April 9, 2025 • 35 mins
Sponsored by Paubox: Use code ABUNDANT to get $250 off your first year
Learn more about today's guest here: https://www.abundancepracticebuilding.com/blog.
To check out our free resources, including weekly worksheets & our Tasky Checklist, visit https://www.abundancepracticebuilding.com/links. Learn how to fill your practice with the Abundance Party! Join today & get 75% off your first month with promo code PODCAST: https://www.abundancepracticebuilding.com/abundanceparty
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast.
I'm Allison from Abundance Practice Building.
I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping
therapists build sustainable, joy-filled private practices, just
like I've done for tens of thousands of
therapists across the world.
I'm excited to help you, too.
If you want to fill your practice with
ideal clients, we have loads of free resources
(00:29):
and paid support.
Go to abundancepracticebuilding.com slash links.
All right, on to the show.
So I've talked about therapy notes on here
for years.
I could talk about the features and the
benefits in my sleep, but there are a
couple of things I want you to know
about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it
into an ad script.
First is that they actually care if you
(00:50):
like their platform.
They don't only make themselves available on the
phone to troubleshoot so you don't pull your
hair out when you get stuck.
They also take member suggestions and implement those
that there's client demand for, like therapy search
and included listing service that helps clients find
you, internal and external secure messaging, clinical outcome
measures to keep an eye on how your
clients are progressing, a super smooth super bill
(01:12):
process, real-time eligibility to check on your
client's insurance.
In my conversations with the employees there at
all levels, they all really believe in their
product and they want you to love it
too.
Second, they are proudly independently owned.
Why should you care about that?
Because as soon as venture capital becomes involved,
the focus shifts from making customers happy to
(01:33):
making investors happy.
Prices go way up, innovation plateaus, making more
money with as little output as possible becomes
the number one focus.
With over a hundred thousand therapists using their
platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful
and they don't have to sacrifice your experience
to stay there.
You can try two months free at therapynotes
(01:53):
.com with the coupon code abundant.
Some of y'all aren't sending HIPAA compliant
email and it's a problem.
Even if you're paying for a business Google
Workspace account and have a signed BAA, your
emails still aren't a hundred percent compliant.
That's where Powerbox comes in.
You can connect Powerbox to your Google Workspace
or Microsoft 365 email one time and you're
(02:16):
completely covered.
No one has to sign into portals.
It sends and it shows up like any
other email.
Behind the scenes, Powerbox software checks the security
settings of the recipient and ensures that the
email is sent properly so you're not violating
HIPAA in the ways you may accidentally be
now.
I know HIPAA isn't sexy, but we don't
avoid compliance in an abundant practice.
We check the boxes we need to check
(02:37):
and this is the easiest way to do
that with email.
Check out my friends at powerbox.com.
That's P-A-U-B-O-X.
Use code Abundant to get $250 off your
first year of Powerbox.
That makes it less than a hundred dollars
for your first year.
Again, that's P-A-U-B-O-X
.com.
Use code Abundant.
(03:00):
Welcome back to the Abundant Practice Podcast.
I'm your host, Allison Pereer, founder of AbundancePracticeBuilding
.com and I'm here with Daniel Woodrum.
He's the head coach over at Early to
Rise.
He has been a coach of mine for,
gosh, since I think 2021 or something.
And Daniel and another mentor of mine, Craig
(03:20):
Ballantyne, have just written a book that I
think is going to be really instrumental in
helping you all get the things done that
you need to get done and making sure
that you are as efficient, as effective, as
humanly possible.
So I invited Daniel on here because I
really, really want y'all to know this
stuff.
So thanks so much for being here, Daniel.
Thanks, Allison.
I'm excited for the opportunity.
(03:40):
And yes, I mean, it's been, I think,
three years now that we've been, you know,
working together and it's been amazing to see
your journey.
And I'm excited to pay it forward and
share some of the things that we're working
on right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let's talk some about discipline.
I'm going to put an asterisk for the
people who just cringed or had some sort
of reaction to that word.
(04:00):
I think as therapists, we can give our
feelings a lot of credit and a lot
of agency.
And I think I also have a lot
of neurodivergent folks that listen.
And so it's not always as simple as
make yourself do the thing.
So for those folks, I want to be
really clear.
This is not the conversation on discipline or
(04:21):
disciplining children.
This is not that conversation.
I want you to listen to this so
that getting things done will be easier for
you.
So let's talk about discipline.
That long caveat.
Yeah.
And I'm glad you said that, Allison, because
I think most people associate discipline with pain
and suffering because that's sort of a lot
(04:41):
of what we were brought up with from
our parents.
And one of the things that we say
that's really the key essence of the book
is that our definition of discipline is putting
a level 10 out of 10 effort and
focus and energy into your level 10 out
of 10 problem.
Whether that's a personal problem in your life,
it could be finances, it could be relationship,
(05:03):
it could be a bad habit or addiction
that you have.
It could be business related.
Maybe it's a team member or maybe you're
struggling financially in your business.
And so putting a 10 out of 10
effort into your 10 out of 10 problem
or opportunity to us is really the only
definition of discipline that truly matters.
And I don't think anyone's ever really talked
(05:23):
about that before.
And we've realized through just all the experience
that we've had personally and then coaching others
is that really is the only way to
get ultimate success and fulfillment and happiness in
your life.
Yeah.
And it's been one of the things that
y'all have coached me on that's made
the biggest difference in my life and my
business and all of it.
Because often when things are not going so
(05:45):
well in an area, we want to put
our heads in sand.
And I love that story Craig tells about
speaking to gym owners.
Will you tell that?
Yes.
Yes.
So Craig and I both kind of come
from the health and wellness space.
So this is the story that we share
in the book and we talk a lot
about is that there used to be this
big conference every year called the Fitness Business
Summit.
(06:05):
It was hosted by a guy named Badgers
Cooley, who I know you know, Alice, you've
heard him speak before.
One of the bigger fitness conferences, and it
was like a thousand people every single year.
And Badgers ran the same for like eight
or 10 years.
And we always say that, you know, there'd
be a thousand fitness professional gym owners show
up every single year.
And you know, one year they would be
8% body fat and then $8 in
(06:25):
the bank account.
And the whole idea of the event was
to help people grow their fitness business and
make more money, have more of an impact.
And in between all of the presentations, the
sessions, all these network breakout things, and, you
know, in the hallways, all these trainers and
gym owners and fitness professionals, all they wanted
to talk about was the latest nutrition, you
know, hacks and exercise strategies and all these
(06:46):
latest, you know, apps and all these things.
And so we joke the next year they
would come back and they would be 7
% body fat.
They were even in better shape, but they
had $7 in the bank account.
And so we say that they were putting
a level 10 out of 10 effort into
a level one out of 10 problem.
They were already in amazing shape.
They didn't need to get in better shape,
but they were putting a level one out
of 10 problem into their one out of
(07:08):
10 effort in their 10 out of 10
problem, which is trying to actually grow their
business, make more money, make more of an
impact.
And so that's the story that we share
that I think a lot of people kind
of laugh at, but resonates, I'm sure, in
many people's life.
Yeah.
I mean, because we all do this to
some extent, right?
We all have things we're probably actively avoiding
in either our business or our lives that
(07:29):
continue.
I mean, I'm thinking about it will take
me 15 minutes to get the things to
my accountant that he needs, like 15 minutes.
I can put my hands on most of
it and I just keep not doing it.
And I do this every single year.
It's so simple and easy.
And it's something I think about in the
middle of the night.
I'm like, oh God, I was going to
do that today.
(07:49):
And I didn't abide by my schedule, which
you know, I'm really good about abiding by
my schedule, but that's one thing I just
kind of avoid.
And I'm glad you said that because like,
obviously those are some extreme examples, but to
kind of go to your point, my eyesight
is not great.
It gets worse and worse every year.
And I continue to put off just making
an appointment for the eye doctor.
Like I know I need to book, I
(08:11):
know I need to book an appointment, but
it's like that inevitable, like, well, I don't
want to have to do it.
And I don't want to forget, you know,
contacts or glasses.
I'm going to keep procrastinating and putting it
off.
And it's like the stupidest thing when you
think about it.
And what I needed to do was I
needed to have a good friend of mine
hold me accountable.
And so he said, Dana, I'm going to
meet you at Starbucks in the morning time,
which I'm sure we can talk about else
in my kind of scene.
(08:32):
But he met me at Starbucks one early
morning.
This was just last week.
And he essentially forced me, held me accountable
to book an appointment.
And so I have an appointment booked, you
know, for April.
I had to book it a few weeks
out, but like, I feel, I didn't realize
how much stress and burden I was carrying
myself by not doing this until I did.
I was like, oh my God.
I just felt like this sense of release
all of a sudden.
And so sometimes it's these small things that
(08:53):
we keep putting off and they just compound
to get bigger and bigger and bigger and
more stressful, more stressful when you could have
just taken five minutes to do it.
And it would have been over with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like life is hard enough, really like
these little stupid things that we could do
super quickly.
This just adds to the things that are
actually problems.
Yeah.
And if we can get these off, then
(09:13):
we have more mental space and clarity and
less burden.
Yeah.
It's like the whole week, you know, you,
you might've heard this phrase before.
And Craig talks a lot about is like
death by a thousand cuts.
You know, it's these little things that just
add up compound, but you know, on a
larger scale, they end up causing a lot
of stress, a lot of headache, a lot
of frustration, lost time, lost money, whatever it
(09:33):
may be.
When you could just simply either do them
or have somebody else do them for you
or eliminate them altogether.
And you're going to have so much more
freedom and headspace and mental energy.
Absolutely.
Can we talk about the standards?
Yes, I would love to.
Yes.
Yeah.
So there is this concept of standards and
how this sort of came about was I
(09:56):
was at an event as actually a fitness
business.
Some of the band I talked about earlier,
this is a few years ago.
And my Latin, some of your audience might
know is a really popular motivational speaker and
a business guy.
And he came out on stage and he
was saying, he's like, I always think about
death.
And he's like, I think about death, not
in the sense of like a morbid way,
but he's like, he used it as inspiration
perspective.
(10:16):
He said, because I think about, you know,
when I die and, you know, he's Christian
obviously, when I go to heaven and I
meet my maker, he's like, I know that
God's going to look at me and say
like, Ed, this was the man, the husband,
the businessman that I made you to be.
These are the amount of people that you
could impact.
But as you stand here before me today,
this is what you became.
Like this was the potential that you reach.
And he's like, I want to be as
(10:37):
close to that full potential as possible.
And he talked about in that, in that
presentation about how standard, like how to live
a life of high standards.
And I was like, wow, that is so
powerful.
But at the time I was not a
parent yet.
I didn't fully understand it.
And as I became a parent and I
realized the importance of having, having standards and
what is most important to me in my
life, right?
(10:57):
What is my definition of success?
What is my definition of impact?
What is my values and my vision?
And when I realized that I was like,
wow, like this is a really, really powerful
concept because to me, discipline is what you
do.
Standards are who you are.
It's like your identity.
It's what we call non-negotiables or rules
of your life.
Now, the problem is that if you don't
(11:18):
identify your own personal standards, you're going to
try and chase other people's standards, other people's
success.
And that is a very dangerous game of
the comparison syndrome that I, I fell victim
to for many, many years, because when you
don't have standards, we don't have a North
star.
You try to live other people's life.
You chase their North star, you chase their
standards and you're never going to win that
(11:38):
game because the rules are always changing.
And it's not your actual path.
It's not your road to success.
And so I created this system in order
to identify your standards, because you probably hear
a lot of times people say, live a
lot, live a life of higher standards.
Like, well, okay, what, how I show me
how to do that.
And so the way that I've, I've kind
of created a system, Allison is, I want
you to think about what are the four
(11:59):
most important areas of your life?
Like what are the four areas of your
life that mean the most to you?
And just as an example, not to copy,
just the example for me, it is family,
it is health, it is discipline, and it
is leadership.
Like those are the areas that are most
important to me.
So when you identify your, your four most
important areas, then what I want you to
(12:21):
do is I want you to write out
a mission statement, some sort of mission statement
or statement on, on why that is most
important to you.
So for me, it's family for family.
For example, my mission statement is family comes
before everything.
They are the most important thing in my
life.
You're going to create a mission statement for
each of your standards.
And then what you're going to do is
you're going to create three personal standards for
(12:42):
each of those four categories.
And so in totality, you're going to have
12 personal standards that you were going to
try to live your life by.
Those become your rules of your life, your
non-negotiables.
All right.
So for example, like if I have a
standard, I don't take any coaching calls or
appointments after 4 p.m. because from four
until seven 30, I have three young kids.
(13:04):
We put them down about seven 39, between
four and seven, four and seven 30.
That is my family time.
So if someone says, Hey, Daniel, like, can
you do an appointment?
Can we do a meeting at four, four
35?
Nope.
It's a standard where if it didn't have
that standard in place, I would negotiate with
myself.
I would break that.
And I would then that would bleed into
my family time.
So it's a really, really powerful system.
(13:24):
And it takes some time for you to
really sit down and identify those.
But when you do, again, you have more
fulfillment, you're going to have more success, more
happiness, and ultimately you're going to be in
your path of success and not worrying about
chasing other people's definition of success.
What I also love as somebody who has
had too many standards is that it's four.
It's like four categories.
(13:47):
I mean, like a standard I've had for
myself since I was in my twenties.
And this is maybe being raised by a
Southern woman who was raised by a Southern
woman.
I want my house to be ready for
company within 15 minutes.
Yeah.
I never want my house to get messy
enough that it would take me more than
15 minutes to get it ready for company.
I love that.
I love, but also when you have three
(14:09):
businesses and two kids and a partner, and
one of your kids has health issues.
Yeah.
That was one I had to let go
of.
Now it might take me 30 minutes or
two of us, 30 minutes to get it
right.
Yep.
And I still get anxiety when I look
around.
I'm like, Oh, there's clutter, but there are
certain standards we might need to let go
of as lives change, as situations change.
(14:30):
And I think setting it was like being
really clear on what now, right now, what
are your top four things with the understanding
that that changes before you had kids, you
and Brittany, I'm sure like family was still
on there, but it's on there.
It's a bigger part of that pie.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes.
No, that, that is very, that's a good
point.
A lot of people say, well, and you
(14:51):
know, it's like, yes, your standards are not
going to change much, but as your life
changes, as season changes, you should always audit
your standards and audit the four areas that
are most important to you.
And yes, if the season changes or life
events happen and you need to change that
and absolutely change that.
But in general, like, you know, if you're
a vegan or if you don't swear, you
don't drink alcohol and more than likely that
stuff is going to stay consistent for your
(15:12):
entire life.
But some of those will change.
Like you said, as you, as you have
kids, as you evolve and things like that.
Yeah.
And some things like, I don't drink alcohol.
I haven't had alcohol since 2019.
Like I don't even need to write that
down because it's just so set in stone
for me that I can then devote that
space to something else.
Yes.
Yes.
And another thing too, is the key, you
know, people might say like, one of my
(15:33):
standards is, is the exercise every single day.
And you might think yourself, well, Daniel, you
told me earlier that discipline is putting a
10 out of 10 effort into a 10
out of 10 problem.
Like if health is not a problem, why
are you still doing that?
Well, it's not discipline.
That's a standard.
That's just a non-negotiable.
So that's really what difference is.
Again, discipline is what you do.
Standards are just, they're who you are.
Right.
Which for therapists listening, like we're talking about
(15:53):
values, right?
Like your values are what drive your standards.
And then your discipline is how you fulfill
those standards.
Yes, absolutely.
And another thing we talk a lot about
in the book is, is you need systems
as well.
Like you cannot just rely because a lot
of times discipline is still reliant on willpower
and motivation, which is always fleeting.
(16:13):
You know, there's always external factors with that,
whether it's your mood, your stress, your energy
levels, the weather, there's so many different things
with that.
But when you have systems in place, it
helps make success automatic.
It helps make action automatic.
So like for me, for example, is I,
one of the, I have a lot of
different systems that I, that I follow that
(16:34):
I, that I use.
But one of the things that I do
is in order to get up in the
morning time, very consistently every single morning, I
have a system where the night before I
will go ahead and lay out my clothes
and I will go and pick out my
clothes.
I'll put them in the bathroom or bathroom
sink.
That way it's done.
I have my computer bag packed.
I have my water bottle packed.
I then will turn my alarm on, put
(16:55):
my phone across the room and plug it
up.
So that way my alarm goes off.
I have to get up out of bed
to turn it off.
And I'm, you know, it's tempting to just
roll over if it's right there by your
bed and hit the snooze button.
And then also I have a very clear,
like a three minute routine that I do
in the morning time.
So like that is a system for me
where I know that that way, if I
don't do that, I'm going to be more
tempted to hit the snooze button, talk myself
(17:15):
into sleeping more or not doing what I
need to do in order to start my
morning, which is very important to me so
I can get things done and then get
back and spend time with my kids and
get in the school in the morning time.
It takes the drama out of it too.
Yes.
Right.
Because the thing I struggle with when I
feel like I'm struggling with discipline is I'm
trying to use willpower, which I've used up
hours before, like my, my cache of willpower
(17:38):
for the day.
I'm trying to use willpower to do something
I maybe don't want to do.
So I'm talking myself into it and I'm
talking myself out to it and I'm going
back and forth.
When if you just take the action and
you just make it happen, it just takes
the drama out of it and it's done.
It does.
Yep.
And I mean, you get up extraordinarily early,
like you're up and at Starbucks at four
(18:00):
30 with your three minute routine.
Yes.
Yes.
And I tell people like, I, I, I'm
very, like, I don't normally tell people when
most people know when I wake up, if
you follow me, like in this room, if
you know, if you know me, like you
do, I'll say, cause I mean, it's very
consistent every day, but I, you know, I
made a video on Instagram the other day
that I was like, this is really good
as it, it doesn't matter what time you
wake up in the morning.
(18:20):
Like there's nothing magical about 5m club, 6am,
7am.
It doesn't matter because if you get up,
if you waste an hour scrolling on your
phone and you're, you're just kind of laying
around, you're not doing things that are important
to you in the morning time, whether that's
work, family, exercise, whatever your definition of success
in the morning time, if you're not doing
that, then it doesn't matter what time you
wake up.
So to me, it's more about like the
(18:41):
consistency of trying to wake up at the
same time, every single day to the best
of your ability, and then having some sort
of morning routine that is consistent.
So whenever it's important to you first thing
in the morning, you can take action on
that.
You had the systems in place.
So again, it's just more automatic.
And the more that you can stack those
wins up, the easier it becomes.
Like one of my favorite things is compliance
breeds confidence.
(19:01):
And so the more compliance you can have,
the more you can kind of stack those
wins.
Doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect, but to
me, discipline is not about being perfect or
all these winning streaks.
It's like, Hey, if you mess up, if
you have a bad day, if you have
a bad week, you're able to get back
on track.
And to me, that's the ultimate definition of
discipline.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so in the dark side of discipline,
(19:22):
you and Craig are talking about, I'm assuming
standards and values.
And can you talk some about some systems
that have been helpful?
Like you shared yours for getting up, but
what's something that y'all have helped your
coaching clients with that you feel like most
people might be able to benefit from?
Yeah, absolutely.
So one of the systems that we have
is that we have this thing called non
(19:44):
-urgent important work, which is a system in
the morning time, which I know you, you,
is that, you know, a lot of times,
again, we wake up, you know, as, as
business owners, therapists, whatever it may be.
And you wake up and you immediately go
into reaction mode.
You know what I mean?
Like you're doing a long to-do list,
or if you're replying back to client emails
or your team member emails or messages, and
(20:05):
you just wake up and you wake up
in that heightened stress, right?
And you wake up and you're just reacting.
You're not actually like blocking time.
You're not having productive time.
So one thing that we talk about is
new, we call it new work.
It's non-urgent important work.
So non-urgent important work are things that
are not urgent.
They don't need to be done right now,
but they are important for the long, long
(20:26):
-term success of your business.
And that could be anything from like creating
new programs or marketing, or maybe it's something
personal.
Maybe it's like, you need to get taxes
done.
Now I know it's urgent right now when
we're doing this, but maybe it's taxes.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, they're not due for a
while, but they're not urgent.
But the longer you put them off, the
more urgent they become.
But it's important to get those things done.
So if you could just dedicate 30 minutes
(20:48):
into the non-urgent important work every single
day, you're going to be able to make
a lot more success in your business and
really work on your business and not in
your business.
Because as we know, as the day starts
and if you start seeing clients, whether it's
in person or virtually, again, it's just a
lot of client facing, a lot of urgent.
There's a lot more to put out and
(21:08):
you have less control, but you have a
lot more control and usually more creativity, more
energy first thing in the morning.
So if you could just do that as
one system that I promise you will impact
your business.
And so for therapists, I'm thinking y'all
could be doing like content creation during that
time.
That's when I, when y'all read my
newsletter, when you, most of my social media
(21:30):
posts, captions, those kinds of things are typically
written at five in the morning because I
will say my brain, I'm a morning person.
You might not be.
So don't whoever's listening.
Don't feel like 5 a.m. It's not
the magic time.
For me, the morning, my brain is freshest.
I can get hours of work done in
a shorter period of time because my brain
is like, I'm just less distracted and it's
(21:51):
fresher.
Yes.
And I don't think this is based on
facts, but you know, sometimes you say it
so much, like this is factual, like you're
five times more productive in the morning time
than you are any other time of the
day.
You know, I mean two hours in the
morning time could be really worth like 10
hours, you know what I mean?
Because those same things in the afternoon or
in the evening time, typically you're not going
(22:11):
to be nearly as focused and as productive.
So if you can just leverage, like you
said, even if you're not a morning person,
maybe it's not five o'clock, maybe it's
eight o'clock in the morning, maybe it's
10 o'clock in the morning, you know,
but if you can just leverage those early
hours when you do wake up, oh my
gosh, it's an absolute game changer.
Yeah.
Can we talk about there's a thing you
need to do.
You don't want to do it.
(22:32):
I know my audience is like, yeah, this
sounds great.
And I can, it, it it's called values
and it's called standards and it's called discipline,
but it also kind of smells like willpower.
So can we talk about how to get
yourself to do the thing?
Like we've talked some about systems.
Yeah.
We've talked some about accountability.
Maybe we could go into that a bit
more, but how to get knock stuff out.
(22:55):
Yeah.
I mean, I think that the couple things
are make it as easy as possible.
We say like grease, the groove, like how
can you make it as easy as possible?
So for, I mean, just again, for example,
let's say that you are launching a new
program and you need to do some marketing
that requires a lot of copywriting.
And maybe you just keep putting off like,
oh, like every morning I wake up and
I tell myself I'm going to do it.
I just don't do it.
(23:16):
I keep putting it off.
What can you do like the day or
the night before to make it easier for
you?
Well, what if I could just, you know,
what if I could just make five the
night before on a piece of paper or
on a Google doc that way to wake
up in the morning, I've kind of got
a guide and there's less things I need
to think about.
I can just start taking action.
So how can you make it easier?
That's one thing.
(23:37):
Also like a lot of times we have
this big project.
We look at the start and the finish,
and that can just seem so overwhelming.
Like just say, okay, how did I get
to point A to point B?
Like what, what is, what can I do
for the next 15 minutes?
That's just going to at least get me
started.
Cause a lot of times the hardest part
is getting started.
You know, what can I do to just
get started?
Get some momentum, set a timer for 15
(23:57):
minutes, just work on it.
And after the 15 minutes, if you're like,
Hey, I'm in the flow, I'm going to
keep going.
Great.
But if you're like, Oh, I'm done with
this for a while, for a while until
tomorrow, at least you got 15 minutes done.
So that's one thing.
Another thing I would say, and then you
mentioned accountability, Alison, that is to me, the
biggest thing we always say, you'll move mountains.
If you have accountability, you want to find
people that you deeply do not want to
(24:19):
disappoint.
Okay.
Like accountability is not pretty equal across the
board.
Like there could be, you'd have somebody, I
don't know, a neighbor or maybe a friend
who you care about, but you don't really
care if you let them down.
You're not, they're not going to help you
move mountains.
But if there is truly somebody, whether it's
a mentor or a colleague or significant other,
it could be anybody, a pastor, whatever it
(24:39):
is that, you know, you deeply do not
want to disappoint.
If you tell them what you, what you
want to do, what you're looking to accomplish
and how they specifically hold you accountable.
And then you do that.
You're going to move mountains.
You really are.
Just to give example, like I, um, this
was just not too long ago.
I found myself, I was on my settings
(25:00):
on my phone, looking for something else.
And I realized like, Oh my God, I
am averaging four and a half hours on
my phone.
Like it was like a smack in the
face.
Like I didn't realize I was on my
phone that much.
And it kind of broke it down as
you guys know of what you're spending time
on a lot of the social media, YouTube,
internet, all these things.
And I was like, okay, like, no wonder
I've just felt stressed and not as productive.
Even this disciplined guy, like we can all
fall in bad habits, bad patterns.
(25:21):
I'm like, okay, like I need to significantly
cut this.
I need to get it down to like
two hours under two hours a day.
And it's like, okay, so here's how I'm
going to do this.
So I created a system for it.
And then I'm like, okay, well now I
need people who are going to hold me
accountable.
Cause if I just rely on willpower and
if I just try to do it myself,
I'll let myself down every day of the
week, unfortunately, you know?
So I'm like, all right, who can I
do that?
(25:41):
So there's three people on our team who,
you know, Alison, Shannon, Galow, and Gavin, they're
coaches on our team.
I deeply not want to disappoint them.
I respect them a lot.
I don't want to be a hypocrite as
head of coaching.
And you know, like that would be hypocritical
of me.
So then, hey guys, over the next 21
days, here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm going to take a screenshot of my
phone at 7 PM and I'm going to
(26:01):
text it to you guys in this WhatsApp
group.
And you don't need to say anything.
I'm just doing this for accountability.
Okay.
My goal is to keep under two hours.
I did that for three weeks.
I think one day I missed it, but
all the other days I was in the
two hours.
And after that, I created a habit.
I had systems in place.
I didn't need them so much more for
accountability.
So I know that's a long winded answer,
but that really is the power of accountability.
(26:23):
And if you're procrastinating something, just make it
as easy as possible.
Don't worry about all the steps, just what's
the next best step that I can take.
And that's how it built compliance.
Yeah.
I love that.
And I think about the, the not wanting
to disappoint people.
We see this dynamic, my limitless practice program,
which is for therapists who are full, they're
making big changes in their practice.
(26:44):
They're trying not to blow their business up
on the way they're trying to make it
like the thing that they meant to create
on the front end, but it just got
away from them.
We do accountability emails in there every week,
in addition to our weekly group calls and
their one-on-ones.
And so I'm asking them about those things.
Like, how did that go last week?
(27:04):
You said you were going to do X,
Y, and Z.
How did it go?
And they know I'm going to ask them.
And most people don't expect that an email
is going to be like a super impactful
part of a program, but having that weekly
email relationship where they know, like, I might,
I might not call them out in front
of the whole group, depending on the thing.
I also might, um, but I'm definitely going
(27:25):
to call them on something in the email.
Yeah.
People, when they're graduating from the program are
like those emails, man, those were incredible because
it just helped people chug along and do
those things that were annoying.
And maybe they had some resistance to, because
they didn't want to disappoint me.
And they knew that I would ask them
about it.
(27:46):
Yeah.
And I mean, you're spot on.
Like we, I mean, we will work with
anyone from six figure business.
We were people like nine figure businesses and
they all pretty much say like, you know,
accountability is the number one factor that, that
I appreciate for this program.
You know, we do marketing and sales and
leadership and all these other things, but it's
like the accountability is really what is the
biggest difference.
So I couldn't agree with you more there.
(28:08):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What other pieces are important for people to
be able to not just rely on praying
willpower.
Yeah.
So another thing too is identity.
Like, so let me also real quick, break
it down.
We had this, we had this pyramid in
the book that we talk about the pyramid
of peak performance is there's different layers to
it.
And the very top is motivation, which is
(28:29):
actually the least important.
Okay.
Again, it's leading it's external factors.
The next one is under that as challenges.
So, you know, you guys have probably seen
a lot of these challenges online of, of
like different fitness challenges, health challenges, sales challenges,
relationship challenges, all these things.
And the problem with that is that these
challenges that other people create, that's their definition
(28:50):
of success.
You know, but it like working out twice
a day, you know, like reading 10 pages
a day and all these things like, okay,
that's great.
But like, what, how does that make you
disciplined?
How does that make you successful?
That's just their idea of success, you know?
So we do believe that motivation can be
a factor if it's done correctly.
If it's, if it's paired with action right
(29:10):
away, of course, motivation and challenges can be
okay, but you should like a custom challenge.
For example, when I realized that I was
on my phone four and a half hours,
I created that challenge.
It's actually a challenge for myself, but it
was a custom challenge.
It was what I wanted.
It was what I needed, not what somebody
else wanted, not what someone else needed.
So if you find yourself tagging along and
all these different kinds of challenges online, just
(29:32):
be mindful, like, okay, is this challenge really
something that I want?
Is it something I need?
If the answer is yes, by all means
do it.
But if not, how can you take some
of those concepts, but apply it and customize
it more for what you want, what you
need.
Okay, so we got motivation.
We have challenges.
Then we have discipline, which we've talked about.
Then we have systems, which we've already talked
about.
(29:52):
And then the next layer right before standard
is identity.
And you know, really when it comes down
to identity, it's
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, welcome to the Abundant Practice Podcast.
I'm Allison from Abundance Practice Building.
I have a nearly diagnosable obsession with helping
therapists build sustainable, joy-filled private practices, just
like I've done for tens of thousands of
therapists across the world.
I'm excited to help you, too.
If you want to fill your practice with
ideal clients, we have loads of free resources
(00:29):
and paid support.
Go to abundancepracticebuilding.com slash links.
All right, on to the show.
So I've talked about therapy notes on here
for years.
I could talk about the features and the
benefits in my sleep, but there are a
couple of things I want you to know
about therapy notes that doesn't typically make it
into an ad script.
First is that they actually care if you
(00:50):
like their platform.
They don't only make themselves available on the
phone to troubleshoot so you don't pull your
hair out when you get stuck.
They also take member suggestions and implement those
that there's client demand for, like therapy search
and included listing service that helps clients find
you, internal and external secure messaging, clinical outcome
measures to keep an eye on how your
clients are progressing, a super smooth super bill
(01:12):
process, real-time eligibility to check on your
client's insurance.
In my conversations with the employees there at
all levels, they all really believe in their
product and they want you to love it
too.
Second, they are proudly independently owned.
Why should you care about that?
Because as soon as venture capital becomes involved,
the focus shifts from making customers happy to
(01:33):
making investors happy.
Prices go way up, innovation plateaus, making more
money with as little output as possible becomes
the number one focus.
With over a hundred thousand therapists using their
platform, they've been able to stay incredibly successful
and they don't have to sacrifice your experience
to stay there.
You can try two months free at therapynotes
(01:53):
.com with the coupon code abundant.
Some of y'all aren't sending HIPAA compliant
email and it's a problem.
Even if you're paying for a business Google
Workspace account and have a signed BAA, your
emails still aren't a hundred percent compliant.
That's where Powerbox comes in.
You can connect Powerbox to your Google Workspace
or Microsoft 365 email one time and you're
(02:16):
completely covered.
No one has to sign into portals.
It sends and it shows up like any
other email.
Behind the scenes, Powerbox software checks the security
settings of the recipient and ensures that the
email is sent properly so you're not violating
HIPAA in the ways you may accidentally be
now.
I know HIPAA isn't sexy, but we don't
avoid compliance in an abundant practice.
We check the boxes we need to check
(02:37):
and this is the easiest way to do
that with email.
Check out my friends at powerbox.com.
That's P-A-U-B-O-X.
Use code Abundant to get $250 off your
first year of Powerbox.
That makes it less than a hundred dollars
for your first year.
Again, that's P-A-U-B-O-X
.com.
Use code Abundant.
(03:00):
Welcome back to the Abundant Practice Podcast.
I'm your host, Allison Pereer, founder of AbundancePracticeBuilding
.com and I'm here with Daniel Woodrum.
He's the head coach over at Early to
Rise.
He has been a coach of mine for,
gosh, since I think 2021 or something.
And Daniel and another mentor of mine, Craig
(03:20):
Ballantyne, have just written a book that I
think is going to be really instrumental in
helping you all get the things done that
you need to get done and making sure
that you are as efficient, as effective, as
humanly possible.
So I invited Daniel on here because I
really, really want y'all to know this
stuff.
So thanks so much for being here, Daniel.
Thanks, Allison.
I'm excited for the opportunity.
(03:40):
And yes, I mean, it's been, I think,
three years now that we've been, you know,
working together and it's been amazing to see
your journey.
And I'm excited to pay it forward and
share some of the things that we're working
on right now.
Yeah, absolutely.
So let's talk some about discipline.
I'm going to put an asterisk for the
people who just cringed or had some sort
of reaction to that word.
(04:00):
I think as therapists, we can give our
feelings a lot of credit and a lot
of agency.
And I think I also have a lot
of neurodivergent folks that listen.
And so it's not always as simple as
make yourself do the thing.
So for those folks, I want to be
really clear.
This is not the conversation on discipline or
(04:21):
disciplining children.
This is not that conversation.
I want you to listen to this so
that getting things done will be easier for
you.
So let's talk about discipline.
That long caveat.
Yeah.
And I'm glad you said that, Allison, because
I think most people associate discipline with pain
and suffering because that's sort of a lot
(04:41):
of what we were brought up with from
our parents.
And one of the things that we say
that's really the key essence of the book
is that our definition of discipline is putting
a level 10 out of 10 effort and
focus and energy into your level 10 out
of 10 problem.
Whether that's a personal problem in your life,
it could be finances, it could be relationship,
(05:03):
it could be a bad habit or addiction
that you have.
It could be business related.
Maybe it's a team member or maybe you're
struggling financially in your business.
And so putting a 10 out of 10
effort into your 10 out of 10 problem
or opportunity to us is really the only
definition of discipline that truly matters.
And I don't think anyone's ever really talked
(05:23):
about that before.
And we've realized through just all the experience
that we've had personally and then coaching others
is that really is the only way to
get ultimate success and fulfillment and happiness in
your life.
Yeah.
And it's been one of the things that
y'all have coached me on that's made
the biggest difference in my life and my
business and all of it.
Because often when things are not going so
(05:45):
well in an area, we want to put
our heads in sand.
And I love that story Craig tells about
speaking to gym owners.
Will you tell that?
Yes.
Yes.
So Craig and I both kind of come
from the health and wellness space.
So this is the story that we share
in the book and we talk a lot
about is that there used to be this
big conference every year called the Fitness Business
Summit.
(06:05):
It was hosted by a guy named Badgers
Cooley, who I know you know, Alice, you've
heard him speak before.
One of the bigger fitness conferences, and it
was like a thousand people every single year.
And Badgers ran the same for like eight
or 10 years.
And we always say that, you know, there'd
be a thousand fitness professional gym owners show
up every single year.
And you know, one year they would be
8% body fat and then $8 in
(06:25):
the bank account.
And the whole idea of the event was
to help people grow their fitness business and
make more money, have more of an impact.
And in between all of the presentations, the
sessions, all these network breakout things, and, you
know, in the hallways, all these trainers and
gym owners and fitness professionals, all they wanted
to talk about was the latest nutrition, you
know, hacks and exercise strategies and all these
(06:46):
latest, you know, apps and all these things.
And so we joke the next year they
would come back and they would be 7
% body fat.
They were even in better shape, but they
had $7 in the bank account.
And so we say that they were putting
a level 10 out of 10 effort into
a level one out of 10 problem.
They were already in amazing shape.
They didn't need to get in better shape,
but they were putting a level one out
of 10 problem into their one out of
(07:08):
10 effort in their 10 out of 10
problem, which is trying to actually grow their
business, make more money, make more of an
impact.
And so that's the story that we share
that I think a lot of people kind
of laugh at, but resonates, I'm sure, in
many people's life.
Yeah.
I mean, because we all do this to
some extent, right?
We all have things we're probably actively avoiding
in either our business or our lives that
(07:29):
continue.
I mean, I'm thinking about it will take
me 15 minutes to get the things to
my accountant that he needs, like 15 minutes.
I can put my hands on most of
it and I just keep not doing it.
And I do this every single year.
It's so simple and easy.
And it's something I think about in the
middle of the night.
I'm like, oh God, I was going to
do that today.
(07:49):
And I didn't abide by my schedule, which
you know, I'm really good about abiding by
my schedule, but that's one thing I just
kind of avoid.
And I'm glad you said that because like,
obviously those are some extreme examples, but to
kind of go to your point, my eyesight
is not great.
It gets worse and worse every year.
And I continue to put off just making
an appointment for the eye doctor.
Like I know I need to book, I
(08:11):
know I need to book an appointment, but
it's like that inevitable, like, well, I don't
want to have to do it.
And I don't want to forget, you know,
contacts or glasses.
I'm going to keep procrastinating and putting it
off.
And it's like the stupidest thing when you
think about it.
And what I needed to do was I
needed to have a good friend of mine
hold me accountable.
And so he said, Dana, I'm going to
meet you at Starbucks in the morning time,
which I'm sure we can talk about else
in my kind of scene.
(08:32):
But he met me at Starbucks one early
morning.
This was just last week.
And he essentially forced me, held me accountable
to book an appointment.
And so I have an appointment booked, you
know, for April.
I had to book it a few weeks
out, but like, I feel, I didn't realize
how much stress and burden I was carrying
myself by not doing this until I did.
I was like, oh my God.
I just felt like this sense of release
all of a sudden.
And so sometimes it's these small things that
(08:53):
we keep putting off and they just compound
to get bigger and bigger and bigger and
more stressful, more stressful when you could have
just taken five minutes to do it.
And it would have been over with.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like life is hard enough, really like
these little stupid things that we could do
super quickly.
This just adds to the things that are
actually problems.
Yeah.
And if we can get these off, then
(09:13):
we have more mental space and clarity and
less burden.
Yeah.
It's like the whole week, you know, you,
you might've heard this phrase before.
And Craig talks a lot about is like
death by a thousand cuts.
You know, it's these little things that just
add up compound, but you know, on a
larger scale, they end up causing a lot
of stress, a lot of headache, a lot
of frustration, lost time, lost money, whatever it
(09:33):
may be.
When you could just simply either do them
or have somebody else do them for you
or eliminate them altogether.
And you're going to have so much more
freedom and headspace and mental energy.
Absolutely.
Can we talk about the standards?
Yes, I would love to.
Yes.
Yeah.
So there is this concept of standards and
how this sort of came about was I
(09:56):
was at an event as actually a fitness
business.
Some of the band I talked about earlier,
this is a few years ago.
And my Latin, some of your audience might
know is a really popular motivational speaker and
a business guy.
And he came out on stage and he
was saying, he's like, I always think about
death.
And he's like, I think about death, not
in the sense of like a morbid way,
but he's like, he used it as inspiration
perspective.
(10:16):
He said, because I think about, you know,
when I die and, you know, he's Christian
obviously, when I go to heaven and I
meet my maker, he's like, I know that
God's going to look at me and say
like, Ed, this was the man, the husband,
the businessman that I made you to be.
These are the amount of people that you
could impact.
But as you stand here before me today,
this is what you became.
Like this was the potential that you reach.
And he's like, I want to be as
(10:37):
close to that full potential as possible.
And he talked about in that, in that
presentation about how standard, like how to live
a life of high standards.
And I was like, wow, that is so
powerful.
But at the time I was not a
parent yet.
I didn't fully understand it.
And as I became a parent and I
realized the importance of having, having standards and
what is most important to me in my
life, right?
(10:57):
What is my definition of success?
What is my definition of impact?
What is my values and my vision?
And when I realized that I was like,
wow, like this is a really, really powerful
concept because to me, discipline is what you
do.
Standards are who you are.
It's like your identity.
It's what we call non-negotiables or rules
of your life.
Now, the problem is that if you don't
(11:18):
identify your own personal standards, you're going to
try and chase other people's standards, other people's
success.
And that is a very dangerous game of
the comparison syndrome that I, I fell victim
to for many, many years, because when you
don't have standards, we don't have a North
star.
You try to live other people's life.
You chase their North star, you chase their
standards and you're never going to win that
(11:38):
game because the rules are always changing.
And it's not your actual path.
It's not your road to success.
And so I created this system in order
to identify your standards, because you probably hear
a lot of times people say, live a
lot, live a life of higher standards.
Like, well, okay, what, how I show me
how to do that.
And so the way that I've, I've kind
of created a system, Allison is, I want
you to think about what are the four
(11:59):
most important areas of your life?
Like what are the four areas of your
life that mean the most to you?
And just as an example, not to copy,
just the example for me, it is family,
it is health, it is discipline, and it
is leadership.
Like those are the areas that are most
important to me.
So when you identify your, your four most
important areas, then what I want you to
(12:21):
do is I want you to write out
a mission statement, some sort of mission statement
or statement on, on why that is most
important to you.
So for me, it's family for family.
For example, my mission statement is family comes
before everything.
They are the most important thing in my
life.
You're going to create a mission statement for
each of your standards.
And then what you're going to do is
you're going to create three personal standards for
(12:42):
each of those four categories.
And so in totality, you're going to have
12 personal standards that you were going to
try to live your life by.
Those become your rules of your life, your
non-negotiables.
All right.
So for example, like if I have a
standard, I don't take any coaching calls or
appointments after 4 p.m. because from four
until seven 30, I have three young kids.
(13:04):
We put them down about seven 39, between
four and seven, four and seven 30.
That is my family time.
So if someone says, Hey, Daniel, like, can
you do an appointment?
Can we do a meeting at four, four
35?
Nope.
It's a standard where if it didn't have
that standard in place, I would negotiate with
myself.
I would break that.
And I would then that would bleed into
my family time.
So it's a really, really powerful system.
(13:24):
And it takes some time for you to
really sit down and identify those.
But when you do, again, you have more
fulfillment, you're going to have more success, more
happiness, and ultimately you're going to be in
your path of success and not worrying about
chasing other people's definition of success.
What I also love as somebody who has
had too many standards is that it's four.
It's like four categories.
(13:47):
I mean, like a standard I've had for
myself since I was in my twenties.
And this is maybe being raised by a
Southern woman who was raised by a Southern
woman.
I want my house to be ready for
company within 15 minutes.
Yeah.
I never want my house to get messy
enough that it would take me more than
15 minutes to get it ready for company.
I love that.
I love, but also when you have three
(14:09):
businesses and two kids and a partner, and
one of your kids has health issues.
Yeah.
That was one I had to let go
of.
Now it might take me 30 minutes or
two of us, 30 minutes to get it
right.
Yep.
And I still get anxiety when I look
around.
I'm like, Oh, there's clutter, but there are
certain standards we might need to let go
of as lives change, as situations change.
(14:30):
And I think setting it was like being
really clear on what now, right now, what
are your top four things with the understanding
that that changes before you had kids, you
and Brittany, I'm sure like family was still
on there, but it's on there.
It's a bigger part of that pie.
Yes, absolutely.
Yes.
No, that, that is very, that's a good
point.
A lot of people say, well, and you
(14:51):
know, it's like, yes, your standards are not
going to change much, but as your life
changes, as season changes, you should always audit
your standards and audit the four areas that
are most important to you.
And yes, if the season changes or life
events happen and you need to change that
and absolutely change that.
But in general, like, you know, if you're
a vegan or if you don't swear, you
don't drink alcohol and more than likely that
stuff is going to stay consistent for your
(15:12):
entire life.
But some of those will change.
Like you said, as you, as you have
kids, as you evolve and things like that.
Yeah.
And some things like, I don't drink alcohol.
I haven't had alcohol since 2019.
Like I don't even need to write that
down because it's just so set in stone
for me that I can then devote that
space to something else.
Yes.
Yes.
And another thing too, is the key, you
know, people might say like, one of my
(15:33):
standards is, is the exercise every single day.
And you might think yourself, well, Daniel, you
told me earlier that discipline is putting a
10 out of 10 effort into a 10
out of 10 problem.
Like if health is not a problem, why
are you still doing that?
Well, it's not discipline.
That's a standard.
That's just a non-negotiable.
So that's really what difference is.
Again, discipline is what you do.
Standards are just, they're who you are.
Right.
Which for therapists listening, like we're talking about
(15:53):
values, right?
Like your values are what drive your standards.
And then your discipline is how you fulfill
those standards.
Yes, absolutely.
And another thing we talk a lot about
in the book is, is you need systems
as well.
Like you cannot just rely because a lot
of times discipline is still reliant on willpower
and motivation, which is always fleeting.
(16:13):
You know, there's always external factors with that,
whether it's your mood, your stress, your energy
levels, the weather, there's so many different things
with that.
But when you have systems in place, it
helps make success automatic.
It helps make action automatic.
So like for me, for example, is I,
one of the, I have a lot of
different systems that I, that I follow that
(16:34):
I, that I use.
But one of the things that I do
is in order to get up in the
morning time, very consistently every single morning, I
have a system where the night before I
will go ahead and lay out my clothes
and I will go and pick out my
clothes.
I'll put them in the bathroom or bathroom
sink.
That way it's done.
I have my computer bag packed.
I have my water bottle packed.
I then will turn my alarm on, put
(16:55):
my phone across the room and plug it
up.
So that way my alarm goes off.
I have to get up out of bed
to turn it off.
And I'm, you know, it's tempting to just
roll over if it's right there by your
bed and hit the snooze button.
And then also I have a very clear,
like a three minute routine that I do
in the morning time.
So like that is a system for me
where I know that that way, if I
don't do that, I'm going to be more
tempted to hit the snooze button, talk myself
(17:15):
into sleeping more or not doing what I
need to do in order to start my
morning, which is very important to me so
I can get things done and then get
back and spend time with my kids and
get in the school in the morning time.
It takes the drama out of it too.
Yes.
Right.
Because the thing I struggle with when I
feel like I'm struggling with discipline is I'm
trying to use willpower, which I've used up
hours before, like my, my cache of willpower
(17:38):
for the day.
I'm trying to use willpower to do something
I maybe don't want to do.
So I'm talking myself into it and I'm
talking myself out to it and I'm going
back and forth.
When if you just take the action and
you just make it happen, it just takes
the drama out of it and it's done.
It does.
Yep.
And I mean, you get up extraordinarily early,
like you're up and at Starbucks at four
(18:00):
30 with your three minute routine.
Yes.
Yes.
And I tell people like, I, I, I'm
very, like, I don't normally tell people when
most people know when I wake up, if
you follow me, like in this room, if
you know, if you know me, like you
do, I'll say, cause I mean, it's very
consistent every day, but I, you know, I
made a video on Instagram the other day
that I was like, this is really good
as it, it doesn't matter what time you
wake up in the morning.
(18:20):
Like there's nothing magical about 5m club, 6am,
7am.
It doesn't matter because if you get up,
if you waste an hour scrolling on your
phone and you're, you're just kind of laying
around, you're not doing things that are important
to you in the morning time, whether that's
work, family, exercise, whatever your definition of success
in the morning time, if you're not doing
that, then it doesn't matter what time you
wake up.
So to me, it's more about like the
(18:41):
consistency of trying to wake up at the
same time, every single day to the best
of your ability, and then having some sort
of morning routine that is consistent.
So whenever it's important to you first thing
in the morning, you can take action on
that.
You had the systems in place.
So again, it's just more automatic.
And the more that you can stack those
wins up, the easier it becomes.
Like one of my favorite things is compliance
breeds confidence.
(19:01):
And so the more compliance you can have,
the more you can kind of stack those
wins.
Doesn't mean you're gonna be perfect, but to
me, discipline is not about being perfect or
all these winning streaks.
It's like, Hey, if you mess up, if
you have a bad day, if you have
a bad week, you're able to get back
on track.
And to me, that's the ultimate definition of
discipline.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so in the dark side of discipline,
(19:22):
you and Craig are talking about, I'm assuming
standards and values.
And can you talk some about some systems
that have been helpful?
Like you shared yours for getting up, but
what's something that y'all have helped your
coaching clients with that you feel like most
people might be able to benefit from?
Yeah, absolutely.
So one of the systems that we have
is that we have this thing called non
(19:44):
-urgent important work, which is a system in
the morning time, which I know you, you,
is that, you know, a lot of times,
again, we wake up, you know, as, as
business owners, therapists, whatever it may be.
And you wake up and you immediately go
into reaction mode.
You know what I mean?
Like you're doing a long to-do list,
or if you're replying back to client emails
or your team member emails or messages, and
(20:05):
you just wake up and you wake up
in that heightened stress, right?
And you wake up and you're just reacting.
You're not actually like blocking time.
You're not having productive time.
So one thing that we talk about is
new, we call it new work.
It's non-urgent important work.
So non-urgent important work are things that
are not urgent.
They don't need to be done right now,
but they are important for the long, long
(20:26):
-term success of your business.
And that could be anything from like creating
new programs or marketing, or maybe it's something
personal.
Maybe it's like, you need to get taxes
done.
Now I know it's urgent right now when
we're doing this, but maybe it's taxes.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, they're not due for a
while, but they're not urgent.
But the longer you put them off, the
more urgent they become.
But it's important to get those things done.
So if you could just dedicate 30 minutes
(20:48):
into the non-urgent important work every single
day, you're going to be able to make
a lot more success in your business and
really work on your business and not in
your business.
Because as we know, as the day starts
and if you start seeing clients, whether it's
in person or virtually, again, it's just a
lot of client facing, a lot of urgent.
There's a lot more to put out and
(21:08):
you have less control, but you have a
lot more control and usually more creativity, more
energy first thing in the morning.
So if you could just do that as
one system that I promise you will impact
your business.
And so for therapists, I'm thinking y'all
could be doing like content creation during that
time.
That's when I, when y'all read my
newsletter, when you, most of my social media
(21:30):
posts, captions, those kinds of things are typically
written at five in the morning because I
will say my brain, I'm a morning person.
You might not be.
So don't whoever's listening.
Don't feel like 5 a.m. It's not
the magic time.
For me, the morning, my brain is freshest.
I can get hours of work done in
a shorter period of time because my brain
is like, I'm just less distracted and it's
(21:51):
fresher.
Yes.
And I don't think this is based on
facts, but you know, sometimes you say it
so much, like this is factual, like you're
five times more productive in the morning time
than you are any other time of the
day.
You know, I mean two hours in the
morning time could be really worth like 10
hours, you know what I mean?
Because those same things in the afternoon or
in the evening time, typically you're not going
(22:11):
to be nearly as focused and as productive.
So if you can just leverage, like you
said, even if you're not a morning person,
maybe it's not five o'clock, maybe it's
eight o'clock in the morning, maybe it's
10 o'clock in the morning, you know,
but if you can just leverage those early
hours when you do wake up, oh my
gosh, it's an absolute game changer.
Yeah.
Can we talk about there's a thing you
need to do.
You don't want to do it.
(22:32):
I know my audience is like, yeah, this
sounds great.
And I can, it, it it's called values
and it's called standards and it's called discipline,
but it also kind of smells like willpower.
So can we talk about how to get
yourself to do the thing?
Like we've talked some about systems.
Yeah.
We've talked some about accountability.
Maybe we could go into that a bit
more, but how to get knock stuff out.
(22:55):
Yeah.
I mean, I think that the couple things
are make it as easy as possible.
We say like grease, the groove, like how
can you make it as easy as possible?
So for, I mean, just again, for example,
let's say that you are launching a new
program and you need to do some marketing
that requires a lot of copywriting.
And maybe you just keep putting off like,
oh, like every morning I wake up and
I tell myself I'm going to do it.
I just don't do it.
(23:16):
I keep putting it off.
What can you do like the day or
the night before to make it easier for
you?
Well, what if I could just, you know,
what if I could just make five the
night before on a piece of paper or
on a Google doc that way to wake
up in the morning, I've kind of got
a guide and there's less things I need
to think about.
I can just start taking action.
So how can you make it easier?
That's one thing.
(23:37):
Also like a lot of times we have
this big project.
We look at the start and the finish,
and that can just seem so overwhelming.
Like just say, okay, how did I get
to point A to point B?
Like what, what is, what can I do
for the next 15 minutes?
That's just going to at least get me
started.
Cause a lot of times the hardest part
is getting started.
You know, what can I do to just
get started?
Get some momentum, set a timer for 15
(23:57):
minutes, just work on it.
And after the 15 minutes, if you're like,
Hey, I'm in the flow, I'm going to
keep going.
Great.
But if you're like, Oh, I'm done with
this for a while, for a while until
tomorrow, at least you got 15 minutes done.
So that's one thing.
Another thing I would say, and then you
mentioned accountability, Alison, that is to me, the
biggest thing we always say, you'll move mountains.
If you have accountability, you want to find
people that you deeply do not want to
(24:19):
disappoint.
Okay.
Like accountability is not pretty equal across the
board.
Like there could be, you'd have somebody, I
don't know, a neighbor or maybe a friend
who you care about, but you don't really
care if you let them down.
You're not, they're not going to help you
move mountains.
But if there is truly somebody, whether it's
a mentor or a colleague or significant other,
it could be anybody, a pastor, whatever it
(24:39):
is that, you know, you deeply do not
want to disappoint.
If you tell them what you, what you
want to do, what you're looking to accomplish
and how they specifically hold you accountable.
And then you do that.
You're going to move mountains.
You really are.
Just to give example, like I, um, this
was just not too long ago.
I found myself, I was on my settings
(25:00):
on my phone, looking for something else.
And I realized like, Oh my God, I
am averaging four and a half hours on
my phone.
Like it was like a smack in the
face.
Like I didn't realize I was on my
phone that much.
And it kind of broke it down as
you guys know of what you're spending time
on a lot of the social media, YouTube,
internet, all these things.
And I was like, okay, like, no wonder
I've just felt stressed and not as productive.
Even this disciplined guy, like we can all
fall in bad habits, bad patterns.
(25:21):
I'm like, okay, like I need to significantly
cut this.
I need to get it down to like
two hours under two hours a day.
And it's like, okay, so here's how I'm
going to do this.
So I created a system for it.
And then I'm like, okay, well now I
need people who are going to hold me
accountable.
Cause if I just rely on willpower and
if I just try to do it myself,
I'll let myself down every day of the
week, unfortunately, you know?
So I'm like, all right, who can I
do that?
(25:41):
So there's three people on our team who,
you know, Alison, Shannon, Galow, and Gavin, they're
coaches on our team.
I deeply not want to disappoint them.
I respect them a lot.
I don't want to be a hypocrite as
head of coaching.
And you know, like that would be hypocritical
of me.
So then, hey guys, over the next 21
days, here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm going to take a screenshot of my
phone at 7 PM and I'm going to
(26:01):
text it to you guys in this WhatsApp
group.
And you don't need to say anything.
I'm just doing this for accountability.
Okay.
My goal is to keep under two hours.
I did that for three weeks.
I think one day I missed it, but
all the other days I was in the
two hours.
And after that, I created a habit.
I had systems in place.
I didn't need them so much more for
accountability.
So I know that's a long winded answer,
but that really is the power of accountability.
(26:23):
And if you're procrastinating something, just make it
as easy as possible.
Don't worry about all the steps, just what's
the next best step that I can take.
And that's how it built compliance.
Yeah.
I love that.
And I think about the, the not wanting
to disappoint people.
We see this dynamic, my limitless practice program,
which is for therapists who are full, they're
making big changes in their practice.
(26:44):
They're trying not to blow their business up
on the way they're trying to make it
like the thing that they meant to create
on the front end, but it just got
away from them.
We do accountability emails in there every week,
in addition to our weekly group calls and
their one-on-ones.
And so I'm asking them about those things.
Like, how did that go last week?
(27:04):
You said you were going to do X,
Y, and Z.
How did it go?
And they know I'm going to ask them.
And most people don't expect that an email
is going to be like a super impactful
part of a program, but having that weekly
email relationship where they know, like, I might,
I might not call them out in front
of the whole group, depending on the thing.
I also might, um, but I'm definitely going
(27:25):
to call them on something in the email.
Yeah.
People, when they're graduating from the program are
like those emails, man, those were incredible because
it just helped people chug along and do
those things that were annoying.
And maybe they had some resistance to, because
they didn't want to disappoint me.
And they knew that I would ask them
about it.
(27:46):
Yeah.
And I mean, you're spot on.
Like we, I mean, we will work with
anyone from six figure business.
We were people like nine figure businesses and
they all pretty much say like, you know,
accountability is the number one factor that, that
I appreciate for this program.
You know, we do marketing and sales and
leadership and all these other things, but it's
like the accountability is really what is the
biggest difference.
So I couldn't agree with you more there.
(28:08):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What other pieces are important for people to
be able to not just rely on praying
willpower.
Yeah.
So another thing too is identity.
Like, so let me also real quick, break
it down.
We had this, we had this pyramid in
the book that we talk about the pyramid
of peak performance is there's different layers to
it.
And the very top is motivation, which is
(28:29):
actually the least important.
Okay.
Again, it's leading it's external factors.
The next one is under that as challenges.
So, you know, you guys have probably seen
a lot of these challenges online of, of
like different fitness challenges, health challenges, sales challenges,
relationship challenges, all these things.
And the problem with that is that these
challenges that other people create, that's their definition
(28:50):
of success.
You know, but it like working out twice
a day, you know, like reading 10 pages
a day and all these things like, okay,
that's great.
But like, what, how does that make you
disciplined?
How does that make you successful?
That's just their idea of success, you know?
So we do believe that motivation can be
a factor if it's done correctly.
If it's, if it's paired with action right
(29:10):
away, of course, motivation and challenges can be
okay, but you should like a custom challenge.
For example, when I realized that I was
on my phone four and a half hours,
I created that challenge.
It's actually a challenge for myself, but it
was a custom challenge.
It was what I wanted.
It was what I needed, not what somebody
else wanted, not what someone else needed.
So if you find yourself tagging along and
all these different kinds of challenges online, just
(29:32):
be mindful, like, okay, is this challenge really
something that I want?
Is it something I need?
If the answer is yes, by all means
do it.
But if not, how can you take some
of those concepts, but apply it and customize
it more for what you want, what you
need.
Okay, so we got motivation.
We have challenges.
Then we have discipline, which we've talked about.
Then we have systems, which we've already talked
about.
(29:52):
And then the next layer right before standard
is identity.
And you know, really when it comes down
to identity, it's
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.