"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger"
-- Shakespeare, Henry V
INTERNAL SCORECARD #12: ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH
I write these Internal Scorecards up, usually weekly, so that you can see the pragmatic applications of strategy, habits, operations, production, etc. The good and bad, the upsides and downs, and so on. I get a lot out of it too -- it gives me and external accountability mechanism, and good feedback.
This one covers 11 August to 17 August.
ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH
The last two weeks were "High Production, Shaky Habits." This week was more of the same.
Some of the new initiatives worked, somehow. I learned some interesting things. But the week was a lot like last week. This Scorecard will be a fairly short one.
THE VERY SHORT VERSION OF THIS WEEK
Sustainability was still shaky: I averaged 5.5 hours of sleep per night and consumed too much caffeine again. Nutrition was better. I had a couple crazy days (3.5 hours sleep followed by 15+ hours of work). That's mostly not good.
Production was arguably even higher: I've become faster, more action-oriented, and less patient (but not quite impatient). Good business and good work on GGW.
GGW: The new website for GGW is just about ready to launch.
Measurement/control: Reasonably good, the new systems are working well.
Fun: I had a heck of a lot of fun this week. I was a bit more terse, to-the-point, setting agendas, and cutting things faster if in unproductive ground. Yet, a general joy of life was incredibly high, which I think counterbalanced things nicely. I was just having a ton of fun.
That's the week in a nutshell. A few other observations --
OBSTACLE BREAKING
Chris Dame noted astutely that if you're in a "Producer" type role on a creative project, then it's far more important to break down obstacles in the way of success than anything else. There's a coordination aspect, and some things you'll have to do, but the biggest one is breaking down any obstacles in your team's way.
MARKETING AND SALES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF A BUSINESS
We can conceptualize three broad steps in a marketing and sales cycle:
Inputs [Engine] Outputs
Inputs are marketing channels, prospects, collateral, accoutrement, business cards, website, branding, content, etc.
The [Engine] is the pathway prospects follow through your offerings.
That leads to Output, which are your sales/results.
I've got a neat way to visually conceptualize this now, and maybe I'll draw it up for a later post. It's quite useful, but here's the most important part --
Early in a business's life, putting the vast majority of your focus on Outputs produces the best results. Don't get business cards, don't screw around with design, don't over-engineer a great system/engine, don't mess around speculatively with sales funnels, don't get too much software. Just knock all of that off and talk to people and ask them to buy, and observe. At this stage, the next most important things would be Inputs (especially marketing channels), and then your Engine/System, in that order.
This changes in a medium-mature business that has revenues but hasn't been optimized. Once people are starting to buy, putting your mental focus on the Engine/System produces the highest returns. Then, building more inputs. The order is roughly reversed.
Obviously, you need to constantly measure and focus on Output. But early, you should just go directly there and work like crazy on just selling and collecting cash. This will, additionally to getting you cash, teach you about what's important in your business so you're building stuff you actually need instead of speculating (which will usually be wrong anyways).
But if you keep just attacking selling without optimizing once you've built up, you get run ragged. You build a business that dies if you don't stay in it.
Recognizing the phases of a business's lifecycle is key. Early, focusing on E-Myth type stuff is poison. I wish I never read E-Myth as early as I did. It's dead correct advice, but dead wrong for a business without significant revenues and channels. Don't write a f***ing Ops Manual when you have no revenue. Sell! Sell!!!! SELL!!!!!
Of course, a pure focus on selling means no productization, no excellent market positioning, no statistical measures or controls, no optimization, and letting tons slip through your fingers. The business stands to die if you stop frantically selling. Hence, you systematize. The people who just sell sell sell sell sell sell and never make this transition do well and make real money, but their upside is absolutely limited and they'll tend to stay stressed and over bandwidth.
So, recognize where you're at and act accordingly. It's nice to have a model to be able to explain this. It's also nice to see how different people cap out at different levels -- I was by nature far more biased to inputs and engine-building than outputs… which meant I would occasionally have some breakout successes, but less reliably than hustle/hustle/hustle/hustle/hustle type people… but also I know many people in that category that would have years were they had high six figures of earning, never consolidated it, and now range from "barely middle class" to "flat broke" -- people who have done millions of net profit in their lives, but have little liquid or illiquid assets to show for it.
You need to get both down. Do the minimum on inputs and systematizing early; just SELL. As soon as you've got that down somewhat, turn your attention to systematizing and really getting the best experience for and with your customers and prospects, and build a lot more valuable inputs, and the results will keep following from there.
IMPULSE CONTROL
I've been training in impulse control lately. Meditation is good. I'm also trying to bring a meditative approach to things like work and creativity. I try to keep "bringing my mind around gently" to whatever I'm doing, repeatedly, especially if it's hard. I'm also sometimes doing things that are slightly difficult or unenjoyable, to feel an impulse against it, and keep training. It's been fruitful.
CHEMICAL ADDICTION
I walked into a couple pharmacies this week and tried to buy 100mg caffeine pills (roughly the equivalent of what's in one coffee). Neither had it, unfortunately.
Training in impulse control makes me realize just how bad chemical addiction is. Caffeine, frankly, owns me. I'm a slave to caffeine. If I try to not drink it, I get absolutely miserable and can barely function.
This is no way to live. I shudder at worse chemical addiction, most of which I quit some years ago. The mix of chemically addictive and tolerance building is of course particularly insidious, because you regularly need more to reach the same levels.
Caffeine isn't so bad, but do a sweep of thinking about what substances and things you need to keep functioning, or feel severe consequences if you don't. These are things that greatly restrict freedom and control of one's own life.
AN OPEN QUESTION REGARDING NOT SLEEPING
I could work nonstop for the next two weeks without no new inputs, and I'd maybe get done the top tier of high value actions I've got -- and I'd still have a great number of valuable stuff on the next level.
So… what the heck should I do when I get a burst of creativity around 7PM or 9PM, and I start getting into a great work cycle, but I've got an early-morning appointment the next morning?
I'm often working until 3AM or even as late as 6AM when I'm on fire lately. This is hugely anti-sustainable, but especially when I get into flow state on something difficult that wasn't clicking for me, I want to run that out and seize the production.
Yet, I know I'm planting the seeds of my own destruction here. I've been down this path before. This ain't my first rodeo. I know where this leads. This leads to burnout and lost periods of time where all momentum is lost. I'm getting amazing production, but I'm selling out the future.
I don't have a good grasp of how to make this tradeoff. Thoughts here would be very welcome.
SOME TECH AND ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
I re-installed the Operating System on my iPhone. Backed up my data, then wiped it. It's much less cluttered now, and I was able to install a pruned set of apps, and had space to add a bunch of new audio.
I got a bunch of production-related audio. Audioooks on sales, efficiency, and project management. Podcasts on marketing, entrepreneurship, and general effectiveness. All good.
I also switched from Chrome to Atomic Web Browser -- which has a way to block websites. It wasn't meant for it exactly, but you can turn on Adblock and then add the sites you want blocked to the adblock list. And I did. And it's great.
My entertainment has shifted to being more productive, and it's motivating to reach even higher heights of working harder. I also got in a few good 3-hour walks this week, and got a massage a couple times. In short, I'm working harder, filling my mind with better stuff, and "switching off" more completely when I switch off.
It's marvelous. I don't think what I'd be doing would be possible if not for that. Blind internet surfing is not rejuvenating the way a long walk, socializing time, exercising, or getting a massage is. I think I would have already hit the wall if not for that.
COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, TSR
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