Will Power Podcast by Will Humphreys

STOP The Burnout! 3 Steps to Liberate Your Time & Pay for Your Trip (Time Liberation Plan) by Will Humphreys

• Will Humphreys • Season 3 • Episode 5

Share episode

Life is short, and your time is sacred. Are you an overworked leader or practice owner sacrificing your family and health for your business? Host Will Humphreys gets vulnerable, sharing the powerful story of the moment his hyper-burnout ended and how he shifted his entire world.

Episode Highlights:

  • The Shocking Low Point: Will's candid story of hitting rock bottom, being $5,000 away from insolvency, and the moment he realized he was a "slave" to his company.
  • The World-Shifting Moment: How a simple comment from his young son forced him to finally draw a line and commit to change.
  • Time is Sacred): Why you need to change how you perceive the value of your time and adopt the powerful concept of Exchange.
  • The Time Thieves: Identifying the 3 key areas where every practice owner is hemorrhaging time (Repetitious, Reactionary, and Retention tasks).
  • Stop Asking HOW, Start Asking WHO: The fundamental shift in leadership thinking that solves virtually all your business problems.
  • The Time Liberation Plan: Will's actionable 3-step strategy: Eliminate, Automate, and Delegate, and why giving up control is essential for growth.
  • The Financial Exchange: Understanding that your time as a leader is worth at least $300 per hour, and how to use that to decide what to outsource.
  • The Delegation Secret: The 70% Rule—if someone can do a task 70% as well as you, let it go!
  • The AI Hack: Why you should never have a meeting without an AI note-taker and how to use it to build your P&P manuals instantly.
  • The C-T-T-S Framework: A simple email template to empower your team to solve problems for you, freeing up your approval time.
  • Final Challenge: A commitment to scheduling a full day to "Sharpen the Ax" and work on your life, not just in it.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone who feels trapped by their to-do list. Will delivers a personalized Time Liberation Plan you can implement immediately to stop the burnout, gain greater impact by doing less, and free up precious hours in your week.

You'll leave this episode knowing the exact next steps to ditch the tasks that drain your soul and create the space for what truly matters.

Send us a text

Virtual Rockstars specialize in helping support or replace all non-clinical roles.
Learn how a Virtual Rockstar can help scale your physical therapy practice.

Subscribe here to our completely free Stress-Free PT Newsletter for your weekly dose of joy.

SPEAKER_00:

Today's episode of the Willpower Podcast comes to you from a live speaking engagement. We're here today, and we're going to shift gears dramatically because life is short. We already know this. Life is very short, and what we're going to be talking about today, in my hope, is that you're going to leave here today with some actual items that are going to dramatically change how you operate. I don't take for granted the fact that you guys have taken time out of your day, out of your crazy week, out of your busy schedule, for you guys to be here in this. And you picked this out of like eight different things to choose from. So you gotta know I'm ready to help. I'm ready to serve. Anything that I've learned, anything that I am, I am committed to helping you guys. Because I have such a great appreciation for every type of person in this room in particular. Hey Max, good to see you. So, quick story. It was 2012. I was, it was a week before Christmas. I am treating in my clinic. I'm a physical therapist by trade. I used to work in the boondocks, Florence, Arizona, if you know where that is, halfway between Tucson and Arizona and Phoenix. And I was treating this day, and it was a good day. The clinic was humming, people were up tone. Have you ever had that in your clinics? You know, right before the holidays. And I just, I had some stressors, but I wasn't thinking about them today. I was thinking about how I was going to be going to Idaho next week to spend that whole week off in Christmas with my wife and my four sons. They were littler at the time. The one who's in Maryland getting treated hadn't gotten his head injury yet. But this was a great day. And all my team was happy, no one was complaining, everyone showed up. My wife used to say, Hey Will, was it a good day? And I'd say, Yeah, people all showed up. It was a great day. They actually came to work. Like it was one of those moments for me. And then my friend, my John, who was my part-time CFO, he showed up in the doorway of the clinic and said, I need to talk to you for a second. And he pulled me aside and he put me into this little office room that we had, and he goes, and you could just see something was wrong with him. He goes, Will, I don't know how to break this to you, but we have$5,000 left in our accounts total. And we have$10,000 of bills that are past due. Which bills do you want to pay? And that to me was such a shock. It was such a shock. I should have known, and really later, of course, I'm like, of course, I should have known how that was supposed to go. I shouldn't have been surprised with this, but I was. And the rest of the day was just that numbing pain of what is gonna happen now. Have you guys ever had that before? Right? Just like, what am I gonna do? How is this gonna work out for me? And I get in the car, it's dark at night. I drove in the dark, I was coming home in the dark, it's totally pitch black. I was driving through the reservation land that's that separates Florence, Arizona from Gilbert, where I lived, and there was this constant beeping sound. Beep, beep, beep. It's driving me crazy. And what it was, it was the paper charts I still had to do that night that were in the passenger seat. There were so many that my car thought there was a human being sitting next to me in the car. And I had so I literally had to pull the car over in the desert and buckle my charts in. And so I pull in the door, I woke through my front door, and I was done. I was done. I'm in my mind, I'm like, how am I gonna pay for Christmas? How am I gonna actually pay for Christmas? I couldn't try harder than I was trying. I couldn't put more effort or energy into what I was doing than what I was already doing. And how am I gonna pay for this? We hadn't bought our Christmas presents yet because we were flying to Idaho and we were gonna buy a mare, and now I'm trying to figure out how to pay bills. And so there was this moment of clarity as I was driving home. There's two moments I want to pay attention to very quickly, and then we're gonna jump right in. The first moment of clarity was that this was the opposite reason why I became a rehabilitation entrepreneur. I wanted to increase my time, my impact, my income to live a life that like I thought would be worth the sacrifice, but this was the opposite. This was this was being a slave to my company. This was the worst thing I could have imagined. And again, I was working so hard on my time. So I walk in the door, my wife, perpetually positive. Like, I got lucky on steroids. And if you saw a picture of her, you go, yeah, you got really lucky, Will. But she was just so like, hey, Will, oh, she saw. She was conditioned to see the face and know when I was at that type of low. And immediately she goes, I got everything tonight. You just go lay down. She didn't even know why. That's how common this was for me in 2012. So I get to this point where I walk in, and as I'm going to my room to lay down, my head is just I'm numb from the pain, right? Just have you ever been in that state of just perpetual, like, I'm such a loser and all that crap that we tell ourselves. And then my son Ethan, I have four boys, he's 12 at the time. He's like, he comes over and he like hugs me from the side and he goes, Hey Dad, I just got these new Skylander toys. Do you want to play with me? And I said, No, son, I'm so sorry, dad's not feeling good. And this is the moment where my world shifted forever. This is the moment I'm hoping that we can pull from together because then it will make this moment worth it to me to have gone through it if it serves you. I'm walking away, and my son goes, Dad, I'm so sorry that you're feeling sick again. Again. That's how my kid experienced me was this hyper burned out, overworked individual who had no way of knowing how to pull himself out of this hole that he had dug in his business. But something happened to me that night, guys, when I was laying there at night and I was like, okay, that's it. I'm done. I'm walking out of this business. Hi, Bill, thank you for coming. I am I am out of this business, I am not putting up with this. I want to make a bigger impact in the world, and I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get myself out of this, even if it means walking away from this business, because it's not worth it to be a parent who's that not present for their kid, that they're conditioned, the family is conditioned to the burnout. So I made some decisions, I got lots of coaching. And here's what's really funny is I'm a very passionate healthcare provider at heart. We're gonna be talking today about time. We have a limited amount of time on this earth, and what we get to do with it is sacred. It is a sacred stewardship that we have of this limited experience in life. But what I wanna tell you guys is that what we get to do as providers and owners and leaders in these rehab spaces is so uniquely special. It's a weird balance, because on the one hand, we have the lowest reimbursements, some of the most difficult business like concepts and strategies that exist in all of business, by the way. That's coming from a coach of mine who's worked in every industry. But on the other hand, we can impact people's lives in such a powerful way. So, pause the story right there. I want to show you a little bit about what we're doing today. Why you're here, I don't know. I hope the title got you in. But I will tell you what I'm hoping you leave with today. I am confident you'll leave with today if you're with me, is a strategy of how you're immediately gonna free yourself up because you will leave with a personalized time liberation plan that you can implement immediately. So you don't have to do what I was doing, which was killing yourself and not getting the results that you need. I don't know if it was Bob and his presentation, but it's swimming in my head this idea of like getting greater impact by doing less. There's just something around it. So, my goal today to give you real life help that pays for your ticket to TherapyCon. I'm hoping you'll leave here going, objectively, if I do this, I just paid for my ticket. So let's get to work. I don't want to tell you who I am, though. Who I am is what I believe, and this is what I believe, and this is why I stand here, it's why I own the businesses that I do. Is that PTOT SLP was born to lead the$600 billion musculoskeletal industry. We don't. We were born to lead it, and we don't. That all problems we face as leaders are solved when we focus on our problems on solving them, who, not how. We get so wrapped up in the weeds of how to solve our problems. Whatever problem that you have, something just came to mind for some of you. Stop asking how to solve it. Start asking who that person is who should solve that problem, write it down as things are coming to you. And this is a controversial one, but I believe it with all my heart. This is the best time in the history of our industry to be a PTOT SLP leader. Bill, you're shaking your head, yes. Why do you feel why are you in agreement with that?

SPEAKER_02:

There's so many opportunities right now for us. I think our country is right to realize that we should be technological to go there. And there's a tremendous opportunity moving forward to really make a difference for society, but we just have to understand how can we solve these problems that we're currently facing to get to that point. So it's it is it's not all doom and gloom. There is a bright side, it's what path we choose to take.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for that. As a side note, I just want to did someone say something? Can we give them applause, please? We should do a little bit more like hell yeah, because that's why we're here. Is at the end of the day, that impact that we make in that child's life, that that adult's life, whoever it is that we're treating, that change is why we're here. But I think Bill's talking about something much bigger. And as a side note, some of my favorite leaders are in this room right now. I just want to thank those guys who are here supporting me. It means a lot to see your faces. That we are here to unite because at the end of the day, leadership is the rising tide. It's the rising tide. And guess what the number one job of any leader is? Say it. Build more leaders. Side note, bonus credit: the greatest leader in any room is the person who loves the most. A little sappy maybe, but it's true. Think about the person who's the best leader in your world. Who is that person? A parent, maybe someone who just cared about you, who saw your potential. Love looks like support, love looks like challenge, but it's always love at the end of the day. At the end of the day, this is me. This is who I will always be, this really good-looking 17-year-old kid. Uh, Friday the 13th, 1993, went mountain climbing with my girlfriend to try to impress her. I went climbing without ropes. I fell 50 feet, I broke both arms, both legs. Yeah. I broke 21 bones in total. Open compound of my femur, the plantar surface of my right foot was laying on my gas truck. It was bad. I laid there for five hours, never thought I'd ever. But this is the person, this is, I know it sounds stupid, but like, this is the guy I look up to. He is as nerdy as he feels, and I'm still that guy 100%. And I will tell you that like that guy thought his life was over until he met his physical therapist. His physical therapist, Connie Clemens, stood him up for the first time, made him walk again, and put him on a path that led to that dreadful night when I was driving home and saw my kids and felt like I had nothing. I had nothing. Like I had failed this guy. So this is a newspaper article of that. I started a few companies. Oh, I need to back up. I skipped a really big part of the story. So I ended up getting a lot of coaching and figuring out business. And I was told by a coach once, and this is true, you have no natural leadership ability, Will. And I went, Yes. He goes, but you're trainable and you're coachable. And I just want to acknowledge the fact that you are all here because you're trainable and you're coachable, and that's all you need. So any head trash you have around being a leader, let it go. You're in a room of equals. No one here is better than the other person. We need each other. Rising tide, leadership. And so I started figuring out how to do businesses and I started a few. There's Doctors of PT business right there, the Empower brand, right? So what I do now is virtual rock star, and I'm not here to promote my company. I will talk a little bit about assistance later from a different perspective, but I am really excited to let you know that I've learned this magical, I mean, powerful concept called exchange that we're gonna talk about today when it comes to your time. I need you to understand something very important before we get going, though, is that your time is so much more valuable than you're allowing it to be. I think there's things that you guys are doing, some of you at least, that you're thinking, yeah, I'm doing these things, but I have to, what else, what other choice do I have? Life is just like that. What if it didn't have to be that way? What if you guys were able to cherry pick the most energy-producing activities in your culture and your company and only do those? What would life feel like for you? It feels better. Yeah, and guys, this is a this isn't um a mountain you climb once, it's a summitless mountain that we climb together. But there are stages, and we get to that point on the higher stages where we're mostly living in our energy-giving activities that we start to create more powerfully. Ironically, we create more space, and time and money is the byproduct. So when we talk about time, I want you to change how you perceive time. Time is not universally experienced the same, it changes from experience to experience, and you guys know what I'm talking about. Uh, who here has a hobby that they're super passionate about? Raise your hand if there's a hobby that you're just like, man, I love doing blank. Yes, what do you love doing? You love making candy? What kind of candy do you make?

unknown:

Marshmallows are one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_00:

I love marshmallows. Like, really, big time. And so, what's time like for you when you're making marshmallows? You're not impatient, you're not frustrated, you're not irritated. What's it like for you? Like, what does it feel like for you when you're watching the marshmallows get prepped?

unknown:

Uh joyful and exciting.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you guys have things like that? What are those things? Write them down. Please. Write them down, manifest, start writing, start thinking. And the reason being is because there are things in your work that you love, there's things outside of work that you love, but either way, we only get the same number of hours of existence. How we experience those is unique based on what we do. So this is you're probably falling into one of these three categories. I rarely take time off and struggle taking care of myself due to limited time. I can take a vacation but come back to tons of issues in work, or I can take a month off and my company can function without me. Bob, can you share what you shared with us in your last meeting, what you just came back from?

unknown:

Yeah, I think my wife just turned uh 25 or the second time.

SPEAKER_00:

He turned she turned 25 for the second time.

unknown:

So at least uh we stopped back last week when year for three weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

Three weeks. And then how big of a message did you come back to? No. Raise your hand if you're the team that stayed here working while his team was up, his his your leap. Yeah, yeah. They're wearing the same color shirt. And so what's ironic about this is that when we spend more time doing what we love, we actually support the people we love more. So we're gonna get to the bottom of how we can identify those things. Let me ask you, what would you guys do if you had 15 extra hours a week? What would you do with it? Shoot. Okay, we've got 30 minutes, you guys. Let's buckle up. Um I I would love this to be kind of more participatory. What would you do if you had 15 hours a week free that you don't have right now? Spend it with family, what would you do with your family? Craig memories. Playing Skylanders, like whatever that is for the kids, right? Love that. You like to travel? Where would you want to go?

unknown:

California.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, love that. A couple more, please? This is your chance to manifest. What is it? What is it?

unknown:

Read and write.

SPEAKER_00:

Read and write coming from someone who loves to read and an author. Bill?

unknown:

Same thing, I would say reading and writing.

SPEAKER_00:

And developing. Yes, and you someone who honestly has control of their time helping change the industry. I know you. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Max, you were gonna say something?

SPEAKER_02:

I wasn't, but at least one round of golf. Okay?

SPEAKER_00:

Love that? Sleep. Sleep. Who here wants more sleep? I love that. You were gonna say something.

SPEAKER_01:

Mental health and exercise.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Mental health exercise. Real quick, raise your hand if you feel like you're not getting enough exercise because your schedule's too tight of time. Isn't that like an emotional thing? Right? Ooh. Okay, so I had a couple of hands come up. A couple more, yes.

unknown:

Like service, give back to the community.

SPEAKER_00:

Service! Oh listen, leaders love, love is service. And we have to be leaders of ourselves first. We have to lead ourselves this meat box that we have while we're on this journey on the planet. We've got to take advantage and take care of this, this, our families, but so many times because of how we operate. So with 15 extra hours a week, here's some stats that are gonna make you really sad. Here's why time matters. But this, I want you to understand the why behind this so that we can quickly get to work. Number one, at 78 and a half, if you're 78 years old, you get 4,000 weeks of life. Per year, if you free up two hours a week, two hours a week, that produces 13, eight-hour workdays a year. If you just free up two hours a week, it's almost two full work weeks a year that you free up. Think about what you do with two weeks of a year that you a bonus. And so every 20 years, that's a whole year. So think about if that number isn't two, but four. You free up a year every 10 years. It's it starts to add up really quickly. And this is, of course, what you guys said. You want to aim those hours at relationships and things that matter most. So let's get to work on how we can figure this out. We're gonna do a time leak audit. I need everyone out pen, paper, computer, phone, whatever it is to take notes. We are going to work. If you want to rest and not participate, that's totally fine. Huge missed opportunity, though. Because I want you to leave here with specific ideas of what you're gonna do to get off your plate to free you up so that you have more energy. First thing we're gonna do. Every practice owner and leader is bleeding, bleeding, hemorrhaging time in one of three key areas. Repetitious tasks, things we do all the time. Some of these things are so small. I can't give this to somebody else, it just takes me a second. And I do it four times a day. Those things add up, start to suck our souls. Two reactionary times, responding to interruptions. The studies they've done of energy draining from this type of time distraction is so clear that when we have to pivot mentally from a specific category of tasks to the other category of tasks, there is such a loss of energy and focus that we become significantly less effective. And then the third one is retention tasks. These are things that we retain that other people on your team could be doing. Quick, I'm gonna ask this question, just write it down if it comes to mind. What are you currently doing right now that you know somebody else should be doing? I see. Oh, let's keep it participatory. Let's go, payroll. I love that one, by the way, my friend. And and why why do we not let those things go? We're gonna talk about that in a second. But let me ask, well, let's talk about it now. I brought it up. Let's talk about why we don't let those things go. Why are we holding on to these things that other people should be doing that are are interruptive in our date or repetitious? Just throw out answers. Why are we holding on to them?

unknown:

Control systems.

SPEAKER_00:

Control and trust were the first two, and I heard control four times, I think. It was like control. Why what control what does control mean? What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Just making sure that it's done well and right. Maybe there are mistakes.

SPEAKER_00:

Raise your hand if you've ever delegated something to somebody else and they just you took it back because they couldn't do it the way that you would you would do it. Yeah, you're my people. Welcome, welcome to the loneliest place on earth. I was the president there for a long time. And it's so true though. It's so true. So we're gonna talk about how to overcome that today in 30 minutes. All right. I like a challenge. Activity. I want you guys to list five tasks from the last week that fit into these categories. We don't have time for five. I was gonna do five in each, but let's get this thing rocking. I want you to list five activities that you are taking on that fall into one of these activities. Um, and then you're gonna mark them red, yellow, and green. So red drains your soul. We don't have to put objective data, you know what I mean. Yellow is it's okay, I don't like it, I don't hate it, maybe that's why you're holding on to it, because it really isn't that hard. You wanna make sure it gets done right, so you just keep doing it. And then green is like, oh, I love this thing. I double be any greens, but I just want you to get used to this terminology of energy as you're identifying. I'm gonna give you 60 seconds. Okay. Guys, let's just keep writing. If you're having inspiration, ignore me if you're having inspiration. Your inspiration matters more than anything I could say or anyone else, so keep following that track. But if you're done, please throw out a couple of things that you'd have written down. What are some things that you're taking on? Second we get it out there, we're getting it out to the universe, we're gonna get rid of it. What's something you're doing that is a repetitious reaction or retention activity that you know isn't something you want to keep doing. Cosigning notes. Love that. What else? Who said that? Cleaning out your email. That's nice. You know, most people don't know that's something they shouldn't be doing. Honestly, that's a really advanced. She gets an extra credit point. What else? Yes. I love that one right there. How much time do we spend micromanag not micromanaging by double checking things? And haven't we been burned enough to there's a reason why? Okay, I love that. Okay. Um, yes, Bill.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

HR expert?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, this council. You're constantly fixing these silly little problems within the organization.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I love that. What'd you say? R. Yes. R, energy draining. Who here gets energy from being the mediator between employee issues? Oh my gosh, we need to hire you immediately.

unknown:

I just need to avoid that.

SPEAKER_00:

See, I feel pleased by what you're saying as a middle child, and I recognize you as a middle child. Yeah, like that's there's something really powerful about the energy that comes from being that HR person. Bob in his talk was talking about one of the most important things you need to scale as an HR person who can handle those relationships. By the way, quick quick bonus tip for you guys. You want to know who's at fault? The person that uses the terminology always, every time, never. The ones who's exaggerating is usually the guilty party. Well, Susie always says the fault. Oh, okay. Thank you. Mary. All right, so. Oh, I thought you, I was feeling something there. Okay.

unknown:

If anybody's red as firing people, I'll do that for you.

SPEAKER_00:

He's a he's a green energy firer.

SPEAKER_01:

I run into a lot of TV happens for that, and I always saw it as my student folks.

SPEAKER_00:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, and this is a perfect example of who not how. There are people who love to do the things that you hate, but we can't understand that. Today we're not going to talk about just about work, by the way. We're talking about, I want you to think about expanding this concept outside of work into everything in your life. What do you hate doing at home? Dishes. Dog food? Dog food?

unknown:

Dog poop.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, dog poop. I was like, dog food? You make home dog food? Cooking. Raise your hand if you love cooking. Yeah. So, like, we all have different things that light us up or drain us. That's so weird. That the things that would drain me would light another person up. But when we can start coming together in this like family under God kind of concept of siblings to help each other out, we can really make this happen. So let's get rid of these problems. You guys ready to get rid of these problems?

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, let's do it. So the automation ladder is the key to this thing. I'm gonna be taking some information. I rarely create anything original, by the way. Everything I am is a product of being trained by somebody else. And I don't remember all of this, but a guy named Dan Martell wrote a book called Buy Back Your Time. We're gonna talk about this concept very briefly, but I want you to think what your time is worth in terms of dollars. That's how you're gonna start thinking about every task you hate and whether or not you should let go of things. Here's another reason why we don't let go of things is because we're trained as kids that you'd be um ungrateful, selfish, self-centered if you didn't be the handyman at your house. That was one of mine, even though I have zero capabilities as a handyman. Like my wife will say, Can we please pay someone else to do it? But like I was like, no, I'm gonna fix it on not paying another person to do it worse. And that was worse.

SPEAKER_02:

So my wife's father is incredible at everything. And if I can't do it, she'll be like, I'll call my dad. I'm like, no, you're not calling to do this, damn it.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So I I hate the the way it feels, but like I think the future of me is gonna be like, sure, honey, let's get your dad to do this. So let's get into the automation ladder, let's fix this thing. Everything that we do that is red or yellow, and why do we want to get rid of yellow? It doesn't drain us. Here's why. Anything we're doing that's not green isn't going to collapse time the way we want it to. Anything that we're doing that isn't green is a lost opportunity to do the thing we were born on this earth to do. You were born, every one of you, with special gifts and talents that deal with like what you like doing. That's what we want to pursue in life. It's what's gotten you through this crappy, difficult business for so long. But there is a way to do it in a way that's powerful. So the way we get rid of things is we eliminate, automate, delegate. We eliminate, we just stop doing crap because it's not working. What in your business or at home just isn't working and you keep doing it. Be honest with yourself. Think about all the things. Okay? Automation. This is where you give it to the tech or you you find some way to automate it through systems. Rain tree obviously had a lot of really cool things they promoted today. This is why you want to be in a rain tree. And I mean this, guys, I'm I have I am not getting paid to say this at all. This is an honest statement. I've been I've been in the industry for decades. I have heard everything about every EMR. I am a fan of RainTree. Period. Period. They don't they don't even know me. I'm just this guy. But I love what they do for lots of reasons. That I was super pumped about that thing today. Brandon, do you want to say something? I just, anytime I think you might want to say something. Okay, delegate, we give other to people, we want to give to other people. And I will tell you this is the who-not how concept. There, I promise you, there isn't a problem you can't give to another person. Really quick story, super quick story. My wife and I homeschooled our kids during the um pandemic. And we were okay at it. And just our average, like we were not great. But we we did so much better than our school system because of just the narrow nature, that afterwards, when everyone was going back to school, we thought, let's let's keep homeschooling them. And I said, not it. And she went, not it. Right before me was like, oh crap. So we decided, let's find a who, not how. This is this is after I had learned the concepts I'm teaching you guys today. So we sat down and we drew up the perfect teacher we would hire part-time to come teach our kids at our house, because we couldn't afford private school. So we created, because we're leaders and leaders create, an avatar of a perfect person. And we thought, you know, she'd be just like Mary Poppins. Well, maybe she'll have the loving kindness of Emory Poppins, the firm but sweet kind of mentality, right? You know, pull things out of her bag. And so we decided she needed to be a gifted and talented teacher, someone who's kind of like post-retirement, but like still wants to work a little bit. And then Mrs. Laura showed up. If the clearer we can be on the specific solve for our problem, the easier it is to find the who, not harder. It's easier to find people when we're really clear. And Miss Laura showed up and taught my kids for three years. And my kid, who's now in the eighth grade when he was in the fifth grade, was doing high school algebra. Who, not how. Every solution has a person. So, okay, here's examples. Eliminate reports that don't that no one reads. Appointment reminders. Sometimes we're just doing things in business because we think we're supposed to do them, but is it really moving the needle? Uh automate appointments through rain tree, delegate social media scheduling, insurance verifications. I mean, whatever it is in your business. We're gonna talk about home examples. Um let's do this. Let's do this. Let's do this. Okay, we're gonna do a small group, three people. I want you guys to pick one of your tasks from your other list, and I want you to spend five minutes, like one and a half. I'm gonna do, I'll give you guys a minute each to talk about your task and how you're gonna get rid of it by eliminating it, automating it, or delegating it. Okay? So groups of three, we don't have time. Quickly get together, on your marks, get set, go. The person with the shortest hair goes first. Oh, yeah. It's not enough time.

SPEAKER_01:

What's that?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm really sorry.

SPEAKER_01:

And they're all like down up, so I'm like, All right, if you haven't switched, switch.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, last person go if you haven't gone yet. Oh, you guys are all done. I love that. Okay, we're just doing a minute left. Touching? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It's weird. At least it's not like spasming out.

SPEAKER_01:

Was it doing like one of these things?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, sure, sure. Okay, guys. Go ahead and put a thumbtack in it. Let's circle back around.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love this.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, guys, come on back. Join me. Join me at the front of the stage. Thank you. You guys love the energy. I want to thank everyone for how you're showing up today. You guys made a choice to get into this or not. I can feel it from here. It's very easy for me. I'm standing here looking at you. You guys have really bought into this process. It may not have been enough time, but was anyone able to find a task that they've decided they're going to get rid of? Would they be willing to share that? Let's start with Bob surprises me. I thought Bob was the master of all these things.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Give them some applause, guys. Okay. We're going to do that differently, like we're really winning. Ready? Give them some applause. Look, as business owners, no one else gives a crap about us, so we gotta care for each other. Payroll! Give us some love! What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?

unknown:

I mean, I just need to find the person I trust to delegate to do the dark job.

SPEAKER_02:

All it is is add input.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Adding numbers to add input is just when you company you want to see what everybody makes.

SPEAKER_00:

How much time are you gonna save by not doing that? How much time?

SPEAKER_01:

I will save five hours of a month.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay. Five hours of his life. How much do you think you can pay for someone significantly less than what you deserve to make per hour? Okay. So with five hours of time for your month, I want you to think about the financial exchange. What about you, Bob? How much how much do you think of your time and and would you save by having this person take that over? Yeah. You have to think of it in those terms. Is this what first of all, what are you worth per hour? If it's below the hundreds, you're not valuating yourself appropriately. It's what do you have a number for you, Bob? How much do you think no one in this room is less than$300 as a leader? Now listen, if you're a leader within a company, understand that there's there's a discrepancy there, but that's not what we're saying. You just need to understand the impact of that, especially if you're in that position. Great, let's hear a couple more. Who has found a task that they're gonna get rid of that they're they've decided on right here?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, I'm a brand new company, so delegating the therapy manual or the manual, the policies and procedures.

SPEAKER_00:

You're gonna have your manual created by somebody else. Who knows what they're doing. She's gonna delegate the creation of her policies and procedures. I guarantee they're 10 million times better than we are at that stuff. And by the way, needle in my eye. Create a policy and procedure manual.

SPEAKER_02:

Is using AI to do so much of that. Using AI to create your legal documents that you're paying your attorneys every single time. Hallelujah. They're probably using the CD. Oh, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

So I yeah, I got charged$600 once because I called a friend of mine who was a lawyer for a document and it took him five seconds to email. I had a little sit-down chat with that guy. Here's by the way, here's a really cool AI hack if you're not already doing this. Every meeting you ever have, ever, ever in person, online, take out a note taker. My team's laughing. Take out your note taker and record the meeting. Record these meetings. You could have been recording this whole thing and then gone back and go, okay, what do you, based on what you know about me, what are my tasks, what are the tasks you think I should eliminate and how do I eliminate those? They'll change your life. Every meeting you ever have, then afterwards go, great, turn that into a policy procedure, turn that into a task list, turn that into a website design. Stop having meetings and not recording them with a note taker.

SPEAKER_01:

I will free tools out there, by the way. There are free note takers out there. Is that a special happy document meeting?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh, who here is not using a note taker authentically? There's no shame at all. Okay. Oh, I I wanna I just wanna hold you guys in my arms. Guys, you you guys, there's fathom. There's Fathom. Fathom is a note taker, read.ai is what I use. You kind of get used to whatever you end up using. Firefly is what I mean. No, fire, no fathom I mean too, but Firefly is another one. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Just get one. Gemini, do not have a meeting without it being recorded by AI, and then dump it into have one chat called my company name and dump all of the transcripts into that, and it learns everything it needs to know about you. And then have the courage to ask it one day, based on what you know about me, what are some of the blind spots in my life that I'm not paying attention to? And then get ready to have a nice big cry. Which is what literally happened to me. I'm like, how does it know me so well? Okay, delegation, guys, we have six minutes. Can we get through this? Okay, this is the how we're gonna get this off of our plate. Delegation mastery, guys, like we talked about earlier, the biggest thing is control. If somebody else can do it 70% as good as you, give it to them. Their aggregate is worth it for your time. Let it go. Be frozen, let it go. It's gonna be okay, let it go. You Bob said in his discussion, they have to make mistakes if they're gonna learn. What's the purpose of a leader? To build more leaders. Do we learn through mistakes? It's the only way we learn. It's not a way, it's the way. We have to let them fail. Delegation flywheel, select the right person, set clear outcomes. Don't fly by. Hey, like I did to Tony. Hey, Tony, you're in charge of the booth this time at Rain Tree. I've known her for a long time. She she stepped up. Support with training tools, step back, review, and improve. Be that loving coach. Don't be the micromanager, be that loving coach to every human being in your life, even the Miss Laura's. And your time liberation plan. This is how you delegate. I'll send all this to you. Want. If you want it, I'll give you guys everything on this. I've got lots of freebies. I'm all about the freebies. I've got a worksheet that you can use, that you can walk you through these things. I'll send you a copy of the worksheet. So you can go through this. But here's what I want you to do: schedule some time to be alone. Like a day. I know. I felt the adrenaline pumping the second I said that. But here's what I want you to understand is that when we take time and sharpen the knife, everything else gets done better. You've heard that story of the two men chopping trees, and one man kept disappearing in the forest for hours at a time when we come back and have more trees cut at the end of the day. And it's like, what are you doing? I'm sharpening my axe. You know this. But do you do it? So I'm asking you right now, if nothing else, to make a commitment to yourself that you are not going home from this trip without a day. I don't care if it's a month, two months, six months down the road that you are gonna block off and protect like everything matters about it because everything matters that you take this day off and you do this time liberation plan and you go for a walk in nature, and you just do nothing but thank yourself for all the things that no one else is thanking you for doing. Because what you do makes a difference. You are the Connie Clemens in my life. And you know that. You guys are out there changing these people's lives, but it's if you don't sharpen your axe, you're gonna dull the blade to the point where you'll end up like I've been a few times in my life, and you don't want to end up there. So there's a couple of really cool things I wanna give you. Uh, four minutes, we're gonna land this plane. There's a couple of things I wanna give you. One is called, it's an email called a CTW. This was a transformative way to give other people responsibility that freed me up. So if there's a problem at work, we want to empower people to solve those problems for us. And this completed teamwork was a game changer for us. What happens is, let's use a physical therapy practice because that's what I'm familiar with. The director has a treadmill that's breaking. So what do they do? Hey, Will, the treadmill's breaking. We need a new treadmill. Great. Not when we empower our people. They would send me the CTW and I would train them on this. Hey, Will, hope you're doing well. Current situation is our treadmill's breaking, it's 10 years old, it's probably on its last leg. Here are three possible solutions that I have found that I think are worthwhile. Here's the solution I think is what's best. Do you approve it or not? Our time should be spent approving other people's great work. That's how we empower people, and that's what's funny. We also retain them. Perfect example. I was burning out coming into this season. I had a number, we have four events that Virtual Rockstar is is uh supporting in the in two weeks, and we're growing very rapidly. And I was not knowingly taking it all on again because I like being the star of the show and I love attention, Middlechild. And I was burning out, and I finally turned to Tony and Kayla and said, Can you guys just please take the booth over? And have you guys seen our booth? Like that was that. Give him applause. Brandon, and one high- I always like to give credit. Brand's like, you should do a thing about this. I'm gonna do it right now. Is Brandon Brandon is has one of the his opinion matters to me at the highest level, period. He does not mix words. He came over and praised our booth, which is like the highest compliment. All three of us were like, us, and it's because of them. It would have not been half as good or as powerful without me finally relinquishing control. And guess what? Sometimes that 70% is really 100%. It's just not my 100%. So it's interesting.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, I love that. Thank you, Jerry, for sharing. I really appreciate that. Uh, delegation. Let's make sure we delegate cleanly. We don't want to drive dive. You want the difference between dumping on someone and delegating? Clarity. So write it down. Here's the situation. Here's the resources you have access to. Here's what success looks like, right? And here's when it needs to be done. The single greatest mistake that we make in delegating is not giving a deadline. Period. AI solves that. So what are we gonna do with our note takers? We're gonna ask it to start recording everything and then go, what are the delegate upload this in there and go, can you please print out my email delegations? I'm gonna copy and paste after this meeting. Think about the time and resources. These things compound like crazy. So 10 things practice leaders can delegate. Let's rock and roll, guys. Think about outside the box. Have somebody else clean your house. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Have somebody else clean your house. Meal prep, grocery shop, yard work, pool care, pet care, home maintenance, laundry, dry cleaning. There are so many apps that are out there to do these things for you if you don't love doing them. What would life feel like if you didn't have to do laundry again? Like heaven? You're not gonna live for another hundred years. Let's enjoy life. Let's make it worthwhile. And guess what? That extra time, you're gonna have a brilliant idea that makes 10x the return on investment. Errand running, child transport, home admin. So every hour per week frees your your busy life up by six days per year as you grow. So really see that. Every hour that you can free up matters. We are so loose with our time as leaders. I'll just do that. It takes a little extra work at the beginning, but it will free you up if you get in that mindset. Um, okay, you guys know this. What's your first thing? Who not how? I feel obligated to go through slides. Oh, this is my executive assistant, Kim. I am not eight feet tall. She is literally that short. My executive assistant changed my life and started the thing that I'm doing now. Give the gift of having somebody else take on the opportunity to serve you in your quest of making a difference for other people. It is the fate, my most favorite aspect of my journey has been developing this team of people who work through the night so that you don't have to do things that free you up and so that they can provide for their families. It is the greatest gift of my professional career to be able to do that with people. So please remember if you learn nothing else from our little time here together, is that you matter. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, small detail with my free time. My wife and I support various organizations in Africa. We're going in November back. This was us last year with my four sons. That's the Skylander's kid right there. We were able to spend, he was someone's a charity. And it was like, guys, yeah, let go of laundry so you can do more of this. This guy right here, Van, he's a piano savant, very sensitive kid. I haven't worked him hard enough. We were digging holes at the end of one of our days in Africa. A latrine, this was a latrine that we were building for this family. That's a coveted bathroom, by the way. And so we're all these children from around the neighborhood were just playing with us while we were working, and Van's digging in the hot uh Mozambique sun and he's crying, and I'm like, great, dad didn't work him hard enough. Let's go find out what you know thing he's complaining about, and horrible attitude. But I'm like, Van, seriously, man, like what's up? He goes, I've never been happier in my life. I never want to leave. Experiences, guys. Let's let's cherish these moments. Let's give rid of let's have the give ourselves permission to get rid of these things so that we can go make a bigger difference in other people's lives. Um, I have some freebies for you. Okay, so I I'm gonna I'm not gonna bombard you with a bunch of like stuff. I I just I promise not to abuse it. If you guys, I'm gonna give you a free book from Alex Ramosy. I've been coaching with him lately. I've all those templates I'm gonna give you, free access. I have I have a oh, I started a comedy newsletter for PTO T S L P. There's no like sale on it. We literally just want to make you laugh once a week. I have a podcast. I'll send you all these resources. We have an event, I don't want to talk about it. Um, I'm gonna start to feel salesy, I don't care. So listen, just come over here and just text 1886 willpower text therapy con free stuff, and I'll give you everything. Everything. There's everything we talked about there, and if I don't get you everything, hand me. I'm not perfect. It means I'm missing a who in my life, and I'd love the the uh accountability. Okay, guys. Uh yes.

unknown:

DB salesy for a second.

SPEAKER_00:

Please.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, go back to that. DB salesy.

SPEAKER_00:

Which was like the greatest sales I think I could have done was just been like, here it is, no, it's not. But yeah, like so. I have a summit that I do every year. The great Brandon Siegel coached me in creating it. And so we had our first annual one last year. Bill's team was there, as well as some of you. And so what we do is we focus on three things how to recruit, train, and retain your team. That's it. We're here in Arizona, it's in March, and what we do is we make it super fun. It's only 99 degrees. But I will say this what's cool about it is we invite all the local universities to come, so you don't just learn how to do it. 50% of Arizona residents from the universities actually want to get hired out of state. And so we have we'll talk about how to interview, and then we bring in a hundred students for you to interview and actually hire. Okay, guys, that's it. Appreciate you. Have a great rest of your day.

Head Shot

Will Humphreys

Host