10 Lessons From This Year

What's good everybody.

So in this episode, I want to share some of the biggest lessons that I've learned this year.

And at this rate, it's only May. So let's dive in. ... For three years, my agency built funnels and automation systems for the biggest names in marketing today. Since then, I've transformed that agency into a hyper profitable training and consulting business. While everyone is out there and talking about scale like it's some sort of destination, we'll be asking the real question, how do you transform your business into a more scalable model using the knowledge, skills, and expertise that you already have? This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me in, follow along as I learned, apply and share the strategies I'm using to build my multimillion-dollar business. My name is Greg Hickman and welcome to scale up.

I put together 10 lessons that I've learned this year that have really kind of helped me get over some obstacles, through some obstacles, um, solve some big problems that I've had in my business and also start to accelerate other areas of my life. And so I wanted to share, um, some of these lessons with you that in hopes that you can kind of see how I've been thinking. You know, we're only, you know, into May and these are some big lessons that I've learned that I think are going to help us actually hit many of our goals, uh, by the end of the year. Even know that in some ways, in some areas we're off track in other areas where we're right on track and in some cases it just completely eliminated and deleted some of our goals because we got way more clear. So, uh, I've kind of written down each of these for you.

So let's jump into, uh, lesson number one is don't buy into everyone else's hype, right? So what do I mean by that? It's easy to get caught up in what other people are doing. If you've been on Facebook, you know, scrolling through Instagram, hey, it looks like everyone's having fun, having a great life, live in that good life. But there's also a lot of really good marketers out there right now and they're really good at marketing and that's about it. So when you peel back the curtain, they're also figuring out their own shit, right? So don't let their hype derail you from what you should be focused on. Um, and you don't need to have and do exactly what, what they are doing, right? Not many people are sharing the, the crappy parts about what's happening in their life, right? They always want to show you winning.

So if you're following these people, sometimes you're going to just buy into the hype and feel like you're behind because you're seeing someone else's wins and never seen any of the struggle that they go through. So lesson number one is don't bind everyone else's hype. I was definitely guilty of number two, don't buy into your own hype, guys, this one is probably even more important, right? So look in my situation, you know, be vulnerable for a minute. We had a really stretch of good really good months and no joke. Got On my high horse, did some things that I probably were out of sequence and a little bit too early. But just because you've got some success that's great. Celebrate, celebrate real quick and you know, get back to work, right? Getting caught up in your own success is almost more damaging than getting caught up in someone else's.

At least that's how I felt and I was, I was guilty of that this year for sure. Number three, you got to pay to play today. Too many people expect to be spoon fed. I don't know if that's what what you feel, but they want free stuff. Here's the problem with most free stuff. It doesn't include help with the execution and guess where you get the real result is with the help in the execution, right? It's the implementation economy. We've talked about this, the biggest results, and I know in my business I've come from putting money on the line and in investing in the right help. And you know, at the time of recording this, I've spent over six figures this year just on myself with coaching, consulting courses, et Cetera, not including my team. And so I've accelerated my learning, my learning curve, and I've avoided a lot of mistakes too, to be honest while getting the appropriate help.

So if you want to get to the next level, you're going to have to pay to get the help, whether that's investing in team, whether that's investing in coaches, mentors and things like that, like you're going to have to put some skin in the game. Number four. Oh, such a good one. Stop borrowing other people's goals. Guilty of this as charged. So when someone says their goal is a mill, a million or 10 million per year, I know that for the most part that they're just adopting someone else's goal, especially if they respond super quickly. If they actually calculated what it would take to live their ideal life and they'd have a more specific number, right? So like actually to build a spreadsheet and list out all of the things that you'd like to do, the experiences, the things you'd like to have, the, you know, whatever, all of the experiences plus things, um, investments, all of that stuff.

And you'll come out to a pretty specific number and you'll figure out what you need to pay herself. And so if they actually calculate it out, you have that specific number. And what I've found is the more that I drop round numbers, um, I'm either a being lazy or B being someone else's or borrowing someone else's goal and, or a c I have too big of an ego to actually figure out what I want myself and then d, all of the above. Right? So, uh, this one was hard for me, right? Because you know, you don't know how big your business can be. Um, you know, you don't know how big your business can be. And so you, you know, you hire mentors and you go, you know, see what other people are doing and you kind of just latch onto, oh, like that's where their business is at.

Like that should be my goal, right? And I think in the, in the beginning that's actually fine to start modeling other people, right? That are where you want to be. It's actually encouraged. But I think once you start getting some momentum, you need to do some of the on your own deep work and figured out what is it look like for you. Because the further you get into modeling someone, and I don't mean copying someone, but modeling someone the more that it doesn't align with you deep down internally with what you want, you're going to feel resistance and you're going to be unclear as to why. And it's because you're unclear on what your own vision is. You've always just been modeling and trying to chase the thing that somebody else has demonstrated ahead of you. Right? So you gotta go lock your room, lock yourself in the room for 72 hours and you know, figure out like what it is you want, right?

Like run some numbers for yourself. Okay. So jumping back a number of five, the best investments recently for me have always been in my team. Now I'm not saying that mentors aren't important. Obviously we coach a lot of people and mentor a lot of people. It's our business. I've invested a quarter of a million plus dollars in coaching, consulting, mentoring, like it's sequentially. There's going to be a point where you actually need to invest in people on your side. And so as of recent for me, the best investments have been people on my team, right? Hiring the right people, getting them them involved, like in the right way, has allowed me to remove myself from key elements of the business and really start to become a better leader and a CEO. So I have way far to go from where I want to, where I want to get to personally.

But by trusting in my team and giving them more control, I've experienced new levels of freedom and things that I get to create, right? So that's been really, as of late, a really big investment. So if you've been struggling doing everything, you'd probably need to start looking at not just investing in coaches and mentors, but your team. Number six is systems set you free. Ah, people hate hate systems. They, it's not sexy, right? But for some of us, they are. And if you look at all of the fly by night, fancy marketers, you know, a lot of them, they say they don't want systems, right? But the reality is, you know, being behind the scenes of some really successful people paying to be in big mastermind groups that people are well beyond where I, where I could imagine, you know, they have real businesses, they actually love and adopt the system, right?

They believe that they, they set you up. And so the only way you're going to get it is like that. Freedom is what systems and a process. So if you ain't got those in place, you'll literally never be scalable, let alone scale. And by that I mean like have a business that serves you and not the other way around, right? Number seven, live and die by the morning routine, right? Like this is no, there's people out there that'll say, hey, you don't need a morning routine. Um, you might not be a morning person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if you don't have some form of morning routine, create one. If you don't know where to start, borrow one and then make it around. I get more done than most people. Uh, because of my routine, right? I work on the right things because of my routine.

I'm in control and I'm running a more calm, predictable business because of my routine. No routine to meet. It turns into chaos. If I can't win my morning, how am I supposed to win my day? And my morning is very much designed to optimize me, right? If I can't control myself, my own emotions, how am I supposed to, you know, lead my team, lead our clients and show them, you know, how to move forward, right? So honestly, we have our internal team has a routine that we've adopted and then modified and created and you know, adapted like everything, you know, try new things. I go about four to six months with, uh, you know, my routine being a certain way. There's some pieces that never change, but I'm always trying some new things like every four to six months to to keep it fresh. And I've found that having that morning routine has really anchored me.

I'm going into the rest of the day and the week number eight, go all in on personal development. Um, look, I've always said that entrepreneurship is the best self development training available. If you don't fall in love with personal development and learning how to optimize yourself, your routines, your body and your mind, you're not going to make it. Like, I can't name one successful entrepreneur from Ogilvy to Abraham to jobs that wasn't super in tune with their own personal growth. Right? It's not a nice to have. It's a must have. And you know, I think by default entrepreneurs like we fall into it and some really don't want to embrace it, right? And I think the second you do, you have the opportunity to really advance. Number nine, simplify who? Simplify. Ugh. Simplify everything guys. Your environment, your stuff, do less. Buy less. Simplify your business model.

You only need one or two products to build a multimillion dollar business. So stop making it harder than it has to be. Simplify the tools you use. You don't need most of the stuff you're buying in most cases. Simplifying equals scalability, period, right? Ask Yourself, how can you simplify it? Okay. Number 10 get and pay a coach or mentor. Okay. The more you invest in yourself, we've already talked about this, the more you'll expect of yourself and the more you actually get out of it, right? Like if you go into things and you haven't paid or putting any skin in the game, the likelihood of you committing to it and sticking to it when it gets hard is going to be practically zero. But when you've put money on the line, like you've backed yourself into a corner, and that's why you see a lot of people that invest in these coaching programs like get stuff out of it because they want to prove to themselves that they can do it.

And they have both their time commitment, energy, and money on the line, right? So, um, paint a coach and a mentor has been super massive into like getting me accelerated and not letting me off the hook, right? Um, they'll show you how they did it, but they'll also ask you the right questions when the situation calls for it, right? When you choose the right coach, at least they're also gonna help you protect yourself and your environment and surround you with other people just like you. So, uh, if you haven't done that yet and like, you're still struggling, um, really consider it, right? Uh, 11, this is the bonus one except who you are and what you are now. Some real talk here. For the longest time this year, I hated calling myself a coach, but you know what? I'm a coach and a damn good one, right?

Like my clients think I'm a good one. They've told me I'm a good one. People that don't really know me that like have seen me, you know, speak or whatever, think that I'm good at coaching right when I've been in those environments. Uh, but I was always hesitant to call myself a coach, right? I mean obviously I'm an entrepreneur and I want to be known as a business owner, but one of my skill sets is coaching people, right? So, you know, I feel like for myself, like I know when to put on the consultant hat or the mentor hat, right? And I've found ways to, to work hard once and have all my clients benefit and that's why I'm pumped for, for the rest of this year. And like having a lot of this, a lot of these lessons learned already, right? I've designed my business to help other agency owners and service based businesses transition to a more leveraged model and build a business on their own terms that serves them not the other way around.

And I'm all in on them and helping them, like achieved their goals and have the freedom that they want. And so I would always say those things and which are very much what a coach does. But I wouldn't call myself a coach and I needed to accept who I am. So I'm a damn good coach and uh, I'm not ashamed of it. Right. And so I'd love to know, you know, which of these lessons resonated with you? Um, and you know, hopefully one of them, you know, hits at the right moment in your life. I know as I've learned certain things, it's like, man, like that is exactly what I needed to hear right now. I hope that was the situation for you. Uh, I'm going to continue to share different things like this. Hope you're enjoying the show thus far. If you haven't left us a rating and review in iTunes, we would greatly appreciate that.

That could be your payment back to us. Um, and look, if you need help and you want to accelerate and you are trying to make that transition from agency owner into CEO where you have leveraged programs, products, and services, we can help. We can help you do it really quickly. You can apply and get on our calendar to speak with myself or someone on our team to really just brainstorm if, if we actually can help. And if you're in a position for us to, you know, be successful working together. No, no hard sales pitch. There's a link below system.ly forward slash apply if you're listening on iTunes system.ly forward slash apply. Hope you guys enjoy. Have a great day and talk soon. Okay. Are you looking that cool place to hang on the Internet with all the people just like you? Well, I got it for you. If you want to learn the best strategies, tips, and tools to productize and automate your business, visit system dot l y four slash community to join our free private community and continue the conversation. We'll see you there.