Entrepreneurship is a 24-7 WAY OF THINKING, ACTING and EXECUTING, and NOT something to ‘TRY’

[fastlane_dad]

OK guys here is a bit of mindset THURSDAY for you.

I keep hearing and seeing a recurrent theme, whether it’s in my DM, or here on the forum.

So MANY of you approach entrepreneurship as ‘Something to Try’ or talk of ‘Abandoning Entrepreneurship’ or ‘Giving this Fastlane Thing a Try’ … entrepreneurship is also not a 'TIP' you are going to receive from someone on these forums, on youtube OR yahoo headlines ... I don't hold a shortcut to it, and so does nobody else !!

To me fastlane (entrepreneurship) and the pursuit of such has always been a MINDSET, or a way of DAILY thinking and taking action rather than something I’m ‘TRYING’ at the moment.

Even at a time I’m not actively moving towards building up a business (and there were MANY parts like that throughout my life) – I would constantly analyze the world around me in an entrepreneurial way – and I still DO THAT TO THIS DAY consistently on every day basis.

Here are some EXAMPLES that ran through my mind, in just the last WEEK over things I’ve done and how I think about them

*I met a BMW salesperson (as I’m shopping for a large family SUV). Immediately what goes through my head is what is his commission, how many cars does he sell a week, and how much are the BMW cars marked up to be able to pay him that much. How long was he at the BMW dealership for to be able to earn this much clientele, repeat business, and commission. How long has he been doing SALES for, and is it easy to start. What was his barrier of entry in getting into this field, ETC

*I ordered a face cream on Amazon. Instantly I thought about what is it about this face cream that made me purchase it? What skewed the value HIGH ENOUGH for me to fork over cash for product? Who did I hear about this product from? Who influenced me to buy it? If I WAS to market and sell a face cream – what would I do differently? Is this cream the BEST cream I can buy? Why or WHY NOT? Can I add value to this industry somehow and reach a specific demographic? Is there something about this particular cream that still bothers me and is not the ultimate combination of price/size/results?

*I read several articles on INVESTING. Instantly my mind goes to why did I find value in this article? Why do I choose to follow a certain set of writers? Can I produce equivalent if not BETTER / MORE relevant content? What’s stopping me from writing a finance blog and teaching all that I have learned last several years on this topic (good place to start).

*I watched several YOUTUBE videos on finance / car reviews. What did I like / dislike about their videos? How do these people stand out from the rest? What is it about their personality / content that has them acquire 100Ks subs? What products / affiliate marketing do they market on their channel? Do they monetize outside of what the channel pays them? Can I / would I produce similar content?

GUYS these are just very FEW of the thoughts that go through my mind daily. Obviously I don’t act on 95% of these thoughts. The other 5% is what sticks in my brain, and eventually I commit to, and start moving in that direction.

AGAIN – this way of thinking and mindset has been a part of my life since my late teens. I am way more aware and in tune of these thoughts now.

I’m not giving entrepreneurship ‘ a shot’, ‘seeing if its my gig’ or ‘if this will work out’. I TAUGHT myself and ingrained how to think this way – that’s why I have hundreds of opportunities that I spot and CAN act on throughout the day, but won’t / don’t because my life is already so full.

Even when I’m not actively ‘doing’ or executing business – my mind is circling around a fastlane/entrepreneurship way of thinking. It’s 24-7 for me.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me also add. Many, and I mean MANY of my previous endeavours and businesses started out of something I was already a consumer of. I sold automotive accessories because I had a similar accessory on my car (my mind went to 'why don't I sell something similar with a value skew'). I sold baseball cards for a profit because I loved BASEBALL cards and that was my hobby. I sold versions of personal care products - yes you guessed it - because I used a SIMILAR PRODUCT, and thought of a tweak I could make and market it as such.

I never REINVENTED any wheels. I never went into an industry (mostly) that I have not been a consumer of myself. A few times I tried - and all those ended up flops.

Just something for you to ponder over, and to @NeoDialectic point, if you are stuck for ideas - start doing more hobbies or pay attention more to your daily CONSUMPTION and surroundings. Everything you enjoy , and consume - make it a point to think how you can improve on that particular product or what different angle you can bring. And I mean EVERYTHING. Think about the YOUTUBE channels you watch. Think about the trinkets you buy and play with. Think about the Iphone APPS you downloaded. Think about the bookbag you just bought for school. Look - bottom line is 99% of these thoughts and ideas will just be thinking exercise, but eventually you do have to pick an area / discipline and stick to EXECUTION if you ever dream of making FASTLANE / EXIT possible.

 

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[Peter Abrahamian]

OK guys here is a bit of mindset THURSDAY for you.

I keep hearing and seeing a recurrent theme, whether it’s in my DM, or here on the forum.

So MANY of you approach entrepreneurship as ‘Something to Try’ or talk of ‘Abandoning Entrepreneurship’ or ‘Giving this Fastlane Thing a Try’ …

To me fastlane (entrepreneurship) and the pursuit of such has always been a MINDSET, or a way of DAILY thinking and taking action rather than something I’m ‘TRYING’ at the moment.

Even at a time I’m not actively moving towards building up a business (and there were MANY parts like that throughout my life) – I would constantly analyze the world around me in an entrepreneurial way – and I still DO THAT TO THIS DAY consistently on every day basis.

Here are some EXAMPLES that ran through my mind, in just the last WEEK over things I’ve done and how I think about them

*I met a BMW new car salesperson (as I’m shopping for a large family SUV). Immediately what goes through my head is what is his commission, how many cars does he sell a week, and how much are the BMW cars marked up to be able to pay him that much. How long was he at the BMW dealership for to be able to earn this much clientele, repeat business, and commission. How long has he been doing SALES for, and is it easy to start. What was his barrier of entry in getting into this field, ETC

*I ordered a face cream on Amazon. Instantly I thought about what is it about this face cream that made me purchase it? What skewed the value HIGH ENOUGH for me to fork over cash for product? Who did I hear about this product from? Who influenced me to buy it? If I WAS to market and sell a face cream – what would I do differently? Is this cream the BEST cream I can buy? Why or WHY NOT? Can I add value to this industry somehow and reach a specific demographic? Is there something about this particular cream that still bothers me and is not the ultimate combination of price/size/results?

*I read several articles on INVESTING. Instantly my mind goes to why did I find value in this article? Why do I choose to follow a certain set of writers? Can I produce equivalent if not BETTER / MORE relevant content? What’s stopping me from writing a finance blog and teaching all that I have learned last several years on this topic (good place to start).

*I watched several YOUTUBE videos on finance / car reviews. What did I like / dislike about their videos? How do these people stand out from the rest? What is it about their personality / content that has them acquire 100Ks subs? What products / affiliate marketing do they market on their channel? Do they monetize outside of what the channel pays them? Can I / would I produce similar content?

GUYS these are just very FEW of the thoughts that go through my mind daily. Obviously I don’t act on 95% of these thoughts. The other 5% is what sticks in my brain, and eventually I commit to, and start moving in that direction.

AGAIN – this way of thinking and mindset has been a part of my life since my late teens. I am way more aware and in tune of these thoughts now.

I’m not giving entrepreneurship ‘ a shot’, ‘seeing if its my gig’ or ‘if this will work out’. I TAUGHT myself and ingrained how to think this way – that’s why I have hundreds of opportunities that I spot and CAN act on throughout the day, but won’t / don’t because my life is already so full.

Even when I’m not actively ‘doing’ or executing business – my mind is circling around a fastlane/entrepreneurship way of thinking. It’s 24-7 for me.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom!

 

[mikecarlooch]

OK guys here is a bit of mindset THURSDAY for you.

I keep hearing and seeing a recurrent theme, whether it’s in my DM, or here on the forum.

So MANY of you approach entrepreneurship as ‘Something to Try’ or talk of ‘Abandoning Entrepreneurship’ or ‘Giving this Fastlane Thing a Try’ …

To me fastlane (entrepreneurship) and the pursuit of such has always been a MINDSET, or a way of DAILY thinking and taking action rather than something I’m ‘TRYING’ at the moment.

Even at a time I’m not actively moving towards building up a business (and there were MANY parts like that throughout my life) – I would constantly analyze the world around me in an entrepreneurial way – and I still DO THAT TO THIS DAY consistently on every day basis.

Here are some EXAMPLES that ran through my mind, in just the last WEEK over things I’ve done and how I think about them

*I met a BMW new car salesperson (as I’m shopping for a large family SUV). Immediately what goes through my head is what is his commission, how many cars does he sell a week, and how much are the BMW cars marked up to be able to pay him that much. How long was he at the BMW dealership for to be able to earn this much clientele, repeat business, and commission. How long has he been doing SALES for, and is it easy to start. What was his barrier of entry in getting into this field, ETC

*I ordered a face cream on Amazon. Instantly I thought about what is it about this face cream that made me purchase it? What skewed the value HIGH ENOUGH for me to fork over cash for product? Who did I hear about this product from? Who influenced me to buy it? If I WAS to market and sell a face cream – what would I do differently? Is this cream the BEST cream I can buy? Why or WHY NOT? Can I add value to this industry somehow and reach a specific demographic? Is there something about this particular cream that still bothers me and is not the ultimate combination of price/size/results?

*I read several articles on INVESTING. Instantly my mind goes to why did I find value in this article? Why do I choose to follow a certain set of writers? Can I produce equivalent if not BETTER / MORE relevant content? What’s stopping me from writing a finance blog and teaching all that I have learned last several years on this topic (good place to start).

*I watched several YOUTUBE videos on finance / car reviews. What did I like / dislike about their videos? How do these people stand out from the rest? What is it about their personality / content that has them acquire 100Ks subs? What products / affiliate marketing do they market on their channel? Do they monetize outside of what the channel pays them? Can I / would I produce similar content?

GUYS these are just very FEW of the thoughts that go through my mind daily. Obviously I don’t act on 95% of these thoughts. The other 5% is what sticks in my brain, and eventually I commit to, and start moving in that direction.

AGAIN – this way of thinking and mindset has been a part of my life since my late teens. I am way more aware and in tune of these thoughts now.

I’m not giving entrepreneurship ‘ a shot’, ‘seeing if its my gig’ or ‘if this will work out’. I TAUGHT myself and ingrained how to think this way – that’s why I have hundreds of opportunities that I spot and CAN act on throughout the day, but won’t / don’t because my life is already so full.

Even when I’m not actively ‘doing’ or executing business – my mind is circling around a fastlane/entrepreneurship way of thinking. It’s 24-7 for me.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

Thanks this was exactly when I needed to hear this

I just made a decent size commitment in terms of money (for me atleast) for something related to moving my entrepreneurship journey forward, and I wondered why I went with who I went with.

I've had this need for a while and about a month ago I was on the phone with someone I knew from real life who ended up (apparently) becoming this super-successful millionaire, who now has a coaching program.

I got on the call with him, and it was clear he was asking me questions and didn't give a damn about my answer. He was literally just reading from a script, as a matter of fact I knew the exact book that he got the script from but I didn't say anything (You can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar).

Sure, he made me talk a lot about myself which I like (people like talking about themselves obviously), but along with the "Sales-Breath", the thing that made me go "WTF" was when he said.. "You pay me $1000 and I GUARANTEE we'll get your business to $25k a month, I'm so confident that if it doesn't then I'll give your money back"

When I got skeptical and declined, he started making me feel bad about it asking me questions like "IS $1,000 A LOT OF MONEY FOR YOU, MICHAEL??"..

Then I'm like, why is this "millionaire" spending an hour on the phone with me trying to sell the hell out of me? Doesn't he have better things to do?

-

Then today, I got on a call with the person who is now my coach that I followed through with. What I noticed on the call is the following:

1. It was pure genuine value, there was seemingly no script, he just wanted to help me and did.
2. He didn't even ask for the sale at the end. I myself had to bring it up to him because he had already given me so much value. I as the BUYER encouraged him to keep talking to me about working with him.

That was really interesting, and I'm going to take a page out of that experience..

My takeaways : Screw sales scripts, value wins..

 

[NStack]

OK guys here is a bit of mindset THURSDAY for you.

I keep hearing and seeing a recurrent theme, whether it’s in my DM, or here on the forum.

So MANY of you approach entrepreneurship as ‘Something to Try’ or talk of ‘Abandoning Entrepreneurship’ or ‘Giving this Fastlane Thing a Try’ …

To me fastlane (entrepreneurship) and the pursuit of such has always been a MINDSET, or a way of DAILY thinking and taking action rather than something I’m ‘TRYING’ at the moment.

Even at a time I’m not actively moving towards building up a business (and there were MANY parts like that throughout my life) – I would constantly analyze the world around me in an entrepreneurial way – and I still DO THAT TO THIS DAY consistently on every day basis.

Here are some EXAMPLES that ran through my mind, in just the last WEEK over things I’ve done and how I think about them

*I met a BMW new car salesperson (as I’m shopping for a large family SUV). Immediately what goes through my head is what is his commission, how many cars does he sell a week, and how much are the BMW cars marked up to be able to pay him that much. How long was he at the BMW dealership for to be able to earn this much clientele, repeat business, and commission. How long has he been doing SALES for, and is it easy to start. What was his barrier of entry in getting into this field, ETC

*I ordered a face cream on Amazon. Instantly I thought about what is it about this face cream that made me purchase it? What skewed the value HIGH ENOUGH for me to fork over cash for product? Who did I hear about this product from? Who influenced me to buy it? If I WAS to market and sell a face cream – what would I do differently? Is this cream the BEST cream I can buy? Why or WHY NOT? Can I add value to this industry somehow and reach a specific demographic? Is there something about this particular cream that still bothers me and is not the ultimate combination of price/size/results?

*I read several articles on INVESTING. Instantly my mind goes to why did I find value in this article? Why do I choose to follow a certain set of writers? Can I produce equivalent if not BETTER / MORE relevant content? What’s stopping me from writing a finance blog and teaching all that I have learned last several years on this topic (good place to start).

*I watched several YOUTUBE videos on finance / car reviews. What did I like / dislike about their videos? How do these people stand out from the rest? What is it about their personality / content that has them acquire 100Ks subs? What products / affiliate marketing do they market on their channel? Do they monetize outside of what the channel pays them? Can I / would I produce similar content?

GUYS these are just very FEW of the thoughts that go through my mind daily. Obviously I don’t act on 95% of these thoughts. The other 5% is what sticks in my brain, and eventually I commit to, and start moving in that direction.

AGAIN – this way of thinking and mindset has been a part of my life since my late teens. I am way more aware and in tune of these thoughts now.

I’m not giving entrepreneurship ‘ a shot’, ‘seeing if its my gig’ or ‘if this will work out’. I TAUGHT myself and ingrained how to think this way – that’s why I have hundreds of opportunities that I spot and CAN act on throughout the day, but won’t / don’t because my life is already so full.

Even when I’m not actively ‘doing’ or executing business – my mind is circling around a fastlane/entrepreneurship way of thinking. It’s 24-7 for me.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me also add. Many, and I mean MANY of my previous endeavours and businesses started out of something I was already a consumer of. I sold automotive accessories because I had a similar accessory on my car (my mind went to 'why don't I sell something similar with a value skew'). I sold baseball cards for a profit because I loved BASEBALL cards and that was my hobby. I sold versions of personal care products - yes you guessed it - because I used a SIMILAR PRODUCT, and thought of a tweak I could make and market it as such.

I never REINVENTED any wheels. I never went into an industry (mostly) that I have not been a consumer of myself. A few times I tried - and all those ended up flops.

Just something for you to ponder over, and to @NeoDialectic point, if you are stuck for ideas - start doing more hobbies or pay attention more to your daily CONSUMPTION and surroundings. Everything you enjoy , and consume - make it a point to think how you can improve on that particular product or what different angle you can bring. And I mean EVERYTHING. Think about the YOUTUBE channels you watch. Think about the trinkets you buy and play with. Think about the Iphone APPS you downloaded. Think about the bookbag you just bought for school. Look - bottom line is 99% of these thoughts and ideas will just be thinking exercise, but eventually you do have to pick an area / discipline and stick to EXECUTION if you ever dream of making FASTLANE / EXIT possible.

This was a great kick in the butt, thanks Dad!

 

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[Ivan Koretskyy]

Here’s a great analogy for this…

Do you think people that go to the gym “Give it a try” to get 6-pack abs?

I honestly believe that if you can manage to get a lean 6-pack, you can also manage to get a million dollars if you use the same mindset that it took for you to get ripped. Just redirect it into getting money.

Not trying to flex, but this is coming from a guy with 6 pack abs (View my previous forum posts). Both mindsets are exactly the same.

 

[Andy Black]

I was having lunch today and recognised the guy clearing tables.

"You work in Cranstons in <my village> don't you?"

"Yeah, I was there for 5 years but started here a week ago. I'm saving a load of money on petrol now."

"I bet!"


10 minutes later I finished up and chatted to him on the way out.

"You should start a podcast. You've a voice for radio."

"I've heard that before. We're doing <some play> next week. The directors asked if I've ever done Shakespeare because I'd make a great Othello."

"Maybe you can get some work doing voiceovers?"

"What, like Audible? I never thought of that."

I laughed, slapped him on the shoulder, and bade him a cheery good luck.


I was driving up the road and kicked myself for not telling him to check out fiverr or upwork. But I planted a seed.

Always On eh?

 

[Andy Black]

1. It was pure genuine value, there was seemingly no script, he just wanted to help me and did.
2. He didn't even ask for the sale at the end. I myself had to bring it up to him because he had already given me so much value. I as the BUYER encouraged him to keep talking to me about working with him.

Sound familiar?

 

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[mikecarlooch]

Sound familiar?

You bet

 

[Antifragile]

Curious to hear your thoughts.

I didn’t start thinking this way. Initially I failed a few business ideas for all the obvious reasons. Then I sort of fell into this one business as a side hustle and almost went bust. Lessons learned from there changed my thinking a bit. Then I got a job with one of the most impressive but eccentric entrepreneurs. He built an empire! And I got to work for him directly, I saw this kind of thinking live everyday. That was in a distant past but I keep telling people how much I learned from a “job”.

Of course I’ve learned even more since that time… from books like MJs, and most of all from my own business. Now I too am wired to think and see opportunities around me. Point is, i don’t think we are born thinking this way, it’s a learned skill.

This is a great post! Thanks for writing it.

 

[Andy Black]

Everyone believes opportunity knocks once in our lifetime and we need to grab it with both hands when it does.

When your ears are tuned you'll realise opportunity knocks on your door so often it's a drumroll.

 

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[andyhaus44]

Thought you all might like this

 

[Albert KOUADJA]

TThan

OK guys here is a bit of mindset THURSDAY for you.

I keep hearing and seeing a recurrent theme, whether it’s in my DM, or here on the forum.

So MANY of you approach entrepreneurship as ‘Something to Try’ or talk of ‘Abandoning Entrepreneurship’ or ‘Giving this Fastlane Thing a Try’ …

To me fastlane (entrepreneurship) and the pursuit of such has always been a MINDSET, or a way of DAILY thinking and taking action rather than something I’m ‘TRYING’ at the moment.

Even at a time I’m not actively moving towards building up a business (and there were MANY parts like that throughout my life) – I would constantly analyze the world around me in an entrepreneurial way – and I still DO THAT TO THIS DAY consistently on every day basis.

Here are some EXAMPLES that ran through my mind, in just the last WEEK over things I’ve done and how I think about them

*I met a BMW salesperson (as I’m shopping for a large family SUV). Immediately what goes through my head is what is his commission, how many cars does he sell a week, and how much are the BMW cars marked up to be able to pay him that much. How long was he at the BMW dealership for to be able to earn this much clientele, repeat business, and commission. How long has he been doing SALES for, and is it easy to start. What was his barrier of entry in getting into this field, ETC

*I ordered a face cream on Amazon. Instantly I thought about what is it about this face cream that made me purchase it? What skewed the value HIGH ENOUGH for me to fork over cash for product? Who did I hear about this product from? Who influenced me to buy it? If I WAS to market and sell a face cream – what would I do differently? Is this cream the BEST cream I can buy? Why or WHY NOT? Can I add value to this industry somehow and reach a specific demographic? Is there something about this particular cream that still bothers me and is not the ultimate combination of price/size/results?

*I read several articles on INVESTING. Instantly my mind goes to why did I find value in this article? Why do I choose to follow a certain set of writers? Can I produce equivalent if not BETTER / MORE relevant content? What’s stopping me from writing a finance blog and teaching all that I have learned last several years on this topic (good place to start).

*I watched several YOUTUBE videos on finance / car reviews. What did I like / dislike about their videos? How do these people stand out from the rest? What is it about their personality / content that has them acquire 100Ks subs? What products / affiliate marketing do they market on their channel? Do they monetize outside of what the channel pays them? Can I / would I produce similar content?

GUYS these are just very FEW of the thoughts that go through my mind daily. Obviously I don’t act on 95% of these thoughts. The other 5% is what sticks in my brain, and eventually I commit to, and start moving in that direction.

AGAIN – this way of thinking and mindset has been a part of my life since my late teens. I am way more aware and in tune of these thoughts now.

I’m not giving entrepreneurship ‘ a shot’, ‘seeing if its my gig’ or ‘if this will work out’. I TAUGHT myself and ingrained how to think this way – that’s why I have hundreds of opportunities that I spot and CAN act on throughout the day, but won’t / don’t because my life is already so full.

Even when I’m not actively ‘doing’ or executing business – my mind is circling around a fastlane/entrepreneurship way of thinking. It’s 24-7 for me.

Curious to hear your thoughts.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me also add. Many, and I mean MANY of my previous endeavours and businesses started out of something I was already a consumer of. I sold automotive accessories because I had a similar accessory on my car (my mind went to 'why don't I sell something similar with a value skew'). I sold baseball cards for a profit because I loved BASEBALL cards and that was my hobby. I sold versions of personal care products - yes you guessed it - because I used a SIMILAR PRODUCT, and thought of a tweak I could make and market it as such.

I never REINVENTED any wheels. I never went into an industry (mostly) that I have not been a consumer of myself. A few times I tried - and all those ended up flops.

Just something for you to ponder over, and to @NeoDialectic point, if you are stuck for ideas - start doing more hobbies or pay attention more to your daily CONSUMPTION and surroundings. Everything you enjoy , and consume - make it a point to think how you can improve on that particular product or what different angle you can bring. And I mean EVERYTHING. Think about the YOUTUBE channels you watch. Think about the trinkets you buy and play with. Think about the Iphone APPS you downloaded. Think about the bookbag you just bought for school. Look - bottom line is 99% of these thoughts and ideas will just be thinking exercise, but eventually you do have to pick an area / discipline and stick to EXECUTION if you ever dream of making FASTLANE / EXIT possible.

Thanks you @fastlane_dad for the sharing of your wisdom.

 

[NeoDialectic]

Everyone believes opportunity knocks once in our lifetime and we need to grab it with both hands when it does.

When your ears are tuned you'll realise opportunity knocks on your door so often it's a drumroll.

This reminds me of a topic @fastlane_dad and I discussed a few months ago. There have been times in our career that the most important thing we were doing for weeks/months was simply biding our times waiting for opportunity to knock. Our eyes and ears were like satellites receiving waves from everywhere. We were of course doing things that would either facilitate exposure to opportunities or prepare us to jump into action. But the things themselves weren't making us money. Opportunity comes knocking all the time, and you need to be prepared to grab it by the horns when it does.

"Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity" - Seneca

 

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[mikecarlooch]

This reminds me of a topic @fastlane_dad and I discussed a few months ago. There have been times in our career that the most important thing we were doing for weeks/months was simply biding our times waiting for opportunity to knock. Our eyes and ears were like satellites receiving waves from everywhere. We were of course doing things that would either facilitate exposure to opportunities or prepare us to jump into action. But the things themselves weren't making us money. Opportunity comes knocking all the time, and you need to be prepared to grab it by the horns when it does.

"Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity" - Seneca

This reminds me of something I want to ask.

This is a weird subconscious thing but I'll do my best to put it into words..

Whenever I'm doing something like this for too long, seeking opportunity or something of that nature, something that's not directly leading to making money, I have this uneasy pit in my stomach telling me I'm wasting my time.

All of a sudden this leads to going back and forth in my mind, and eventually mental burn out to the point where I'm questioning if I should be doing something else so much, that it leads to mental burnout and true time-wasting activities (like scrolling on social media)

For example, sometimes one of the things I'll want to do is go and ask a bunch of successful business owners in my industry what some of the things they are struggling with are, but I mentally note that something like this will take 3 hours of time.. but something about it feels like a waste of time.

This also leads me to another thing that I'm just super curious about, it's just this weird thing that goes on in my mind:

Whenever I'm sitting behind my computer, something that bugs me is - what are successful people actually doing? Are they out and about in the world making stuff happen in person? Should I be out constantly pitching people..? Or are they doing what I'm doing, on their computer all day.. Something tells me they HAVE to be doing something else, and it makes it a bit uneasy.

What is your definition of "Making stuff happen"?

not sure if any of this makes sense haha!

 

[EquinoxS]

I never REINVENTED any wheels. I never went into an industry (mostly) that I have not been a consumer of myself. A few times I tried - and all those ended up flops.

Just something for you to ponder over, and to @NeoDialectic point, if you are stuck for ideas - start doing more hobbies or pay attention more to your daily CONSUMPTION and surroundings. Everything you enjoy , and consume - make it a point to think how you can improve on that particular product or what different angle you can bring. And I mean EVERYTHING. Think about the YOUTUBE channels you watch. Think about the trinkets you buy and play with. Think about the Iphone APPS you downloaded. Think about the bookbag you just bought for school. Look - bottom line is 99% of these thoughts and ideas will just be thinking exercise, but eventually you do have to pick an area / discipline and stick to EXECUTION if you ever dream of making FASTLANE / EXIT possible.

Great post, fastlane_dad. Thanks for this!

I like this paragraph most because it illustrates that you don't need to create a crazy innovative, never-seen-before product. You 'just' need a value skew. That has been one of my major misconceptions for years.

What I still struggle with, however, is how to skew value with certain product parameters while keeping the others at least on par. Example: Let's say I like the algorithm of a software (it provides awesome results) but the UI is hideous. I could skew value by creating a software with a better UI but it would be worthless without an equally great algorithm in the back (which I might not know how to create or it might take years to learn how to do so). Because of this 99% of ideas are quickly sorted out.

How have you dealt with such issues in your business? I guess getting a partner with the required background to fill the gap might be a solution. Or the product is 'simple enough' that the required know-how for most product parameters is common knowledge and suppliers can help you easily.

 

[fastlane_dad]

This reminds me of something I want to ask.

This is a weird subconscious thing but I'll do my best to put it into words..

Whenever I'm doing something like this for too long, seeking opportunity or something of that nature, something that's not directly leading to making money, I have this uneasy pit in my stomach telling me I'm wasting my time.

All of a sudden this leads to going back and forth in my mind, and eventually mental burn out to the point where I'm questioning if I should be doing something else so much, that it leads to mental burnout and true time-wasting activities (like scrolling on social media)

For example, sometimes one of the things I'll want to do is go and ask a bunch of successful business owners in my industry what some of the things they are struggling with are, but I mentally note that something like this will take 3 hours of time.. but something about it feels like a waste of time.

This also leads me to another thing that I'm just super curious about, it's just this weird thing that goes on in my mind:

Whenever I'm sitting behind my computer, something that bugs me is - what are successful people actually doing? Are they out and about in the world making stuff happen in person? Should I be out constantly pitching people..? Or are they doing what I'm doing, on their computer all day.. Something tells me they HAVE to be doing something else, and it makes it a bit uneasy.

What is your definition of "Making stuff happen"?

not sure if any of this makes sense haha!

I'll give you a quick response. @NeoDialectic and I actually discussed this last week for a while - and I'm sure he can chime in further!

But the jist of your question - is what is ACTION FAKING in your case? In order to answer that - you need to know what your objectives, goals and time horizons are.

Let's say @NeoDialectic and I start a 'blog on finance'. And we're spending 5 hours a day on it. We're doing tons of research, reading books, on the subject, etc. If our objective is to create a fastlane business, with massive revenue and profits, within a relatively short timeframe (1-3 years) - that path and actions would TO US look and smell like action faking.

Sure, the blog can, and might at some long far away distant point produce SOME revenue, but we are deluding ourselves to think that it has a chance to become a huge fastlane success.

BUT if our mindset and objective (however long term) is to refine our writing, educate ourselves on finance, clear up some of our thinking, build a customer list, and release a finance book in 5-10 years that we can promote to that customer list - the BLOG, RESEARCH and the tasks behind it are TOTALLY in line with our goals, and are part of the proper ACTIONS we need to be taking.

SO - in my mind, the best way to address what you are asking - is are your daily 'TO-DO's and your ACTION LISTS corresponding with moving you forward towards your current WHY's , GOALS and OBJECTIVES?

@NeoDialectic and I reached massive FINANCIAL SUCCESS because we focused purely on tasks and actions that would lead to FINANCIAL OUTCOMES. If they didn't, or yield that seed, within a relatively short time span, we would cut out those actions, plans, and move on to trying something else that would bear that fruit. That's just one of 'several' ways to do it - as there is obviously no right way - but that's what worked.

So what does that mean? It means that we looked to turn a $3 worth of ingredients into a $60 dollar product. It means we looked at value skew. It means we looked at marketplace and opportunity that can get us there WITHIN a short time frame. If our 'goal' was to sell GOLD PENS - we typically weren't writing blogs on the best pen, but instead trying to locate a marketplace with WRITERS and a large population so that we can place that pen in front of them.

Look at your current TO-DO list for the day, and how you are spending your time. Which of your items and tasks on the list are moving your closer to your goals, especially if those goals are (one day) million dollar revenue and profits. Or even ANY profit.

If I'm postponing working on my fastlane business and instead hanging out here , making threads, reading hours of content daily and contributing - well in ways that would be ACTION FAKING.

BUT my objectives here currently are clear, I am here to help and bring value - and demonstrate a MINDSET that brought me to an 8 figure net worth. I never feel like I 'wasted' my time on this forum.

Hope this helps, but will add more on the topic once the coffee settles in

 

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[mikecarlooch]

I'll give you a quick response. @NeoDialectic and I actually discussed this last week for a while - and I'm sure he can chime in further!

But the jist of your question - is what is ACTION FAKING in your case? In order to answer that - you need to know what your objectives, goals and time horizons are.

Let's say @NeoDialectic and I start a 'blog on finance'. And we're spending 5 hours a day on it. We're doing tons of research, reading books, on the subject, etc. If our objective is to create a fastlane business, with massive revenue and profits, within a relatively short timeframe (1-3 years) - that path and actions would TO US look and smell like action faking.

Sure, the blog can, and might at some long far away distant point produce SOME revenue, but we are deluding ourselves to think that it has a chance to become a huge fastlane success.

BUT if our mindset and objective (however long term) is to refine our writing, educate ourselves on finance, clear up some of our thinking, build a customer list, and release a finance book in 5-10 years that we can promote to that customer list - the BLOG, RESEARCH and the tasks behind it are TOTALLY in line with our goals, and are part of the proper ACTIONS we need to be taking.

SO - in my mind, the best way to address what you are asking - is are your daily 'TO-DO's and your ACTION LISTS corresponding with moving you forward towards your current WHY's , GOALS and OBJECTIVES?

@NeoDialectic and I reached massive FINANCIAL SUCCESS because we focused purely on tasks and actions that would lead to FINANCIAL OUTCOMES. If they didn't, or yield that seed, within a relatively short time span, we would cut out those actions, plans, and move on to trying something else that would bear that fruit. That's just one of 'several' ways to do it - as there is obviously no right way - but that's what worked.

So what does that mean? It means that we looked to turn a $3 worth of ingredients into a $60 dollar product. It means we looked at value skew. It means we looked at marketplace and opportunity that can get us there WITHIN a short time frame. If our 'goal' was to sell GOLD PENS - we typically weren't writing blogs on the best pen, but instead trying to locate a marketplace with WRITERS and a large population so that we can place that pen in front of them.

Look at your current TO-DO list for the day, and how you are spending your time. Which of your items and tasks on the list are moving your closer to your goals, especially if those goals are (one day) million dollar revenue and profits. Or even ANY profit.

If I'm postponing working on my fastlane business and instead hanging out here , making threads, reading hours of content daily and contributing - well in ways that would be ACTION FAKING.

BUT my objectives here currently are clear, I am here to help and bring value - and demonstrate a MINDSET that brought me to an 8 figure net worth. I never feel like I 'wasted' my time on this forum.

Hope this helps, but will add more on the topic once the coffee settles in

This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

I've never seen this laid out so clear, thank you!

Adding on this I do have another question pertaining to goals.

When you were setting goals to achieve massive financial success, what did you base them off of? Was it just based off of something random you came up with and decided that, that was what you wanted to achieve? Or was there a more scientific approach to it?

Was it literally just for example opening up a google doc, typing 5 year goals, typing objectives you need to complete within the next year for each of those goals, and then listing the tasks that need to be done consistently day in, day out, for each of those objectives?

Do you have an example of a goal you set + the objectives + tasks needed to be done that lead to great results? (sorry for so many questions, lol)

 

[NeoDialectic]

This is EXACTLY what I needed to hear.

I've never seen this laid out so clear, thank you!

Adding on this I do have another question pertaining to goals.

When you were setting goals to achieve massive financial success, what did you base them off of? Was it just based off of something random you came up with and decided that, that was what you wanted to achieve? Or was there a more scientific approach to it?

Was it literally just for example opening up a google doc, typing 5 year goals, typing objectives you need to complete within the next year for each of those goals, and then listing the tasks that need to be done consistently day in, day out, for each of those objectives?

Do you have an example of a goal you set + the objectives + tasks needed to be done that lead to great results? (sorry for so many questions, lol)

As far as our processes went, you are waaaaaay overthinking it. Remember, we are better deceiving ourselves than anyone else! If there is room to run while having some level of cover, we will. The smarter you are the better the cover you can build. Calling out your own BS takes vigilance. Don't take it as a bad thing that you get the "uneasy pit in your stomach". Use it. There were no google docs, 5 year goals, or complicated business plans. Complicating things doesn't help a starting business and leaves a lot of room for you to sneak in Action Faking.

Luckily, simple things leave very little room. The hidden message in @fastlane_dad 's post is that when you know what your exact overarching goal is, it becomes hard to not know when you are just action faking. Our overarching goal was "Build a business that provided value and made us a lot of money". We always saw money as a byproduct of providing value, which was shown in sales. So it really boiled down to, "how can we create something that will produce a sale as soon as possible". If it's not as soon as possible, then I've been action faking based on my goals.

So here is a sample of a work day when we ran out of to-do''s at the earlier stages of our business where we had a good product up and running but not too much success yet. Our work day would start with us thinking about what we could do to move the business forward and taking notes on a whiteboard. Afterwards, everything would be filtered through "is there a direct line from this idea to more sales in the short or long term". All great ideas that we answered no to got put into an ever growing backburner list and the rest of the no's got tossed. The ideas that we answered yes to were more or less sorted by how direct the line was from idea to sales. Then once we had an idea at the top of the list, we split up what needed to be done to get it implemented ASAP . Usually there could be 3-6 things. We split those tasks up between the two of us based on well established preferences and started moving on it that day.

Once that task gets done within the next day/week, we just move onto the next one on the list. That's it.

Dont forget. Before having a "massive financial success", you need to have a "financial success". Before that you need to have a "I could live like this - success". Before that you need "this is a nice supplement to my income - success". And finally before that you need "Holy crap someone actually gave me a dollar for my product/service - success".

Outside of being choosy with your initial idea to not limit possibility (CENTS), don't worry about requirements to be a "massive financial success" until you've reached the previous ones first. That's why at first you have to be ruthless with how simple your goal and action plan is. You need to act act act. Notice how in my Idea Generation Thread I put so much stress on testing the idea as soon as possible. It's as much of a thread on how to get to your first dollar as it is on generating your idea. So at that stage, anything that doesn't contribute directly to generating an idea, researching the idea, and then testing the idea is just action faking. At the next step if it isn't contributing to making your final product and increasing sales, it's action faking. Then the larger your business gets the more long term and nebulous your plans become. By the end we were doing many things that we had no clue if it was exactly paying off but thought it was good for the customer, business, and brand long term. At the beginning we did absolutely nothing that wasn't required to see a market signal.

 

[NeoDialectic]

This reminds me of something I want to ask.

This is a weird subconscious thing but I'll do my best to put it into words..

Whenever I'm doing something like this for too long, seeking opportunity or something of that nature, something that's not directly leading to making money, I have this uneasy pit in my stomach telling me I'm wasting my time.

All of a sudden this leads to going back and forth in my mind, and eventually mental burn out to the point where I'm questioning if I should be doing something else so much, that it leads to mental burnout and true time-wasting activities (like scrolling on social media)

For example, sometimes one of the things I'll want to do is go and ask a bunch of successful business owners in my industry what some of the things they are struggling with are, but I mentally note that something like this will take 3 hours of time.. but something about it feels like a waste of time.

This also leads me to another thing that I'm just super curious about, it's just this weird thing that goes on in my mind:

Whenever I'm sitting behind my computer, something that bugs me is - what are successful people actually doing? Are they out and about in the world making stuff happen in person? Should I be out constantly pitching people..? Or are they doing what I'm doing, on their computer all day.. Something tells me they HAVE to be doing something else, and it makes it a bit uneasy.

What is your definition of "Making stuff happen"?

not sure if any of this makes sense haha!

It may be prudent to point out that there is a time and place for everything. In this thread I have made a post talking about "biding our time preparing for opportunity to hit" and also a post ""how can we create something that will make a dollar as soon as possible". To the unsuspecting eye that sounds like two diametrically opposed ideas!

It's not. It all depends on your current goals and situation. The most important thing is to clearly know what your goal is and clearly know what the point of your action is. As long as those two align, its great. But if you are just starting out and want to start a business....You don't just "wait for opportunity to hit". You make something happen ASAP.

 

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[fastlane_dad]

Our work day would start with us thinking about what we could do to move the business forward and taking notes on a whiteboard. Afterwards, everything would be filtered through "is there a direct line from this idea to more sales in the short or long term". All great ideas that we answered no to got put into an ever growing backburner list and the rest of the no's got tossed. The ideas that we answered yes to were more or less sorted by how direct the line was from idea to sales. Then once we had an idea at the top of the list, we split up what needed to be done to get it implemented ASAP . Usually there could be 3-6 things. We split those tasks up between the two of us based on well established preferences and started moving on it that day.

Once that task gets done within the next day/week, we just move onto the next one on the list. That's it.

Excellent overall overview of how things went the last 15+ years or so. The key takeaway is highlighted above, and it is what I advocate to many on their 'just starting out journey'.

Taking out a sheet of paper (or a whiteboard in our case), and writing down 5-10 low-level actions you can move on TODAY.

Many times this is the ONLY thing that would move our business forward, and we would see progress. Otherwise time / busy tasks would just get away from us, and weeks would pass without any significant momentum or progress (and back to the whiteboard it went).

It's fine to have a high-level overview/thinking/goals - but then you need to break it down to VERY small bite size pieces that you can work on immediately.

It's one thing to write down 'MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS / START A FASTLANE BUSINESS / BUY LAMBOS' - but then what does it mean? You can't act on any of that...instead what that can be broken down to IS ...

Use @NeoDialectic idea generation machine to come up with 5-10 products you can improve on if you are absolutely stuck on which route to move ...

After that tasks can include ...

1 - Call 1-3 vendors to see if they can add my 'magic sauce/extra ingredient' into the mixture. Can I ask them for a sample made? How much is the minimum order? What is the price per item?

2 - Research and figure out what will my profit margin have to be, in order for this to be a realistic goal. If my goal is to sell on Amazon or any other platform (and offer free shipping, etc) - THINK and account for ALL the costs that can be incurred to sell this. Run the math (the numbers NEED to work for this to be fastlane) - and figure out if you are leaving enough room for an advertising budget. What does that mean ? It means you should be looking to sell a $3-5 product for $60-100. You need enough ROOM in the profit to pay employees (and pay them well as we did). To rent / buy equipment. To rent office space. To pay for a/c, internet and water bills. And most importantly, to get your product off the ground with advertising (which is getting more expensive then ever all around).

3 - Or let's say you already have the product in your hand your tasks can include - brainstorming 1-3 ways to spread awareness of the product (publications? news outlets? influencers? marketplaces to list on ?). Can't get a hold of the publication? Find out whos in charge. Find their linkedin profiles. Introduce yourself, let them know what you are doing, and find other ways around to contacting the person who can potentially help move you forward.

4 - Contact legal / lawyers to find on trademarks for XYZ ... Oh that trademark is taken? Brainstorm a list of 3-5 names to sleep on and commit to for the product / brand / etc

5 - And on and on ...

We hit MANY dead ends with MANY of the things we started, and you will too. And that's absolutely OK!

We made and acted on DOZENS of 'tasks' that hit a dead end, and went nowhere as well. Business ideas, and partial execution that went nowhere. Advertising and money spent that yielded ZERO on the investment.

All in all - this is one of the best *TIPS* I can give that literally will put you on the correct side of the track.

Truth of the matter, many of us inherently KNOW some of the actions we need to be taking, AND can undoubtedly come up with the most important 5-10 tasks to do to move you forward - but instead put them off, look to find shortcuts, watch some more 'inspirational youtube guru' videos, or just plain self-talk our way out of doing anything (meh what's the point, this is never gonna work).

As some of Jordan Petersons story goes 'A Bad Plan is better then No Plan' ... and I sincerely stand by that. You can course correct on a bad plan. If you have NO plan, you will just stand still for ages to come, and that's not a good place to end up.

And look. Many (or some) of these things - weren't exactly 'fun business action faking' activities. Sometimes it wasn't exactly what we were 'in the mood' to do that particular day. But as long as we kept our 'high level goals/overview' in mind - this made ALL of the actions severely more palatable day to day.

 

[mikecarlooch]

As far as our processes went, you are waaaaaay overthinking it. Remember, we are better deceiving ourselves than anyone else! If there is room to run while having some level of cover, we will. The smarter you are the better the cover you can build. Calling out your own BS takes vigilance. Don't take it as a bad thing that you get the "uneasy pit in your stomach". Use it. There were no google docs, 5 year goals, or complicated business plans. Complicating things doesn't help a starting business and leaves a lot of room for you to sneak in Action Faking.

I'm not going to lie I have a disorganized mess of google docs with goals, ideas, business plans that I have seemingly moved away from and they're all just a waste of space seemingly now, so I will use your approach instead going forward.. lol

Luckily, simple things leave very little room. The hidden message in @fastlane_dad 's post is that when you know what your exact overarching goal is, it becomes hard to not know when you are just action faking. Our overarching goal was "Build a business that provided value and made us a lot of money". We always saw money as a byproduct of providing value. So it really boiled down to, "how can we create something that will make a dollar as soon as possible". If it's not as soon as possible, then I've been action faking based on my goals.

When you put it this way, I do a lot of action faking... Makes so much sense

So here is a sample of a work day when we ran out of to-do''s at the earlier stages of our business where we had a good product up and running but not too much success yet. Our work day would start with us thinking about what we could do to move the business forward and taking notes on a whiteboard. Afterwards, everything would be filtered through "is there a direct line from this idea to more sales in the short or long term". All great ideas that we answered no to got put into an ever growing backburner list and the rest of the no's got tossed. The ideas that we answered yes to were more or less sorted by how direct the line was from idea to sales. Then once we had an idea at the top of the list, we split up what needed to be done to get it implemented ASAP . Usually there could be 3-6 things. We split those tasks up between the two of us based on well established preferences and started moving on it that day.

Once that task gets done within the next day/week, we just move onto the next one on the list. That's it.

This is very clarifying thank you

Dont forget. Before having a "massive financial success", you need to have a "financial success". Before that you need to have a "I could live like this - success". Before that you need "this is a nice supplement to my income - success". And finally before that you need "Holy crap someone actually gave me a dollar for my product/service - success".

I sometimes forget that I'm only on the second one.. and I feel like I set goals too big for where I'm currently at, and there's no path to them. I needed to realize i'm only on step 2 right now..

Outside of being choosy with your initial idea to not limit possibility (CENTS), don't worry about requirements to be a "massive financial success" until you've reached the previous ones first. That's why at first you have to be ruthless with how simple your goal and action plan is. You need to act act act. Notice how in my Idea Generation Thread I put so much stress on testing the idea as soon as possible. It's as much of a thread on how to get to your first dollar as it is on generating your idea. So at that stage, anything that doesn't contribute directly to generating an idea, researching the idea, and then testing the idea is just action faking. At the next step if it isn't contributing to making your final product and increasing sales, it's action faking. Then the larger your business gets the more long term and nebulous your plans become. By the end we were doing many things that we had no clue if it was exactly paying off but thought it was good for the customer, business, and brand long term. At the beginning we did absolutely nothing that wasn't required to see a market signal.

This makes sense! Got it!

 

[mikecarlooch]

Excellent overall overview of how things went the last 15+ years or so. The key takeaway is highlighted above, and it is what I advocate to many on their 'just starting out journey'.

Taking out a sheet of paper (or a whiteboard in our case), and writing down 5-10 low-level actions you can move on TODAY.

Many times this is the ONLY thing that would move our business forward, and we would see progress. Otherwise time / busy tasks would just get away from us, and weeks would pass without any significant momentum or progress (and back to the whiteboard it went).

This is super relatable, except too many of my days for me currently end up being on the side of busy tasks and time wasted. I'll follow your advice and I will get back to you

It's fine to have a high-level overview/thinking/goals - but then you need to break it down to VERY small bite size pieces that you can work on immediately.

It's one thing to write down 'MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS / START A FASTLANE BUSINESS / BUY LAMBOS' - but then what does it mean? You can't act on any of that...instead what that can be broken down to IS ...

This is my exact issue . Except I do it daily, for example the other day I wrote down that I wanted to reach out to my dream 100, but I didn't know who my dream 100 was or what I was going to say to them..

Use @NeoDialectic idea generation machine to come up with 5-10 products you can improve on if you are absolutely stuck on which route to move ...

After that tasks can include ...

1 - Call 1-3 vendors to see if they can add my 'magic sauce/extra ingredient' into the mixture. Can I ask them for a sample made? How much is the minimum order? What is the price per item?

2 - Research and figure out what will my profit margin have to be, in order for this to be a realistic goal. If my goal is to sell on Amazon or any other platform (and offer free shipping, etc) - THINK and account for ALL the costs that can be incurred to sell this. Run the math (the numbers NEED to work for this to be fastlane) - and figure out if you are leaving enough room for an advertising budget. What does that mean ? It means you should be looking to sell a $3-5 product for $60-100. You need enough ROOM in the profit to pay employees (and pay them well as we did). To rent / buy equipment. To rent office space. To pay for a/c, internet and water bills. And most importantly, to get your product off the ground with advertising (which is getting more expensive then ever all around).

3 - Or let's say you already have the product in your hand your tasks can include - brainstorming 1-3 ways to spread awareness of the product (publications? news outlets? influencers? marketplaces to list on ?). Can't get a hold of the publication? Find out whos in charge. Find their linkedin profiles. Introduce yourself, let them know what you are doing, and find other ways around to contacting the person who can potentially help move you forward.

4 - Contact legal / lawyers to find on trademarks for XYZ ... Oh that trademark is taken? Brainstorm a list of 3-5 names to sleep on and commit to for the product / brand / etc

5 - And on and on ...

It's hard to grasp sometimes that business is this simple , I overcomplicate it way too much

We hit MANY dead ends with MANY of the things we started, and you will too. And that's absolutely OK!

We made and acted on DOZENS of 'tasks' that hit a dead end, and went nowhere as well. Business ideas, and partial execution that went nowhere. Advertising and money spent that yielded ZERO on the investment.

All in all - this is one of the best *TIPS* I can give that literally will put you on the correct side of the track.

Truth of the matter, many of us inherently KNOW some of the actions we need to be taking, AND can undoubtedly come up with the most important 5-10 tasks to do to move you forward - but instead put them off, look to find shortcuts, watch some more 'inspirational youtube guru' videos, or just plain self-talk our way out of doing anything (meh what's the point, this is never gonna work).

As some of Jordan Petersons story goes 'A Bad Plan is better then No Plan' ... and I sincerely stand by that. You can course correct on a bad plan. If you have NO plan, you will just stand still for ages to come, and that's not a good place to end up.

And look. Many (or some) of these things - weren't exactly 'fun business action faking' activities. Sometimes it wasn't exactly what we were 'in the mood' to do that particular day. But as long as we kept our 'high level goals/overview' in mind - this made ALL of the actions severely more palatable day to day.

Now that I think about it, with the times I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, it's really just a product of bad planning..

 

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[mikecarlooch]

@NeoDialectic @fastlane_dad

This morning I did what you said on a white board, took me about 20 minutes

What I came up with was all built around any team, being a better leader, and being more organized with the team with operating procedures

I realized that the team will drive much more sales because without a great team it’s hard to be confident, and deliver the kind of value we want to deliver.

It seems like once the team is in place everything else will fall into place because of the confidence behind my own words to others on what we can do.

The truth is? I had been avoiding this stuff for a long time because it feels super boring, was just making excuses the whole time.

I wrote down -

brainstorm a better team strategy
create operating procedures to keep the team on track
Implement the team strategy

Goal for the day: organize team, add better leadership, because it will lead to better value generated

Thanks guys! And any feedback on what I could do better?

 

[NeoDialectic]

@NeoDialectic @fastlane_dad

This morning I did what you said on a white board, took me about 20 minutes

What I came up with was all built around any team, being a better leader, and being more organized with the team with operating procedures

I realized that the team will drive much more sales because without a great team it’s hard to be confident, and deliver the kind of value we want to deliver.

It seems like once the team is in place everything else will fall into place because of the confidence behind my own words to others on what we can do.

The truth is? I had been avoiding this stuff for a long time because it feels super boring, was just making excuses the whole time.

I wrote down -

brainstorm a better team strategy
create operating procedures to keep the team on track
Implement the team strategy

Goal for the day: organize team, add better leadership, because it will lead to better value generated

Thanks guys! And any feedback on what I could do better?

I'm not sure what you do or your current work/projects are, so I can't comment until I do. I see multiple links in your signature.

Can you clarify what the point of your project is that you did all this for? I mean the actual end point. Please save us all time from reading between the lines of niceties, ego, pr talk, and everything else. What is your goal with your project.

 

[mikecarlooch]

I'm not sure what you do or your current work/projects are, so I can't comment until I do. I see multiple links in your signature.

Can you clarify what the point of your project is that you did all this for? I mean the actual end point. Please save us all time from reading between the lines of niceties, ego, pr talk, and everything else. What is your goal with your project.

Hey Sure what I was talking about in this thread was the following :

I’ve already got a small team overseas that are video editors for a service I have that provided unlimited video editing

I didn’t feel like the team was put together well enough, so the goal is to put together an overseas team of editors that can handle more clients, and also train them through videos and tutorials to combine their editing skills with my knowledge of video structure, to then deliver a better product to clients.

The reason for putting emphasis on this is that there will be much more confidence in selling the product if the team is put together in the way I have planned to.

 

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[NeoDialectic]

Hey Sure what I was talking about in this thread was the following :

I’ve already got a small team overseas that are video editors for a service I have that provided unlimited video editing

I didn’t feel like the team was put together well enough, so the goal is to put together an overseas team of editors that can handle more clients, and also train them through videos and tutorials to combine their editing skills with my knowledge of video structure, to then deliver a better product to clients.

The reason for putting emphasis on this is that there will be much more confidence in selling the product if the team is put together in the way I have planned to.

So the end goal of your work is to put a good team together that can edit videos for anyone that needs video editing? That is pretty noble of you to give back to the community like that. Who's funding this charitable work?

 

[mikecarlooch]

So the end goal of your work is to put a good team together that can edit videos for anyone that needs video editing? That is pretty noble of you to give back to the community like that. Who's funding this charitable work?

What Unlimited really means is unlimited requests, done 1 by 1.

On average an editor in the philippines costs 240-300/month and I sell the service for 700. 1 editor can handle the work for 2-4 clients.

The differentiating factor (that I am trying to create, I admit I didn’t before getting this idea), is the filtering of editors through a hiring process and the training that will be given to them

 

[NeoDialectic]

I feel like we have to be talking past each other as none of your answers are what I am actually trying to ask. So let me ask this a different way. If tomorrow you have assembled an all star team that does the following really well

handle more clients, and also train them through videos and tutorials to combine their editing skills with my knowledge of video structure, to then deliver a better product to clients.

Unlimited really means is unlimited requests, done 1 by 1.

On average an editor in the philippines costs 240-300/month and I sell the service for 700. 1 editor can handle the work for 2-4 clients.

The differentiating factor (that I am trying to create, I admit I didn’t before getting this idea), is the filtering of editors through a hiring process and the training that will be given to them

but you don't make yourself, your business, or your employees any money....You will consider this a success right? Because when I ask

Can you clarify what the point of your project is that you did all this for? I mean the actual end point. Please save us all time from reading between the lines of niceties, ego, pr talk, and everything else. What is your goal with your project.

and you give your answers, that is what it seems to me that you are implying. Your judgement of success is that action. Not sales/money. If so, then it sounds like your whiteboard exercise went exactly as our advice described it should.

---

Just in case someone is reading this that is in a similar situation but has different goals, I will reply based on that as well. If you were trying to build a business with an ultimate goal of making money, then I would not consider that white board exercise consistent with the advice (I left the pertinent sentences in):

Complicating things doesn't help a starting business and leaves a lot of room for you to sneak in Action Faking.

The hidden message in @fastlane_dad 's post is that when you know what your exact overarching goal is, it becomes hard to not know when you are just action faking. Our overarching goal was "how can we create something that will make a dollar as soon as possible". If it's not as soon as possible, then I've been action faking based on my goals.

The ideas that we answered yes to were more or less sorted by how direct the line was from idea to sales.

So at that stage, anything that doesn't contribute directly to generating an idea, researching the idea, and then testing the idea is just action faking.

From my understanding is you already have a functional team together, but you are now trying to focus on making everything just right so you can finally offer some perfect value to people. Which is really cool as a vanity project and to tell your other buddies over the BBQ. But in my eyes its doing everything but facing the number one obstacle between you and the success of your idea (the sale itself). Right now, you are doing the equivalent of focusing on whether your business card is professional enough for a man of your future selfs stature. If your goal is to make money and actually provide people with value, you first need to get the people there. Again, it sounds like you have a basic team and plan already assembled. So your goals should all be focused on how to get clients to sign up to your unlimited requests idea. Then when you are starting to become flooded with more clients than your not-so-perfect team can handle, you start regearing your goals immediately to fixing that. Which THEN would result in a whiteboard exercise like you outlined.

Then in 20 years you will be on Tim Ferris's podcast spouting the stereotypical "Just like any startup, we had some serious growing pains when we disappointing some people. But then we doubled down on focusing on the quality of our team and made it up to everyone. Then we became the worlds premier video editing outlet and everyone lived happily ever after".

I don't know your actual situation, so this advice may be wrong if my assumptions weren't right (like if you don't actually have a team set up....Or if you are already running a wildly successful editing biz and you are now focusing on growing your brands image regardless of immediate income). Luckily, your ultimate goal isn't to make sales so it doesn't apply to you anyways. But if someone theoretically did line up with my assumptions and were in your shoes, I think this would be great advice!

 

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[mikecarlooch]

I feel like we have to be talking past each other as none of your answers are what I am actually trying to ask. So let me ask this a different way. If tomorrow you have assembled an all star team that does the following really well


but you don't make yourself, your business, or your employees any money....You will consider this a success right? Because when I ask

and you give your answers, that is what it seems to me that you are implying. Your judgement of success is that action. Not sales/money. If so, then it sounds like your whiteboard exercise went exactly as our advice described it should.

Ahh. I missed your point - yes I want to make SALES. the goal is to build a business that makes a boat load of money. a LOT.

From my understanding is you already have a functional team together, but you are now trying to focus on making everything just right so you can finally offer some perfect value to people. Which is really cool as a vanity project and to tell your other buddies over the BBQ. But in my eyes its doing everything but facing the number one obstacle between you and the success of your idea (the sale itself). Right now, you are doing the equivalent of focusing on whether your business card is professional enough for a man of your future selfs stature. If your goal is to make money and actually provide people with value, you first need to get the people there. Again, it sounds like you have a basic team and plan already assembled. So your goals should all be focused on how to get clients to sign up to your unlimited requests idea. Then when you are starting to become flooded with more clients than your not-so-perfect team can handle, you start regearing your goals immediately to fixing that. Which THEN would result in a whiteboard exercise like you outlined.

I have one question about this.

If the value is not great from the start, won't that create a bad reputation if I go and onboard a ton of new clients without being much different than the competition?

I feel like if something is sloppy at all, and I sell it to people like it's this amazing thing, and it's an oversell and underdeliver type of thing.. it'll mess it up

Thanks for responding, really appreciate you putting up with me and my questions!

 

[NeoDialectic]

Ahh. I missed your point - yes I want to make SALES. the goal is to build a business that makes a boat load of money. a LOT.

I have one question about this.

If the value is not great from the start, won't that create a bad reputation if I go and onboard a ton of new clients without being much different than the competition?

I feel like if something is sloppy at all, and I sell it to people like it's this amazing thing, and it's an oversell and underdeliver type of thing.. it'll mess it up

Thanks for responding, really appreciate you putting up with me and my questions!

So it really depends on what your business actually is.

Here are a 3 different progressions I can imagine from the top of my head:

1. You are a great video editor. You provide great results and value. Your goal should be to increase sales until you can no longer handle the workload. You shift focus on hiring another editor that has been vetted or trained by you to meet your standard. Then you shift focus back to increasing sales. Then you do this recursively and in more efficient and sophisticated manners until you are CEO of a company. You do none of the editing yourself but you manage hundreds of editors that meet your companies high standards. Your reputation is of ultimate importance from the first sale to the last. This is a very common route for artisans that transform their small businesses to large powerhouses over decades.

2. You are a great editor, but your immediate vision far exceeds your capability. You invest tens of thousands of dollars of your own money to hire a good team and then continue funding them at a loss. (Or get investors involved). I don't think this is the plan you are talking about.

3. You are a great editor, but want to provide value to more people than you can do alone. You come up with a plan to do so and put together a team of people that meet a decent standard. You deploy your product to see if your sales pitch works. You do your best to meet your customer demands. You may stumble on the way, but you hopefully rise to the occasion. Your reputation will be built on trying to do right by your customer and fixing what you can when you don't live up to expectation. People respect that too. But it sounds like you are trying to go from zero to running an entire team perfectly without some battle hardening first.

#1 is the classic story and progression. #2 is silicone valley. #3 sounds like what your plan is.

Again, I don't know your exact business, your business model, or your desired sales pitch. So I can't speak with authority on your exact situation. But don't lie to clients. Advertise what you earnestly believe you could provide at your best and try your best to pull it off. Don't get into a cycle of prefect-perfect-perfect before releasing your product to the market. It would be better for you to limit the sales artificially at first, than perfecting some team to handle a huge load just to never actually see the load.

What I mean by artificially limiting is: Getting the sale but apologizing and saying your service is actually fully booked right now and you can't accept them as a client RIGHT NOW, but will get back to them when you can.

If you read the success stories here and elsewhere, you will see that in many of the stories the person got in over his head. Normal people may view this as over promising and under delivering. But that is because most people are programmed to just give up. Instead of over promising and under delivering the person in the story rose to the occasion and worked his a$$ off to deliver as promised. They couldn't of rose to the occasion if there was no occasion. (like a sale). Here is a thread I just started on it.

- I was on the way out when I wrote this, so may have a few errors, but hope it helps!