Are you kidding yourself? Do you really want to grow your business?

[biophase]

I'm posting this under a rant because this is something I've been trying to tell my friends all summer. I'm going to throw a few under the bus, but not by name (but you know who you are), but I feel like it's an important topic for everyone to be aware of.

So this summer, I had a little mastermind session where I had about 5-6 entrepreneurial friends who weren't happy with their current situation come and stay for up to 14 days at my house. Now, in my opinion, this was a great opportunity to really brainstorm ideas with others and really set up a direction to go.

So this is what happened...

Nobody stayed for 14 days. Some arrived a few days late, some left early. To me, it already told me that they really weren't motivated. Not to sound conceited but, seriously, how many of you here would have paid big bucks to live with me and learn business for 14 days?

On the days that they were here... they worked very hard IN their current business. Meaning that they spend most of the day doing the same tedious work that they've been doing all along. They were answering emails and doing menial business tasks when they should have been thinking of new strategies and ways to improve their business. It's like going to a weekend conference and not attending the seminars because you had to return voicemails. So this left us with no time to brainstorm. We ended up having brainstorming sessions on only 2 or 3 nights.

So when they left, nobody in the group had any new ideas or new direction. It's as if they came and the 14 days was a small blip in their normal everyday life.

But to me what is really interesting is that after they left my house, they continued to vacation all summer. Based on the Instagram and Facebook feeds, they are all still on vacation and it is September! So to them, I ask, do they REALLY want it?

They tell me that they aren't happy with where they are. But their actions are telling me that leisure and fun are their priorities. This whole summer they haven't done anything that tells me that they really want to change anything. So come December, when they aren't where they want to be, there's nobody to blame.

I write this as a rant towards them, but I'm also asking you to think about your actions. Do they match what you say?

On a side note, one of my clients launched on Amazon and it's not going well. I tell him to take better photographs, build his IG or Facebook. Week after week, no new photos, his last IG post was in March. All he's doing is playing with PPC and doing giveaways. Finally I just had to tell him that he hasn't done crap. You can't launch and just play with PPC. He's had his own product for 3 months and has no photos of it in use on IG or even his Amazon listing. He still has no FB page. So what's he been doing? Does he really want this?

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Most of us don’t spend nearly enough time thinking through our business strategies. We are caught up in being an Operator vs being an Owner. Truth is we shouldn’t be waiting for entrepreneur retreats to work through strategies and brainstorming. (But when those types of opportunities present themselves we should take full advantage of it!) We should be spending 2-3 times a week thinking about high level business stuff. Not the tactical stuff.

I’m on the second reading of The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham. It’s one of those books I will forever reference back to as a book that positively changed the course of our business. I highly recommend this book to anyone already with an established business.

 

[Kak]

Ultimately it is the goal of any entrepreneur to step out of operations and into the CEO seat. Too many of us are playing manager day in and day out and when we are done managing, we feel like we accomplished something while the football still sits at the 50 yard line. I’m often as guilty as anyone, and know it.

The worst offenders also tend to be the same type of people, in my experience, that say they don’t need to grow THAT much bigger and allude to the fact that they are already so busy, they can’t imagine a bigger company.

I’m here to tell you, bigger companies, run right, are less work than this menial task crap so many people end up doing.

Quit spinning wheels. Start moving.

Put another way... I love to play offense in business.

Thank you @biophase for this reminder. Also, @JAJT and @AllenCrawley your posts were great as well.

 

[biophase]

Whew! Now I'm glad I couldn't make it this summer! I avoided the scrutinizing eye of the Big K!

You were the big attraction. I promised them all MJ and then I had to refund their $15,000 payments.

 

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[biophase]

I could be totally off base here, but the second I read this I immediately wondered if they were worried about appearances and didn't consider that the actions they associated with hard working and the actions they associated with being lazy were accidentally reversed in this scenario.

If this was the case, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were actually doing far more work in your house than they normally ever do on their own, simply because they wanted to appear hard working, busy, and ambitious in front of someone fare more successful than them.

Perhaps they thought that the idea of sitting around and shooting the shit and talking shop could be seen as "having a vacation" when they really wanted to appear like they were "there to work" or "prove their worth".

Again - I could be totally off base. But this is immediately what I thought about when I picture a group of entrepreneurs sitting around doing busy work in the presence of someone they respect. They did what they thought would be seen as positive, never considering that taking a step back to do what appears "lazy" was precisely the best use of their time in that moment.

Actually, I learned alot about how different me and others work. One blaring difference was the amount of time spent on "other" activities. Now I don't know which is right or wrong, but lifestyles definitely skew the available time that each person has during each day.

I intermittent fast, so I don't eat a breakfast. I also don't drink coffee and I'm not that picky about my food. I usually get Ubereats or just put in a microwave meal for lunch. So my day usually looks like this. I wake up, get a cup of water, go straight to my computer at around 8-9am. I sit there and work until 12, pop in a microwave meal, work through lunch. Some days I would go on a one hour bike ride from 9am-10am. But usually by 1pm, I've gotten 4-5 hours of work done.

Some of my friends, would stay up late, wake up late, say 9-10am. Then they would need coffee or breakfast. By the time they sat down at their computer it would be 11am-12pm. So I'm sitting there and I've gotten 3-4 hours of work done, before they've even started! So imagine this skew over the course of one month. If I'm competing against my friends in the same space, I've probably put in an extra 100 hours of work into my business vs. them. It's no wonder that I can run 3 businesses to their 1 business.

Again, I'm not saying this is better. But it definitely opened up my eyes, because they always tell me that they have no time to do anything else and here I am going biking every day in the afternoon while running 3 businesses.

Right now as I type this it's 8:43am and I've been up since 7am sitting at my computer. By noon, I would have 5 hours of work done. I can spend my whole afternoon hiking or doing whatever.

I learned during this time, how much time cooking, cleaning and enjoying food takes away from working. I'm not saying it's bad to like food, I'm just lucky that I don't care about it that much and that I can't cook. When at home in Arizona I'm 100% Ubereats and Doordash for every dinner.

But here's my main issue with the 14 days. I'm a very single goal oriented person, so if I'm going somewhere to accomplish one goal, that's all that I do during that time. We had set a goal of coming up with a new business for each person during that 14 days. So I would have been 100% concentrating on that goal. Let your current business suffer a little bit during that time, and do what you came to do. Just think of where they would be today if they had accomplished that goal in June!

 

[JAJT]

On the days that they were here... they worked very hard IN their current business.

I could be totally off base here, but the second I read this I immediately wondered if they were worried about appearances and didn't consider that the actions they associated with hard working and the actions they associated with being lazy were accidentally reversed in this scenario.

If this was the case, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were actually doing far more work in your house than they normally ever do on their own, simply because they wanted to appear hard working, busy, and ambitious in front of someone fare more successful than them.

Perhaps they thought that the idea of sitting around and shooting the shit and talking shop could be seen as "having a vacation" when they really wanted to appear like they were "there to work" or "prove their worth".

Again - I could be totally off base. But this is immediately what I thought about when I picture a group of entrepreneurs sitting around doing busy work in the presence of someone they respect. They did what they thought would be seen as positive, never considering that taking a step back to do what appears "lazy" was precisely the best use of their time in that moment.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Whew! Now I'm glad I couldn't make it this summer! I avoided the scrutinizing eye of the Big K!

 

[biophase]

It's 2020 and I've been here at my summer home for 2 months now. Time to update this thread. I didn't run any type of 14 day mastermind this year. In fact, last year's results kind of soured me on the whole thing. However, that doesn't mean that I'm not staying still. I've got a new business moving along that I started in March.

I've had many fastlane visitors come and go. In fact @SteveO just left here an hour ago. This year @JasonR and a couple others are staying with me. Jason's been here the entire two months and honestly, he works alot harder than me. I can tell that he really wants it and is going all in on his business. I'm probably putting in 2-3 hours of work a day and playing the rest of the time. He's in front of his computer and on the phone all day.

I have competition now, as he's surpassed me in sales last month. I used to be the king of my castle! But seriously, having competition is always a good thing, this summer home of fastlaners is now cumulatively pumping out about $1.2M in sales a month.

 

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[biophase]

I have to ask: how clearly did you communicate your expectations? Did you have a daily schedule, with a set time for mastermind sessions? Did you make it clear that attending all 14 days was essential?

It's possible that you didn't communicate as clearly as you think you did. I used to manage volunteers. When they didn't do what they were supposed to, it was often because I didn't properly convey what that was!

No, it was informal. Remember, these are my friends that I've known for a while. It was more like, you should come to my house, so and so will be there, we will come up with a new business by this day. They didn't have to come at all, or stay all 14 days. What I'm saying is that not coming all 14 days does say a little about your priorities. But again, I learned alot about myself because I would have be all in. I don't expect them to be like me.

After they left, I was a little disappointed. But what's disappointing me more is following them on IG and that they are still on vacation. And this isn't the same as me seeing @MJ DeMarco on vacation, because hasn't been complaining about his financial situation for the past year!

 

[biophase]

Ultimately it is the goal of any entrepreneur to step out of operations and into the CEO seat. Too many of us are playing manager day in and day out and when we are done managing, we feel like we accomplished something while the football still sits at the 50 yard line. I’m as guilty as anyone, and know it.

The worst offenders also tend to be the same type of people, in my experience, that say they don’t need to grow THAT much bigger and allude to the fact that they are already so busy, they can’t imagine a bigger company.

I’m here to tell you, bigger companies, run right, are less work than this menial task crap so many people end up doing.

The house I'm talking about in this post is in Colorado. It's my summer home that I went to in May. I just got back to Arizona last Saturday and today was my first day back in the office after being away for 3.5 months. This distance from my physical business has made me only work on long and mid term strategy. My team was able to handle all the day to day stuff. Things are running well. What I mainly do now is strategic thinking. While I was in Colorado I came up with a 12 month plan. Now that I'm back in AZ, I am going to implement it.

 

[1step]

The easiest way to wake up early is to get a new puppy. Every time I get a new foster dog, I know I will be waking up at 6am for the next 2 weeks.

Try an infant it will be effective much longer than 2 weeks

 

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[AgainstAllOdds]

@biophase - If you ever do another 14 days and want another person there, I'd love to come.

If @Greg R and I get the Hustle House launched in Bali, you're also more than welcome to come and stay for two weeks... or two months: "Hustle House": What would you want living-wise as an entrepreneur?.

I'd love to pick your brain and bounce ideas off.

No offense, but I think you may have set yourself up for failure. You told them they didn't have to stay the whole time, so of course they didn't. You didn't tell them how you expected them to spend their time, so of course they did their regular business tasks. Just because they misunderstood you doesn't mean they're not "all in."

You wouldn't run a business the way you ran that retreat. You don't set a goal and say, "We'll achieve this in 14 days," without making a plan.

Anyway, take this with a grain of salt: I'm just a stranger on the internet, and I wasn't there. I'm just responding to what I've read.

And @Hopeful, I'm sorry, but this post is dumb.

@biophase didn't "fail". He invited grown ups to his house and gave them an opportunity to change their lives in a span of two weeks. The fact that they didn't take that opportunity isn't his fault. It's theirs. @biophase has zero obligations towards anyone.

He extended a helping hand which is more than the vast majority of us have ever done. The fact that those individuals didn't act on that help is on them, hence the rant and creation of this thread.

 

[biophase]

Most of us don’t spend nearly enough time thinking through our business strategies. We are caught up in being an Operator vs being an Owner. Truth is we shouldn’t be waiting for entrepreneur retreats to work through strategies and brainstorming. (But when those types of opportunities present themselves we should take full advantage of it!) We should be spending 2-3 times a week thinking about high level business stuff. Not the tactical stuff.

I’m on the second reading of The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham. It’s one of those books I will forever reference back to as a book that positively changed the course of our business. I highly recommend this book to anyone already with an established business.

I go out for a 1-2 hour mountain bike ride and during this ride, I'm listening to podcasts or thinking about strategy. I usually come back with 1-2 ideas which you probably hear about in Slack. lol

I'm also reading that book now, thanks for the recommendation! I'm at the beginning, but one of the first questions he asks is something like, "how much money would you have if you could take back all the stupid decisions that you made in the past 10 years?" Think about that, and think about why you made those decision when you did.

 

[biophase]

14 days seems too long for this kind of stuff. Once you get an idea in the first 2-3 days, you probably want to go back to your base and get onto it right away.

Getting an idea is not the end of business planning. In 14 days, they could have an idea, found suppliers, received samples, gotten a website up, etc... That's why it was 14 days, so by the end of that time, they had a new business started, not just an idea.

No offense, but I think you may have set yourself up for failure. You told them they didn't have to stay the whole time, so of course they didn't. You didn't tell them how you expected them to spend their time, so of course they did their regular business tasks. Just because they misunderstood you doesn't mean they're not "all in."

You wouldn't run a business the way you ran that retreat. You don't set a goal and say, "We'll achieve this in 14 days," without making a plan.

Anyway, take this with a grain of salt: I'm just a stranger on the internet, and I wasn't there. I'm just responding to what I've read.

My whole point is that they didn't have to stay, but they should have wanted to stay. I'm not the one that runs their lives and tells them what to do. They can do what they want, but what they choose to do says alot.

I just heard this from someone today about a job interview. They had a list of requirements to send in and some optional forms to complete before the interview. The ones that didn't complete the optional forms did not get an interview at all.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Actually, I learned alot about how different me and others work. One blaring difference was the amount of time spent on "other" activities. Now I don't know which is right or wrong, but lifestyles definitely skew the available time that each person has during each day.

I intermittent fast, so I don't eat a breakfast. I also don't drink coffee and I'm not that picky about my food. I usually get Ubereats or just put in a microwave meal for lunch. So my day usually looks like this. I wake up, get a cup of water, go straight to my computer at around 8-9am. I sit there and work until 12, pop in a microwave meal, work through lunch. Some days I would go on a one hour bike ride from 9am-10am. But usually by 1pm, I've gotten 4-5 hours of work done.

Some of my friends, would stay up late, wake up late, say 9-10am. Then they would need coffee or breakfast. By the time they sat down at their computer it would be 11am-12pm. So I'm sitting there and I've gotten 3-4 hours of work done, before they've even started! So imagine this skew over the course of one month. If I'm competing against my friends in the same space, I've probably put in an extra 100 hours of work into my business vs. them. It's no wonder that I can run 3 businesses to their 1 business.

Again, I'm not saying this is better. But it definitely opened up my eyes, because they always tell me that they have no time to do anything else and here I am going biking every day in the afternoon while running 3 businesses.

Right now as I type this it's 8:43am and I've been up since 7am sitting at my computer. By noon, I would have 5 hours of work done. I can spend my whole afternoon hiking or doing whatever.

I learned during this time, how much time cooking, cleaning and enjoying food takes away from working. I'm not saying it's bad to like food, I'm just lucky that I don't care about it that much and that I can't cook. When at home in Arizona I'm 100% Ubereats and Doordash for every dinner.

But here's my main issue with the 14 days. I'm a very single goal-oriented person, so if I'm going somewhere to accomplish one goal, that's all that I do during that time. We had set a goal of coming up with a new business for each person during those 14 days. So I would have been 100% concentrating on that goal. Let your current business suffer a little bit during that time, and do what you came to do. Just think of where they would be today if they had accomplished that goal in June!

I used to be that guy saddling up to the work station at 10 am every day. I also felt pressed for time...

Do you know what changed that? The 75 Hard Challenge.

I committed to completing this challenge that takes a minimum of 2 hours every day. Some of the tasks are not the kind you can save for the end of the day so I have to get started early to avoid having to chug water or exercise right before bed.

The ironic thing is that I'm massively more productive in my business. I wake up at 5:30 every day, read and do other powerlist items, then I'm out the door exercising by 6:30, and to my computer by 7:30. I work 8+ hours then I go do another workout and enjoy my evening with the old lady. I find time in the evening to do some online courses to improve my business skills.

Now that I am "forced" by this challenge to be more efficient, it's unbelievable how much more things I can do in a day. It's funny that it took a time-intensive commitment to make me realize this. Sounds like your friends need to check out 75 Hard if they really want to crush it in business.

 

[TonyStark]

It’s crazy how people don’t realize that they’re stuck thinking small, reinforcing their small beliefs by performing these menial tasks day in and day out.

One needs to take time out every week to launch new initiatives, take new direction, and practice thinking bigger.

Only then can you escape the rut you’ve put yourself into.

 

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[ZCP]

@biophase really good rant. it is EXTREMELY frustrating when you give someone an opportunity and they do not take advantage.

then we have to remember that not everyone sees things the same way. all we can do is help those that want to be helped.

call them out directly and see what they have to say. that is what we do in some of the mastermind groups i am in. maybe they didn't even SEE the opportunity. next time they will if you help them see what they missed.

 

[Greg R]

@biophase In construction there is something called "critical path" which is what I believe you are doing. You are focused mostly on the critical steps to get the job done. If one of those critical steps is neglected or put off, it does not move the project forward and the goal will not be completed.

Thanks for the RANT. This helped me rethink the way I'm currently working on my biz.

 

[biophase]

Good call on the waking up early Bio. I have been really trying to get to bed early and wake up early this last week or two.

The easiest way to wake up early is to get a new puppy. Every time I get a new foster dog, I know I will be waking up at 6am for the next 2 weeks. They wake up at daylight and cry and whine until I let them outside and then they want to play. If I put them back in a crate, they whine and I can't sleep anyway.

I say 2 weeks, because eventually they come around to my schedule and get used to waking up later and later. LOL

 

[Walter Hay]

This great thread highlights the wishful thinking approach that is so prevalent among wantrepreneurs.

I have seen this inaction many times in relation to my books. The only people I know of who have bought my books and failed to succeed are ones who never read the book, or skim through it and learn nothing. Another category of failures is the ones who think they know it all anyway, and ignore the voice of experience.

I also know from comments provided to me by others who publish "How To" books that a big proportion of the buyers never read the books or simply fail to put into action any of the solid advice.

The most glaring example in my personal experience is someone who paid $100 for my book and rushed into "business", ignoring every warning, and broke every rule I outlined, with the result that he lost several thousand dollars in quick time.

Maybe they feel good that they have actually done something - bought a business book. (or attended a Mastermind session.)

Walter

 

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[GPM]

Good call on the waking up early Bio. I have been really trying to get to bed early and wake up early this last week or two. Getting to bed early is nearly impossible as I share my bedroom with a baby and a wife, but waking up early is completely under my control.

I have been aiming for 5am, and the days when I succeed I am able to put in just about 5 hours of uninterrupted work before anything else ends up taking my time away. Eventually I want to start getting to bed by 9 or 10, and then waking up closer to 4am.

This also allows me to feed the baby early in the morning and in turn gives my wife more time to sleep, so it is a huge win for the family.

 

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[biophase]

@biophase Out of interest what did you imagine the brainstorming process to look like.

Do you think it only takes a few days to come up with an idea and execute.

Perhaps I am stuck in Analysis Paralysis.

Nothing structured really. But it's really about having the minds to ask the right questions. So if someone said I want to sell supplements on Amazon, others would begin asking questions.

Why?
Why is your product different?
How would you market it?
How are you positioning your brand?

And the person would answer, and we would add on to the answer.

For example, I was brainstorming my bees idea and we were just bouncing scenarios and ideas off of each other. Alot of time, or most of the times the ideas led to nowhere because they was a hole or bad assumption. Asking questions leads to alot of thinking.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Im on the second reading of The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham. It one of those books I will forever reference back to as a book that positively changed the course of our business. I highly recommend this book to anyone already with an established business.

Thanks! Just found my next audiobook!

ruth is we shouldn’t be waiting for entrepreneur retreats to work through strategies and brainstorming.

How did that sampling card idea work out for you? Was it something doable? Or did further investigation exclude it as a strategy?

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Thanks! Just found my next audiobook!


How did that sampling card idea work out for you? Was it something doable? Or did further investigation exclude it as a strategy?

You’ll love this book.

We’ve received a bunch of samples and have requested quotes. It seems very doable. So many options nowadays it’s very impressive what can be done now.

 

[Hopeful]

I have to ask: how clearly did you communicate your expectations? Did you have a daily schedule, with a set time for mastermind sessions? Did you make it clear that attending all 14 days was essential?

It's possible that you didn't communicate as clearly as you think you did. I used to manage volunteers. When they didn't do what they were supposed to, it was often because I didn't properly convey what that was!

 

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[Hopeful]

No offense, but I think you may have set yourself up for failure. You told them they didn't have to stay the whole time, so of course they didn't. You didn't tell them how you expected them to spend their time, so of course they did their regular business tasks. Just because they misunderstood you doesn't mean they're not "all in."

You wouldn't run a business the way you ran that retreat. You don't set a goal and say, "We'll achieve this in 14 days," without making a plan.

Anyway, take this with a grain of salt: I'm just a stranger on the internet, and I wasn't there. I'm just responding to what I've read.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

Sounds different from our Vegas entrepreneur retreat.

Whew! Now I'm glad I couldn't make it this summer! I avoided the scrutinizing eye of the Big K!

Lol. Same here!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

We’ve received a bunch of samples and have requested quotes. It seems very doable. So many options nowadays it’s very impressive what can be done now.

Awesome, I have a feeling that strategy is going to be another quantum leap for your biz.

 

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[Primeperiwinkle]

Getting an idea is not the end of business planning. In 14 days, they could have an idea, found suppliers, received samples, gotten a website up, etc... That's why it was 14 days, so by the end of that time, they had a new business started, not just an idea.
My whole point is that they didn't have to stay, but they should have wanted to stay. I'm not the one that runs their lives and tells them what to do. They can do what they want, but what they choose to do says alot.

You sound very much like a dedicated, focused, hardworking person. I knew that already about you but it’s important to note.

Those friends of yours aren’t successful because they aren’t like you. Expecting ppl who are not successful to have the mindset, drive, habits, and enthusiasm that you have is expecting too much. Plus there’s the whole “a prophet is unwanted in his own country” thing.

Obviously you wanted to help them. But they’re as far away from you as a cute little zoo-kept sloth is from a tiger in the wild. I’m sorry you were disappointed.

 

[Em7]

I would’ve love to attend something like that!

But I kind of understand them. changing mentality from being a worker to a manager isn’t always easy.

The first 6-8 months of my business I did everything on my own(web dev agency). Then suddenly I ran into a project I simply wouldn’t have been able to complete and found two freelancers to do it.

It was a weird revelation to me, it felt wrong and it was such a huge change, but from that day on I haven’t coded on a single client project, all of my client projects have been outsourced to the same set of developers, and my focus has shifted from tech to business.

I’m far from a huge success. But to reduce the hours spent working on a project from 10hours per day to perhaps 2hours allowed me to improve my business.

 

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