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.
On this Group Chat episode we discuss a number of topics including:
...and more!
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.
On this Group Chat episode we discuss a number of topics including:
...and more!
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, where 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. A 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 productivitygiant.com. Enjoy the episode.
Brian Margolis (00:40):
What we're doing today and as people jump on, they can jump in and figure it out. But, I want to give people a chance and there's going to be a wide range. I have existing clients on here... some I've been working with for a few years... to people I've never met before and everything in between. And so we're going to focus on kind of a Q&A discussion. I'll answer whatever questions people have or go down any avenues people want, but on running a more intentional business, right. Going from a reactive business to an intentional business. And what I mean by that specifically is, going from that business where it's just kind of go, go, go...more and more and more...just reacting all the time and kind of going from that concept to being very intentional about what you're doing.
Brian Margolis (01:37):
And so in that spirit, the components of that are obviously for some of you who know my stuff, we had the Pillar System - that's the weekly strategy concept, but running an intentional business goes even further than that. It has things like planning your day and actually working your plan. Intentional business involves the concept of who-not-how. It's a leveraged concept of 'don't spend too much time figuring out how to do things when there's already people out there who know'. Find the right who's and things like that. And so there's no shortage of components. And so Enrico, I know you submitted something, so I kind of understood what you were saying, but I think it had to do with the word 'proactive' in the Pillar System. So why don't you tell us what your question actually was?
Enrico (guest) (02:35):
Okay, thank you. I have the feeling sometimes that ability is a proactive activity that requires some extra effort or is something kind of, that you're not already doing. That is not a habit. That's something that really doing regularly, because if you're doing that, then it doesn't require any extra effort. It's just part of how you work or who you are. And so I add this issue should appear to be something new, additional to what you're already doing, or could it be something that you're already doing? This is my basic question.
Brian Margolis (03:21):
Yes. Okay. That's kind of what I interpreted from the email you sent me. So let's start first. I don't think that I'm asking you to take extra effort. I think what I'm saying is it has to be proactive. Meaning if you don't focus or you don't intentionally do it, it's not going to get done. Like some things in your business will get done. Because if someone emails you with a question it's going to get answered, right? If all of a sudden something has an immediate consequence, you're going to handle it. When I say proactive, what I'm that? And I think that's where maybe you're getting the idea of extra effort. When I say being proactive I mean, if you don't intentionally focus on it, if you don't write it down to do it, it's not going to get done naturally in the course of your day, right?
Brian Margolis (04:12):
Something's not going to stimulate you to do it unless you decide to do it. And the reason simple is because there's no immediate consequence for doing it. Now, if you go to the other end of the spectrum, Enrico, you have these things that I'm calling habits. And I'm saying, if it's a habit, it's not a pillar. If it's a habit that means you don't even have to think about it. It's getting done regardless. Meaning if you run every day or if that's already built in by definition, you don't have to focus on it. Okay. So a pillar is not necessarily something new -- a pillar could be something you're already doing. In fact, it's usually something you're already doing. You just want to make sure that you're consistently doing it. Week-in and week-out okay. So give me, did you have an example of something that maybe you think is a pillar or is not a pillar?
Enrico (guest) (05:08):
Well, in my case, it's publishing twice a week blog posts basically. And I've seen it has an impact and it's something that requires effort. Yes. And, I can imagine better usage of my time. So instead of writing those blog posts, but I'm doing it and it's, uh, I'm okay with it. I mean...
Brian Margolis (05:33):
That would be a pillar that you have to publish two blog posts a week. Right? That could be...
Enrico (guest) (05:39):
I think so.
Brian Margolis (05:40):
Yeah. Well that, we probably have to discuss it more, but if you're getting a high return on investment or you think the compound effect of doing that every week is going to pay you back then yeah. Now here's another way to look at that same thing. Some people would say, it's not that I need to publish a blog post twice a week, or create two pieces of content. It's more about quality, right? It's more about quality. And so what they basically would say is I'm going to spend, you know, two hours a week creating content. And if that content turns into one really good blog, post, or one really good video. So be it, if it turns into five little mini postings or blog posts, so be it.
But the idea is that you spend a minimum of two hours a week creating that content. And Enrico, you'd have to figure out kind of, you know, how does your brain operate, right? Would you rather, what's going to come out, what's going to be higher quality. If you just said, I'm going to spend two hours creating this, I know myself, I'll screw around. I need to make sure I get two posts out every week. And that's how you want to think about it. Right.
Enrico (guest) (06:52):
Makes sense.
Brian Margolis (06:53):
And think about it this way too, Enrico, and then I'll move on and we can always come back. But think of it as there's pillars built around things you need to do consistently, right? You might already know how to do them effectively. There are things you need to do consistently. And then there's pillars built around things you need to do more effectively, right? The learning pillars, meaning you need to get better at something. And then the third type of pillar, the strategic pillar, if you will, that's the pillar where you create something every week, so that when you do something else that something else is more effective. So for example, what do you write blog posts about Enrico?
Enrico (guest) (07:34):
Well in general, sales, salespeople, sales management... that kind of stuff.
Brian Margolis (07:39):
Got it. Okay. So the idea I'm assuming is to get your blog posts read and shared, right?
Enrico (guest) (07:46):
Correct.
Brian Margolis (07:47):
Okay. So you might decide that, okay, putting out two blog posts a week, that's fine, but I also want to be more effective. Meaning I want my subject lines to cause people to click on them. I want the material short and sweet so people forward them, people can quickly consume them. And so you might spend 30 minutes, 60 minutes a week learning how to write better blog posts, right. Learning copywriting, or how to create good titles and things like that. Because as you know, the title of your blog post is probably the most important part, right. If you want to catch people and get them to read it. So that would kind of be the effectiveness component. Right. Make sense?
Enrico (guest) (08:32):
Totally.
Brian Margolis (08:35):
Okay. Mark - you're next.
Mark (guest) (08:38):
Yes.
Brian Margolis (08:39):
So I got your email. Yours is an interesting one. It reminds me of a long time ago when I heard you talk about multiple streams of income. I'm thinking about 20 years ago because when I first started being an entrepreneur and I had multiple streams of no income because I said yes to everything. But go ahead, give me your situation, like you described in the email and then let me help you.
Mark (guest) (09:11):
You know, as you're speaking, I'm thinking about other things that compound that too is that, I guess starting out with the multiple streams of income, that all seem to require some activity either weekly or daily and then also kind of demand a degree of excellence in how it's done. And sometimes, and again, I guess I can speak for everyone that we all want to pursue excellence in what we do and, and I think the fact that we're surrounded in our media and our, everything that we look at is kind of, everything that warrants our attention or gets our attention is somebody doing something perfectly. So in many times when I'm ready to do something or need to do something for certain streams of income or whatever, and I don't feel like I'm prepared for it, then I push it off because I want to be prepared for it. Anyways I get to a point where my days are totally reactive on all fronts and then compounded with our electronic newspaper, which happens to be social media, and different platforms there. And I can find myself going down a rabbit hole before I know it. And, the time has gone... Anyways, I think the thing that you've said that I could mostly identify with is the Friday night feeling when you said the Friday night feeling, I knew exactly what you're talking about. The Friday night feeling is either good or bad. And it's always fun when it's good, and I think that in order to...I understand, blocking the time in the mornings, you know, and the in that first 90 minutes to three hour timeframe. But I guess what I was referring to in my question to you is, that because of COVID and because of our business situation that we're dealing with right now, the rules have changed and all of a sudden we're not only is it, should we do it, we want to figure out what our pillars are, but somehow they changed because of COVID and it's like...
Brian Margolis (12:40):
Well that's okay if they've changed.
Mark (guest) (12:42):
Yeah. In some cases I feel like I almost have to relearn, you know having to relearn some of the things that I need to do to get the business I want.
Brian Margolis (12:55):
Let's talk about your primary business. Okay. Let's talk about your primary media business, okay? Would that be a good way to describe it?
Mark (guest) (13:06):
Sure. So I have a company that produces and edits TV commercials. If you've ever seen golden retrievers driving Subaru cars, I've done all of those from the beginning. And so, I generally call on ad agencies. We've got some good people and good directors in comedy and good ones in travel and healthcare and things like this. And generally speaking, to get business, I've always assembled that work and look for an agency that also did work like that in kind and tried to introduce our company to them.
Brian Margolis (13:51):
Okay, so you generate your business through relationships with ad agencies, not necessarily the end, not the end client.
Mark (guest) (13:59):
Right.
Brian Margolis (13:59):
And basically you're selling them your production services.
Mark (guest) (14:04):
Yes.
Brian Margolis (14:04):
Right. Okay. So I'm guessing even in COVID, I'm guessing production of commercials went down originally, like a lot of things stopped and all that kind of stuff. Now I'm guessing they've kind of changed where they have these closed sets and things like that. Okay. So you need, for example, you need one pillar, right? You need at least one pillar to make sure you're in front of your existing relationships consistently. Think of it like a top of mind pillar. Right. And again, without going too deep into your business, I don't know what that looks like, but that could be as simple as reaching out and asking them what's going on, bringing value to them in some form.
Brian Margolis (14:56):
Right. I don't know a lot about your industry, but bringing value to them in some form, providing them resources, whatever it is. But you need some kind of top of mind, pillar to stay in touch with your existing relationships. Right. Okay. Then you need a prospecting pillar as my guests, like most businesses, you know, I don't care. I know who who's on this call for the most part, a couple of new names. And, you know, I know the businesses they're in, but they mostly have these kinds of dynamics. Right? So you need a prospecting pillar. Now, a prospecting pillar is going to be a combination of two things. It's going to be a combination of the consistency pillar of how many times you reach out, right. I'm going to reach out to this many ad agencies a week or whatever you're calling it, but then there's going to be the effectiveness component, right? Like how well have you honed your message so that you're so unique when someone hears what you are offering, they actually want to respond, right? So you might have a pillar where you work on your effectiveness, you work on your... and again, I don't know exactly what that is...you'd probably have to fill that in for me, but basically I'm guessing most of the rest of what you do in that world is reactive, right?
Mark (guest) (16:19):
Yes.
Brian Margolis (16:21):
You probably proactively keep client relationships warm. You proactively prospect, you proactively get better at those components. Right. And by the way, when I say get better at prospecting, that can be either actually getting better at prospecting itself, like studying it, right. Spending 60 minutes a week, learning all the different ways, B2B companies, prospect, and there's so many cool creative ways out there it's not even funny... Or it could be the actual messaging. How unique is your story and what you're telling them? There could be other things here, like, you might have like a Trello, right? Or some software like Trello or something like that or some project management software, your spreadsheet whatever you have going on -- you might have to review that twice a week to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. I could see a pillar like that. But outside of that, I imagine your business is mostly reactive, right?
Mark (guest) (17:27):
Yes.
Brian Margolis (17:27):
Mostly reactive. And so then now we talk about your additional business ventures, and again, I would break it down the same way, like how you have to do those now, at some point you have to cut it off. At some point you have to cut it off. You have to have the maturity of saying, alright I can't be working on six different business ventures.
Mark (guest) (17:48):
Sure.
Brian Margolis (17:48):
Okay. I can't be working on six different business ventures. And again, that's when I went into that third part of running an intentional business, which is, you know, the who, not the how, right? Like I'm literally building one business while I'm running another one right now. And the reason I'm able to do that for is for two reasons: number one, my pillars are really tight. So like in my existing business, I know that all I have to do every week is 1, 2, 3, 4, and everything else will take care of itself. But then I have the other business where, although I have pillars for the other business, it's a big who business where I've had like two or three people in place right now who I'm kind of telling them what to do, but they're actually executing because they're better at me than what has to be done. And so being intentional is about having leverage the who versus the how right. If you're in sales and you have centers of influence, and I know a few of you who are in sales, you know, centers of influence are leverage, right?
Mark (guest) (19:01):
This is great. Yeah.
Brian Margolis (19:03):
Think of it that way. But at some point, Mark, based on the email, you sent me that the tone I got of it was, you're going to have to say no to some things for now. You're going to probably have to punt a couple of things and say, look, just because there's an opportunity to replace some of the money I'm losing in my traditional business with this doesn't mean I have to do it. You know what I mean? You, you have to, you have to prioritize it at some point.
Mark (guest) (19:26):
Right.
Brian Margolis (19:34):
By the way guys, any questions you have, on pillars is great, but anything like, but you know how you plan your day, right? How your work, your day, how you plan your week. Things like that. For most of us on here, not all of us, but for most of us, we are the CEO like, Mark, how many, do you have a lot of people working for you? Are you a one man shop right now or...
Mark (guest) (20:01):
No, I have 17 employees.
Brian Margolis (20:02):
17 employees? Okay. Yeah. So it's probably even more important for you, Mark, that you own those first few hours of your day, right? You're, I don't know what time you start, but if you're going to continue to grow and build this business and whatever, you're going to have to own those first few hours, that's going to have to be sacred time and your employees have to know that. And you've got to set the expectation that, look, if it's an emergency, text me, right. If it's an emergency, but outside of that, I probably won't get back to you. Once the gates are open and the horse race begins, forget it. You're not going to...you're not going to do it. The other thing I would suggest is, I don't know if you've ever seen my Planning Your Day video, but you've got to have a track for your day. Because even if you get blown off track, at least you have a track you can find and get back on. A lot of times we go down the rabbit hole because we have no centering point. When you go down the rabbit hole, if you have a centering point, at least you can get back to it, right. At least you can get back to that centering point. And it's kind of like, alright, a slip doesn't have to be a fall, so to speak. It's like, okay. I caught myself. I went down this road now I need to get back. I know where I know where I left off. You're not going to be perfect. And again, I'll spend time wherever you guys want. Does anyone else have a topic? They want me to cover a question about their specific business.
Brian Margolis (21:48):
If you emailed me questions late, I didn't get them cause I did kinda jump on here. Also, if you have some experience working with my system, if you want to share it with the people on the call that can help too. But I just wanted this to be kind of a, kind of a brainstorm here. If someone's not going to raise their hand Enrico and Mark, I'm happy to keep helping you guys because what I'm talking to you guys applies to everybody.
Mark (guest) (22:30):
You know Brian, I especially liked, I know that if I guarded those first few hours of the day, just, you know, seven to 10, I know that I could get, I know I could get my pillars done. Right. Especially with reaching out to people and even responding to people. And the NST the non-sales touches, I think are so important. I mean, those are the things that people remember about you and I think that in, especially in my business, that is extremely valuable.
Brian Margolis (23:23):
So Mark, let me ask you something. What keeps you, and it's different for everyone, but what keeps you from budgeting 7 to 10? Is it, is it the budgeting of it or is it the protecting of the time and not letting anyone in there?
Mark (guest) (23:38):
You know, there's, there's really nothing. It's something that I probably been thinking about for the first month, but just because I haven't really committed it to paper or to a schedule.
Brian Margolis (23:58):
Do you use an electronic calendar?
Mark (guest) (24:00):
Loosely. I'm more of a steno book guy.
Brian Margolis (24:05):
Okay. What kind of calendar do you use? Like, where do you put an appointment?
Mark (guest) (24:10):
I'll put it in iCal.
Brian Margolis (24:14):
So you should have a standing appointment with yourself everyday from 7 (or whatever your number is going to be) from 7 to 10. It's that simple. And then again, if you don't have it, I'll send you over my video. Just email me after on planning your day planning your week and how you plan your day and work your plan. But man, the way you want to think, Dean Jackson, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Dean Jackson and he's, without a doubt, one of my favorites in the world, this from the, I love marketing, Joe Polish, Dean Jackson, that, that crew Dean Jackson has something that if you ever want to go on, it's called the 50 minute (five zero) the 50 minute focus finder. The 50 minute focus finder. And I'm pretty sure that's the one where he talks about golfing. And he talks about this idea of when you go golfing, you're golfing. Meaning you don't have expectations of returning calls or getting on the internet or going down the rabbit hole or checking email - you're golfing. And so, Dean articulates it so, so amazing, I'll let him do it but, and he has an acronym for golf but he talks about, setting up your environment to win ahead of time for that stuff. And it's really cool because people swear they can't budget that much time. I need to be available. And I'm like, we do it all the time for other things. And so look, owning your morning, there's two things. And I don't know, you might have some Tim Ferriss fans on here, but his two big tomes -- Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors where he basically summarizes all his interviews over the years with the world's most successful business people and people in general, the two patterns that stuck out to me like throughout both of them through every, not every interview, but most of them was, they almost all have some kind of morning routine. They almost all control the first part of their day, the first few hours where they can be proactive before they kind of open up their gates. And the second thing which doesn't surprise me is how many of them meditate. And the only reason I'm saying how many of them meditate is because, and again, I'm not a meditation expert by any means, but most meditations involve the idea of, you know, it's okay. If thoughts come in, just let them go. If you will. And it's basically, if you went to a performance coach and said, I'm having trouble concentrating, right? I'm having trouble starting and finishing a task, the same exercises they would give you to build your focus muscle. Your concentration muscle is basically the same thing that if you learn TM, transcendental meditation, they would teach you. And so it doesn't surprise me that so many successful people have built that focus muscle, their ability to start something and then work on it until it's completed. Without interruption. And so that part doesn't surprise me. Enrico, I saw you were about to jump in. You're still on mute.
Enrico (guest) (27:30):
Sorry. Yeah. I have more of a technical question. One of the things that positively impacts my business is for example, holding a webinar, well ideally, once a month, every time I do one, well then I make lots of contacts and quite a good stream of business. So my kind of pillar was do a webinar once a month.
Brian Margolis (27:55):
Right, and then you realized you can't do a pillar once a month.
Enrico (guest) (28:00):
Well, so far, so yeah, exactly. I mean, I do like the weekly accountability. So how do you structure something that should occur once a month with a weekly accountability though?
Brian Margolis (28:15):
Awesome, awesome question. I get, I get this one all the time with my individual clients, the group clients, whatever. So what goes into this webinar? Is there, is there a, is it the same webinar every time you keep rerunning the same one? Is it about different things? Like what do you have to do to actually prepare and make the webinar happen?
Enrico (guest) (28:40):
I usually, recycle material that has been prepared for classes or for other trainings or for, this part content preparation, there's part of preparing the communication and well sending it out and once it's done, doing the follow up and so on, and so...
Brian Margolis (29:04):
Right. Okay. So if you created a reference document, which is a big part of the pillar system, and that reference document had ideas for future webinars. So you could have, like, you could have like four columns in this reference document, this Excel, just call it, let's just say it's an Excel sheet for lack of a better word. So Column A is your to-do list. The things that still have to get done for the next webinar. Okay. Column B could just be ideas. As ideas come, if you're like most entrepreneurs, our thoughts are our number one distraction, right? We get these ideas that pop into our head, or we read something, whatever. Okay. So as you get ideas, you can log them in Column B ideas for future webinars. Okay. Or just, just to do on the webinar, like, oh, I should open up the chat component or I should... you know, whatever it is. Then Column C could be any resources to remind you to access them. Meaning I have all this great stuff in these resources. And again, I'm just, I'm just shooting from the hip right now. And then Column D could be like your invites, like who you want to make sure you invite, blah, blah, blah, whatever it's going to take. And then you could have a pillar, right? And again, I don't know what the time would need to be, but you could have a pillar of spending 15 minutes a week or 30 minutes, depending on what you think you need. It's a minimum 30 minutes a week, right. Creating and promoting your webinars. And that can include follow-up. It could include all of the components. You could keep a follow-up list in your reference documents. And the idea is every week I open up that reference document and I spend at least 30 minutes on whatever has to get done for the next webinar, the previous webinar, does that make sense?
Enrico (guest) (31:04):
Well, but I see this as an activity that does a peak activity on one point in time, over a one month period, it could be two months, month period. And then it declines the next, next cycle. So I do have trouble, even what you're suggesting. I do have trouble fitting anything on a week in a weekly cycle. Okay.
Brian Margolis (31:26):
So here's, here's another way to look at it. You ready? Here's another way to look at it from the Pillar System. So maybe this is not a pillar. Maybe this is a task, right? If it doesn't make its I see if it doesn't make its way into your pillar system, what are you afraid is going to happen? Are you afraid you're going to forget to do it?
Enrico (guest) (31:53):
Uh, yes. I will procrastinate and find excuses not to do it because I'm busy doing something else.
Brian Margolis (32:00):
Right. And you want to do it once a month?
Enrico (guest) (32:04):
Um, well, I, I moved it back to once every two months, once a month, it was too really, too much. But now I did like Cortez when he landed in Mexico, he burned the boats. Announced it and now have to do it.
Brian Margolis (32:21):
I was just going to say, actually, that's a technique where you announce it. Right. That's where you announce. Okay. You announce it. So, so a couple of ways to look at it. This could just be a task. It maybe doesn't have to be an actual pillar. Right. That's that's one way to look at it. Okay. The second one is, are there other things that, that you like, that you do that are high leverage activity that are similar to this? Like the webinars?
Enrico (guest) (32:50):
Yeah. There could be work more in LinkedIn, for example.
Brian Margolis (32:55):
What was the last thing? What about LinkedIn?
Enrico (guest) (32:58):
Uh, yeah, sorry. Spend more time using LinkedIn. I have a couple of prospective processes using LinkedIn but I don't spend enough time doing that.
Brian Margolis (33:10):
Well those are usually easy too, that's an easy weekly thing where you can have a point system. Point systems are big when I work with people with pillars, where you can assign a point to, again, I don't know your process on LinkedIn, but you could do so many reach outs, so many interactions with people, so many friend requests or whatever they call it these days. And you could actually have a point system where you have to get a certain amount of LinkedIn points every week. If that makes sense, right. Something like that. Or I've done LinkedIn pillars where it's like three, three and three. I need to do three posts, three interactions, comment or whatever with my audience or people or whatever. And then three new friend requests of people I want to bring in. But going back to the webinar stuff, if you want to do a webinar, once every two months, if you want to remind yourself that can be in your calendar, that's one way to look at it. The other one is to say, and again, what I was looking for was were things that kind of go in the same vein as a webinar, like preparing for a webinar, looking at that recycled material you're talking about, to me, could also be a content pillar, right? Like as you're going through it. And so, to me, you could actually have a content creation pillar. And as part of that content creation pillar, you could actually build the webinars. That could be one of the things that counts towards your content creation... if that makes sense.
Enrico (guest) (34:47):
Hmm. Okay. That's a good point.
Brian Margolis (34:54):
But again, some things are tasks, not everything is a pillar. And then sometimes it's just a matter of reviewing. Like what are the things that, some of the group clients know about in the group programs is what I call the re-epiphany card. The re-epiphany card is you guys, if you remember from my book, this idea of the re-epiphany, meaning the idea, this is a breakthrough you have or something good happens because you're reminded of something you already knew. You already knew it. And like you're reminded, oh yeah, that works well when I do it. And then you stop doing it, right? And so you can have a reappear funny card that you keep, whether it's an index card or something electronic. And then what I suggest to my clients is look, every Wednesday or the third Wednesday of the month, just put a task in your calendar for the third Wednesday of the month. Completely random. All you have to do is look at that re-epiphany card, just pull it out and look at all the things that you continue to write down that work well in your business that you don't want to forget to do. Like, oh, if I follow up this way, or if I have a, maybe something you do every three months, like a webinar, if I create a webinar, right. Good things happen. And so you have this re-epiphany card that you keep full and you just make, all you gotta do is look at it once a month. Right. Throw it into your calendar, automated. And if it caused you to want to do something and remind you about something great. If it doesn't, you put it down, but it'll be there next month.
Enrico (guest) (36:36):
Okay.
Brian Margolis (36:41):
But I'm a big fan of lumping things together. Like if they're in the same mindset for me, like to me, when I like for my prospecting, for example, right. When I'm reaching out to people, I don't separate, like in my follow-up Excel list where I have all the open opportunities that I'm following up on, an open opportunity for me could be an individual client. It could be a company. It could be a podcast I'm trying to get on. Like all those are open opportunities to me. Right. I kind of keep them together if that makes sense. And so that's why I'm a big fan of like point systems and, you know, keeping similar things together where some people might separate calling on companies from trying to get on podcasts from, you know, that kind of stuff.
Enrico (guest) (37:35):
Hmm. I understand. Interesting.
Brian Margolis (37:44):
Kari, how are you, man? I'm looking at your still smiling face.
Kari (guest) (37:49):
I know. How, how are you, sir?
Brian Margolis (37:51):
I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good.
Kari (guest) (37:54):
Fantastic.
Brian Margolis (37:55):
You having some, you having some nightmares right now or memories?
Kari (guest) (37:59):
Oh no. It's always a good refresher. I mean, it really is. And you know, I think because of COVID this pillar system and structuring your day, I think is even more impactful now than it was prior, in my opinion. So this is always a good refresher.
Brian Margolis (38:19):
Yeah. Especially if you're are, you are an outdoor cat and now you're an indoor cat. That can definitely throw you off.
Kari (guest) (38:31):
Yeah it did and honestly I hit a wall, I would say May of last year, just hit a wall and I'm like, there's gotta be a better way. And for me, it was really around creating boundaries and pretending as if I was still on the road, even though I was at home. Yeah. Right. And every since I put that in, you know, I redid my model week and I revamped my morning routine. I mean, I changed everything and it's made a world of difference ever since.
Brian Margolis (39:08):
Yeah. I mean, one of the things I've been working on with, with people like you who have a lot of external meetings, a lot of client meetings and things is the batching component. Meaning sometimes we get so excited to get a meeting with a prospect or a client or something that they say, oh, how's 9:30 on Tuesday? And we just say, okay. And because there's white space in our calendar, we say yes to it. As opposed to having your days framed out, where you do meetings during two components of the day, right? You have your first set of meetings and your second set and hanging them around each other, if you will. So that, like, for example, in my business, my pro time, even though in the book, I say it's from 7 to 10, it's really from 7 to 11 these days. Sometimes I'll let people in before 11, but basically 7 to 11. I work on my business and then I do my client calls are usually 11, 11:30 and 12. So I have a one and a half hours. I do three calls in a row, right. With my clients or at least an hour and a half of calls. Then I have a bunch of white space again. And then I do my afternoon batch of calls. And so a lot of times someone will ask me, "Hey, how does 2:00 work on a certain day?" And I'll say that doesn't work. And I'll offer them a different time. Even though on my calendar, I have white space, that doesn't mean it works for me. We wind up with island meetings all over the place. And guess what happens when we have island meetings, what do you do between meetings? You really can't get into the flow of stuff. And so what do you do? You check your email and when you check your email, it sends you off in all different directions, right? So when you batch things, when you kind of go pro time, you have your pro time, then you have your first batch of commitments, things that are scheduled. Then you have another big white space, so you can get into some flow. And then you have a second batch. I kind of end my day like this with meetings and me yapping. Right. It allows me to get into the flow versus the constant changing all the time. Right?
Kari (guest) (41:17):
Yep. And that's what I was talking about hitting a wall, it's exactly what you described. And that was me. And I'm like, there's gotta be a better way. And as I said, I revamped everything and it's made a world of difference.
Brian Margolis (41:31):
There's some fascinating out there on flow state. I don't know if you've ever heard about it, but flow state is a real thing. You know, Enrico probably knows about this from studying sales and stuff. But you know, there is a science to flow state. Like they do measurements on your brain. You're actually using less of your brain when you're in a flow state. But, but the ability to get into a flow state and get things done when you're constantly stopping, starting, stopping, starting, stopping, starting, it's pretty tough. You can have an amazing day by just getting a few key things done. I think we all know that, right. And I will tell you this in COVID and this applies to everyone here, man, it's harder to get a meeting than it is pre-COVID in most industries. Most industries. And the reason is simple - when someone's mentality is they're going to be at their office from 9 to 5 or whatever it is, it's easier to get them to say yes to a meeting or yeah, come on by or yeah, let's jump on the phone. Now, when you ask for a meeting, you're asking for someone's home time, right? It's a different mentality, even though it shouldn't be for most people, it's a different mentality. And so when Mark's reaching out to an ad agency, one of his connections, you know, that guy might be like, looking at his kids who are done school and they could go take the dog for a walk, versus do I want to take a half hour meeting, so...
Brian Margolis (43:04):
Alright. I budgeted an hour for this. I can go as short or as long as we need to so please continue to fire away. You know, if people are being quiet and you have more questions, keep coming, this is for you guys... Alright. Hey guys, thanks for jumping on. Hopefully I colored some things in for you, cleared up some things and I don't know how often I'm going to do these. It's more like when people start reaching out to me asking me questions, I say, let's kinda, let's do one of these and if I do them again, you'll be notified, alright?
Guests (43:42):
Thanks so much, Brian. Alright, guys. Thank you very much, Brian, super useful. Take it easy. Sounds good. Thanks Brian.
Brian Margolis (43:51):
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 productivitygiant.com. Have a great day and thanks again.