❌Why SHOULD DO is Dangerous ❌and How To Make Unhealthy Amounts of Money Doing Very Few Things... Ep 108

In this discussion, the speaker, identified only as Speaker A, tackles the peril of entrepreneurial 'should dos'—the overwhelming list of tasks business owners believe they must undertake to succeed. Speaker A argues that the key to making substantial profits lies in discerning which tasks genuinely contribute to the bottom line, rather than attempting to address an endless to-do list. They emphasize the importance of identifying and focusing on the actual bottlenecks in a business, rather than diluting efforts across too many initiatives. By investing human and financial resources in the most impactful areas, an entrepreneur can effectively scale their business. Speaker A also highlights the need to empower a balanced team of specialists to create a well-rounded business, despite individual imbalances. The essence of their message is that strategic prioritization and the ability to ignore certain tasks are critical to business growth and success.

• Entrepreneurs often feel suffocated by the many tasks they believe they need to undertake.
• There is a sense of being overwhelmed due to the perception of numerous deficiencies in one's business.
• The challenge lies in prioritizing which tasks to tackle among the multitude of "should do's."

"You have so many should do. You have so many things that you have to do or that you should do that. It gets suffocating, it gets overwhelming because you're like, oh, my God, there's so many holes in my business."

This quote highlights the common entrepreneurial struggle of feeling overwhelmed by the many tasks they think they should be doing to improve their business.

• As a business grows, the capabilities of the team increase, leading to the temptation to take on more tasks.
• Entrepreneurs believe that with more resources, they can address more "should do's."

"And what's interesting is that the bigger you get, the more horsepower you have on your team and the more you feel like you can take on. These should dos, right?"

The quote emphasizes how business growth and a larger team can lead to a false sense of capacity to handle an increasing number of tasks.

• Businesses have core functions such as lead generation, lead nurture, sales, fulfillment, resell, and ascension.
• Each function has numerous potential improvements that could be made.
• Entrepreneurs often think of many ways to enhance these areas, believing that each will lead to more revenue.

"I could look at any business, ours included, and look at lead generation, be like, you know what we should be doing? We should be doing six other platforms, and we should be making ads every single day, and we should be making professional videos and all this stuff, right?"

This quote provides an example of how entrepreneurs can identify a myriad of potential improvements in just one area of business, such as lead generation, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed.

• Entrepreneurs are natural problem solvers, always looking for issues to address.
• The key challenge is not in identifying "should do's" but in discerning which ones will genuinely add value to the business.
• The ability to prioritize effectively impacts the success and profitability of the business.

"The question is, is your ability to differentiate between the actual contributed value of those should do's to your bottom line?"

This quote points out the critical skill of being able to prioritize tasks based on their actual value to the business's bottom line, rather than trying to do everything.

• The primary role of the CEO or entrepreneur is not to think of all possible "should do's."
• Attending events can lead to a long list of potential tasks, but the skill lies in filtering these based on their contribution to success.
• Decision making is a crucial skill that determines the level of success and income of the business.

"The r1 role of the CEO, of the entrepreneur, of the man in charge of you guys is not to always think of the should do's."

The quote underscores that the main responsibility of the entrepreneur or CEO is to discern which tasks are worth pursuing, rather than trying to address every possible "should do."## Resource Allocation and Prioritization

• Businesses often believe they need more resources such as manpower or capital to succeed.
• The list of potential tasks always exceeds available resources, which creates a constant opportunity to improve.
• Success is not about doing more, but about managing time effectively and being disciplined.
• Prioritization involves assessing tasks and allocating human, financial, and mental resources to the most profitable ones.
• It's common for people to avoid uncomfortable but necessary tasks by busying themselves with less important ones.
• Making strategic decisions about where to focus attention can significantly advance a business.
• Often, businesses that are not growing are focusing on tasks that are not critical to overcoming their main bottlenecks.

The thing is that there will always be a deficit of what you need to accomplish, because the actual list of things that you should do will always surpass your resources, which is why, as long as things are working well, there's always more opportunity to be seized to improve the business.

This quote highlights the universal challenge of limited resources in business and the resultant need for continuous improvement.

The thing, though, is that how does one business move faster than another, right. How does it actually happen?

This question introduces the topic of competitive advantage and the factors that enable a business to outpace others in the market.

If you deconstruct it, it's not by doing more, for sure. We try and manage our time, and we try and be effective. We try and be disciplined, for sure. That goes without saying. But I would reason that a lot of people tried to do that.

The speaker emphasizes that success isn't simply about doing more tasks but about being strategic with time management and discipline.

The thing that we've done very well and that I think should be modeled is looking at all of the decisions, all of the should do's, all of the tasks that you could potentially do and allocate human resources, allocate financial resource toward, and then in the beginning, your mental resources toward because if it's just you and a team of three, you're going to be half the horsepower of your team.

This quote stresses the importance of strategic decision-making in resource allocation, particularly for small teams where the leader's input is significant.

And looking at which one of these things is going to make me the most money and what happens if you actually look at your day in terms of activities and the things that you're doing? You probably have this huge list if you look at what your time is being actually spent on.

The speaker suggests evaluating daily activities to identify those that contribute most to profitability, implying the importance of prioritization based on financial return.

Most of the times we have these projects that we start doing, sometimes we start doing things to procrastinate because we don't want to do the things that we know we should do.

This quote acknowledges a common behavior where less critical tasks are pursued to avoid more challenging but essential work.

That's one. That's a big one. Because the thing that we should do, the one thing that might be the most effective, that might move the ball forward, might take discomfort, might take learning a new skill that we don't know yet, and we don't want to go through that discomfort period.

The speaker identifies the psychological barrier to progress: the avoidance of discomfort associated with tackling the most impactful tasks.

And so that's where my attention should go. And so your ability to navigate all of this huge and endless to do list and be able to actively cross things out that you know you should do in favor of doing the things that you need to do because it's the one thing that's going to move your business forward in a massive way.

Here, the speaker advocates for a focused approach to task management, prioritizing actions that have the greatest potential to drive significant business progress.

And that's why when I get on the phone with guys who are stuck at 5 million, stuck at 10 million, and they're like, how'd you do it so quickly? And I ask them what they're doing, I ask them what they're focused on. And nine times out of ten, it's for lack of better term bullshit, you know what I mean? I look at them like they're working on things that are not the bottleneck.

The speaker suggests that many businesses are not growing because they are not addressing their actual bottlenecks, indicating a misalignment of effort and business needs.

• The host encourages return listeners to rate or review the show, highlighting the importance of audience engagement for the podcast's success.

Hey, if you're a return listener and you have not rated or reviewed the show, I want you to.

This quote is a call to action for listeners, aiming to increase audience interaction and support for the podcast.## Podcast Promotion and Listener Engagement

• The hosts emphasize the importance of listener engagement for podcast growth.
• They encourage listeners to take action without pausing the show.
• The growth of the podcast is attributed to word of mouth and listener support.
• The hosts express a sense of community with the listeners, emphasizing mutual support among entrepreneurs.

"Should feel absolutely terrible about yourself and everything else in the world. I'm kidding."

This quote is a humorous opening that serves to grab the listener's attention before transitioning into the main content.

"But it would mean the absolute world. To me if you guys would go ahead and do that."

This quote highlights the significance the hosts place on listener action to support the podcast.

"You can keep listening, and you can just do it with your thumb right now. It'll take you less than 60 seconds."

The hosts are suggesting an easy and quick way for listeners to engage and support the podcast.

"And like I said, the only way that podcast grows through word of mouth, and this is you joining hands with me and helping as many entrepreneurs as we possibly can, because no one is coming to save us."

This quote emphasizes the importance of community effort in growing the podcast and supporting entrepreneurs.

"It's just us."

The hosts convey a sense of solidarity and self-reliance among the entrepreneurial community.

• The discussion contrasts two business philosophies: focusing on strengths versus addressing weaknesses.
• The hosts debate the value of personal skill development versus business problem-solving.
• The importance of identifying and resolving business bottlenecks is emphasized.
• The hosts advocate for external perspectives, such as consultants, to provide objective insights into business challenges.
• The sunk cost fallacy is highlighted as a common pitfall for entrepreneurs.

"They are not the weak link in the chain."

This quote introduces the concept that personal weaknesses are not always the limiting factor in business success.

"You have your double down on your strengths, only be good at these things, and then outsource the rest."

The hosts describe one school of thought in business strategy, which focuses on leveraging personal strengths.

"Work on your weak points, right? So you can become more balanced, blah, blah, blah, blah."

This quote represents the opposing viewpoint that suggests improving personal weaknesses for a more balanced skill set.

"The difference between working on yourself versus working on your business is that you yourself, like, I shouldn't learn accounting."

The hosts argue that personal skill development in areas unrelated to one's strengths may not be the best use of time for business growth.

"But if my business has a point in time where accounting becomes the bottleneck, then I need to solve that problem."

This quote emphasizes the critical nature of addressing business issues that impede growth, regardless of personal strengths.

"And so that's where the balance between what are my strengths versus what is the weakness of the business."

The hosts discuss the need to distinguish between personal strengths and business weaknesses to effectively drive growth.

"And that's why it takes wisdom, it takes discernment to look at the business and be able to see it."

The quote underscores the necessity of wisdom and discernment in identifying business bottlenecks.

"And that's why sometimes having consultants, having people from the outside be able to look in without emotion, without investment."

The hosts highlight the value of external advisors in providing unbiased assessments of business challenges.

"You putting in another three weeks on that project to finish it still will make you less money than solving the one problem."

This quote addresses the sunk cost fallacy, advising entrepreneurs to focus on resolving the most critical issues rather than completing less impactful projects.

• The concept of a bottleneck as the primary obstacle to business growth is central to the discussion.
• The hosts emphasize the importance of identifying the weak link or bottleneck in a business.
• Once identified, the focus should be on addressing the bottleneck to enable growth.
• They compare this approach to fitness, where improving a specific weakness can have a greater impact than further strengthening an area that is already strong.

"What's the bottleneck? Right?"

The hosts introduce the concept of the bottleneck as the critical point of focus for business improvement.

"And as soon as you identify that, it gives you focus and then you can ignore everything else, because when you take off the weak link, everything blows up until the next bottleneck."

This quote explains that identifying the bottleneck allows for targeted action and can lead to significant growth until the next bottleneck is encountered.

"If you're really, really strong off the floor and you can't finish your deadlift, right, you just can't lock it out, you getting stronger and stronger off the floor isn't going to do anything."

The hosts use a fitness analogy to illustrate the futility of improving a strength when a weakness is the actual impediment to progress.

"If your problem is that you can't retain for shit, that's not going to grow the business, it doesn't matter, right? Because tha"

This incomplete quote suggests that focusing on improving areas that are not bottlenecks will not contribute to business growth.## Empowering Team Members and Balancing Business

• Recognize and empower individuals with natural strengths to lead specific aspects of the business.
• Coach employees to take ownership and focus on their strengths, contributing to a balanced business.
• A balanced business requires a diverse, unbalanced team of individuals who excel in various areas.

And so you might not be naturally an empathetic and caring person, but you can find someone who is, empower them with the decisions and then coach them with culture to take ownership over that aspect of the business.

This quote emphasizes the importance of identifying and empowering individuals within a team who have strengths that the leader may lack, ensuring that all areas of the business are managed by capable hands.

Because a business needs to be balanced. The people in it are not.

This quote underscores the concept that while individuals have unique strengths and weaknesses, a successful business relies on creating a balanced team where these differences complement each other.

• Avoid stress and anxiety by giving yourself permission to ignore the majority of tasks on your to-do list.
• Concentrate on the one or two critical tasks that will drive business growth and address bottlenecks.
• Embrace the idea that doing less, but with strategic focus, can lead to greater business success.

Because the reality is that you probably have one thing or two things that are the real things that are going to drive the business forward, are going to break through the bottleneck so that you can grow your business and the business can actually continue to grow and can leverage the strengths that you have.

This quote highlights the importance of focusing on the key drivers of business growth, rather than being overwhelmed by a long list of potential tasks.

A lot of times conventional wisdom is wrong. A lot of times you just need to do less, but do the right things, and those are the things that are going to grow your business, right?

The speaker challenges conventional wisdom, suggesting that success often comes from doing fewer tasks but focusing on the most impactful ones.

• Allocate human and capital resources to the most valuable projects for a higher return on investment.
• Identify and address bottlenecks in the business to prevent them from impeding growth.
• Recognize the limitations in resources and the necessity to invest them wisely.

We had a limited amount of capital and we simply invested it. We allocated it to projects that were more valuable, that made their time more effective, and we got a higher return on our human capital, on the attention that we invest.

This quote discusses the strategic allocation of limited resources to projects that yield the highest return, thereby maximizing the effectiveness of the team's efforts.

And every time we had a bottleneck, we were able to invest and identify what that bottleneck was, despite having maybe other issues in the business.

The speaker describes the process of pinpointing and investing in solutions for bottlenecks, which is crucial for continuous business growth.

• Accept that a business will never be perfect and that resources will always be limited.
• The key entrepreneurial skill is to choose which tasks to focus on for the greatest impact.
• Prioritize effectively and be comfortable with the ongoing imperfections in business operations.

Don't feel guilty about it. If you feel anxiety, it means you need to prioritize them and get rid of most of it and be okay with the fact that your business will literally never be perfect, ever.

This quote encourages entrepreneurs to accept the imperfections of their business and focus on prioritization to manage anxiety and make progress.

And so the skill of the entrepreneur is in picking which one thing or two things am I going to take my time and attention of my team and focus on?

The speaker identifies the essential skill of an entrepreneur as the ability to choose where to direct their focus and resources for the greatest benefit to the business.