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Leading with Purpose: Lessons from Lenny Richardson on Time and Success · Unstoppable Success Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Unstoppable Leaders and Stop Light.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Institute leaders and light.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Unstoppable solar.com.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: So 15 to 20 minutes.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's be unstoppable.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Podcast.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: I am your host, Jacqueline Strominger.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And on this podcast, as you know, we hear from amazing leaders and get incredible game-changing insights that not only will help you be a better leader, but help you have help generate greater profits for you and your company.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: So today we are welcoming on to the show Lenny Richardson.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: Did I get that right?
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Lenny Richardson.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wait a second.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so a little bit of background on Lenny.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So after being kicked out of college twice, we might have to hear about that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: Lenny faced a dark period of depression.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: However, his life took a dramatic turn when he discovered the ancient philosophy of eudomania, a concept that emphasizes living a fulfilling and meaningful life.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: This discovery ignited a profound transformation within him.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So key thing here about leadership, you know, Lenny went from being broke to thriving.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: So his transformation led him to start a new business focused on helping people achieve Eudomania.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Through this journey, he has realized that the true secret sauce to overall success was time management.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I truly believe time management is something we all could do more of.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And some people actually are now calling it something else, but unless we can't wait to hear from you, Lenny.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: So welcome to the show.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you for being here.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Jacqueline.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: So Lenny, yeah.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So Lenny, so you know, I know you got a uh a crazy, you know, back rooted story, but I'd love for you to just take us a little bit through that.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you come to time management?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so not to be super long-winded, I tend to ramble sometimes.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So if I do, please stop me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, to make a kind of a long story short, um, as you mentioned, when I was in college, twice I got kicked out.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it had nothing to do with academics.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't caught with drugs or anything crazy like that.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was purely financial.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, got kicked out twice, and that kind of forced me into the uh the adult world, so to speak.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, had a lot of jobs.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: The two main ones I had was working at a gas station and I was working as a dishwasher um at a kind of an Irish pub um in a college town.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: As you can imagine, that's a lot of dishes to wash.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, so I when I as I'm kind of working these two jobs, I'm still struggling to make ends meet.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like literally, I was at one point on the verge of um being kicked out of my apartment.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, my roommates are literally like mad at me because I was the only person not paying my end of the rent, um, or at least not paying enough of it.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, of course, the the leasing agent there contacting us, threatening to kick us all out.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, very hectic times.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: I realized that that this kind of wasn't the path that I expected out of my life.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I went to Penn State.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: I consider myself to be a smart student, so I figured if I'm so smart, why am I in this terrible situation?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I didn't have anyone around me to answer the questions that I had about how to improve myself.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: That led me to kind of reading a lot.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And through reading, I kind of stumbled upon philosophy because I was a big philosophy fan.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, learned about this concept called eudaimonia.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And basically, with eudaimonia, it's sort of a framework for the good life.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what Socrates and Aristotle afterwards called it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, basically, he breaks down the good life into health, wealth, and relationships.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so to make this all very short, not go super long-winded, um, after years of trying to build up the pillars of eudaimonia, as I call them, health, wealth, and relationships, I've I've realized that in order for me to do that, you need to have a certain degree of time management.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because without time management, it's it's in my opinion, pretty much impossible to adequately build up your health, your finances, and your relationships.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's hard to build them up and it's harder to sustain them without time management.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, so okay, so not to go down the rabbit hole, but obviously you you went through this darker period, and so how like what was that aha moment for you that you're like I need to work on the time management or how I'm spending my time?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I don't know if there was a I guess one specific aha moment.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was kind of just me realizing that I wasn't in great shape, I didn't have great finances, not even close, especially at that time.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I didn't have great relationships.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it was more or less the kind of the stress of trying to figure out how to make it all work.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, eventually I kind of realized I need to like really focus on how I'm spending my time.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I know one day in particular, this well, I won't I won't call this an aha moment, but it was kind of like uh I guess a moment that kind of made me realize that managing time was something I needed to focus a lot on.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um a friend of mine, he was kind of looking for a job, and me and him had lived together.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is kind of in the summer of the year I got kicked out, I think the first time.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and so he was looking for a job, he was staying with me for the summer.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And but we kind of figured we would just map out our entire day and hit as many places as possible to help him get a job because he needed one as quickly as possible to help me pay rent.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and after doing that, both of us felt super productive.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: We felt like the entire day was worthwhile, and up until this point, I never really felt that way.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I spent a lot of my time early in college at least, um, just kind of winging the day.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Go to the gym.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe I'll go if I feel like it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: Study for class, I'll study if I feel like it.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go to class.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I feel like it, I'll go to class.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was pretty much winging the day after kind of using my planner and figuring out, um, kind of mapping out the day, I kind of realized this feels a lot better.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we actually got a lot done.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Let me try to do more of this thing.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so and it wasn't like an overnight thing.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is like a gradual process of months and years of me slowly realizing that if my life was going off track, it's probably because I'm not managing my time effectively.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: When it's going great, it's because I am managing my time effectively.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so not so much an aha moment, I guess, but a series of a series of right, right.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when you think about, you know, so when you talk, I guess sort of like about time management, talk to me about, you know, how do you use it now versus what you used to do?
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I I've kind of so I've learned this over the years.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: When I first tried to implement different time management strategies, the thing that I did back then that was a massive mistake is I tried to cram too much into one day.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: At least for me, this was a mistake for me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about other people.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I try to cram too much into a day.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I still keep my old planners and I now I use kind of like Google Calendar, but in the past I had paper planners.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I would literally try to pack in things by the minute, like five minutes here, do this thing for five minutes, do this next thing for five minutes, do this next thing for 30 minutes.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's overwhelming.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I found that it's not the best strategy for being consistent.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think if you pack, at least for me, if if I pack too many things into one day and I try to do that too frequently, it kind of burns me out and it just kind of makes me unhappy.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, if it burns you out, you kind of get this negative association with it, and then you don't want to do it anymore.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So the thing you need to get done or the things you need to get done don't get done.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I've begun to do now more is I just kind of shoot for doing at least one big thing.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I try to make a list of all the biggest things that I need to do, and kind of the main three, I focus on those three.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And out of those three, I pick one every day, essentially.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: Some days I take off and I don't do anything because I want to relax.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but it's more of a uh decreasing what I'm doing every day rather than trying to increase what I'm doing.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would say that's kind of a major difference between what I used to do versus what I do now.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think the less is more philosophy is fantastic when it comes to time management.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now, are you because a lot of people talk about um whether it's um you could call it time blocking, you could call it buckets, you could call it um uh God, people are using other words for it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um like chunking and chunking, yeah, like you know, so is that something that you also believe in, or yeah, so I'll do that as well.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um I I think mainly what I try to do, and this is what I teach clients you can have a full calendar, but make sure that the the main thing that you need to do is your priority.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the reason why I say that is because stuff happens, like stuff happens.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes calls come up, sometimes you meet a random friend and you just converse with that friend, and it you know, time flies by.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: You meant to rest for an hour.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: That conversation took four hours.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay, it happens.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you get into traffic, just stuff happens.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I do do those techniques, but typically what I recommend to people and what I do is make sure you have enough time to guarantee that you can do that one thing that matters the most.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you focus on that one thing, then even if everything else in the day doesn't go your way, you've at least still moved towards your goal.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I for me personally, what I usually do, and this is actually a perfect example, usually in the mornings, um, I usually wake up at about 6 a.m.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So 6 a.m.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: until about 8 a.m., I block out to work out.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, usually from kind of eight until 11-ish, I do work, just like the main work.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And today I screwed myself over because I woke up late.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't go to the gym today.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's fine because that wasn't the main thing that I needed to get done.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: The main thing was certain work with ads were doing and other stuff.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of just the point I'm making is stuff happens, you know, you get lazy, things come up.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: As long as the main thing's being done, that's the most important thing.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: So when you think about where you are like right now, like what is the biggest goal that you have with like with your business?
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: The main thing now is really if I'm just get to get more clients, to get more clients, um, and grow the business.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the main thing.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're sort of just testing out different strategies.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really just been a race to try to test those strategies as quickly as possible and I guess implement and kind of build on those strategies.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'll I'll give an example kind of right before this interview.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was a little bit frustrated with myself because yesterday I was trying to plan out ads for Facebook, and for whatever reason, Facebook changed their ad management system.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's hard to describe, but the way their layout is, they changed it.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I couldn't find my ads.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized this morning they weren't running, or at least two weren't running.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's part of what I was I've been doing, and just whatever it takes to kind of get more clients.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's been my recent goal.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: But and so when you think about like what you do for your clients, like what is the biggest reward?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest reward uh for me or for for them, like for you know, for you working with your clients.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um seeing people get ahead would be the main thing.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I really can't stress this enough.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: I get very frustrated with when I when I know people and I know they can do more.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and uh this is one of the the phrases that kind of sets me off when people say I don't have time for something, that agitates me to no end because everyone has 24 hours.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like it's a uh I don't know, it's almost like when people say it, it's almost like they're lying to your face to say I don't have time.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's fine to say I don't want to do something or I don't want to make that a priority, or it's it doesn't matter to me right now.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's perfectly fine.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: But I think when people say I don't have time, I'm always kind of like, is that true?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, this celebrity that you like who seems to be successful, they have 24 hours.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have 24 hours, you have 24 hours.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It all depends upon what you do at that time, right?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then spend your time in what you know how you do it, right?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes I think people probably say, Oh my god, I don't have time to do that, but it might be just an excuse.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I I had a friend um a few years ago, actually, he was trying to get in better shape and he took on this new job.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: He was doing, I think, construction.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he said to me, He said, I want to get in better shape, but I just don't have time to do it.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I literally I got frustrated.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: I said to him, You don't have 20 minutes a day to work out.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't have to be your priority, but if you want to work out, then it can be done.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the strategies you have aren't working for you, or maybe you're in your mind believing that working out requires three hours a day or two hours a day, or this extreme duration of time?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: That we, you know, we can kind of discuss that and figure out how to make it work for you, but to say you don't have time, I think is a bit disingenuous when I hear people say that.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: So, what are some of the tools that you use to help people do better time management?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the main tool, honestly, the main tool is a planner.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the primary tool.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot of um there's a lot of tools people can use and a lot of strategies.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's apps like I think Motion, um, a lot of AI software I see nowadays, fancy apps, they're all fine.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Pomodoro, I use that.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a fantastic tool.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Really, to me, the the main thing is a planner.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's if you could only stick with one tool, that'd be the tool I recommend.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the main reason is just is just because what I tend to find is that because time is so abstract and because the day is it's sometimes difficult to track, like an hour can go by and it can feel super slow, and another hour can go by and feel super fast, it's kind of hard to you know perceive it in your head.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the planner kind of lets you see exactly what you have done in that day or what you didn't do.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the day, you can always review and say, okay, I spent three hours today scrolling on social media.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's not really good.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I said I didn't have time.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like I spent three hours scrolling.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I keep saying I don't have time for something, but I have physical proof that I did have time, I just didn't use it effectively.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I would say that's the the primary tool.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the main thing I use.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Planner, I use Pomodoro.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's really about it.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: My alarm feature.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I try to keep it as simple as possible.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I I I truly believe that time management is one of the biggest things.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I I I actually don't like the word time management.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's it's it's like life, it's more like life management and how we, you know, or or or goal management in some ways, you know, like how we actually go after our things and and what we do.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I, you know, one of the things that that I have found that has actually worked really, really well is actually using, you know, for a week or two weeks, actually just you know, doing a day sheet where you're actually tracking every little moment that you do, like so you can actually become aware, right, of what you're where you're spending your time.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, it could even be like, oh my God, I you know, like every time you pick up your phone, or you have to put you have to put it down on the calendar, right?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: You have to have to mark the time like 9 05.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: I picked up my phone, right?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, absolutely.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um you feel like, you know, you know, in your experience, you know, you know, I'd love to have you share like a success story about some, you know, a client that had started working with you and how they, you know, it changed their life.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I had a client, actually, I'll share, I'll share two because two just popped to my head.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one was from a few months ago.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: She was, I did a boot camp.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was a seven-day boot camp.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: She joined the boot camp, and one of her goals was to sort of write a book and kind of market.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: She um teaches English to Portuguese speakers.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: So she wanted to kind of market her book.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And she had been procrastinating for months at this point.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so one of the things I teach people is when you have an idea, execute on the idea as quickly as possible.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Don't procrastinate, don't linger on it, don't overthink it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: You can always course correct, but just start as quickly as possible.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Within reason, of course.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some things you can't do right away, you know, some goals are harder to get started.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but right after the boot camp, I think actually during the seven days, she wrote pretty much an entire book.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a big book, but it was she wrote like a small book, um, put it on Amazon, and I think within a week, made money from it.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now it wasn't like crazy money, it was like I think 20 or 30 dollars, but still.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Right, it's money that that it's money.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people, that's their goal is to have a business or to have some goal where they can make a side income or have a side hustle.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in days, she did it by simply it and it wasn't really complicated, she just didn't procrastinate.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's really all it came down to is she just did not procrastinate.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's one example.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, second example, just it because it popped into my head and I think it's a good um case study.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, was another guy, he was a client of mine, I think was it last year or two years ago, maybe?
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: I forget exactly when.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he had a he was kind of a freelancer and he wanted to kind of create a copywriting business.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so if I recall correctly, I think for about six months prior to being a client, he had maybe one or two clients, and that was about it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: He kind of went stagnant, and he, I'm trying to remember, I think he really just had a very long morning routine that wasn't very effective, in my opinion.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he kind of asked me, you know, what's going on?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: How do I get more clients?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: What do you recommend?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, first of all, I think your morning routine is way too long.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like he would spend the morning practicing copywriting, learning about copywriting, just doing a bunch of stuff, going to the gym for too long.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I figured I told him, what we're gonna do is instead of having that very long morning routine, just wake up.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to go to the gym, that's fine, go to the gym, and then spend the first five or six hours of the morning or four, whatever you can muster, just focusing on getting more clients because that was the thing that he wanted to do the most, is focus on getting clients.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that was coincidentally the thing he was doing the least of actively trying to get clients.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so I said, just focus on getting clients.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you know a strategy that you've used in the past that's been working, double down on it and let's see where that gets you.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I think this is around October, and he wanted to get I think two more clients by December.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: He used a strategy after a lot of me kind of being on him to get it done.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: I think within about a month, he got four or five clients.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So he exceeded his goal in with time to spare because he just sat there and focused on getting clients.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And for anyone listening who might be a copywriter, I think what his strategy was is he would go and upwork and submit I think it was um case studies of his previous work to different agencies.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: But the case studies I think each uh took about an hour or so.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um and it was very off-putting.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's not very fun for him.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the thing that's not fun is a thing that needs to be done.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: My intention was not to rhyme, but I think that's yeah, yeah.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, it's very true.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we actually you you get what you focus on, right?
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: So the more you can focus on something, if you're if your goal is X, but you're like as you said, he was not focusing on that.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: It was the thing that he was doing the least, how do you expect to get that?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not gonna it's just not gonna automatically just appear in the universe, right?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I tend to see a lot of people what they do is some people confuse action for productivity, if that makes sense.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: So like and I'm guilty of this myself.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was actually uh from personal experience when I was a I was I used to be a real estate agent and one of the things I was very guilty of is I'd go to the office, scroll online, maybe post a little bit of content, but not with any real intent, with no real strategy behind it.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um things like that.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind it felt like work, but it wasn't good quality work.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So it was essentially kind of a waste of time to a degree.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: I guess you could argue that if I kept doing it long enough, maybe something would have come from it and something probably would have.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: But really it was a form of procrastination.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't want to do the things that I knew was a lot harder.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I didn't want a door knock or I didn't want a cold call or I didn't want to do email marketing.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I did social media because it's easier to kind of just post content, post once a day and then not even once a day for me.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Once a week I just did that for you know it's it's funny I I talk to people a lot about this where you know we talk about um it's like is it busy work or what is the work?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if you can focus on busy versus income producing activities.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Income producing activities are you know picking up the phone um you know the knocking on doors right so what are those steps that you are doing you know you could even label it in your calendar and you know and your planner as income producing time yes yeah absolutely and what is that like what is that income producing time yeah what are are you are you asking me personally what my income producing time is or are you no I'm just saying in general like it but it's true like every because everybody's income producing time and it's funny it's like you know you can sit there you can go into your office you can move some papers around oh you could organize you could whatever and then you can say oh I was working today well what was your work you know what were those income producing activities what were those things that you did to actually generate income yes yeah exactly yeah I think um one thing I I find people don't do enough of too is they don't really they don't track adequately what's working correct and I think uh I I don't know I I have a lot of stories with real estate agents because I spend a lot of time with real estate agents and then in hindsight you kind of realize at least this is you know if you're a real estate agent listening to this don't feel offended but I've come in contact with a lot of real estate agents that I would argue aren't super effective with their time.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Plenty are but there's a good amount that aren't um so I I knew some real estate agents who made a good income and it was kind of interesting where I would see them sort of just maybe answering random emails that don't seem to really matter.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: They want to grow their business but they're not really actively trying to grow their business or maybe they go out for several hours and maybe they put out postcards but they didn't get to that many doors.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is something that what's a good way to put this I I think sometimes people don't really track what works best or how to leverage their time effectively.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: No my train of thought you know but you know Lenny I totally I really agree with you on this I think this is actually you know and listeners I really want you to take this because I think this is actually one of the one of the biggest things that we all can do.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And as a leader it's really important to track and know what is working whether it's it's something that you're doing with your team is it something that you're doing for your business we do I always like to say MMA we have to measure monitor and adjust like what are we doing to track you know how many calls are you making you know is it is the postcard that you're sending out how many calls is that bringing in I would uh me personally when I think about real estate agents and I you know you get those cards in the mail that say um I just sold this house no offense who what do you do right like yay congratulations to you you sold the house what do you want me to do with that information like you know are you like what is that it's almost like what is the purpose how about instead you know you send something out that talks about real estate that comes in the mail that's gonna be like oh you know that's a really interesting thing like what's the call to action so many times you get those cards it's informational but there's no call to action you don't you send it to me but how are you capturing my contact information how are you going to how are you going to then take that postcard that you just sent to me and turn that into you know a way to generate a lead if you don't know me.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: And if by the way and if you do know me why don't you pick up the phone once in a while and say hey how are you doing like I I I I I think the real estate I love real estate agents there's a lot of people out there that are absolutely amazing but it's amazing to me how many people and I'm sure you probably know this too I I do a lot of networking I actually have a networking company and there are so many real estate agents and I can't begin to tell you how many times I've given them my card.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Now ask me the next question which is how much of they have ever followed up with me there real real estate agents are notorious for never following up donut right so I mean I think that's like you know to me that's actually the other really big thing is remember like if you are you know as one of as part of that time management if you want to go like part of that time management has to be yes prospecting new business and connecting with the other people that you have met right you know and and that's it needs to go into that whole into that whole bucket um so you use a planner you're um what has been one of the things that you have done that might be you know that it's maybe a little bit different um a little bit different that is a good question I know one thing I I try my best I'll say this this is something that may be a little bit different but a lot a lot of people get mad at me for this so I I'm assuming it's different um I do not keep my phone with me when I'm working and if I have time blocked out where I'm working I don't answer my phone I don't answer text I don't answer social media pings um and this makes a lot of people I know very mad within reason of course if it's an emergency or if it's something extreme then I will answer it of course um but I've had lots of time actually a few days ago this happened a friend of mine wanted to invite me out and I'm working and I think this is about 6 p.m or something and he calls me I put it on silent or mute he calls back and I say hey I'm working that's it and he gets he got frustrated with me.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: But this happens a lot and I always say to people if I'm working I will not answer your call I'm letting you know I'm not being mean but to me work time is work time and then once the work time's done then it's time to have fun or you know do your conversation socialize whatever you want to do that's fine.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why I do this is because I found personally and there's good data to back this up as well whenever people text or call you if you answer every single time you essentially communicate to people my time is not that valuable.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's the way I perceive it I like if every time someone called or texted me I answered or engaged in a conversation I would never get anything done.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying I'm popular I'm just saying that between social media between the emails that come in between you know sometimes family or friends that just want to call and say hi I might get maybe an hour or two per day to actually really focus if I if I engage in all of that.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So if I have a four hour block set aside to work that's work time.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's all it comes down to so I I would say that's probably different than most people I don't hear too many other people do that.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly the people I know don't do it or else they would be frustrated with me.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know I think it's actually I think I you know I think that is such a again a really great tip and for something for people to to take in one of the key things that that I think is really great about that is that you and I would agree with you I think it's I think that if you always answer and you always are available then people will always think you're always available.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: But if people know like you could have an automated message that goes out after under when you're if you're in a do not disturb mode that says I am so sorry that I can't come to the phone right now, you know, please shoot me a text uh or you know but I will I return phone calls and blah blah blah right they come up with some automated message right that you can send out I also have um I actually do have and I've used this for quite some time um doing a text replacement you know so if somebody messages me messages me instead of having automated you know I can just say you know like um you know C T N can't talk now right three letters that are together can't talk now as my thing I'm sorry I can't talk now I will respond or please let me know a good time that you are available to connect tomorrow right so that you know like my time is valuable and right yeah absolutely I I think if more people did that their productivity and just the amount of things they get done in a single day I think would dramatically improve yeah um there's one thing too just really fast for anyone listening there's something called um attention residue as well this is also why I don't like typically when I'm working I besides not answering my phone I also put it face down and I put on usually on silent mode if I recall if I think to do it.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Part of that too is if people text you and you see it, you're still kind of thinking about it even when you're working.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: So your focus is kind of split up or if you go on social media even for a few minutes and you scroll and you laugh at something and get back to work.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: You work for 20 minutes, social media notification pops up you go back you're bouncing back and forth and you're constantly leaving some of your attention on whatever it is you just recently watched or viewed or replied to so you you kind of get that attention residue.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's of course if you do that too many times it's difficult to get good quality work done.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know I think that's a it's a really great reminder because I know that statistically if you keep moving your eyes away from something you're just not focused on it.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to be able to it's it's like it's like you know squirrel right oh shiny object syndrome right so we have that so that's it's very true.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: So Lenny so tell us like you know I I love what you're sharing I love the idea of of helping people with this how can people connect with you learn more about what you're doing and get more of your wisdom yeah um if anyone's interested in the business at all um they can find that at productivityaccelerator.org.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: If they go there too I also have kind of free courses on there that they can take um the most recent one there's a seven day course that we just created it kind of walks through a kind of a a system to be more productive in a week.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: If anyone wants to connect with me personally just to kind of talk about whatever or chat um online through my website's a good way you can send me an email my personal website's lennyrichardson.online and Instagram I'm on Instagram a lot when I'm not working um my Instagram is Leviticus Rich.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that'd be the probably the second best way besides email for anyone that wants to chat with me personally.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay so but if we go to your website you can go to Productivity Accelerator or your personal website Lenny Richardsononline.com uh yes lendyrichardson dot online for the person okay and then productivityaccelerator.org for the business website got it okay well we will have all of those in the show notes Lenny I just think what you are doing is really fantastic is time again as you have said we have 24 hours in a day and we need to be able to be more efficient if effective and efficient with our time and be able to focus on the right things not just everything.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes absolutely especially nowadays with all the distractions in the world right um so listeners I hope you've enjoyed and gotten some great nuggets I know I have and it's like little some really really great reminder so um if you have enjoyed this please do me a favor and hit subscribe um and also please share with your colleagues because I know I bet you have some friends and colleagues that probably could do better on their time management too.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: So please share this episode and please connect with Lenny on the socials go to his website check check everything out um and I really appreciate you listening.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: This is the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight podcast and I'm your host Jaclyn Strominger and thank you Lenny for being an amazing guest.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much Jaclyn I appreciate you for having me on thank you I'm Jaclyn Strominger and I want to thank you so much for listening to the Unstoppable Leadership Spotlight Influential Leaders and their game changing insights podcast.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you are a successful CEO, entrepreneur or leader in your industry and you have insights you would like to share, we want you to be a guest on this program.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: So please visit go.leaptiersuccess com slash podcast and if you have gotten something out of this interview and you'd like to share the episode on social media just go ahead and take a screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on social.
• 37:46
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• 38:03
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• 38:07
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• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to know more about the podcast or about leader success just go to the website leadsuccess.com or follow me, Jaclynstrominger on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram my name Jaclyn at J A C C L I N dot Strominger that's E R L M I N T E R and follow me on all the social So thank you so much for listening and remember on