December 5, 2024 • 49 mins
Are you overwhelmed by the endless tasks on your to-do list, feeling like true productivity is slipping through your fingers? In this episode of Roots of Success, Tommy Cole sits down with Tanya Dalton, a productivity expert who challenges common misconceptions about work-life balance and time management. Discover why traditional to-do lists may be sabotaging your success and learn how prioritizing your goals can transform not only your business but also your personal life. Tune in to uncover the secrets Tanya has used to grow multiple businesses, write best-selling books and more.
THE BIG IDEA:
Being Busy is not productive.
KEY MOMENTS:
[00:00] Starting a side business to fulfill personal needs.
[04:12] Launched Inkwell Press, scaled productivity tools business.
[07:27] Leader sets direction, ensures unified rowing.
[12:50] Do lists are ineffective; prioritize instead.
[17:59] Prioritize tasks to be present for son.
[20:13] Strategic planning to see the bigger picture.
[26:41] Kids need schedules for safety and security.
[33:03] Prioritize strategy: Business enables life goals.
[36:11] Morning site visits, afternoon paperwork, find rhythm.
[37:33] Work when most productive; balance your schedule.
[47:35] Quarterly strategic planning day for goal-setting.
QUESTIONS WE ANSWER
What are the best productivity tips for landscapers?
How can I create effective work-life balance?
What are some practical office organization ideas for increasing productivity?
How do I align my landscape operations with personal life goals?
What is the best way to write down and achieve personal goals?
What are the benefits of a morning routine for productivity?
How can landscape business owners develop a strategic planning process?
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
who's looking to up their game.
We've got a brain trust of experts tohelp you nurture the roots of a successful
business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
welcome to Roots of Success Podcast.
I'm your host Tommy Cole and we havean awesome guest today, Tanya Dalton.
(00:23):
Tanya is a.
Super inspiring woman, driven.
And also my best and worst critique onlots of things to be successful So I i've
been sort of like putting her off To bea guest on my show because i'm a little
intimidated But you know what you dowith intimidation is you just face it.
(00:47):
You don't so here we
are together finally Tanya's beenwanting to come on and I've been
like, Oh my God, I don't know if I'mready, but I guess I'm ready now.
And here we are.
I mean, might as well.
Welcome.
Welcome to
the show.
Welcome to the show.
This is great.
We're all site location.
Kind of my favorite newfavorite thing to do impromptu.
Let's have Tanya on.
(01:07):
She has, I don't know, I justwould record everything that she
talks because everything is likejuicy and fun and like practical.
So Tanya, for no one that hasany idea who you are, give us
a little bit of background.
What's going on?
Yeah.
Where do I start?
I well I started myfirst business in 2008.
with 50.
50?
(01:28):
It was supposed to be a side thing.
I was a stay at home mom.
Thought, you know, I need somethingelse other than watching the kids.
And I started growing that business.
I decided, actually, my husband was ona trip, I think maybe with Jim Calli.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah.
And he had an around the world ticketwhere he left our home in Dallas, Texas
and he flew all the way around theworld all the way to the other side.
(01:48):
He was gone for like three,four weeks at a time.
So what am I gonna do?
I don't know.
Right.
What am I going to do?
Just hang out with the kids.
I needed something else.
And so I decided I was goingto start this side business.
Well, while he's on one of thesetrips, I said to him, I said, Oh, you
know, these are all the things thatkids are doing, getting all excited.
And he got really, really quiet andhe goes, I'm missing everything.
(02:09):
I'm missing all the moments I'mmissing all the time with the kids.
And it kind of killed me.
Like I knew that he loved marketing.
I love, I knew he loved what he was doing,but he was really I have to say that
I'm really upset about not being here.
He's a really good hands on dad.
So I made the decision standing inmy bright yellow kitchen that day.
I had zero business experience.
I had never even taken abusiness course in college.
(02:29):
But I decided I was going togrow that business and absorb
my husband's MBA income.
And he was going to comeand work alongside of me.
And we were going to grow that.
And within a year I made that happen.
Okay.
So what
was the, what was it?
Well, that business at thetime I was making jewelry.
It was very specific,very niched business.
I was making jewelry and sellingit to photographers wholesale.
(02:51):
They would, I would take their images.
I would set them into heirloom qualityjewelry and then I would sell to
photographers all around the world.
Okay.
Wow So that's what allowed
us to have the freedom that I like to talkto people about the lifestyle freedom the
time freedom Right the financial freedomthat you get with entrepreneurship,
but it really wasn't making me happy
Okay,
we were able to move to ashville,north carolina, which is where
(03:11):
we live now We had all kinds offreedoms, but I wasn't happy.
I wasn't happy with doing all that
No,
I didn't feel like I was making abig enough impact in the world And
that's really you needed something
bigger.
I feel like it was sosmall and nichey, right?
I think you were YouYou're more for big stuff.
I, well, I didn't knowit at the time, right?
Because it was like paying allthe bills that paid the mortgage.
My kids like to eat three meals a day.
(03:33):
I mean, it's kind of ridiculous, right?
Come on kids.
I
mean, so it was really hard to walkaway from that, especially because.
John and I were working together.
It was our sole income basically Sowe had to make the decision to close
the business went without incomefor six months And opened up a brand
new business called inkwell press.
Yeah,
and
That is the game changer, right?
(03:56):
Yes.
Absolutely.
I mean, I remember a week before welaunched that business I looked at
John and I said, this, this is eithergoing to be amazing or we're going to
be living in our car on our bridge.
I don't know if
that's motivation, but that would belike, we're going to figure this out.
We are going to figure.
And that's what we did.
And that's, I think whatsets entrepreneurs apart.
So what year
was this?
(04:17):
That was two thousand and fourteen.
Okay,
so so
what was the productor what was the thing?
I kind of know it but I wantour audiences to understand
So we started off selling productivitytools all kinds of planners weekly
planners daily planners I really ampassionate about people being productive
because I was finding I was talkingto a lot of business owners and they
(04:39):
would say Well, how are you doing this?
How are you scaling your businesson this level with a few employees?
At home, basically.
At home.
Yeah.
I was running
the entire business out of my house.
Okay.
Shipping internationally,doing all of those things.
And so I really wanted to help peoplebe able to, to do that as well.
So I launched Inkwell Press.
We scaled to seven figuresin less than 18 months.
(05:01):
Oh my gosh.
And that was me, my husband,John, and a part time employee.
Wow.
So
people a lot of times think you have tohave these giant teams behind the scenes.
Yeah.
You have to have operations.
You have to have systems.
You have to have, right?
That's the secret.
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh my god So seven figure in 18 monthswhat the heck like relate that to
a landscaping business at the sametime That's not no easy task because
(05:24):
we're so hands on So, how are youable to sort of stack bricks on
top of each other to build it now?
Online presence is probably huge, right?
Because that's probably mostly whereit was of ordering But you also have
logistics and things and people and makethe product right come up with the product
use the product So even though landscapeis a service space, but you have a a
(05:48):
product to sell How did you how did you dothat with three people in seven figures?
Well, it does come down to service, right?
I like to say that My product basedbusiness started off as service
based as well, because it reallywas about educating people about
helping people and understandingthe much bigger why of what we do.
I think a lot of people get caught up whenthey think about their mission statements.
(06:10):
Like I know you guys at McFarlandand Stanford talk a lot about
know your mission statement,know your vision statement.
And I think the mistake peoplemake with their mission statement.
Is they talk about what they do.
And a lot of times it's way toolong and complicated, right?
No,
it's, it's, yeah, mowing grass.
Like, none of that.
No, it's none of that.
It's really why you do what you do.
Not the what, it's the why.
(06:32):
So for landscapers, it'snot about mowing the grass.
It's not about blowing theleaves or creating hardscapes.
It's about, maybe if you dohardscapes, maybe it's creating
spaces for families to come together.
That's your mission statement, right?
It's kind of like the
Amazon, right?
We just moved.
It's just.
The smile deliver happiness,
right?
That is the That's sort oflike a tagline like that.
(06:53):
That's all we do Right.
It's not we're picking up your packagesand we're moving them and transporting
and we're putting them in there andright We're gonna make you super happy
because you got the product right
exactly So it's really that looking atthat much bigger picture Right and you
as the leader have to help everybody elseon the team See that picture a lot of
times when people talk about leadershipThey talk about getting everybody on
(07:14):
the bus and I think that's all wrong
Okay,
because the truth is
like everyone drinking the Kool Aid
right people will say you got to geteverybody on the bus Well, the problem
is you're the one driving the bus, right?
They're just sitting around aspassengers It's really about getting
people to row the boat, you know,like when you see those crews So
rowing I have a job to row this orSo do you and so do you and so do
(07:39):
you whereas the bus driver is intotal charge of everything, right?
Right, but my job as the leader isto stand at the back of the boat
Telling everybody to row, right?
We're rowing right, rowing left.
I'm looking at the visionof where we're going.
I'm setting the course and Imake sure that everybody's rowing
the oars in the right direction.
Cause if everyone's rowingdifferently, we're going to
(07:59):
be spinning in circles, right?
And so that's.
That's really at the heart of it isunderstanding first of all why you do
what you do So that's your filter forall your decisions All your decisions
should be filtered through your northstar your mission your vision your core
values That is what helps you decide whatyour yeses are and what your nos are.
Can those change?
(08:20):
Oh, they should change
so don't overthink this missionvision core value, right?
I mean because The first few revisionsis going to be terrible, probably.
Oh, without a doubt.
But then you get a little bit better,and you kind of narrow that focus.
What used to be a whole paragraph, right?
And now it becomes delivering happiness.
Yes.
Or put a smile on someone's
(08:41):
face.
And even that changes.
Think about Amazon.
They started
off just
selling books.
Right.
Right?
They just did books.
And this is a mistake a lot of peoplemake when they're running their business.
They're like, I want to be Amazon.
Okay, Amazon started selling books, thenthey added in office supplies, then they
added it and they started as they grewand they got their systems to a good
place, they were able to tack on to that.
(09:02):
So, same thing here, with yourmission, your vision and your
core values, they should change.
If they're not changing,you aren't evolving.
Stagnant.
You're not growing, right?
I mean think about who you who youwere as a person five years ago,
right?
You
probably had very different missionvision and core values for yours.
Yeah, I just need a paycheck.
Yeah, that's all no good.
(09:23):
Yeah so Let's talk about you've donea lot of successful things and you've
traveled a lot You've speaking a lot.
You've done a lot of thesepodcasts, but you keep mentioning
this thing productivity
Right,
and we had a side conversation earlier.
I'm like, you know Well, you know, backwhen I was a kid I just worked hard.
I, I had two, you know, bluecollar parents and we just put
(09:46):
in the hours and we worked.
And so I kind of learned fromthat as just put in the hours, put
in the hours, put in the hours.
And if you're sitting still,it's like you're doing nothing.
I did a lot of civil constructionand when a piece of equipment's
sitting, you're losing money.
It should be moving constantly.
So I just grew up in this.
Moving, moving, moving, doing something.
(10:07):
But as I've evolved in the last,I don't know, handful of years,
I'm starting to learn that that'snot the, that's not the case.
But I'm very common as most landscaperout there, most business owners,
most middle level managers, talkabout the secrets and the success
and the whys behind productivity.
Yeah, this is such a greatquestion because you're right.
(10:27):
People feel like, oh, if I'm doing, if I'mmoving, then I'm being productive, right?
And a lot of times you're just busy.
And there's a big differencebetween busy and productive.
So
when you talk about a piece of machinerysitting still, yes, that's not productive
that it's sitting still, but it's alsoa piece of machinery, not a person.
And in
fact, many times we're being moreproductive when we are still, because
(10:49):
we're being strategic, because we're,you know, stopping and really thinking.
I like to say, and the quote that reallydefines my book, The Joy of Missing Out,
is productivity is not about doing more.
It's doing what's most important.
So it isn't like a prioritizationlist or is it, is it?
Absolutely.
Yep.
That's a hundred percent what I talkabout in my books and in my teaching.
(11:10):
Tommy, you get a gold star.
I'm a winner, winner, winner.
So yeah, it really is.
It comes down to your choices,how you're prioritizing.
You know, I mean, one of the bigbuzzwords people talk about when they talk
about productivity is time management.
And I'm here to tell you,there is no time management.
Let me just say that again.
I'm going to look right at you,you're watching this on video.
(11:31):
There is no time management.
What does
that mean?
There's no time management?
Well, you can't manage time.
Time is not somethingthat you can control.
It's not like an angry threeyear old throwing a tantrum
on the floor at Target, right?
Time is simply time.
It moves on no matter what.
What you can manage is youractivities and your choices.
Oh my gosh, I think that hit me Whyis that because I think it's a it's
(11:54):
this sexy word of time management.
We've always learned Ironically, Ithink I just had it in a presentation.
I think I need to remove it I thinkI need to pull that out real quick.
I'm calling you out a little bit.
Yeah, you're calling
me out because I I agree.
It's almost like work life balance.
There's really not there'sthere's not I don't believe
in balance either if we want to talk No, I
I've learned that and so there'snothing So it's productivity list.
(12:18):
What happens with business owners?
I found, or let's justtake mid level managers.
I've been a project manager for along, long time, and it's all about
just productivity of the tasks.
At hand.
Mm-Hmm.
. So it's more like project management.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
So, so if you've got a list of things toget to get done, you need to prioritize.
(12:39):
Yeah.
Now, next week.
Mm-Hmm.
. Next month, next year I can, I can do,we have a lot of members that come into
our ACE program and they've got lists,
right.
We go to
events.
And there's lists, and pages, and pages.
People love their lists.
So what do you
do with lists, like when you go to events,or you learn things, or you read a book,
(13:02):
or you listen to a podcast, you got allthose notes, what do I do with that?
Well, those are different questions.
So first of all, let's talk aboutjust the lists in general, because I
believe in tossing your to do lists.
I don't believe a to do list works.
I think it takes you everywherebut where you want to go.
Because it's unorganized, it'stoo long, and honestly, your brain
will go for the quickest win.
Your brain has dopamine in it, which isthat little thing that gives you that high
(13:24):
when you cross something off your list.
Right?
Like, have you ever written somethingon your list just to cross it off?
Just to
cross it off.
I knew you were going to say that.
You're using your to
do list as like an emotional, like, boostrather than as a true productivity tool.
So I tell people and I teach peoplehow to write a priority list,
which is basically a priority list.
Yeah, it's like a todo list with intention.
(13:45):
So a priority list has three differentlevels Escalate cultivate and accommodate.
So basically it's kind of ariff off the eisenhower matrix
of urgent and important, right?
So at the very top of your list youwrite the things you want to escalate
the things that are urgent They havea looming deadline right and they're
important You When I say important, I meanthey're tied to your North Star, right?
(14:07):
They're investments in your future.
They're things that are trulytied to where you want to go.
Okay.
So you, you start your list at the verytop and you just put the things that are
escalated there, important and urgent.
Next on the list rightunderneath there is cultivate.
These are items that are not urgent.
But they're important.
So things like creatingyour budget, right?
(14:27):
Creating your marketing budget orreviewing your financials, doing
some of those things that aretruly an investment in your future.
And at the bottom you have accommodate.
These are things that are not important,but they're urgent because they're urgent.
It seems like a screaming fire, right?
It's like 99 percent of what'sin your email inbox right now.
Not really that important.
(14:48):
Not that important.
And yet we structure our whole dayaround checking emails, emails.
Yes.
Right.
And so when you have your list,you start at the top with your
escalate and you move down that list.
And that gives you a lot more informationabout where you want to go, right?
A lot of business owners feel overwhelmed.
I hear that word all the time.
Oh, I'm overwhelmed.
(15:08):
Overwhelmed isn't having too much to do.
It's not knowing where to start.
And if you use a list to tellyou, okay, I'm going to start
here and I'm going to go here andthen I'm going to do this next.
All that overwhelm goes away.
It really is that simple.
So, let's talk about a day.
Because we're all guilty of this.
We get up we do our things whetherit's work out take the kids to
(15:30):
school, whatever it is, right?
There's something that goes on personallyand then we go to the office and we
go work and all the time We just weopen the laptop and we go to town
just start doing
the problem.
What's the first thing you check?
Email.
It's just a standard email.
Not me.
Not me.
Right.
So it's an email and it's justchecking things out or whatever.
And you get, and then it'stext messages and follow up.
(15:51):
And then half the day goes by.
And all of a sudden.
You're like, I got nothing done.
I haven't really done anything.
Now I'm starting to get stressed.
Right.
Because there's deadlines orthere's priority reorganization.
There's things going on and then it's arush because it's now 5 o'clock 7 and I
have to go get the kids and do something.
(16:13):
So what do you have to be productive?
Yeah.
What does someone do in the day?
Yeah.
Well, it starts with that morning, right?
That you don't check email first.
You don't let other people'sfires become your fires until
you have set your calendar.
I gotta change it.
I gotta change it.
It's such
a habit.
It really is.
And that is what a routine is.
A routine is a set of habits thatare just stacked upon each other.
(16:35):
That's habit stacking.
This habit leads to thishabit leads to this habit.
And that's what createsyour morning routine.
So, for example, instead of keepingyour phone by your bed where
you're going to check it beforeyour feet have even hit the floor,
keep your phone in the other room.
Use something else foryour alarm clock, right?
People are like, I'll use it for my alarm.
By a clock.
Yeah.
They're like 13.
Or like a
rooster or something like that.
(16:56):
Like a rooster.
Yeah.
In Asheville.
Yeah.
Like a rooster.
That works.
Yeah.
So that's the first thing is you don't letother people start encroaching your day.
You fill your calendar first.
You block off the time.
I'm a big believer in.
Do not
disturb.
Right.
Do not disturb.
Huge fan of that.
I have a sign that I put outside mydoor that says I'm in deep work mode.
My team knows not to disturbme when I'm in deep work mode.
(17:16):
Yeah.
I will come out.
I'm like, if you need something.
Send me a text message because myphone is on Do Not Disturb also.
Right, or you can write a note andpost it And I have a little spot where
they can leave leave the note forme and then i'll go find them And we
can have that conversation leave a
comment card,
right?
Every time you get interrupted youlose that state of flow and it takes
you 23 minutes to get into that deepstate So if you're getting interrupted
(17:39):
every 10 minutes It's, it's no surpriseyou're not getting anything done.
So I got, okay, so I got thepart with the alarm, right?
You get going.
So what are the things you'redoing to get the day going?
Is it something reviewing thelist, setting goals for the
day, prioritize your items?
Oh, is it?
Great question.
Yeah.
So not checking your phone first.
Okay.
And planning each day, spend 10 minutesplanning that day and deciding what
(18:03):
you're going to block into that dayand then blocking off that time.
I like to tell people, startwith the emotion you want to
feel at the end of the day.
That feels a little woo woo.
I get that, right?
But think about it.
Let's say your son plays baseball, right?
So he's got a baseball game.
How do you want to feelat the end of the day?
I want to feel presentfor his game, right?
(18:24):
So, okay, that helps me determine what arethe tasks to do today that are going to
make me feel more present tonight, right?
I need to make sure that I have thosephone calls done, I need to make sure that
I have done whatever reports I need to getdone, because I would like to be present.
Or maybe you want to feel prepared becauseyou have a big client presentation.
Maybe you have a client that you'reworking with that you're about to
(18:45):
give them a presentation of what theirlandscaping is going to look like.
Okay.
Okay.
If I want to feel prepared for mymeeting in two days, then I know
today I'm going to prioritize thatclient and I'm going to make sure that
everybody is getting their things done.
Right.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
So starting with that emotionof how you want to feel
at the end of the day.
Well, I think too often we run aroundbusy all day long checking a thousand
(19:06):
things off our to do list And weslip into bed at night and our head
hits the pillow and we think I didn't
get this done.
I
get enough done, even thoughyou're busy all day long, right?
But if you start with that feeling oflike, okay today I want to make sure
I feel Whatever at the end of the day.
I want to feel prepared.
I want to feel present.
(19:26):
I want to feel whatever it is Thenyou're making those decisions.
We talked about the fact that productivityis really about choices, right?
That helps you get clear on what you wantto prioritize And then you can structure
your day And after you have set yourday and you've blocked off time for you
to work on these things Then you giveother people access to your calendar.
(19:47):
Or like with meetings.
My team knows I don't domeetings in the morning.
I
do a meeting on Mondays.
That's our Monday Momentum meeting,which is kind of like a morning
rollout for our landscapers.
I do that for my team, right?
They're not going out and mowinglawns or, you know, laying out decks
and doing those kinds of things.
But I'm there, back of the boat, saying,hey, this is the direction we're going.
(20:09):
Kind of setting the tone for the week.
Well, yes.
I'm also setting thepriorities for the week.
Yeah.
Because in that meeting, I'm telling them,these are the priorities for this week.
These are the things weneed to get accomplished.
So everybody knows, andeverybody's on board.
My job as the leader isto zoom up and out, right?
I call it getting the forest view,
forest view.
I want to see the
(20:29):
whole forest.
If you're in the thick of it,you're just seeing the trees.
And I don't want to just see thetrees because how can I lead my team?
How can I tell them where we're going?
If I'm seeing all these trees.
So I go up and out andI create that strategy.
And so I'm really, reallyintentional with that.
I do strategy days.
I do full day strategiesat least once a quarter.
(20:50):
And at the end of the year, aroundOctober, November, I do a two
day strategic planning session.
Where I dive deep and I really getclear on where I want to prioritize
for the year to come Right.
I do those quarterly onesbecause I like to check in.
I think reflection is really reallyimportant But it's also a chance
for me to redirect and shift thingshappen in the year We're not gonna
(21:11):
be able to just set the goals andthen that's it for the year, right?
So it gives me an opportunity tocheck in so I do a whole process
where I identify I invest and Iimplement I call it my three eyes
three eyes identify You Invest.
And implement.
And implement.
Okay, three I's.
I can do that.
Yeah.
I mean, basically, when you run abusiness, it's legalized gambling, right?
(21:34):
You're putting your money on thetable, and you're like, This is
what I'm hoping is going to work.
Hey, if you run a product basedbusiness, I was basically putting up
money, like, you know, half a milliondollars in cash that I had to pay
for products before it would come in.
Right?
Hoping, I really hope thatsomeone would buy this.
I mean, when we hirepeople, we are legalized.
(21:56):
It's gambling.
That I think this personis going to work out.
I'm hoping they're going to beable to bring the revenue in.
You're banking on that.
So it's really important that we'revery clear on where we want to
go and how we want to get there.
Yeah.
Right.
That's being strategic.
Yeah.
So
by stepping back and identifying,looking for the holes, what went
well, what didn't go well, and beingtruly brutally honest with ourselves.
(22:16):
Ugh, this did not go well at all.
Man, I really, this really sucks, right?
You break down your business and youlook at the different categories.
Dive deep into it.
Take a look.
This went well.
This didn't go well.
Where do I want to go next?
That's part of identifying
yeah,
then investing I lay it out.
I literally have like a paper thatI create for myself where I map it
(22:37):
out on the table of what's the thingthat I think is going to be the
least effort, but the biggest impact.
So it's almost like a littlematrix that I lay it out on.
So I know, Hey, this is goingto be a lot of resources.
It's going to require a lot of time,a lot of people, a lot of money.
Okay.
I don't want to do a bunchof those in the coming year.
I want to do one or two ofthose, the things that are going
to be a heavy, heavy burden.
(22:58):
Pull on your resources.
I want to do all the things that Ican that make a big impact So kind of
laying those out and saying, all right,here's where I'm gonna put all my chips.
I'm gonna put my chips onthe table on these things.
And then implementing isall about communication.
It's all about getting thatinformation out to my team, making
sure that we're all on that same page.
Through not just, you know,hey, I hope we, I hope they know
(23:21):
what I'm thinking in my head.
It's, hey, we're having aweekly meeting, Monday Momentum.
Here's where we're going.
Let's look at where we'regoing and moving each week
Do you prepare the night beforethe day before the sunday
before monday morning momentum?
Like is there any prepwork going into this?
Yeah,
like what?
Yeah, so I do I actually havea system called five p's you
(23:42):
can tell I write you have
all these acronyms and little isms Ilove but that's how we remember things
it is.
Yeah, it's
Simple.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
The three I's.
The three I's.
Yep.
Five P's.
Okay, what's the five P's?
The five P's.
First one is purge, and thatmeans purge it out of your head.
We're using our head as this filingcabinet for all the things we need to do.
(24:03):
As a business owner,there's a lot of stuff.
That is me.
I'm raising my hand if
you can't see me, right?
I have a filing system thatis a train wreck in my head.
Yeah, and then you wonder why you'reeither having problems sleeping
or you're feeling so stressed.
Brain fog.
Literally, you're holdingit all in your head.
So you, basically it's a brain dump.
Get it on a sheet of paper.
Don't worry about organizing it.
Don't worry about all that.
(24:24):
Just get it on a sheet of paper.
That becomes your well thatyou're going to pull from.
For
the whole week.
So I do that twice.
Actually, I do it on Sundays with myfamily because your family is a team,
right?
And
I treat my family like a team.
We call ourselves team Dalton.
I don't want to be micromanaging my kids.
Or my husband they don't they don'tthat's not going to help them grow right?
(24:48):
We as leaders want to help people grow.
I want my family to grow I want my kidsto go out into the world and be You know,
self-sufficient adults at some point.
Yeah.
So I do that on Sundays withmy family, and we gather
together and we do all of that.
And then on Mondays, I do it first bymyself and then I do it with my team.
Okay.
And so that's the first one is topurge, get it out of your head.
Okay.
(25:08):
Okay.
I I can, I can purge.
Mm-Hmm.
. So it's best
to write down, right?
I understand.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I, I I can do that.
is there a special tabletpaper, or is there like a
journal to dump that stuff in?
I mean.
You probably provide this product.
I actually have.
Yes.
We actually have a product.
Shocker, right?
Shocker.
Called the Weekly Kickstart.
Okay.
That we sell at Inkwell Press.
That is the name of my company.
(25:29):
Okay.
Which I have sold, butI'm still a part of.
Okay.
So I use the Weekly Kickstart,and we mark it down.
It's got a spot in there for each day,so we can write down things for like the
kids, like, oh, here's soccer practice.
Here's when this is.
Because they areresponsible for themselves.
Yeah, not me
This is fascinating because wehave a sunday family meeting.
Oh, you do and it's usually
(25:50):
over food So whether it's a breakfastlunch or dinner on sundays it's tricky
with all of our schedules and trips, butwe determine the schedule for the week
Yes,
so Okay.
I know we're not purging things, but we'regetting the team right team cole Right.
We're saying monday.
You'll be here tuesday.
We'll be here.
Daddy's traveling,
(26:10):
right?
Mommy's doing this you have to go geta ride you have and I will tell you as
young kids They have, listen, they're notgonna remember everything, but they have
an idea of how the week is going to go.
Yes.
It's so we, what else we do is we go, whatwas your favorite thing from last week?
Anything to discuss that is on your mind?
(26:31):
What are you grateful for?
And do the calendar.
So good.
And it's, in fact, it was very awkward.
My kids were like, thisis the dumbest thing, mom.
Like it's so dumb, but we pull out ourcalendars and we go through everything.
Now my 13 year old has acalendar and an iPhone.
So he can see things that areon his calendar practices, where
to go, when to be picked up.
(26:52):
But if we don't have that meeting, we'vemissed some, we're, we're a train wreck.
Yeah.
Well, and this is the thing is I want mykids to be empowered to know what's coming
next and to take care of themselves.
Right.
I used to be a teacher as well.
So I know this is why teachersalways post a schedule for the
kids in the classroom because theywant to know what's happening next.
It makes them feel more safe and secure.
(27:13):
Honestly, it's like thebottom of Maslow's pyramid.
They want
to feel safe and secure.
So they want to know what's happening.
Your team at work feelsexactly the same way.
Yep.
So
we got
purge.
So the next one is process.
So we had purge, then we have processand processes take five to 10 minutes
to sit down each day and map out whatyou want to get done for that day.
(27:34):
What we talked about there withwhat's the emotion I want to
feel at the end of the day.
How do I want to feel, right?
Answer that question.
And then, okay, here's the question.
Here's what I'm going to do.
And that's our third P is to prioritize.
Okay.
Create your priority list, right?
Write down, okay, well nowthat I know I want to feel X,
I'm going to do these things.
Put them in your prioritylist, in order of priority.
(27:56):
And then we need to protect.
That's our fourth P.
You want to protect that time, right?
You want to make sure that you're blockingoff your calendar and if your team has
access to your calendar, make sure it'smarked off and it is like non negotiable.
Do not disturb.
Do not
disturb.
Yeah.
I think
that's a lot happens with us.
I think there's an intention to putsomething on the calendar or if there's
(28:17):
an intention, I got to do this today andI got to lock out some time to do it.
I don't think we're disciplined enoughto actually shut the door and do it.
I think shutting the door is okay.
Shutting the
door and you put the sign up.
Yeah.
You literally just put up a sign.
I'm in do not disturb mode.
I'm doing the whole
old school thinking likemy door's always open.
(28:38):
Your door should not always be open.
If your door is always open,you're not doing any thinking time.
Gotcha.
No strategic thinking time, right?
Because you're putting out fires.
And they're using, everyone's
coming in,
well, they're using youas a soothing mechanism.
I'm stressed because Idon't know what to do.
And you're becoming the bottleneck.
You wonder why you can'twalk away and leave work.
I mean, I go on two weekunplugged vacations where my team
(29:01):
cannot access me intentionally.
I want them to be empowered.
I want them.
This is why I hired them.
They're A players.
Treat them like A players, right?
So protect your calendar.
That's when after you've donethat, then you're going to put
in other people's things and what
they need,
right?
And then our fifth P is to propel
to give yourself more
water in the well, right?
(29:22):
So I like to do this littleprocess at the end of the day.
I call the five minute downloadwhere I take five minutes.
At the end of each day to help me propelinto the next day So I start with minute
one is what have I accomplished today?
A lot of times we forget all thethings that we've done Well, right
the things that we did that's so true
be grateful that I did accomplish alot of you'll be surprised When you
(29:45):
take a minute you're like, oh my gosh Iand you we have to physically write it
because you want to see it on the page andyou're going to say Wow, I got a lot done.
I got a lot accomplished, right?
Minute two is reallyabout assessing yourself.
How did I feel today?
Was I super stressed?
Did I put too much on my plate?
Okay, I need to startadjusting that, right?
Give yourself a rating on one to ten.
(30:06):
How did I feel with my productivity today?
That'll
start if you're having a lot of dayswhere you're like nine ten That's good.
You're doing great.
Yeah.
If
you have a lot of days that areseven, we need to change some things.
Gotcha.
Seven or below, right?
So you're kind
of giving yourself a scorecardof how things are going.
Yeah.
Day to day.
How do I feel?
Yeah.
I think we negate that so much about,isn't it really about being happy?
(30:28):
Isn't that why, why do we go?
That's what we're chasing.
Yeah, that's, everybody's chasing that.
Every goal you've ever set in yourentire life, Is steeped in happiness.
Yeah,
I want to be happy.
Why are you running your own business?
Not because you want to have anulcer and work 80 hours a week,
right?
It's
because you want to be happy and youwant to have more freedom, right?
So how am I doing with that?
So check in minute three write down threethings you're grateful for for today and
(30:53):
be specific Don't say I'm grateful formy family and grateful for the weather.
I'm grateful for the weather becausetoday was a beautiful day and we
were able to really go out thereand get so much done and we enjoyed
lunch outside, whatever it is.
Right.
Then minute four.
What did I do today?
What's one thing I did to getcloser to one of the goals?
One of my goals, what did I do?
(31:14):
Right?
Because that helps you stay goal centered.
And then minute five is, Alright,what do I want to accomplish tomorrow?
I'm not planning out the day, butI'm getting it out of my head,
and onto the sheet of paper.
And then what I do is I take that sheetof paper, I leave it on my desk, And
that closes that work compartment for me.
And then I can go home and befully a hundred percent present.
(31:34):
Engaged for my family.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
I like to think of 'em like as a door.
Yeah.
I'm closing one doorand opening the other.
Yeah.
The nice thing is, the nextmorning when I come into my office,
guess what's waiting for me.
Bet.
Guess here's, look at all thethings I accomplished yesterday.
Look at what I was grateful for.
Starting
off.
I
look at that.
As i'm doing my processing
time That
all works together.
Yeah, so god, this is fascinating Myhead is just like i'm I think i'm ready
(31:57):
to go back to the office and like Getall because I I personally I struggle
with this I'm a guy that needs to getthings going now And it's it i'm a filing
cabin in my head and I will tell youadmittedly I've got a little brain fog.
I got scatterish.
I, I'm juggling.
I get stressed.
(32:18):
I get snappy.
We all get snappy.
That's the thing.
Okay.
And then we're not showing up asour best version of ourselves.
No,
no.
I mean, isn't that what we want isto be the best version of ourselves?
Yeah, and
we know that we're self sabotagingby not taking care of these things,
right?
But yeah, how do I want to feel youknow, how I don't want to feel snappy
(32:39):
snappy.
Yeah, I'm very snappy It justdepends on the mood of what
what's going on in that day
Yeah, but if you start the day withhow do I want to feel at the end,
and
you make those decisions based offthat, yeah, it changes everything.
It really does.
How's your
office set up?
That's a good question.
I mean, it's pretty organized.
Yeah.
I mean, I like to organize, butI'm not super anal with like,
(33:01):
everything's color coded, everything.
I have spaces for me to, becauseI make sure that I meditate every
day, I make sure that I have time.
I'm a big believer in taking anafternoon nap and having still time.
I have to have a comfortable chair becauseI like to sit somewhere comfortable
while I'm doing my strategic thinking.
And
I make sure I'm pulling timeevery day to be strategic, right?
(33:21):
To really think aboutwhere do I want to go?
Where have we been?
What
do I want for the company?
What do I want for myself?
I think the thing is, is a lot oftimes as business owners, we think
of our business as the end goal.
And the truth is, that's not the end goal.
Totally not.
Business is the vehicle forthe life we really want.
(33:42):
Right.
So
let's treat it like the vehicle.
And if you're treating it as theend all, be all of everything,
everything else is getting pushedaside, including your family time.
Is that really what you want?
Start doing more of whatyou want, you desire.
Because, Then you're going to be happier.
So let's take, for example,this is really good, by the way.
(34:02):
Well, thank you.
I try.
I thank God we're recording this becauseI'd have to go back and watch this.
But take, take for instance, like aproject manager that's on the go a lot,
or someone in the field that is observing.
Maintenance and installations talk.
I just did a presentation on crewleader and how valuable the crew
leader is to in an organization.
(34:23):
Yeah.
When they're out there andthere's no, there's no desk.
Okay,
so that that's a whole different setup.
What do you recommendfor people like that?
They're always on thego They're on the field.
They're checking jobs or managing things.
What is what is your sort of key things?
Well, i'm a big believer in that all ofthis has to be customized to you, right?
I think the reason why so oftenwe fail in the past is we think
(34:44):
there's like this magical system for
everything for everything Right,
and then we try to like bend and twistourselves to try to fit the system And
then we find ourselves not being happybecause we're Bending and twisting
ourselves and contorting ourselves,
right?
In truth, it's your priorities.
What is most importantto you at the center?
And then we wrap everything around that.
So what works for you?
(35:05):
I think, you know, when we thinkabout your office or your systems
or any of those things, you have tothink about what am I really good at?
What are my strengths?
But you also have to thinkabout what are my weaknesses?
What are the things thatI don't do well, right?
You know like for me I'm, not the typeof person who's gonna like neatly fold a
towel and do this So I don't have towelbars in my bathroom because otherwise I
(35:26):
feel like a failure I put in hooks Right?
Cause I'll hang it on the hook.
And that totally works.
I don't have to have a towel bar.
So it's the same thingwith anything you do.
Is this really going to work for you?
And you have to ask yourself that.
So if you are a person who's like,I just never write anything down.
Okay, great.
Start keeping like a littlenotepad in your truck.
Right?
Or get a weekly kickstart.
(35:48):
You know, Tommy, I'm coming toyour house in a couple of weeks.
I'll bring you a weekly kickstartso you can get started doing that.
so it really is dependenton what you're doing.
Obviously we use a lotof technology, right.
And especially with checking in truthis you actually are more likely.
to accomplish your goals.
If you physically write themdown, it triggers our brain
in a very different way.
(36:08):
And so we'll actuallyaccomplish them versus writing
it down with just a computer.
Yeah.
So I would say it doesn't matter whatyou use as long as you feel successful.
If you're doing something becausethis is what I've always done and you
find that you don't feel successful,why are you doing that still?
Yeah.
Shake it up.
I believe
I was in project manager for awhile,did a lot of field stuff, but your
(36:30):
truck, your vehicle and your officeback at the shop, it's still a, a place.
So my standard routine wasgetting into the shop early.
You know mingling with the crews andthe guys seeing the morning roll out
and then I would Go to job sites firstthing in the morning when my brain is
really on sharp, check things out, setthe tone for the day, visit with the
(36:50):
teams, meet people out in the field.
And then my aft, my midday was thelunch sort of regroup and change it
now to the afternoon to where I dida little bit of paperwork stuff.
And so I agree with you.
You got to find that rhythm that works.
Maybe it's flipped for others.
It might be.
And, so, I don't want to puta little blanket on everyone.
(37:12):
Like you were saying, you'regoing to have to find that
Avenue that works really well.
And some field managersare best in the morning.
Some are better in the afternoons.
Some stay later and close the shop.
Some get there super early.
So you have to navigate and adjust.
Based on what your strength is.
Yeah, again, there's no magic systemOkay, you know we read these articles like
the 100 things that CEOs do before 6 a.
(37:34):
m And you're like, oh, I can't do that
And it's like that's great for thosepeople maybe they really like getting
up early you like getting up reallyearly you like working out Early right
and doing those things, but otherpeople don't right And that's okay.
So this is why it's so important to do.
You know, when we talked aboutthe idea of propel, like checking
in, how did I feel today?
(37:54):
How did, how was my stress?
How did, how did today feel?
Start paying attention to, you knowwhat, the afternoon isn't the perfect
time for me to do whatever, right?
I feel much sharp.
Some people feel much sharperat 10 o'clock at night.
Yeah,
great, right?
Nobody said that you can't dothat work at 10 o'clock at night.
We get caught up in this idea of balance.
Like, oh, it's 10 o'clock at night.
(38:14):
And even though I want to work,like, I'm just like, let that go.
Get that work done.
But if you're doing that thengo into the office later or make
sure in the mid afternoon You'regoing home or doing whatever
right
but figure out just pay attentionto you Yeah, stop trying to fit in
with what everybody else is doing
Yeah, and with all the stuff going onin the world right and social media.
(38:35):
We're sort of just We'relooking for quick fixes.
We're
reactionary.
And reactionary,
and this is what I should be doing basedon some random stranger yelling and
screaming and doing all kinds of things.
We should
on ourselves so much, it's ridiculous.
I should be doing this.
And this is the problem witha lot of goals that we set.
We're looking around and we're payingattention to what everybody else is doing.
We're like, Oh, this guy, thisguy across town, he's doing this.
(38:58):
I should do more of that.
Or this person over here,they're doing these things.
I should be doing that.
Right.
And
we don't stop to askourselves the question.
Is that really what I want?
Which is why again, I stop anddo the strategy days, right?
Because it's all about my North star.
Where do I want this company to go?
Where do I want to be?
am I building this companyto sell in five years?
(39:19):
And I have a very different set ofpriorities than somebody who's, I'm
wanting to build this company in fiveyears to hand it over to my son, or I'm
building this company to continue to grow.
And it's okay sometimes to say, Hey,I want to, I want to grow the company.
It's also okay to say I want to getto 5 million and I want to stay there.
Yeah,
because that feels good to me Right.
I'm not interested in beingthe next amazon or the next
(39:42):
80 million dollars, which is
totally greatness,
right?
So that's why all of this hasto be customized to you, what
you want, what you desire.
Stop worrying about whateverybody else is doing.
Don't feel like you have to get upat the crack of dawn and do burpees
because Tommy's up doing God knows what.
You can, you can.
And I don't force it on people, butthere's, there's an attractiveness
(40:05):
of some people that want it.
And I was at the gym this morningand as soon as I walked in, there's
two or three people going, he's here.
And I'm like, Oh crap.
I,
well, yeah, this is the thing,Tommy, like if you don't show up,
people are like, where's Tommy?
But guess what?
Holds me a littleaccountable to get things.
Well, we
know McFarland Stanfordloves accountability.
So I got
one more good juicy thing.
We get it.
We got it.
We got a hammer out.
(40:25):
We had a discussionprior to this about this.
Work life balance thingy, right?
And we've it's I feel like it'sbeen a fad for a while, right?
Trying to find this balance of i'mworking And then I stop and then I
do this but like let me put this inperspective When we made a lot of
aces we give updates When they updatetheir personal thing More than half of
(40:50):
them says I got my work life balance.
I'm working so much.
I gotta find the work lifebalance and i'm like Right.
Yes,
and I want to just reallylike go on a tangent.
So What's your perception of this thing?
And help us out with this
This mythical illusion ofbalance that does not exist.
(41:10):
Well, truly, we don't want balance.
Because if you're balanced, you'renot moving in any direction.
Think about riding a bike, right?
To ride a bike, yes,you have to be balanced.
And that's fine.
If you want to stay on the same oldroad, go in the same direction, just
doing the same thing over and over again.
If you want to go left, youhave to lean to the left.
You have to go out of balance, right?
(41:31):
You have to pour moreof you into that left.
Balance.
You can't stay poured over too long.
You'll fall down.
You'll scrape your leg, right?
You have to counterbalance and thenmaybe you want to go to the right
so you lean to the right So it's aseries of of getting out of perfect
balance and counterbalancing and thenleaning again And so when we think
about our lives We can think of it interms of like work, work life, right?
(41:52):
Personal life, home life,however you want to look at it.
And it's like, okay, I'm goingto lean into work for a while.
That means I'm kind of picking up andnot doing quite as much with my family.
Can't do that for forever.
I need a counterbalance and then maybeI want to lean more into family things.
For the next season of mylife, the next quarter.
This again is why I stop everyquarter and I do the strategy, right?
(42:15):
Cause it's like, all right, where amI leaning this quarter for the next 90
days, where am I leaning most of my time,energy focus, because this is the thing
in order to do anything, it requires.
A commitment, right?
Right.
The cost of greatness is commitment.
So
you have to commit to leaning into it andit's okay to lean it's okay to go and work
(42:38):
hard But we can't stay leaned over youneed to counterbalance So for example when
I have a book launching and I get intobook launch mode and i'm doing hundreds
of podcasts interviews and Going out andtrying to move as many books as I can
because harper collins really wants me tosell a lot of books I know that i'm going
to be leaning into that for a season.
So I always plan a big family vacation
(43:01):
Right at the
end of that right I havethat's my carrot, right?
Because then i'm like, oh i'm exhausted.
I'm tired.
I've just written a book There's no
work life balance like you'reall in on this book until
february when it comes right?
You you got to be all in
right?
And then I'll
counterbalance and
then I will work on my othergoals, my personal things and
(43:22):
things with my family's anymore.
And I make sure to communicatethat with my family.
Right.
That's part of those meetings.
I think it's really important.
I've always been a big advocate forletting your family in on what your
business is doing, what's happening,because you know what, they can lift
you up just like we lift each other up.
And right when my son, youknow, when he was doing plays,
And he'd have, rehearsals.
(43:44):
Part of our conversation is all right.
Who's picking up theslack of Jack's chores.
All right.
Okay.
You're going to do this,John, you're going to do this.
I'm going to do these things.
Your family can do that for you as well.
Your team at work can do that as well.
Right.
So, Hey, everybody, thisis what I'm leaning into.
Yeah.
All right.
Then they can help you and supportyou and then you can keep moving.
So that's fascinating.
(44:04):
Fascinating.
My when I left on this trip My daughter'snine and It's pretty fascinating
because we have a map of the u.
s In her playroom and I always tellher the state that i'm going to so
she's kind of realizing Oh, okay.
You're going here.
All right, so the capital and we'relearning that and so now she's
got an ipad right so she can kindof a little do a little texting
(44:26):
back and forth It's really funny.
Yeah,
and and so I always send a littlemotivational things like have a great
day to my son or you know random thingsand and This week as we're traveling,
I got a message from a nine year oldsays, hi daddy, hope you slay the day.
And I'm like, how awesome is that?
Because I let her know what,you know, it's kind of funny.
(44:47):
Like I'll let her know a littletidbits of what I'm doing.
And she's like, well, whatdo you do when you travel?
And I'm like, I don't really know.
Like I got clients andlike, what's a client.
They, you know, they pay.
And so there's that dialogueof knowing what's going on.
But yet, That's just part of our life.
It's part of what we did.
And going back to the whole Igot to find a work life balance.
I think it's an excuse
(45:09):
to
say this is what's going onbecause they're so buried in
and it's like, I'm working 70hours a week and there's a badge
of pride that comes with that.
Right.
Hey, look at me, everybody.
I'm working like 80 hour weeks.
Yeah.
We use that as a badge of, we'rereally proud of how hard we work.
Yeah,
and it's not about the hours.
(45:29):
No, don't give me
it's really not actually theresults research shows after 50
hours Your productivity declineslike you're you're spending more
time doing getting less work done.
So
right
Yeah, I love that.
I mean think about because I know tommyyour dad was really instrumental for
you Right.
Yeah, and
you talk about how?
You would roll newspapers with your dadand do those kinds of things, right?
(45:51):
That is the harmony, not the balance.
Your dad getting up with you and spendingthat time with you, that was really
important and he modeled that for you.
So when you're telling your daughterand your son about, this is what
I'm doing, I'm teaching people aboutthis, they're taking all of that in.
Like my kids Very
observant, like they're a sponge.
They're a sponge.
My kids now are 18 and 21.
(46:12):
My daughter is 18.
She's a manager of a Chick fil a.
She's been a manager sinceshe was 17 years old.
Love
it.
She started working at 15.
Do you know
how awesome that is?
That's like a great business,great company, systems, process,
pride, hiring, onboarding.
I know.
Yeah.
And she, and she's like, I want togo, I want to go into businesses and I
want to help them do all these thingsbecause she's like, I love leading.
(46:36):
Great.
So I think what's going to happen iswe're going to offer her a job soon.
We're going to observe it.
We're going to go there and she'sgoing to, we're going to learn a ton.
That's a great business to learn in.
Yeah, we do that through modeling bysharing our experiences and that that
brings your team at home closer to youbeing honest about what's going on.
Sometimes we have bad days at theoffice and saying, this is why
(46:58):
I had a bad day and telling mykids this is what's happening.
I'm stressed.
I mean, I'll tell you afunny story real quick.
I know we're wrapping up, but John and Ihad been kind of going around and around.
I had an employee that really neededto get fired and I hadn't done it.
I hadn't done it.
Kind of put it all offone of those things.
And my son comes downstairs and hegoes, what are you guys talking about?
I said, well, I'm talkingabout this person.
(47:19):
And he goes, Oh, good God.
Would you fire her?
Just do it.
He did, and you know what?
He fired her the next day, and it wasthe smartest decision I could have made.
It's because
it's emotions, it's overthinking, it's howI got to do it, but I don't want to do it.
Yeah,
I mean And the
kids have no filter.
No.
None.
They will tell you.
They will tell you.
Even when you don't want to hear it.
Yeah.
(47:40):
So true.
Well, Tanya, this has been great.
What's one thing to leave our audienceafter all this discussion that says
one more little nugget left behind?
I would say, you know, if there wasone thing I would encourage people to
do is how, you know, I talked about,I talked about the five P's and the
three I's if you could carve out andyou can carve out one day, a quarter
(48:03):
that is for your strategic planning.
To really dive deep, to figureout what are the habits I
want to establish for myself.
What do I want to change?
What do I like?
Where do I want to go?
And start doing that.
You got to put it on yourcalendar months in advance.
Because you're blocking out the day.
Right?
So right now, if you'll block outtime for the end of Q1 in March, Hey,
(48:23):
here's my strategic planning day.
I go ahead and I mark it off.
It's marked off forlike the next 10 years.
Because it's blocked.
So if you'll do that, And you giveyourself that time and space to
really think through who you are,what you want, where you want to go.
Business is easy.
I'm ready to go.
Like, I think I'm ready to go home andstart crank, and start cranking this out.
(48:44):
Get an equal.
Well, I'll see you here soon.
Yep.
So I'm going to have to buyone of those off of you.
And I'm going to do the three, the,the three I's and the five P's.
Emotion, what I wantat the end of the day.
Cause always something at the end of theday that I'm striving for it to get to.
I am an example of a lot ofpeople out there right now that
needs a little bit of help.
So thank you so much.
(49:05):
Like this has been great.
She's awesome.
Where, where can they find Tanya Dalton?
Yeah.
Well, tanyadalton.
com is the best place for me.
I have a podcast with300 some odd episodes.
You can find access to my books.
I have three books.
Well, my third book's coming outwith HarperCollins in February.
But yeah, and I speak and Ido trainings and all kinds
of things.
(49:25):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Tanya.
It's been awesome.
That's Roots of Success.
Ah, I got that off my plate.
Now we have to just do ita little more often, right?
That's great.
Thank you again.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
Ready to take the next step?
Download our free Profitability Scorecardto quickly create your own baseline
financial assessment and uncover thefastest ways to improve your business.
(49:48):
Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecardto get yours today To learn more about
McFarlin Stanford our best in classpeer groups and other services go to
our website at McFarlinStanford.comAnd don't forget to follow us on
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
See you next time on the Roots of Success.
The Roots of Success podcast isfor the landscape professional
who's looking to up their game.
We've got a brain trust of experts tohelp you nurture the roots of a successful
business and grow to the next level.
This is The Roots of Success.
welcome to Roots of Success Podcast.
I'm your host Tommy Cole and we havean awesome guest today, Tanya Dalton.
(00:23):
Tanya is a.
Super inspiring woman, driven.
And also my best and worst critique onlots of things to be successful So I i've
been sort of like putting her off To bea guest on my show because i'm a little
intimidated But you know what you dowith intimidation is you just face it.
(00:47):
You don't so here we
are together finally Tanya's beenwanting to come on and I've been
like, Oh my God, I don't know if I'mready, but I guess I'm ready now.
And here we are.
I mean, might as well.
Welcome.
Welcome to
the show.
Welcome to the show.
This is great.
We're all site location.
Kind of my favorite newfavorite thing to do impromptu.
Let's have Tanya on.
(01:07):
She has, I don't know, I justwould record everything that she
talks because everything is likejuicy and fun and like practical.
So Tanya, for no one that hasany idea who you are, give us
a little bit of background.
What's going on?
Yeah.
Where do I start?
I well I started myfirst business in 2008.
with 50.
50?
(01:28):
It was supposed to be a side thing.
I was a stay at home mom.
Thought, you know, I need somethingelse other than watching the kids.
And I started growing that business.
I decided, actually, my husband was ona trip, I think maybe with Jim Calli.
Okay.
Right?
Yeah.
And he had an around the world ticketwhere he left our home in Dallas, Texas
and he flew all the way around theworld all the way to the other side.
(01:48):
He was gone for like three,four weeks at a time.
So what am I gonna do?
I don't know.
Right.
What am I going to do?
Just hang out with the kids.
I needed something else.
And so I decided I was goingto start this side business.
Well, while he's on one of thesetrips, I said to him, I said, Oh, you
know, these are all the things thatkids are doing, getting all excited.
And he got really, really quiet andhe goes, I'm missing everything.
(02:09):
I'm missing all the moments I'mmissing all the time with the kids.
And it kind of killed me.
Like I knew that he loved marketing.
I love, I knew he loved what he was doing,but he was really I have to say that
I'm really upset about not being here.
He's a really good hands on dad.
So I made the decision standing inmy bright yellow kitchen that day.
I had zero business experience.
I had never even taken abusiness course in college.
(02:29):
But I decided I was going togrow that business and absorb
my husband's MBA income.
And he was going to comeand work alongside of me.
And we were going to grow that.
And within a year I made that happen.
Okay.
So what
was the, what was it?
Well, that business at thetime I was making jewelry.
It was very specific,very niched business.
I was making jewelry and sellingit to photographers wholesale.
(02:51):
They would, I would take their images.
I would set them into heirloom qualityjewelry and then I would sell to
photographers all around the world.
Okay.
Wow So that's what allowed
us to have the freedom that I like to talkto people about the lifestyle freedom the
time freedom Right the financial freedomthat you get with entrepreneurship,
but it really wasn't making me happy
Okay,
we were able to move to ashville,north carolina, which is where
(03:11):
we live now We had all kinds offreedoms, but I wasn't happy.
I wasn't happy with doing all that
No,
I didn't feel like I was making abig enough impact in the world And
that's really you needed something
bigger.
I feel like it was sosmall and nichey, right?
I think you were YouYou're more for big stuff.
I, well, I didn't knowit at the time, right?
Because it was like paying allthe bills that paid the mortgage.
My kids like to eat three meals a day.
(03:33):
I mean, it's kind of ridiculous, right?
Come on kids.
I
mean, so it was really hard to walkaway from that, especially because.
John and I were working together.
It was our sole income basically Sowe had to make the decision to close
the business went without incomefor six months And opened up a brand
new business called inkwell press.
Yeah,
and
That is the game changer, right?
(03:56):
Yes.
Absolutely.
I mean, I remember a week before welaunched that business I looked at
John and I said, this, this is eithergoing to be amazing or we're going to
be living in our car on our bridge.
I don't know if
that's motivation, but that would belike, we're going to figure this out.
We are going to figure.
And that's what we did.
And that's, I think whatsets entrepreneurs apart.
So what year
was this?
(04:17):
That was two thousand and fourteen.
Okay,
so so
what was the productor what was the thing?
I kind of know it but I wantour audiences to understand
So we started off selling productivitytools all kinds of planners weekly
planners daily planners I really ampassionate about people being productive
because I was finding I was talkingto a lot of business owners and they
(04:39):
would say Well, how are you doing this?
How are you scaling your businesson this level with a few employees?
At home, basically.
At home.
Yeah.
I was running
the entire business out of my house.
Okay.
Shipping internationally,doing all of those things.
And so I really wanted to help peoplebe able to, to do that as well.
So I launched Inkwell Press.
We scaled to seven figuresin less than 18 months.
(05:01):
Oh my gosh.
And that was me, my husband,John, and a part time employee.
Wow.
So
people a lot of times think you have tohave these giant teams behind the scenes.
Yeah.
You have to have operations.
You have to have systems.
You have to have, right?
That's the secret.
Yeah.
Okay.
Oh my god So seven figure in 18 monthswhat the heck like relate that to
a landscaping business at the sametime That's not no easy task because
(05:24):
we're so hands on So, how are youable to sort of stack bricks on
top of each other to build it now?
Online presence is probably huge, right?
Because that's probably mostly whereit was of ordering But you also have
logistics and things and people and makethe product right come up with the product
use the product So even though landscapeis a service space, but you have a a
(05:48):
product to sell How did you how did you dothat with three people in seven figures?
Well, it does come down to service, right?
I like to say that My product basedbusiness started off as service
based as well, because it reallywas about educating people about
helping people and understandingthe much bigger why of what we do.
I think a lot of people get caught up whenthey think about their mission statements.
(06:10):
Like I know you guys at McFarlandand Stanford talk a lot about
know your mission statement,know your vision statement.
And I think the mistake peoplemake with their mission statement.
Is they talk about what they do.
And a lot of times it's way toolong and complicated, right?
No,
it's, it's, yeah, mowing grass.
Like, none of that.
No, it's none of that.
It's really why you do what you do.
Not the what, it's the why.
(06:32):
So for landscapers, it'snot about mowing the grass.
It's not about blowing theleaves or creating hardscapes.
It's about, maybe if you dohardscapes, maybe it's creating
spaces for families to come together.
That's your mission statement, right?
It's kind of like the
Amazon, right?
We just moved.
It's just.
The smile deliver happiness,
right?
That is the That's sort oflike a tagline like that.
(06:53):
That's all we do Right.
It's not we're picking up your packagesand we're moving them and transporting
and we're putting them in there andright We're gonna make you super happy
because you got the product right
exactly So it's really that looking atthat much bigger picture Right and you
as the leader have to help everybody elseon the team See that picture a lot of
times when people talk about leadershipThey talk about getting everybody on
(07:14):
the bus and I think that's all wrong
Okay,
because the truth is
like everyone drinking the Kool Aid
right people will say you got to geteverybody on the bus Well, the problem
is you're the one driving the bus, right?
They're just sitting around aspassengers It's really about getting
people to row the boat, you know,like when you see those crews So
rowing I have a job to row this orSo do you and so do you and so do
(07:39):
you whereas the bus driver is intotal charge of everything, right?
Right, but my job as the leader isto stand at the back of the boat
Telling everybody to row, right?
We're rowing right, rowing left.
I'm looking at the visionof where we're going.
I'm setting the course and Imake sure that everybody's rowing
the oars in the right direction.
Cause if everyone's rowingdifferently, we're going to
(07:59):
be spinning in circles, right?
And so that's.
That's really at the heart of it isunderstanding first of all why you do
what you do So that's your filter forall your decisions All your decisions
should be filtered through your northstar your mission your vision your core
values That is what helps you decide whatyour yeses are and what your nos are.
Can those change?
(08:20):
Oh, they should change
so don't overthink this missionvision core value, right?
I mean because The first few revisionsis going to be terrible, probably.
Oh, without a doubt.
But then you get a little bit better,and you kind of narrow that focus.
What used to be a whole paragraph, right?
And now it becomes delivering happiness.
Yes.
Or put a smile on someone's
(08:41):
face.
And even that changes.
Think about Amazon.
They started
off just
selling books.
Right.
Right?
They just did books.
And this is a mistake a lot of peoplemake when they're running their business.
They're like, I want to be Amazon.
Okay, Amazon started selling books, thenthey added in office supplies, then they
added it and they started as they grewand they got their systems to a good
place, they were able to tack on to that.
(09:02):
So, same thing here, with yourmission, your vision and your
core values, they should change.
If they're not changing,you aren't evolving.
Stagnant.
You're not growing, right?
I mean think about who you who youwere as a person five years ago,
right?
You
probably had very different missionvision and core values for yours.
Yeah, I just need a paycheck.
Yeah, that's all no good.
(09:23):
Yeah so Let's talk about you've donea lot of successful things and you've
traveled a lot You've speaking a lot.
You've done a lot of thesepodcasts, but you keep mentioning
this thing productivity
Right,
and we had a side conversation earlier.
I'm like, you know Well, you know, backwhen I was a kid I just worked hard.
I, I had two, you know, bluecollar parents and we just put
(09:46):
in the hours and we worked.
And so I kind of learned fromthat as just put in the hours, put
in the hours, put in the hours.
And if you're sitting still,it's like you're doing nothing.
I did a lot of civil constructionand when a piece of equipment's
sitting, you're losing money.
It should be moving constantly.
So I just grew up in this.
Moving, moving, moving, doing something.
(10:07):
But as I've evolved in the last,I don't know, handful of years,
I'm starting to learn that that'snot the, that's not the case.
But I'm very common as most landscaperout there, most business owners,
most middle level managers, talkabout the secrets and the success
and the whys behind productivity.
Yeah, this is such a greatquestion because you're right.
(10:27):
People feel like, oh, if I'm doing, if I'mmoving, then I'm being productive, right?
And a lot of times you're just busy.
And there's a big differencebetween busy and productive.
So
when you talk about a piece of machinerysitting still, yes, that's not productive
that it's sitting still, but it's alsoa piece of machinery, not a person.
And in
fact, many times we're being moreproductive when we are still, because
(10:49):
we're being strategic, because we're,you know, stopping and really thinking.
I like to say, and the quote that reallydefines my book, The Joy of Missing Out,
is productivity is not about doing more.
It's doing what's most important.
So it isn't like a prioritizationlist or is it, is it?
Absolutely.
Yep.
That's a hundred percent what I talkabout in my books and in my teaching.
(11:10):
Tommy, you get a gold star.
I'm a winner, winner, winner.
So yeah, it really is.
It comes down to your choices,how you're prioritizing.
You know, I mean, one of the bigbuzzwords people talk about when they talk
about productivity is time management.
And I'm here to tell you,there is no time management.
Let me just say that again.
I'm going to look right at you,you're watching this on video.
(11:31):
There is no time management.
What does
that mean?
There's no time management?
Well, you can't manage time.
Time is not somethingthat you can control.
It's not like an angry threeyear old throwing a tantrum
on the floor at Target, right?
Time is simply time.
It moves on no matter what.
What you can manage is youractivities and your choices.
Oh my gosh, I think that hit me Whyis that because I think it's a it's
(11:54):
this sexy word of time management.
We've always learned Ironically, Ithink I just had it in a presentation.
I think I need to remove it I thinkI need to pull that out real quick.
I'm calling you out a little bit.
Yeah, you're calling
me out because I I agree.
It's almost like work life balance.
There's really not there'sthere's not I don't believe
in balance either if we want to talk No, I
I've learned that and so there'snothing So it's productivity list.
(12:18):
What happens with business owners?
I found, or let's justtake mid level managers.
I've been a project manager for along, long time, and it's all about
just productivity of the tasks.
At hand.
Mm-Hmm.
. So it's more like project management.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
So, so if you've got a list of things toget to get done, you need to prioritize.
(12:39):
Yeah.
Now, next week.
Mm-Hmm.
. Next month, next year I can, I can do,we have a lot of members that come into
our ACE program and they've got lists,
right.
We go to
events.
And there's lists, and pages, and pages.
People love their lists.
So what do you
do with lists, like when you go to events,or you learn things, or you read a book,
(13:02):
or you listen to a podcast, you got allthose notes, what do I do with that?
Well, those are different questions.
So first of all, let's talk aboutjust the lists in general, because I
believe in tossing your to do lists.
I don't believe a to do list works.
I think it takes you everywherebut where you want to go.
Because it's unorganized, it'stoo long, and honestly, your brain
will go for the quickest win.
Your brain has dopamine in it, which isthat little thing that gives you that high
(13:24):
when you cross something off your list.
Right?
Like, have you ever written somethingon your list just to cross it off?
Just to
cross it off.
I knew you were going to say that.
You're using your to
do list as like an emotional, like, boostrather than as a true productivity tool.
So I tell people and I teach peoplehow to write a priority list,
which is basically a priority list.
Yeah, it's like a todo list with intention.
(13:45):
So a priority list has three differentlevels Escalate cultivate and accommodate.
So basically it's kind of ariff off the eisenhower matrix
of urgent and important, right?
So at the very top of your list youwrite the things you want to escalate
the things that are urgent They havea looming deadline right and they're
important You When I say important, I meanthey're tied to your North Star, right?
(14:07):
They're investments in your future.
They're things that are trulytied to where you want to go.
Okay.
So you, you start your list at the verytop and you just put the things that are
escalated there, important and urgent.
Next on the list rightunderneath there is cultivate.
These are items that are not urgent.
But they're important.
So things like creatingyour budget, right?
(14:27):
Creating your marketing budget orreviewing your financials, doing
some of those things that aretruly an investment in your future.
And at the bottom you have accommodate.
These are things that are not important,but they're urgent because they're urgent.
It seems like a screaming fire, right?
It's like 99 percent of what'sin your email inbox right now.
Not really that important.
(14:48):
Not that important.
And yet we structure our whole dayaround checking emails, emails.
Yes.
Right.
And so when you have your list,you start at the top with your
escalate and you move down that list.
And that gives you a lot more informationabout where you want to go, right?
A lot of business owners feel overwhelmed.
I hear that word all the time.
Oh, I'm overwhelmed.
(15:08):
Overwhelmed isn't having too much to do.
It's not knowing where to start.
And if you use a list to tellyou, okay, I'm going to start
here and I'm going to go here andthen I'm going to do this next.
All that overwhelm goes away.
It really is that simple.
So, let's talk about a day.
Because we're all guilty of this.
We get up we do our things whetherit's work out take the kids to
(15:30):
school, whatever it is, right?
There's something that goes on personallyand then we go to the office and we
go work and all the time We just weopen the laptop and we go to town
just start doing
the problem.
What's the first thing you check?
Email.
It's just a standard email.
Not me.
Not me.
Right.
So it's an email and it's justchecking things out or whatever.
And you get, and then it'stext messages and follow up.
(15:51):
And then half the day goes by.
And all of a sudden.
You're like, I got nothing done.
I haven't really done anything.
Now I'm starting to get stressed.
Right.
Because there's deadlines orthere's priority reorganization.
There's things going on and then it's arush because it's now 5 o'clock 7 and I
have to go get the kids and do something.
(16:13):
So what do you have to be productive?
Yeah.
What does someone do in the day?
Yeah.
Well, it starts with that morning, right?
That you don't check email first.
You don't let other people'sfires become your fires until
you have set your calendar.
I gotta change it.
I gotta change it.
It's such
a habit.
It really is.
And that is what a routine is.
A routine is a set of habits thatare just stacked upon each other.
(16:35):
That's habit stacking.
This habit leads to thishabit leads to this habit.
And that's what createsyour morning routine.
So, for example, instead of keepingyour phone by your bed where
you're going to check it beforeyour feet have even hit the floor,
keep your phone in the other room.
Use something else foryour alarm clock, right?
People are like, I'll use it for my alarm.
By a clock.
Yeah.
They're like 13.
Or like a
rooster or something like that.
(16:56):
Like a rooster.
Yeah.
In Asheville.
Yeah.
Like a rooster.
That works.
Yeah.
So that's the first thing is you don't letother people start encroaching your day.
You fill your calendar first.
You block off the time.
I'm a big believer in.
Do not
disturb.
Right.
Do not disturb.
Huge fan of that.
I have a sign that I put outside mydoor that says I'm in deep work mode.
My team knows not to disturbme when I'm in deep work mode.
(17:16):
Yeah.
I will come out.
I'm like, if you need something.
Send me a text message because myphone is on Do Not Disturb also.
Right, or you can write a note andpost it And I have a little spot where
they can leave leave the note forme and then i'll go find them And we
can have that conversation leave a
comment card,
right?
Every time you get interrupted youlose that state of flow and it takes
you 23 minutes to get into that deepstate So if you're getting interrupted
(17:39):
every 10 minutes It's, it's no surpriseyou're not getting anything done.
So I got, okay, so I got thepart with the alarm, right?
You get going.
So what are the things you'redoing to get the day going?
Is it something reviewing thelist, setting goals for the
day, prioritize your items?
Oh, is it?
Great question.
Yeah.
So not checking your phone first.
Okay.
And planning each day, spend 10 minutesplanning that day and deciding what
(18:03):
you're going to block into that dayand then blocking off that time.
I like to tell people, startwith the emotion you want to
feel at the end of the day.
That feels a little woo woo.
I get that, right?
But think about it.
Let's say your son plays baseball, right?
So he's got a baseball game.
How do you want to feelat the end of the day?
I want to feel presentfor his game, right?
(18:24):
So, okay, that helps me determine what arethe tasks to do today that are going to
make me feel more present tonight, right?
I need to make sure that I have thosephone calls done, I need to make sure that
I have done whatever reports I need to getdone, because I would like to be present.
Or maybe you want to feel prepared becauseyou have a big client presentation.
Maybe you have a client that you'reworking with that you're about to
(18:45):
give them a presentation of what theirlandscaping is going to look like.
Okay.
Okay.
If I want to feel prepared for mymeeting in two days, then I know
today I'm going to prioritize thatclient and I'm going to make sure that
everybody is getting their things done.
Right.
Wow.
Yeah.
Okay.
So starting with that emotionof how you want to feel
at the end of the day.
Well, I think too often we run aroundbusy all day long checking a thousand
(19:06):
things off our to do list And weslip into bed at night and our head
hits the pillow and we think I didn't
get this done.
I
get enough done, even thoughyou're busy all day long, right?
But if you start with that feeling oflike, okay today I want to make sure
I feel Whatever at the end of the day.
I want to feel prepared.
I want to feel present.
(19:26):
I want to feel whatever it is Thenyou're making those decisions.
We talked about the fact that productivityis really about choices, right?
That helps you get clear on what you wantto prioritize And then you can structure
your day And after you have set yourday and you've blocked off time for you
to work on these things Then you giveother people access to your calendar.
(19:47):
Or like with meetings.
My team knows I don't domeetings in the morning.
I
do a meeting on Mondays.
That's our Monday Momentum meeting,which is kind of like a morning
rollout for our landscapers.
I do that for my team, right?
They're not going out and mowinglawns or, you know, laying out decks
and doing those kinds of things.
But I'm there, back of the boat, saying,hey, this is the direction we're going.
(20:09):
Kind of setting the tone for the week.
Well, yes.
I'm also setting thepriorities for the week.
Yeah.
Because in that meeting, I'm telling them,these are the priorities for this week.
These are the things weneed to get accomplished.
So everybody knows, andeverybody's on board.
My job as the leader isto zoom up and out, right?
I call it getting the forest view,
forest view.
I want to see the
(20:29):
whole forest.
If you're in the thick of it,you're just seeing the trees.
And I don't want to just see thetrees because how can I lead my team?
How can I tell them where we're going?
If I'm seeing all these trees.
So I go up and out andI create that strategy.
And so I'm really, reallyintentional with that.
I do strategy days.
I do full day strategiesat least once a quarter.
(20:50):
And at the end of the year, aroundOctober, November, I do a two
day strategic planning session.
Where I dive deep and I really getclear on where I want to prioritize
for the year to come Right.
I do those quarterly onesbecause I like to check in.
I think reflection is really reallyimportant But it's also a chance
for me to redirect and shift thingshappen in the year We're not gonna
(21:11):
be able to just set the goals andthen that's it for the year, right?
So it gives me an opportunity tocheck in so I do a whole process
where I identify I invest and Iimplement I call it my three eyes
three eyes identify You Invest.
And implement.
And implement.
Okay, three I's.
I can do that.
Yeah.
I mean, basically, when you run abusiness, it's legalized gambling, right?
(21:34):
You're putting your money on thetable, and you're like, This is
what I'm hoping is going to work.
Hey, if you run a product basedbusiness, I was basically putting up
money, like, you know, half a milliondollars in cash that I had to pay
for products before it would come in.
Right?
Hoping, I really hope thatsomeone would buy this.
I mean, when we hirepeople, we are legalized.
(21:56):
It's gambling.
That I think this personis going to work out.
I'm hoping they're going to beable to bring the revenue in.
You're banking on that.
So it's really important that we'revery clear on where we want to
go and how we want to get there.
Yeah.
Right.
That's being strategic.
Yeah.
So
by stepping back and identifying,looking for the holes, what went
well, what didn't go well, and beingtruly brutally honest with ourselves.
(22:16):
Ugh, this did not go well at all.
Man, I really, this really sucks, right?
You break down your business and youlook at the different categories.
Dive deep into it.
Take a look.
This went well.
This didn't go well.
Where do I want to go next?
That's part of identifying
yeah,
then investing I lay it out.
I literally have like a paper thatI create for myself where I map it
(22:37):
out on the table of what's the thingthat I think is going to be the
least effort, but the biggest impact.
So it's almost like a littlematrix that I lay it out on.
So I know, Hey, this is goingto be a lot of resources.
It's going to require a lot of time,a lot of people, a lot of money.
Okay.
I don't want to do a bunchof those in the coming year.
I want to do one or two ofthose, the things that are going
to be a heavy, heavy burden.
(22:58):
Pull on your resources.
I want to do all the things that Ican that make a big impact So kind of
laying those out and saying, all right,here's where I'm gonna put all my chips.
I'm gonna put my chips onthe table on these things.
And then implementing isall about communication.
It's all about getting thatinformation out to my team, making
sure that we're all on that same page.
Through not just, you know,hey, I hope we, I hope they know
(23:21):
what I'm thinking in my head.
It's, hey, we're having aweekly meeting, Monday Momentum.
Here's where we're going.
Let's look at where we'regoing and moving each week
Do you prepare the night beforethe day before the sunday
before monday morning momentum?
Like is there any prepwork going into this?
Yeah,
like what?
Yeah, so I do I actually havea system called five p's you
(23:42):
can tell I write you have
all these acronyms and little isms Ilove but that's how we remember things
it is.
Yeah, it's
Simple.
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
The three I's.
The three I's.
Yep.
Five P's.
Okay, what's the five P's?
The five P's.
First one is purge, and thatmeans purge it out of your head.
We're using our head as this filingcabinet for all the things we need to do.
(24:03):
As a business owner,there's a lot of stuff.
That is me.
I'm raising my hand if
you can't see me, right?
I have a filing system thatis a train wreck in my head.
Yeah, and then you wonder why you'reeither having problems sleeping
or you're feeling so stressed.
Brain fog.
Literally, you're holdingit all in your head.
So you, basically it's a brain dump.
Get it on a sheet of paper.
Don't worry about organizing it.
Don't worry about all that.
(24:24):
Just get it on a sheet of paper.
That becomes your well thatyou're going to pull from.
For
the whole week.
So I do that twice.
Actually, I do it on Sundays with myfamily because your family is a team,
right?
And
I treat my family like a team.
We call ourselves team Dalton.
I don't want to be micromanaging my kids.
Or my husband they don't they don'tthat's not going to help them grow right?
(24:48):
We as leaders want to help people grow.
I want my family to grow I want my kidsto go out into the world and be You know,
self-sufficient adults at some point.
Yeah.
So I do that on Sundays withmy family, and we gather
together and we do all of that.
And then on Mondays, I do it first bymyself and then I do it with my team.
Okay.
And so that's the first one is topurge, get it out of your head.
Okay.
(25:08):
Okay.
I I can, I can purge.
Mm-Hmm.
. So it's best
to write down, right?
I understand.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I, I I can do that.
is there a special tabletpaper, or is there like a
journal to dump that stuff in?
I mean.
You probably provide this product.
I actually have.
Yes.
We actually have a product.
Shocker, right?
Shocker.
Called the Weekly Kickstart.
Okay.
That we sell at Inkwell Press.
That is the name of my company.
(25:29):
Okay.
Which I have sold, butI'm still a part of.
Okay.
So I use the Weekly Kickstart,and we mark it down.
It's got a spot in there for each day,so we can write down things for like the
kids, like, oh, here's soccer practice.
Here's when this is.
Because they areresponsible for themselves.
Yeah, not me
This is fascinating because wehave a sunday family meeting.
Oh, you do and it's usually
(25:50):
over food So whether it's a breakfastlunch or dinner on sundays it's tricky
with all of our schedules and trips, butwe determine the schedule for the week
Yes,
so Okay.
I know we're not purging things, but we'regetting the team right team cole Right.
We're saying monday.
You'll be here tuesday.
We'll be here.
Daddy's traveling,
(26:10):
right?
Mommy's doing this you have to go geta ride you have and I will tell you as
young kids They have, listen, they're notgonna remember everything, but they have
an idea of how the week is going to go.
Yes.
It's so we, what else we do is we go, whatwas your favorite thing from last week?
Anything to discuss that is on your mind?
(26:31):
What are you grateful for?
And do the calendar.
So good.
And it's, in fact, it was very awkward.
My kids were like, thisis the dumbest thing, mom.
Like it's so dumb, but we pull out ourcalendars and we go through everything.
Now my 13 year old has acalendar and an iPhone.
So he can see things that areon his calendar practices, where
to go, when to be picked up.
(26:52):
But if we don't have that meeting, we'vemissed some, we're, we're a train wreck.
Yeah.
Well, and this is the thing is I want mykids to be empowered to know what's coming
next and to take care of themselves.
Right.
I used to be a teacher as well.
So I know this is why teachersalways post a schedule for the
kids in the classroom because theywant to know what's happening next.
It makes them feel more safe and secure.
(27:13):
Honestly, it's like thebottom of Maslow's pyramid.
They want
to feel safe and secure.
So they want to know what's happening.
Your team at work feelsexactly the same way.
Yep.
So
we got
purge.
So the next one is process.
So we had purge, then we have processand processes take five to 10 minutes
to sit down each day and map out whatyou want to get done for that day.
(27:34):
What we talked about there withwhat's the emotion I want to
feel at the end of the day.
How do I want to feel, right?
Answer that question.
And then, okay, here's the question.
Here's what I'm going to do.
And that's our third P is to prioritize.
Okay.
Create your priority list, right?
Write down, okay, well nowthat I know I want to feel X,
I'm going to do these things.
Put them in your prioritylist, in order of priority.
(27:56):
And then we need to protect.
That's our fourth P.
You want to protect that time, right?
You want to make sure that you're blockingoff your calendar and if your team has
access to your calendar, make sure it'smarked off and it is like non negotiable.
Do not disturb.
Do not
disturb.
Yeah.
I think
that's a lot happens with us.
I think there's an intention to putsomething on the calendar or if there's
(28:17):
an intention, I got to do this today andI got to lock out some time to do it.
I don't think we're disciplined enoughto actually shut the door and do it.
I think shutting the door is okay.
Shutting the
door and you put the sign up.
Yeah.
You literally just put up a sign.
I'm in do not disturb mode.
I'm doing the whole
old school thinking likemy door's always open.
(28:38):
Your door should not always be open.
If your door is always open,you're not doing any thinking time.
Gotcha.
No strategic thinking time, right?
Because you're putting out fires.
And they're using, everyone's
coming in,
well, they're using youas a soothing mechanism.
I'm stressed because Idon't know what to do.
And you're becoming the bottleneck.
You wonder why you can'twalk away and leave work.
I mean, I go on two weekunplugged vacations where my team
(29:01):
cannot access me intentionally.
I want them to be empowered.
I want them.
This is why I hired them.
They're A players.
Treat them like A players, right?
So protect your calendar.
That's when after you've donethat, then you're going to put
in other people's things and what
they need,
right?
And then our fifth P is to propel
to give yourself more
water in the well, right?
(29:22):
So I like to do this littleprocess at the end of the day.
I call the five minute downloadwhere I take five minutes.
At the end of each day to help me propelinto the next day So I start with minute
one is what have I accomplished today?
A lot of times we forget all thethings that we've done Well, right
the things that we did that's so true
be grateful that I did accomplish alot of you'll be surprised When you
(29:45):
take a minute you're like, oh my gosh Iand you we have to physically write it
because you want to see it on the page andyou're going to say Wow, I got a lot done.
I got a lot accomplished, right?
Minute two is reallyabout assessing yourself.
How did I feel today?
Was I super stressed?
Did I put too much on my plate?
Okay, I need to startadjusting that, right?
Give yourself a rating on one to ten.
(30:06):
How did I feel with my productivity today?
That'll
start if you're having a lot of dayswhere you're like nine ten That's good.
You're doing great.
Yeah.
If
you have a lot of days that areseven, we need to change some things.
Gotcha.
Seven or below, right?
So you're kind
of giving yourself a scorecardof how things are going.
Yeah.
Day to day.
How do I feel?
Yeah.
I think we negate that so much about,isn't it really about being happy?
(30:28):
Isn't that why, why do we go?
That's what we're chasing.
Yeah, that's, everybody's chasing that.
Every goal you've ever set in yourentire life, Is steeped in happiness.
Yeah,
I want to be happy.
Why are you running your own business?
Not because you want to have anulcer and work 80 hours a week,
right?
It's
because you want to be happy and youwant to have more freedom, right?
So how am I doing with that?
So check in minute three write down threethings you're grateful for for today and
(30:53):
be specific Don't say I'm grateful formy family and grateful for the weather.
I'm grateful for the weather becausetoday was a beautiful day and we
were able to really go out thereand get so much done and we enjoyed
lunch outside, whatever it is.
Right.
Then minute four.
What did I do today?
What's one thing I did to getcloser to one of the goals?
One of my goals, what did I do?
(31:14):
Right?
Because that helps you stay goal centered.
And then minute five is, Alright,what do I want to accomplish tomorrow?
I'm not planning out the day, butI'm getting it out of my head,
and onto the sheet of paper.
And then what I do is I take that sheetof paper, I leave it on my desk, And
that closes that work compartment for me.
And then I can go home and befully a hundred percent present.
(31:34):
Engaged for my family.
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
I like to think of 'em like as a door.
Yeah.
I'm closing one doorand opening the other.
Yeah.
The nice thing is, the nextmorning when I come into my office,
guess what's waiting for me.
Bet.
Guess here's, look at all thethings I accomplished yesterday.
Look at what I was grateful for.
Starting
off.
I
look at that.
As i'm doing my processing
time That
all works together.
Yeah, so god, this is fascinating Myhead is just like i'm I think i'm ready
(31:57):
to go back to the office and like Getall because I I personally I struggle
with this I'm a guy that needs to getthings going now And it's it i'm a filing
cabin in my head and I will tell youadmittedly I've got a little brain fog.
I got scatterish.
I, I'm juggling.
I get stressed.
(32:18):
I get snappy.
We all get snappy.
That's the thing.
Okay.
And then we're not showing up asour best version of ourselves.
No,
no.
I mean, isn't that what we want isto be the best version of ourselves?
Yeah, and
we know that we're self sabotagingby not taking care of these things,
right?
But yeah, how do I want to feel youknow, how I don't want to feel snappy
(32:39):
snappy.
Yeah, I'm very snappy It justdepends on the mood of what
what's going on in that day
Yeah, but if you start the day withhow do I want to feel at the end,
and
you make those decisions based offthat, yeah, it changes everything.
It really does.
How's your
office set up?
That's a good question.
I mean, it's pretty organized.
Yeah.
I mean, I like to organize, butI'm not super anal with like,
(33:01):
everything's color coded, everything.
I have spaces for me to, becauseI make sure that I meditate every
day, I make sure that I have time.
I'm a big believer in taking anafternoon nap and having still time.
I have to have a comfortable chair becauseI like to sit somewhere comfortable
while I'm doing my strategic thinking.
And
I make sure I'm pulling timeevery day to be strategic, right?
(33:21):
To really think aboutwhere do I want to go?
Where have we been?
What
do I want for the company?
What do I want for myself?
I think the thing is, is a lot oftimes as business owners, we think
of our business as the end goal.
And the truth is, that's not the end goal.
Totally not.
Business is the vehicle forthe life we really want.
(33:42):
Right.
So
let's treat it like the vehicle.
And if you're treating it as theend all, be all of everything,
everything else is getting pushedaside, including your family time.
Is that really what you want?
Start doing more of whatyou want, you desire.
Because, Then you're going to be happier.
So let's take, for example,this is really good, by the way.
(34:02):
Well, thank you.
I try.
I thank God we're recording this becauseI'd have to go back and watch this.
But take, take for instance, like aproject manager that's on the go a lot,
or someone in the field that is observing.
Maintenance and installations talk.
I just did a presentation on crewleader and how valuable the crew
leader is to in an organization.
(34:23):
Yeah.
When they're out there andthere's no, there's no desk.
Okay,
so that that's a whole different setup.
What do you recommendfor people like that?
They're always on thego They're on the field.
They're checking jobs or managing things.
What is what is your sort of key things?
Well, i'm a big believer in that all ofthis has to be customized to you, right?
I think the reason why so oftenwe fail in the past is we think
(34:44):
there's like this magical system for
everything for everything Right,
and then we try to like bend and twistourselves to try to fit the system And
then we find ourselves not being happybecause we're Bending and twisting
ourselves and contorting ourselves,
right?
In truth, it's your priorities.
What is most importantto you at the center?
And then we wrap everything around that.
So what works for you?
(35:05):
I think, you know, when we thinkabout your office or your systems
or any of those things, you have tothink about what am I really good at?
What are my strengths?
But you also have to thinkabout what are my weaknesses?
What are the things thatI don't do well, right?
You know like for me I'm, not the typeof person who's gonna like neatly fold a
towel and do this So I don't have towelbars in my bathroom because otherwise I
(35:26):
feel like a failure I put in hooks Right?
Cause I'll hang it on the hook.
And that totally works.
I don't have to have a towel bar.
So it's the same thingwith anything you do.
Is this really going to work for you?
And you have to ask yourself that.
So if you are a person who's like,I just never write anything down.
Okay, great.
Start keeping like a littlenotepad in your truck.
Right?
Or get a weekly kickstart.
(35:48):
You know, Tommy, I'm coming toyour house in a couple of weeks.
I'll bring you a weekly kickstartso you can get started doing that.
so it really is dependenton what you're doing.
Obviously we use a lotof technology, right.
And especially with checking in truthis you actually are more likely.
to accomplish your goals.
If you physically write themdown, it triggers our brain
in a very different way.
(36:08):
And so we'll actuallyaccomplish them versus writing
it down with just a computer.
Yeah.
So I would say it doesn't matter whatyou use as long as you feel successful.
If you're doing something becausethis is what I've always done and you
find that you don't feel successful,why are you doing that still?
Yeah.
Shake it up.
I believe
I was in project manager for awhile,did a lot of field stuff, but your
(36:30):
truck, your vehicle and your officeback at the shop, it's still a, a place.
So my standard routine wasgetting into the shop early.
You know mingling with the crews andthe guys seeing the morning roll out
and then I would Go to job sites firstthing in the morning when my brain is
really on sharp, check things out, setthe tone for the day, visit with the
(36:50):
teams, meet people out in the field.
And then my aft, my midday was thelunch sort of regroup and change it
now to the afternoon to where I dida little bit of paperwork stuff.
And so I agree with you.
You got to find that rhythm that works.
Maybe it's flipped for others.
It might be.
And, so, I don't want to puta little blanket on everyone.
(37:12):
Like you were saying, you'regoing to have to find that
Avenue that works really well.
And some field managersare best in the morning.
Some are better in the afternoons.
Some stay later and close the shop.
Some get there super early.
So you have to navigate and adjust.
Based on what your strength is.
Yeah, again, there's no magic systemOkay, you know we read these articles like
the 100 things that CEOs do before 6 a.
(37:34):
m And you're like, oh, I can't do that
And it's like that's great for thosepeople maybe they really like getting
up early you like getting up reallyearly you like working out Early right
and doing those things, but otherpeople don't right And that's okay.
So this is why it's so important to do.
You know, when we talked aboutthe idea of propel, like checking
in, how did I feel today?
(37:54):
How did, how was my stress?
How did, how did today feel?
Start paying attention to, you knowwhat, the afternoon isn't the perfect
time for me to do whatever, right?
I feel much sharp.
Some people feel much sharperat 10 o'clock at night.
Yeah,
great, right?
Nobody said that you can't dothat work at 10 o'clock at night.
We get caught up in this idea of balance.
Like, oh, it's 10 o'clock at night.
(38:14):
And even though I want to work,like, I'm just like, let that go.
Get that work done.
But if you're doing that thengo into the office later or make
sure in the mid afternoon You'regoing home or doing whatever
right
but figure out just pay attentionto you Yeah, stop trying to fit in
with what everybody else is doing
Yeah, and with all the stuff going onin the world right and social media.
(38:35):
We're sort of just We'relooking for quick fixes.
We're
reactionary.
And reactionary,
and this is what I should be doing basedon some random stranger yelling and
screaming and doing all kinds of things.
We should
on ourselves so much, it's ridiculous.
I should be doing this.
And this is the problem witha lot of goals that we set.
We're looking around and we're payingattention to what everybody else is doing.
We're like, Oh, this guy, thisguy across town, he's doing this.
(38:58):
I should do more of that.
Or this person over here,they're doing these things.
I should be doing that.
Right.
And
we don't stop to askourselves the question.
Is that really what I want?
Which is why again, I stop anddo the strategy days, right?
Because it's all about my North star.
Where do I want this company to go?
Where do I want to be?
am I building this companyto sell in five years?
(39:19):
And I have a very different set ofpriorities than somebody who's, I'm
wanting to build this company in fiveyears to hand it over to my son, or I'm
building this company to continue to grow.
And it's okay sometimes to say, Hey,I want to, I want to grow the company.
It's also okay to say I want to getto 5 million and I want to stay there.
Yeah,
because that feels good to me Right.
I'm not interested in beingthe next amazon or the next
(39:42):
80 million dollars, which is
totally greatness,
right?
So that's why all of this hasto be customized to you, what
you want, what you desire.
Stop worrying about whateverybody else is doing.
Don't feel like you have to get upat the crack of dawn and do burpees
because Tommy's up doing God knows what.
You can, you can.
And I don't force it on people, butthere's, there's an attractiveness
(40:05):
of some people that want it.
And I was at the gym this morningand as soon as I walked in, there's
two or three people going, he's here.
And I'm like, Oh crap.
I,
well, yeah, this is the thing,Tommy, like if you don't show up,
people are like, where's Tommy?
But guess what?
Holds me a littleaccountable to get things.
Well, we
know McFarland Stanfordloves accountability.
So I got
one more good juicy thing.
We get it.
We got it.
We got a hammer out.
(40:25):
We had a discussionprior to this about this.
Work life balance thingy, right?
And we've it's I feel like it'sbeen a fad for a while, right?
Trying to find this balance of i'mworking And then I stop and then I
do this but like let me put this inperspective When we made a lot of
aces we give updates When they updatetheir personal thing More than half of
(40:50):
them says I got my work life balance.
I'm working so much.
I gotta find the work lifebalance and i'm like Right.
Yes,
and I want to just reallylike go on a tangent.
So What's your perception of this thing?
And help us out with this
This mythical illusion ofbalance that does not exist.
(41:10):
Well, truly, we don't want balance.
Because if you're balanced, you'renot moving in any direction.
Think about riding a bike, right?
To ride a bike, yes,you have to be balanced.
And that's fine.
If you want to stay on the same oldroad, go in the same direction, just
doing the same thing over and over again.
If you want to go left, youhave to lean to the left.
You have to go out of balance, right?
(41:31):
You have to pour moreof you into that left.
Balance.
You can't stay poured over too long.
You'll fall down.
You'll scrape your leg, right?
You have to counterbalance and thenmaybe you want to go to the right
so you lean to the right So it's aseries of of getting out of perfect
balance and counterbalancing and thenleaning again And so when we think
about our lives We can think of it interms of like work, work life, right?
(41:52):
Personal life, home life,however you want to look at it.
And it's like, okay, I'm goingto lean into work for a while.
That means I'm kind of picking up andnot doing quite as much with my family.
Can't do that for forever.
I need a counterbalance and then maybeI want to lean more into family things.
For the next season of mylife, the next quarter.
This again is why I stop everyquarter and I do the strategy, right?
(42:15):
Cause it's like, all right, where amI leaning this quarter for the next 90
days, where am I leaning most of my time,energy focus, because this is the thing
in order to do anything, it requires.
A commitment, right?
Right.
The cost of greatness is commitment.
So
you have to commit to leaning into it andit's okay to lean it's okay to go and work
(42:38):
hard But we can't stay leaned over youneed to counterbalance So for example when
I have a book launching and I get intobook launch mode and i'm doing hundreds
of podcasts interviews and Going out andtrying to move as many books as I can
because harper collins really wants me tosell a lot of books I know that i'm going
to be leaning into that for a season.
So I always plan a big family vacation
(43:01):
Right at the
end of that right I havethat's my carrot, right?
Because then i'm like, oh i'm exhausted.
I'm tired.
I've just written a book There's no
work life balance like you'reall in on this book until
february when it comes right?
You you got to be all in
right?
And then I'll
counterbalance and
then I will work on my othergoals, my personal things and
(43:22):
things with my family's anymore.
And I make sure to communicatethat with my family.
Right.
That's part of those meetings.
I think it's really important.
I've always been a big advocate forletting your family in on what your
business is doing, what's happening,because you know what, they can lift
you up just like we lift each other up.
And right when my son, youknow, when he was doing plays,
And he'd have, rehearsals.
(43:44):
Part of our conversation is all right.
Who's picking up theslack of Jack's chores.
All right.
Okay.
You're going to do this,John, you're going to do this.
I'm going to do these things.
Your family can do that for you as well.
Your team at work can do that as well.
Right.
So, Hey, everybody, thisis what I'm leaning into.
Yeah.
All right.
Then they can help you and supportyou and then you can keep moving.
So that's fascinating.
(44:04):
Fascinating.
My when I left on this trip My daughter'snine and It's pretty fascinating
because we have a map of the u.
s In her playroom and I always tellher the state that i'm going to so
she's kind of realizing Oh, okay.
You're going here.
All right, so the capital and we'relearning that and so now she's
got an ipad right so she can kindof a little do a little texting
(44:26):
back and forth It's really funny.
Yeah,
and and so I always send a littlemotivational things like have a great
day to my son or you know random thingsand and This week as we're traveling,
I got a message from a nine year oldsays, hi daddy, hope you slay the day.
And I'm like, how awesome is that?
Because I let her know what,you know, it's kind of funny.
(44:47):
Like I'll let her know a littletidbits of what I'm doing.
And she's like, well, whatdo you do when you travel?
And I'm like, I don't really know.
Like I got clients andlike, what's a client.
They, you know, they pay.
And so there's that dialogueof knowing what's going on.
But yet, That's just part of our life.
It's part of what we did.
And going back to the whole Igot to find a work life balance.
I think it's an excuse
(45:09):
to
say this is what's going onbecause they're so buried in
and it's like, I'm working 70hours a week and there's a badge
of pride that comes with that.
Right.
Hey, look at me, everybody.
I'm working like 80 hour weeks.
Yeah.
We use that as a badge of, we'rereally proud of how hard we work.
Yeah,
and it's not about the hours.
(45:29):
No, don't give me
it's really not actually theresults research shows after 50
hours Your productivity declineslike you're you're spending more
time doing getting less work done.
So
right
Yeah, I love that.
I mean think about because I know tommyyour dad was really instrumental for
you Right.
Yeah, and
you talk about how?
You would roll newspapers with your dadand do those kinds of things, right?
(45:51):
That is the harmony, not the balance.
Your dad getting up with you and spendingthat time with you, that was really
important and he modeled that for you.
So when you're telling your daughterand your son about, this is what
I'm doing, I'm teaching people aboutthis, they're taking all of that in.
Like my kids Very
observant, like they're a sponge.
They're a sponge.
My kids now are 18 and 21.
(46:12):
My daughter is 18.
She's a manager of a Chick fil a.
She's been a manager sinceshe was 17 years old.
Love
it.
She started working at 15.
Do you know
how awesome that is?
That's like a great business,great company, systems, process,
pride, hiring, onboarding.
I know.
Yeah.
And she, and she's like, I want togo, I want to go into businesses and I
want to help them do all these thingsbecause she's like, I love leading.
(46:36):
Great.
So I think what's going to happen iswe're going to offer her a job soon.
We're going to observe it.
We're going to go there and she'sgoing to, we're going to learn a ton.
That's a great business to learn in.
Yeah, we do that through modeling bysharing our experiences and that that
brings your team at home closer to youbeing honest about what's going on.
Sometimes we have bad days at theoffice and saying, this is why
(46:58):
I had a bad day and telling mykids this is what's happening.
I'm stressed.
I mean, I'll tell you afunny story real quick.
I know we're wrapping up, but John and Ihad been kind of going around and around.
I had an employee that really neededto get fired and I hadn't done it.
I hadn't done it.
Kind of put it all offone of those things.
And my son comes downstairs and hegoes, what are you guys talking about?
I said, well, I'm talkingabout this person.
(47:19):
And he goes, Oh, good God.
Would you fire her?
Just do it.
He did, and you know what?
He fired her the next day, and it wasthe smartest decision I could have made.
It's because
it's emotions, it's overthinking, it's howI got to do it, but I don't want to do it.
Yeah,
I mean And the
kids have no filter.
No.
None.
They will tell you.
They will tell you.
Even when you don't want to hear it.
Yeah.
(47:40):
So true.
Well, Tanya, this has been great.
What's one thing to leave our audienceafter all this discussion that says
one more little nugget left behind?
I would say, you know, if there wasone thing I would encourage people to
do is how, you know, I talked about,I talked about the five P's and the
three I's if you could carve out andyou can carve out one day, a quarter
(48:03):
that is for your strategic planning.
To really dive deep, to figureout what are the habits I
want to establish for myself.
What do I want to change?
What do I like?
Where do I want to go?
And start doing that.
You got to put it on yourcalendar months in advance.
Because you're blocking out the day.
Right?
So right now, if you'll block outtime for the end of Q1 in March, Hey,
(48:23):
here's my strategic planning day.
I go ahead and I mark it off.
It's marked off forlike the next 10 years.
Because it's blocked.
So if you'll do that, And you giveyourself that time and space to
really think through who you are,what you want, where you want to go.
Business is easy.
I'm ready to go.
Like, I think I'm ready to go home andstart crank, and start cranking this out.
(48:44):
Get an equal.
Well, I'll see you here soon.
Yep.
So I'm going to have to buyone of those off of you.
And I'm going to do the three, the,the three I's and the five P's.
Emotion, what I wantat the end of the day.
Cause always something at the end of theday that I'm striving for it to get to.
I am an example of a lot ofpeople out there right now that
needs a little bit of help.
So thank you so much.
(49:05):
Like this has been great.
She's awesome.
Where, where can they find Tanya Dalton?
Yeah.
Well, tanyadalton.
com is the best place for me.
I have a podcast with300 some odd episodes.
You can find access to my books.
I have three books.
Well, my third book's coming outwith HarperCollins in February.
But yeah, and I speak and Ido trainings and all kinds
of things.
(49:25):
Awesome.
Thank you so much, Tanya.
It's been awesome.
That's Roots of Success.
Ah, I got that off my plate.
Now we have to just do ita little more often, right?
That's great.
Thank you again.
Yeah.
Thanks for having me.
Ready to take the next step?
Download our free Profitability Scorecardto quickly create your own baseline
financial assessment and uncover thefastest ways to improve your business.
(49:48):
Just go to McFarlinStanford.com/scorecardto get yours today To learn more about
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our website at McFarlinStanford.comAnd don't forget to follow us on
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