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Building a Strong Foundation & Maximizing Your Productivity

Lesson 2 from: Lessons on Leadership

Peter Voogd

Building a Strong Foundation & Maximizing Your Productivity

Lesson 2 from: Lessons on Leadership

Peter Voogd

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Lesson Info

2. Building a Strong Foundation & Maximizing Your Productivity

Lesson Info

Building a Strong Foundation & Maximizing Your Productivity

- Building a strong foundation and maximizing productivity. You might think, "Wait, I thought we were talking about leadership and building a team." This is a huge key to leadership, because you cannot be an effective leader that leads an organization if you're not effective and productive with your time. If you want to attract high quality people to your business, to your organization, to your vision, you have to be someone that's attractive enough where they can learn from you. So, you always want to be outgrowing them. So, building a strong foundation. Game plan for this section. The biggest problems facing entrepreneurs. I'm going to go over the importance of productivity. We're going to go through the five hidden gems of increased productivity. I'm going to go over the Prize Fighter Routine you need. And then the bullet proof implementation plan. What I've done here guys is I have spent extra hours simplifying the content to where I took the 20 minutes, 30 minutes of content and t...

hen simplified it to like two or three actions for you to take. So, here's the deal too, guys, I have gone through so many trainings, so many seminars, so many courses and I just have a bad feeling sometimes when I watch something that doesn't really give me value or give me real tactical proven road maps. So, that is why I took in the pride. I promise this will be the most deep dive training you've ever gone through. And I am really going to dive deep in what you guys need help with. So, I am excited. So, that's the productivity focus for the day. Here is the biggest problems I have seen. And this is based off a lot of surveying, a lot of research, a lot of due diligence, training 6,000+ people, and just having a lot of interaction with different entrepreneurs. And maybe you guys can relate to these. First, they do not thoroughly educate themselves first on their industry. They do not do their due diligence. They get into an industry because that sounds exciting or someone says they have a good skill for that, "Hey, you would be good at this." And they jump right in. They do not educate themselves on what the market needs, the values, how to make sure they attract the right people, things like that. Too much information, not enough implementation. We just talked about this, right? People are obsessed with information and knowledge, but they are not obsessed with execution and taking action. Because that's actually hard. Right? The easy part's reading. If anyone can do it, it is not that valuable. Anybody can listen to a podcast. So if you listen to podcasts, it's not that valuable. Anybody can read a book. It is not that valuable. A three-year-old could read a book. It's not that valuable. Where the value comes in play, guys, is executing on the information that you learn. When you listen to a podcast can you take the one or two things that are most relevant to your business, and can you execute and put that in your business and actually get results, right? So, the key here is to focus on mastery not overload. No real guidance or the wrong guidance. Who can already relate to some of these? Raise your hand. This was me at the beginning, I was all of these by the way. I had every problem, okay? Also inconsistent mind set action and habits. People want level 10 success, but they have a level 3 circle of influence. Or they want level 10 income, but everyone around them has level 4 income. And they are like "Why is my income not growing?" It's because who they're around has a certain income and it's hard to get above that if your circle of influence has a certain level of income. Incongruent circle of influence, false judgments around money, and the result is most people end up broke, stressed, unhappy, frustrated, and they eventually quit or settle and they don't build their dream business. Then they're 50, 60, 70, 80 and they have regret. And if I could do anything I want to lower your regret, so you have zero regret from this day forward, okay? So, most of these revolve around time management and productivity. Most of those issues we just talked about can be solved if you actually maximize your time. Who feels like they can get better at maximizing their time and productivity? Raise your hand. Awesome. I am talking to the right people. If someone didn't raise your hand, I'm going to call you up here and you're going to teach it with me. Just kidding. So, what is productivity? I mean, there is a lot of definitions, right? I put a couple in here, so I want to relate to the different types of entrepreneurs there are. But a productive life is a life focused on, and committed to producing and progressing towards your ideal vision, right? Focused and the reality is, a life best lived is a life lived by design. And who should design your ideal life? You should. And if you do not design your life, you are going to fit in someone else's and that is a problem. So, the use of your time, energy, intelligence, and resources you have, okay? In a manner calculated to move you closer to meaningful goals. That is really my definition of productivity. The use of all the resources, time, energy you have, to move you closer to your ideal outcomes, okay? Now, productivity is more than getting results. We've talked about this too. It's more than just improving your business, making more money, getting more customers. Productivity is about creating freedom to be with family, to do what you want, and have 100% control over your future. That is real productivity. You will not get to the end of your life and wish you had more transactions, I promise. You are going to wish you had better relationships, an amazing lifestyle, meaningful purpose, and that's what productivity does, all right? Productivity isn't about doing more faster, it's about doing the right things deliberately and with intention. So, the shift that I had to make, because I was working 80 hours a week, I got into business to have flexibility and I had none. I had more flexibility at my nine to five that I had, right? But here is the game changing moment for me. I had to tell myself, "I will be disciplined instead of working all the time." I will be disciplined. I will be strategic and intentional instead of working all the time. Most people that are working extra hours, they're not seeing their family, they're working late, it's because they are not as effective as they could be when they are working. This is not just about results. This is about building a world class lifestyle that you are proud of. This is beyond leadership. I will be disciplined instead of working all the time. Now the rookie mistake at this section, the rookie mistake here, guys, is working without a proven system. People are taking a lot of random acts of action and they are starting the week without it written on paper first. They are adapting and adjusting versus being strategic and making a definite decision on what's most important for their business. So, that's the rookie mistake. So, I want you to really conceptualize this, your calendar, or your scheduling system, whether you use... Whatever scheduling system you use, that's a reflection of your integrity. Your calendar for the week is a reflection of your integrity and who you are. So, I want to bust the myth of "I do not have enough time," once and for all. Because a lot of people are saying, it's the biggest excuse of this century. I don't have enough time. You hear it from everybody, right? I need more time, I don't have enough time, I can't do this and this. Man, my business is taking all this time. My kids, this, this. Let me simplify and tell you guys how to break this down to where you understand, there is a lot of time, people are just wasting most of it. So, let's break it down. There is 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week, no more, no less. Am I right with that? I think there's like one day a year where there is like an extra hour, right? Don't be that person that's like, "There's one day a year." I don't need that. So, there's 24 hours in a day, 168 in a week, right? You guys all know that. Let's say you spend 52 hours a week sleeping. That's a lot, right? Seven and a half hours a night. If you get eight, you can do the math differently, or you get six, maybe you have more time. Let's say that you spend 50 hours a week at school or working. So, whether this is your current job, your entrepreneur ventures, or school. Let's say you spend 50 hours a week doing that. Not 40, 50. 15 hours a week eating. That is a lot. 24 hours more a week, let's say relaxing. Games, hiking, movies, TV, family, whatever it is. And let's say you have four more hours where you have an event you do, or church that you go to, or maybe you play intramural sports or something. That's another four hours, right? So, how many hours is that? That's 145 hours. How many hours in a week? So, you could watch five more hours of TV, and if you're serious about your goals, TV is probably not the right focus for you, right? But you could watch 5 more hours of TV and you'd still have 18 hours unaccounted for. So, after you've done everything possible and watch TV, you still have 18 more hours. So, where does this excuse, "I do not have enough time," come from? It's just an alibi for mediocrity. You have the same amount of time as Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins. All these people, Michael Jordan, LeBron James. You have the exact same amount of time. And it's funny I laugh, a lot of times mediocre people hate on successful people like they don't have the same 24 hours. It's like, they have the same time as you, they are just maximizing it, right? So, here's what I want to get across to you guys. You will always have time for what is most important. Period. And how do you know what is important to you? Whatever you spend your time on. Subconsciously. You will always make time for what's important to you. You might say this is important, but in reality, this is important. Because that's what you're spending time on, right? So, you will always have time for what's most important. So, we're going to talk about your customized weekly time management system, all right? So, there's five things we're going to go over, powerful and purposeful intention, how to set intentions, and how to make sure you're strategic. Pre-determining your outcome. Putting everything in your schedule. Then protecting your time and creating boundaries for your time. The more you protect your time, the more valuable it becomes. And if you don't protect your time and value your time, nobody else will. And then being fully present while leveraging your time. Through whether it's technology, through different systems, through people, leveraging your time. So, recommended time for this, every week, probably 60 to 90 minutes. I do now 30 to 60 because I've done this for three and a half, four years now. But every minute planning saves 30 to 60 minutes of wasted time. And I want to get this down. This is pretty quick. - But I'm wondering how often? - No, every week. - Oh, every week. I'm sorry. - Yeah, it's all good. No, you're good. - I was just wondering how often? - Every single week, I do this and I usually do it Sundays, but I've refrained the last couple of years of telling people exactly. I just tell them the outcome and kind of the philosophy and they do their own way. So, it doesn't need to be Sunday at this time. I just do it Sundays because I feel like that's a good day where a clear my head, think about the week in front of me and the previous week. So, here's what you need, Journal, no distractions, and your personalized weekly master plan. This has saved me hundreds if not thousands of hours of work. So, this is the weekly master plan. It tells you exactly what to do. Then, all the questions I go through. And what I've realized is all the multimillionaires that I've known, that I've been around, that I've been in masterminds with, that are my friends, they have a very, very similar structure. Almost everyone I connect with that's at a high level has a similar structure. That's why I've simplified it for you guys. Next, you've got to have a top notch state of mind and this is a big key. When you're going into this activity for the week, you can't do it where you're like, "I got to plan my week. Let's sit down." You have to be like getting yourself in the zone, whether you just worked out. Maybe you have to shake yourself up a little bit, write in your journal, maybe look at your goals, visualize, but you have to get in the right state of mind before you do this. Also, always have your "Big Five" which we'll talk about. So, your "Big Five" for the next six months. What are the five goals that you need to accomplish, that you really want to accomplish in the next six months? And then study your one page plan, which I'll talk about. This doesn't work unless you're in the right state of mind and you understand purpose and intention. So, number one, "Powerful and Purposeful Intention." Here's the first key. You have to invest all your past experience, successes and failures, into your future preparation. If you do this, there's no reason you should ever have two bad weeks in a row, ever, ever, ever. There was a stat that I'll never forget. Michael Jordan, who averaged 30 points a game his whole career. 29 point something his whole career. Anytime he had a game less than 15 points, his next game, he average over 40. What does that mean? Who can tell me what that means? He never had two bad games in the history of his career. You think that was by accident? Why? Why didn't he have two bad games? - Because he planned and prepared. - When he had a bad game, what did he do? Planned, prepared, focused on what he did wrong, he watched film. Do you think he went out and partied? "Forget it, I'm Michael Jordan." He did the exact opposite, while his teammates probably did that, he actually studied film and he left the gym to go to his home gym. He never wanted two bad games. It blows my mind how people have bad years back to back. How is that possible? How do you have two bad years? Never thinking about how you had a bad year in the first place? That's why this should never happen. So, invest what went well this week? What did you do well? Where did you waste time? When were you in the zone? What activities yielded the biggest results? What should you have done more of? So, invest all that into your next week's preparation. And the trick to productivity is deciding what you're going to work on at some point other than in the moment. Most decisions you make in the moment based off emotion are wrong. Especially in business, they are very wrong. You got to think it through and base it off intelligence, not emotion. So, then practicing the high value work until it's natural and automatic. So step one, pause and reflect. So, write a paragraph. We're not going to do this now, but just get it down and you guys already have the material so you don't... A lot of this is in here, guys, so you won't need to write all this down so you could just pay attention. But, two, what did you get done? And this is in a paragraph. What did you get done last week? How many you guys have had a week where you felt pretty busy, but you actually looked at what you really did and you're like, "I didn't do very much." Who's ever had that? I've had that where I thought I was super busy and I'm like, "I didn't actually get done that much stuff that's actually important. Man, I need to switch that." A lot of people don't become aware and they do the same thing over and over again, right? So, what did you get done? What went well and what didn't go well? Where did you waste time? This was a big one for me. I did this until I no longer wasted time, unless I chose to waste time based on something maybe I loved or had some free time because I got certain things done. Next, when were you at your best? A big key to productivity is figuring out when you're in the zone and when you're not. Some people work better in the morning, some work better at night. Figure out when your best state of mind is to do your most important work and allocate your toughest tasks to that time. Some people that are creative, I have creative friends that are in the creative process, that are entertainers, they're in music. Their creative time is between 11:00 at night and 2:00 in the morning. I haven't seen that in years. I'm like dead asleep. My creative time is in the morning, while they're sleeping. But it depends on who you are and what your personality is. Did you add enough value to the marketplace? This might not be relevant to some of you guys. It is for me. I like to add a lot of value to my customers, to my fans, to the marketplace. So, this is what I always ask. So, the weekly summary, this is what you want... and this is all just brainstorming in your head before you really dive in to what you're going to write down. So, one is, what are you 100% committed to making happen this week no matter what? What are you 100% committed to making happen no matter what? And this is all in here. Seven day review. What are you committed to making happen. I do this every week. Like, if nothing else happens, if nothing else in your entire world happens, what are the things that have to get done to move your business forward. Next, what are your top six wins from last week? This is very important to focus on gratitude and to focus on things you've done well. Most people kill themselves over what they did wrong. They always focus on... they're their biggest critic. They always say, "I did this wrong." I know I've done wrong things, but focus on what's right. So, what are your biggest wins? Who are you waiting on? This is big if you have a team. Who are you waiting on, and who do you need? Who do you need to email you certain things? Who do you need to move the project forward or whatever. And for me, I add in "What am I excited about for the next week?" You get into a complacent state when you don't have something to look forward to. So, what are you excited about? Maybe it's taking your significant other to dinner, maybe it's traveling, maybe it's a massage, maybe it's going to the hot tub, I don't know. Playing basketball. What are you excited about? So, this is your Personalized Weekly Master Plan. I'm going to kind of go through these again. And the reason I put all these up here is because you guys have very different businesses. So, you pick what's most relevant to you. What are your top commitments this week? What are you most excited about? What are your top projects that must be completed? What are the client projects that you said you'd get done, and you haven't got done and you need to move forward? What are your top four actions that will move that project forward? So, these are the things that you need to figure out in your first 20 minutes of masterminding, brainstorming, visualizing, writing things down. Then we're going to simplify into what's most important. Because you have to realize, doing something unimportant well doesn't make it any more important. If you're really good at something that doesn't matter in your business, it doesn't make it more important. Okay, so that's why you got to simplify. Step one is just brainstorming, kind of having a summary of the week. Step two is pre-determining your outcome. So, here's a big one. What are your most valuable priorities? What are the most valuable priorities in your business that have been proven to move your business forward? Because I've seen people that are just busy being busy, and they're so busy doing things that aren't important that they don't have the energy to do what's really important and usually it's the things that you don't feel like doing or the things that scare you that really move your business forward. That's why you have to say, "Hey, what are my most valuable priorities this week?" Next, here's a big one. Your top three Profit Producing Activities. Businesses are supposed to make profit, right? So when people tell me, "My business isn't making money". Well, are you focusing on the things that make money? Well, no. It's not just going to happen, right? You got to have your profit producing activities. So, what has been proven in the last six months to a year to make your business profits? If there's 10 things, 80/20 that and figure out the top 20 so you could double down on those and make more money. Now, there's different stages of your business, okay? Here's the deal. Sometimes if your business is autopilot, it's crushing it, you're already making six or seven figures and it's systematized, you don't always need to focus on the profit producing activities. Because then, you could focus on more legacy base, building the team, the bigger vision. But a lot of entrepreneurs I see, guys, they focus on the bigger picture and all the things that make the business look great, but they forget about the profit producing and they don't have any money coming in. So, you need money to make money to build a team, to invest back in yourself, to invest back in marketing, right? So, what are your top three profit producing? And a lot of times, these are the things you don't feel like doing or you're nervous to do. You should do these first thing, hardest task first because that gives you the confidence and courage to take over everything else. You wait to do these things until the end of the day, then what happens? "I'll do it tomorrow." And you're not really running a business. It's just a hobby then. Top three non-negotiables. I added this in because I realized as I get older, it's not just about money or income. It's about being world class in every area. Not just health, not just financial freedom, not just business, in every area. The leaders who are going to get the most respect, the most success and build the most amazing businesses are the ones that are world class in every area. For me, I work out five or six days a week. Health. Lifestyle, I love traveling. Family, obviously, I do things every single week at a certain time, whether it's going out to eat, whether it's seeing family, whether it's phone calls with my mom, whatever it is. But I make sure it's scheduled every week so it's not just when I feel like it, it's actually instituted in my schedule as a ritual. Now, a lot of times these are non-business. So, what are some non-negotiables? There's a lot of parents out there that are putting business first and their non-negotiable should be their kids or their family, but they're forgetting about it. So this helps people make sure they don't forget about what's most important. Next, what people do you need to reach out to this week? A lot of people write down their goals and goals are only half the battle. It's who can get you to speed up your goals faster. What people do you need to reach out to to cut your learning curve in half? That's a big one for me. So who can you connect with this week in your industry that's already doing really well that you can get advice and guidance from? Who can you reach out to to help your goals go faster. And then, in this new economy, you got to figure out who you're serving. Who are you committed to serving this week? Who are you committed to adding value to? Who is your ideal client? Who is your target market? Who is the people that would benefit from your services the most? Are you adding value to them? We have like six or seven things every week, whether it's an article in Forbes or Entrepreneur, or whether it's a podcast going out, whether it's a YouTube video, whether it's my Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook. I have stuff every single week that goes out, that I pay for that my team takes care of, and now it's streamlined, but it's every week because I want to serve as many people as possible. A lot of you guys don't have enough value out there to where people are understanding or knowing even about your business. So, that's number two. You guys got this down? Pre-determine your outcome. This is where you really think and this hurts your head a little bit. You have to really sit there and think, "Man, what do I really need to do this week? What are my profit producing activities?" Now, if you don't know, that's where connecting with people at a higher level can tell you, "Hey, in this industry, here's your biggest money makers". "Oh, my gosh. I was not doing that at all." And they can kind of course correct for you. Three, putting it in your schedule. This is pretty simple. First thing, you put in your schedules everything you can't change. Out of all those things you wrote down, what can you not change? Like this week, I could not change this training. I tried. No, I'm just kidding. I could not change this training. But everything you can't change. Maybe, you have classes. If you're in school, if you're watching online, if you're in school, maybe you have your kid's recital, maybe your son's basketball game. You can't change that, you can't call the coach, "Hey, I've got to do this work." Certain things you can't change. Next, what you're 100% committed to make happen. That's next. After that, your profit producing activities. And you want to set up your business and build your six figure dream team and develop the leadership skills, so this happens on its own. A lot of my friends' businesses, they could take six months off and profits would continue to grow. But that takes a lot of setting up the foundation prior to actually doing this stuff. Your top three non-negotiables, health, wealth, family, whatever. Who you're reaching out to and when? Is this helping, guys? Who you're reaching out to and when? I like to put, so, Thursday from 10:00 to 2:00, I'm going to connect with Tim Ferriss. I'm going to connect with Chase, whatever. I put in my schedule. Every week, I'm trying to reach out to people playing the game at a higher level than me, keeps me from ever getting complacent. The power of a mentor, or having someone hold you to high standards is astronomical. There was a time when I was 22, 23 when I went from broke to six figures, I had over 100 grand in my bank account. Not saying that at all to brag, but I'm 22, 23 like, "Dude, I am on top of the world. I have so much money." And I hired a mentor that was a millionaire and he was like, "That's really nothing." I'm like, "What do you mean? It's more than my friends." He was like, "Are you really going to compare just to your broke friends?" But the whole conversation total... I might have got complacent and went on a whole new path. But because he challenged me, like, "That's not much at all. I had a million at your age." I'm like, "Well, thank you for raining on my parade." But the reality is my standards went way up because he challenged me. And if he didn't challenge me, I would have been excited about making six figures and not reach for more. And the more, guys, the more you protect your time, the more valuable it becomes. And now, you finally have your schedule. You have everything mapped out strategically based on your values, based on your business, based on what's most important. Now, it's protecting your time because how many of you guys have made a schedule? And it's a perfect schedule, you're fired up and excited, but then you just keep getting distracted, raise your hand. Friends want your time, clients want your time, social media wants your time, Facebook wants your time, right? So, this is how I've really maximized and minimized my distractions, but maximized my productivity. One, create technology free zones. When I'm writing in my book, when I'm writing and creating content or I'm writing proposals or whatever, I'm writing a speech, I go places where there's no technology because I've done it plenty of times where I'm fired up to create something and then I'm on Facebook. And then I'm going over, then I'm on Twitter. Then there's a little kitten video. Then there's.. crazy stuff happens. Then all of sudden, it's like, it's been 40 minutes watching like funny videos. What the heck happened to the book that I'm writing? I know you guys all can relate to that. You got to go to technology free zones and I've done this before to where I've tried to get on the internet like three times, but there's no internet. I'm like, "Damn, oh that's right, I did that on purpose." Then I go back to my work. Now, I don't need to do that, but you won't believe the distractions. If you don't have a plan to interrupt your interruptions, your plans will always be interrupted, period. So, you've got to have a plan to disrupt your interruptions and be ruthlessly focused on what's most important. Next, don't be too accessible. Don't be where you answer your phone all the time or like when you're working, your phone is right here on loud. Don't be in a workspace where all the people around you know who you are and you're working right there and they're all talking to you. Don't be too accessible when you're working on certain projects. I haven't answered my phone when I don't know who it is for like years. There's a voicemail for that, they can text me. I have not answered my phone if I don't know who it is for a long time because that's interrupting my agenda and you want to stay in control of your agenda, not have someone else. Just protect your time. Be unorthodox. Here's a big one for me. If you're an entrepreneur, there are so many different hacks you can use to make sure that you're maximizing your time, where don't go to movies when everyone else goes to the movies. Don't grocery shop when everyone else grocery shops. You're wasting time in line. When you go order food, call ahead so it's ready when you get there. Monday through Thursday is amazing to travel. It's hard to do if you're at a nine to five because you want to travel weekends, but it's day and night difference. Like when you travel on weekdays, A, the hotels are 60% off, B, It's a lot more exciting because there's not as many people. If you travel on Monday to Thursday on an airport, it's like empty. What if you travel Friday, Saturday, Sunday? It's packed. So just be unorthodox and do things differently than most people, you'll save a lot of time that way. Next, teach people how to communicate with you. How do you want to be communicated? What is your most relevant and your best platform to where you communicate? Is it Twitter? Is it email? Is it phone? Is it Skype? Teach people how to get a hold of you and make them jump through loops if they really want your time because right now, your time is valuable. Stop giving it away. Your time is extremely valuable. There's nothing more valuable than time. Wait till you have all the stuff going on and you have kids and you really want to spend time, then it's too late sometimes where you haven't protected your time enough. So teach people how to get a hold of you, how to communicate with you. People will respect you more. Sometimes at the beginning, people think they're acting too cool when they tell people, "You know, my time, I'm spread thin, I can't do a call right now, I can't help you out." Trust me, you do that enough they will respect you more for it. Because most people just give their time away for free. Next, no email first thing ever, ever, ever. Do some other stuff, do your profit-producing activities first, don't do email first. Okay, number five, be fully present. Now, when you starve your distractions, you get focused on what's most important, you're executing on your tasks. Now, wherever you are, be there. I used to be at work thinking about going on vacation. Then I used to be on vacation, "Man, I need to get back to work." It's the worst way to live. Wherever you are, be there. You're right here, be there. There's nothing else... That could blow up over there, hopefully it doesn't. And I'll just still be right here focused on you guys. There's nothing else that I care about right now than adding as much value to you guys and changing your guys' lives for the better. There's nothing else that matters right now to me. So, be present, be fully present. If you're working on something, go all in on that. If you're talking to a client, that's all you're looking at, is your client. There's too many people that are distracted and the person with the most presence in the moment always has the most influence. So, be present. Sell yourself before every activity. What this means is, before taking on something during your day, during your work load, sell yourself on the importance of it. A lot of people are procrastinating because they haven't sold themselves on what they're doing. Only sell yourself on a few things throughout the week that are most important, but sell yourself to that's the most important thing you should be doing right there. Because if you're doing something and you know in the back of your mind there's other things that are more important, you're not going to really be fully focused on that. So, sell yourself. Next, be open and observant to the present moment. We talked about that. Getting in the zone is crucial, it takes you about 20-22 minutes to get in the zone. When you're in the zone, you're three times more productive. Do I have to explain the zone or do you guys know what that means? Getting in the zone, where you just feel more productive. Basketball players do it, athletes do it, artists do it, entertainers do it, actors do it. So, what happens is, most people, when they get in the zone, they get distracted. It takes you 22 minutes to get back in the zone. So, what happens is, most people are operating at minimum capacity and they're never working in the zone. You can get three or four times more done if you're in the zone. I have a guy on our academy that's written three books, and he's 15, and he wrote a book in a weekend, and it's an amazing book. You would think the book's not that good if it's a weekend, but he's so in the zone that he can do more things and more effectively than most people his age, most people twice his age because he's in the zone. So, get in the zone, you could be a lot more effective. - So I had a question on, you said selling yourself on the importance of the activity. And also, you mentioned, you get a lot of work done in the morning. I know when I started working for myself, it was kind of easy to hit the snooze button because it's like, "I don't have to be anywhere right now." So, how do you sell yourself on your activities and get up and get productive? Like what does your morning look like? Or how do you sell yourself on your own activities? - Really good question, and the morning routine is the key, and we're going to talk about the morning routine soon. So, I'll hit on that, but the biggest thing for me is, I make sure I connect everything to my six-month vision, not my 10-year vision. People talk about 5, 10 years. It's not as relevant because times change, customers change, trends change, you change. If you set a goal for two years from now, the odds of you having the same exact goal are like less than 1%. So, I always look at my six-month vision, and I sell myself, Terry. I say, "Okay, is this activity right here, is this the best thing I can be doing to move me closer to this goal?" If it's not, I don't do it. So, that's what I do. And the morning routine, I'll talk about next. I don't want to go through it now, but I just sell myself to make sure, is this the most effective thing I could do right now to move me closer to my goal? If not, what is more effective? What is more relevant that's connected to my vision that I could do? And then I moved to that thing. So, I always just sell myself on what's most important. I only know what's most important usually from connecting with people that have already been where I want to go. So, I kind of cut my learning curve in half from that. Good question, though. - Peter, can we just get one quick clarification in here. I know you just mentioned being in the zone. We had a question from Caroline saying, "Do you have any pointers for how to get into the zone?" Is that something listening to music, being outside, any tips for people to get in the zone? - Yeah, it's usually 20 minutes of uninterrupted work on something that's meaningful to you. It's super simple. Like basketball, if you're playing, and there's no interruptions, and you're playing consistently for 20 minutes straight, usually, you get in the zone. So, that's really all it is. It's making sure... it's hard to get in the zone if you hate doing something. Does that makes sense? So, I'm never going to get in the zone editing a video, because I don't even know how to edit a video. Shout out to the video crew. I have no clue how to edit a video. So, I'm only going to get in the zone of things that I like. I like writing, I like creating. So, I get in the zone like crazy when I'm writing and creating. Like, two hours go by, I created all this stuff and I'm like, it feels like five minutes, but if my phone rings, then the zone's off, and then it takes me 20 minutes to get back in the zone. Hopefully, that answers the question. - Yeah, that's great. Thank you. - So, just work uninterrupted like ruthlessly get rid of all distractions and go all in for 20 minutes and you'll get in the zone naturally. A big thing for me is I ask myself, is this the most intelligent decision to make right now? Is it based off emotion or off intelligence? Or you ask, was this the most intelligent decision I could have made? I'm always continuously asking that throughout the week. We're going to talk quick about Parkinson's Law. This dictates that a task will become bigger in importance and complexity in relation to the time allotted. As time decreases, intensity and focus increases. So, you want to make sure you set time limits, guys, on everything. So, if you're working on something, you're working with a client, working on a book, put in time limits, like 60 minutes, two hours, because as the time decreases, what happens to your focus and energy? It intensifies, and you want to get it done. If you give yourself a day to work on something, how long will it take? A day, when it could take an hour. And then every day show up charged, we're going to talk about this. Own your agenda, and stay focused and intentional, all right? So, let's go over a simple implementation plan. First thing, guys, create prevention plans for your distractions. Second, schedule 30-60 minutes weekly to complete. I put 90 because it took me 90 at the beginning because I really wanted to get it right, but you could probably do in 60. This is so crucial. Protect your time and create boundaries when you work. Be 100% present, fully focused. This will increase your time in the zone. Then always start with your highest value activities first. Remember, a life best lived is a life lived by design. And will they get a recording of this? The audience? - Yes, they will. - Cool, so you guys can go back and screenshot and get all this stuff as well. So, the challenge here, guys, is never start your week without it written on paper first. From this moment forward, do not start your week till you're super strategic and intentional with your schedule. And some people will go, "I don't know exactly what to work on." That's the importance of having people that you're connecting with, that you're networking with, that actually can cut your learning curve in half because they've already been where you want to go. - Where do you put things like doing the dishes, laundry, grocery shopping? Those tasks that need to be done, those chores, how do they fit in to the schedule? - So, really good question. I'm actually going to talk about how to delegate everything later. So, you can either delegate it, hire someone to do it, or you can create some downtime where you have a little bit. There's something called transition triggers where after you work on something for 60 minutes, you have like 20, 30 minutes of doing something unrelated, relaxing, walking around the block, shooting hoops, doing dishes, laundry, and then you go back and you get back in the zone. I only work in 60-90 minute increments. So, in between, that's when you probably can do that or when you've completed your tasks for the day. Maybe after that when you have some free time, do it then. - Great. So, this question comes from Preston and they want to know, is there any reason that you shouldn't do this sheet twice. One for your full time job and then one for your side hustle? How many different plans should you have? Should it be one or a different one for each project? - Yeah. So actually, when I was transitioning out of my sales job, I time block. I didn't have two schedules, I time block where I figured out exactly how much time I need to put into my job. So, I don't know what kind of job it is. If it's a nine to five, put in your schedule exactly when you're going to be there. If there's anything they can do extra mile, put that in there, and then everything else should be focused on the side hustle. So, he doesn't need two schedules, I just think he should time block the nine to five and make sure he has everything in there that needs to get done. It's all time blocked, and then the focus, because this is more focused on the hustle and the entrepreneur thing. This is not fully for nine to fives because there's not much you can do for an upside there, and I would also tell them if they're ready to go all in on their side hustle, to put a date in place. Six months from now, I'm going to be done with my job. I'm going to be all in on my side hustle because if we never put a date in place, you will never leave. You'll never leave. Like, it'll be a year, 2, 3, 5, 10 years. I was going to leave my job back when I was 23, now I'm 32. Shoot, right? It's like, you got to put a date in. So, I hope that answered the question. - Yeah. That's great. All right.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with RSVP

Standards of Company Culture
Attitudes of a Good Leader

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Management Accountability Worksheet
Weekly Masterplan Worksheet
Ambition is Priceless Mixtape Part I
Ambition is Priceless Mixtape Part II

Ratings and Reviews

Maria
 

Peter has such a great energy! Changed my thinking and motivated me to be a successful leader. I also liked that this class wasn't too long which is perfect for busy people.

terry
 

Mixed. Why on earth the focus on millennials?? Why not also focus on attracting people with years of education and experience? People with wisdom, confidence, strong work values, a long perspective, less self-absorption? People with staying power? Way too slick and self promoting for my taste, though he may know something. Not sure if he knows anything that hasn't been said better elsewhere, without the arrogance.

cucharina
 

Wow, what a great class, I'm interviewing right now, so not only did it help me for interviewing, it also helped on the leadership that I need to work towards, because I lost it a while ago, and I need to get it back. Thank you for such motivation.

Student Work

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