Latest / Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say / The Lie We Tell Ourselves About Business Goals and Happiness

Transcript

The Lie We Tell Ourselves About Business Goals and Happiness · Founder Unfiltered - What Founders Think But Never Say

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  Welcome to another episode of 6 Figure Secrets for Fractional
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  Experts. My name is Bradley Jacobs.
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  I'm your host, the founder and CEO of my lands.
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  And today we're gonna continue on the theme of what it's truly
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  like to be in the founder seat on the founder journey and how
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  we can build the businesses of our dreams that hit our goals,
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  that allow us to live, live the lives that we really want, which
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  for a lot of us include fulfillment, purpose,
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  flexibility, obviously good income, adding value.
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  I mean, I'm a real believer that underneath everything, each one
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  of us loves helping and supporting, adding value,
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  creating outcomes. And we do it in the different
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  areas of expertise. We have marketing finance
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  technology on down the line, but we really love being in that
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  place where what we do on an on a daily basis, it moves the
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  needle, right? It adds value, it helps somebody
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  like businesses at their core are solving problems.
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  And when you really care about those problems and you care
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  about the, the people that the customers that you're solving
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  the problems for everything else, frankly is you're, you're
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  more joyful, right? You're, you're aligning your
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  purpose and what you're here to do with your everyday
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  activities. And that's when fulfilment is
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  really reached in your life. So, you know, going to tell a
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  bit of a story here of I've been a founder at my lands now for
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  six years and I, I'm not going to tell you every single day I
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  jumped out of bed. I was like, I can't wait to
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  start working right. Like it's been a journey.
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  It has its ups and downs. And recently I have a business
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  coach. I've almost always had one and I
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  was on a coaching call with him a few weeks ago and I was
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  feeling totally unmotivated. And I just told him I was like,
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  I'm just, I just don't feel motivated right now to work
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  really hard on the business and do all the things that I know
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  the business needs. And it wasn't necessarily
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  burnout. It was just like this kind of
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  like, I don't, I don't really want to do this stuff.
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  And you know, when I avoid the things that I know the business
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  needs, then everybody suffers, right?
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  I suffer, customers suffer, the business suffers.
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  We don't hit our goals. And I'm just kind of like, it's
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  almost this like spirals, like I don't want to do the things I
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  need to do. The business doesn't hit its
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  goals. So I just feel worse about it.
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  And it goes on down the line. And so he asked me a really
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  simple question and he was basically like, what activities,
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  actual building the business activities do you enjoy?
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  Like what do you love? And I thought about it and I was
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  like, OK, well, I love talking to customers.
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  I love building software. I love sharing my story.
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  I love writing content. I Love Actually looking at the
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  metrics, the analytics, seeing what's working, see what's not
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  working. I love product design.
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  I love business strategy. I was like, wow, I love so much
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  of what I get to do everyday, but I wasn't connected to that.
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  And so then the question is why? And the why really is, is that I
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  was focused on the outcomes, I was focused on the metrics, I
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  was focused on growth and retention.
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  And I was like all of the numbers because look, those are
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  an important part of the business.
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  You've got to know your numbers. But if I'm not connected to why
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  I'm actually doing this business, I'm doing this
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  business because I love my customer.
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  I'm fascinated by the problem and I love building.
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  And when I focus on those things, then I'm like excited.
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  And I can't wait to work on the business.
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  I can't wait to record this podcast and tell you the story
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  and talk to a new customer and design a new product page and
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  whatever. I, I, I love it when I focus
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  only on the metrics. I'm like, Oh, I don't really
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  want to do this anymore. Right.
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  So, and what I've noticed the trap is, is that the, the
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  feeling, the incorrect feeling, it's not an incorrect feeling
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  because feelings are valid no matter what, right?
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  But the thought that when I'm at a certain place, when the
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  business is at a certain milestone of revenue, when we're
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  growing at a certain pace, that's when often I feel good.
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  And it's really normal, right? Like we like winning, winning is
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  fun, growing, having a big business, having lots of money.
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  Like it's fun and we glamorize it in society.
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  It's like, you know, all the LinkedIn announcements of like
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  we raise this money or we hit this revenue milestone or
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  whatever it is, It's completely glorified, right?
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  And there's a lot to that. Like let's celebrate each other
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  and hitting those milestones is amazing.
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  And being able to afford nice vacations and nice things for
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  our families and all that is, is, is fantastic.
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  But that's not why we started this business.
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  It's not the main reason. Like yes, I'm sure we are all
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  hoping for a successful financial outcome, but it's not
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  about I will be happy when I will be fulfilled when it
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  doesn't really exist. Like the bar for happiness from
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  a financial perspective is really low.
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  Like once your basic needs are met and you can have like a nice
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  little thing here and there, your additional happiness
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  actually doesn't increase with more money.
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  You have so the, the thought that, oh, I will be happy when
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  the business is growing in this way.
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  I'll be happy when I have this much money in the bank account,
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  business bank account, my bank account, whatever it is, more
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  revenue, more users, better conversion, more clarity, all
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  the kind of things. It's just not true because you
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  know, what is true is that the moment that you hit that, you're
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  going to be thinking what's next?
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  What's next? What's next?
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  What's the next bar? What's the next goal?
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  How do I get there? What new thing can I learn?
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  How do I add more value? It's always going to be more.
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  It's never going to be enough when you really sit with, it's
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  never going to be enough because I'm always looking for that next
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  thing. And you really get to root into,
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  OK, let's say I had all of it. Let's say I had tons of money in
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  my bank account. I was growing like crazy.
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  I was hitting all my goals. Then what?
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  Right. I would be focused.
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  Frankly, if it were me, I'd be like, all right, all I care
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  about is living the most fulfilling life every day.
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  And of course, relationships play a big, really a really big
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  role in that. But we're going to talk about
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  business, of course. So I would be living the most
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  fulfilling life in my business world, which means I would be
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  doing the things that I love doing, that I'm good at, that
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  I'm in my zone of genius, and I'm helping the people I care
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  about most solving really powerful, big problems that they
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  struggle with on a given day. You know, there's this big
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  cliche of you should enjoy the journey, but it's a cliche for a
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  reason. Because of this point I'm making
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  that if you had all the money in the world and all, you know,
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  some people would be like, all right, I would just travel and
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  like, do nothing. And I challenge that.
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  I'd be like, all right, you're going to do that.
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  You're going to do that for like a year or six months or a few
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  months. And then you're going to have
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  this gaping hole inside of you that you feel that something's
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  missing because you weren't put here to travel the world and
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  fuck off on a beach. You just weren't.
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  You're here to contribute your gifts to the world.
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  I know we're getting a little like spiritual woo here.
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  Just stick with me. You're here for a purpose.
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  And so that purpose is to bring value to the world, to help
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  people, to support, to move society forward in some way,
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  shape or form. And so, so again, you go back
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  to, all right, I'm going to do the things that I love, that I'm
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  really, really good at for people that I care about.
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  And I would bet anything that when you did those things, you'd
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  make a ton of money. So it's, it's this paradox.
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  And I've been learning that life is full of these paradoxes.
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  It's like when I'm super attached to the result, I
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  basically never get it. Like when I'm desperate about
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  wanting to date someone, right? That energy is repulsive, right?
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  You never, it never works when you're unattached and you just
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  show up as you're like lively, vibrant, confident, powerful
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  self. Then you're magnetic and you
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  attract everybody. So how can you apply that to the
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  business? It's like if I just focus on the
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  activities that I love and I'm really focused on solving
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  problems for people that I care about, that's when I'm actually
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  going to hit the business goals, the growth, the revenue that
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  I've been seeking in the 1st place.
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  It's just backwards. I get there by focusing actually
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  on something else and I can share my own journey in this is
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  I in my own independent consulting journey, totally fell
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  in love with this way of work. I'm like, this is freaking
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  incredible that I can work for myself.
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  I can add value to clients. I can make a bunch more money
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  that I made as AW2 employee with flexibility, with freedom, with
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  dictating my own rates, with dictating proposals and scopes,
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  getting rid of clients I'm not aligned with, choosing new
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  clients that I am aligned with having tons of free time.
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  I was like, this is unreal. This is freaking crazy.
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  So I was like, all right, I did this for a few years.
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  It was amazing. And to me, it just felt like
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  there's a bigger purpose for me. There's something bigger.
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  And so I was like, all right, I did not leave my job to help 2
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  to 3/4 clients at a time. I left my job to build something
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  big, something that really helps thousands, millions of people,
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  that changes people's lives. And so that's when I started my
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  Lands. And so My Lands was all about
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  and continues to be about making business.
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  I focused on fractionals for the last six years, independent
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  consultants, fractional solopreneurs, making this life,
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  this way of working sustainable overtime.
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  Because when other people can live the life that I lived,
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  right, and I continued, I can do it too.
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  Like can we all do it? Can we all have this massive win
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  win where I can build this business?
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  It adds value to you. It gives me flexibility and
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  freedom, and it enables you to have flexibility and freedom
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  sustainably. It's all about sustainability.
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  If it's not sustainable, it doesn't freaking matter.
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  You can do it for a few months, for year, for a year or two, but
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  it doesn't matter if it's not sustainable.
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  So I love building this business when I see people win and I'm
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  building tool that enables them to win over the long term.
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  So that's why we built Stratus. Stratus is all about using
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  LinkedIn content to sustainably attract clients so that you can
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  do the thing that you love, which is delivering for those
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  clients and then have all this free time, whether it's spending
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  time with your family, going on vacation, doing whatever you
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  want to do. So if you're anything like me,
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  when you focus on what you love to do, then you enjoy it.
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  And it's not this like, I got to wake up and I got to do all
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  these things. It's like, no, I get to, this is
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  exciting. I get to build this product,
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  talk to customers, analyze the data, create systems, write new
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  blogs, like I get to do all these things.
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  This is what my day is filled up with.
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  Like, wow, how freaking lucky am I?
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  And when that is the energy that you're coming to your business
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  with, everything changes. Your quality of work is better,
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  you're happier, you have more energy, you have more time to
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  work on it, you want to work on it.
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  You're not fascinating, you're not distracting.
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  And your business outcomes are a beautiful result of that.
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  So it ends up being like, why do we even set goals?
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  And I think it is really important to set the goal
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  because otherwise, like, how do you even know what you're
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  working towards? But I would say like spend 1% of
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  the time setting the goal and 99% of the time deciding what
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  activities am I freaking amazing at that I love that's going to
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  solve this problem I care about. Like that's really what this is
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  all about. So now we get into the
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  discussion of how can you align your business with your purpose?
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  For me, this comes back to separating my identity from the
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  outcome of the business. I am not the business.
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  If I shut the business down and it's quote UN quote a failure, I
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  am not a failure, right? I am successful.
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  I have tons of value to add. I am a value add to society
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  overall, right? So no matter what happens, I'm
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  successful. And now I can really think about
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  like, what do I truly love doing?
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  Like what sets me apart more than anybody else?
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  And can I focus on aligning business activities with what I
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  love doing and customers I love to serve with where my genius
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  really lies? Because the the, the more time
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  in the day I'm living in my genius, I'm living in my
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  superpowers, the more fulfilled I am and the better outcomes I'm
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  going to have. So we're not going to focus on
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  outcomes, but it's going to end up happening.
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  It's like what? It's the same thing as the
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  dating analogy, right? I'm going to put my best energy
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  out there, my magnetic self, and I'm just going to attract the
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  world. And look, I don't expect anybody
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  to love every part of building a business.
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  Like some of the stuff, whether it's like bookkeeping or some
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  people love book bookkeeping, right?
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  But you're not going to love every part of it.
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  And that's OK, right? So what I would encourage you to
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  do is increase the percentage of, of things that you can do
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  that you do love. Like do go dive deeper and
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  deeper and deeper and deeper into all the things that you
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  love. And then either outsource what
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  you don't love, if you can, or just time block.
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  It'd be like, all right, two hours a week.
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  I'm going to do this shit I don't like to do.
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  I'm going to do it like Wednesday at 4 and Thursday at
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  four period, end of story. And I'm just going to like sit
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  down, do it. And I'm going to reward myself
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  with a glass of wine after whatever it is.
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  So like you get to find ways where, yes, the business needs
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  other things from you. But you know, for me, I like to
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  outsource it, right? I like to give it to my VA or
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  chief of staff or just like, or frankly, like hire people that
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  the stuff that you don't like to do is actually their zone of
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  genius and they freaking love it.
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  It's a win win, right? So you're, you think you're
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  handing off like an annoying task and they're like, yeah,
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  please give it to me. It's like, OK, great.
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  You know, I don't understand, but that's OK.
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  Like if you love it, amazing. And I'm sure I love like I love
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  building business models. I could build business models
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  all day. And some people for that, you
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  know, there's like pulling their hair out, like pulling teeth.
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  They can't possibly understand how I love it, but I do.
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  So we're going to wrap this up. I like to keep these about 15
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  minutes. So I'll wrap this up here.
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  I really hope that there's something in here that spoke to
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  you that like nailed it for you of if you've had those moments
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  of lacking motivation or like freak, like, how do I, how do I
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  fucking do this in a way that is sustainable, where I have
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  fulfillment even if I haven't hit my goals yet.
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  I hope something here landed with you, resonate with you.
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  Would love to hear from you. Shoot me a note on LinkedIn,
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  shoot me an e-mail. Come check us out at my Lance.
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  We have this really amazing product that, as I said, it
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  helps you show up sustainably on LinkedIn to attract clients and
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  customers. I mean, that is the sole
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  purpose, the entire reason we built the whole product.
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  So I hope you give us give us a chance.
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  Check it out and shoot me a note.
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  We'd love to hear from you. With that, have an amazing rest
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  of your day.