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What if you feel like you’re lost in the startup wild? It’s hard to make real progress when that’s the case. This is why we spoke with David Wood, a coach who has helped endless entrepreneurs make real progress by helping them stay laser focused on the critical path. In this interview David shares his 9 steps for mastery.
More about David:
He has built the world’s largest coaching business with 150,000 followers. Was ranked #1 on google for “life coaching” out of 23 million result.
He is the author of “Get Paid for Who You Are”, with foreword by Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup fame
He haas taught laser focus to leaders at Facebook, Square, Warner Bros, Salesforce, as well as Colorado prison inmates
David appeared on CNN Headline News, Forbes and has done over 120+ podcast interviews!
Learn more about David Wood and his work at > myfocusgift.com
We also recommend:
- Jennifer Spivak: Creating Facebook Ads That Actually Resonate
- Our Best Tips to Pivot Your Workforce
- Parker Stevenson: Understanding Your Financials to Get the Most From Your Biz
Transcription of Interview
(Transcribed by Otter.ai, there may be errors)
Adam G. Force 00:03
Welcome to the Change Creator podcast where entrepreneurs come to learn how to live their truth, get rich and make a massive difference in the world. I’m your host Adam forest co founder, Change Creator and co creator of the captivate method. Each week we talk to experts about leadership, digital marketing and sales strategies that you can implement in your business and life to go big, visit us at Change Creator comm forward slash go big to grab awesome resources that will help drive your business forward. Hey, what’s going on everybody? Welcome back to the Change Creator podcast show. This is your host, Adam force. Excited to be here today. Hope you’re having an amazing week. We have a great conversation coming up for you today. His name is David would know. So David has actually built one of the largest coaching businesses out there and has ranked number one on Google for life coaching out of 23 million different results. He has over 150,000 followers. He is the author of the book Get Paid for Who You Are. And he has a great follower with jack Canfield. He’s the author of chicken soup. And so he’s also appeared in CNN, Forbes, and all this other stuff and been on over 120 different podcasts, which is pretty cool. He’s got a lot of great insights to share when it comes to building your business, especially coaching businesses, but also kind of finding your way with the tools that you really need. And we’re gonna go through these nine steps that he’s outlined. So through all his experience, these are nine things that he teaches that are really important that he’s kind of narrowed it down to so we’re going to discuss that today. Now, if you missed the last episode was with Jennifer Spivak, she’s a Facebook ads expert. And we want to get into that because as some of the folks out there like yourselves who are building your businesses, if you’re making sales, and you have certain things working, well, you might want to help accelerate their growth with Facebook ads at some point. So that’s a great conversation to get into because we kind of tap into a lot of strategies and insights. Okay, so if you missed that one, you can go back and check it out. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, everybody. That’s our primary channel. Right now we have our Facebook group, which is on our page. So you can go right to the group which is Be Change Creator. We talk about how we’re converting more sales on your website and things like that. So that is a primary theme for us is how we really start turning more of that traffic into loyal customers that just love what we do. Right. All right, guys. I’m gonna jump into this conversation. we’ll kick it off and see what David has to say. Okay, show me the heat. Hey, David, welcome to the Change Creator podcast show how you doing today, buddy?
David Wood 02:46
I’m good man. I’m here in Mexico. I’m looking at a palm trees and, and the ocean. So right now, life’s pretty good. Awesome.
Adam G. Force 02:55
I’m in Miami and I got palm trees, but it’s pouring rain today. You know, Funny enough, I’ve been around to Central America and all kinds of other places. But I’ve never been to Mexico specifically.
David Wood 03:10
Right? And it’s not that far from you
Adam G. Force 03:13
No, what brought you to Mexico?
David Wood 03:16
I wanted a break from the winter I I’m Australian originally but I live in Boulder Colorado. And and you know, I don’t mind the winter at all, but I thought wouldn’t be great to just have a break for say three weeks where I get to feel sun and and see a beach again. And also I rescued a puppy in Boulder and she’s never seen a beach until yesterday. That was so exciting
Adam G. Force 03:45
My wife was telling me yesterday that the weather in Colorado was reaching what felt like with the wind minus 50.
David Wood 03:53
I’m happy to hear that.
Adam G. Force 03:54
Yeah. escaped. Yeah, awesome. So David, tell us a little bit. I like to just tee people up with the present moment, like what’s going on in your world these days? What are you working on? You know, and we’ll get into a little bit of background how you get there after?
David Wood 04:14
Well, you know, I I like to be as transparent as I can. That’s, that’s how I try and live in. It’s what I teach. So I’ll model it now. The biggest thing in my life right now is self care. Okay, you know, and I’ve got my business running. I love my clients. I’m working on some cool projects workwise but Mexico has really kicked my ass in in many different ways. And I’ve done so much work on myself, but I still have found that I’ve gotten really triggered. I’ve gotten angrier than I ever have before. I’ve gotten more stress than I can remember being, I had some trauma when I was a kid so I’m I’m very sensitive to noise. And so traveling in Mexico is an edge for me. Then on top of all of that, and living with friends for the first time in a long time, I got food poisoning, which is one of the most miserable experiences that I can think of. So there’s all of that going on. And I’m learning more and more about, okay, what is David need? What is this system need? And can I speak up? Because I grew up in a an Australian country town. And sensitive wasn’t a thing you kind of got to be. Yeah. And so even just speaking up and saying to the group, hey, I’m having a bit of trouble here. And I might need to step outside because I’m overstimulated with all the noise and laughter and everything in the music that’s happening. This is my journey. Right now. It’s been my journey for 20-30 years.
Adam G. Force 05:52
Sure.
David Wood 05:53
I’m finding more layers. So that’s one thing that’s that’s really alive as can I speak up and get my needs met, instead of trying to power through and overshadow what my nervous system might need?
Adam G. Force 06:08
Yeah. And I’m gonna get into just how you help entrepreneurs today in just a second and some of your background for people. But you did make me think of something when you mentioned self care. And I’m always reading my, you know, business and, you know, influence or like inspirational stuff. But I’m also always reading about things for my own health, right. And a book that I recently picked up was about breathing. And it talks about how we’ve been breathing all wrong, and the evolution of humanity and how short breaths and mouth breathing and how this has changed the dynamic of our whole physiology. And you know, I’ve always asked questions like, why do we see more allergies today, and asthma and all this stuff. And it all starts to tie back to how we breathe. And I’ve never, I mean, I’ve been into like meditation and stuff. But this book, after many years of me reading all kinds of this stuff, you know, I never came across a book with this information. And I’m finally like, Oh, my God, really interesting material. So as you mentioned, the self care that kind of popped in my mind, because I’ve been reading that as of recent, and it’s been a real eye opener for me personally.
David Wood 07:23
Well, I appreciate the reminder, because since you started mentioning breathing, I’ve taken three good breaths into my belly into my diaphragm, instead of breathing up here. So it is something that I am forgetting. And a friend reminded me last night, he said, I can tell you are about to do a nice exhale, and then you stopped and your mind went somewhere else. I’m like, thank you. Yeah, we need those reminders to come back. Because I can self soothe we all can. And sometimes I forget.
Adam G. Force 07:54
Yeah, absolutely. It’s easy. Absolutely. I become a mouth breather and and then when you start doing that, your nasal and your nose, everything starts to say it’s like, use it or lose it factor. And it starts to contract and get smaller, and it changes the whole dynamic. Anyway, I won’t get into it. But I was like, going on and on to my wife. And I was like, you gotta read this thing. It’s crazy, man. Like, it’s crazy.
David Wood 08:18
I’m glad we’re talking about this as well. Because, you know, sometimes I think when people hear see people on TV or hear people on a podcast, yeah, there’s kind of a base assumption of this person’s an expert. So they’ve got everything all together. They don’t have problems. Yeah. And I just want to make it really clear. I’m not some guru. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve been coaching for 20 years, I’m really good at what I do. And I’m also a student. At the same time, I learn so much from my clients. I’ll be saying something in a coaching session, and I’ll be like, Oh, you’re gonna do that today? Yeah, you gotta you gotta practice what you preach. So yeah, I’m glad we got an opportunity to talk about that.
Adam G. Force 09:02
Absolutely. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit about the coaching experience and kind of how you got into that. And you know, how you got 20 years under your belt, and I know that you help entrepreneurs in a few really important ways. So I just want to like, in you know, a nutshell here, just give me the some of that background that you think is most important for people to understand.
David Wood 09:24
Yeah, sure. Well, I started life very left brained. I grew up in a country town. I was good at math. I ended up coming top of my school and I was like, Well, what are you going to do? Since your math is your main thing and we figured accountancy. But then we discovered there was this remote profession called actuarial science, okay, and becoming an actuary, which is like they calculate insurance premiums and do statistics projections for 100 years into the future. And I was like, well, they made a lot more money and it’s harder to do, and it’s More prestige. And there are scholarships for it. So I actually got paid to go to university to train to be an actuary. And then I still got to choose if I would work for the company or not. It was an unbonded scholarship, which was like magic. So I did that. And qualified took me eight years to qualify as an actuary. And then a year later, I quit. Which is, it’s like becoming a doctor and then saying, I’m done.
Adam G. Force 10:29
I’m good.
David Wood 10:31
And what did it was I did a personal growth course. And I didn’t want to do it, because they all want name tags, and they smile way too much. And I’m like, this can’t be real. These are bunch of weak self help junkies. But, um, but I wasn’t happy in my marriage at the time. So I thought, I’m gonna get in and get out. Okay, well, famous last words out, I’m telling you. I think what happened is they cracked me up and they cracked my cynicism. And I found myself coaching, I couldn’t help myself. If someone had a problem in the course. And we’re talking about it. I’m like, Well, have you tried this? Or did you hear what the teacher said yesterday, and I changed somebody’s life overnight. And I got hooked. I’m like, Oh, my God, I’m watching this woman face her biggest fear. She goes into it transforms her life. I’m like, how do I learn how to how to do more of that? Yeah. So they, they trained me as a as a coach, if you kept going with the program, they would train you. And so I coached people going through the course. And then I met a guy, I didn’t even meet him, I met someone who met him who had a business card of a coach, and this is back in 1997. And I’m like, wait a minute, you can get paid to do this. Like, this is a profession. And it wasn’t really at that stage, but people were starting. And I’m like, Alright, I want in. So I quit my job. And and I went and trained as a coach. And I’ve been basically training ever since because it never stops. And what I discovered in that course, was that I had learned about business, and I had learned about systems and how to be successful in a certain area of life. But I knew nothing about emotional intimacy, about vulnerability, about leadership, about influence about transparent communication. So the last 20 years have been about diving into that. So I’m a unique coach, I think in that most coaches will focus on one or the other, I’ll help you with your business, or I’ll help you with your life and your relationships and who you are and your courage. I, I straddle the two because of my my unique background. So if you come to me, don’t expect that we’re just going to work on money. I always make that clear. Don’t expect that. We’ll start with money. And then we’ll move to you having more time off. But then I’m interested in how you showing up in the world. Yeah. And are you living life such that when you’re on your deathbed, you can say I gave it everything I had?
Adam G. Force 13:14
Yeah, I love that. And, I mean, I think that if you, if you want to make the more, the more money and all that kind of stuff, and get to those next stages of your life, you do need to work on yourself, right to become that that person and the next version of yourself. So if you’re not playing that part of the game, it’s going to be very hard to continue to grow. Right?
David Wood 13:38
Yeah. And the the the sad thing about it, is you’ll never know what would have been possible. Because you live we live in our own world. It’s like The Truman Show. I you know, if anyone’s ever seen The Truman Show, with Jim Carrey, he’s in his limited world with these boundaries. He doesn’t even know about the boundaries. You can you we will live our whole life like that. Unless we push back the horizons, right? We grow and often that takes some outside influence, like, like a coach or a course or something, something transformative. And then we’re like, oh, wow, I could never go back to the way I was living. This is my new world now. Yeah. And so my life has been about constantly trying to push back those boundaries and discover what I don’t know. I don’t know. And I can’t tell you about what the next level is gonna look like because I’ve got no idea until until my coach shows me something and I’m like, Oh, wow. All right. This is the new level now.
Adam G. Force 14:41
Yeah, yeah, it’s true. And what would you say I guess working with you know, all these entrepreneurs over the over the years. I always like when you mentioned you know, they need someone and outside influence, right. But first you kind of how do we get them to the point of saying I’m open to that outside influence because they don’t if they’re not aware that they need to break through to these other, you know, areas of their life to become that next person. You’re right, they can go through their whole life not knowing. So if they don’t know, how do they get in a position where they can accept support?
David Wood 15:18
Yeah, I think we, I think we each need to choose the mindset of a seeker. We need to also be humble enough to say, because I’m very, I’m very arrogant. I’ll be upfront about that. I usually think I’m the smartest person in the room. Now, maybe sometimes I am. But the problem with that viewpoint, is that leaves me not open to input. So I try and begin as a beginner, I try and take on that mindset, okay, I need to seek, I need to get outside influence. I think it was only like five months ago, I had five different coaches. I had a coach for dating, I had a coach for accountability. I had a coach to teach me about energy and moving energy through the body because I knew nothing about that. So it’s choosing, I don’t know everything. And I’m and I want input. There used to be a time I think, particularly in American culture, where it’s like, I need to do it myself. If I do it myself, I’m a hero. Yeah, if you do it with the help of 100 people, oh, you’re not a hero, you have to help 100 people. I think that’s changing with people like Bill Gates saying, everybody needs a coach. Right, with leaders like that saying, like, he wants to learn bridge to get a coach. Yeah, I want to be good at Starcraft. I went and got a coach, I started playing fortnight and I sucked at it. I’m like, Well, you know, I get a coach and get good. So I think the mindset is, is the main thing. And I, everybody’s different. So when I’m helping someone to double revenue and their time off, what I do is I’m like, Look, let’s look at the nine areas that I’ve identified that are important, okay, and find out where you’re strong, and where you’re weak. Yeah, and I run them through it. And some of them, they’ll be like, Alright, I’m green. I’m solid. That’s, that’s fine. This one I’m orange is like a traffic light system. This one, I’m like, I could use a little bit of work. And these areas, I’m weakened. That’s where I’m going to start. First, I’m going to get really strong in those, get all those lights up to green, your chances of doubling revenue in the next 12 months, I think a very high.
Adam G. Force 17:38
Okay. And can you give us an a couple examples of some we don’t need, I don’t know, if you want to go through all nine, but maybe a couple of really important triggers
David Wood 17:46
I can give you all nine of them in a minute. So we start with your direction? Do you have goals? In 12 months, three months? and seven days? And tomorrow? Yeah, I would have you do the happy dance. That’s number one. So listeners, you can get a piece of paper and just score yourself with a color, you’ll probably want to pause the recording. The second one is your productivity. Can you sit down for a two hour sprint, and I actually do the tasks that you set for yourself? That’s a game changer. Number three, mindset. And we’ve already talked a little bit about that. But when when a problem comes, Do you suffer? And do you get stressed? And do you view it as a problem? Or do you say, Bring it on, there’s something for me to learn here. The fourth one is now we started to really get to the revenue you want to a flood of leads. If you’ve got a trickle of leads, score yourself red, if you’ve got a flood of leads score yourself green. Next one is your conversion. When people come to your website, do they buy? Do you have a high conversion rate? Or is it a low conversion rate? Right? You don’t want to fly to traffic and nothing happens. And then number six is Are you loving up your existing customers? It’s so easy to keep looking for new customers new clients. But are you getting referrals? Are you are you gathering testimonials? Do you have a great upsell system? Do you have a nurturing sequence? So, that’s six. Should we? I can stop there. I can do the last three, whatever it
Adam G. Force 19:32
Let’s keep it rolling. Keep it rolling.
David Wood 19:33
All right. Number seven is you want to clarify your genius and get really clear. What do you love? And you’re great at and what are you going to outsource? critical because you’re the bottleneck in your own business. Yeah. Number eight, is actually harnessing talent. This is where you’ve identified I’m going to get stuff off but now you got to go and get the people and you want to get good at that. getting really good people. And then the last one, now that you’ve got a team, are they highly motivated and highly accountable? I’ve been coaching a lot for the last year, I’ve been coaching vice presidents and directors, and managers at some really big companies. I like to focus on entrepreneurs, but I’m like, I want to, I want to see what’s going on in the companies. And I found time and time again, there’s just a lack of motivation, a lack of leadership and a lack of accountability with the team. And these are easy fixes. They really are. So those are the nine areas, I recommend listeners, pause, go back, listen to this again, and give yourself a color, red, orange, or green in each of those areas. Because the plan for you to double revenue is going to be different to the next guy, or the next woman.
Adam G. Force 20:55
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And I’m curious on one of those you mentioned, and I think this is just something a lot of entrepreneurs, especially in the earlier stages can can get confused by so for example, I think it was number seven, which was know your strengths, delegate the weaknesses.
David Wood 21:15
That’s right, clarify your genius.
Adam G. Force 21:18
Yep. So if we’re doing that, one of the things I have found is that, sometimes what happens is people will say, Well, I’m a master of my craft, right? I know this expertise very well, in this category. I don’t know how to build sales funnels, and you know, lead generation funnels, or whatever it is, I’m making things out website development, and they start or even write my copy, right, you know, like, so we start outsourcing those things. And they can spend a lot of money and they’re not sure what is actually good, cohesive strategy behind those things. So at some base level, I always feel like as the owner, maybe these are your weaknesses, but you should be aware of how these things work at some level, so that you understand, you know, how to what you’re looking for to make it work for your business when you’re hiring out.
David Wood 22:14
Yeah, that makes sense. Like, let’s suppose you’re going to hire a social media person. I think it makes sense, like a valid strategy would be, I’m going to do a one hour primer on YouTube, right? You can do that for free. And just work out what the terminology is, and what’s good and whatever you could even, you could either get a coach, or you could do a little course on how to hire someone. You’re like, what to look for. Yes, yeah, media. I think that makes sense. I also think it’s totally valid to just find a person or a company. And I have a process in week in week eight, when you got to go and harness the talent and the process that I take people through so that they can test people and actually filter out all the riffraff but I think it’s fine to get an expert that you trust and have them guide you as well. I think both are valid.
Adam G. Force 23:09
Yeah, no, it makes sense. So if you have some checks and balances for the hiring process, right, like you’re kind of talking about getting rid of the riffraff stuff like that, because there’s a lot of there’s a lot of bad options.
David Wood 23:23
Oh, my God, look, I just hired a company. Yeah. Well, okay, you, you convincing me now you’re converting me. I hired a company to do social media for Facebook ads.
Adam G. Force 23:35
Yeah.
David Wood 23:36
Now I have done a couple of courses in Facebook ads, advertising is so critical. Yeah. And also my business is to be really good at marketing, so I can help my clients. So I’m like, this is gonna be a good investment. So I know, I know a bit about it. And then when this company showed me the results, after two weeks, they said, Yeah, the results aren’t optimal. But we’re gathering data. I said, Wait a minute. not optimal. We’ve spent $400 you’ve gotten four click throughs. Or click throughs. And zero signups for a free offer. This is terrible. Yeah. And and I, so I knew enough to say, there’s something wrong here in our relationship, and I don’t trust you, because you should be telling me this is terrible. That’s what you should be telling me not Oh, it’s not optimal. But we’ll, we’ll see what we can improve. This is what you should be telling me. So yeah, it helps. Same with right now I’m working with a programmer, because I’ve got this amazing idea out of them. We don’t have to go into it. But for podcasting, and for working out relationships in podcasting, and getting booked on podcast, I got this amazing program that’s going to conquer the world. I got this guy writing it. I know enough about programming that I can look at his code and say, This is terrible. What you’re doing is in it. So I got rid of that guy and I got a new guy who’s better. But again, I’m spotting. You know what? I’m paying too little, you get what you pay for I get what I need, I need to bump it up from 15 bucks an hour to probably 50 bucks an hour, even in India to get someone good. So it does help to know a little bit. But beware of the dark side of going too far into something. You just coached a client yesterday who’s got a product that’s gone viral? It’s a it’s an immunity product for COVID. Right, I get it kind of give him a shout out. Give him a plug.
Adam G. Force 25:46
Yeah, I don’t care.
David Wood 25:47
Yeah, good doseandremedy.com. Right. It’s an immunity product for COVID. And it’s gone viral, he’s having trouble supplying orders. And he was like, I think maybe we’re gonna do do our own shipping. Right? We got to set up a shipping operation. And I was like, really? You’ve got to work out what your core business is. Is your core business shipping? He said, No, it’s formulating really healthy products that the market needs. Unlike. Okay, so he said, but it’s expensive. I said, Well, maybe you maybe you it’s expensive for a while. And you do that I want to see you 10 x this business. And then I want to see you 10 exit again, and you shouldn’t be in the business of shipping. Now once you roll up and scale. Maybe you’ll hire someone who knows how to set up an in house shipping operation. Yeah. And you’ll do that and you’ll bump your profits. 20%. Right. But he needed that perspective, because he was going to go into the dark side of the Force, and try and do something that was not his genius.
Adam G. Force 26:57
Yeah, I mean, and that’s just, you gave him a nice way to think about it, it just becomes when the time is right factor to do it the right way. And you don’t have to do everything yourself. And I think that to your point, there is always going to be like, Yeah, you got to delegate things. Like I’m not a coder. And I’m not, you know certain things, but I like to know what’s going on in the business. And like to your point, you should be able to look at someone and be like, I know that I don’t know all the nitty gritty, but I know what you’re doing doesn’t make sense. And I I’ve run into that problem too, with people when I hired out to like, design big sales pages and do things because I’m a designer and a developer and I do those things. But I don’t do them all the time for our business because I don’t have the time, right. So I’ll pay someone else. And when they come back, and if they’re not doing it, right, I’m just like, I know when someone’s like making a mess. I mean, you know, so it’s just good to be aware. And it can save you because people will come in make a mess. And if you don’t know about it, you could sit on that mess for who knows how long?
David Wood 28:05
Yeah, that’s true. Which brings me to another hot tip for anyone who’s got a team they’re managing, or even you got one person you’re managing. I heard a military guy give a speech once he was a un weapons Inspector, okay. And he said to me, anything worth doing is worth inspecting.
Adam G. Force 28:25
Yes.
David Wood 28:26
And that was a revelation to me, because what I wanted to do is just hand it off to someone and trust that it’s been done. But it’s kind of demotivating theory for your staff. If you never look at their work, if you don’t check in on them. Either, that, you know, they’ll start to slide and whatever. And inspecting their work gives you a chance to celebrate them. So I have I have someone now who helps me get booked on podcast, he mitko might have reached out to you and set this up. And my commitment is every Friday, by one o’clock, I have to review his report, his weekly report of the bookings that he secured and what he did, and he’s hourly sheet, I have to do that. If I don’t do that by one o’clock Friday, I have to pay $5 to someone I don’t like that. That’s my commitment to inspect his work. Otherwise, you know how demotivating that no one ever looks at what he does.
Adam G. Force 29:32
Yeah. Appreciation comes from there too, right?
David Wood 29:35
Yep. And then I get to appreciate him. Well done. Good job. And as you said, if he is messing something up if there’s a mistake that’s happening, but we’re going to catch that we’re going to get to talk about it. So I highly encourage if you got a team or you’re going to have a team have this be a regular practice where anything that’s worth doing is worth inspecting
Adam G. Force 29:59
100% I love that. And I think too many people don’t take the time to do exactly that to look at metrics, what people are doing…. at Change Creator, we do daily, weekly, monthly. So certain things are daily practices, certain things are weekly practices, certain things are monthly, of course, there’s quarterly annual, all that stuff. But those are the three big ones, right. And so always looking at metrics once a week looking at, you know, financials like certain period like rotations and work that we’re doing. And if you’re not seeing because if you’re not looking at these things to your point, you don’t catch the mistake, right, you don’t catch the problem. And then it festers and time will only magnify the problem versus making it better. So now you can get the right trajectory, right. But if you’re not looking at these things, because we just take it for granted, we’re too busy. Maybe you’re a smaller business. So you think Yeah, I don’t need to get that, that like, you know, process oriented yet. And that’s always becomes a big, big mistake.
David Wood 31:05
Totally, totally agree. So we’ve just talked about a way that you can be super effective and super productive with your team, let’s bring it back to ourselves, shares the first rule, the first routine, the first metric, if you like, is going to have to be for yourself. And so what I recommend, and this, this is week two, right, we went through the nine, the nine areas, week two is your productivity. Do you know every week what your goals are for the next seven days? Right? Yeah, I asked every listener right now, do you know? Do you have it up on your wall as post it notes? Or in Trello? Or whatever system you use? I don’t care what system you use. But do you know? And let’s suppose you pause the recording? Yeah, right now and you write down your goals for the next seven days. Let’s suppose you do that. Sure. that serves you for the next week. But you’ll be lost the week after that. So I’ve decided the first rule, that number one thing for an entrepreneur is to put into your calendar, a regular CEO date with yourself? Sure, yeah, 20 minutes, can be four o’clock on a Friday, four o’clock on a Sunday 9am on a Monday you choose, put it in your calendar. And then here’s the second rule, you show up for that date. Now, that’s hard to do. Because you’re busy stuffs going on kids, kids knocking at the door, whatever, that’s hard to do. So what I do is, again, if I do not have that date with myself, which might even be five minutes to set my goals for the next seven days, if I do not do that, I have to pay $5 to someone I dislike. You follow those two rules, you’re gonna have direction for the rest of the year. If you do not do that, hey, look, nothing bad’s gonna happen. You just may not make as much money as you want. You may not have the time off that you want. You’ll be you’ll be on the ocean without a rudder. Yeah, that can be a good time. So I’m not saying you have to do it. I’m just saying if you want direction, and you’ve got goals that you want to achieve, these two rules can actually change your life.
Adam G. Force 33:39
I agree. And it’s those simple habits that it’s helping you create a habit right, first, create the habit second show up. It’s like, so you know, you’re building this into your lifestyle. And I think two things that came up to me when you got talking about the self and the goals is, I just did a video talk that I recorded yesterday about this, oddly enough, is two things that you have to do as an entrepreneur one, be honest with yourself, right? And to hold yourself accountable. And you talked about post it notes. And Funny enough, I used to do this years ago, I had posted this over the house, right? And as I’ve just recently, I’ve been I was reading this book can’t hurt me about this navy seal and his just insane life that he went through and how he had to go through Navy SEAL training multiple times. He went through hell week with a fractured kneecap, like just this guy’s nuts. And he started from absolutely the worst childhood nothing and he like turned everything around. And he gets into this idea of an accountability mirror. And I was like, Oh, that’s interesting. I used to do that for my mindset stuff years ago. And so I got posted notes on my mirror. So every day, I wake up and I look at those things. Those are the most immediate most important things I need to do right now. I tell myself, you got to get this done, dude. And I motivate and I get it going. And I’ve been crushing it because that stuff keeps it top of mind. So whatever, whatever it takes for you to make it work, we all are different. But looking yourself in the mirror and being honest with yourself and holding yourself accountable, it just works magic.
David Wood 35:18
I love that man. I’m very inspired hearing that. And, and we can take it one one layer further, because I love the seven day goals. It’s important. But we’ve got to because I lay a goal. So we started 12 months, yeah, to say eight weeks or 12 weeks. And then every seven days we’ll go to even if even if it looks sometimes I say like the last week I went no goals. I’m on vacation in Mexico. Right? Okay, fine. But I consciously wrote it down as holy. Yeah. The next layer is tomorrow. Yeah, that’s the next layer. So I think a wonderful practice. And you guys have told please steal this, if you like it, is ask yourself at the end of every workday. And you might want to set an alarm. If I don’t set an alarm, nothing happens. set an alarm, say five o’clock every day. The trick is you start to ignore the alarm. But you know, you need some discipline, and the alarm goes off. And as a says, if you were only allowed two things tomorrow, you are only allowed to do two things on your business. What would they be? Yeah, that really focuses the mind and the business and then put those post it notes up on your accountability mirror. I’ve got a board at home. Yeah. Put those up at the top. And then what I recommend you try it just try it for a week. is you do those two things first, before you do anything else, and I mean, checking email. Yeah, checking text messages, checking, like, you know, keep your phone on airplane mode. Yeah. Until you’ve done those two things, then you then allow your agenda to be hijacked by the rest of the world.
Adam G. Force 37:11
Yeah,
David Wood 37:11
Right? But that I just say try it out for seven days. There’s a feeling of peace, and a feeling I call it integrity that you have, when you are actually working first on the things that you have said are most important. It feels Yeah. When you don’t do that, what happens is stress, and you need alcohol and sugar and TV to return the Medicaid. And and again, hey, I’m okay with that. If that’s your choice, just know that that’s what’s going on. Yeah, try this out for seven days and see what true integrity feels like and what true productivity feels like. Because even more than you being successful in your business, I want you to feel good in your own body. That’s actually what drives me.
Adam G. Force 38:02
Yeah, that makes a huge difference and just feeling a little less decision overwhelm a little bit more clarity on the critical path of what you’re doing. And, you know, we get questions like that from our students and captivate our members. And they’re, like, got trying to figure these things out. And I’m like, Listen, the reality is nine times out of 10, there’s only you can only do two or three things in a day, right as your to do list, if you’re going to do it well. And you know, things always take longer than you expect. So don’t plan more than one, two or three things in the day. And I’d say don’t sit down at your computer, until you’re clear about what those things are for the day Don’t sit down without knowing makes a huge difference, makes a huge difference.
David Wood 38:45
That’s nice. That’s that’s discipline. Well, you know, and
Adam G. Force 38:49
it’s funny because you keep you use this word discipline multiple times now, and I want people entrepreneurs listening to realize that yes, there’s all these tactical things, things that we talked about here and you know, really understanding the self but two things that will make the biggest difference in your life. What’s your this is what you’re helping people with discipline and habits. Those two things.
David Wood 39:11
You know what? I’m going to say something, I don’t know exactly what it’s going to be but it it I want to say it and then see if it feels true. Okay, I I can’t help people with discipline. I can’t help you with discipline, what I can do is show you the path. Yes. And I can help you see your lack of discipline. But you are the only one that can bring that last piece to the table. You are the only one who can actually when the alarm goes off four o’clock on a Friday and says you have to do your weekly plan. You are the only one that can show up. I cannot help you. When you fall off the horse. I might be able to help you get back on but there is no one but you Who can bring that last piece to your own success?
Adam G. Force 40:04
100% Yeah, that discipline part is just, you know, for people listening, it’s really the emotional mind overcoming the logical mind. So if you can kind of reel it back in, so when it is four o’clock, you don’t feel like doing something, you got to say, Well, I know, this is what I decided is important for the success of my future in the long run. So I’m going to take the emotional side out of this. And I’m going to think logically and stick to the plan, right? So that kind of thinking has helped me in tough times. Because, hey, when I start, before I started Change Creator, I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. I had to wake up at 330 and four o’clock in the morning to do work before I got on a train from Philly to New York to actually go to the office, right. I mean, that is, that was one of the most difficult like two years of my life. Because waking up early, and I think we can all relate, you’re waking up five, or whatever it is early for you. And you’re just like, ah, another half hour, and you just blow it off. Because emotionally, you, you you just feel like it’s too much. And you don’t want to do it. And so you rationalize. Right. So that’s where that discipline comes in. And we all have to learn how to harness the power of discipline.
David Wood 41:16
I’m with you, 100%.
Adam G. Force 41:19
Alright, David, I think we’re pretty much at the end here. And I want I want to be respectful of your time. So I love all the stuff, you’re helping entrepreneurs with doubling the revenue, getting more time off, you know, just kind of building a life that they dream of, and making it possible. So if people are interested in this type of work with you, how do they connect with you? How do they learn more? What what’s the next step for them? Yeah, thank you. Well, I took I you know, as I mentioned, I have an eight week program. So send me a program that’s designed to help you double your business in your time off over 12 months. Yes, grow, grow yourself as a human. And I took some of the best pieces of that. And I put it into a free training so that people can get a sense of what’s what’s what’s available. So I’m happy to give your listeners that there’s a little gift basket of goodies that includes that free training, there’s a cheat sheet with a checklist of what you need to handle. And if you want you can see if you might be a fit for the program. I’m quite I want to be upfront that I’m quite selective about who I choose, because I only want to work with people that I know I can create winsport It’s no fun for anybody to join a program they’re not a fit for. So you can you can get the free training the checklist and see if you’re fit for the seminar program at myfocusgift.com I tried to create the most memorable web we come up with to give you a gift about focus on my focus gift.com will take you there and you can access me and get in touch with me there too, if you like. You have it all right, myfocusgift.com everybody can check that out if you’re interested in what David is supporting entrepreneurs with. David, thank you so much for your time. Really appreciate it. It was a fun chat.
David Wood 43:10
Hey, you’re welcome. I’ve enjoyed meeting you and I had a blast here and I’ve said some things on this. I’ve done 150 interviews. I said some things here I haven’t said on any other interview. So I blame you for that. And thank you.
Adam G. Force 43:23
That’s my job. Alright David, I’ll catch you next time. Thanks for tuning in to the Change Creator podcast visit us at Change creator.com/gobig to get access to free downloads and other great resources that will drive your business forward.
