Distractions In Disguise: Every Yes Is A No

They rarely show up looking like distractions. They don’t wave a red flag or present themselves as a problem. Instead, they show up looking sharp (like a new opportunity, a new platform, a new strategy, or a new partnership).

And the truth is… most of them aren’t bad ideas.

They’re just not the thing that actually moves your business forward.

In this Maven Monday episode, Caleb Agee explores a powerful concept from the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown and what it means for leaders and business owners who feel constantly busy but still pulled away from the work that matters most.

Inside this episode, you'll learn:

• How to spot distractions in disguise
• Understand the hidden cost of saying yes
• How to take back control of where your time and energy went

If you’ve ever felt like your calendar is full but your progress feels slow… this episode is for you.

Because sometimes the most powerful move you can make in business isn’t doing more. It’s learning when to say no.

#Entrepreneurship #BusinessCoaching #Essentialism #Leadership #Productivity #BusinessGrowth #SmallBusiness #SayingNo #MavenMarketingPodcast

Purchase your copy of Essentialism by Greg McKeown here: https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Planner-90-Day-Guide-Accomplishing/dp/0593578414[…]id=1773153846&s=books&sprefix=essen%2Cstripbooks%2C149&sr=1-2

Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frankandmavenmarketing/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/frankandmaven
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/

Host: Brandon Welch
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Join the Maven Marketing Mastermind to get actionable advice from the team at mavenmethodtraining.com

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here: https://a.co/d/1clpm8a

Transcript

Distractions In Disguise

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Distractions are hard to spot. They don't show up looking like distractions. They don't show up waving a red flag. They come dressed up. They look sharp. They come in disguise. And they look like opportunities. A new idea, a new platform, a new partnership, a new strategy. And the truth is, most of them aren't bad ideas or bad things. They're just not the thing that actually moves your business forward. Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. This is the place where we help you eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business, and achieve the big dream. I'm Caleb A. G, and right now our entire team is reading the book Essentialism by Greg McCown. There's one idea, and it's really the thesis of this book. I know you've heard it before, but Greg writes every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. And it's really a simple statement, but when you think about it, it's actually kind of terrifying because every single meeting you accept, every project you take on, every new opportunity that you chase, it's quietly stealing time. It's quietly stealing your energy and your availability from something else, something you could have that maybe you don't even see right now. Um, and I I think of it actually is uh kind of an infinite set of potential things in the future. So if you sign up to do something on the regular, um, you are allotting that amount of time from your life, whether it be at work or in a personal level, uh for forever until you decide to stop that. And what are you saying no to because of that yes that you just did? Um, sometimes we are stealing time from the thing that actually would have changed our business. So today we're gonna talk about the cost of good opportunities. Um business owners don't struggle because they're lazy. I'm gonna guess that you don't struggle because you're lazy. You struggle because you're busy. You're busy solving problems, you're busy taking care of the inbox and responding to emails, you're busy jumping into meetings, you're busy chasing opportunities, and that's what makes all of this so dangerous because most of the things filling your schedule aren't bad things, they're reasonable things, they're probably helpful things, they're probably even good things if we can be honest. But Greg makes a really powerful point in Essentialism. He says you can't overestimate the unimportance of practically everything. Um, he says this in an opposite way, basically, and says there are very few things in this world that are actually of true and lasting value. And until we decide what those things are, most of the things that come at us will steal our attention. They will steal our time. And we have to intentionally choose where to put our focus, where to put our energy, where to put our time, or else something else will make that decision for you. The most practical and obvious point, we see it all the time, especially in the marketing world, is shiny objects. Business owners and business leaders and marketers, you are especially prone to looking at shiny objects because there are new things in our world coming out every day. Um, a new marketing platform of fears, there's some new tracking software, there's some new AI thing that you can chase down. Um, you might see another business trying something. Uh, I see a lot of business owners looking over, uh, they need to put their blinders on and they look over to the left and to the right in the lanes next to them, and they're like, oh, I kind of like what they're doing. And that other business is doing their own thing. And instead of staying in our own lane and doing our own thing, we kind of scoop off a little bit of what they're doing, and it's not pure and it's not real, and then we go and we continue forward. And before we know it, we're adding one more thing to our list. Um, but the essentialist is gonna ask a different question. So the essentialist asks, what is the most important thing I should be doing right now? Not what could we do, not what might work, but what is the actual most important thing? Most businesses don't need more activity, they need more focus. And so we're gonna do a little exercise. If you're driving right now, uh do it, play it in your head, or do it when you get to the office. Um, but if you're not, grab a pen, grab a scrap of paper. I want you to write down five things that only you can do that would actually grow or improve your business. So um there are these five things, I I believe, whether you're the owner, leader of the company, or you're you're internal, you're doing marketing or whatever that is, um, there are things that only you can do. Nobody else in the office, no contractor, no one around you uh can really see through because you have a unique set of skills. Uh I'm thinking of like Liam Neeson. I have a unique set of skills. I don't know if you guys have noticed my voice is a little bit low today. So uh maybe I'm that much closer to being like Liam. Um write down these five things that uh actually will grow and improve your business. And then we're gonna take that list of five, we're gonna look at only two of those. I want you to circle two that would have the most exponential and lasting impact on your business. Now, don't forget, growth in your business does not always mean new product lines, revenue segments, you know, profit centers, new clients. It doesn't always mean like top line or revenue growth. Um for me, I work on a lot of our processes, operations, things like that. And so when I look at it, I'm like, how do I find efficiencies? How do I raise the level of our systems? How do I make things better for our clients? How do I make things better for my team? And when all of those things are true, it also eventually turns into revenue impact and all of those things. But um, some of those things that you can improve will be not directly impacting the revenue side of things. So write those down, circle two that have the long the last most lasting impact. Okay, now I want you to pull up your calendar from last week, um, skim your emails from last week and look and see how much of those two things did you actually do last week? How much overlap did you have between those two things that you just declared that only you can do and have the most exponential and lasting impact on your business? How much of that did you actually get to last week? Let's look at the last month. Were you able to do that? And what we're going to ask, um, I'm gonna I'm gonna say the answer is probably. If you're like me, it's probably uncomfortable. The answer is, uh, and we can realize that we're not actually doing some of the activities that would really move the business forward, that would really have a massive change and really have a massive impact. And a lot of these things are are getting in the way. So we're gonna take this one step further. I'm just I'm I'm just pushing your buttons, making you open your eyes to these things because the problem is the drift happens in a slow way. I heard the analogy of a lazy river uh a few weeks ago. Somebody was talking about a lazy river, you just sit on the tube and you just float, and there's a current that pushes you along. And it takes intentional effort to stand still. It takes intentional effort to go where you want to go. Otherwise, the the river and the current will push you and you will drift wherever you want to go. So we're not gonna get pushed, we're not gonna get drifted. We're going to take an intentional look at what we're doing, what we're putting our time to, and ask, how can we make this better? How can we put our time into things that actually matter? We're gonna take a step further. Uh, I'm gonna ask you to ask your team, what are the things? First, you're gonna ask them um about the organization. What are the things that we do, we spend our time on that maybe we shouldn't be? That's a risky question to ask. Um, you can maybe choose a few key team members that you trust um to not get you because that could turn into a negative, right? Uh like they're like, oh yeah, we definitely shouldn't be doing this. And once it's said out loud, it's like you can have a negative mindset toward that thing. Um, you may be like, nope, that's part of our mission. That's what we should be doing. And and hopefully that stops right there. But I want you to ask, and without responding immediately, don't respond immediately, just receive. What do you think we're spending our time on that we shouldn't be? What are some pursuits that we have that aren't our highest and best use as a company? And then I want you to ask them a little bit of a deeper question. This might sting a little bit. What am I doing that I shouldn't be? What do I spend my time on that I shouldn't spend my time on? Write down the answers, write down what they say, and I want you to go and have some reflection time. Um the the last question you need to ask them, you have to ask them on both ends. What are we doing? This is the essentialist question. What are we doing that has the most impact? Has you know impact for our customers? It changes the way the world, the world works because we are doing this thing. And then what am I doing that has the most impact? What should I never stop doing? And I think the answer will be pretty revealing to you. Um, and then you can do that quick exercise and look back at your calendar. I think you'll know that your gut will tell you pretty quickly whether or not you're doing that thing a lot or a little bit. But I would advocate that whatever those things are, you need to find a way to do those things more. And you need to be intentional, um, like the essential the essentialist and make that intentional choice to say no to things that are not on that list, no to things that don't lead you to where you're going, that aren't your highest and best use, aren't what you were made to do. And then you need to say yes to exactly those things. Uh, we all know about the 80-20 rule. A lot of times, you know, 80% of our effort goes to, you know, 20% of the results, and vice versa, it's like 20% of our, you know, customer base equals 80% of our revenue. There's so many different uh reflections of that. And what we want to do is lean into the places where we we offer the most impact for our world around us. Um what I'm gonna challenge you to do is find somebody that can hold you accountable and look at the things that you need to say no to. And I realize that a lot of the things sometimes that you need to say no to are not like quick, just turn it off, easy, you know, shut it down kind of things. They're they're things that you know may be deeply personal, they may be really hard to say no to, they may be um things you care a lot about. Like we said, they are good things, but they may be holding you back from the best thing, the the thing you are most capable of doing, the thing that changes the world around you. And so find someone and say, hey, I need to work in this direction. Set a timeline. Um, I'm actually doing this personally. I have somebody who who is uh coaching me and holding me accountable to doing exactly these things. Um and he asked me, you know, he's like, okay, when are you gonna do this by? And so uh for me, part of it was uh there are several facets of it, but one one intentional thing I knew I had to do as a as a first step is set aside time to work on our company, on Frank and Maven, um, so that I can make Frank and Maven better. Because I realized that pretty much all the things that I would put on my on my list, the five and then the two that were the most impactful, those things were all things that worked on Frank and Maven, they were not things that worked on a client. Now, that's my unique role here in this company. Um, so I but but if I'm honest, the reality of my time is that 80 to 90 percent of it gets spent on clients, which is totally fine. We're here to serve our clients, but I have to intentionally say no, set aside time to work on Franken Maven and make our client experience better so that those clients eventually I think the investment pays off. Um, I see a future where um our clients have a you know have less of a need of me because I've created systems that allow my team to operate uh more fully. I've I've hired the right people that can help support this. And so you can see how all of this works out. So find somebody to hold you accountable, schedule the time, set a due date for yourself to say, I'm going to make this small change by this time. I'm gonna say no to this. And then as opportunities come and they look so good, they look really exciting, you need to ask yourself, if I say yes to this, what am I also saying no to? Do I know? Because uh you may have something coming tomorrow that you don't know about, and you gave away the little bit of margin you had to that new opportunity. Are you gonna be okay with that? Is that gonna be the best use of your time? Are you gonna be like, ugh, I wish I would have waited for a minute. I wish I would have said no. And maybe it's a yes, maybe that's the right answer, but um just remember distractions rarely look like distractions, they come dressed as opportunities. Every time you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else. So, um, and just a quick reminder: many businesses struggle not because they do too little, but because they do too much. So focus on your business, focus on what actually makes the biggest impact, bring it back to the base, to the core, um, figure out ways to eliminate distractions, to eliminate small yeses that turn into uh really a big no to your your main thing. Um and focus on doing what matters most. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this Maven Monday. I hope it's encouraging to you. I hope it challenges you and it's exciting. Um if you have any questions that you'd love for us to answer, you can email us at Maven Monday at Frankandmaven.com. Um please hit the subscribe button if you're listening on podcast apps. We're also on YouTube. Um, hey, if you're still listening, I did want to give away a free book of Essentialism. Um if you email us at Maven Monday at Frankandmaven.com and leave a comment on YouTube of maybe something that stood out to you, I want you to do that. Email us, drop a comment, we'll mail you a copy of Essentialism, and you can read along with us. Hey, we'll see you next Monday. We'll be here every Monday answering your real life marketing questions because marketers who can't teach you why are just a fancy lie.