Real Relationships Real Revenue - Audio Edition | Invest in Relationships to Build Your Business and Your Career

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Shawn Blanc. You need to have a plan around business development. A great business developer has a roadmap and knows what they are focused on over time. Great rainmakers not only have an annual plan, but they also have it broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks. When everything is mapped out, you can evaluate opportunities accurately against your plan and understand what is worth your time. Without the plan, you are probably just saying yes to everything that comes your way. Margin can be applied to the four areas of how we think. If you’re feeling stressed about your metrics, you need to expand your pipeline. If you feel stressed about deadlines, you need to pull back and create space to do your best work. If you don’t feel like you have any goodwill left in your relationships, you need to add margin by giving back. For strategy, you need to get down to three main focuses and measure against them. If you feel like you don’t have the time to make a plan, that’s the signal that you need a plan. Start with looking at what you can delegate or eliminate to free up time so you can come up with a plan and create margin in your strategy. If you don’t take the time to slow down and breathe, your body will force you to eventually.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we apply margin to better manage ourselves and get more done? There are five components of a focused life. The final section is on margin and maintaining breathing room in your life, because that’s the make or break it for your life. Margin is the space between your load and your breaking point. Finances are the only area of your life that can be lived beyond your means, every other area has a hard limit. Having breathing room within your schedule, relationships, and emotions allows you to continue doing the things that matter the most to you. You hack your habits by giving yourself the healthy breathing room you need to sustain it without getting burned out. It sometimes feels impossible to create this margin in your life, but burnout is impossible to sustain as well. You can either recognize it and make the choice to create margin in your life, or your circumstances will make those choices for you. The two most dangerous years of your life are the year you are born and the year after you retire. We run our lives near the redline all the way to retirement which often results in an untimely demise when we abruptly stop. Where in your life are you redlining that you need some breathing room in? What can you do now to reduce your load in that area? Shawn has a simple process that he uses to assess the tasks in his life and figure out what can be eliminated to either reduce his load or increase his limits. If you don’t think you have time to start planning, the first thing you need to do is eliminate something from your schedule. If you’re already on the edge of burnout, it’s not the time to take on new things. When you have no flexibility in your schedule, you have no time for anyone.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How can we use margin and apply it to long-term relationships? Margin exists for relationships. We need to have breathing room in our time, in our money, and in our energy to be able to build relationships. Margin allows us to build and strengthen and grow long-term relationships as well as new ones. People often view the business of business development and sales as an impossible environment to build authentic relationships but it doesn’t have to be that way. You can build the relationship first and it can result in additional business, but if not that’s okay too. Margin is the foundation for being truly authentic in a relationship. Without it, you will find yourself in meetings because you need the business and it will come across in the conversation. Margin helps us with perspective and allows you to create relationships in the long term. Great business development is about creating a better future for other people. Your core expertise is how you impact people in a positive way and relationship-oriented business development is how you do that. In Shawn’s experience, providing a lot of value upfront and being clear about the nature of the relationship is what leads to long-term success. The idea of serving is paramount instead of converting each user to a customer immediately. Having confidence in your ability to help people is the key to turning them into a customer. The imposter syndrome is what prevents people from understanding the value they can actually add to their customer’s lives. Pulling people from one side of complexity to the other is immensely valuable. For some people, you need to charge enough money just to get their attention. A big part of your pricing is who your target customer is, and what price you need to charge to deliver your best work. For Shawn, the number is high enough so that the client will take it as seriously as he will.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: How do we use margin to grow our book of business and get more opportunities? Shawn shares the parable of the good samaritan and how margin relates to opportunities. The ability to say no to certain opportunities is as important as the ability to say yes. When we are not clear around our priorities or have no margin within our schedule, it can be easy to say yes to everything and become overwhelmed. This puts strain on your work when truly great opportunities come your way. Margin can enable us to say yes to the most important stuff. It also helps us know when to say no to certain things so that we can show up with our greatest strength during times of opportunity. Evaluating opportunities is not binary, it’s an organic process. The first step is knowing your values and understanding how you work within your daily schedule. Does the opportunity align with what you care about? If it does, what are the most important things on your schedule, and do you have enough resources and time to say yes to the opportunity? Lastly, if it is important and time is tight, is there something you can give up on to take the opportunity on? Business development is probably one of the most important things you can do for your career, yet it’s one of the first areas the professionals let slide when time gets tough. Great rainmakers have a roadmap for what they are going to do in terms of business development. You have to be proactive with your time and have the clarity to know what the most important things are so they don’t get pushed aside. Shawn’s team works in eight-week cycles which have been transformative for his business. The first six weeks are focused work time for clearly defined projects and the following week is a buffer for review. The eighth week is time off for the entire team. This work cycle structure allows Shawn’s team to accomplish more in less time while also building in time to recover and celebrate what they have achieved.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Mo asks Shawn Blanc: What big idea do you have that professionals can use to do a better job at business development? Margin, also known as breathing room, is the space in our lives between the stuff that we do and the limit where we fall off the cliff. It’s very easy, especially in the world of business, for people to push their energy to the absolute limits where there is zero margin in our lives. Margin can apply to more than just business, it can apply to all areas and relationships in your life. Having breathing room in Shawn’s life helps him lean into his strength as a Yellow thinker. Shawn feels the constant need to fill every moment in his life with something productive, so the reminder of building in the margins is critical to doing his best work. Working on projects that are due weeks ahead instead of the next morning allows you to work more effectively with less stress. For business and your personal life, margin exists to benefit your relationships. When you have no margin in your life you are tapped out in your schedule and physically, and this leaves little strength left over for your relationships, including business development.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com thefocuscourse.com

Ozan Varol shares how thinking like a rocket scientist can unlock business innovations that most people would not believe are possible. Discover the lessons and ideas that allowed NASA to put a man on the moon and how to apply them to business development, the subtle insight that led to the creation of Netflix, and why questioning your assumptions is the secret to innovation and long term success.   Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we take Ozan’s content and become better skilled at business development? Ozan opened his book with the story of how John F. Kennedy pledged a literal moonshot despite the lack of technology at the time that could make it possible. Ozan wrote the book to show that it wasn’t just the technology that made putting a man on the moon possible, it was the framework of thinking that kicked everything off. The big takeaway from what NASA was able to accomplish is the combination of idealism and pragmatism. Dreaming big and then working backward from that dream and figuring out what needs to happen to get there, then methodically attacking each problem along the roadmap. Sometimes a challenge can galvanize your entire team to make your goal into a reality. Reasoning from first principles is a powerful way of reimagining and reframing what is possible. It’s a method of breaking a problem down and questioning your assumptions, and letting go of everything except for what is essential. One assumption from rocket science that didn’t change until recently was the idea that rockets couldn’t be reused. SpaceX and Blue Origin have used first principles thinking to reimagine what’s possible and it’s because someone was willing to step back and question the accepted wisdom of the time. Hack through your business assumptions. You owe to yourself and your clients to create a better vision that allows you to serve them even more. It’s important to ask yourself whether you own your assumptions or do your assumptions own you? Is it possible to question your assumptions and replace it with something better?   Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we do a better job of getting the kind of work that we want? One of the biggest problems in the business right now, especially in this time of uncertainty, is that we assume that other businesses around us know something that we don’t, so we end up copying their strategies. This ends up in a race to the center, where businesses start to look more and more like each other. First-principles thinking is a way of questioning assumptions that you or other people have taken for granted. One of the best tools for identifying your invisible assumptions about your business is cross-pollination. Look at other industries and see what they do because what is commonplace in one industry can be completely innovative in another. A great example is the origin story of Netflix, where Reid Hastings had the idea of applying the subscription model that gyms use and applied it to video rentals. Most of us can not see our outdated assumptions because we are too close to the problem. There is immense value in stepping outside of your industry for inspiration. The humility that comes from saying you don’t know something is very rare, but that is the mindset that often leads to innovation. Many of the business leaders that have transformed the way we do things have done so with the beginner’s mindset after entering another industry from the one they started in. Bring people into the conversation that know nothing about what you are working on. Beginners have a way of looking at a problem that more experienced people can’t even see. Experts should not work in isolation, they should benefit from the input and the “dumb” questions of amateurs.   Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we deepen relationships for long term success? There is a simple concept within rocket science known as “test as you fly, fly as you test”. It's about making sure your experiments are as close to the real conditions as possible. In business, we almost never experiment and instead go from idea to execution immediately. Look at whatever you are offering from the perspective of the people that you are serving. It’s hard to see the human component of our product or service from a PowerPoint presentation. Keeping the client’s perspective in mind is how you increase the value of your relationship with them. The client won’t know what it will be like to work with you, but if you can give them a sample (the Give to Get), you can set yourself apart from the competition and give your client value upfront. This shows them what your relationship will look like, which is something that no email, sales page, or presentation can do. The best way to reframe a question is to step away from a tactic and see the overall strategy. Often the tactic becomes a trap. If you’ve become used to using the same tactic to reach people you won’t see the other options that are possible. There are other tactics available that fit into your overall strategy but you need to be able to step back and see what is possible.   Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we hack our own habits to be successful over a long period of time? The best way to grow your business is to do nothing. So many of us are in constant hustle mode, constantly going from one thing to the next. There is an incredible value in simply doing nothing but thinking. Schedule time every day that is dedicated to unplugging and thinking. Don’t approach it with an agenda or an outcome, just write down whatever comes to your mind. 95% of your thoughts will be junk, but the remaining 5% can be invaluable. Research shows that when you are daydreaming, a region of the brain called the default node network comes alive and that region is associated with creativity. When you let your mind wander you are allowing your subconscious to connect the dots that you would otherwise have missed. This is why so many great ideas come to people in the shower. If you can take that and build it into your day, you’ll find that it will become the most valuable time on your schedule. Do what works for you. Thinking time can take the form of going for a walk, exercising, or just sitting in your favorite armchair. As long as you are stepping away from distractions you are opening yourself to great ideas. We are walking repositories of epiphanies, the problem is we are generally too distracted to receive them. Creativity comes as a subtle whisper, and if you’re not paying attention, it’s very easy to miss. Avoid using your phone or laptop to take notes. For Ozan, that means a notepad and pencil. Put it on your calendar and treat it like a meeting. Start it as an experiment and start small. Part of the reason that people shy away from this kind of practice is there doesn’t appear to be an immediate return on the time. Approach it as a long term investment that will turn into amazing opportunities in the future. You need to find a balance between the short term demands of business and your long term vision.   Mo shares his insights from the habits of Ozan Varol. Always having a couple moonshot ideas that you are working on is incredibly valuable as you are working on the day to day tasks of business development. For something to be a moonshot, it has to be something that would completely change the game, for example, a 10x investment. What can you work on that is totally different from what you are doing right now, that if it worked, would be a 10x game changer for your business. There is a large correlation between highly efficient people and problem solvers and the ability to reframe questions. The ability to reframe the question behind your actions is how you can achieve incredible results. Instead of getting stuck in a rut, stepping back and seeing the bigger strategy may be what you need to do to see better alternatives. By reframing the question we get a much broader context of what we might do next. Being willing to admit that you know nothing opens up your mind to learning. The beginner’s mindset is liberating and puts you in a position to learn more. We have to seek outside our tiny ecosystem of our business and clients to see other ways of doing things that can unlock innovations that can change everything.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com weeklycontrarian.com

Mo shares his insights from the habits of Ozan Varol. Always having a couple moonshot ideas that you are working on is incredibly valuable as you are working on the day to day tasks of business development. For something to be a moonshot, it has to be something that would completely change the game, for example, a 10x investment. What can you work on that is totally different from what you are doing right now, that if it worked, would be a 10x game changer for your business. There is a large correlation between highly efficient people and problem solvers and the ability to reframe questions. The ability to reframe the question behind your actions is how you can achieve incredible results. Instead of getting stuck in a rut, stepping back and seeing the bigger strategy may be what you need to do to see better alternatives. By reframing the question we get a much broader context of what we might do next. Being willing to admit that you know nothing opens up your mind to learning. The beginner’s mindset is liberating and puts you in a position to learn more. We have to seek outside our tiny ecosystem of our business and clients to see other ways of doing things that can unlock innovations that can change everything.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com weeklycontrarian.com

Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we hack our own habits to be successful over a long period of time? The best way to grow your business is to do nothing. So many of us are in constant hustle mode, constantly going from one thing to the next. There is an incredible value in simply doing nothing but thinking. Schedule time every day that is dedicated to unplugging and thinking. Don’t approach it with an agenda or an outcome, just write down whatever comes to your mind. 95% of your thoughts will be junk, but the remaining 5% can be invaluable. Research shows that when you are daydreaming, a region of the brain called the default node network comes alive and that region is associated with creativity. When you let your mind wander you are allowing your subconscious to connect the dots that you would otherwise have missed. This is why so many great ideas come to people in the shower. If you can take that and build it into your day, you’ll find that it will become the most valuable time on your schedule. Do what works for you. Thinking time can take the form of going for a walk, exercising, or just sitting in your favorite armchair. As long as you are stepping away from distractions you are opening yourself to great ideas. We are walking repositories of epiphanies, the problem is we are generally too distracted to receive them. Creativity comes as a subtle whisper, and if you’re not paying attention, it’s very easy to miss. Avoid using your phone or laptop to take notes. For Ozan, that means a notepad and pencil. Put it on your calendar and treat it like a meeting. Start it as an experiment and start small. Part of the reason that people shy away from this kind of practice is there doesn’t appear to be an immediate return on the time. Approach it as a long term investment that will turn into amazing opportunities in the future. You need to find a balance between the short term demands of business and your long term vision.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com weeklycontrarian.com

Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we deepen relationships for long term success? There is a simple concept within rocket science known as “test as you fly, fly as you test”. It's about making sure your experiments are as close to the real conditions as possible. In business, we almost never experiment and instead go from idea to execution immediately. Look at whatever you are offering from the perspective of the people that you are serving. It’s hard to see the human component of our product or service from a PowerPoint presentation. Keeping the client’s perspective in mind is how you increase the value of your relationship with them. The client won’t know what it will be like to work with you, but if you can give them a sample (the Give to Get), you can set yourself apart from the competition and give your client value upfront. This shows them what your relationship will look like, which is something that no email, sales page, or presentation can do. The best way to reframe a question is to step away from a tactic and see the overall strategy. Often the tactic becomes a trap. If you’ve become used to using the same tactic to reach people you won’t see the other options that are possible. There are other tactics available that fit into your overall strategy but you need to be able to step back and see what is possible.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com weeklycontrarian.com

Mo asks Ozan Varol: How can we do a better job of getting the kind of work that we want? One of the biggest problems in the business right now, especially in this time of uncertainty, is that we assume that other businesses around us know something that we don’t, so we end up copying their strategies. This ends up in a race to the center, where businesses start to look more and more like each other. First-principles thinking is a way of questioning assumptions that you or other people have taken for granted. One of the best tools for identifying your invisible assumptions about your business is cross-pollination. Look at other industries and see what they do because what is commonplace in one industry can be completely innovative in another. A great example is the origin story of Netflix, where Reid Hastings had the idea of applying the subscription model that gyms use and applied it to video rentals. Most of us can not see our outdated assumptions because we are too close to the problem. There is immense value in stepping outside of your industry for inspiration. The humility that comes from saying you don’t know something is very rare, but that is the mindset that often leads to innovation. Many of the business leaders that have transformed the way we do things have done so with the beginner’s mindset after entering another industry from the one they started in. Bring people into the conversation that know nothing about what you are working on. Beginners have a way of looking at a problem that more experienced people can’t even see. Experts should not work in isolation, they should benefit from the input and the “dumb” questions of amateurs.   Mentioned in this Episode: GrowBIGPlaybook.com weeklycontrarian.com