Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:00):
Welcome to business and the podcast for people making it
all happen. Running a successful business completely takes over your life,
but I'm a believer that there is still room for
some ands like health, wealth, beauty, and maybe even some fashion.
On this podcast, I'll share with you what's working for
scaling my nine figure business while keeping you up to
date on the latest trends, news and fun finds. This
(00:23):
is a place for business and let's dive in. Welcome
back to business. And we are talking today about how
to get and stay focused. Once you become good at
this becomes your superpower. Most people just lose because they
have entirely lost track of what they were doing, why
they needed to do it, and create zero urgency in
(00:46):
anything in business, it is all about urgency. But you
stop feeling urgent when you just doomscroll on social media,
or you watch Too Much of Sex and the city. Listen,
I'm not immune to this. I have definitely had my
fair share of moments where I spent too much time scrolling.
I spend too much time watching reruns of television shows
(01:07):
that I've seen from the past that just make me
feel good, but I only allow myself to do those
things when I'm winning in the targets that I have,
and my ability to stay focused throughout the day is
what allows me to have those times. It's not the opposite.
I'm not not doing the things that are most important
because I'm wasting my time doing other things. But it
didn't always used to be like this, and I used
to get very distracted focusing on unimportant things, things that
(01:29):
weren't moving the business forward, things that weren't moving my
goals forward. And so this is what I've learned about
getting distractions away from myself to make the main thing
the main thing. I hope you enjoy. We are distracting
ourselves to death with social media, podcasts, TV, music and movies.
This is why you can't stay focused. I've built my
dream life because I've learned the tricks that make it
(01:51):
easier for me to get focused and ignore the distractions.
So if you feel lazy, distracted, and unfocused, these are
the five ways that you can stay focused and achieve anything.
Let's start with number one. Focus is actually a rare skill.
You see, I really do think that focus is an
actual skill. And what's great about focus being a skill,
(02:11):
you can learn how to do it. It's not something
that you magically have if you're magically born with. No,
it's a skill. In order to get better at any skill,
you have to practice. I'm just like anybody else. I
do feel pressure of distractions at work all day, but
I've learned to navigate that by protecting my time. You see,
I don't let people snag me for a random coffee.
(02:33):
I don't take unscheduled phone calls, and I avoid the
passing conversations where someone might ask to pick my brain.
I don't do any of that stuff because I recognize
that attention is my greatest resource, and most people just
give their attention away for free. All of these distractions
are only holding you back from being able to do
(02:54):
exactly what you want. If you are not further along
in life, you haven't achieved the big goals, the big
dreams that you have. You just aren't spending your time
specifically taking action to get closer to that thing. And
the challenging challenge part is this as you decide what
you want and start spending more time doing that thing,
there become more and more distractions because like anything, there
(03:14):
is so much that you don't know about the things
that you're trying to have in life. The best way
to stop spending time on TikTok is to control your
screen time. Pretend like you have a parent who really
cares about you, because a parent who really cares about
you is going to lock down your phone, is going
to make screen time so that you can't actually spend
six hours a day watching some stupid television show. So
(03:37):
act like the parent in your own life. Only allow
yourself to have ten minutes total of distraction, but you
can't spend two hours on there. You can't waste your
time getting distracted in the places that you already know.
Pull your attention off from where you're trying to go.
So the screen time settings on your phone is your
new best friend. Remember that all of these distractions will
only hold you back from being mentally strong. And being
(04:00):
mentally strong is the biggest asset that you can have
in your life and your career. I like to think
of focus as a multiplier. You actually do less but
create more value. Next is one of the most important ones.
You have to shift your mindset. You're not lazy, you're
just overwhelmed and distracted. There is nothing more important in
(04:21):
life than figuring out how to set up an environment
that is conducive to get you to where you want
to go. 35 minutes ago, I had a coaching conversation
with a client who came into my office and she
was telling me all about this team member that works
in her business, and she's so frustrated by this team
member because she literally works in the same office as her.
The team member is a drainer. She doesn't want to
(04:41):
do anything that the company is rolling out that's new
and exciting and creating growth. And she's just a problem.
And I said, if you already know that this person
is a problem, do not continue to spend your time
around her. And this business owner kept pushing back and
pushing back and pushing back on me, saying, oh, but
we inherited her when we acquired this business and all
of the existing customers love her. And I actually had
(05:03):
to bring her with me to this event that you
guys are hosting. So she's downstairs while I'm doing this
coaching call with you upstairs. And I was like, wait,
stop the madness. This is your environment. I don't care
if you're a business owner. You're a team member, you're
a mom, you're a dad, you're a daughter. Wherever you
are is your environment. You are a part of the
space that you are in. So if you are at
(05:25):
such an effect point that you don't even feel like
you can control your desk space or your room or
your home environment, how on earth are you going to
control anything that's bigger than that? You're always going to
feel like you're in effect if you're distracted because your
phone keeps going off. Turn off your notifications. If you're
distracted because your friend invites you to a happy hour.
Ask yourself, am I in control of my environment? Or
(05:47):
is my friend in control of my environment? If you
want to be extraordinary with any goal that you have,
you can't operate as if you're ordinary. You are going
to have to say no to a lot of happy hours.
You're going to have to say no to a lot
of notifications. You might not be up to date on
latest TikTok trends or all the things that your friends
are talking about. That is okay as long as you
are getting to where you're trying to go, and if
(06:09):
you are resistant to controlling your environment. I would just
ask you this. Are you proud of how close you
are to hitting your targets? Because if you're not proud,
it's just a simple fix before you go trying to
save the world. Take the first step of controlling the
distractions inside your own environment. Next, you have to get
clarity on your priorities. It's easy to get stuck in
(06:30):
this multitasking trap, but oftentimes when you're multitasking, you're doing
all of the unimportant shit. And what you forego is
doing the things that actually matter and the things that
drive value. Because if you're going to work on something
that takes energy and focus and effort, you have to
make progress on that thing at that moment in time
and give all of your energy and attention to it.
(06:52):
So people who say that they're busy and they have
so much stuff to do, but aren't actually getting closer,
are actually just distracted by all the things that they
have to do. And I only say this from a
place of me getting caught in this trap for many,
many years where I would just add and add and
add things to my to do list. And because the
to do list became so long, I would then try
(07:12):
to do all of these things on top of each other.
And sure, I was checking the box off of something
and that was a nice little dopamine hit, but I
wasn't making real progress towards the goals that matter. So
I reduced the to do list and I said I'm
going to focus and prioritize. I'm doing one thing and
I'm going to complete that thing, and I'm not going
to stop until I get that thing done. I take
(07:32):
this exact same approach today when I'm trying to move
a business forward. I only look at every single thing
that happens inside that business, and I'm not going to
go off of solving that problem until there is a solution.
I don't care what time of the day it is,
I'm going to solve that problem fully. But part of
the distraction trap is thinking that you can do so
many things at once. Limit the scope, get the priorities straight,
(07:55):
and only go after the things that are most important
and don't do anything else. You're likely not lacking time.
You're lacking a clear understanding of what your priorities actually are.
And if you're struggling with this, just remove the decision
fatigue and stop multitasking. Number four is next. It is
time to reclaim your focus. First up is you audit
(08:16):
where you're spending your time today. Look at exactly where
every single minute is going to be spent for the
next 24 hours. And if there's anything on there that
isn't getting you closer to your goals, we remove it.
And what's funny about looking at your time and doing
this little audit is you're going to very quickly see
that there are many things that aren't on your list
that you're supposed to be doing today that are actually
(08:38):
the most important things, and that your day is filled
with a whole bunch of crap that isn't going to
move you closer to your goals. Once you've decided that
you're going to do something, you do not go to
bed until you've finished that task. You protect your time.
If someone calls you, you don't pick up. If somebody
sends you a bunch of text messages, you do not respond.
If you decide, oh, I really want to scroll on
social media, don't do it. If it doesn't improve my relationships,
(08:59):
make me wealthier, or improve my health in some way,
I'm absolutely not doing it. But then each and every
day I get to figure out out of those three things,
what is the most important. And to be honest with you,
most days the most important thing for me is to
increase my wealth. I spend the majority of my time
only doing things that allow my wealth to continue to grow.
So this idea of creating something that I'm proud of
(09:20):
in my career actually impacts how I show up in
my relationships. So that's why it's so important to me,
because I know what I'm capable of. And if you
two know what you're capable of and you're not doing
things that are in alignment with your potential, you're gonna
feel like crap. And I don't want to feel like crap.
And if I do feel like crap, it's gonna end
up bleeding over to my relationships. So instead of putting
it on them, I figure out what I need to
(09:42):
do to be the best version of myself, and I
prioritize those things. Starting with this framework of audit, decide
protect is one of the easiest ways to see what's
actually blocking you from staying focused. Remember that reclaiming your
focus is a step by step process. Follow the framework
in this order to get focused and then be consistent
(10:05):
with it through boundaries and systems that you create, so
that you can keep your focus on the most important things.
Last up is number five, which is that you have
to live by your boundaries. I like to say no
all the time, especially when I'm at work. I consistently
say no to meetings that don't make sense, to reactive tasks,
(10:25):
to phone calls that aren't helpful, and especially doom scrolling
on social media. You see, saying no is your superpower
because if you can't learn how to say no, you're
gonna end up meeting everybody else's expectations and never getting
the things that matter to you. Handled. A lot of
people think that you need to do more, but you
actually just need real boundaries. And if those boundaries are
(10:48):
in place and you use your time for the things
that matter, all of a sudden you're actually doing less
because you're doing more of the things that create value.
And for me, I recognize that my calendar is the
real representation of my boundaries. When was the last time
you looked at your calendar to understand where your focus,
where your time, and where your attention is going? If
something is important to you, you would have to be
(11:11):
making time for it. You can't say that your kids
are important to you and never spend time with your kids.
You can't say that making money is important to you,
and you never spend any time trying to figure out
how to make money. You can't say that your health
is important to you if you eat like garbage every
single day. Now, I guess technically you can say that
those things are important, but they aren't actually important to you.
Where are you? Spend your time is an indication of
(11:33):
what matters to you. So when it comes to distractions,
you can limit your distractions by just recognizing that the
way that you spend your time is either getting you closer,
or keeping you further away from achieving your targets. Do
the things that matter first. Everything else might never get done,
and it might never get done forever. That is okay.
But if the most important things get done, you're gonna
(11:54):
be proud of the work and the time and the
energy that you invested in getting closer to where you're
trying to go. So use your calendar to put those
things as the first thing. Don't put the most important
things at the end of the day, put them at
the beginning of the day. I was talking to a
business owner just a couple of weeks ago, and he
was saying that he just gets pummeled by problems all day,
every day. So by the time that he gets to
(12:14):
the end of his day where he's supposed to promote
his business, he is just wiped. And I was like,
let's just flip that, put the promotion of your business
as the first thing that you do. Nobody gets to
talk to you until 10:00 in the morning, because you're
gonna spend the first two hours promoting your business, then
deal with all the problems from ten on. It's totally fine.
Nothing wrong with that. But don't put the most important
thing at the end, because it's very likely that you're
(12:36):
not going to do it. And that's the exact trap
that he's fallen into. But now all of a sudden,
he's flipping it upside down. These were the five ways
to get and stay focused, and to take the first
step to building your dream life without any distractions.
S2 (12:48):
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(13:08):
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