No Is A Complete Sentence

Roughly five years ago, I concluded that I needed to define my future based on core beliefs instead of what others had expected of me.

At the time, I had just sold a business and exited battered, bruised, and burned out from the experience. So I designed a focused life that has led to deeper fulfillment while not burning out.

I started thinking about what my life could look like if I started from scratch and how I could use my talents to build it out.

For most of my life, I had been a doer. Put a mountain in front of me, and I started walking; nothing was going to stop me from conquering that hill. It had gotten me far, but I needed a new map for the next season of my life.

This realization took me down a long, winding path to a new calling of coaching business leaders.

So let’s dig in.

A New Way

I knew enough about myself that if I didn’t set some boundaries, I would be all consumed by my new vocation. I needed to find a new way of working that allowed me to focus on excelling in my coaching practice while balancing as a husband, father, and friend.

So I made a list of what I was uniquely suited to do and decided everything else would be outsourced to someone else or through no-code software.

When I stick to this boundary, my output multiplies, which is essential for excellence.

It also helps me avoid the costly fallacy of multitasking (the ability to screw everything up simultaneously), which turns three simple tasks into a day of incomplete projects.

When I don’t live by this principle, I get caught up in the minute details and make little progress.

All your tasks are urgent

Whether you’re growing a solo practice or running a large corporate team, every little issue can feel like it’s the most urgent matter of the day.

Have you ever found yourself giving the same urgency to every task so that you can’t bring your whole self to the conversation when you finally sit down with a client?

This was a non-starter for me since most of my conversations require 100% of my focus because of their importance.

Of course, even the non-strategic things needed to be addressed. But the question I had, was, “Am I the best person to manage this?”

So I created a process to help me manage my business:

Step 1: Audit

Identify the most critical tasks for your business and stack rank them (1–5), with one being what I am uniquely suited to manage and five being able to have someone else handle.

I tracked every hour of every day for several weeks, and the results were startling.

I spent most of my time on items in the 3–5 category and rushed through the 1–2 tasks, the exact opposite of what I should have been doing.

Ironically, most items in the 3–5 category could be done by someone else or utilizing no-code software at a much lower cost.

Awareness is your first step, so do an audit first.

Step 2: Document the non-critical tasks

After I audited my time, I knew I needed a system to offload my knowledge to someone else so they could help.

So I used Loom to record videos of the tasks to be able to share with someone else.

My goal with each video was to hand it off to someone with little knowledge and still allow them to complete the task successfully.

Step 3: Create a database of the videos to be shared

After you have recorded your videos, add them to a database for later use. I do this in my Notion database, which is easily shareable.

All that is required is the following:

• The task name and objective
• Tools needed to complete the task
• The link to the loom video describing the task.

Step 4: Share the Loom video with the appropriate person

Now all you need to do is send the loom link to whomever you want to do the task. It could be:

• An employee on your team
• A virtual assistant that you use
• Or someone you hire on a site like Upwork

I recommend a regular sync-up with your helper to prevent confusion.

In Summary

Your job as a leader is to say no to everything except the most critical items. Yet, the non-important items need to get done, so hire help or find no-code software to work for you and use the following steps to gain time back in your day to do the important things.

So I decided that I am uniquely suited to do the following four things:

• One-on-one coaching
• Group Coaching
• Writing and Creating Content
• New client outreach

That’s it.

Everything else is either using no-code software or outsourced through a system I created called the Coaching Operating System (COS):

• Billing? No-code software
• Website? No-code software
• Logistics of meetings? Outsourced
• Responses to inbound requests? No-code software
• Managing my calendar? No-code software
• Marketing? Outsourced
• Communication templates? No-code software
• Social Media? No-code software
• Note-taking templates? No-code software
• Hosting of content? No-code software
• Hosting of recorded meetings and notes? No-code software
• Online course? No-code software

Use this 4-Step Process to design a focused life:

1. Audit your time and stack rank your tasks (1–5)
2. Create Loom videos for low-value tasks
3. Add those videos to a database
4. Assign those tasks to an assistant or no-code software.

You can read my free advice here if you enjoyed this post and want to learn more about moving from good to great.

Thanks for reading.

Homework

Audit your time. This is the first and critical step to designing your best life.

1. Create a spreadsheet and document how you spend your time.
2. On the spreadsheet, across the top, label the days of the week. Then, down the side, add time from when you wake up till you go to sleep.
3. Track your time.
4. Put a 1–5 by each task on the spreadsheet (with 1 being the things that only you can do and 5 being the things that can be outsourced easily)
5. Now you are ready to move to the next step, which is figuring out who else can help you manage any items that are in the 3–5 category.

You can achieve your desired growth without burning out when you get clarity in your professional and personal life.

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways I can help you grow:

1. Online courses through The Good Entrepreneur Institute

2. Group coaching through the Kennedy Leadership Program (Only 1 Spot Left for 2023)

3. Private coaching as a Platinum Coaching Client

See you again next week,