Simplify Your Strategy – Magnify Your Results Podcast
On each episode Brian Margolis helps entrepreneurs, sales pros and other professionals create a simple weekly strategy using The Pillar System. A system that's helped multiple individuals become 7 figure earners and is licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to help their teams grow through simplification Some episodes have a 2nd part where Brian helps guests review and refine their initial pillars and solidify the CAP strategies they can use to turn pillar execution into a habit.
Listen as we review and refine Erin’s initial pillars and help her solidify the CAP strategies she should be using to turn pillar execution into a habit.
To hear other episodes go to https://productivitygiant.com/simplify-your-strategy-magnify-your-results-podcast/
Simplify Your Strategy – Magnify Your Results Podcast
On each episode Brian Margolis helps entrepreneurs, sales pros and other professionals create a simple weekly strategy using The Pillar System. A system that's helped multiple individuals become 7 figure earners and is licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to help their teams grow through simplification Some episodes have a 2nd part where Brian helps guests review and refine their initial pillars and solidify the CAP strategies they can use to turn pillar execution into a habit.
Listen as we review and refine Erin’s initial pillars and help her solidify the CAP strategies she should be using to turn pillar execution into a habit.
To hear other episodes go to https://productivitygiant.com/simplify-your-strategy-magnify-your-results-podcast/
Brian Margolis (00:00):
This is Brian Margolis and welcome to the simplify, your strategy, magnify your results podcast. We're on each episode, I use the pillar system to help a sales pro entrepreneur or other results based professional, create a weekly strategy to run a simple, more lucrative business strategy. So simple. It can fit on an index card, but so powerful. It's actually helped create multiple seven figure earners and is now licensed by some of the largest companies in the world to create strategies for their teams. If you'd like a free copy of my book on exactly how to do this, or want to be considered as a guest on a future episode, head on over to productivity, giant.com, enjoy the episode, have or recorded, or however we're thinking about this. So, all right, Aaron, you had some time. Yes. Add some time full honesty, right? Okay. So what I want to do real quickly is just run down the pillars that we came up with.
Brian Margolis (01:01):
Make sure I understand what they are, and then you can update me on any changes you've made or thought about making. And then more importantly, how well you've been doing in terms of hitting them or we're not hitting them. Okay. So what we came up with last time was to publish two videos a week. Everything's obviously a week published two videos. You're going to send 10 and three prospecting emails, meaning 10 cold, three to warm, warm connections. You're going to spend three hours practicing and developing your talk. You are going to spend 90 minutes on learning about marketing, just marketing research, learning different ways to market. And you were going to do three 30 minute workouts. Yeah. Correct. Based on when we stopped talking last, those are them. All right. So since I don't know exactly how long it's been, it's been what, five weeks or so maybe talk maybe six. So do you still have the same pillars? Let's start there.
Erin (02:16):
Mmm.
Brian Margolis (02:17):
Okay. That's a good thing. I think. Yes. Well you feel like we've identified the right pillars. Yeah,
Erin (02:24):
I really, the more, yes I was. I been, well, perhaps we should talk about the progress in them and then why I realized that they continue to be the right pillars because some were more successful than others. However, I will say that in doing like the marketing research and a few other things that that came into play, I feel like I'm even, I'm more prepared and equipped to do the ones that perhaps I haven't been doing as well. If that makes sense. Like, so, you know, I like doing the marketing stuff. I, now I realize like, I'm much more clear on who I'm trying to targets and the different types of people I'm trying to target. And I know when we spoke the first time, that was kind of like, I was a little bit vague about that. So in discovering that I've now learned, like now I have more thoughts and a more strategic approach of how to do those emails and how to do the videos. So I feel like it's all, and I guess this is probably the point, right? It's all kind of coming together and I'm much more, I'm much more focused and clear about what it is that I'm trying to do because before I feel like it was just spaghetti on a wall, you know?
Brian Margolis (03:45):
Yeah. Clarity is difficult.
Erin (03:48):
Yeah. to be clear, I am not there yet, my friend, but I feel like much, I feel like much more clear than I was the last time we talked. But yeah, it's
Brian Margolis (03:59):
Minimum at minimum. I hope you're just asking better questions. Yeah. Of like, you know, even if you don't get it right yet, you're still just cause I I'm still in that phase of, I don't think I'll ever get out of it where I'm constantly looking for more clarity, simpler ways to do things. What can I eliminate? Do I really need to be doing all this, all that kind of stuff. But, but, but I don't want, I don't want to go off on a tangent there. So the reason, so what I'm hearing is you have not been hitting all your pillars consistently. Right. Right. And I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like one of the reasons might be that you really, at least like when it came to the videos and the prospect emails, you weren't even sure. Excuse me, what to actually do. Right. And so you weren't hitting those pillars, not because you didn't have time or not because you were procrastinating or maybe that was part of it, but more because you felt like you would just be doing it to do it. These weren't the right. You didn't have clarity.
Erin (05:12):
Yes. I think that's fair. I mean, I think the other thing is too. And I want, and I want to bring this up because I think it's also the reality of the situation. You know, one week I was away with my family and then two weeks ago I was at the national speakers association conference, which was actually, that was interesting. And I feel like my pillars helped guide me through that conference. Cause I can, it's a lot of, it's not like a five day conference. It's a lot of information and a lot of people and a lot of, I don't want to say distractions, but I would, this is my third year going. And it was, I would say I was more focused this year and less overwhelmed. The only thing I paid attention, like the only breakouts I went to were sales, like, cause like that's clearly my biggest area for growth.
Erin (06:00):
And so it's really just like one session I went to was about online courses, which I thought might be, but halfway through I'm like, this is way beyond where I am right now. I like, and I just tuned out in the best possible way. So I feel like, kind of, I don't know if it's like a side or a, like a side consequence of this is saying, and just when you said the better, the questions I'm asking myself, like, what am I really trying to do here? What, like what is going to be getting me in front of people? And that like that breakout as an example, I'm like, this is not, this is not what I need to be doing right now. So I'm just going to shut it out. So I have found, even my way of thinking is much more like turn off the noise.
Erin (06:47):
I don't need to hear this right now. This is not part of what I'm trying to do. So, and I think that's a balanced Brian right? Of like trying to get the information. And you said this too about like the marketing guys and gals, like some of it you're going to be like, whatever, this is not for me. But I think, I just feel like to your point about clarity, I feel like I'm saying, Nope, that's not, for me. It doesn't matter right now. Now this is how I want to do it. Like that's good information and the pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together. So I feel like my work is getting more focused again, then just like, I'm going to talk about this random shit today, because it's what I want to talk about, but who am I actually talking to? Why am I going to talk about that? Yeah. So having said that, yeah,
Brian Margolis (07:32):
Yeah, no, I mean, but what you're saying that this is good. I mean, this is the start. This is the start of a sea change. What you're describing to me is it is honestly, it's a point, a lot of people I work with, or I shouldn't say I work with, but a lot of people I, that, that I talk to never get to meaning they constantly change directions. They go to a seminar, okay, I'm going to do it this way. Or social media. They feel like they have to be on every platform and all that kind of stuff. And they never even ask why. It's just kind of like, I should be doing this. I should be doing that. I should have a blog. I should, you know, blah, blah, blah. Right, right. And it's not that all look, there's a lot of ways that you could grow your business.
Brian Margolis (08:22):
There's no, there's almost too many ways that you could grow your business. And that's why you have to make some decisions you need to think through. And you know, again, it's not the question is never, will it have a positive impact? You know, could I get a customer from it? The question is always, is it the best use of my time? Right? And like, for me, I did an analysis on, on one part of my business, not too long ago and realized that I'm at the point in that business where, you know, 80 of my new clients or my new work, my new consulting, whatever is coming from like just a handful of not customers, but what I call like connectors, meaning I can trace almost 80% of the business back to a few advocates I have, right. Who have put people in front of me and led me to this and led me to that.
Brian Margolis (09:16):
And, and so why that cleared things up for me is I'm at the point in that business where I'm like, okay, I don't need to be doing a lot of cold outreach anymore. It's not that cold outreach again, couldn't help me. But in terms of the best use of my time, nurturing and engaging my existing clients and audience and asking for referrals and facilitating those is just such a better return on investment for me. And that's hard because I like the creativity of marketing sometimes. Right. And asking for referrals and things like that. Isn't always the most creative, you know, right thing in the world. Okay. So, so, so you're starting to have some clarity, you're starting to say no to things, which is great. And that's always, my fear is when I give someone a pillar or we come up with a pillar of, you know, marketing learning, right.
Brian Margolis (10:09):
Is that they'll they'll every time they read something new or see something, they'll run down that hole. And you know, and I may have even said this the last time we talked, they kind of explore a lot, commit to a little right. To take a look at it. There's even a school of thought and, and, you know, they call it like one, one, one, one, one or something. I think I'm drawing a blank on the guy's name that has clay who started lead pages.net or.com. And it was kind of like, okay, what audience type, right. You know, one audience type one, you know, platform or whatever. It was for a, off the off to look it up, but it was do one of everything. And then it ends in one year. Right. But like just get one thing going, right. One way of marketing to one audience type, you know, one product, right. Basically sell one package, you know, for one year or something. Okay. So as far as hitting your pillars, do you feel, did you struggle ever cause you felt like you didn't have the time you ran out of time.
Erin (11:23):
I don't know that I ran out of time. I think that this is, and this is one of my biggest challenges and what I'm really trying to focus on is doing a better job of scheduling my time. And I, I, you know, and I think like, Oh, I feel like sometimes all I want is a routine. And all I need to realize is that I'm never going to have a routine when I say never going to have a routine, just because of like my travel schedule or, you know, my days aren't, it's not, you know, like when you work for yourself or like, you're a soul, it's not like you go to the office and you clock out. So I'm trying to do a much that's, I'm working on scheduling my days in advance, which I know. I mean, that's kind of part of the whole pillar system. So I'm really trying to say I'm trying to work on that. So I don't know that it's ran out of time. I think I didn't do a good job of organizing my time assessment right there.
Brian Margolis (12:25):
And by the way, congrats, you're human. Right. you know, we're not eight out of 10 of my clients at some point, tell me, they have add. And I'm like, no, you don't, you're human. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I know there's medical stuff. I'm not talking about that, but the, okay. So here's, there's a couple of ways I want to know that I'm thinking right now. And when you say that, but one of them is, I think you need to look at it a little differently and that, because you're an entrepreneur, you work for yourself, you actually control your schedule way more than you think you do. That's true, right? Yeah. Based on what you say yes to and what you say no to. And so my fear with someone that, who says that, and I don't know that this is the case with you, but my fear is that when you say, and I could be wrong, but you say, schedule your day, are you thinking like, okay, from two to three, I'm doing this from 11 to one. I'm doing that.
Erin (13:25):
No more, just like more like the day before, say these, not so much, like by the hour, but more than that.
Brian Margolis (13:35):
So you're saying plan your day. Not scan. Yeah. Here's my, here's my priorities in the order. I want to do them. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Cause that's, that's the, the system, the system I teach. Right. so here's, there's a couple of things you want to do now to me, for when you say you travel a lot, give me a lot, like, is it, does it happen in bunches? Does it
Erin (14:03):
Yeah, like next week I'm gone Wednesday through Saturday. I'm home the week after, well, I'm gone for two days the week after, or the week after that I'm gone Wednesday through Saturday. So it's pretty much at least two months, two weeks out of the month, I'm on the road.
Brian Margolis (14:21):
Right. Okay. So there's a couple of ways to look at this one way, like, like my system, as you read in the book is, and, and I travel, you know, a lot at certain times, I mean, over the next five weeks, I'm going to be in seven different places. Yeah. So I'm doing like seven cities, so to speak and in five weeks. Right. but my system has always been seven to 10, not always, but, but for the last, for the, for many, many years now from seven o'clock to 10 o'clock, that is my pro time. Right. Meaning my proactive stuff gets done from seven to 10 that's when I work on my pillars, that's when I work on proactive things. And then from 10 o'clock on, you know, that's when I'll do I'll schedule phone calls and things like that. I mean, it's not an accident that we're talking at 10:00 AM. Right. Right. Even though I've been up since, since 6:00 AM the so one way to do it is to own your mornings. Right. You don't have to have a routine where every day you do the same thing, but I think it's critical that you control the first part of your day. Okay. Okay. Now, even when you travel. Okay. And again, I don't know what you're actually doing when you travel, but can you have a few hours in the hotel room in the morning or do the kind of things you do tend to start really early?
Erin (15:52):
It depends on the project. I mean like next week my session starts at three o'clock in the morning because it's a 24 hour distribution center. So but, but what's interesting about that is that, you know, so I, I end up, I do two, two hour, four, two, four hour sessions. So there's the time in between, but then I also, I mean, and this is the balance too, right? Like there's no mental energy for that. I try to do stuff and I'm like, no. And you've been teaching for eight hours, like go stare at wall or like read a book. So some of those days, depending on that type of project. Yeah. There's no mental energy left, but there's definitely, I would say for the most part, again, depending on the project, like if I'm going to do a keynote, if I'm going to do like a less intensive, if I'm doing the training, I would say pretty much that day. I don't have a lot of bandwidth left. But like keynote days. Yeah. Like there's definitely, maybe not the full three hours, but there's definitely time in the day to get stuff done.
Brian Margolis (16:55):
Right. Okay. But, but I don't want to, we don't want to count on time in the day we want to schedule and protect. Right. And that, and that's the key. So to me could like, for example, you know, if you look out for the rest of the year, okay. Could you protect Mondays? Right. Could Mondays be, you know, pillar time, so to speak. Yeah. Not Miller time, but pillar. Right,
Erin (17:26):
Right, right. Okay. I see what you're saying.
Brian Margolis (17:30):
Like, like the key, the key though, to what I'm getting at in terms of people who need to control their schedule is you need to schedule scheduling the time. Usually, actually is the easiest part. It's protecting it. It's not letting something else in there. Right. And so one way you might want to do it is you may want to look out at your calendar and basically say, look, I need to, you know, some people can't work all day, either on stuff like this. And I get that even with a lot of breaks. So, you know, you're looking for two days a week. Well, let me ask you this. When you're at home, do you work out of your home or do you go to an office and work out of my home? Okay. Is there any kids, spouses, animals to bother you?
Erin (18:20):
Steve, the dog is here sometimes, but half the time he goes to work with my husband. So that's right.
Brian Margolis (18:26):
Okay. Yeah. So, all right. So, but you can get work done with Steve the dog, right? Yes. Yeah. Jack, the dog allows me to work too. So, yes. So I guess what I'm saying is when I look at your pillars, I look at probably three, four and a half. I'm just looking at four and a half, five and a half, six and a half. You know, I'm looking at about eight hours of work. What's that?
Erin (18:56):
I think then it's really not that much. I mean, it's still eight, but it's eight
Brian Margolis (19:01):
Focused hours. It's not like an eight hour day. It's different. It's eight hours where you're actually doing something. Right. Yeah. So to me, and it could be less depends on, on how you set up your videos and, and things like that. But to me, I I'm looking like for you, you need two, four hour. Well, I never, I'm sorry. I never got the answer to the initial question, which was, so what time when you're in the office, what time do you get started?
Erin (19:30):
You know, I normally, I would say on average, I'm in here either like mostly by eight o'clock. Okay. And that's after, like, and that would be actually like, after doing my workout and after doing like my morning, my morning routine like I journal and I do my workouts in the morning before I get into the office. So like that pillar is done, you know? So I would say on average, I try to get in here at eight. Well, so here, so here, here, here's the way I would,
Brian Margolis (20:00):
I would look at your, your week very simply then for someone like you, who wants to be flexible on travel, you basically Mondays and T this is how I would set it up Mondays from eight to 12 and Tuesdays from eight to 12. No, again, you're still going to need some other time, right? You're still gonna need some other time, but Mondays from eight to 12, Tuesdays from eight to 12, are those are your, that is pillar time and proactive time. Like that is your sacred time to get this stuff done. Okay. Right. And the way you look at it is you should protect that time. Okay. You should protect that time. You know, I, I would put that in your calendar through 2020, right. As a standing appointment. Now, when travel gets in the way, meaning, you know, you can say, you can protect that time.
Brian Margolis (21:02):
And when someone wants to talk at a certain time, you can say, no. Yeah. And we'll talk about that in a second. But the stuff you can't say no to is you have a company wants to hire you. And the event is Tuesday or Monday or whatever it is. Right. It's very simple. The rule is you just move that, that four hour block. So if you're going to be traveling Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that week, then you just move it to Thursday and you protect it. Like, as soon as that you book that thing, you move that block over to Thursday. Okay. Right. You, if you're, you said Wednesday to Saturday at one point, well, that's an easy one Monday to Tuesday. Yeah. And I'm going to tell you something else here in a second, that's going to make it even easier.
Brian Margolis (21:48):
But your standing appointment should be Monday, Tuesday. And if there, or, I mean, again, you can do it how you want, you can do Monday, Wednesday, however you want to do your standing appointments. But do you see what I mean about then you just move the block if you, if travel gets in the way. Yeah. Okay. But then what you do is the second thing that's critical is if there's legal holidays on a Monday, which happens often, and you're going to not work on that Monday. Right. For some people like, to me, there are certain holidays to me that are, I, I joke around, I call them fake holidays. Right, right. Like labor day to me, I love working on days like that because you get stuff done, no one expects anything from you, all that kind of stuff. Right. Yeah. Now I'm a dork in that way.
Brian Margolis (22:36):
But, but I like, and even if we have plans, I'll I like to like work in the morning and then enjoy my afternoon, you know, whatever it is. Okay. But if you see legal holidays coming up, as you look out at the calendar and you can, you know, figure that out, you know, you just make sure you, you put it Tuesday and Wednesday, right? Yep. Okay. So that's the first thing I would do. The, those are eight dedicated hours. All right. Those are eight dedicated hours. The other thing I would do, so you have, you have this standing block and again, you try to keep it Monday, Tuesday, or, or whatever you choose.
Brian Margolis (23:15):
But then what you do, you have to remember is you can also control your travel schedule sometimes a little more than you think. Meaning, you know, a lot of times we have this need to rush out and get home as quick as we can. So if something ends at four o'clock, we want to be on the six 30 flight so we can get home. Right? Yeah. There's this kind of rush to get home. And I get it. But for me, like for me personally, and I hope you're thinking this way for not already doing it, obviously mental energy management is critical. Right. That's critical to this stuff. So I do pretty good at getting to bed and waking up at the same time every day. Yeah. All right. And I don't know if you're there yet or it's something you're trying. No, I'm good at that.
Brian Margolis (24:06):
Yeah. So I will not like for me personally, and again, I have kids, I get the need. People want to come home and all that stuff, but for me, I really avoid late flights. I would rather stay over. What I'll do is I'll stay over an extra night, get a good night's sleep. And then I'll wake up the next day in my hotel room at like five, six in the morning, whatever it is. And I'll work for a few hours. Cause I usually book like a lunchtime flight. Right. As opposed to, as opposed to getting home really late, then sleeping in a little bit and then being off the next day. Right. Like being tired and being, because again, you don't get paid for how many hours you put in, you get paid for what you do. Right. Right. And so just saying yet, like I do little things like a company will ask me, actually, this just happened.
Brian Margolis (24:57):
They're like, can you do the afternoon slot? Will that work? And I said, look, if it comes down to it and that's a deal breaker, I'll do the afternoon slot. But I'd really prefer with my travel schedule. You know, the morning session would be way simpler for me. It would be smoother travel, all that kind of stuff. Right. And they said, all right, well, and, and, and they put me in the morning slot. So just by me, not just saying yes to everything and asking that question right. Following up, I was able to get the morning slot, if that makes sense. Yep. So we, we, we do, we do control our schedule, not a hundred percent, but more than we think, right? Yes. Then when it comes to modifying or sorry, when it comes to, I want to talk about modifying your pillars here in a second.
Brian Margolis (25:48):
Then when it comes to taking appointments, regular appointments, like phone calls and things like this, or whatever that time is off limits, you know, Aaron, can you do 11? Can't do it. I can do noon. Right. You already know in your head. And here's the thing, the amount of money you could potentially lose. And I honestly don't think you'll lose any, but people freak out about this by saying no to an appointment where they say, Oh, well, Tuesday mornings, the only time I can do it. And you just saying, all right, well, can we talk next week then? And I know sometimes the eagerness is, you know, to get someone on the phone, especially if it's a potential client, but the amount of money you will make and the growth in your business from owning and controlling your schedule versus possibly missing a dollar because someone gets upset waiting a week or something happens during that week and you lose the gig so to speak.
Brian Margolis (26:42):
I just, it's minimal. It's more in our mind. Right? Yeah. And so for you, you know, that would be the way I would be thinking. Okay. Okay. About, and again, the, you know, if from Nunan you need to be, you need to take 78 phone calls then. So be, it takes 78 phone calls, but you know, from eight to noon, you're getting after it. Right. You're focused on not only your pillars, but anything proactive, proactive being, if you have to put together a talk right. Or a thing, that's something you could do from eight to noon. Right. As part of that time. Yup. The other thing I want to bring up is modifying your pillars.
Erin (27:30):
Okay. So when you
Brian Margolis (27:33):
Travel, is it normally kind of one night, two nights? Or is there not any normalcy?
Erin (27:40):
I don't think that there is okay. Normalcy,
Brian Margolis (27:45):
Especially right now, when it comes to developing the habit of pillar execution, when it comes, when it comes to that, it's critical that you cross these things off every week. And so if you remember in the book, it talked about modifying your pillars. Yeah. So you talked about the, what was the one week where you said you were gone four days or something? Yeah. Which was that a family thing or a,
Erin (28:10):
Oh, I was gone for a while. I was gone for a week with my family and then I was gone for
Brian Margolis (28:15):
It's like a, a personal thing, like a vacation or something.
Erin (28:17):
Yeah. But like the conference, for example, I mean, that was like, the conference was Saturday through Wednesday.
Brian Margolis (28:24):
Right. So, so yeah. So what you do in weeks, first of all, if you're on vacation for a week or something, you don't have to have any pillars. That's it's a vacation week. Yeah. But when you got back, so you got back Wednesday, right. From the conference Wednesday night or something
Erin (28:40):
And ended up being Wednesday night because of travel fund, but yes,
Brian Margolis (28:43):
Yes. Yes. Well, that's always built in, that's why I always travel the day before. I'm amazed at people who try to always fly in the morning of I'm like, aren't you scared? You're going to hang. Yeah.
Erin (28:52):
That's insane. Yes.
Brian Margolis (28:54):
In theory, you work Thursday and Friday of that week, is that correct? Yeah. Okay. So what I would have done, if I was you is then modified your pillars. Right. I would have just modified them and said, look, I need to send, you know, Thursday and Friday. Here's what I have on the agenda. I probably, okay. I already have some things. I can't get everything done. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do 10 and three prospecting emails. I'm going to publish one video and I'm going to do 90 minutes of marketing strategy or something. Right. Or marketing, learning, you know, what, whatever you felt was realistic, modified your pillars and then hit those modified pillars. Right. Because you get that same sense of like, you, you, you close that loop because as long as here's the key though, and, and you may have read this, but the, you have to modify your pillars at the beginning of the week.
Brian Margolis (29:53):
You can't just do your best and then look back on Friday and go, well, considering it was a short week, I did pretty good because that loop hasn't been closed. Right. Cause I'm, I'm worried about you developing the habit right now. So instead of just doing your best, I want at the beginning of the week, I don't care if you knock it down to two pillars, I want you to modify it, say, okay, these are my pillars for the week. They're down to two and complete those two. And you can always do more if you get them done, but you're done your pillars. Does that make sense? Yeah. I think you have to modify them at the beginning of the week though. You can't just look back and say, Oh, I did. Pretty good. Yeah.
Erin (30:32):
I think something you just touched on. I think that's, I still don't know that I fully felt the Friday feeling yet, like that sense of completion. So that just totally resonated by modifying them first. Cause then you feel like, then they'll, then I will feel that like, that I did what I needed to do. Cause I think that there's still, you know, and I think this is probably the whole, well, one of the points of the Publix. Right? Cause there's still, I can tell I'm still fighting off that sense of overwhelm of all the things that need to get done. So yeah, I'm curious, like as I continue to nail these down and, and like I wrote down like protect, like protect that time. Like protecting that time, I think is going to be is vital like obviously with what you said, but I think having that sense of, okay. Yeah. I put the work in and now I'm like done. I think that I can see that, how that can ease the sense of overwhelm of all of the other things. So I think those are two big options.
Brian Margolis (31:34):
Yeah. And then the, listen, the maturity as an entrepreneur, is that the maturity of an entrepreneur for someone like you is that it's not, no matter what, it's not all getting done. Right. So, but so you have to make it, you have to make a choice as to what gets done. Yeah. And ver very average people from a professional standpoint, average people, average entrepreneurs, professionals, however you're looking at it. They give more weight to the number of things they do and cross off than they do. You know, the importance of it, the return on investment, right? Like it feels better to a lot of people to knock 17 things off a, to do list than it does to publish two videos. Yeah. Right. But these are the things, I mean, let's be honest, six months from now a year from now two years from now, these are the things that are going to determine how successful you are. Right? Yeah. You're prospecting, you're marketing. You're practicing your publishing of the, your, you know, your different things. Right? This is, what's going to determine your success bar. None. Not whether you got all these little things and didn't let things fall through the cracks. Now again, going back to the book, you also need to incorporate flash hours.
Brian Margolis (32:58):
Okay. Well you remind me what a flash hour or a flash hour. Some people call it a power hour. So that's when a lot of little things build up and then you literally just set you, you need to buy a timer. Okay. Like a kitchen timer. Not, not, don't not use your phone. Okay. Do not use your phone. You'll see messages coming in and you'll see calls. That is not what you want. Right. Kitchen, kitchen, timers. The best tool I own. And there's no doubt about it. So it's got three, I got three buttons, huge numbers. I'm looking at it right now. It's at 31 minutes. Right. Because if I'm working on something and I have a call like this, I will literally stop it. And then when I go back to it, I hit start again. Right. Right. But, but a flash hour is, you know, the way I look at it is you underestimate what you can get done in an hour.
Brian Margolis (33:48):
You over, we all overestimate what we can get done in a day. We overestimate what we can get done in a week. Cause it looks like there's so much time ahead of us, but we underestimate what we can get done in an hour. And so what it does is when all those little things build up, you kind of hit go and you just get after it. Right. And it's amazing. You, you will look up at the clock. You'll think you've been working forever. And it's like, there's 42 minutes left. And you're like knocking all these little things out. I got email that person, I gotta do this. I gotta do that. And when you do this, you want to operate on airplane mode. Meaning do you, I don't know what program you use, but if you use like outlook or something, whatever your email program is Gmail, whatever, you gotta turn it offline.
Brian Margolis (34:37):
So, so when you're sending your prospecting emails, for example, right. When you're working, you should not be receiving new incoming emails. You should be working offline. And then when you're done those prospecting emails, you go back online, it'll send them for you. Right. Okay. Your phone should be in, do not disturb mode. Okay. My phone is never not in, do not disturb a note to the point that sometimes people are like, can you answer your phone ever? And I'm like, no, you're good. Then you're then you're then you're you're you're you're ahead of the game. In that part. Right. You're you're ahead of the game. Yeah. You you've, you've gotta set the boundaries for that, but yeah. So that's what I mean by flash hours. Right? Okay. By knocking those little, those little tasks off I'm going to get you a video. That's part of this product I'm making that I, that I made about planning your day planning your week.
Brian Margolis (35:32):
It's a big file. So I got to figure out how to get it to you, but I'm going to get it to you. Okay. And it just walks through how I plan my day, how I plan my week. But you know, you're going to want to work very methodically. It's a, when you're having a productive day, you actually think slow down for you. You actually work with a relaxed intensity. As one of my coaches used to say, right, it's very methodical. It's very like, you work on one thing. You don't start the next thing until you're done that one. You see it through you take breaks, you do all that kind of stuff. Right, right. You actually do less. I mean, that's the, that's ultimately what the pillars are focusing on less and making more money or producing more. What other problems do you see in hitting your pillars? Cause that's where I want to focus most of this,
Erin (36:19):
You know, I think the biggest
Erin (36:25):
I think the, I mean the one that I have been doing like that I have, haven't done it all really. I was, I laugh at myself is the weekly, the emails. And I think that there was the uncertainty of like, again, what am I saying to them? How am I going to like, and I think now actually I got some good thoughts from the conference last week. And even just this week, a new plan for that. So it's funny. Cause now, now I have questions that I'm going to ask them and a way to reach out for them that doesn't seem just like completely random. So there's more confidence in what I'm doing with that. And also being like, who gives a shit if none of them respond like, well, I mean, not who gives a shit, but like now it seems like there's some structure to it.
Erin (37:13):
So when I email them, like if they don't respond, that's fine. And if they do, it's not just random. So I think there's the, just the uncertainty of like, I'm just not that confident with the sales stuff, which again is ironic because what I talk about is listening and just asking questions and that's all, I really not that it's all I need to do. So I think once I started doing that and start getting responses like that, the only way through it is by taking action on it. So yeah, that's the one that I've been totally procrastinating and not dealing with. And that's the one that's actually going to get me sales.
Brian Margolis (37:52):
That's the, that's usually how it is.
Erin (37:54):
Yeah. So
Brian Margolis (37:56):
At a certain point, Erin, you want to separate the pillars, like developing the habit of pillar execution from actually building your business is weird as that sounds like, like, even if you're questioning are these good emails, do them anyway, right? Just you need that. You got to close that loop and you got to close it week after week after week. Because look and it's, I can talk about myself, but I'd rather talk about clients of mine that you know, that I work with personally one on one. And when you cut, when you wind up on this side of the fence, and by the way, I wasn't born on this side of the fence, I mean, in no way, do I think of myself as a disciplined person? Do I think that whatever, the, the reason I developed the pillar system was for myself, I never planned on coaching or consulting on it at all.
Brian Margolis (38:49):
It didn't even have a name back then. I just, it was what I, after years and years, what I finally figured out worked for me because I was a fricking mess. Right. but once you're on this side of the fence, you'll never go back. You can't when you control your mornings, when you own your mornings and you just focus on a few things and you plan your days and you just kind of are very slow methodical, but intentional is the, probably the best word about things. Very intentional. You take time to think about what you're going to do. Not just go, go, go. You will never go back. You can't, you can't undo it. Right. You just can't undo it. And so for me, when I look at someone like you, yes, I want you to build your business, but this thing will take you further than that.
Brian Margolis (39:41):
It doesn't matter what business or the form of your business, if that makes sense. And so, you know, hit these pillars regardless, right? Hey, hit, don't hit them regardless. I'd rather you send out 10 crappy emails for now. Okay. Now down the road, Aaron, you can then put criteria around those emails, if that makes sense. Meaning you're not just allowed to send 10 and three, but you actually have to put criteria. Like they have to be from a certain list or a certain kind of person or a certain caliber. Right? Yeah. What do you think about, and again, please be honest. Do you see blocking the four hour things? Do you see that as realistic for you?
Erin (40:30):
Yeah, I mean, I thought, I mean, not to get too specific, but I like on Mondays I go to yoga at nine 30 so I can either I mean, honestly on Mondays I can probably get up and do it either before or just shift it to like the block after, you know, from 11 til two, I work on my pillars. So yeah, cause I think it's, it's interesting too, like prior, I mean now yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays, it's like on the calendar because it just does so much for me, like mentally and physically, you know? And it's interesting, like I've committed to that and I can just, I see how important it is. So yes, I think doing the, doing the Monday and Tuesday block and I love what you said is like when that, when I have the travel or like when, if there's something else, well, there won't be anything else if I block it off, but in the CA in the cases where something has to happen, then yeah, rescheduling it, I think is, will be really helpful. Yeah. Not,
Brian Margolis (41:34):
Not rescheduling it for the afternoon.
Erin (41:37):
No, because by the afternoon
Brian Margolis (41:39):
It won't, it won't work. It has to be the first thing you do mentally. Okay. Yeah. It just, it just has to be, you're not going to go okay. From, from, you know, from two to five, I'm going to do this stuff. No, I'm not saying you can't get things done from two to five. I'm just saying it's not something you want to count on. Okay. It's not, it's, it's not something you want to count on. And the other thing about pillars, and again, I know you read the book, but you know, you don't remember everything, start your weeks on Saturday and end them on Friday. Okay. Okay. Start, start your weeks on Saturday. And I'm on Friday. The reason I say that, I don't know if you work on the weekends or not. You like to work. Don't like to work, whatever, but if you're going to work on the weekends, okay.
Brian Margolis (42:25):
Especially if you're starting a new business, you might feel the pressure to work on whatever it is you want working on the weekends to be a positive thing, not a negative thing positive in that you're getting ahead of for the week. Right. So if you want to spend time on Sunday night, learning about marketing or something, right. You know, do that counts for the week ahead, as opposed to, Oh, it's Friday. I didn't hit my pillars. Now I have to work on the weekend to hit him. Because not only will you probably not even do it, but if you do it, it'll be a negative experience. Okay. Does that make sense? Yep. And so, you know what about when you're have you actually sat down to hit your pillars? And again, I'm trying to pull things from you, but if they're not there, don't just say yes. Okay. But just, you know, my experience working with a lot of people, I see some patterns, right. Do you ever sit down at least in the last five or six weeks to start working on your pillars and you just don't want to, and so you wind up figuring out something else to, do you check your email, you do whatever you, you distract yourself or are you pretty good at getting started?
Erin (43:44):
I feel like it's interesting lately. I've been more like, sit down, keep my button, the chair, and work through the resistance to want to like get up and mess around. So I think for me what, which I thought this is the question I thought you were going to ask was more like, I I've been, I haven't blocked off the time, so I've, I've been like, okay, I'm gonna work on this pillar now. And now I'm gonna work on this pillar like some other day, so I can see how that hasn't been like how it's going to just be more, more focused to just have the, like the blocks of time. But yeah, I think sometimes, and think it goes back to like, okay, what am I doing? Or I guess I know I get stuck with not so much like, well, maybe distractions, but also just, all right, well, what am I going to say? And how do I know what I'm going to say? And then I'm like, well, what exactly am I doing? So I think now, like I was saying earlier, now I'm more, or I'm more clear on what it is I'm going to say. And I'm also like, just get it out there to your point. Just, just do it. Not just to do it, but to do it, you know?
Brian Margolis (44:58):
Yeah. And, and, and, and yeah, and you're talking about like, what do I say on prospecting emails? What do I say when I'm making my videos? Like, what should I talk about you know, which is why you need mental energy right. At that point. Yeah. Yeah. But you should also, and again, I don't know if you're like this, I come up with ideas all the time when I'm not working on stuff. Oh yeah. In the shower, on an airplane, reading something, look, all of a sudden, I'm like, Oh, that would make for a good piece of content or that would, you know what I mean? D D does that happen to you? Like, do you get a lot of creativity when just whatever, and you just like, write it down somewhere or,
Erin (45:36):
Yeah. I have a specific, like bullet type journal that I use for my idea. So like my content journal. So I always am constantly. Yeah.
Brian Margolis (45:46):
When you go to publish your video, cause that's what I would call, like, I call them the book. I called that a reference document. Right. Yup. And yeah, you could cause that's a source of, I don't want to say inspiration, but inspiration. Right. You're not always, you're not always gonna be able to think of content or things to say when you're sitting there ready to do it.
Erin (46:03):
No, I actually feel like I, I do worse when I sit down and like, it doesn't, that doesn't necessarily work for me. So I I've learned now, like, I'll grab, see, you take him for a walk and the ideas start to generate when I'm on the walk and then I'll come back in and do that. That's why I've been trying to get the exercise, like doing the exercising first thing too, because a done and I find the ideas start coming better after I've been done a little physical activity. So yeah. That makes sense.
Brian Margolis (46:33):
Yeah. Cha I mean, I call that cap strategy, changing your mood. Right, right. It fricking works. Okay. So you feel like, you know, I don't want to, this doesn't have to go longer than it needs to. You feel like you have the right pillars right now.
Erin (46:53):
Yep. I'm looking them over. Yeah, I really, yes. I, I,
Brian Margolis (46:57):
Yes. You understand modifying them. Well, I don't care if you're traveling four days in a week or whatever it is, just modify them and hit the modified ones. Yeah. You want, the time blocks were clear with, and I would literally do those through 2020. Yep. I love that. Like done, you know, my calendar from seven to 10 through forever is done. It's, it's blocked. Right. You know what was, what were some of the other things we talked about? So you're gonna, you're going to do the blocking. I'm gonna, I'm going to send you the stuff on planning your day planning your week. I think that'll help you, especially the planning your day part, but about planning your week as well. Okay. and I think, I think that's everything. Do you have any questions on the marketing side of things? Just like what you've been reading about or like, do you feel like you have enough stuff to look through?
Erin (47:58):
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know yes, probably, you know, in some of the stuff I mean, this is probably another conversation that I would probably need to have a drink over because it's, it's so much of the like my one, one, this one I'm awesome. On I follow, she calls it like the bro marketing, you know, of like the scarcity and like sign up for this. And like, here's my 75 point email funnel. And I'm like, Oh my God, like part of me is like, is this totally necessary? But the other part is you know, I've, I think I've just been paying attention. Like who's not newsletters. Do I sign up for like, what is their, what is it that they're doing that resonates with me? So it's a balance of like,
Brian Margolis (48:44):
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what resonates with you.
Erin (48:47):
It resonant, I know it matters, but with what resonates with the people that are going to buy from me. Yeah.
Brian Margolis (48:52):
Yeah. So, so when you get clear on who those people are, which it sounds like you did a little bit at that conference. Yeah. That's who you need to create your marketing around. Right. Something that seems cheesy to you might not see cheese seem cheesy to them.
Erin (49:06):
I know. And that's what I need to get over. Cause
Brian Margolis (49:09):
Yeah. And you have to under yeah. And you have to understand their incentives. Right. Cause their incentives are different than yours. And, and again, without going into a whole marketing thing, you know, that's what, that's why I want you spending 90 minutes a week. Cause 90 minutes a week, isn't just quick ideas like, Oh, you should do this. And that it's understanding. Yeah. You know, marketing is psychology, copywriting, all that kind of stuff. Like I have two books I'm reading right now, got your attention by Sam horn, you know, about getting people's attention, which is like the hardest thing in the world and keeping it. And then I have like a copywriting book. I'm a huge fan of direct response copywriting. So I have a breakthrough copywriting book and you know, I'm, I'm constantly look, here's, here's the reality and we'll end the recorded part on this.
Brian Margolis (49:56):
And I might even edit this part out, who knows, but you will, you will be more successful being a great marketer than being great at whatever it is you deliver. Right. Yeah. For the first few years that you're in business now, eventually if you're so good that, you know, people can't ignore you. Okay. That's great. But here's the problem. Even though, even in, even when you're that way, people still need to find out about you. Right. And so if you're again, and this is just marketing, but it depends on the niche you choose to. Because like, for me, I have something coming up and I'm trying to find a niche for it. If your niche that you go after, if they're, if they're what I call an isolated niche, meaning they don't talk to each other. Like you have HR directors as one. And I don't know if they still are one of your targets or not, but I don't think word spreads around the HR director community very quickly.
Brian Margolis (51:03):
Right. HR directors don't all know each other. They don't all, you know, they don't all have worked at the same company in the past or run across each other all the time. Or it's probably not a very viral community. Right. I could be wrong. I could be wrong. Yeah. Whereas one of the industries I work in EV it's a small, everybody knows everybody. So that makes word of mouth and referrals a lot easier. Right. you know, so if you can choose an industry like that, so let me, let me stop the recording here. Thanks for listening to another episode of simplify your strategy, magnify your results. If you know someone you think could benefit from this episode, be their hero and share it with them. If you'd like a free copy of my book or you want to be considered as a guest on a future episode, head on over to productivity, giant.com have a great day. And thanks again.