PERSISTENCE. Nothing can take the place of persistence. Persistence and determination are all powerful. My word for 2018 is persistence.
I mentioned in Ep. 37 that I lack the discipline I believe is required to be a successful entrepreneur and that lack of discipline has impeded my success and where I want to be within my business.
I’ve been reflecting on that and why I’m not disciplined because it’s not enough to say “I need to be more disciplined” – DUH! I need to figure out what will make me more disciplined, or better yet, what am I not doing that keeps me on track.
I started by looking at what I’ve struggled most with this year, things I felt held me back or places where I fell short. One of those places was being too shy, simply not asking for what I want and not speaking up loud enough.
I was afraid of reaching out to guests for the podcasts; afraid of following up after not getting a response; writing ideas down on my list and not following through; afraid of speaking out on subjects that I know a lot about (if I do say so myself); basically, just afraid of going out on the limb.
In order words, I lacked persistence. And two things drove this home for me.
First, I had the opportunity to be on a group coaching call with PR extraordinaire, Dreena Whitfield of WhitPR. One of the things she emphasized during the call was that you have to be persistent when reaching out and trying to get your name out there. If someone doesn’t respond to you, email them again, keep following up until you get a response. This was coming from an expert. All this time, I thought, emailing someone more than once is annoying. But someone who does this for a living was telling me I had to be persistence – that was all I needed.
Second, I was watching the movie The Founder (about the founding of McDonald’s). And I’ll talk more about that movie, but there’s a part of the movie where the guy plays a self-help recording, and it went like this:
Persistence
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent won’t. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent, genius won’t, unrewarded genius is practically a cliché, education won’t, the world is full of educated fools.
Persistence and determination alone are all powerful.
I’ve watched this movie a few times – because I have this thing where if I like a movie I watch it like ten times – 2.5-year-old does the same thing.
Every time I watch it, I find a new gem – all driving home the message to be persistent but not only that but also driving home other components or characteristics of what it takes or what it means to be persistent.
Here are THREE things I’ve learned about what it means to be persistent and how I plan to use this as my word of the year:
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF BECAUSE IT’S A NUMBERS GAME.
You have to take the emotion out of this and look at the math. If you look a mathematical standpoint, it makes it easier to keep doing what you think isn’t working.
Persistence works because it's a numbers game, and the numbers don't lie. #legaleasepodcast Click To TweetIf 300 people were in a line, and someone told you, every ten people you speak to, the 10th person will give you $50 bucks, would you stop at person number 9? No! Would you stop at person number 10? No, you’d get through all 300 hundred people and make that $1,500. And then next thing you would be wondering, where can I find the next 300 people.
That sounds like a no-brainer right? Well, the problem for most of us is we haven’t figured out that it takes the first nine people to say no before one person says yes, or for some of us, we haven’t figured out how many of those people it takes to say no before we get that one yes. Depending on what you’re selling or offering it could take nine nos, or it could take 19 nos, the point is you HAVE to persist.
One of the things I’ve had a problem with when it comes to adopting this method is caring more about those nine people who say no and not about that one person who says yes. I haven’t emailed my list as much as I would like because I’m always worried about that person who’s going to be annoyed that I’m emailing them every day. Or I’ve been too shy to ask people on my podcast because if they say no, they’ll go and tell everybody, they turned me down.
I’m worried too much about those nine people, and I’m not focusing on the one.
So from now on, I’m taking the emotions out of it, and I’m looking at it as a numbers game. If I send out ten requests, I’ll get one person to agree, if I send out 20, I’ll get 2 – numbers game.
IT’S OKAY IF PEOPLE THINK YOU’RE CRAZY / CELEBRATE YOUR CRAZY.
There is a level of crazy associated with being persistent, and that’s why most people are uncomfortable with it.
There’s a point in the movie when Ray Kroc’s wife asks him when he’ll stop chasing the dream she asks” When’s enough going to be enough for you? He thinks long and hard and says, honestly, probably never.
That sounds crazy, and it takes a lot of guts to admit you’re kinda of crazy. But if you want to be persistent, you have to EMBRACE your crazy. Everybody’s favorite quote is “insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting to get a different result.” Well – that’s the meaning of persistence.
There's a level of crazy associated with being persistent and that's why most people are uncomfortable with it. Click To TweetIf we’re completely honest, persistence is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. So there’s a level of crazy built into this thing that pays off and that’s probably why most of us are shy about being persistence, I know that’s why I am.
But persistence works. And to get comfortable with it, you have to get comfortable with your crazy and be proud of it, because that’s what’s going to keep you going. So yeah, I’m embracing my crazy this year, and I will need it to be more persistent.
KNOW THE BUSINESS YOU’RE IN.
Knowing the business, you’re is important because you need to be consistent in order to be persistent. When you know the business you’re in, you know exactly who your audience is; you know what their pain points are, you know what they want to hear, what they NEED to hear. And that’s how you sell and make money.
This guy Ray Kroc is killing himself signing up franchises for the McDonald brothers and long story short; he’s not making any money. He’s in the bank begging for money, and some guy overhears him; offers to help and review his business model says to him: The problem is, you don’t seem to realize what business you’re in, you’re not in the burger business, you’re in the real estate business. You’re not going to get rich selling 15 cent hamburgers; the money is in the real estate that the new franchises are required to get to build the new McDonalds.
As a result, McDonald’s is now one of the worlds largest real estate holding companies. That’s how Ray Kroc built the REAL ESTATE empire of McDonald’s, not by selling hamburgers. The cheap hamburgers are what got the customers coming, and the plethora of customers is what got the franchisees excited.
This made me think – what business am I in? Having a successful business requires that you sell something, either a product or a service, and knowing what you’re selling helps you hone in on your message and to be persistent, you have to know the type of business you’re in.
RESULTS, not goals, are driving my year.
I will be persistent and disciplined because I want two results this year: to be healthier and to have more flexibility in my schedule.
Starting a new arm of my business required me to come up to speed on so many aspects of running a business. I consumed HOURS of information products this year. I consumed online courses, blog posts, facebook groups, coaching sessions, masterminds, webinars, podcasts, online courses, conferences, and did I mention online courses? LOL
But two things happened – I gained a ton of weight – like 30 lbs! (average 10 hours a day sitting, not eating regularly, staying up late, not sleeping enough) and my productivity went down.
So when deciding what my goal would be for 2018, I knew losing weight and being more productive and disciplined was on the top of my list. But I didn’t want to just have goals. I thought about the results I want (tip from Ep. 33 with Courtney Sanders) and the habits that would help me get there.
Because I want to be healthier, I am making it a priority to go to the gym at least four days a week. It’s an important item on my calendar like anything else. I don’t want to be tied to my laptop 10 hours a day. It’s not healthy, and it’s actually counterproductive.
Penciling in two hours of gym time at least four days a week and only working five real hours of work means I have to be extremely productive. And I have to be persistent because persistence is the only way to get the financial results that will allow me the flexibility in my schedule that leads to a happier more enjoyable life.
So this year, it’s results that are driving me and not goals. That’s what I’ll be doing in 2018.
What’s your year of the word? I’d love to hear from you.
Check out the episode! Enjoy!
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