The Undeniable Leader with Rob Cressy

The 15 out of 10 Rule The Top 1% Use Daily

• Rob Cressy

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 18:09

What if aiming for 10 out of 10 is what’s keeping you from greatness? In this episode of Built For The Game, Rob Cressy shares the 15 out of 10 Rule, a high-performance standard inspired by Jesse Itzler and built to expand what you believe is possible. You’ll learn the three pillars that anchor this mindset and how to apply them across identity, execution, and the systems you build. This is how leaders operate when excellence is non-negotiable.

Ways I can Help:

Let's Connect:

SPEAKER_00

Hey, before we start the podcast, if you're a return listener who gets value from this show, then spread the love and share this with someone exceptional. Whether you shoot them a text or a DM or share on your social media, it would mean the world to me, and this is how we can help each other grow. Sending tons of good vibes your way. What if I told you the single biggest thing holding you back from being great isn't your talent, isn't your drive, and isn't your work ethic? And what if the goal that you've been chasing of giving 100% and being a 10 out of 10 is the thing that is actually keeping you stuck? And the elite performers in the world, they don't play by those rules. They have a completely different operating system. And one of the things or people that taught me this is Jesse Yitzler. When I was a part of his um Build Your Life resume and 30 Days of Excellence and Big Ass Calendar Club, he would always say, This is gonna be a 15 out of 10 experience. And that always stood out to me. I loved that language, and up until that point, I'd only heard people talk about things in terms of 10 out of 10. But when I heard 15 out of 10, I was like, wow, I really like that. And just last week, I had a client of mine, the CEO of a company, and I'm doing coaching with their team. And he texted me, he said, Hey Rob, is today's call gonna be a 10 out of 10 or a 15 out of 10? And of course, I texted back saying this is gonna be a 15 out of 10, and then the light bulb went off. I now knew what we were going to create around on our team coaching session, and it was all around being a 10 out of 10 and really showing the layers of possibility, this mindset that is so different the way the rest of the world operates, and how you can create this in your life. Because the best in the world, being a 10 out of 10 is the price of admission. That is the standard of excellence in which we operate by. So, today, what I'm going to do is break down the 15 out of 10 rule, why there's such a huge gap between great or between good and being truly legendary, and how you can start using this in your own life. And let's start with this the problem with 10 out of 10 thinking. And I'm recording this the day after Indiana wins the college football national championship. So my Twitter feed is lit up with Kurt Signetti leadership quotes. And one of his mentors was former Alabama head coach Nick Saban. And one of the things they said, normal equals average. Why? Because that's what everybody else does. So when you think about the standard of excellence for most people, their ceiling is 10 out of 10. So think about you going to the gym and you're gonna do three reps of something. What's that number you're most likely to do? 10. I'm gonna do three sets of 10. I'm gonna do three sets of 10. Well, guess what? If you do three sets of 10, while that's good for you, that's the same as what everybody else is doing. And a few years ago, I was part of this hundred-day accountability group where there is seven of us as high performers that habit stacked, and the goal was to create one new habit that you would then do consistently for a hundred days in a row, and then as you started to get the momentum going, you would add new habits, and then we would just text each other how many days in a row and what that habit was. And one of the things that we ended up creating around this mindset was, and I'm not gonna use the language, F10, so frick 10, right? Where we learned to detest the number 10. Why? Because it's the artificial limit that everybody sets for themselves. So every time I'm in the gym, if I'm using an app and it says do 10, I'm always doing one more to do 11. And quite frankly, now because Ed Milette lives in the world of do one more, I know there's a bunch of other elite performers out there that are doing one more. So I end up doing one more on top of that, just in case there's somebody else who's doing that extra one more right there, right? So you can quickly see the levels of this game because 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, that is something that multiplies. 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 12. Okay, now we've seen the levels of this game. And what I want to do is define the 15 out of 10 rule, aka the Jesse Itzler rule. And for me, this is a standard of excellence, it's a way of creating, and it's also a way of speaking into existence, aka abracadabra. I create as I speak, speaking things into existence, because the 15 out of 10 rule is all around the way that you create yourself and the way that you see yourself showing up. And one of the ways that I use this in everyday life is anytime I'm on a podcast. And when I'm on a podcast, there's usually, I don't know, five minutes before you jump on with the host where there's pleasantries, and like, hey Rob, do you have any questions or anything else that you want to say? And one of the things that I always say is, listen, this is about to be the best podcast episode you ever do. We are going to create a 15 out of 10 experience. And every single person without question is like, whoa, I've never had anybody say anything to that. That's a pretty bold statement. And I'm like, yeah, I'm one of them ones because this is how we're going to get down. And what they don't realize is that number one, I'm planting that seed of possibility, that intention right there. Number two, I've got a background in improv. So as improv, yes, and is our foundational thing. Hey, when I'm with a someone on a podcast, we're now a team. So I'm here to support you, be a champion for you, and help build you up. Therefore, I know what a 15 out of 10 experience looks like because I want this to be a 15 out of 10 for both of us. And this is how I'm coming into this. And I also know this to be true. Having published over a thousand podcast episodes, you know how many people that I've interviewed have ever come on my show and said, Rob, this is gonna be the best episode you've ever done. Rob, this is about to be a 15 out of 10 experience. Zero. I've done this for more than a decade, not a single other person has ever done this, right? So very quickly, we can see how uncommon this is, which is why I like to use the language. The top 1%, the Jess Yitzlers of the world. So when I look at the 15 out of 10 rule, there's really three pillars to this. Number one, excellence as an identity. This is who you are. Number two, intentionality in every action. This is how you move, this is how you execute. And then number three, you operate from the standard. This is how you build. Because what I love about the 15 out of 10 rule, it is that it is accessible to every single one of us whenever we choose to use it and step into it. So why would we not just have that be our standard of excellence moving forward? So I always say um being built for the game is a mindset, a lifestyle, and a way of being. So now we're taking this to excellence as identity. This is this is who you are. So you stop seeing excellence as something you do and start seeing it as wow, this is how I create myself every single day. So I'll give you a little inside baseball into sort of what I did on the team coaching. So uh I come prepared for everything that I do with intention by design. Side note, put that in your tool bag for when you're creating with Chat GBT. Very important. These three words intention by design. Start putting that in your prompts, and you will see an elevation in standard and energy and output because the language itself says, I'm being intentional about the way that I think about the thing as I'm designing the thing, right? So you're seeing step by step by step every step of the way. So on this call with the team, uniquely, I did not bring a lot to the table other than we're going to create a 15 out of 10 experience because with intention by design, I wanted to show them how I and we could do it together in real time using Chat GBT and peeling the layers. So I knew how I was going to land the airplane without being as formulaic as I am right now. Because one of the things that I always want to do is be very relatable in the way that I'm sharing and creating, certainly around AI. Because a lot of people think, oh, somehow Rob's different or he's got a coding or a tech or an AI background. Nope, I can pop this open at zero just like you, and we're gonna create together. So now the call became creating a 15 out of 10 for this call. And then we start exploring this, and it's like, all right, well, how can you be a 15 out of 10 for your listening, for your standards, for your excellence, for your language, for the use cases of your business? And now we can start to see the levels of this game. And then we started to apply this specifically to the 20 people that were on the call there. So we had an open forum, and it's like, hey, person in marketing, what would a 15 out of 10 experience look like for the way that you create something for social media? Hey, customer service, when you get a disgruntled customer, what would it look like for you to approach that as a 15 out of 10? And then this one was my favorite. It was what would being a 15 out of 10 listener look like? Ooh, baby, man, there's some gold in there, speaking of my word of the year. So let's go to the next thing: intentionality in every action. So, one, I just shared how this is so valuable in the way that you're creating with AI and Chat GBT in your prompting. But when you create the 15 out of 10 rule and you live that standard, you're intentional about everything. So when I show up on the podcast and say this is going to be a 15 out of 10 experience, I am planting that seed of intention. And the other person's like, whoa. So now you can think about this in your own life. So often we never slow down because there's just so much going on and I don't have enough time to ever be intentional about every single thing that we're doing. But if you just take an extra beat and you said to yourself, huh, what would it look like if I made this next set at the gym of 15 out of 10? What would it look like if I was being a 15 out of 10 husband or wife just tonight? Right? And then once you explore that, then you can create it. And this is why this is so easy because most people, oh Rob, I just forgot, right? For those people, they don't get down like this because this is what we want to create for ourselves. Because if you had the choice between being normal and average or living an exceptional life like the top 1%, which would you prefer? Of course, I would prefer living like the top 1%. So, what are those things that we can do that can help us create that in ourselves and in others and in our business? Well, let's just be a little bit more intentional about how we're showing up and say, well, wait a second, what if this was a 15 out of 10? Boom. So then the last thing is this becomes a standard that you operate by because this is not hustle culture and grind and I won't see you ever on the weekends because all you're doing is working. No, this is all about your lens. So when Jesse Itzler said, hey, this is about to be a 15 out of 10 experience, he's then going to back it up, right? So the reason that we're doing this is because we truly can deliver an exceptional experience above what we believe our normal ceiling is, and that normal ceiling is average for everybody else. Because there's not people out there being like, hey, come to my business, I'm gonna deliver a five out of ten for you. No, the language everybody uses is a 10 out of 10, and then their standard of what they actually deliver oftentimes doesn't match that. But imagine if the way that you showed up was number one, excellence as my identity, number two, I'm intentional about all my actions, and number three, I operate from this standard. Man, what type of business, what type of relationships, what type of life do you think that you will be creating for yourself? Once again, this isn't hard, it costs no money, and you can claim it literally right this second. And before I get into the how you can apply this practically in your life and in your business, I want you to think about the standard that you've been holding for yourself. Have you just been aiming for 10 out of 10? Or is this idea hitting home because you're ready to raise your standard and you know you have that extra level or gear inside of you? And this is something that applies to all areas of your business and your life, right? So this is one of those inside out perspectives to the way that you create, and then we can create with the lens of business or personal or the AI era. And if you want to be a part of more conversations like this, you want to create on a higher level with Chat GBT, you want to live that 15 out of 10 rule and be a part of this every single day, then I encourage you to join us inside undeniable. You can go to joinundeniable.com. We got calls every single Tuesday at 12 p.m. Eastern, where we are elevating and creating that standard of what's possible in the AI era. We would love to have you because you put yourself around the best in the world, man, you can't help but raise that level of excellence for yourself. So, now time for how in the world you can design this into your life. And here's what I want you to do. It's very simple. Number one, let's be intentional about where you want to implement that 15 out of 10 standard. And the simple thing that you can do, which is what I did with the team, is think about what you're doing in business or at work. And you just take one thing that you do, maybe it's a goal or a vision, or maybe it's a friction point or a challenge, or maybe it's just something that's alive in you right now, and you ask yourself, what would it look like to be a 15 out of 10 in this area? And then you unpack it, and then guess what? You go and do it once, right? See what that is, and what you're going to notice is that something shifts because you've planted that seed of intention, and then now you're taking action on it, and now you can deliver on it. And once you deliver on that thing once, you're like, oh well, if I can have 15 out of 10 listening once, I can have 15 out of 10 listening for the next time. And then the next thing that I would encourage you to do is to actually think about this on the root level, and this is the 1% of 1% mastery level thing that is the uh excellence as identity, right? Because when you see that the 15 out of 10 rule is actually about your standard for how you see creating in the world and how you show up every single day, right? There's an energy to this, there's a frequency to this. And when you operate from this, then you would say, Cool, I vibe with this. What are my habits? What are my routines? What are my consistency practices? Uh, how am I making sure that I keep this top of mind because it's new for me, right? And then start speaking this into existence, right? Do this once. Whatever you're going to do, deliver a 15 out of 10 for something, and then speak that to the person. Just like Jesse spoke it to me, and then boom, self-creation. I grab that thing and I'm like, hey, this is the Jesse Itzler, this is the Jesse Itzler rule. Creating a 15 out of 10 experience wherever you go. So I get so much joy and blessings out of this. So much so that my clients text me saying, Rob, is it gonna be a 10 out of 10 call or is this gonna be a 15 out of 10 call? Of course, he was being rhetorical and he knew what it was going to be, but he did not actually know. I was gonna take what he said and turn that into an entire coaching conversation, which is now something that I'm sharing with each of you because that's how all of this works. So I'm excited about this because 2026 is going to be the best year of my life, hopefully, the best year of your life. I'm here to serve you, to help, to lead with heart, sending tons of love and good vibes your way. Let's have a 15 out of 10 rest of the day.