing

something to grow that is not meant to

grow it is that much harder growth can

be a double-edged sword because what

you're doing is that as you're growing

you have to continue expanding the

operations of your company to meet the

expectations of your customer and if you

let one get too far ahead of each other

then you're out of lock step that

success comes with the responsibility of

maintaining and enhancing the quality of

the product or service you offer because

if you don't continue to grow in the

quality of what you're offering then you

cannot keep up with the demand the

marketplace puts upon you worry about

being better and bigger will take care

of itself most teammates are teachable

but most leaders are not great teachers

want to become a better leader become a

great teacher just to clarify yelling at

people is not leadership it is what

unskilled and lazy people resort to when

they don't know what else to do back

when I was 20 years old and I got one of

my first jobs out of college at a gym I

finally learned what a great leader does

I came into an organization it was a big

globo gym and I didn't know how to do

anything and so when I came in I felt

scared but I was also so eager to learn

like all I wanted to do is I was like

just point me in the right direction and

I'll do it and I was really

lucky because I got a really fantastic

boss because that person taught me how

to sell I'd never sold before and I

looked back and I think about that

person I think about how great of a

leader that person was and one thing

that they did consistently was besides

all the time they put into training on

top of that had an hour every week that

that person met with me and they called

it mentorship session I got to just ask

all the questions that I had in that

hour to gain learning and understanding

for anything that I didn't know and I

look back and I think about how that was

one of the greatest experiences I could

have had because what I learned is that

being a leader is not about telling

people what to do it's about teach

teaching them what to do most people

come in excited willing and hungry to

learn new skills but most leaders and

managers are not there able to

reciprocate what they want they hire

people and think even though they

haven't had this job before they should

know what to do I shouldn't have to

teach them or they think that spending 1

hour is enough time to teach somebody a

brand new skill the same amount of time

it takes you to learn something it's

going to take your team to learn it so

think about how long it's taken you as

somebody in business to learn learn how

to Market to a customer how to sell a

customer how to retain a customer and

you're still learning and then think

about all the people on your team how

much time do they need to learn their

craft most leaders miss out on great

people because they're not patient

enough great teachers sees every

opportunity to teach well once I

understood this I look at every meeting

every one-on-one every interaction with

my team what am I going to teach them

right now anytime I see a teammate do

something that is not aligned with how I

Envision their Department I don't look

at it as a chance to scold them or a

chance to yell at them but a chance to

teach them an example is that the other

day I was talking to one of my teammates

and he is looking at transitioning one

of our teammates into a different role

that would be more fitting for her and

so he came to me and he said this is the

script I have written so it's positioned

in a way that is positive not negative

so he said this is the script I've

written what do you think about this and

as I read the script great job writing

the script I actually would do it like

this instead and as I told him how I do

it then what we did is we wrote the

script right there and then on that call

he said his biggest takeaway was that I

positioned the change as a positive

rather than a negative and so it wasn't

that he did something wrong and I needed

to yell at him it was that I needed to

teach him and so it's making this mental

switch of when you see someone make a

mistake rather than scolding them rather

than putting them on a performance

Improvement plan it's like oh now I know

where I need to teach you if you learn

all these things that I now see are gaps

how Unstoppable are you going to be what

the best teachers know where the student

wants to go and if I know what they want

to be then it also helps me figure out

what are the gaps I need to teach them

to get there now I can imagine you're

watching this and you're like that

sounds like a lot of work and

I'm like yes this is what we do all day

we teach people and we repeat

ourselves over and over and over and

over again the amount of times that I've

had to teach a leader to make change in

their team without disrupting the team

75 times if you want to be a great

leader you become a great teacher but to

become a great teacher requires patience

and the only thing that's different

between me and maybe you watching this

thinking how the do you do that

every day I understand that Mastery

comes from doing the same thing day in

and day out and finding new ways to do

it and not get bored with it Mastery

comes from the boring and so if you

want to be an amazing leader you have to

become an amazing teacher and the only

way to get there is through repetition

there's a quote by John Wooden that I

think puts it perfectly effective

leaders are first and foremost teachers

we are in the education business the

reason that I like making videos is

because guess what I get to do with

those videos send them to my team to

educate my team