At the start of Operation Scrumstyle, the daily stand-up has focused on the tasks the team has been doing.
We look at what they did yesterday and what they plan on doing today.
This is classic Agile/Scrum Approach.
Trouble is, there is something I’ve started to notice and I want to see if I can correct it.
The team is getting things done. The commitment is there for sure. The team are completing what they say they would do.
There’s a problem.
It’s how they are doing their work.
Instead of sticking to scheduled CFT’s, they are cramming to get things done.
I started noticing the number of times someone says, “Work was crushing me but I managed to get it done.” or “Something came up with the family and it put me behind but I forced myself to get up early to get things done”.
What’s the problem Ed, They got it done. They hustled. There are so many, many problems.First, at the start of the week we schedule when we are going to do our CFT’s.
CFT’s (Critical Focus Time – 50 minute periods where we do focused work.At the start of each weekly sprint, the most crucial thing we do is schedule in CFT’s in our calender. The team takes into acount all the things which could be a problem.
Work Stuff, Family Stuff, Holidays etc.
These CFT’s should be immovable.
Trouble is, they are getting blown off way too much for my liking!
One of my private clients got everything done for the week. So they could not understand why I was so concerned!
Let me lay it out.
A well run business at it’s core is a process, a system. If you can’t make times you have booked with yourself after careful consideration. Are you serious about creating this business?
What does this say about the priority of your business?
Steven Pressfield would say you are an amature. Not a pro.
2nd issue.
If you miss your time and then you have to do the work later. You have put your brain under stress.
You miss your time – that’s bad. Negative brain juice produced.
You are down on yourself for missing your time – that’s bad. More negative brain juice.
Your stress levels go up because you now have to CRAM your business work in. More negative brain juice.
Do you have fond memories with cramming for exams at school? I didn’t think so.
You can’t be in the moment with your family, your collegues, friends or team mates. Your stressed about completing your CFT. You get angry at yourself because you know you are only participating in a half-assed fashion.
More negative brain juice.
Then you get resentful because you have to sacrifice something else. Sleep, Housewives of Atlanta or Yuri on Ice. All bad. (If i missed Yuri on Ice I would go postal.
If you were religious about keeping your CFT at the scheduled time. You get a POSITIVE brain juice injection. These positive brain juices make you want to do activities again. It’s the juice required to form positive habits.
Instead, a SINGLE missed session has your brain drowning in negative brain juice. What happens when an activity sees negative brain juice produced. You stop doing it.
You cannot fight your brian chemistry, You have to work with it. No wonder so many solopreneurs don’t make it. See you think you are getting the work done, but because you are cramming you are are going to flameout.
This is why starting this week I’m going to focus the stand ups on the number of CFT’s done and scheduled.
By taking the focus off individual tasks and focusing on CFT’s done. I hope the Operation ScrumStyle team will start to focus on doing the CFT’s when they planned.
But Ed aren’t you worried about them getting of track or going down the garden path. Well, no.
Thanks to a new question in the retrospective each week. I know the specific plan (and who created it) each team memeber is doing.
If the Team spends there CFT’s are working on tickets. They’ll get to their goal.
Operation ScrumStyle is all about focusing on systems. If the team get’s this right, they will have their 10K by Christmas.
Ask any coach of coaches, one of the first things they’ll teach you is accountability is the third rail of coaching. Touch it and your career will be short and painful.
Your clients will say they desperately want accountability but the moment you start holding them to account they slip straight into “I forgot my homework mode” and it’s easier to sack the coach than face their own shortcomings.
Can’t blame them – it’s very human to blame yourself only if every other possible excuse has been used.
So no accountability in coaching.
But…
The latest research insists accountability is a crucial aspect of any successful endeavour. This got me thinking and this thinking made me perplexed.
I’m really lucky to have gotten to know many of my students really well. They are great people (I mean they chose me to coach them so of course they have exceptional taste!).
In every other area of their life they are the most reliable and accountable people you would ever meet. Amazing Parents, goto coworkers and significant contributors to family and community. In other words…
They are incredibly accountable!
The only place where they become shaky, unreliable and anxiety ridden is when they are working on their dream business. The thing which will allow them to level up their level of contribution in all areas of their life.
If they treated their children like they treat their new business building they would have a visit from the appropriate local authorities!
“Hey I collected the kids two out of five times this week” that’s cool right…
Why does this happen – I have some theories.
First, as much as they want their business to work , when some out of the blue event comes and disrupts life (and it always will) the new business is the first project overboard.
You can see why this makes sense, neglect your day job, you don’t get paid, neglect your family and kids and it has life long negative consequences. It makes sense to drop the new business, no one is affected.
Trouble is life happens and you never get the business to the point where you have others relying on you to make their pay check and feed their families. This is when accountability kicks in for your venture!
But between business idea and first employees you are very happy to put baby (your business) in the corner.
Second Theory – Dickensian Accountability Practices.
Most of the accountability practises and negative associations were burned into your pchyche in your many years of schooling. School was designed to get you ready for life as a subservient being on a factory line at the beginning of the Industrial Age.
When coaches try “School” style accountability, it’s not a surprise it backfires. Accountability practices when at their best lift everyone up and set up a cycle of constant and never ending improvement – not the shame and embarrassment of being singled out and disciplined for not doing your homework.
Trouble is these modern accountability practises really needs a team to be most helpful.
There’s the rub when we start out we are soloprenures.
Third Problem – You Are Bad For Yourself
This is the third issue – to practice effective feedback and modern accountability you can’t do it by yourself. If that voice in your head is anything like mine it’s a pretty harsh critic. The resistance as Steven Pressfield so brilliant identifies in The War Of Art. Will do anything to keep you from you’re calling.
One of my favourite things when I do Recipe Live events is when I get students to give each other modern feedback. So often, an Idea the inner critic has written of as rubbish is loved by your table mates. The smiles are infectious.
It’s insidious, the very thing we love about being our own boss, is the very thing which is agitating every effort for you to succeed with negative self talk and distorted, emotional analysis.
I’m running an experiment right now to see if we can bring accountability to entrepreneurs in a way that is uplifting and not draconian.
I’m acting as a Scrumaster to these entrepreneurs it’s early days but I like how things have started out. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.
I was forty floors above Tokyo, It was a clear day, I could see Mt Fuji…
Or I could see it if I wasn’t crying.
Look, I’m emotionally crippled, I don’t cry at much and certainly not publicly. However, on that beautiful autumn day. I was sobbing into my now going cold breakfast.
Up until then, I had never read a book that moved me like this (remember – emotionally crippled). I took the book to breakfast to have something to read before I headed out for a day of filming in Tokyo. The idea was to read a couple of chapters and head out for the day. Two hours later – I’d finished it and was publicly sobbing.
As I write this – in August it will be 10 years to the day. It has become my single most recommended book and sits at the very top of my favourite books of all time. You can get the book here but there is something cooler I’d like you to try…
Challenge!
For years it’s almost been impossible to get the audio version of The War Of Art read by Steven. To my utter delight, it’s now available on audio and you can download it through Audible.
When you hear Steven narrate the book and it’s entering your brain via your ear holes it’s even more powerful. I’ve spent the last week forgoing my regular podcasts and been listening to the War Of Art on repeat.
Here’s my challenge to you, Listen to this on repeat for a week and I’ll eat my Signed Steven Pressfield Black Irish cap if you are not getting more work done.
So for the next six months I’m acting as ScrumMaster for 30 odd crazy souls.
It’s going to be interesting!
My job as Scrum Master is not to look at what they are doing or advising tactics and strategies. Our focus is on the underlying systems which will determine their success or failure over the next six months.
We Don’t Rise To The Level Of Our Goals, We Fail To The Level Of Our Systems
James Clear
There are five systems which will determine their success.
Environment
Energy
Time
Recipe
Accountability
They all signed up to have me as their Scrum Master to hold them accountable. This usually does not end well….
But… This is not “Did you do your homework?” accountability.
Based on a bunch of new scientific research we are going to use the latest tools and methods for accountability. As solopreneurs we need accountability but we also fight it as well! My hypothesis is these new approaches will give us the accountability we need.
I intend to document what I find out here in the blog. This in itself is an example of an accountability system
The first thing I noticed – the “Recipe” system.
Most of these legends of the future are just starting out on their business.
Quiet a few of them have tried and failed to get their business going many times. In other words, they are just like you.
A “recipe’ is a plan, blueprint or course you use to build your business.
I use recipe deliberately – it’s a metaphor.
If you’ve never cooked a sponge cake before you need a recipe. A set of ingredients and a step by step guide to help you bake the cake. Even with all this, you might still end up with more flapjack than fluffy sponge cake!
But if I just drop you into the kitchen and say I’m hungry – make me something to eat. The person who has never cooked before is in real trouble.
Here’s the thing. When I asked some of my team what recipe they were using they were able to name it specifically. I’m using Liam Austins Virtual Summit, I’m using Ed Dale fundamentals, I’m using Todd Brown E5 etc.
This is good – as their Scrum Master I know they have the recipe to follow and even better they are using a “recipe” that has been tested in the real world and is appropriate to their level of skill.
I can smell trouble once they can’t name the specific tested recipe they are using. If they’re a Masterchef with a ton of successful dishes behind them they can totally freestyle because they know the corner stone of any dish (Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat in case you were wondering!)
My students are not master chefs.
I was speaking with a 1-1 client earlier today and they have constantly refused to call a specific recipe and the result is constant overwhelm. As their coach this is my problem. I told them they needed to name the specific recipe they were going to choose so I could actually help them!
They had bought so many courses they kept trying to mix and match, pull pieces from one course and another. It’s a bit like trying to cook our sponge cake from above and add in elements of a lobster bisque. Not a great idea!
If you can’t name the specific recipe you are using to build your business, you are not going to have a business. So my job is to make sure my team has a recipe system in place ASAP.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Can you name the specific recipe you are using to build your business?
Is it proven for someone of your experience (some plans work great when you already have a reputation and an audience but would flame out for a beginner)?
If you can’t name your recipe – you are not going build a business.
UPDATE: Something else I noticed after drafting this article. Not only do you need to name the recipe, you need to name the creator of the recipe.
For example, It’s not enough to say I’m following an “affiliate marketing recipe” – who’s specifically. If you are a beginner, it’s insane not to follow a proven tested recipe. I found that a couple of team members were following recipe’s where they could not name the creator.
If you can’t name the creator, you don’t have a recipe.
As my team members Scrum Master – I know vagueness is death.
You Have No List, No Reputation – Turns Out A Virtual Summit Is A Great Way To Get Started
I have to say I did not think a virtual summit would be a way to create your first product. Liam Austin convinced me otherwise!
I get all the key questions asked – How do you get people to speak at your virtual summit if they’ve never heard of you and have no list.
What tech do you use to make the process simple.
How by creating a virtual summit you can use the Oprah effect to hyper start your market leadership and influence – you can go from Zero To making money surprisingly quickly.
I was so impressed with what Liam had to say I decided I’m going to hold a virtual summit later in the year.
Liam is releasing a free series all about virtual summits – you can sign up at this link
A few years ago, I took on my first mentoring students.
What a trip.
Helping people take the next step in a business (regardless of if they were starting from scratch or already well entrenched in business) was a joy.
I had no idea how it was going to work out.
I learn’t so much out of the experience. I think Steven Covey said, “if you want to learn something very well teach it”.
Very true.
Over the course of those years, as I was working with the mentoring students, I began to formulate an idea…
The idea became known as “Going Pro”.
It really does stir me up when I see people talking about going to the next level or burning the ships or doing whatever else is trendy or happening at the time.
That’s not what Going Pro is about.
When I first started talking about Going Pro, people thought I was talking about going full-time.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
But I stopped mentoring.
I started working with one of my mentoring students and we created MagCast and ScrivCast.
I had to stop mentoring to concentrate on creating this business.
Now MagCasting and Scrivcasting supports an infrastructure of 2000 publishers and over 10 million App downloads!
Which is cool!
I know teach beginners at the Academy and take on a couple of private clients each year.
A Strange New Approach
Over the last two years I’ve been working with private clients to implement a whole new operating system and way to do business.
Taking the systems used in Agile software development and applying them to founder run business has been the most awesome thing I’ve done for clients
But there is nothing like working with a founder 1 on 1 deep in their business over a course of a year.
So for 2019 with this post, I’m launching my new mentoring series, creatively titled “Mentoring 4.0”
The Going Pro concept is crucial.
I had suspected this even before I started mentoring…
The Mentorees knew all the tactics, or new where to find them. If anything they were drowning in tactics and options!
What they needed was an understanding of what to focus on, perhaps even more importantly, what NOT to focus on.
In launching Mentoring 4.0, I’m taking all the best bits from the original mentoring program and everything I’ve learned from the last few years.
Let’s get this clear up front. There’s no magic bullet, no miracle technique the “successful” people keep to themselves.
There’s no magic and no Unicorns.
Sorry.
It’s clear to me, your success has ZERO to do with any trick, tactic or strategy.
There ‘s no motivational phrase, aseop’s fable, or power quote that will change what you’re doing one bit.
Sorry about that.
The only thing that’ll help is if you realise that indeed, it’s only you who can make the change.
Then why the Justin Bieber are you offering mentoring?
Why would I pay you a cent?
Because there is a way forward.
You can Go Pro.
The reason I’m doing mentoring 4.0, is because I believe there is a method, like I said, nothing I say will change a thing! I can’t guarantee a single result.
The only thing I know is – if you’re still reading this, you’re not getting the results you want, or you’re already Pro and know the power of mentoring and networking.
Look, It’s not your fault!!!!
You’re working hard.
Trouble is, you’re working hard on completely the wrong thing.
And that’s where I can help.
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What is Going Pro?
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There are three core practices essential to anybody Going Pro.
Before I tell you what they are, I want to be sure you do not believe time is one of them!
It’s not about the time!
It’s not about bloody hustle!!!!!!
If anything, people are working way too long and waaaay to hard.
It is about these three things.
Three crucial areas define Going Pro.
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FOCUS
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Focus comes down to 2 areas.
The first is what should you be focusing on, and perhaps more importantly, what you shouldn’t you be focusing on.
As I said before, my mentoring students have access to all the tactics they could need or want. The issue was far more about what they should be focusing on (or perhaps more importantly, what they shouldn’t focusing on).
The second part of focus – the ability to block out chunks of time where you can apply the processes which are going to make you money.
We will get to processes in a minute.
In the mentoring program we have successfully introduced the concept of CFT (Critical Focus Time). This technique is called many things by many people, ultimately, it’s all about blocking distractions so your brain can get in to a flow and work on the things that are important to make money in your business.
The interesting thing is, the successful people I know, would perhaps be doing critical focus time (or the equivalent) no more than two hours a day, usually a lot less.
This was revolutionary to my students. It’s a bit like Tim Ferris in his book “the four hour body”, he talks about MED, this stands for Minimum Effective Dose.
When you apply MED in mentoring 4.0 into your business, whether you’re starting or have been around the block a few times. You will see dramatic differences in your productivity and results. This is one of the key things being part of a mentoring program and being coached brings to the table.
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PROCESS
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There’s a process for everything.
Creativity is a process.
If you’ve ever found yourself sitting in front of the computer wondering what to do next. That’s not a Focus problem…
It’s a PROCESS problem.
I know myself when I first started out I really rejected the idea of everything being a process.
I was creative.
I was a free spirit.
I was sticking it to the man…
I was also broke.
It’s only over the last few years I’ve realised that everything is a process. The most creative people I know, and I bet anybody you could name, are process driven creatures.
It’s the only way to be truly successful.
It also stops you being distracted by those cute surfing dogs on YouTube.
Whenever you find yourself staring at the computer, that’s a process failure.
With my mentoring program the idea is to make sure you have a process for everything.
One of the key things we’ll be doing is making sure you’re using the right processes at the right time.
It’s amazing what a fresh set of eyes on your business can do.
Have you ever had a piece of writing written by somebody else and you find a bunch of spelling and grammar errors. (Yes, almost certainly, what you’re reading right now would qualify!)
Even if you think you’ve checked thoroughly, a fresh set of eyes makes all the difference when you’re in the editing process.
Being in a mentoring program is like having an editor for your business making sure you are getting focused on the right things at the right time and you’re applying the right processes at the right time.
Make no mistake, i’m not doing it for you. That would be pointless. You need to learn how to do this for yourself.
Funnily enough, there is a process for this too!
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MEASURING
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Repeat after me…
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure”
If there’s one process subject to more abuse than any other when it comes to Going Pro, its measurement.
There ‘s a very good reason for this, it’s not your fault.
Your brain is trying to protect you from a horrible truth. It really just wants you to have a nice day and be comfortable and relaxed and enjoying the next Episode of “Housewives of Atlanta”.
By not measuring your site, not checking your stats, you can maintain the happy equilibrium of ignorance.
Sadly, ignorance equals broke.
Every successful person I know measures.
They also have an ability not to take measurements personally…
If you don’t track what’s going on in your business you can’t possibly make it better.
It’s very hard to have $1,000,000 a year business if you only have six people visiting your website every week!
The cool thing is, when you start to measure, great things happen.
If your brain finally figures out, “hey, you’re serious about this stuff”.
All of a sudden things change.
Because your brain doesn’t want to see bad results, once it realises you’re serious about measurement it will do what you need to do to make the changes that will get your business moving forward.
In Mentoring 4.0 we use lean startup principle to fire up your happy customer factory!!
Huh?
I’m huge fan of the lean startup movement and over the past couple of years I’ve seen what happens when you implement this into an entrepreneurs business.
It’s awesome…
But if you’re not measuring, you don’t have a chance.
The only compulsory activities in the mentoring program revolve around measuring.
It’s that important.
Having done a year’s of mentoring, there are a couple of key distinctions that became brutally obvious to me.
If you’re in a 9-to-5 job, or in some sort of activity requiring any sort of mental energy during the day you need to commit to building a team.
I said way back in 2009 Internet marketing is now a team sport.
In 2019, the team has become mandatory. If you haven’t got one, we will build one.
Now building a team may mean only having one extra person. It may just be paying somebody $5 to do something for you on Fiver.
A latte a day will get you a team member to leverage your time.
I’ve seen this work time and time again – happening to people in the mentoring program.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the single biggest success factor for people who are new to business.
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Can I be a beginner?
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Absolutely!
Being a total beginner and coming into the mentoring program can be a very, very, very smart idea. Basically, you’re taking off a few years of mistakes and are being focused on the processes and practices that will actually work while you establish your business.
That’s the good news.
The bad news, if you could call it bad news, is there are certain things you are just going to need during your 12 months.
As I said just above, you also need to commit to building a team. One of the most valuable things I can do in the mentoring programme is help guide you to build, create and manage a successful team.
By the way – you build the team as you need it – while you are making money. You can start with just yourself but you won’t end there!!
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It’s not a race.
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This mentoring program is about you.
Your projects, your pace.
It’s not like the challenge.
With the challenge, you go from point A to point B to point C. In a mentoring program, we will be working with your project and will be doing it at your pace.
Once we’ve identified what your goal is and where you want to work we will apply the correct processes focus and measurement to get you moving forward. Whether you are a beginner or a pro already who wants to take the next step.
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Let’s get specific.
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So what’s in the mentoring program, what do you get! What’s involved?
The first element of the mentoring program is…
Is a one on one meeting with me for 30 min at least once a week during the next 12 months.
We use the wonderful calendly appointment system so scheduling is easy.
This is the meat of the program.
We’ve really refined this process so you can absolutely get the maximum value out of each session.
You also get UNLIMITED EMERGENCY CALLS
What?
If you hit a stumbling block I want to know about it and I want to help.
We have a bunch of rules and processes around the EMERGENCY CALLS and its worked brilliantly.
I couldn’t think of doing a mentoring program without it.
I do not outsource the calls. It’s all me.
After three months you may wish it wasn’t me, but too bad you’re stuck with me.
Oh, by the way-I’ve heard some horror stories from mentoring students where they would sign up to a program to be mentored by somebody and then all of a sudden you’re palmed off to be mentored by somebody’s persons team.
That won’t happen here!
Like I said before, you’ll be stuck with me whether you like it or not.
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Workshops.
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During the 12 months of your mentorship any seminars we run during the time of your mentoring will also be free. You just need to pay to get the accommodation. You don’t need to pay any admission fees.
We also have the visit in Melbourne program.
It was very humbling that mentors from all over the planet would come and spend the time with me here in Melbourne.
I loved it.
If you’re ever in town, give me some notice and we can spend time working on your business at my favourite coffee shop.
This worked extraordinarily well last time and I hope more people take advantage of it this year.
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I’m interested, how do I apply?
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The first thing you need to know is the price.
The price rules the above for 12 months of mentoring is $9900 US Dollars.
As I mentioned above, there are a couple of compulsory measurement activities you need to do during the 12 months of your mentorship.
When I receive your application. I’ll send you some details of where you can send the $9900 USD.
Please understand at this point I treat the $9900 USD as a deposit. It’s only after we have had a one-on-one interview with all the applicants will I be able confirm your acceptance into the program.
This is not marketing crap.
Due to the popularity of the mentoring programme last time I had to turn away many, many people. It was very unpleasant.
You need to be certain this is something you want to do. You MUST want to go pro.
Once I receive your deposit i’ll make a time with you for our one-on-one where we’ll talk over the terms and conditions of the programme.
Bluntly, i’ll try talk you out of it. If I don’t put you off, I’ll answer any questions you have.
I fully realise this is not for everybody.
When I started out last time, I really had no idea what would happen.
It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.
To see the growth in the mentoreess has been incredibly gratifying. To see so many of them want to do it for multiple years was even more gratifying.
Spaces are extremely limited. As mentioned prior – not marketing crap.
If you have a look above what I provide you can understand why the program is indeed extremely limited. Remember – Unlimited Emergency Calls!!!
I’d really love to work with you over the next 12 months and get you on the path of Going Pro. I’ve never received more satisfaction than in working with my past mentoring students.
One of my favorite things is discovering tools and techniques which at first glance will have a negative effect BUT when you do them, they have a super positive effect.
For example
• Putting butter, coffee and coconut oil helps you loose weight – BulletProof Coffee
• Put all your eggs in one basket and watch the basket!! – Warren Buffett
• Do less to achieve more. Multitasking is complete Bullcrap – Agile and Scrum
Let’s talk about Cadence..
Cadence is a term used by pro-cyclists and runners. I first heard about the effects of cadence when I got into running. As I was rewriting this post, good mate Pete Williams let everyone know he is launching a book on this topic next year (and he should know, he has competed in Ironman events where you run a marathon and ride a bike for 100k and swim a couple of miles all in one day!!!)
When I was learning to run some years ago, I was told something I was sure would be dead wrong! I was told to imagine every step I take as a beat, just like in a song. When you start running and you’re unfit, you have a very slow BPM (beats per minute). It seems obvious, to conserve energy, move your legs at a slower pace!
Trouble is, it’s completely wrong!
I’ll never forget when the running coach said we were going to run at a pace of 180 BPM! As a musician, I knew exactly what 180BPM meant and I thought he was going to kill me. This is super fast! To give you a comparison, your hottest club banger is around 120-130 BPM.
To really ram the point home, he had us run for five minutes at our normal cadence and pace (for me – very slow!). At the end of the run we measured our heart rate and also recorded how we felt energy wise. After a rest and coaching, we went for another five minute run keeping the same speed, but upping the cadence (remember, this speed of which my feet touch the ground) to 180 BPM. It seemed ridiculous! Still, off I went for the five minute run.
As soon as the five-minute time was up I knew I’d just learned an amazing magic trick! My pulse was a full 10% lower and I felt way fresher than my previous run!
It was a miracle!
If you watch a professional runner, you’ll notice they keep the same cadence regardless of where they are in the race and whether they are going uphill, downhill or on a flat. The only thing which changes is the length of stride (for those of you interested, much smaller strides going uphill, longer strides going downhill!)
Cyclists know this as well! Watch a professional rider and they will keep exactly the same cadence (in their case, how many times the pedal does a full loop over the course of a minute). The only thing which they change is the gearing they use.
Both runners and cyclists (and plenty of others) have realized when you have a fixed cadence you use less energy.
So what has all this got to do with your online business and how to make January go off with a bang? Well it turns out, everything.
When you’re starting out, most people are working a job which brings in all the money for food, shelter and Internet service. By definition, when you are working on your online business it’s very part-time. You have to very deliberately carve out time to build your online business. In the Academy, we call these periods of time “Critical Focus Time™” (or CFT for short). These are 50 minute periods of time where you completely focus on building your online business. These periods of time are crucial to the success of your enterprise.
There is a bunch of science about why 50 minutes but this is another article for another time. Your ability to schedule and then stick to these blocks of time is the best indicator of how successful you will be in an online business. The more consistent you are with your CFT’s the better your business runs and grows.
This is the “cadence” of your business. Just like a professional runner or cyclist your ability to keep to a cadence is THE key factor of your success.
There is no better time to illustrate this than the holiday season! In most parts of the world November and December create major challenges to any endeavors which are in anyway optional. Diets, discipline and online businesses get chucked out the window with the thought you’ll make up for lost time in January! The thing is, you’re absolutely right! You will make it up in January but imagine if you were able to keep a minimum cadence through December – what would January look like then?
Look at this diagram:
The amateur (the red line) starts November with the best of intentions. In North America, everything goes well until Thanksgiving hits. In Australia and New Zealand, it’s Christmas parties and interview school concerts. In Europe, some night markets, warm cider and it’s pitch black at 4 PM!
December is a real test. In truth, most of us decide to phone in December. We let things go knowing January and New Year’s resolutions is just a month away. This is enticing thinking. Having trained online entrepreneurs for 15 years, there’s no question January is a peak time for people spending a lot of energy on their business. As the chart shows, however, this comes at a cost. Let’s have a look at what a professional does.
Side-note: a professional doesn’t mean somebody who is doing the online business full-time. It’s somebody who practices the art of cadence and realizes the importance of routine and focusing on big business building activities.
Important, The lesson I don’t want you to take away from this is you shouldn’t enjoy the holiday season! That’s crazy. You should. Indeed, professionals know how to use the power of rest and partying (another article for another time!) to enhance their performance and avoid burnout.
Look at the difference in completion, if you would just be able to continue to do two CFT’s a week throughout December. Then, instead of starting from ground zero (or below!) You have a solid base to take advantage of all the January enthusiasm and energy. Your results are exponentially better.
There are so many examples of the power of cadence everywhere. Look at Toyota versus Tesla. I know, I love Tesla too, but their manufacturing processes right now are totally Fubar! Even Aesop had it right with his fable of the tortoise and the hare. When you have a moment, check out this YouTube video of a Japanese television show proving conclusively the tortoise smashes the hare! It’s true!
In fact, beating in your chest right now is a prime example of the importance of cadence. Your heart. One of the cool things my Apple watch checks for is heart rate variability (Heart Rate Variability as a phrase is applied in a number of contexts in some cases it’s good!). Doctors know a variation when your heart beats is a potential precursor to a bigger problem. Ideally your heart should be like a drum machine, whether it’s beating at 65 bpm or 150 bpm it should pump right on the beat. What you don’t want is your heart being a jazz drummer, where your heartbeat falls slightly behind or in front of the beat. The greater the variation the greater the problem.
Think about the last four weeks of work on your online business. Are you more drum machine or jazz drummer. Is your entrepreneurial heart rate all over the place? For example, if you did to 50 minute sessions in week one, seven 50 minute sessions in week two, zero in week three and one in week four -if you have you’re suffering from entrepreneurial arrhythmia!!! Just like you’re heart – it’s not good!!
Compare to an entrepreneur who religiously was able to do three CFT’s a week with absolute consistency. Just like your heart, the consistent entrepreneur will be the more successful in 2018. Over 13 years of the challenge and 400,000 students has shown me time and time again the challengers who were able to get into a routine of implementation were always the most successful. The ones who crammed on the weekend inevitably failed.
Where are you?
Let’s use the traffic light method to rate where you are currently at.
Red – you are up and down like a yo-yo. When the mood takes you, you might cram a few hours then something happens and you don’t do any work for a week. There is no way you can predict how much you are going to work on creating your online business in any particular week.
Yellow – you schedule your critical focus time sessions ( or whatever you call them) in advance and you do your best to stick to them. It is not religious however. They do get bumped sometimes because of other things happening.
Green – you are like the Japanese rail network. Super consistent. You evaluate each week and adjust your schedule so you are not caught out. You anticipate challenges which could distract you from your online business and plan to make sure you have a strategy for dealing with it. When you sit down to work, you know exactly what you’re going to do and have an and appropriate roadmap to guide you. If you don’t know what to do, you know how to reach out to somebody who does.
Action plan.
1. How many CFT’s do you do in a week? (If you have no idea, you are going to schedule two, Let’s face it, if you can’t carve two hours out of the 164 hours you have in a week you are not serious about creating an online business). 2. Schedule the CFT’s in your calendar. Do this now. Remember, don’t say what you are going to do, just know, no matter what, you’re going to be working on your online business come hell or high water at these times. 3. Review at the end of the week. Use the following criteria to figure out how many CFT’s you should schedule for the following week.
How to determine how many CFT’s you should do for the next week.
At the end of the week, you will be in one of three categories:
Easy – if you found it easy to complete your CFT’s add one more CFT to scheduling next week. Okay – if you did your allotted CFT’s for the week but found it challenging, that’s good. It means we are working your entrepreneurial muscles. Keep the same number of CFT’s for next week. Missed – if you missed, reduce the number of CFT’s you are scheduling for next week by at least one (remember, the minimum is two)
Just like the crew chief in Rolling Thunder (what a movie!), “You need to be on the edge of control, not out of control.”
If you did it easy we need to up the intensity by increasing by one CFT. Don’t be an idiot and double the number of CFT’s, that’s a one-way ticket to burnout town. By stretching yourself each week (just like building muscle) we are building your entrepreneurial capacity. If you double the weights, you will be out of the gym and injured. Same happens in your entrepreneurial enterprise.
If you just managed to do your CFT’s, that’s perfect. You will find over the next couple of weeks you will move from okay to easy and you will be able to increase your capacity.
If you missed. It seems completely counterintuitive to schedule in less work for the following week. Most entrepreneurs try to punish themselves by doing extra and this NEVER works. You need to give yourself the gift of a win by getting back on the horse and setting a super achievable target. Here’s the secret, to your brain, a win is a win. It doesn’t matter whether it was easy or hard. After you have a week where you had a miss (and don’t worry, we all do it!) It’s crucial you give yourself a win. There is no law to say that after you do your CFT’s you can’t add in an extra, but this way you will continue with your business.
What happens the other way? Well, you punish yourself and schedule even more CFT’s for the following week and you miss that week as well! You are in the virtual entrepreneurial cycle of doom. I’ve seen this happen thousands of times, you will burnout and find yourself in front of the television watching the “Housewives of Atlanta”.
As we learn in the Academy, by doing less you achieve more! Give it a try and you’ll see. Does this make sense? Let me know, how’s your cadence?
Most of you are not measuring the key metrics for your business (and your life) every. single. day.
In the magnificent book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength
, which I highly recommend you read. The book points out there is only one thing in all the diet studies in existence that has a direct correlation to losing weight.
Weighing yourself, every. single. day.
The fascinating thing about this is it's pretty much the direct opposite of what pretty much every diet program on the planet recommends. They mostly suggest you weigh yourself weekly or monthly.
If you measure what you manage, you can control it.
If you're not measuring, how can you possibly course correct.
Would you drive a car with a blindfold on?
Would you hire a car at Tel Aviv airport, not get a map, and instead of ending up at the Hilton, end up approaching a Gaza Strip check point a couple of hours later… (or is that just me)
The more often you check the map, the more likely you'll get to your hotel.
It's pretty hard to get through a forest without signs if you don't have a map and a compass to check you're on course.
Why would we not look at our business map (The stats we get from our business)
My experience is most people don't.
Funnily enough, the more successful the online business, the more often they check the stats.
Every business really has one or two key metrics, that's about it,
Most people don't measure. If they measure the key metrics, they don't look at them…
The reason…
Your brain is trying to protect you.
Your brain is thinking "If I let Ed check his blog stats and only two people read his blog yesterday, he's going to get sad, I want him to be happy, I'll get him to walk downstairs and eat a Tim Tam instead"
Without doubt, this is the most powerful marketing concept I have learned in years.
It was so important, I created this presentation to teach what I learned to my Academy students.
I wish I had come up with this concept myself – I didn’t – Todd Brown came up with it in his E5 masterclass – Which is going to be released for the first time in a couple of days.
I decided to release this training because I’m afraid with all the courses you can possibly get, you’ll see the emails about this launch and dismiss it (A concept called mental opt-out which I show you how to avoid in this very workshop).
Listen carefully– This is the most important training released in the last decade.
And I’ll prove it – watch this workshop and play along as though it’s live – writing your answers on pen and paper.
Watch this and tell me I’m wrong.
This is one piece of content out of dozens of breakthroughs in E5 – if you want to be on the list for when it launches – click here
I’m so convinced this is THE WAY to create a marketing campaign – if you decided to buy E5 -I’m going to run a series of implementation workshops to help you implement it!
If you’re interested in checking out E5 – Click here (If you end up buying it – I’m going to do a series of implementation workshops with you)
What did you think? Let me know in the comments below!
The New Challenge starts again on July 1 at 8pm Eastern USA time
.