Episode Transcript

What’s up everybody, welcome back to THE a.m guys, so today I want to talk about doing less and doing it better.

So I’ve been on this journey recently for the past, I would say, for about past six to seven months, where I’ve really constantly been trying to do less. And by that I mean this really only working on the things that matter. Part of this journey has been learning just really about how to categorize and prioritize problems, and really seeing the differences in problems and what I’m solving and the level and the value of what I’m doing to solve that problem, and how that differs.

But also part of that is how I’m actually moving away from more things that are taking away time from having bigger impact with the company. So I’ve talked about this before, but one of the things that I really try and focus on personally is, how do I do less, right? How do I not do, like, hundreds of things? How do I do less and then do more of it that has a greater impact on what we’re trying to do has a greater impact on that company, has a greater impact in an outcome on the company. And it’s really just been a search in all the years that I’ve been in business, all the years Andrew and I’ve been in business, it’s it’s really just been a search to continue to drill down here.

And it’s interesting, because dealing and working within the company. One of the biggest things and one of the most important things that I found along the way is people really having to lead people, invest in people, develop people, because there’s no way you’re going to accomplish whatever you are trying to accomplish or setting out to do, and there’s no way you’re going to accomplish anything without a team. It’s just not going to happen. And so you need people.

And as I’ve been on this journey of really having to do less, it’s how do I do more, more efficiently, but through others. And so large part of this is not just, not just having skill sets right when, when I first started out in business, there’s a high focus on skill sets. What skill sets do we need to solve the problem? What skill sets? What do we need to do here? And there’s a large focus on skill sets. Don’t get me anything wrong. There’s nothing wrong with skill sets. And honestly, you should level up personally and get more skill sets under your belt. However, when you’re building something and you are building a company, it’s not the skill set that matters, it’s the person that matters, and the people matter more because if I need a better skill set, it’s really when comes in partnership, more often than not, with another individual, right?

I can only learn so much in a certain amount of time, and so where my time needs to be spent is I need to learn the most valuable things that have the biggest impact when leading a team or building a company, not just like, cool, how do I code or how do I invent things or stuff like that? It’s not so much about that, but it’s more about okay, what are the skill sets that allow me to actually have a greater impact within the company, which then, in turn, allows the company to have a greater impact outside of itself in the marketplace.

And I think thinking this way, this has been a process for me for about five years to really refine this and get this down and even in our meetings, like Andrew and I, we have scrums internally and long term vision, but then, like we have scrums internally for the week, but we also have meetings for long term vision. And as we’re doing these, it’s become so much more apparent how vital it is to actually do what matters, because I could do anything, and I could do any sort of work. And the thing is, is it the work that matters? And is it’s what is most important for me right now? Is it what is most important for Andrew right now?

And it’s interesting how everything else that is not as important, it’s still important, but not as important as the most important thing we should do, all that stuff wants to take time and detract from what we’re doing and what we’re building. And it’s amazing how much distraction comes into play when you’re trying to actually build and create. One of the biggest factors that you’re constantly trying to fight off, or that you should be fighting off, is distraction.

And I’m not just talking about cool, you’re just hopping on your phone and looking at stuff or being on social or whatever like that’s distractions. But oftentimes, more often than not, what distracts us is the work inside the house. And that really shouldn’t be what we’re doing or what we’re focusing on. It’s normally something else. And Andrew and I call it fire prevention, the real work is preventing the fire from happening. Not just putting it out. If we’re putting out, we’ve already missed it, and that’s one of our tells.

So anyways, I just want to share that just really being on the journey of how to do less but have greater impact with doing less.

That’s it for today, guys. I’ll catch you later. Peace.