September 25, 2025 • 21 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Forget time management.
The real question is (00:02):
do you use time as a competitive weapon?
We'll dive into the science ofleveraging time to force focus,
drive growth, and stop settlingfor progress.
SPEAKER_03 (00:19):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell.
You cannot be serious.
Strengthen your ability to leadin less than 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Lead through change.
Choose to be powerful, makedecisions faster, and with
buy-in.
Check out the new 30-dayleadership courses, now
available from Lone RockLeadership.
You can watch the preview videosright now at LoneRock.io.
SPEAKER_01 (00:45):
It is wild to watch the uh the initial reaction to
us taking these models andframeworks that we've been using
with executives for a long timeand now make them available off
the shelf in these courses ofadapt in 30, decide in 30, power
in 30.
We had over 400 people registerfor our first webinar on power
(01:07):
in 30.
Think of it as likeaccountability 2.0.
It's a decision if you show uppowerless or if you feel
powerless in a situation.
It's a decision to show uppowerfully.
That's the uh the whole point ofthat course.
We've spent years developing umwhat we used to teach around
accountability and taking it tothe next level, power and 30.
(01:30):
So, anyway, if you want moreinformation on those courses,
it's awesome to see that initialgroup of 400 people who you just
out of the blue wanted to bepart of our initial webinar on
that course.
If you want to find out more, goto LoneRock.io.
Lone Rock Leadership is our thename of our firm.
I'm Russ Hill.
I'm one of the founders, part ofthe team at our executive
(01:51):
consulting company and ourleadership training company.
And uh I make my living coachingconsulting senior executives at
some of the world's biggestcompanies.
We've taken what we've done overthe last gobs of years and
turned it into off-the-shelfsolutions.
If you listen to this podcast,you're like Russ, I already know
that.
Yeah, for the rest of you, LoneRock.io.
Go check it out.
(02:12):
Okay, time as a competitiveweapon.
So I was reading a um a bookrecently, and um what's the name
of it?
The it's a it's a fast read umby a guy that um that uh some
folks that I know know, um, butI've never met him.
(02:33):
Um Dr.
Ben uh Harding.
Uh Benjamin Hardy, I think is Ithink I've got that right.
And uh he's written a couple ofbooks.
I again I don't know him.
Um I haven't read his otherbooks, but this one I I think I
actually listened to the audio.
Like I was out doing yard workand I listened to it because
I've got that Spotify thing.
Have you all done that?
Like, you know how Audible givesyou one book a month or whatever
(02:55):
the credit is?
Um Spotify has got this thing,maybe some other companies have
it too.
Uh, you didn't even a lot of youdidn't even know that Spotify
had books, audiobooks, did you?
Yeah, it's got podcasts, like itlike Spotify is unbelievable.
We we were gonna tell a storyabout them in our new book,
Deliver, but ended up gettingcut um for various reasons.
But um, but it was reallycompelling with the research.
(03:16):
Came back and showed us aboutthe growth of that company and
the founding of it.
We'll talk about that in anotherepisode sometime.
But yeah, so Spotify is not justfor music, it's got podcasts.
You can listen to this podcast.
Some of you probably are rightnow, you can um and you can
listen to audiobooks.
And they've got this feature towhere you get instead of one
credit a month, you get 15 hoursof um audiobook listening per
(03:38):
month, which I think is so muchbetter.
You don't have to pick one book,you can listen to a chapter of
that book, three chapters ofthis book, uh, a few pages of
that book, four chapters ofthat, just 15 hours total.
And they've got like a family.
Anyway, this is not a this isnot a commercial for Spotify,
but you know, you gotta sharegood stuff when you find it.
And uh, and so you know, we'vegot the family plan with our
(03:59):
kids, and so they each now hadto pay more.
Um, but like who wouldn't whowouldn't be willing to pay money
to have their kids listening tobooks?
Like, are you kidding me?
It's been that before videogames and all this other stuff
any day of the week, right?
So um, so my kids are using thattoo now, which is awesome.
So anyway, so I'm listening tothis book.
I think it's called The Scienceof Scaling.
(04:21):
The Science of Scaling.
Um, I and and I I thought it wasreally interesting.
The part that I listened to,it's just a quick read,
whatever.
I I'm not recommending it tomost of you.
Um you can go check it out,obviously, but I uh I'm gonna
share something that came out ofit that kind of made me think
about uh this concept for thispodcast episode.
But the reason I don't recommendit is because it's more written,
(04:42):
in my opinion.
I could be wrong on this, but itstruck me um after I got in a
couple of chapters, I'm like, ohno, this book isn't um written
for people that are in bigorganizations or that lead
companies with more than like 20people.
It's written more for kind oflike the uh that whole audience.
Well, who's the guy that ismaking gobs of money right now?
Alex Hermosy.
(05:02):
Alex Hermozy, who's making gobsof money, um, you know, talking
to these folks that aretypically 20 years old to 30
years old and want to work forthemselves.
And um and so the the peoplelike Alex go out and create
these frameworks, and uh and andit's typically males, not only
(05:23):
males, but it's this 20 to 30year old male audience typically
that buys all their stuff andthen just make gobs of money
telling you how you can createyour own company and get rich
and do all these sorts ofthings.
And if it works, awesome.
That's great.
And so science of scaling ismore written about, in my mind,
I could get this wrong, um,about somebody who's like on
their own or um so somebodywho's got a little marketing
(05:45):
company and they're asolopreneur and they want to
grow and they want to scale it.
Um, but and and so it wouldn'tapply to most of us that uh are
in this audience.
Um, but I think it's great forthat audience, um, at least
potentially some of the some ofthe concepts.
Some of them I was like, I don'tknow.
I mean, but anyway, um it just Ihaven't had experience that
(06:06):
reinforces some of that stuff,but but but some of the concepts
are great.
Okay, so one of the conceptsthat I think is great that got
me thinking, because it ties toa principle that I'm a big
believer in, which and the waythat Ben or uh Dr.
Hardy or whoever wrote it inthat book, um the way they
talked about it was using timeas a tool.
And I thought that was superinteresting.
(06:28):
Time as a tool.
And so I was like, ah, I'll saymore about that.
And he did in the audiobook.
And he he he talked about um, hegot into Parkinson's law, right?
And most of you are familiarwith it.
I'll just recap it for you ifyou don't know about it.
Um, Parkinson's law is this ideathat time will uh a task will
fill the time allotted for it.
(06:50):
So, in other words, if you havea project and you give yourself
three months, you will stay, youyou can occupy three months with
that project.
If you give yourself threehours, you can probably get the
some of the main stuff done inthree hours.
You know, it's this is relative,and you know, there are there
are all kinds of variables,obviously.
(07:13):
But I see this all the time inthe work that we do because we
work with so many differentorganizations and so many
different leaders.
It's crazy.
Like sometimes we'll it's it'swild.
Sometimes I'll give you anexample.
Um, recently we sent an emailout to um numerous executives
that we work with, and we had arequest and we said, will you
review this thing and then giveus some feedback on it?
(07:35):
Like, do you do you do you agreewith this?
Do you like this?
Do you not?
So we sent it out to let's Idon't remember how many.
Let's call it 30 executives.
And some of these folks leadtens of thousands of people.
And and they've got bureaucraticorganizations and they're highly
regulated, and they've got, youknow, a ton of attorneys that
(07:57):
are influencing things.
And so you you you you put theirname on the list to send this
email to, and I'm thinking, oh,I don't think she's even going
to get back to us on that thingbecause of the culture inside
her organization, or because ofthe industry that that company
is in.
What do you know?
Like within 20, 30 minutes, ormaybe a few hours later,
(08:19):
sometimes within 24 hours, youget this response back that
says, Hey, Russ, hey, whatever,Lone Rock, this is awesome.
Yep, love it, go forward withthis, or yep, made one change to
that thing, go.
And then you have other peoplewho lead teams maybe of a
thousand, maybe five hundred,may they they lead smaller teams
(08:40):
or smaller organizations, andthey literally take days and
then you ping them or you say,Hey, by the way, did you have
anything?
Yeah, we're processing that,we're thinking about it.
We're you're like, and I'mthinking, well, the person that
has twenty times as many peopleunderneath them as you in an
(09:01):
organization that's global andyours is not, was able to move
so much faster than you were.
And it comes back to thisconcept, right?
Kind of our attitude towardstime.
I'll give you a couple otherexamples.
So in our organization, on thetraining side of our business,
we've gotten certain results,key results that we want to hit
(09:23):
this year, right?
Well, we're not owned.
We're not public, our our firmis not publicly owned.
It doesn't have shares, itdoesn't have a board of
directors, it doesn't have abunch of investors.
We we built this thing um fromthe from the ground up, right?
And so the three founders of us,we started on our own, and then
we added people to it, and we'vebeen building this leadership
team and doing all these sortsof things, and we're
(09:45):
self-funding it based on um uhjust lots of different things,
right?
So we're not going into debt, wedon't have lines of credit, we
don't owe a bank anything, wedon't we don't owe um
shareholders, we don't oweinvestors anything.
So there is nothing, there's noone.
There's no one out there saying,hey, Russ, Jared, Tanner, the
(10:06):
owners of Lone Rock Leadership,you all need to hit these key
results by the end of the theyear.
There's no one doing that.
If we don't hit it, who gives acrap?
These are all self-imposed.
And so these targets that wehave, like, they kind of keep me
(10:26):
up at night.
Not really in a bad way, butactually in an energized way.
Because at the time I'mrecording this, we've got, you
know, ever only so many weeksleft in the year, and we're
making great progress towardsthese uh, you know, some key
results more than others, somewe're crushing every month,
some, you know, we're we've gota fair distance to go.
But I am fully committed todoing everything within my
(10:47):
power, and our team is too totry to hit those.
And so meeting those goals anddeadlines and results, like the
clock is ticking.
We've got to accomplish it, sayswho?
Says us.
That says me.
That's our mentality.
(11:08):
Another one, the book we've gotcoming out.
By the time many of you arelistening to this episode, it
will already have been out.
It's coming out um very soon.
It's getting to the publishernext week.
Like it's being typeset.
Some of you don't even know whatthat anyway.
This whole team that we've gotassembled to it with people that
are doing this and that and thisand checking this.
And anyway, this whole groupthat we we hired to help us with
(11:29):
this one, they're they're likeI'm getting pinged nonstop.
And uh, this is the fourth bookthat I will be involved in.
It's our biggest, it's uh likeuh between 60 and 70,000 words.
That's as just thick.
Like it's nothing like decide tolead and other books that are,
you know, where you can read itin one setting, one night or in
a couple of days on, you know,whatever.
(11:51):
It's super fast.
This is different.
It's very meaty.
It's got tons of research in it,it's got tons of stories, it's
whatever.
And and so there is no onetelling us you have to have it
done by this time.
It's all self-imposed deadlines.
And so I'm literally like, askmy family, like I'm just
(12:13):
consumed with it right now.
I have been for weeks as we'retrying to get it across the
finish.
Like, yes, I'm doing otherthings, and I've got birthdays
in the family and family trips,and we've got this and that, and
client engagements, and flyinghere and doing that.
But any other time, any anymoment that's around that, I'm
squeezing work into because Igave myself a deadline.
(12:36):
I gave us a deadline.
We gave ourselves a deadline.
Time as a tool.
And so the the the takeaway orthe thing that I want you
thinking about is yourrelationship with time.
So some people think when itcomes to time management, it's
about managing tasks.
Okay, I've got these things onmy calendar, I've got these
(12:57):
things.
This is the appointments I needto do.
I've on my Google calendar, ormy outlook calendar, or my
whatever calendar, I've gotthese things that I'm managing
all the different activities andthat that's one element of time
management, but it's basic.
Like that's 20-year-old timemanagement.
That's not successful40-year-old time management.
(13:17):
I'm just using the ages kind ofa, it doesn't really mean
anything.
I'm just talking about levels ofsuccess.
That is not the way that asenior executive of a large
company uses time management.
It's not about putting theactivities on a calendar.
Like that's that's the 101 ofthe class.
Like that's the general ed inyour freshman year of college.
(13:38):
But the senior level course ofcollege or the postgraduate time
management is no, it's it's yourrelationship with time.
And so you work with theseorganizations that everyone,
every single person listening tothis podcast thinks they're
busy.
Goes back to the concept of thefamily that lived down the
(13:59):
street for it from us here wherewe're at.
And I thought we were crazy busywith four kids.
They had eight.
Eight.
Well, how is that possible?
And they were happy.
They don't live down the streetfrom us anymore.
They're still friends of ours,but that's why I'm using it the
past tense.
But yeah, like doing good,managing it, making a good
(14:23):
living.
You know, the kids, for the mostpart, when they left the house,
had clothes on and were, youknow, like doing stuff, playing
the instruments andextracurricular activities.
Well, how is that possible?
Because some of you have one kidand you're drowning, and you're
thinking, like, how in theworld, or your kids gone, like
(14:43):
to college or whatever, isgrowing, you're like, oh my
gosh, so busy.
It's the same reason why some ofyou have a direct report team of
five or an organization of ahundred, and you're like, oh my
gosh, this is insanely complex.
Well, why don't you talk to someof these folks that have
hundreds of thousands of peopleunderneath?
How is that possible?
That they do that and you dothat.
(15:05):
Like, you know what I mean?
We all think we're busy.
It goes to capacity, right?
Capacity is not set.
It's about your relationshipwith it.
It goes back to the whole gymexample, too, right?
Like I I've shared this before.
I get on there and I put a45-pound plate or a 25-pound
plate on something, I'm liftingit, and it takes a lot of
(15:26):
effort.
I'm like, wow, I'm kind ofmaxing out.
And then I work out with youknow our youngest son or
somebody else, or or I'm justlike just in a you know, total
um power.
Like I'm I'm I'm just superready and and uh I wanted to use
the word juiced, but you allwould take that the wrong way.
(15:46):
Naturally juiced, like justenergized, right?
I'm feeling good.
I'm at the gym, I've got someenergy, I'm motivated, like
let's go.
And so I put on twice as muchweight as I normally do.
I'm like, whoa, I can actuallydo that.
I didn't like why have I beenmessing with the 25-pound plate
for the last year and a halfwhen I actually can do the 45 or
(16:08):
whatever it is, right?
Capacity, pushing it.
And some of us, we just we we wedon't we we're not managing that
well.
And so I would just have youthink about using time as a
tool.
I love, love that phrase.
However, you want to use it,there are different ways,
leveraging time, and and the wayyou do that, lots of different
(16:30):
ways, but one way is giveyourself compressed windows.
So I'm gonna do this by that.
Whoa, are you sure?
Like that's freak, yeah.
And you don't do this, I meanyou don't do it with 40
different things in your life,you're gonna like fall apart and
crash, but with a few, andthat's and then you build up
capacity.
People are like, how do you workout every day?
(16:52):
Like, how do you talk becauseI've built the discipline and
the priority and I may whatever.
How do you get this many things?
Because I'm that's what I'mdoing.
And so have you gotten toocomplacent?
Are you giving yourself too muchtime?
You're kind of floating down thelazy river at your org.
(17:14):
And by the way, you want to workat an organization with people
that help you with this becauseyou're a reflection of their
attitude towards it.
It's just the way that it works.
That's why I love in my friendgroup people who own companies,
people who've sold companies toprivate equity or different
things, people who areexecutives of different things.
(17:36):
Not everybody I know is that,and they're different, but I
love having those people in myfriend group or my social
circles.
Why?
Because they're driven.
Crazy driven.
And then what does that do?
That rubs off on me like it'scontagious.
Love being around people thatwant to be active, want to get
off the couch, want to go dostuff that like they're loading
(17:58):
up their days.
They aren't sitting aroundgoing, you know, I don't want to
work with people like that.
I don't want to be, I've been atthat organization.
I've worked for that leader,been a part of that culture.
And, you know, there's the otherside of it where, you know, like
again, going back to not not tomake this uh mention private
equity too much, but there areextremes to it.
(18:19):
And I'm not advocating that.
Like, not not that where we'regonna grow this company by this,
and you've got to get that kindof revenue.
I'm like, okay, you've lost yourmind.
Like, you're just, yeah, okay, Iget it.
It's all about numbers to you.
No, and I'm not about that.
So there's an extreme to whatI'm talking about.
That's just, can we all justkind of roll our eyes at that
approach and go, no, that suckstoo.
(18:41):
Um, but but I just would haveyou look at that continuum.
I'd have you look at thedeadlines you're giving yourself
and had how how much urgency, oris it okay if you miss that
deadline?
Is it okay if you actually don'tgo to the gym?
Is it okay if you don't writethat book or get that article
out or finish that degree or getthat promotion or complete that
(19:03):
project or hit that revenuetarget or crush that sales
number or close that whatever,accomplish this by then?
Are you just it's kind of okay,it's cool.
Well, then yeah, you're on thelazy river and you're making all
kinds of exceptions.
And there are instances whereexceptions are totally valid
because your mental health uhdepends on it, your emotional
(19:26):
health, or life's just you gotdifferent things going on.
Family or little kids ordifferent things, and so I get
it.
Like there, there those are butthat's for a season, and then
we're gonna dial it back up, andwe're gonna use time as a tool.
And so just give your just Ijust something for you to think
(19:47):
about.
At the way you lead your teamand the way you run your own
life in as a in in a careerprofessional way?
Are you okay if you go anotheryear without really whatever?
Are you okay if you don't makemore money next year than this
year?
Are you okay if your careerdoesn't really grow?
(20:10):
Are you okay if you're notlearning and the growth curve's
kind of um not that steepanymore?
Are you okay if this projecttakes whatever?
Are you okay if is it all rightif we missed that target in this
organization or that one?
And man, I tell you what, themost successful executives that
I have met over the years, whenthey put a key result on the
(20:32):
flip chart, there's no questionabout their commitment to make
it happen.
Then there are others you walkinto and you're like, yeah, it's
kind of optional.
We'll write it there.
It's nice wallpaper, windowdressing, but time is not a
tool.
(20:52):
Things to think about in thisepisode.
Because I want you successful.
I want you to achieve yourpotential.
I want next year to be 3x withthis year, 5x, 10x this year.
I want the year after to be.
I want you to because it's notso much about the money, yes,
the lifestyle and the freedomand all that crazy good.
It's about your potential, whatyou possibly could accomplish.
(21:18):
About who you could beimpacting, about the wisdom you
could be sharing, about thelives you could be touching,
about the the services you couldbe developing, the products that
could come out of you.
Like, that's it.
I want to see you achieve that.
I just don't know if youactually want it.
And if you do, use time as atool.
(21:40):
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode of the Lead in Thirty
podcast.
SPEAKER_03 (21:45):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or
a friend.
Tap on the share button and textthe link.
Thanks for listening to the Leadin Thirty podcast with Russell.
Forget time management.
The real question is (00:02):
do you use time as a competitive weapon?
We'll dive into the science ofleveraging time to force focus,
drive growth, and stop settlingfor progress.
SPEAKER_03 (00:19):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell.
You cannot be serious.
Strengthen your ability to leadin less than 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_00 (00:31):
Lead through change.
Choose to be powerful, makedecisions faster, and with
buy-in.
Check out the new 30-dayleadership courses, now
available from Lone RockLeadership.
You can watch the preview videosright now at LoneRock.io.
SPEAKER_01 (00:45):
It is wild to watch the uh the initial reaction to
us taking these models andframeworks that we've been using
with executives for a long timeand now make them available off
the shelf in these courses ofadapt in 30, decide in 30, power
in 30.
We had over 400 people registerfor our first webinar on power
(01:07):
in 30.
Think of it as likeaccountability 2.0.
It's a decision if you show uppowerless or if you feel
powerless in a situation.
It's a decision to show uppowerfully.
That's the uh the whole point ofthat course.
We've spent years developing umwhat we used to teach around
accountability and taking it tothe next level, power and 30.
(01:30):
So, anyway, if you want moreinformation on those courses,
it's awesome to see that initialgroup of 400 people who you just
out of the blue wanted to bepart of our initial webinar on
that course.
If you want to find out more, goto LoneRock.io.
Lone Rock Leadership is our thename of our firm.
I'm Russ Hill.
I'm one of the founders, part ofthe team at our executive
(01:51):
consulting company and ourleadership training company.
And uh I make my living coachingconsulting senior executives at
some of the world's biggestcompanies.
We've taken what we've done overthe last gobs of years and
turned it into off-the-shelfsolutions.
If you listen to this podcast,you're like Russ, I already know
that.
Yeah, for the rest of you, LoneRock.io.
Go check it out.
(02:12):
Okay, time as a competitiveweapon.
So I was reading a um a bookrecently, and um what's the name
of it?
The it's a it's a fast read umby a guy that um that uh some
folks that I know know, um, butI've never met him.
(02:33):
Um Dr.
Ben uh Harding.
Uh Benjamin Hardy, I think is Ithink I've got that right.
And uh he's written a couple ofbooks.
I again I don't know him.
Um I haven't read his otherbooks, but this one I I think I
actually listened to the audio.
Like I was out doing yard workand I listened to it because
I've got that Spotify thing.
Have you all done that?
Like, you know how Audible givesyou one book a month or whatever
(02:55):
the credit is?
Um Spotify has got this thing,maybe some other companies have
it too.
Uh, you didn't even a lot of youdidn't even know that Spotify
had books, audiobooks, did you?
Yeah, it's got podcasts, like itlike Spotify is unbelievable.
We we were gonna tell a storyabout them in our new book,
Deliver, but ended up gettingcut um for various reasons.
But um, but it was reallycompelling with the research.
(03:16):
Came back and showed us aboutthe growth of that company and
the founding of it.
We'll talk about that in anotherepisode sometime.
But yeah, so Spotify is not justfor music, it's got podcasts.
You can listen to this podcast.
Some of you probably are rightnow, you can um and you can
listen to audiobooks.
And they've got this feature towhere you get instead of one
credit a month, you get 15 hoursof um audiobook listening per
(03:38):
month, which I think is so muchbetter.
You don't have to pick one book,you can listen to a chapter of
that book, three chapters ofthis book, uh, a few pages of
that book, four chapters ofthat, just 15 hours total.
And they've got like a family.
Anyway, this is not a this isnot a commercial for Spotify,
but you know, you gotta sharegood stuff when you find it.
And uh, and so you know, we'vegot the family plan with our
(03:59):
kids, and so they each now hadto pay more.
Um, but like who wouldn't whowouldn't be willing to pay money
to have their kids listening tobooks?
Like, are you kidding me?
It's been that before videogames and all this other stuff
any day of the week, right?
So um, so my kids are using thattoo now, which is awesome.
So anyway, so I'm listening tothis book.
I think it's called The Scienceof Scaling.
(04:21):
The Science of Scaling.
Um, I and and I I thought it wasreally interesting.
The part that I listened to,it's just a quick read,
whatever.
I I'm not recommending it tomost of you.
Um you can go check it out,obviously, but I uh I'm gonna
share something that came out ofit that kind of made me think
about uh this concept for thispodcast episode.
But the reason I don't recommendit is because it's more written,
(04:42):
in my opinion.
I could be wrong on this, but itstruck me um after I got in a
couple of chapters, I'm like, ohno, this book isn't um written
for people that are in bigorganizations or that lead
companies with more than like 20people.
It's written more for kind oflike the uh that whole audience.
Well, who's the guy that ismaking gobs of money right now?
Alex Hermosy.
(05:02):
Alex Hermozy, who's making gobsof money, um, you know, talking
to these folks that aretypically 20 years old to 30
years old and want to work forthemselves.
And um and so the the peoplelike Alex go out and create
these frameworks, and uh and andit's typically males, not only
(05:23):
males, but it's this 20 to 30year old male audience typically
that buys all their stuff andthen just make gobs of money
telling you how you can createyour own company and get rich
and do all these sorts ofthings.
And if it works, awesome.
That's great.
And so science of scaling ismore written about, in my mind,
I could get this wrong, um,about somebody who's like on
their own or um so somebodywho's got a little marketing
(05:45):
company and they're asolopreneur and they want to
grow and they want to scale it.
Um, but and and so it wouldn'tapply to most of us that uh are
in this audience.
Um, but I think it's great forthat audience, um, at least
potentially some of the some ofthe concepts.
Some of them I was like, I don'tknow.
I mean, but anyway, um it just Ihaven't had experience that
(06:06):
reinforces some of that stuff,but but but some of the concepts
are great.
Okay, so one of the conceptsthat I think is great that got
me thinking, because it ties toa principle that I'm a big
believer in, which and the waythat Ben or uh Dr.
Hardy or whoever wrote it inthat book, um the way they
talked about it was using timeas a tool.
And I thought that was superinteresting.
(06:28):
Time as a tool.
And so I was like, ah, I'll saymore about that.
And he did in the audiobook.
And he he he talked about um, hegot into Parkinson's law, right?
And most of you are familiarwith it.
I'll just recap it for you ifyou don't know about it.
Um, Parkinson's law is this ideathat time will uh a task will
fill the time allotted for it.
(06:50):
So, in other words, if you havea project and you give yourself
three months, you will stay, youyou can occupy three months with
that project.
If you give yourself threehours, you can probably get the
some of the main stuff done inthree hours.
You know, it's this is relative,and you know, there are there
are all kinds of variables,obviously.
(07:13):
But I see this all the time inthe work that we do because we
work with so many differentorganizations and so many
different leaders.
It's crazy.
Like sometimes we'll it's it'swild.
Sometimes I'll give you anexample.
Um, recently we sent an emailout to um numerous executives
that we work with, and we had arequest and we said, will you
review this thing and then giveus some feedback on it?
(07:35):
Like, do you do you do you agreewith this?
Do you like this?
Do you not?
So we sent it out to let's Idon't remember how many.
Let's call it 30 executives.
And some of these folks leadtens of thousands of people.
And and they've got bureaucraticorganizations and they're highly
regulated, and they've got, youknow, a ton of attorneys that
(07:57):
are influencing things.
And so you you you you put theirname on the list to send this
email to, and I'm thinking, oh,I don't think she's even going
to get back to us on that thingbecause of the culture inside
her organization, or because ofthe industry that that company
is in.
What do you know?
Like within 20, 30 minutes, ormaybe a few hours later,
(08:19):
sometimes within 24 hours, youget this response back that
says, Hey, Russ, hey, whatever,Lone Rock, this is awesome.
Yep, love it, go forward withthis, or yep, made one change to
that thing, go.
And then you have other peoplewho lead teams maybe of a
thousand, maybe five hundred,may they they lead smaller teams
(08:40):
or smaller organizations, andthey literally take days and
then you ping them or you say,Hey, by the way, did you have
anything?
Yeah, we're processing that,we're thinking about it.
We're you're like, and I'mthinking, well, the person that
has twenty times as many peopleunderneath them as you in an
(09:01):
organization that's global andyours is not, was able to move
so much faster than you were.
And it comes back to thisconcept, right?
Kind of our attitude towardstime.
I'll give you a couple otherexamples.
So in our organization, on thetraining side of our business,
we've gotten certain results,key results that we want to hit
(09:23):
this year, right?
Well, we're not owned.
We're not public, our our firmis not publicly owned.
It doesn't have shares, itdoesn't have a board of
directors, it doesn't have abunch of investors.
We we built this thing um fromthe from the ground up, right?
And so the three founders of us,we started on our own, and then
we added people to it, and we'vebeen building this leadership
team and doing all these sortsof things, and we're
(09:45):
self-funding it based on um uhjust lots of different things,
right?
So we're not going into debt, wedon't have lines of credit, we
don't owe a bank anything, wedon't we don't owe um
shareholders, we don't oweinvestors anything.
So there is nothing, there's noone.
There's no one out there saying,hey, Russ, Jared, Tanner, the
(10:06):
owners of Lone Rock Leadership,you all need to hit these key
results by the end of the theyear.
There's no one doing that.
If we don't hit it, who gives acrap?
These are all self-imposed.
And so these targets that wehave, like, they kind of keep me
(10:26):
up at night.
Not really in a bad way, butactually in an energized way.
Because at the time I'mrecording this, we've got, you
know, ever only so many weeksleft in the year, and we're
making great progress towardsthese uh, you know, some key
results more than others, somewe're crushing every month,
some, you know, we're we've gota fair distance to go.
But I am fully committed todoing everything within my
(10:47):
power, and our team is too totry to hit those.
And so meeting those goals anddeadlines and results, like the
clock is ticking.
We've got to accomplish it, sayswho?
Says us.
That says me.
That's our mentality.
(11:08):
Another one, the book we've gotcoming out.
By the time many of you arelistening to this episode, it
will already have been out.
It's coming out um very soon.
It's getting to the publishernext week.
Like it's being typeset.
Some of you don't even know whatthat anyway.
This whole team that we've gotassembled to it with people that
are doing this and that and thisand checking this.
And anyway, this whole groupthat we we hired to help us with
(11:29):
this one, they're they're likeI'm getting pinged nonstop.
And uh, this is the fourth bookthat I will be involved in.
It's our biggest, it's uh likeuh between 60 and 70,000 words.
That's as just thick.
Like it's nothing like decide tolead and other books that are,
you know, where you can read itin one setting, one night or in
a couple of days on, you know,whatever.
(11:51):
It's super fast.
This is different.
It's very meaty.
It's got tons of research in it,it's got tons of stories, it's
whatever.
And and so there is no onetelling us you have to have it
done by this time.
It's all self-imposed deadlines.
And so I'm literally like, askmy family, like I'm just
(12:13):
consumed with it right now.
I have been for weeks as we'retrying to get it across the
finish.
Like, yes, I'm doing otherthings, and I've got birthdays
in the family and family trips,and we've got this and that, and
client engagements, and flyinghere and doing that.
But any other time, any anymoment that's around that, I'm
squeezing work into because Igave myself a deadline.
(12:36):
I gave us a deadline.
We gave ourselves a deadline.
Time as a tool.
And so the the the takeaway orthe thing that I want you
thinking about is yourrelationship with time.
So some people think when itcomes to time management, it's
about managing tasks.
Okay, I've got these things onmy calendar, I've got these
(12:57):
things.
This is the appointments I needto do.
I've on my Google calendar, ormy outlook calendar, or my
whatever calendar, I've gotthese things that I'm managing
all the different activities andthat that's one element of time
management, but it's basic.
Like that's 20-year-old timemanagement.
That's not successful40-year-old time management.
(13:17):
I'm just using the ages kind ofa, it doesn't really mean
anything.
I'm just talking about levels ofsuccess.
That is not the way that asenior executive of a large
company uses time management.
It's not about putting theactivities on a calendar.
Like that's that's the 101 ofthe class.
Like that's the general ed inyour freshman year of college.
(13:38):
But the senior level course ofcollege or the postgraduate time
management is no, it's it's yourrelationship with time.
And so you work with theseorganizations that everyone,
every single person listening tothis podcast thinks they're
busy.
Goes back to the concept of thefamily that lived down the
(13:59):
street for it from us here wherewe're at.
And I thought we were crazy busywith four kids.
They had eight.
Eight.
Well, how is that possible?
And they were happy.
They don't live down the streetfrom us anymore.
They're still friends of ours,but that's why I'm using it the
past tense.
But yeah, like doing good,managing it, making a good
(14:23):
living.
You know, the kids, for the mostpart, when they left the house,
had clothes on and were, youknow, like doing stuff, playing
the instruments andextracurricular activities.
Well, how is that possible?
Because some of you have one kidand you're drowning, and you're
thinking, like, how in theworld, or your kids gone, like
(14:43):
to college or whatever, isgrowing, you're like, oh my
gosh, so busy.
It's the same reason why some ofyou have a direct report team of
five or an organization of ahundred, and you're like, oh my
gosh, this is insanely complex.
Well, why don't you talk to someof these folks that have
hundreds of thousands of peopleunderneath?
How is that possible?
That they do that and you dothat.
(15:05):
Like, you know what I mean?
We all think we're busy.
It goes to capacity, right?
Capacity is not set.
It's about your relationshipwith it.
It goes back to the whole gymexample, too, right?
Like I I've shared this before.
I get on there and I put a45-pound plate or a 25-pound
plate on something, I'm liftingit, and it takes a lot of
(15:26):
effort.
I'm like, wow, I'm kind ofmaxing out.
And then I work out with youknow our youngest son or
somebody else, or or I'm justlike just in a you know, total
um power.
Like I'm I'm I'm just superready and and uh I wanted to use
the word juiced, but you allwould take that the wrong way.
(15:46):
Naturally juiced, like justenergized, right?
I'm feeling good.
I'm at the gym, I've got someenergy, I'm motivated, like
let's go.
And so I put on twice as muchweight as I normally do.
I'm like, whoa, I can actuallydo that.
I didn't like why have I beenmessing with the 25-pound plate
for the last year and a halfwhen I actually can do the 45 or
(16:08):
whatever it is, right?
Capacity, pushing it.
And some of us, we just we we wedon't we we're not managing that
well.
And so I would just have youthink about using time as a
tool.
I love, love that phrase.
However, you want to use it,there are different ways,
leveraging time, and and the wayyou do that, lots of different
(16:30):
ways, but one way is giveyourself compressed windows.
So I'm gonna do this by that.
Whoa, are you sure?
Like that's freak, yeah.
And you don't do this, I meanyou don't do it with 40
different things in your life,you're gonna like fall apart and
crash, but with a few, andthat's and then you build up
capacity.
People are like, how do you workout every day?
(16:52):
Like, how do you talk becauseI've built the discipline and
the priority and I may whatever.
How do you get this many things?
Because I'm that's what I'mdoing.
And so have you gotten toocomplacent?
Are you giving yourself too muchtime?
You're kind of floating down thelazy river at your org.
(17:14):
And by the way, you want to workat an organization with people
that help you with this becauseyou're a reflection of their
attitude towards it.
It's just the way that it works.
That's why I love in my friendgroup people who own companies,
people who've sold companies toprivate equity or different
things, people who areexecutives of different things.
(17:36):
Not everybody I know is that,and they're different, but I
love having those people in myfriend group or my social
circles.
Why?
Because they're driven.
Crazy driven.
And then what does that do?
That rubs off on me like it'scontagious.
Love being around people thatwant to be active, want to get
off the couch, want to go dostuff that like they're loading
(17:58):
up their days.
They aren't sitting aroundgoing, you know, I don't want to
work with people like that.
I don't want to be, I've been atthat organization.
I've worked for that leader,been a part of that culture.
And, you know, there's the otherside of it where, you know, like
again, going back to not not tomake this uh mention private
equity too much, but there areextremes to it.
(18:19):
And I'm not advocating that.
Like, not not that where we'regonna grow this company by this,
and you've got to get that kindof revenue.
I'm like, okay, you've lost yourmind.
Like, you're just, yeah, okay, Iget it.
It's all about numbers to you.
No, and I'm not about that.
So there's an extreme to whatI'm talking about.
That's just, can we all justkind of roll our eyes at that
approach and go, no, that suckstoo.
(18:41):
Um, but but I just would haveyou look at that continuum.
I'd have you look at thedeadlines you're giving yourself
and had how how much urgency, oris it okay if you miss that
deadline?
Is it okay if you actually don'tgo to the gym?
Is it okay if you don't writethat book or get that article
out or finish that degree or getthat promotion or complete that
(19:03):
project or hit that revenuetarget or crush that sales
number or close that whatever,accomplish this by then?
Are you just it's kind of okay,it's cool.
Well, then yeah, you're on thelazy river and you're making all
kinds of exceptions.
And there are instances whereexceptions are totally valid
because your mental health uhdepends on it, your emotional
(19:26):
health, or life's just you gotdifferent things going on.
Family or little kids ordifferent things, and so I get
it.
Like there, there those are butthat's for a season, and then
we're gonna dial it back up, andwe're gonna use time as a tool.
And so just give your just Ijust something for you to think
(19:47):
about.
At the way you lead your teamand the way you run your own
life in as a in in a careerprofessional way?
Are you okay if you go anotheryear without really whatever?
Are you okay if you don't makemore money next year than this
year?
Are you okay if your careerdoesn't really grow?
(20:10):
Are you okay if you're notlearning and the growth curve's
kind of um not that steepanymore?
Are you okay if this projecttakes whatever?
Are you okay if is it all rightif we missed that target in this
organization or that one?
And man, I tell you what, themost successful executives that
I have met over the years, whenthey put a key result on the
(20:32):
flip chart, there's no questionabout their commitment to make
it happen.
Then there are others you walkinto and you're like, yeah, it's
kind of optional.
We'll write it there.
It's nice wallpaper, windowdressing, but time is not a
tool.
(20:52):
Things to think about in thisepisode.
Because I want you successful.
I want you to achieve yourpotential.
I want next year to be 3x withthis year, 5x, 10x this year.
I want the year after to be.
I want you to because it's notso much about the money, yes,
the lifestyle and the freedomand all that crazy good.
It's about your potential, whatyou possibly could accomplish.
(21:18):
About who you could beimpacting, about the wisdom you
could be sharing, about thelives you could be touching,
about the the services you couldbe developing, the products that
could come out of you.
Like, that's it.
I want to see you achieve that.
I just don't know if youactually want it.
And if you do, use time as atool.
(21:40):
I'll talk to you in the nextepisode of the Lead in Thirty
podcast.
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