“What’s changed for you in the last year that gave you this momentum?”
That’s what my buddy asked me the other day.
He runs a multiple 7 figure coaching business and we were texting back and forth catching up on what was working / not working for our businesses and we both have been experiencing some of our best months ever and both growing quickly.
It was such a simple but brilliant question that I think more of us need to be asking those ahead of us.
It helps shorten the learning curve.
Today’s video is a video I shared with our private clients about this.
Transcript / MP3
I want you guys to look back a year from now and say, yeah, I just focused. I just did what I said I was going to do. I focused on the biggest problem and I avoided everything avoided all of the other distractions. That’s what I want for you a year from now three months from now next week. Um, and the more that you can look back on where you came from, and at least for the next, you know, six, 12, probably 24 months, at least if your answer is that, you know, I did more of the right stuff, uh, which was, which meant less. And I did it more consistently and it kept getting better. I think all of the goals that you probably have for yourself you’ll hit and you’ll exceed all of your expectations. … Honestly, I have no idea How the conversation got started, but a buddy, Brian of mine who is doing, um, multiple seven figures in his coaching business, um, reached out to me and we were just texting back and forth about all things, life and business. And he had asked about how business was going and, you know, for us personally, we’ve, uh, basically since March have had back to back to back to back, however many months it is from March til now, uh, record months, um, both in cash generated cash collected, um, in client success, results shared all, all of the things. And I’m not saying that to brag or anything, I’m sharing that for the context of the conversation. Cause he was asking how things were going. And I had said, you know, things are great. Uh, our team is growing. Um, we’re, uh, our media buyer is getting onboarded this week, which is our ninth team member. We have a sales admin starting in the next couple of weeks, which will be our 10th team member. Um, we need to hire a video editor, which will be our 11th team member. Um, what’s going on Conde. Uh, and so our team is growing and I was like, things are good. And then he didn’t know that, uh, I don’t think he knew that we had our daughter. So I was like, and we have a new daughter and he’s like, dude, this is amazing. All great stuff. What’s going on, Danny. And so the conversation actually, you know, after I shared how things were going, um, he was just like, the conversation kept flowing and then he kind of circled back in the conversation and I’m pulling it up here. And he, he asked a super simple, but interesting question and I notice smart people ask these questions and he said, regarding your business going so well, what’s changed for you in the last year to send things on such a positive trajectory. Let me say that again, because like you can be asking people this question and he said regarding your business, uh, regarding your business going so well, what’s changed for you in the last year to send things on such a positive trajectory. Now, was it this time, last year, about a year ago, it might be a little less than a year. It might be a little over a year. Um, I had spent three days with him on a houseboat and we were masterminding with a bunch of other people, uh, or a small group of other guys. And we were just chatting about, you know, what the biggest focus was on our business. And so he had context about, you know, where I was last year. Hence I think partly where that question came from, but he’s a very inquisitive person. So he asked, you know, well, what happened? Like what do you kind of attribute that success to? Uh, and again, really kind of a simple question, but I stopped for a minute and I had to like think about it. And, um, because to me, like from the last time we were hanging out, um, a lot has changed, but also very little has changed. Um, in regards to what I was doing. Obviously the results, uh, have, have grown dramatically since the last time I was with him. But literally I just said, you know, um, great question. We focused only on the biggest bottleneck. And I think the timing with our messaging with COVID, which actually was the same message we’ve had for the last three years seemed to strike a chord with our audience. Um, so I’ve been saying the same thing for three years and now everyone’s, now everyone understands why, uh I’m like, but other than that, that’s all I’ve done is continued talking about what we’ve been talking about for the last three plus years and focused only on our biggest bottleneck. And he said, ah, that’s great. And I said, what about you? And cause his business is, you know, revenue wise above ours, more a larger team. Um, you know, you ask him about certain parts of his business and he won’t even know the answer because he has team members. He has like a larger managerial team than I do. And he said, similar focus, cut one product line, double down on our primary adjusted messaging for COVID. And I said, what did you cut? He cuts his low ticket offers. And he said, so we just went all in on our coaching program and we got clear on our longterm vision. And he goes, that usually tends to refine things. And it got me thinking really like the rest of the weekend about, you know, and I’ve said this in different ways, time and time again. Um, the biggest thing that was holding us back and I think holding many of you back and we’ll continue to hold many of you back, unless you do something about it is to just focus on doing less, but doing it better and more consistently. Um, you know, and, and I talked to, you know, I talked to a lot of people that are doing way more than me, multiple seven figures, eight figures, and I pay to be around these people and also blessed to have built a lot of friendships with these people, um, peer groups and stuff and such, and the conversations you have at this level are literally all about doing less, um, and focusing on less. And when I look at, you know, the businesses that I look up to, um, and you know, other like entrepreneurs building, you know, con consulting, coaching businesses, you know, um, the hybrid agency models that, you know, have inspired us, most of them have, will have that are over seven figures, have one, two products. That’s it like one to two offerings and that’s all they sell each and every year over and over and over again, and they get better. They improve on them, they improve on their messaging and through that they scale. Um, and then they get in front of more people and so they have more people to serve and it’s just, it’s just getting better and focusing on you were things. And, um, you know, we’ve done a lot, we’ve worked on a lot, but all of the things, things that we have been working on have really been tied to no one to two bottlenecks that are, are, you know, preventing us from getting, like, seeing the next problem. And, uh, it caught me thinking about the depth in which at least we’ve approached things versus the breadth that I think a lot of other people approach things. And, you know, I think inherently, many of you are going to struggle with, with the, the challenge of, of, um, really like not often up custom solutions for every client, just because as money and that’s going to, in some cases be a short term revenue loss, um, for you, but to position you for longterm profitable gain. And that’s why, you know, you see me like kind of do the balancing act kind of with my hands a lot, because it’s a balancing act like you add one to two or three of the new right. Ideal client, and that’s one or two of the old clients that you don’t need to accept anymore. The challenge is if you keep accepting both, you’re just taking on more than you actually need. And it’s funny, I was on a, um, we work with a team that helps coach our sales team and, uh, I have a one-on-one call, um, periodically with, uh, my point of contact there. And, you know, I was just bringing up like my biggest bottleneck and he’s like, alright, well, what are you going to do about that? And I was like, we’re already doing all of the things that like, tactically, you could be doing to improve on this. It’s just doing them better. And he’s like, he just made a comment of like, yeah, you don’t actually, he’s like, you could go talk to everybody about what they’re doing tactical. He’s like, but you’re already doing all of the things he’s like, so you don’t need, it’s like, it’s not a, you’re not going to close that gap that you have right now, tactically, it’s just going to be tweaking and refining the thing that you already have. And I think, um, you know, why I’m sharing this to many of you is like, just to caution you on the, when something is moving slower or something is not, you’re not getting the result as fast as you want because life and business is not a like, you know, one click and now all of a sudden you’re successful kind of game that you’re going to be tempted to go and try something different and add something new to the mix. And likely it is going to be a new tactic or a new coaching program, or hire a new person or whatever it is. And the jumping from thing to thing to thing, thinking that it’s the thing that is actually the new thing or the different thing that is going to make the difference is wrong. And you will, that won’t make sense to you right now, but I’ve made this steak, made this mistake time and time again. And I can tell you the deeper, you, just, the deeper you go, the deeper you go with us, and that’s not a sales tactic. Like I’ve jumped from coach to coach to coach the deeper you go with us. Like, you’ll find the momentum. There will be ups and downs. There will be lows where you’re probably say, man, like, should I not be in a coaching program right now? Or should I be doubling down on something else? And it’s like, that’s really the wrong question that you should be asking. It’s like jumping from new coach to new coach from thing to thing is the same as like, Ooh, this webinar didn’t work or email’s dead. So I’m going to go do this. And so I want you guys to start thinking about depth in all areas of your business and life, where it is really just about how can you like do less in total of the things that you’re doing, but do the things that you’re doing a whole lot better with more intention. Um, you know, like we’re going back and we’re rewriting all of our emails that follow up on our followup campaign. Like I can rewrite those emails and work on making those emails better and convert better, like over and over and over again versus, Oh, I’m going to scrap that whole thing all together. Right? Because as you start doing these things, the improvements, the small improvements, you’ve probably all heard of the term Kaizen. Um, it’s like the compounding of small improvements. Like if you improve small things every single day over time, it’s going to have a huge impact. And like, when I think about the conversation, how with my friend, uh, on, on text message, that how we started this conversation, you know, I have yet to miss a week where we’ve released a YouTube video, my YouTube, the videos have gotten better. It’s gotten easy. My process for creating the YouTube videos has gotten better. The messaging that we’ve shared has gotten clear because we haven’t stopped messaging. We messaged multiple times a week. I go live, I practice. I was thinking about all these things and it’s like, I haven’t really been adding a whole lot of new things. I’ve been trying to transfer things that I’ve been doing to other people like Greg was the only one selling, I don’t need a whole new sales process. I don’t need a whole new sales style. I need someone to duplicate those efforts. So we bring on Larry and Mike and they’re selling and they’re there. They’re taking their style with our process moldy and together. And you have this new thing that is really just built off of the thing that I’ve been doing over and over and over again for the last three plus years. So think about depth and how can you go deeper in all that you do? How can you commit to doing less? How can you just focus on a few things at a time and look, we’re guilty of this too. And like all of the people that are, have been rolling into Academy, um, we’ve had a handful of you that have upgraded into Academy and like open kimono, like moment.Like we have these kickoff calls and I’m like, yeah, you only need to do these, these do these two things right now. And like report back to me sometimes I’m like, Ugh, they probably feel like that they were expecting more. And like, that’s the, I start telling myself like, Ooh, I need to give them more things to do so that they feel that because I told them that they need to do these five things that now it’s more valuable to be in the program. When really it’s like, that’s just a bunch of BS. It’s like, you need to focus on these two things until you’ve mastered these two things. You don’t need to be doing anything else. And we’re going to be here to support you and provide tools and provide feedback and critique you and give you guidance and mentorship on improving those things and staying the course, because I’ll tell you, that’s what I didn’t have. And some of the programs that I was in where someone’s like, if someone just said, I know it’s not working the way you expect it to be working just yet, but trust me, just keep it going, like a more, give it more time, tweak how you’re doing it. Don’t you change the thing you’re doing, but do it adjust a little bit, like refine it. Like, how can you do that better? How can you make that easier for you? How can you make that easier for your team? And like, that’s what it’s all about. And so like I’m personally battling my own, you know, my own demons of like, Ooh, I just told them that they only needed to do these two things. There should be more, will they do. We value the experience because there’s only two things that they need to focus on and you know, that’s my own, my own stuff, but I know you guys are probably dealing with that. And it is like, you just gotta do less. You have to refine and focus and go deeper on the few things that are important right now. Um, and when I looked back on, you know, what, and when I was approaching this conversation with you guys, I wanted to think about how does, where was I when I was more closely in your shoes, which was not too long ago, um, where this still applies. And it’s going to be in that transition of, um, focusing on dialing in your signature service and selling that and avoiding selling anything but that, and there’s going to be a little bit, a little bit of give and take. There’s going to be a little bit of, well, I’m going to take this one done for you client. That’s not exactly what I want to be doing, but it’s a means to the end because I’m not going to do X, Y, Z in three months from now, and like giving yourself that vision of by this date, I will no longer take these types of projects because I’m only taking them for money right now.And in the interim, I’m going to be focused on doing the thing that I want to be doing, serving who I want to be serving, getting my signature service up to speed. And so when I kind of look back on your situation, it’s like the more that you can choose and commit to doing less and fighting the urge to say yes to that deal, that is more about money than it is about working on the right thing. The faster you will progress through this journey. We spent six months trying to please legacy clients when we could have spent those six months on just getting more of the new clients that we were having. No problem getting, we just couldn’t take on enough of the new clients, because we were still trying to cater to the legacy clients. And if you listen back on my YouTube video and my podcast, there’s an episode where I talk about, sometimes you have to let the old die in order for the new to be born.And that is going to be a part of this journey for you guys, as you focus on depth and not, you know, going wider and expanding too wide, you can have multiple revenue streams, but multiple is like two to three, like multiple doesn’t mean you need to have 15 different ways. You make money, especially with where all of you guys are at most consulting hybrid business models that I know that are doing seven figures plus have one to two offerings. Um, and it wasn’t only until they were like consistently doing, you know, 300, 500 K a month where they added on a third thing or a fourth thing, or they started doing a lot of the stuff that you see people doing. They were, they did that well after they were doing seven figures. So I messaged you today. Cause now this has turned into a rant is, um, you know, look, I want you guys to look back a year from now and say, yeah, I just focused. I just did what I said I was going to do. I focused on the biggest problem and I avoided everything avoided all of the other distractions. That’s what I want for you a year from now three months from now next week. Um, and the more that you can look back on where you came from, and at least for the next, you know, six, 12, probably 24 months, at least if your answer is that, you know, I did more of the right stuff, uh, which was, which meant less. And I did it more consistently and it kept getting better. I think all of the goals that you probably have for yourself you’ll hit and you’ll exceed all of your expectations. You just gotta stay focused on, on the depth [inaudible].
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