Ep 87 - Boredom Is the Secret

The secret to growth? It’s not variety. It’s not inspiration. It’s doing what works—over and over again, even when it’s boring.

In this episode, Aaron breaks down why most business owners self-sabotage their progress by chasing new ideas instead of repeating proven strategies. Drawing on his running routine, event model, and podcasting journey, he explains how staying consistent—even when it’s not exciting—is what actually compounds over time.

You'll learn:

• Why being bored is a signal you're on the right path
• How to use the 80/20 rule to double down on what’s working
• Why chasing variety can undo years of progress
• Two practical exercises to re-align with consistency and results

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Transcript

I don't enjoy running so much. I do not enjoy running, but it is an automatic behaviour and it's raining and it's cold, it's winter. But on the days that I run, I just put on my shoes and out I go. It just happens. This is going to be a very boring conversation, but if you can work through the boredom and listen and get the message behind it, it could be one of the most important conversations that you get bored from this year. And it comes on the back of spending two days in Sydney last week with my mentor Sean Sewell, with 50 to 60 other business owners. One of the clear constraints things that get in the way of success for most people that are pursuing a path is the inability to be bored and repeat what works over and over again. There's this temptation to tinker, to change, to want to do different stuff for variety. 

But I look at any area of my life that has compounded and produced consistent results. That's because I've done boring stuff over and over again. And I'll circle back to the running element that's been the most consistent part of my world for six years. It was July in 2019 where I made a commitment. I was out of shape. I was drinking, I was eating crap. As a byproduct of that drinking, I wasn't happy with my body. I said the step to start making the change is to start writing, to start feeling fit again. And for six years, I'm very proud to say that I've consistently run multiple times every single week with the exception of a COVID isolation period and a couple of minor injuries, one that set me back for a month maximum. But what I noticed when I did have that month out of the game when I came back, my fitness picked up very, very fast because I had the base and the foundation. 

So if you're a business owner and you've built the foundations and you've got the base, if you take your foot off for a moment but come back, you'll find you're able to pick it back up much faster. And content creation, let's face it, for most business owners, extremely boring. And it's not something that they enjoy, but the repetition of it, getting better at it, getting more concise about who your audience is, getting more exposure, reaching more people, it snowballs the business and it snowballs the digital asset. And of course, when you start down a path, there's not going to be as much gratification. The results aren't going to be as huge as when you're established, but most cannot keep showing up and doing it over and over again, which is why a system like the 30 days in 30 minutes is so valuable where you only have to commit to show up to that 30 minutes a month to get all your content done. 

So cycle back to that episode, to dial in that strategy with the running, it's a reminder for me, I don't enjoy running so much. I do not enjoy running, but it is an automatic behaviour and it took quite a few months to get to that point. And it's raining and it's cold. It's winter in Melbourne, but on the days that I run, I just put on my shoes and out I go regardless of the weather conditions. And there's no thought of not doing it. It just happens. And it's the same with the gym and physical exercise. Strength training has been incorporated into that. I've added it on top of the running and it's just part of the routine. So I don't like going to the gym. I don't like pushing and exerting muscles to the point where they're sore, especially legs. It really hurts. Anyone that does squats or leg press to failure would know it hurts. 

But doing it over and over again, you see the gains. You see the change in your strength, in your conditioning, in your ability to get results in whatever area you're applying the consistency to. So as a business owner, step back and go, what are the areas that have produced significant results over and over again? And that's where 80% of the energy and effort should be going. And the lesson was drilled in recently. I was advising one of our clients and they've got a really solid events model once a fortnight, they put on a workshop, they fill the room, they get about 12 people in, they deliver for 90 minutes, then they get applications to come and work with them. And then they said, well, what if I go and try this? I was like, no, keep doing what's working, do not interfere. And that's when I realised I had been interfering with my business model and I had started going into variety to make it interesting, and I was not prepared to stay bored and do what works. 

And it was a slap in the face. And sometimes that's why having conversations and putting someone else in your shoes and almost coaching someone else, putting them in the seat and going, well, what would you advise someone else in your situation would be? Just keep doing what works In most scenarios, that's why the events model is dialled back in. In our business, in our agency, filling a room consistently. It's going to be every other week. We've got our first one on Saturday. Get amazing business owners in the room, teach 'em our system, and if they want to apply to work with us, they get that opportunity at the end. Everyone gets value. I get to show up, have 90 minutes of fun with the people in the room, and if we keep showing up and doing that over and over again, the business grows because people will come and work with us. 

I was trying to do these elaborate online funnels, and you may have heard about some of those in the earlier podcast episodes, the school groups building different communities and whilst we're getting leads, lots and lots of people were joining the conversion timelines into a process that I hadn't tested and tried before, didn't work out when I had this beautiful events model that had been working for 12 years. Mind you, I know how to market to get people in the room. I know how to run the process and it produces the outcome and I can just do it again and again on repeat, trying to mess with something that has always produced a result. So that was a big, big lesson for me. So if you've got a marketing process that works, if you've got a campaign and offer a product or a service that outperforms all others, double down on that. 

You can eliminate all the noise and everything else that becomes a distraction. And this episode is so I catch it every time I post a new podcast episode, see it in the feed, and you go, ah, stay bored and don't interfere with what? And the podcasting is another great example. Why do most people stop at episode three? And was it 1% of people that start get past episode 20? Don't quote me on that. It's a very low number. Get beyond episode 20. Even if you love talking and delivering, there are some days where you don't want to do it, but if you have a habit, a pattern, and you show up in your podcast every single week, it's going to have an impact With time as it compounds, as you get better, your audience grows. And that's been the experience for me. We're going to be getting to episode 100 over the next few months, and that's a target. 

That's a milestone episode that I'll be really proud of to show up and do this 100 times. But when the stats suggests that most people are out out of the game, well around episode three and very few get to 20, you see the mindset and how people aren't prepared to be consistent, be bored, keep showing up and doing the same thing. Now, if that's the case, the recipe to succeed and win is very simple in a day where people just get distracted and they quit and they stop. So if you just keep showing up and you're the consistent one, you're prepared to be bored, you're prepared to do things when you don't want to do them. You're prepared to work out when you don't feel like working out right when you don't feel like running, you're going to stay fit. When everyone else goes to the food, the couch, the Netflix, and is out of shape when people take the finger or pulse off their marketing because they want to mess with it and try other things, if you stay in your lane and keep duplicating the results, you'll keep growing the business while they mess it up. 

Like I've done a few times recently with trying things that were experiments when I had a strategy that already worked. Two action items to consider with this boring conversation. Number one is creating a reference point. Where in your life are you incredibly consistent right now? You show up, you do the routine over and over again. You've got tremendous results to show for. It could be in your spiritual world, it could be as a parent in your intimate relationship, your health and fitness in your business, and use that to leverage what you need to do in the areas that you're looking to improve. So naturally for me, it is that running for the last six years, multiple times a week, and what that's compounded to do with my fitness, some of the physical transformations, and now it's using that as a reminder for the areas in business as an example that I want to double down on and get better at. 

The second action item with that is the 80 20 rule. Sit down and go, which 20% of activities are getting 80% of the result? Because that's where you need to get bought in and keep duplicating and doing that work over and over again, and which 80% are only responsible for 20% of the result. They can get eliminated and removed as a distraction. And I think if you do those two exercises, you're going to set yourself up for success. And then once you can build the habit with the action that's going to get you the results, which will take, I don't know what the number is, but it's over 60 days or something like that, and 

it becomes an autopilot function, then hopefully you'll get sustained compounding results in that area that you're trying to improve. So test out those two exercise and lemme know how you go in the comments. That's the message for this episode. If you want to watch your free training to create 30 days in 30 minutes a month, just head to content only au. You can watch that right there on the website. And if you enjoyed today's episode, make sure that you hit subscribe and leave a five star review so other people can follow the show.