4X Your Clarity & Productivity to 2X your Revenue & Time Off with David Wood

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. The only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down how to 4X your clarity and productivity to 2X your revenue and time off. To drop these value bombs, I brought David Wood into EO Fire Studios. David went from a Fortune 100 actuary to coaching maverick. He helps entrepreneurs double revenue and happiness, drawing on hard-won lessons from business burnouts and bold leaps like Hollywood acting and near-death survival. And today, we'll talk about the nine areas of focus for business owners.

0:35The human mind is like a monkey on crack, how to gamify our business on four levels, and quadruple productivity, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to David and our sponsors. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Get started today with Franocity's Franchise Funding Guide, packed with real-world strategies to launch your business without draining your savings, visit franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com. David, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:22Well, g'day Fire Nation. And I don't know how many people disagree with it, but I think all entrepreneurs could be a little nicer to yourself. I think where there's appreciation, there's growth. And too many of us were raised in kind of a bootcamp scenario where you have to be hard on yourself and you got to like, crush it. And, you know, you don't hit your revenue target, you beat yourself up. You didn't focus on what you said you were going to do, you beat yourself up. I think you've got to go, you know what, here's what I did do today. And that was good. Here's what I did do this month. And that was good.

2:01And yes, I'll do better tomorrow. And by the way, life is flipping short. So why are you going to beat yourself up every day and then die? Like, let's enjoy the process along the way. Let's just be nice to ourselves, be kind to ourselves, and then be proud of ourselves. So David, you believe that there are nine areas of focus for business owners. Let's rip through them. And then I'm going to maybe pick out one or two to kind of dive in on? I think plotting your course is the first one. Do you actually know where you're going? Uh, uh, the second one is productivity. So many of us are busy, but we're not always working on the stuff that's going to move the needle.

2:45Uh, and, and by the way, not every entrepreneur needs all nine of these areas. I usually, I've actually got something at the end of this call, which will let you work out which of these do you need to work on for yourself. The third one is mindset. Are you unstoppable? How do you handle it when things don't work out? Fourth one is lead flow. Do you have more leads than you can handle? Then we've got conversions. It's not a lot of point having traffic if you're not converting it well. The sixth area is upsells. I'm doing well, John. I haven't forgotten one yet. Upsells and leverage. You want to leverage your existing customers with referrals and, you know, building lifetime customer value, not just that one sale.

3:37Then we've got, what is your genius zone? Have you worked out the stuff that you do better than everybody else and that you love? Everything else is that stuff that you want to get off your plate. Then we've got hiring, the right staff, and most people really struggle in systems to get someone good. You do a really lengthy hiring process and they don't work out. You've just cost yourself, say, three months. So there's hiring. Number eight is, no, that was eight. We did seven was genius zone, eight was hiring, and number nine is motivating that team and holding them accountable to the highest standards that they're possible of reaching.

4:23Well, David, I applaud you for knocking out those nine areas of focus for business owners. Just do a little bit of a deeper dive on the lead flow. I think that's one area that most people can really improve upon. Of course, conversions is important, but you don't have to worry about converting unless you actually get leads. So talk about one or two things that you really work with people when it comes to lead flow and things that you think could really benefit Fire Nation on this topic? Wow. Well, firstly, I want to empathize, like getting traffic has got to be one of the biggest issues for almost every business I've consulted with and coached.

4:57I think first we've got to start with who am I selling to? And I know that sounds obvious, right? Particularly to JLD, the master, but who am I selling to? What's my avatar, if you don't know that, you can't work out where they hang out. So you have to know, okay, like for me, business owners earning at least a quarter of a million, usually up to, you know, say 5 million, 10 million. You've got to know that. And then you start writing down, where do they hang out? What are the podcasts they listen to? Maybe I can go and get on those. What are the magazines they read? What are the associations they belong to?

5:39And there are 20, 50 ,000 different marketing methods. My favorite one is an alliance. Build some kind of relationship with someone who already has those customers. Maybe they're not selling exactly what you have. Maybe they've got something a little bit different, but they've already got those customers. And John, our conversation right now is a perfect example. You have so many subscribers who trust you and follow you. And so I could go and try and reach them individually. I'll be long dead before I can get through 5 % of that. Why not reach out to you and make an offer? Hey, how about I come up with some cool content?

6:23I'll come and share it with the listeners. And maybe some of those can come and work with me if they think it's going to be a win. right that's an alliance this is the third time i've been on your show if you can do an alliance you can save yourself so much time now it takes more effort jld didn't respond to me for months i had to have three different people introduce me to you before you're like yeah all right let's get you on the show it takes effort and i had to take time to build up those relationships to even get to meet john but i think that effort is well worth it you get one good alliance that could actually fill you for some businesses that could fill your business and you may not need anything else now david you believe the human mind is like a monkey on crack this phrase really interests me because sometimes i personally feel that way i'm like oh my god can this these like ideas and these thoughts stop swirling and bouncing around in my head like can i just relax for a second, which is again, why I do love, and I talk about meditation, like meditation to me is a great way to calm the mind and to kind of ease things back, but it's still, you kind of always do drift back in this direction.

7:34So talk about this. The human mind is like a monkey on crack. Well, before we even get to our mind, just look at your environment these days. You sit down at the computer, you've got your computer dinging you saying, Hey, there's an email. Oh, that's juicy. You've got your phone texting you. I got how many different messaging apps now? You've got a track. Then there's someone knocking at the door. You get a phone call. This is all before we even get to our own mind. Now, let's say, all right, you've listened to this interview or another interview and you turn off all your distractions and you just sit down to work.

8:09Well, now you've got yourself to deal with. Anyone who's ever meditated understands you don't sit down and just usually experience blankness. You experience, that bastard said that to me last week. I'm still annoyed about that. And I didn't order that on Amazon. And man, I hope I can pay the bill this week. It's just never ending. So when I work with clients on focus, I'm like, well, first let's deal with the externals and get rid of those distractions. But then you're going to have to deal with yourself. Your mind is going to keep bringing in things to you. And I've got some stuff that'll help you, that'll help you actually stay on track, almost like a work meditation.

8:53So you've got one task. We'll call it your lover for the next 25 minutes. Everything's turned off and you actually just get to do some deep work for 25 minutes, which I know JLD is no news to you because you did a really great journal, mastery journal, which all of you guys should go and get if you haven't bought already. Thanks, brother. And Fire Nation, this is exactly the type of content you need to be thinking about when you're setting your day, your week, your month, and your life up. You need to understand distractions are everywhere. Like when Dave was talking about those dings, I don't have any dings.

9:27I turn off all notifications the minute I get any device. Like there's just no distractions for me. I don't let them happen because life is full enough of distractions, you know, alone. Like my generator just turned on, like that just went on. Like I just heard my son Bo just kind of like squeak downstairs doing something. I mean, everything's around you. We don't need to add these things to our life. So just minimize the distractions and control the distractions that you can so you can do that deep work. And we have a lot to talk about around this topic when we get back from thinking our sponsors.

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11:44And Franocity just doesn't help you pick a franchise. They help you understand the business model, investment risk, scalability, and operational reality. Get started today with Franocity's franchise funding guide packed with real-world strategies to launch your business without draining your savings. visit franocity.com, that's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to download your free franchise funding guide today. David, we're back and I wanna talk about gamification because this is something that you're kind of great at, you're kind of a master when it comes to this because you believe that we need to gamify our business on four levels.

12:20Tell us more. I worked at my values quite a while back, like what do I care about most in life? And you can work this out by largely looking at what you've done. and what you do. You don't have to like kind of create anything. And one of them for me is play. You know, if there's a game attached to it, I'll show up. You want me to come to your house, just offer the right game and I'll be there. I play pickleball. I love Pictionary, volleyball in a pool at a resort. It's hard to beat. And recently I was needing to revamp marketing for coaching and I didn't want to do it. I was like, I just don't want to do marketing at all.

13:01And then I realized, David, it's all about play. You have to do something that's fun for you and then it's not really work and you don't have to push uphill. It's not like pulling teeth. So gamifying everything matters. And for me, being on podcasts and talking about life and business is fun. So it doesn't even really count as work or marketing. Now, when it comes to distractions and focus, you have to know what you're doing. You have to know like what matters. If you don't know what matters, you can't create a game and you can't focus. Also, you've got no reason to say to people, I'm sorry, I can't do that.

13:41Particularly when you're your own boss. When you're on a boss, you have to create a game and a container and guidelines. Someone said to me once, this was a long time ago, they said Pele, who was a soccer player, famous soccer player at the time, can only be excellent because of the lines on the field. There have to be rules and there have to be lines and containers for him to be excellent. So when it comes to our business, There are four levels that I ask my clients to gamify their business. The first one is a year, pretty obvious. What are you going to do over this year? What would have you do the happy dance and pick up the phone and call your friends to say, I did it.

14:24I actually set this. I worked on it and I nailed it. I'm so proud of myself. But when you set that and you write it down and if all you do is five minutes on this, I'll be happy. All right. Five minutes of planning, pick your goals, write them down, put them on a post-it on the wall. Okay, I'm satisfied. If you spend an hour, even better. But when you do it, also write down the things that you are willing to postpone for this year. So for me, I decided working on the piano and the guitar. That stuff I'm willing to put aside in service of what matters. so so i don't know who it was who said your not to-do list is more important than your to-do list work out this is what matters this year and this is what i'm willing to put off that's the first level john i love that i mean fire nation how many people actually take the time to do this type of stuff i mean i can tell you it's slim to none so david why don't you rip through the next three levels.

15:28Yeah. Now it may not sound like a game yet, but I think it'll get clearer as we tighten the levels. So when we get to a week, the game is in, let's say Friday, five o 'clock, you do your weekly plan. And if you don't do a weekly plan, this five minutes could change your life. Just look at your goals, look at what matters and say, these five or six things really matter. I'm playing a game called get these done no matter what. That's your game. And I guarantee there'll be 20 more things you wish you could do. You have to have the discipline to put that on your wishlist. Don't pretend you can get 20 things done.

16:07Take the hit up front and say, all right, I'm going to be honest. That goes in a drawer that's on my wishlist. I'm playing a game called get these five or six things done no matter what. That's a game worth winning. The next level might be obvious. It's tomorrow. Have a look at your calendar for five minutes. I call this a CEO date, a date with yourself where you practice executive function of the brain and you say, this is what matters most tomorrow. I'm going to pick three things, four things, five, whatever. and again, put the rest on your dream list because you're really dreaming that you're going to get that stuff done and then play a game called, no matter what happens tomorrow, I get these done with all the distractions that want to pull me off task and with all the things my mind wants to pull me over to, I can't afford to do it because now I'm playing a game called nail these five or six things.

17:03The third level where I get most excited, Many of you, you can't be on John's podcast, I'm sure, without knowing about the Pomodoro technique. Really simple. It's what will I do for the next 25 minutes? Now, I tell you, John, this is game on. Because when you write down exactly what you will accomplish, say you're working on a website, you can't write down working on the website. You might say, I'll draft my bio, something specific. and then you set a timer, 25 minutes, and all your notifications are off, game on. Can I get this bio done with my mind trying to pull me away in 10 different directions?

17:43If something comes into your head, write it on a sheet of paper, call Bill. Okay, I'll do that later. Order that thing on Amazon. Thank you. Wrote it down. Back to the task. And when 25 minutes goes off, you must step away from the desk. Otherwise, you're not playing a game. You're cheating. And the more you do this, you step away from the desk and you set the timer for five minutes. Go and sweep the floor. Go and do push-ups. Go and do something else that you wouldn't normally find time to do. And then when the timer goes off, come back to it and do another 25-minute block. Seriously, I think this could change your life if you're not doing it already because you're now gamifying it.

18:29and if you get behind say five minutes the next one you want to catch up and try and hit the next one in time so that you don't fall behind I think that's a game worth playing it makes my days so much more fun and my clients at the end of a day yeah they get more productive and yeah they make more money and uh and sure that's great I want you to feel good I want you to feel like a hero saying, I set what I was going to do this day, this week, and I nailed it. That's the main reason I talk about this stuff. And by the way, Fire Nation, this is the whole premise of the mastery journal that David talked about earlier.

19:09It's all about setting these parameters, mastering productivity, mastering discipline, mastering focus, and holding yourself accountable to those things using the Pomodoro method. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. It is so key to happen because if you have that in your back pocket and it works, you just get stuff done. When you take action, action begets action and you get into the flow. It's so hard to start, but once you start, man, things just become so much easier because you get that little taste of momentum, that little taste of success, and you just keep going. So there's so much that we could talk about here today.

19:47I mean, there's a couple of the levels here, the 4D audit, But there's only so much time that we have here today. But David, luckily, is going to do a couple of things here. Number one, he's going to share the biggest takeaway that he really wants you, Fire Nation, to walk away with from this conversation today. And then a call to action that if you want to connect with David and learn more directly from him, how you can do that. So David, take us home. We have the gift of intentionality. I don't think other animals have this. I don't think dolphins are getting together and say, hey, in six months, we're going to build this thing on the ocean floor.

20:24We have that ability. We've just gotten pretty lazy. And I'll speak for myself, too, in this. We get into our habits and our ruts. And hopefully a conversation like this is enough to spark you and say, you know what? I can just ramp up my intentionality, put myself in the driver's seat more with a five minute date a week to set my weekly plan. and a five-minute date at the end of every day to say what I'm going to do tomorrow and what I won't. And then if you want to do the Pomodoro technique, then game on. So that's my takeaway. And my offering, I created a business assessment. It's going to take you five to ten minutes.

21:06I'm offering it free to listeners of the show. I'll give you the URL where you can take it. It'll take you through those nine areas and you can work out for yourself. Where's the low-hanging fruit for you? Where are you going? What are your challenges? And give you a really good snapshot. So that's the first offering. The second, at that same page, if you want me to look it over and to have a 15-minute call with you and give you my advice and my two cents, maybe help you start with a plan, I'm happy to do it. I don't charge for it because it's how I find the right people to work with. Maybe one call is all you need.

21:41If you want more, we can talk about coaching. If we do want to go forward, here's the third offering. I realized a while back that not everyone could afford my fixed fee, which is two grand a month. Now, if you're earning over a quarter of a million, sure, you should be paying two grand a month to your coach. But if you're not, I don't think you should be paying that much. So if we decide we work together, instead of just a fixed fee, I'm happy to pick a number that fits where your business is at. And that could be as low as$300 up to$2 ,000 a month. And ideally, you'll grow into a client who it's a natural fit to pay my regular fee.

22:20So start with the free assessment. If you want the call, you can go on to get onto my calendar. And the link is focus.ceo slash quiz. And it's not.com. I was very proud that I got the.ceo domain. So focus.ceo slash quiz. And I got a feeling it's going to be in the show notes. It'll be in the show notes. And by the way, Fire Nation, that's David's secret, is that if you come on for$300, because that's where you are financially, he's going to get you to pay him$2 ,000 a month down the road, because guess what? You're going to start generating more revenue to get to that quarter million dollars plus per year.

22:58I mean, this guy knows what he's doing. He's going to deliver. And it's going to be a win for you, of course. And it's going to be a win for him. So he's willing to do that. because he knows his coaching, his teachings, his education works. So you're the average Fire Nation of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with Ddubs and JLD today. So keep up the heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type David in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And again, Fire Nation, this is an incredibly generous offer. David will have a free, no strings attached, 15 minute phone call with you.

23:37I mean, this is one of the most generous offers that we have on the show. I would take advantage of it. And one more time, David, what's that URL? Focus.ceo slash quiz. David, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we will catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and David for sponsoring today's episode. and Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on fire. To learn more about EO Fire and becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest.

24:16I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Get started today with Franocity's franchise funding guide, packed with real-world strategies to launch your business without draining your savings. Visit Franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y dot com.