Lose it, Leverage it or Automate it

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Summary

What are you controlling? In your businesses what can you automate or delegate? Take a good look and automate those things by using technology and a highly efficient team.

You can do this on whatever journey you are embarking, whatever business you are stamping your logo on, it is key that you zero in on the most important pieces and scrap the crap. Your time is one of the only things that you have the ability to totally control if you are purposeful about it. How can you automate a process that is recurring? Take out your journal and make a list of the things that you do that matter most to you both personally and professionally. Now go through that list and really look at it and see if there are things that simply don’t need to be on there at all as they are just time fillers, and if so cross them off. Figure out what you can do to automate or delegate the pieces that are left that are not your true loves. Look closely for the things that inspire you and get you excited for every day. You need to do this so that you are working on the projects and passions that are most important to you.

Full Transcript

Welcome I am Leigh Wilson your certified High Performance Coach and this is Focus Forward Business Design where we tackle the topics that will help you grow both personally and professionally into the very best version of yourself, while allowing you to challenge yourself and experience a life that you previously only envisioned.

As you listen to this, I encourage you to take notes and take the time to implement these tools and watch your world change.  After last week you should also have a calendar that looks like that of a true business person that is in full control of what gets the privilege of being in either your personal or your work world.  If you did not get a chance to watch or listen to last week I encourage you to stop this right now and go back and catch last week's episode.  I seriously cannot stress the importance of that calendar and the discipline to stick to it.  I know that it seems so basic but as New York Times best selling author Brendon Burchard says over and over, common sense is not always common practice.  You put this incredible schedule into place, it’s so amazing and encompasses exactly what you want your day to look like and has you excited.  In fact, it may quite honestly be a piece of art worthy of framing.  This is your map to success every day, as you focus on the critical tasks that will move you closer to your goals.

Alright, let’s move on to the next strategy that can really zero you in on what you should be doing every day.  In fact, when you are done with this you may find yourself going back to the last video and rewatching that calendar piece as some things that got put on your calendar as necessary may well be leveraged or gone entirely once you are through watching this section  

Ok…Journals out…here we go!

it is time to talk about what you are controlling.  A constant topic on my radar in my businesses has and continues to be what can I automate or delegate.  For example, in my real estate business helping people is important to me so we automated our marketing so that we could reach and help more people. With Focus Forward Business Development, my business and personal development business, we automated scheduling so I could spend more time coaching, mentoring and creating content for you.  I automated those things through technology and a highly efficient team. Now I know that some of you are thinking, but Leigh it is just me.  I don’t have a team and am not in a place to hire yet.  I get it and that’s ok…even more important is this lesson in defining what stays and what goes.  I have been there.   I answered the phones, wrote the deals, did the marketing, met with clients and cleaned the toilets.  Then I learned some magic about my value and the ways to change up my world on a budget so that I could grow and therefore bring on more support.  You need to know my team is still extremely small, but we are mighty.  It is me, a director of operations slash videographer/content producer, an executive assistant slash customer relations expert as well as 2 virtual assistants for our techie marketing and production side.  We are compact but we are laser focused on where we are going and how we can influence the most people.   You can do this as well, whatever journey you are embarking, whatever business you are stamping your logo on, it is key that you zero in on the most important pieces and scrap the crap.

Our time is one of the things that we have the ability to totally control if we are purposeful about it.  How can I automate a process that is recurring and matters to me?   Let’s look at 3 things that you need to do to evaluate if you are personally doing the things that truly matter.  Number 1   - Take out your journal and make a list of the things that you do that matter most to you both personally and professionally.  Now go through that list and really look at it and see if there are things that simply don’t need to be on there at all as they are just time fillers, and if so cross them off. There you have done your first lose it. 

Number 2 - Now it’s time to figure out what you can do to automate or delegate the pieces that are left that are not your true loves…the things that inspire you and get you excited for every day.  I want you to do this so that you are working on the projects and passions that are most important to you.  Go ahead and highlight those. 

The highest achieving individuals never stop looking for ways to have the wheels continue to turn 24/7 through automation or delegation so it just keeps happening and you are not doing it.  I remember the first time I had team members that were the right fit and how assuring it was and how much peace it gave me to know that they were out there working, helping people in my name with the integrity that our team standards had instilled.  It was such a feeling of accomplishment.  You deserve to have that feeling.  Your customers deserve to have a team working for them whenever the need arises.  Delegation and automation will accomplish this. 

We all get in our heads that we have to control everything in order for it to happen and that is all ego.  How many of us have left a job or been let go of a job and you walk out saying to yourself “you people are going down…you will now know how much I did”  and then you check back in a week or so later to say hi and its as if you were never a part of that organization.  They have all just continued forward with their mission and never hit a speedbump when you left.  We have to get over the myth that things won’t happen if we don’t control them and identify the things that you are most passionate about to control.

It’s so important that you evaluate what is important to you and make sure that is where your energy and time is focused and those are the things that you are controlling.  Why do you need to control everything…you don’t and I don’t say this to sound mean but I need you to hear it….get over yourself.

There are always going to be reasons that you can’t or won’t delegate…they are just excuses.  

What can you remove, automate and delegate, and what does your life look like if you do that?  If you let go of a little bit of control what happens?  What freedom do you gain that you can spend on the things you love? They may not all be the things that others tell you that you should control, but if you are passionate about them then maybe that is ok.

I have had numerous coaches, trainers and other high achieving business owners amazed that I still do my own financials, payroll, quarterly reports and are constantly asking me WHY…You need to have others do those things.  But I like to do them and I’m a numbers person…  “But there are people that can do that for you” …But I like to do them and I’m a numbers person.  It’s one of the things that has allowed me to grow my business, because I loved the numbers and could track my business, allowing me to know what decisions were going to be profitable and which ones were not going to allow for growth.  I can control that, and I like that…if I don’t like it then I remove it, automate it or delegate it.  Now, I will also tell you that there are many components in my business that I enjoy that I have chosen to take off of my plate because there were either others more qualified for the task or my time was better spent somewhere else.  I am sure that you will find yourself in this position and you have to take a step back and ask yourself if this is going to move your business forward or not.  If not then take that 2nd look and see if it is something that is better handled by a different person or automated by a system. Now at the end of the day if you just love it and it’s the whole reason you do what you do then hell yeah keep it.  It’s all yours to decide what you wrap your arms around and keep.

Finally putting as much automation into things that you know are going to be repeated in your business.  If there is anything that is done on a consistent basis the same way, then most likely there is a system out there to make it easier.  So number 3 is review the list one more time and highlight in a different color what items could be systematized… is there a system either already in place,  or one that you could implement easily and cost effectively that would buy you back loads of time, and most likely as with most automation once it's in place it will do a better job and a more consistent job then you or your human counterparts.  Depending on your industry you will likely be able to find things that are designed for your specialty.  What I found when I first started and cash was in short supply is that often I could determine what the best systems did and then find cheaper solutions that did a large majority of it and typically the pieces that the bigger, fancier ones did I was not ready for anyway.  That worked for a lot of years and so when you do that you don’t end up paying for things that you only use 40% of.  Just a thought as you look at your different options.

By automating systems, I was able to help 100 investors my first 6 months in the business and help over 400 families that were in tough short sale situations in Idaho and WA in 2008-2010.  By removing, automating and delegating in my real estate business, I was able to start a business of personal passion with Focus Forward Business Design,  that takes the complexities of high – level business achievement models and combines that with proven personal lifestyle and advancement techniques to give business owners in any career field an amazing life.

What can you remove, automate or delegate? 

If this was helpful please share it with 3 amazing people that share your passion for growth. If you want to go deeper into this topic and the habits of the world's highest performers click below for your complimentary 1:1 strategy session with me and let’s help gain clarity on the path to your vision.

See you next week and remember it is always your choice to Focus Forward!

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