I returned home yesterday after 4 days of intensive training at Experts Academy with Brendon Burchard. By intensive I’m talking 12 – 14 hours of non-stop learning, networking, and brainstorming for three of the four days. The final day was only 8 hours and it literally flew by.
For over 9 hours I drove from San Jose, California to Oregon. I love a long drive after an intense learning experience. I have time to assimilate what I experienced.
If you know who Brendon is you know the guy’s a genius. His whole platform is to serve one’s market and make a GREAT living in the process.
What has changed?
In the time I have been a member of his private mastermind group (5 months) I have noticed some significant shifts in myself and my business. My focus has increased (it was already great compared to many entrepreneurs and now it’s even better), my revenues have increased and I am loving what I do even more.
The thing I love the most is really serving you with great information much of which I give away. I love sharing and my commitment to my market is to help as many people as I can.
In the last few months I have met some amazing men and women who are also involved in the mastermind group. They too are experiencing amazing shifts. As we’ve shared with each other what the greatest contributors to the changes are it boils down to a few things.
1. Committing to the change.
2. Making a financial investment to learn from the best.
3. Taking action each and every day.
4. Letting go of the activities that eat up time in the day.
5. Hanging out with those who also want massive change.
6. Willingness to work (and work hard) for what we want.
What are you willing to do?
It’s amazing how many people want a change in their business but they are making no change in their day to day activity. Their day goes something like this; turn on their computer, check their emails, play around in social networks, get distracted, check their emails again, go back into social networks, talk about how slow the economy still is and then wonder where the day went.
The fact is, if you want to take your business to the next level you MUST make changes. All of us have to do this.
Is it different for you?
Every day I get emails from people who are still saying how tough it is to make money in their business. When I ask them what they are doing differently than a month, two months, three months ago they don’t have an answer. If you want change you BETTER change what you are doing. There’s no beating around the bush on this.
Here are a few things you can do that will significantly impact your bottom line.
1. Quit reading all your emails first thing in the morning. Your mornings need to be used for monetizing your business.
2. Organize your office for the highest level of productivity. If this means cleaning out your work area then do it.
3. Let go (and I mean really let go) of the day to day activities that are not producing results for you. This might mean reducing the amount of time you spend in social networks. Social networks are great … to a point. Often they are a huge time waster and do not contribute to your bottom line.
4. Surround yourself with high achievers. This likely means you need to join a mastermind group, take stock of how much time you spend during your workday having nonproductive conversations with those who continue to want to talk about how slow things are, and raise your own performance bar.
These are only a handful of recommendations. The fact is, there is so much business available for virtually everyone. I know there are those who will say, “But Kathleen, things are slow for me.”
I don’t discount this fact. What I do ask you is this…
- How productive are you really being in your day?
- Who are you hanging out with (both in person and in cyberspace)?
- How much time are you using to really monetize your business?
- How much time are you using to look at the latest funny video on YouTube that is an incredible time waster?
- What are you willing to do differently to achieve the outcomes you desire?
Believe me, if I didn’t make a conscious effort each and every day to continue to build a lifestyle business, I would be singing the, “Business is slow, you just don’t understand” melody.
Rather, I look for every conceivable way to move to the next level while continuing to serve my market fully. Do you?
Take a look at this short video I created on how to be more productive in your day. This is a strategy I learned from Brendon and one of the main contribution factors to why things have shifted so dramatically for me.
What is your experience with this type of change? Have you consciously focused on what you need to do differently to achieve better outcomes? Sharing of best practices welcome.
Hi Kathleen, You’re so right. This is a discipline. It’s so easy to waste time with the things we ‘like’ doing each day vs. doing things that are productive towards our business.
Also, having no more than 6 priorities a day is great advice. I have to be careful of not making my daily priorities list a ‘wish’ list 😉
Thanks for the great advice, I’ll be giving this method a try.
BTW, loved your talk at NAMS, you’re so inspiring! 🙂
Take Care, Liz
I have done a few things this year/recently. First, I’ve worked to adjust my niche topic/narrow my focus. I may not be 100% in the sweet spot, but I am seeing more traffic, slowly, but more. I’ve also gotten private coaching (which unfortunately didn’t work out very well-thought I certainly learned how I do not want to coach my own clients if nothing else) and I’ve taken a course (from you-it was awesome) and have more this month. I’m also trying different strategies, while also trying not to get sucked into shiny object syndrome-that’s a tough balance to find!
All in all, the biggest thing I think I’ve done is to keep going. Seeing that you and others in your circle can make it work helps a lot.
One thing I would like to respectfully disagree about though in your/Brendon’s plan is that I do not do my best work in the morning. I’m a firm believer in finding the time of day you are most productive. I know I am more focused, especially for writing, in the afternoon and evening. I think it’s from all the years of freelancing at night after my 9-5. I do agree though that schedule and plans are very important, don’t know what I’d do without my Outlook reminders :-).
Thanks for your input Cheryl. I am in total agreement we have to find our own rhythm of what works best on time and the fact is that some people are more productive in the afternoon or evening. Yet, the fact remains that email checking is the downfall of so many.
Great insights. Thanks
Very good points, Kathleen. I stopped checking emails first thing in the morning about a year ago and that one small change has made a world of difference.
You comments on social media are also spot on. I recently did an 80/20 analysis on my social media activities and realized I was using time on Twitter, Facebook, and now Google + as a way of avoiding those few important (and usually scary) actions that really matter. Social media is (or rather can be) an important tool in the modern entrepreneur’s arsenal, but like all things, it is only healthy in moderation.
Thanks for your comments John. I really appreciate your transparency about your avoidance and how you dealt with it.
Well said, Kathleen!
I, too, have been there and done that. I echo your 6 points and try to look at each as though I’m on a tight deadline; I only have 60 more years or so to get my message out and I don’t have a minute to waste.
Point 7 might be “unsubscribe to everything that doesn’t add value to you or your business”; and I mean everything! If you need the information later, you can search for it online.
On that note, your blogs are one of the precious few I still subscribe to and read EVERY time; I always find some great nugget and never feel like you’ve wasted my time. Thanks!
Nancy
And 60 years comes fast. 🙂 Thank you for your feedback on my blogs. Much appreciated.
Good morning Kathleen!
As I was reading your email I was imagining what was going through your mind while driving from Ca to Oregon. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and reminding us of our priorities. You are truly a winner and an excellent person.
Keep on bringing the great news!
Sending you love from Baja,
Juracy
Thank you Juracy. The experience (and the drives back and forth) were definitely times for reflection and prioritizing my life.
Hi Kathleen,
I find that I have greater focus and I’m more productive when I log out of my email system. When that little email tab is not in sight, I seem to get a lot more done (even though I’m still on my computer). BTW, I’m loving your course on building membership programs. And yes, I’m consistently working on creating lessons, etc… which means I am now focused on making changes that will produce better outcomes. I realized while going through your course, that my blog content was attracting DIY type folks and yet I had no product for them. Ah ha! That is all about to change…many thanks for your guidance 🙂
Kimberly
I love your awareness of what your market is asking for. And congratulations on the focus. Keep us posted on the progress of the DIY product.
Hey Kathleen,
Great stuff … DON’T OPEN YOUR EMAIL … I totally agree. Email is the perfect distraction for a human. It’s like throwing a ball and telling your dog NOT to chase it … can’t resist once the inbox is open in front of you.
This kind of practical … get things done advice is the core of making any change in our lives. Thanks for sharing.
Dike
Dike Drummond MD
http://www.threehourmidlifecrisis.com
Thanks for once again reminding me of the great tool for managing projects. I use a similar system with my daily planner but this is more simplistic and accountable for results.
Appreciate all the complimentary information you so willingly share.
Thanks Billy. I love sharing.
Thanks Kathleen. Made me rethink how I am using (wasting) my time.
You are so right, it is the constant, daily efforts that we must make in order to be successful.
From Mexico, Juracy
Thanks for superb content, Kathleen. I will put this to use.
Thanks! This is exactly what I needed today! As usual, you hit the nail on the head!
Hi Kathleen, thanks for sharing so much great advice. I am learning much this year and getting better at implementing what I learn.
My challenge is to stay productive, but also to keep a work-life balance.
Thanks for being such an inspiration!
Ahhhhhh. Work – life balance. This is a huge challenge for most of us. It’s definitely a process.
Great advices! Thank you Mrs. Kathleen:-) Best wishes Marco Russ
Kathleen: Wonderful entry today. This is a topic I was interested in creating a course about by interviewing people like you who get so much done! But because this also has to do with focus, I have some questions.
1. Once you list a “big project” at the top, do you re-enter it there every day until you’ve completed it?
2. Should the people you’re waiting on or the people you reach out to only be those who have something to do with getting the big project done or do they include others, e.g., I have to call Aunt Lesley to wish her happy birthday? Or do you put Aunt Lesley in the box at the bottom?
3. Aside from putting exercise in the bottom box which I totally agree is key to doing anything (and this relates back to Aunt Lesley), do all or just some portion of the priorities for today relate back to the big projects at the top?
4. Time periods are not mentioned here. How do we add that element or does it matter in this particular approach?
Thanks for your time and thoughtfulness.
Kathleen,
Thank you for your candor, you struck a real cord with me. I thought I was being productive to get my emails out of the way first thing in the morning. I have learned that if I have 50 or 300 emails in my inbox, they never, ever seem to go away. I can spend most of my day responding to email and I hate it. I love getting the work done. Good bye email in the morning, hello work done!
Love working with you!
I first heard a great email strategy about 5 years ago from Alex Mandossian. Back in April, Brendon Burchard took it even deeper. Since implementing his recommendations I am much more productive (and I was already very productive) and am making more and more able to serve my market.