The Blog

Discipline

Relentless: Accountability for Massive Business Gains

It was March, and I realized I couldn’t even remember what my annual goals were. Not good.

I’d set them at the beginning of that year. Such conviction and enthusiasm. I even printed them out and taped them to the wall so I’d see them every morning.

I was so sure my business would crush it that year.

But there I was, not three months in – and not only had I forgotten about them, I hadn’t made any real progress.

What happened?

I realized goals alone weren’t enough.

Here’s how I turned it all around (and even got to sell that business & cash out)

From Flabby to Fit in Business and Life

The same habits that get you ripped get your business ripped. A story-

At the beginning of last summer, after my dad had been hospitalized and bedridden for two months, I looked in the mirror and didn’t like what I saw. At all.

I’d let myself go from at least respectably in shape to … a shape that was getting closer to circle.

Why? After years of staying in shape – I’d let my habit slip. For good reason, mind you. But as soon as the habit slipped, my physique did too.

I re-started with my trainer who held me accountable. And frankly just paying to have someone waiting for me twice a week was enough to put this front and center.

Taping goals to the mirror doesn’t do that.

Paying did that.

From Mediocre to Massive: Applying Accountability to Business

The same principle applies to business goals. Fortunately I realized this (perhaps while you were still in elementary school) so I had some practice:

Accountability in business is as effective as accountability for fitness.

That is:

It takes a process
It takes accountability
If you pay, you pay attention and get results

With the lessons from my fitness journey in mind, here’s how I coach founders to start:

1. Daily Tracking

First, start tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on a DAILY basis.

For example, each day I now look at:

Bank Balance
Leads generated
Expenses

Yes, I said daily. Why? Because we’re building a habit. And if you’re only checking weekly – it’ll just become another thing that you only sort of pay attention to.

Even if the information isn’t updating daily, look at it daily. We’re training our brains what’s important.

2. Weekly Reviews

Second, add weekly reviews with myself and with my team.

Each week pull up the previous week’s metrics and see if we hit our targets.

I do this for my personal metrics and the business metrics, we do it as a team with the team metrics.

If we didn’t hit a number, we do an After Action Review to understand why (if you don’t know what that is, there’s a free training and template on CEOworkbench.com).

This keeps us learning, accountable, and focused on making progress.

3. Coaching

Finally, I always recommend a business coach or a mentor. There’s a reason why people get results when they hire a trainer. Why anyone serious about sports has a coach.

And all of a sudden, you think that being an entrepreneur you don’t need someone who does this for you? Hubris.

Like a fitness trainer, the coach makes sure you’re sticking to a business growth plan. He holds you accountable if you’ve gotten off track and helps course correct.

Here’s the thing you’re not going to like. You should pay for a coach or mentor. When you pay for a trainer, you show up. When you pay for a business coach or mentor, you show up. Just pay. Your brain will then start to take it seriously. Trust me, your results will be better (as long as it’s someone who has done what you want to do – not some BS coach who’s only coached).

He has frameworks that you’ve never even thought of. Helps you play better – and play to win.

Massive Results in Minimal Time

With these accountability practices implemented, I’ve seen huge business growth over multiple businesses and multiple decades. I’ve been able to sell three businesses I founded.

And I’ve been able to help other businesses do the same.

Creating habits, and relentless accountability is the real key to hitting your goals quickly.

Wishful thinking and sporadic reviews will only get you so far.

Taping your goals to the mirror won’t really get you anywhere.

You need someone watching and prodding you to stick to the plan every step of the way.

So take it from me – be relentless.

If fitness taught me anything, it’s that accountability leads to results. Apply that lesson to hit your business goals faster than ever before.

Want a free worksheet to kick start your accountability? Download it now at CEOworkbench.com

August 30, 2023

How To Never Get Derailed From Growing Your Company

Here’s how I guarantee that I’m never derailed from growing my company – and how you can do the same.

Every week, I was getting pulled into a fire. Some customer problem, an employee issue, something. My company was going nowhere. The classic “working in the business, not on the business.”

It had to change.

How To Stop The Madness

That’s when I sat down and asked the most important question (which you’ll see the answer to today): “Why am I always getting derailed?”

I started fixing it by breaking down hitting my growth goals. In the most simplistic way possible, what has to happen to grow the company?

I need the RIGHT PLAN and I need to EXECUTE THE PLAN.

I needed the RIGHT PLAN because confidence makes all the difference. It seems dumb, but it’s true – if you haven’t bought into the plan, you’re not going to prioritize it. If I wasn’t convinced I was headed in the right direction, it would be easy to let it slip.

The key to a plan you’ve got confidence in is to take the goal and break it into concrete steps and success criteria. (I’ve written here on turning goals into plans – can come back and this read later)

The second – EXECUTE THE PLAN – sounds simple, but it’s actually the hard part.

What Not To Do

What I used to do is:

create a one-year plan
create quarterly plans
forget the quarterly plans once a crisis happened
beat myself up that I didn’t do anything, and go back to (1) above

It was a doom-loop that made me think that somehow I wasn’t capable of hitting my company targets. Everyone else was just better than me.

But that wasn’t true. The reality: I was missing key steps in execution. I talked with entrepreneurs I respected. People who built companies I was envious of. How did they stay on task?

The key: time-blocked accountability.

The Formula To Never Get Derailed

How does it work? I had the first part right:

create a one-year plan
create quarterly plans

But after that I wasn’t bringing it down to actually getting things done in the moment. The calendar is the key.

Every project for growing your company must be ON THE CALENDAR.

Here’s how:

create a one-year plan
create quarterly plan
quick monthly review where I am
every Monday commit to 3-5 tasks to move forward
book tasks on the calendar with specific times
have someone beat you up if you don’t do it

Why It Works

Let’s look at why this works:

First, you’re getting granular. This isn’t just an idea at the quarterly level which is easy to let slide. By bringing it down to the month, you have a pulse on where you are.
By blocking time on your calendar every week you reserve time
And someone watching you is the unlock

I’ve been doing this for years, and work fires never derail me. I make more progress in 90 days than I made in a year the old way.

In fact, it worked so well I built myself an app to do this – it even calendars progress so I can’t get off track. App plus a person holding me to my commits = gamechanger.

Use the process above to fast forward your growth. Just make sure not to forget the last step and have someone hold you accountable.

Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

January 10, 2023

How To Get More Done This Week than Last Month

The way most entrepreneurs work gets them no closer to their goals. They’re just running on a hamster wheel.

Here’s the process I’ve used for over 7,431 hours for myself and clients that guarantees you’ll beat procrastination make more progress this week than you did in the last month.

The key ISN’T something you don’t know. You know more than enough. You’re just not executing on the things that actually move the needle.

Here’s the process to be repeated every week:

1. If you have a quarterly plan, pull that out now. This ensures your work THIS week is advancing the plan. (If you don’t have a plan, keep reading and at the end of this thread you can click to find more on creating one)

2. Review what worked, and what didn’t work, in advancing your key projects last week. What blocked you? Why? What worked? Write it down This gets you in the habit of pattern recognition, so you know when you’re getting off track and what keeps you on track.

3. Prioritize your tasks by leverage. What will have the biggest impact on the company? On you? Often it will be sales and marketing. But sometimes it will be delegating – freeing more time for yourself. You need to do this every week, because things are changing.

4. Book Focus Hours in your calendar to get them done. Minimum, 5 hours/week. Focus times are sacred. Nothing can move them, and they come FIRST. Progress isn’t something that’s made by fitting it in between the crisis of the day. Progress is made by strategic things first.

Tip: if you’ve let focus times slip in the past, schedule a LIVE working session with someone who will hold you accountable. Just like a gym trainer, someone waiting for you will make a HUGE difference. (I built an app to for this, but that’s a thread for a different day).

5. At the beginning of each session, specifically declare what you’ll be working on, and the outcome from it. This keeps you focused.

6. Turn off ALL notifications, and silence your phone.

7. Work your focus hour on that one thing. No interruptions. No multitasking.

8. At the end of the hour, recap: what did you get done?

9. Repeat.

Now this will sound like one of two things to you:

A) “Whatever. It’s too simple to make a difference”

B) “I can’t possibly block uninterrupted time”

Either way is for one reason: You haven’t done it.

Try this format, and stick to it for two weeks: You’ll get more done that ACTUALLY moves the needle in those two weeks than you did in the prior two months.

Want more (and templates on how to implement)? Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

December 6, 2022

How Entrepreneurs Can Beat Procrastination Every Time

I procrastinated and watched my first company tread water for two years. Other entrepreneurs got stuff done and I wondered what made them special. Here’s how to kill procrastination and hit your company goals.

In my case, I was procrastinating on doing business development. I was getting referrals, but I knew to really grow I needed to do more BD. I’d show up each day, do the work in front of me (hey, it’s easy, it’s coming right to me) … but wasn’t developing new sources of leads.

So I built a complete plan – speaking engagements, outreach to key partners, etc. Felt really good about the plan. Solid. It would work.

That was good progress the first week.

Second week rolls by, and a client crisis hits. No BD gets done.

Two months in? Well… There was always something to justify not executing the plan. “I do have a doctor’s appointment which will kind of kill Wednesday afternoon. And I’m taking a long weekend starting Friday morning…”

I had a problem, and its name was procrastination.

So how did I solve it?

First, I needed to understand what was causing it. I got to the root of the problem by asking “WHY am I procrastinating?” Was it:

Don’t have a plan
Have a plan, but I’m not sold on it
Don’t like doing what the plan calls for
Don’t have the resources handy
Don’t have the budget
Don’t believe the team can get it done

In my case it was #3 (hated dong something in the plan), but let’s run through all of these procrastination causing problems in case it’s your situation.

1. I Don’t have a plan

Well, duh, make a plan. Solved.

OK, ok, I’m being flip.

So how do you make a plan? Funny you should ask, I’ve written a long twitter thread on how to Always Nail Your Strategic Plan.

2. I have a plan, but I’m not sold on it

This is an insidious one, because you might not even realize it’s happening.

You might have a plan – but deep down you know there’s a defect. Maybe your target is to aggressive, or you know you don’t have the time to get it done.

BOTTOM LINE: If you don’t sell yourself on the plan, it won’t get done.

How to fix it:

a) Redo the plan to be achievable, or
b) Get help making a strategic plan you believe in

3. You don’t like doing what the plan calls for

Sometimes, we just don’t like the thing we need to do.

Frankly, I hate networking. And that was what I had committed myself to doing. Networking, when I should know that I will resist doing it because I hate it. I could tell you to just grit your teeth and “tough it out, Nancy” (like I could have told myself) – but before that, ask:

a) can I accomplish the same goal changing the plan to sub in something I want to do?, or

b) Is there someone I can delegate to who will love doing this?

If you can do either of those, you’ll un-stick procrastination.

4. I don’t have the resources handy.

Something you don’t have, or don’t know, is blocking you.

Easy. Tell yourself the big project is on pause. Your new goal is to solve that one little piece. Make it a smaller chunk, and you’ll get it done.

5. I don’t have the budget

This trips up most pre-scale companies. Often you’re choosing between $ you take home, and execution. You’re procrastinating because you’re more tied to the cash than the idea.

This reduces to item # 2 – you have a plan, but you haven’t sold yourself on the investment. It could be that it’s a bad investment. Or it’s a good one – but you need to spend time on why it’s important. Go to # 2 above, do not pass go, certainly do not collect $200.

6. I don’t believe the team can get it done

Sometimes we procrastinate believing that if we start a project, the team will just screw it up – making a big mess for us to clean up.

Don’t blame you, it’s probably happened to you before. If so, it’s because of one thing-

The team screwed up because the project wasn’t delegated correctly (by you).

If you’re delegating right, the risk is small and manageable.

Learn how to delegate properly in our article on How To Delegate For More Freedom In Your Business

What to Do Next

Now you see procrastination is just a symptom. Addressing the underlying cause will get you unstuck.

BUT – there’s one other nut to crack: sticking to executing. Procrastination is you stuck with ONE thing NOW – but you need a process for hitting your business goals, always. For more on how to always hit your goals, get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.

November 15, 2022