Sales Funnel Radio SFR 221: 2 Major Productivity Hacks...
These are two of the ways I stay so productive. Warning: it's not exactly for the faint of heart, and is likely to get stressful. Yet, you'll get your crap done…
Today, I wanna share some NINJA productivity hacks that help me to get sooo much done.
Join me, as I draw back the curtain, and give you a sneak peek behind the scenes, at Larsen Productivity 10.
WARNING: These productivity hacks are NOT for the faint hearted!
No whiners and whingers beyond this point…
You’ve been warned ;-)
MY PRODUCTIVITY HACKS 101
Before I go to sleep, I ALWAYS know what I'm gonna do the next day. It's NOT always the specific details, but I have an idea of what I need to focus on in the morning…
So when I wake up, I don't have to answer the question of “WHAT?”
I can just get on with things.
If someone's like, “Stephen, I’ worried about becoming an entrepreneur because I don't know all the steps…”
I’m like *NEWS FLASH* “Welcome to Freakin’ Entrepreneurship!”
Some days, you ’ll wake up, and you WON’T know exactly how your day will go. There’s ALWAYS gonna a new challenge to meet or problem to overcome.
That’s entrepreneurship, my friend.
So, if you can get over that hurdle by knowing the CORE PROJECTS that you'll be working on before you even go to bed, that’s one of the BIGGEST productivity hacks I can give you.
I know it sounds super simple, but Tim Ferriss talks about doing this in the Four Hour Work Week.
You should never go to sleep without knowing WHAT you're gonna be doing the next day, at least for your major core projects.
GETTING THINGS DONE!
If you don't have a list, you should have a list of the BIG, major core projects you're trying to get done in the next month.
Let me show you mine…
*This* is exactly how I do it all.
It’s something I learned from Alex Charfen, and I've kind of adapted it...
I think through ALL of the top things that I wanna get done in the next three months.
It's not like a giant list, we're talking major projects.
Then each month, I think through each project, and ask; “What’s a huge thing I could get done?”
For Example:
- Write a book.
- Do a live event, i.e., OfferMind
So I start thinking through these massive, high-level things and start to make some lists
This is the way I plan everything and stay super productive.
Check this out…
SETTING TARGETS
I start with some 90-Day Targets:
- These are all things I could do in 90 days.
- These are all things I will do in 90 days.
Then I think through:
- What could I do in the next 30 days?
- What I will do in the next 30 days?
Does that make sense?
When I launched my new content machine for Secret MLM Hacks, I used a similar system:
- Red = it's underway.
- Yellow = it wasn't realistic to get done this month, we're pushing it to next month.
- Green = it's done.
- Date column = for a specific day that I’ll do it
- Dollar Sign = the things that are revenue generating and focus specifically on those.
I have a lot of stuff on here because I have teams... and I'm kind of a psycho anyway.
Then I go through and I mark each one of these things, where I am and who owns that task, and who's getting it done.
I don't see any issue showing you guys this stuff, this is how I run things.
I run it in three-month swings.
Every 90 Days, I redo my whole targets again.
I've been using this system for the last five months now, and it shows ALL the tasks that I’ll focus on.
That's why when people reach out to ask, “Stephen will you build a funnel for me?”
If it’s NOT on my Target List, the answer is ALWAYS, NO!
That thing is The Bible to me.
I do NOT do ANYTHING that’s outside of my target list.
It works really well. I know exactly which team members are doing what. I don't have to sit back and be like, “Well, who….?”
Next, we’re going to create Trello boards that use the systems like we used to use at ClickFunnels.
It's a specific project management style; it's 90-day targets of what I could do, what I will, and then 30-day runs.
I think of them in 30 day runs: “What will I do in the next 30 days to hit that 90-day target... we're talking big major projects:
- Launch first funnel
- Write a book
- Do an event
... you know like, BIG things!
- What do I need to do in 30 days to get close to that?
- What could I do?
- What will I do?
- Who owns that task?
- Is it revenue generating?
At the beginning of each day, I just update the list.
Each month, I just copy that board/ that sheet so that I can see where the projects left off, then roll them forward and delete the ones that don't matter.
I think through:
- Can close up that project?
- Is it done?
- Why is it not done?
As far as getting crap done, this one of the biggest hacks I have.
SET YOUR TARGETS
Setting your own targets is simple. You can either create your own doc or just write them down on some paper or a whiteboard.
- What you could do in 90 days.
- What you will do in 90 days.
- What you could do in 30 days to hit those 90-day goals
- What you will do in 30 days to hit that 90-day goal.
Then it’s 100% up to you to decide what you need to focus on.
Remember, a huge long list of to-dos will do nothing but stress the crap out of you.
Here’s how I do it…
Before I go to bed each night, I choose only three moves to make the next day.
I make three moves a day, and the ones I choose are ALWAYS the revenue generating ones.
Then I do the highest revenue generating move in the morning time ... cause I know my brain's most fresh.
If you’re NOT that way, whatever... find a way that works for you!
But for me:
- I do the highest leveraged activities in the morning.
- I do the things that are not nearly as revenue generating, but still important (where it doesn't take as much mental bandwidth) in the evening or in the afternoon.
- I don't EVER do something that's NOT revenue generating
Just three moves a day…
Charfen calls it The Waterfall Method, and it’s worked extremely well for how I organize stuff.
I'm gonna use some of the tactics from James Friel too and create a board in Trello… because I have at least 11 agencies working for me now, and we're all remote…
So I'm NOT gonna send an Excel sheet out to everybody.
This is how I run it:
- I only ever do revenue generating things.
- I don't ever do something that's not revenue generating (and if I need to, I question it hard).
- My role in this business is to market, I do NOT outsource that.
As far as project planning goes, this one of the ways I stay so productive.
… but that’s NOT really what I wanted to show you!
MY NINJA PRODUCTIVITY HACK!
So check this out...
Every Tuesday for me is content creation day. Which means Tuesday morning. I go do a whole bunch of interviews with people.
If you guys want me to get on your show, I’m totally willing to do that every Tuesday morning, just go to interviewsteve.com which will forward you to my Calendly link to book a time
As soon as I'm done with interviews:
- I turn on all my flood lights, bloop!
- I put that paparazzi wall behind me (which was a grand!!!)
- I turn on my camera
- I shoot Sales Funnel Radio
- I shoot Secret MLM Hacks Radio
This might NOT seem like it's related to productivity, but it totally is!
It's one of the reasons. In fact, it’s one of the biggest productivity hacks!
And I wanna share with you, why that is…
BREAKING BELIEFS
So, let’s hop on over to my Sales Funnel Radio Trello Board…
Here’s where I keep all my ideas for future podcast episodes. I drop them in Trello, and then I number them.
I say, “Hey, I'm gonna do this one cause it launches on this date. I'm gonna do this one cause it launches on this date.”
Then I stream them in an order that’s designed to breaking your beliefs before you even know I'm doing that.
What I'm doing is crafting content... that’ll launch certain things extremely effectively.
I ALWAYS have my value ladders written out on my whiteboard, and so…
If a project does not match up with or launch something on the value ladder. I DON’T do it!
I craft the content that you’re hearing with a specific call to action to break and rebuild belief patterns.
So when you hear the call to action, you're like, “Oh crap, I should really go do that.”
CREATING CONTENT
Okay, check this out, this is how I run all of the episodes for Sales Funnel Radio …
I want two episodes a week, so I try to film the content three weeks ahead.
We have a card in Trello for each episode.
There’s:
- On deck.
- In Progress, (there's usually only one in there).
- Completed Episodes.
- On Hold
We also have cards for:
- The Assets, (the intro, the outro, the passwords, the pics ...all the crap that actually makes it run).
- Future podcast episode ideas.
- The archive list of all the episodes, which is super cool if we ever need to go back to it.
All of it links over to a Google Drive where we tussle it out.
THE SFR TEMPLATE
There’s a Sales Funnel Radio Episode Template that ensures each episode gets launched on time.
My role is to come in here and to fill this all out with.
- Headline
- Subheadline
- The outro
- When the content needs to be done by
As soon as I'm done, I tag the next person…
DANIELS CHECKLIST
- Daniel goes in and makes all these mp3 things
- He masters, mixes, and puts together the episode
- The sound
Then he tags the next person…
MARLEY’S CHECKLIST
- Marley goes in and makes the video
- Chops out the 15-second versions for Instagram.
- Teasers that we post on Facebook, (she does a ton of stuff)
- Makes thumbnails
- Puts in an SEO friendly version of the transcription for YouTube, (we rank like crazy... we're now over at one hundred thousand minutes watched every single month on that channel alone!)
- All the keywords
- Uploads different versions
Then the episode card gets passed off to the next person…
HELEN’S CHECKLIST
- Helen edits the transcriptions for iTunes
- Writes an amazing blog (which is awesome)
- Writes the meta descriptions
Then she passes the card to the next person…
JULIA’S CHECKLIST
- Julia takes the blog and puts it into WordPress and makes it visually awesome
- Adds the SEO stuff
- Writes a teaser email, (all those emails that you guys are starting to see coming out, that's what Julia does.)
Every time someone finishes an asset they go and re-upload it back to that Google Drive folder. There's a different folder for each episode.
Next...
COULTON’S CHECKLIST
- Coulton goes in and blasts out all the stuff to probably 15 different platforms (iTunes... and tons of platforms. It's really cool)
Next person comes in…
EMELY’S CHECKLIST
- Emely posts it in Facebook groups
- Posts to Instagram
- Blasts a chatbot out there
- Puts it on Instagram TV
Next, it goes to a Pinterest person and an ads agency….
There's a lot to it, and it’s really powerful and really really potent.
It works very very well!
The content machine I've built is Freakin’ Big. It costs 20 -30 grand a month, EVERY MONTH just to run it!
You don't have to start out that big, I certainly didn't. I started with a five dollar a month Libsyn account.
Now you’re probably wondering two things:
#1: “Stephen, how long does it take you to set all that up?”
My answer is, Just do it! Who cares about the timeline...
#2: “What has this got to do with a productivity hack?”
Let me explain…
MY FAST ACTION HACK
So productivity hack, here we go…
If I wait for the funnel to be done BEFORE I launch it and start talking about it, I will NOT get it done very quickly.
The first I experienced this hack, I was sitting across from Russell in our first office. He didn't tell me what he was doing. He grabbed his phone and he went live on Facebook:
“What's up, everybody? We've got this cool thing going on... (you can hear his voice, right!)...
We've got this cool thing going on, and it's going to launch today at two o'clock! Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited about it. Woo!”
Then he turned around, and said, “Dude, we've got this thing that's gonna be launching at two o'clock today!”
I was like, “Yeah, I know. I just heard you tell everybody.”
He's like, “Dude, you gotta go build it!”
And… that's the way we launched everything!
HOW TO GET CRAP DONE
You’ll get crap done if you just start telling people about it... and then build it based on the reactions that you see them giving.
That's how I launch pretty much everything.
If I sit back and I'm like, “Well, it's not quite done yet, so I'm not gonna start telling people about it...” *Wrong Move*
A Real Marketer would NOT wanna do that!
You want as much noise as possible... so start making noise, and build it as you need to.
MY 3 HOUR FUNNEL
When I launched my latest OfferMind Funnel, I recorded a podcast talking about the HUGE list of the speakers that it’d be cool to have at my next event
- Dana Derricks
- Mark Joyner
- Jay Abraham
- Russell Brunson
- Peng Joon
- Todd Brown
- Frank Kern
- Dean Graziosi
A lot of these guys I could actually get a hold of and pull out! Like, how cool would it be to have them at OfferMind.
I'm not promising, but I'm gonna start reaching out and running Dream 100 Campaigns to these guys.
(They'd also be great ones to promote my book when it comes out.)
So I'm crafting out, and timing the launch of the funnel with the launch of content that supports what I’m doing...
Why wouldn’t I teach you guys how I launched my first OfferMind... and why my very first event went so well.
You don't see a lot of other events running that hard that awesome from round one... how did I do it?
- So I created the content teaching you how I did created my first event.
- What better of an outro to have to that episode, than “Hey, go to offermind.com…”
However, 3-hours before that podcast was launched… there was NO FUNNEL to go with the outro. I had 3-hours to build an entire funnel.
I had the bare bones already there, and I've built a lot of funnels... I'm NOT telling you guys to make it that tight, but start telling people WHAT you're doing.
Let them follow the journey. Give them something to follow!
That's what I'm doing!
All my episodes break and rebuild belief patterns…
After you learn exactly how I launched my first event so successfully, the call to action is gonna say, “Hey, why don't you go to OfferMind.com and get your ticket.”...
BUT THE FUNNEL WASN’T BUILT BEFORE I TOLD EVERYONE ABOUT IT!
The Ultimate Productivity Hack is to just launch... and build it before everyone shows up.
Start telling people, and then go build once you see their reactions to it.
The worse thing ever is to build something completely, then go tell people about it, and they're like, “Meh....”
Does that make sense?
I've got these cool ways to get crap done... like the Trello board I showed you earlier...
BUT….
My productivity is tied to my content machine.
I don't think people understand that.
It’s how I'm able to just get crap done without stressing over stuff or overthinking things.
PRODUCTIVITY HACKS & GETTING THINGS DONE
These are the ways I stay productive:
- I've got a cool project management method
- I tell people about my stuff as I'm doing it, so I've got no choice but to launch.
I know it sounds intense...
People are like, “You're Crazy!” Yeah, okay... whatever, but it works! It’s how I get A LOT of crap done.
BOOM!
If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.
But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?
That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.
So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.
Wanna come?
There are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days.
You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.
Again, that's OfferMind.com.
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