Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Speaker A: If you want more time, money, freedom, and have a business that's not reliant on you, then you're in the right place. Each week, Mark Creedon, along with some of the very best business minds in the world, will take you through simple, practical steps you can take to create the business you always wanted. From his own practical experience, Mark will show you how to work less, make more, and get the business you always wanted, the one that you deserve.
Now, here's your host, one of Australia's most sought after business coaches, Mark Creedney.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Hi, and welcome to the latest edition of the Mastermind for Business podcast. I'm Mark Creedney, your host. If you are worried about how much you're going to try to try and get done before the end of the year, you're in the right place, because in this episode, I'm joined by Caroline, my business partner and my wife, and we're going to be talking about how the trick is to not try and do too much before the end of the year. What you should be doing, what you shouldn't be doing, what you should be focusing on. That's what we're going to get into right now.
Caroline, welcome to the program.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Hi. Yes, thank you.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Always good to sit down, have a chat with you about these things. Hey, one of the things that we see with our mastermind members, Caroline, is this massive panic around the end of the year, right? It's like I've just got to get everything done before December 31 or in some cases before December 24. But our listeners will be listening to this podcast between Christmas and new year, this big risk of wanting to get so much done before the end of the year. What are the things that you talk to our mastermind members about to try and help them to get away from that habit?
[00:02:05] Speaker C: One of the most important things is to keep it real.
Whether you're in a service business, retail industry business, the fact is the business is not going to burn down. Nobody's going to die if you don't get all of your tasks and if you don't get everything implemented before you go away, there's certain elements of things that you have to get done, but you just need to keep it real.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: Of course, if you are an emergency physician listening to this podcast, yeah, don't listen to, don't listen to that bit of advice.
Somebody might die. But look, it's a really good point you make, because what we find, Caroline, is that lots of people come along and they say, I've got all these things that I really wanted to get done. But the reality is they've been on their to do list, if not since January, then certainly since mid year, and then suddenly there's this mad push to get it done before January 30, before December 31, isn't there?
So one of the things that I know that you talk to our mastermind members about is to go, rather than sort of berating yourself because of the things you haven't got done, and then focusing on how can you jam six months worth of work into two weeks, but rather to look at what did you want to achieve, what didn't happen. And then I think the third really important point is why.
Yes, you got to understand why, haven't you?
[00:03:28] Speaker C: I think so. If you know that you've been under the pump with so many other things that have been priority, then you've got to look at the main purpose of those big issues. Why have they been so important and why have other things not been so important?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah, because I think the thing that people often say is, oh, no, this is a really important thing for me. And you sort of go, well, if it was that important, then you would have got it done, or you've got your priorities mixed up. So we always say that time management is not about managing time, it's about managing priorities. Right. So if they think something is super important, they haven't got to it. It's not because they've run out of time, it's because they've got their priorities mixed up.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: Yeah, well, one thing I talk a lot about is when you are prioritizing your tasks, I think it's human nature to look at things and look at things that you have to do.
You know what? I'm going to do the sexy stuff first because I like doing those things. They're going to be my priority because I love them, they're fun and I enjoy doing them. But the reality is sometimes you have to get those ugly frogs out of the way to be able to make sure that over a period of time, things are going to stay in flow.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: I think you're right. Is there value, though? Is there value in looking for a quick win?
[00:04:54] Speaker C: Oh, yes. I think you have to have wins, especially this time of year, because even though it's a festive season, there's lots behind the scenes frustrations and emotions that everybody deals with this time of the year.
[00:05:10] Speaker B: So we were having a chat with Jenny Cleavio, who's an organisational psychologist here in Australia, about this very point. And Jenny was saying that she's never seen such high levels of stress in the workplace as there currently exists at the moment.
So I guess it's one of those things where if you can find a quick win, even though it may not be of the highest possible value to you, sometimes it's worthwhile doing something that's going to give you that quick sort of shot of dopamine, isn't it?
[00:05:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we need to have that. But one of the most important things there is to take the time and notice that there are wins. They might only be small wins, but they are wins. You might be having conflict in a team, or you might be having conflict in amongst collaborating with somebody else, but that small win that you might get in those situations need to be acknowledged, and not just by you, but by also other people that you're working with at the same time.
Let everybody see and hear the win.
[00:06:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's a really important thing. One of the things, Caroline, that one of our mastermind members mentioned in a hot seat just last week was that they don't stop and take stock of the wins they have. And I think it's easy to fall into that trap. I think you and I do that sometimes, don't we, where we sort of look at what we've achieved or what we've missed, but we don't really stop and go, you know what, we've actually done a pretty damn good job.
[00:06:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I think when you get caught up in the day to day, and it's very easy to get caught up in the day to day, what becomes a small win or even a big win, sometimes you just dismiss it because there's so many other things going on and you probably look back at your business, say five or ten years earlier, and that would have small win today would have been a huge win back in the day, and you just make it like it's any other day, but it's still a good win.
[00:07:10] Speaker B: Yeah. It's interesting because if you look at what we do and what the purpose of this podcast is to help people do, to build a business, rather than feeling like they're shackled to it like a job. Right. It's to get them that freedom. And if you look at some of the clients that we've got who say in the last twelve months they've stopped working 80 hours weeks, 60 hours weeks, and they're working maybe a 30 hours week, that's a huge win. It's a huge win. But the problem is that if they've gone from an 80 hours week to a 30 hours week, really noticeable. But if they've gone from 80 to 60 to 50 to 40 to 30, if last year was 40, this year is 30, sometimes you kind of forget that you've actually made significant progress.
[00:07:52] Speaker C: Yeah. And not just those. You've made big progress in 1 hour, but that's often it's made by a lot of the small little progressions that you've made that you haven't acknowledged.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what? Sometimes you make a good point, because if you use that example that I used just before of 30 hours, sometimes it's not about the number of hours. So if we're measuring freedom, which is really what we do, right, our job is to help our mastermind members to get more freedom. And if it might be that you got to your kids concerts or you got to your kids school interviews or you got to play sport on the weekend or you got to throw the ball or you got to go to their swimming or whatever it might be, or you got to go to date night once a month. It's funny because it's those little things that you just have to stop and look back on and go, do you know what? I actually did that this year, and I didn't do it last year. So how good is that?
[00:08:48] Speaker C: I know something that pops to mind. We had a client in mastermind who one of the things that they've really been trying to have for years is to have more than two days off in their business, and they managed to have four days off in their business, and the business is still there and surviving. They felt wonderful that they could have that time, and they're able to turn off their phone. But that is an awesome win for them. There's nothing technically in it for me if they go for or a win for me if they go on a holiday for four days. But on reflection, when I look at that, I get that's actually a win for us. It is, because we were so excited that one of our members was able to do that. So even though it's not my win, it was a win for me.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: No, it doesn't, because it's why we do what we do. But the other thing is that it's one of those things where you've got to be careful. And I recorded a podcast with Michael Yardney last week where we spoke about being careful. Know how you compare? Because as you were saying that, I was thinking, oh, four days. I remember who that was. Four days. That's great. What about our other masterminder who took six months off?
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Well, that's just greedy because he went to Europe and didn't take me.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: But do you know what I mean? So he got to the point where he had six months off, but it's really important that we don't think, oh, that person's got six months off and I've only had four days off. Whereas four days is better than two days.
[00:10:11] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: So they actually double their time off.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: For a lot of people, four days is a lot in a row. Yeah, four days in a row is a lot for a lot of businesses. And looking at it from a mental health point of view, that can't be good for you. And that's something that really should become a priority in your business in the next twelve months.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: One of the things I like about mastermind plug. But one of the things I do like about mastermind is that that masterminder who took member of our tribe that took four days off looks at the member of the tribe that took six months off and goes, doesn't look at with envy or jealousy, but looks at it with, yes, okay, that's what I'm aiming for. That'll be my. It's four days to eight days to eight days to three weeks to three weeks to two months to two months to six months, et cetera.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: Are you saying that we're going away for six months?
[00:11:04] Speaker B: We live together and work together. Do you really want a six month holiday with me as well? Of course, dear. Anyway, so we've spoken, Caroline, about how guys, don't try and jam. If you're listening to this right now and you've got this big, long list of things you want to get done by December 31, get real. Right. You're putting too much pressure on yourself. What you should do is go through that list and go, what are the things on there that are going to give me the quickest win with the highest impact? And you want to try and find that lovely sweet spot that exists between quickest win and highest impact because there's not a lot of sense Caroline doing a quick win if it has no impact on the business. But there's also not a lot of sense trying to focus on something that's going to have high impact on the business. If you're going to be working 24 hours a day for the next until January 31, until December 31, you're better off going high impact, quick win. So high impact, low time frame, low energy. Let's see if you can find. And there will be something in your list that will deliver that to you.
[00:12:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: So we've looked at what you shouldn't be doing. What about what you should be doing? If somebody's listening to this now, they're going, yeah, that's good advice. I can see I don't need to jam all that stuff in, but what do I look at for 2024? What are the things that I look at to plan forward? What are sort of things that you're working on with our tribe now?
[00:12:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm a big one of our rock pebble sand concept. That's always really important. Sometimes it's easy not to see how important that is. But I know at the end of every year, we sort of sit down and look at what are the big things that we need to put in our diary and our schedules, whether that's professional or personal.
There's work and play in that. And then what are the smaller things that you need to do to back up those big things to be able to support them? But it is vitally important that before you go to the next calendar year or the next financial year, whatever you work from that they are in place, because, like, you think cash flow follows your calendar, if you know you've got a busy time of the year, then you push hard and you do different things to manage that so that your cash flow is stable throughout the year.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Let's just have a quick chat about rock pebble sand, because what we're talking about there is, it's that old story of the mayonnaise jar, right? Where if you had a big mayonnaise jar and you had a jar full of rocks, a jar full of pebbles and jar full of sand, if you put the sand in first and then the pebbles, you won't be able to fit the rocks in. But if you put the rocks in and then the pebbles and you shake the jar and the pebbles fall into the cracks, and then finally the sand, and you shake the jar and the sand. So it's getting back to what we said before about time management is not about managing time, but about managing priorities and therefore the order that you load things in.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: So something you and I do every year, usually across the break, is we sit down and we map out what our year ahead, our calendar year ahead looks like, and we preload things into our calendar, because, again, we know a preloaded year works really well based on the rock pebble sand concept. So what are the really big things that we have to put in? And they're the things like our focus Friday sessions, our intensives three times a year, all those things that we do for our clients, they're the money making success, getting activities. We load them in first and then we load the other things, the promises that we've made to clients, things we want to do. And then finally we load in things like around our own breaks, holidays, things that time with family, time with friends, celebrations, getting fit, gym, yoga, all that sort of stuff that we then load in. And the advantage of it is that when we sit back and look at it, we go, that's pretty cool. We've kind of got the year mapped out and we've got real certainty and direction.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: I think it is a bit of human nature to want that, the regularities of your day. It's just comforting knowing that Monday you do these things, Tuesdays you do these things.
This month is all about growth or whatever it might be for your business.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So we certainly take the months and theme them for what we teach in mastermind, but even in our own personal life, we go, well, right? So may, we're going to take a break. April, we've got wealth retreat. May, we've got a break.
March, we've got an intensive. July, we've got an intensive. October, November, we've got an intensive. So we lock all those things in and it makes it so much easier to then when somebody says to you, hey, do you have some time here to do maybe a special project or something you want to do for yourself or a break? It makes it easy to open your calendar and go, yeah, I can actually see where this fits in and I think it's that, that's what you're talking about. Certainty, clarity and consistency. Yeah, nice.
[00:16:01] Speaker C: There's no defensive words.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Yeah, well, how I roll. So, guys, I think the big takeaway from this is, well, there's really two, there's really two major takeaways. Number one is to think about, don't go punishing yourself for the things that you haven't achieved so far this year and trying to jam them all into the week before December 31. Number two, there are some things you can look at, and the big one, I think is preloading your calendar. One of the questions I know you always ask Caroline is if we were having this conversation twelve months hence, what would it look like?
But I mean, that's a question you always ask people, isn't it? Is to get them to visualize what it's going to look like in twelve months time.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Yeah, I think there needs to be the vision. Having that vision board is important personally and professionally. Knowing what a win is going to look like, what is going to be the elements of that win on the criteria of that win is really important.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I think the thing about it is though, if you don't know what it's going to look like, then how do you know whether you've got, do you know what I mean? If you don't know what? So I love it when you ask that question, hey, if you rubbed a lamp and a genie popped out and the genie said, I can give you whatever you want in your business in the next twelve months, what would it look like if. Imagine we've transported in time to twelve months hence, what does it look like? What does your business look like?
Caroline? I did a podcast recording with Tim and Felix from Bo Rac, which will be coming up in a future episode. They spoke a lot about having three, five and eight year plans. I think there's great value in just knowing what the next twelve months looks like so you can start to work toward it.
[00:17:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:47] Speaker B: And then knowing what the outcome is.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: Yeah.
It always amazes me when I stop and look at what people's wishes are for a twelve month period when we sort of speaking to people and they're all generally the same, most people just want to have, they want to make sure that they can bring somebody else on in their team so that they know that will help with growth, they know that will help with them having the flexibility to be able to do what they need to do in their role, work in their flow.
It's always the same, but the core outcome for that is to be able to have a little bit more freedom in their life, whether it be personal and professional.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
The other thing I think Caroline, and particularly at this time of the year. So again, if you're listening to this when it just gone to air, you're listening to this between Christmas and New Year. I think the other thing is, and I always close the Zoom sessions we have with our members with make sure you spend time with those who matter most.
But I just think that as you map out your year ahead, it's a great opportunity to think about that.
You've got to give time to those who matter most. The thing is, I've said this on a couple of occasions, time is the one commodity you can't recreate. Right? You can lose money and make it again. You can lose friends and repair the relationship or make new ones.
You can't get time back.
[00:19:17] Speaker C: No.
Every year, December, we had a counting down. It's going to be the new year and we all set this, this amazing goal right on midnight when we've had probably too many drinks. We're exhausted from Christmas, and we're just exhausted generally for the year.
And we pull out this goal from midair, and we expect to set ourselves up to be able to maintain that for the twelve months. But that's not going to work unless you plan before you've set that. So you need to know what that looks like and plan for it before you commit yourself to it, because you're more likely to achieve it.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: So you're talking about understanding what the. What is in terms of the goal and then the how. But I reckon the third component to that is the why.
[00:20:09] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if you set a challenge to yourself, I want to run a marathon. I know I need to do these things, but why do I want a marathon? Because that's something that I want to tick off my bucket list. Not me personally. Just saying.
[00:20:27] Speaker B: You nor me. No, you go right ahead. I'll stand on the sideline and cheer you on. I'll be the water boy. No, I'll bring the water. No vodka.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: Bring the bubbles.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Thanks. Yeah. Do you know what? I think it's really important. So, guys, as you're listening to this program, let's think about next year. Understand what it is that you want to achieve and how you're going to get there. And what Caroline's saying is great advice is really break it down into bite sized pieces and make sure you preload those pieces into your calendar so that you are far more likely to achieve them, but really understand why. So, Carolyn, we've had people come into mastermind. They go, I want to make an extra $500,000 next year. But why? What's that going to get you? And often it turns out it's actually not, they want to make more money. They want to get more time, and they think making more money will enable them to hire more people to get more time. But in fact, if we can change, work on them, work on their mindset first, we can free them up in time, and money becomes less relevant at that point in time.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah, money becomes just the vehicle.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: It's the vehicle to be able to get the time. Yes, we all want to make more money, but you want to make more money. So the vehicle you're traveling to get that time back is a nice vehicle and not just a shitty scooter that.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: You got to push yourself, but nice analogy. All right, guys, these are the sort of things that we teach our mastermind members all the time. If you'd like to know more about how we do that, metropolmastermind.com au but more importantly, if you like what you hear in this podcast, please like it. Please share it with your friends. It will help us to help more people, which is our mission. Share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe because subscribing helps other people to find us more easily. If there's some topics that you'd like to hear about on this podcast, go to our socials, send us a note, make a comment on the socials. I'd love to hear more about that. That'd be great. Caroline thank you.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: Welcome and Happy 2024.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: The crowd are going crazy for having you on. Guys. Happy New Year 2024. We're hoping that it brings you everything that you hope for in your business. Caroline Happy New Year to you and silence.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I thought were going to say Happy new year and I've bought you a bottle of grange or something you'd.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Much rather a good bottle of champagne or very good tasmanian bubbles. Guys, happy new year to you. And whatever you do, please, between now and when we next get to chat, make sure you spend time with those who matter most. This is Mark redon with the Mastermind for business podcast. Talk soon.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Thanks for joining us on the Mastermind for Business podcast. If you're ready to have a business that you're not a slave to, check out or have a chat with Mark and the team at all the w's see what's possible today.
