In our previous episode 503 – 11 Mistakes Preventing Business Growth, we scratched the surface of an important topic – the importance of doing the work that moves the needle in your business daily. Whether you complete tasks yourself or assign them to your team, the work needs to be done regardless.
Today, in this episode of Influence by Design, Samantha and Tim dive deeper into the discussion of doing the work and strategies to ensure business success at every step.
Business owners encounter daily challenges and uncertainties that can make them feel overwhelmed and disheartened. However, it’s important to remember that successful businesses rely on carefully planned strategies that motivate entrepreneurs to fulfil their responsibilities.
It’s time to roll up your sleeves, lay the groundwork, and identify the key elements that can drive business growth. You need to embrace the challenges and do the work that can take the business to new heights. Don’t miss this episode.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The difference between being busy and being productive (04:18)
- The value of creating a plan that works for the business (04:55)
- Why you need to involve the team in planning (09:15)
- The need to understand the needle movers in your business (12:30)
- The significance of accountability to progress forward (14:48)
- Techniques to help keep yourself accountable (17:23)
- How to best manage moving to a level you’ve never been (19:59)
QUOTES
“When there’s no understanding of the big goal, the consequences, and the benefits, it’s very difficult for people to get on board.” -Samantha Riley
“If you don’t bring important numbers or needle movers into the light, it stays in the dark and you’ll never get there. You need to bring it into the light of day, so you can create a plan or a strategy to move forward.” -Samantha Riley
“We know that not having deadlines attached to things means we never feel the imperative to progress them.” -Tim Hyde
“Getting your team involved in planning and how you’re going to achieve outcomes is critically important. If we do it in isolation, no one else knows where we’re going or what we’re doing.” -Tim Hyde
“Show me your calendar, and I’ll predict your revenue.” -Peter Drucker
RESOURCES:
SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW THE INFLUENCE BY DESIGN PODCAST
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If the information in any of our conversations and interviews has helped you in your business journey, please head over to Apple Podcasts, click the 3 dots in the top right corner of your smartphone screen, follow the show, and leave us an honest review. Your reviews and feedback will not only help us continue to deliver valuable content but will also help us reach even more amazing entrepreneurs just like you!
BOOK AN INFLUENCE AUDIT
If you want to be known as the leader in your industry, book a quick 15-minute Influence Audit.
We’ll work together to identify:
- Your current situation and immediate opportunities for growth
- Uncover the #1 thing holding you back from not being booked as an industry leader
- Develop a 3-step implementation plan to increase your authority and visibility
WHERE TO FIND TIM HYDE
- Website: https://winmoreclients.com.au/
- Facebook: Win More Clients
- LinkedIn: Tim Hyde
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
- Facebook: Samantha Riley
- Instagram: @thesamriley
- LinkedIn: Samantha Riley
- Twitter: @thesamriley
TRANSCRIPTION
Tim Hyde Snippet (00:00):
How do you keep yourself accountable? You can use some really simple and easy techniques like a post it note stuck to my computer screen. If I haven’t done that thing, then maybe I haven’t been productive, or I haven’t sort of move the needle.
Samantha Riley Snippet (00:12):
I have a coach. I’ve got numerous coaches. For my business coach, each week’s training, is in my calendar, I do not miss it for anything, because that’s important for me as the coach to help be able to help my clients. So it’s not just about being accountable to deliverables. But whatever is important to moving the needle needs to be in your calendar.
Samantha Riley Intro (00:38):
Welcome to the Influence By Design Podcast. I’m Samantha Riley, authority positioning strategist for coaches and experts. If you’re ready to build a business that gives you more than just a caffeine addiction, and you dream of making more money, having more time, and having the freedom to be living your best life, then you’re in the right place, it’s time to level up.
Welcome to today’s episode of Influence By Design, I’m your Thursday co host Samantha Riley joined by the lovely Tim Hyde. How are you today, Tim?
Tim Hyde (01:07):
I’m really good. And you know, for change, it is actually the first time in recording this one.
Samantha Riley (01:12):
It actually is I don’t think we’ve ever recorded on a Thursday.
Tim Hyde (01:15):
But you see, she’s so crazy busy doing the rest during the rest of the week.
Samantha Riley (01:21):
If we don’t get in our recording at the beginning of the week, it doesn’t normally happen.
Tim Hyde (01:25):
Well, Thursday is my catch up day because I’ll start looking the week and today we’re gonna talk about like, you know, doing the work DT W and yeah, besides was my catch up date ago. Am I on track? You know, do a sort of litmus test and go Am I on track for this week’s goal? Have I done what I need to do? Because if I haven’t done them on Thursday, it’s definitely not gonna happen on Friday.
Samantha Riley (01:45):
Absolutely. I take Friday’s off or the way Fridays think because it is I’ll just write a morning’s I’m always delayed me say even though I say I take Friday’s off. I’m always done by lunchtime. Let’s just say that.
Tim Hyde (01:59):
It’s the middle of the night. Look at let’s talk about that. We set the intention that we would have Friday afternoon off saying Yep. It’s now July Are you taking still taking Friday afternoons off I ams work briefing and
Samantha Riley (02:12):
I’m so there’s a lot happening in our business right now with new hires, and a lot of system changes. And I will admit, like Leon and I always go out for lunch on Fridays. However, two weeks ago at 3pm Leon walked into my office and went get your shoes on. We’re going that was the latest I’ve worked all we are so we’re back to like, I’ve already made a booking for Friday lunch for this week. So that that doesn’t happen.
Tim Hyde (02:37):
I love it so much about setting the intention isn’t 100%.
Samantha Riley (02:40):
But how about you?
Tim Hyde (02:43):
I’m pretty good. I do have a meeting this Friday afternoon. Yeah, that’s just because it was the only time I would fit in. But I have found, which I do definitely need to rein in I have found my calendar, a little bit being compromised. Like Friday morning. I’ve got a 6:30am meeting. The other night I had an 8:30pm meeting, I get control that that shit, right. So yeah,
Samantha Riley (03:11):
yeah, absolutely. But I think it’s awareness. When we’re aware of something like of course, things can creep in and things can change. But when we’re aware of it, we can do something about it. And sometimes we’ll say, Well, we’re going to let it slide because it works for us. And sometimes we need to put in systems so that it does change.
And essentially, as he just mentioned, that is what we’re going to be talking about today. Last week, we talked about the 11 mistakes that business owners make. Number four was doing the work. And we’re gonna drill down into that today, because it’s one thing to say, just do the work. But what is the work? And how do we do that? Like, let’s really open up the conversation. Because, you know, doing the work can just be a bit of lip service, right?
Tim Hyde (03:55):
Yeah, absolutely. I think that we see a lot this doing the work. And we often find, I think I find we find ourselves being oh my god, I’m really busy today or you know what, how was your day? Oh, Mike was just so busy. So what did you do? I don’t know.
Samantha Riley (04:11):
It was just open, but I didn’t do anything.
Tim Hyde (04:14):
Don’t get me started a number of tabs on my computer. But I think there’s a real difference that when you know that when you’ve been productive, as opposed to busy. It’s a completely different feeling, isn’t it? Lately during the work, we almost need to manufacture this idea of productivity, not just busyness.
Samantha Riley (04:34):
Absolutely. I think and you know, I did just say we’re really busy at the moment. We’ve got a lot going on. But you’re right. I like to be productive. I hate to just be busy. I don’t have time to just be busy. It’s unproductive. It’s wasted hours. So let’s start to break this down. Do the work. I think the very first thing that we need to do Do Before we even you know, start to put a strategy together is actually planning? Oh, absolutely.
Tim Hyde (05:07):
This is, I guess the goal or we don’t know whether we’re productive in this, we’re going towards something and the first step in any, you know, step around creating more productivity and not busyness and doing the work, you know, the right work is probably the key thing. If we want to do the right work, not just do the work, it is knowing where we going and where we are.
Samantha Riley (05:29):
Absolutely. And we need to know both of those things. So what’s the goal? Is your you know, if you’re breaking it down, you work in 90 day sprints, don’t you?
Tim Hyde (05:38):
The moment we’re doing, we’re doing 90 day sprints, we’ve experimented a few things. And certainly, you know, when I’ve set annual goals, I find they’re just too big and too amorphous, like, I want to do a million dollars in revenue this year. And then you sort of get down into the weeds and they kind of forget about it, then you turn up in October, and you’re like, how are we going? Yeah, yeah, like, literally nowhere near it.
So I think it’s important to kind of break it down, and potentially even look at the sort of exponential natural product of growth and productivity. As well as you sometimes you start a bit small. So if you had, you know, let’s round it out to 1.2 million in revenue goal for the year, or 12 million or 120 million, you don’t suddenly extrapolate that to go wall, month one, I need to do a million bucks or 100 bucks, because it kind of grows on itself.
And that’s the kind of really interesting nature about doing the right work, that it becomes cumulative. Okay. But we definitely need to be honest and open with ourselves and with our team, I think to say, Guys, this is where we are right now. This is my goals. For the next quarter, the next month, the next week, whatever it happened to be in the next six weeks, depending on sort of what sprint funnel you might be using, and then kind of map an appropriate plan to go okay, well, here we are, we want to go. So what are we gonna do to get there?
Samantha Riley (07:01):
Absolutely. I just want to touch very quickly on what you’re talking about there, we definitely create a 12 month goal, because it does need to be broken down somehow. Otherwise, you end up thinking, Oh, we’re going over here, you know, somewhere on the left, or we end up over here somewhere on the right. So do we definitely set our yearly goals. And then in our business, we break them down into eight week cycles, where we do a six week sprint, and a two week cooldown.
Tim Hyde (07:29):
I think it doesn’t matter whether it’s a six, week, 90 day, 30 day, whatever, right? I think it’s important that you do what works for you, in your business,
Samantha Riley (07:40):
so important to do what works for you go as long
Tim Hyde (07:43):
as you’ve got a way that it works, as opposed to not having a way that works. And that’s where I really feel that you know, heavy a framework where there’s a 90 day or an eight week cycle, you know, with six and six plus to kind of work specifically gives you structure around productivity and deliverables that you’re going to achieve in a certain timeframe. Oh, yeah, we know that not having deadlines attached to things means we never feel the imperative to progress them.
Samantha Riley (08:16):
Absolutely. And I think it I really want to touch on the importance of making it work for you. Because for years, we did 90 day cycles, three months cycles. And what I found for me personally, and let’s face it, we are the drivers of the bus, we are the CEOs of our company. So where that, you know, we are the drivers. What I found personally was that 90 days was just a bit too long.
And I would sort of leave a lot of our bigger projects to the end, you know, procrastinate a bit and leave them to the end of the 90 day cycle. And we worked on 30 day cycles, and they just were too fast. We couldn’t get our our teeth into a project. So that’s how we came up with the, you know, when we heard about the eight week cycles, we gave it a go. And that’s when we discovered that it worked for us.
Tim Hyde (09:13):
Yeah. Now you said it doesn’t matter. I think the next step is really getting your team involved in planning, right? We know where we want to go. That’s the goal of your six week or 90 day cycle or whatever. That’s what we want to see.
That’s what that will be our marker of success. If we do that hit that we’ll see significant progress towards that particular thing. And where we are getting your team involved in planning how you’re going to achieve that outcome, I think is critically important. Because if we do it in isolation, right, no one else really knows where we’re going or what we’re doing.
Samantha Riley (09:49):
Yeah. And it’s often zero importance to them because they don’t understand and when you know when there’s no understanding of the big goal and the consequences and the benefit And then it’s very difficult for people to get on board. Yeah.
Tim Hyde (10:03):
Do you have a process by which I know you are much bigger team than me, mine’s only four at the moment, but you got a cast of 1000s in.
Samantha Riley (10:12):
Thankfully, thankfully, it’s not a cast of 1000s.
Tim Hyde (10:17):
Well, we’ve got even if it was a cast of 1000s used to break it down into smaller chunks run into this, not everyone needs input into every single aspect of it. But, you know, what’s your process for actually getting your team involved in planning that six week cycle for you.
Samantha Riley (10:33):
So I don’t get my entire team involved fully in our six week cycle. And the reason is, is because if we were all having a huge meeting, and everyone’s heads were in there, I feel like we would just be having busy time that we were just like we were just talking about and wasting time on meetings, and meetings that are a critical component of a business.
They can also be a big time waster. So our goals are only shared with, I guess we would call them leadership team, although don’t have, you know, like, you know, COO CMO, or we’re not talking at that level. But I guess our project managers are the people that are in charge of certain departments, it’s shared with them, so that then they understand how they’re going to push the projects.
And then we do a daily standup, which is like, five minutes is the goal, 10 minutes, max, of everyone coming in so that everyone knows, what are the critical, you know, what are the most important projects? And what are the needle Movers today that we need to make sure that these projects stay on task?
Tim Hyde (11:43):
Yeah, we’re on track. We very much the case of where does our focus needs to be today? And no, you do not have to daily stand up, you do a daily recap as well. I mean, I’m a little bit smaller, a little bit more agile in some ways. And we do that weekly.
Now, you know, we’ve had Monday, this is what we’re going to do this week, we do a sort of daily huddle as well, that I’m not necessarily always involved with, I get my kind of my project lead to run that one. But at the end of week we go, you know, what worked? What didn’t work? What can we improve for next week? Absolutely. Absolutely. And then I’m doing a fortnightly one to one with all of my team to make sure you know what’s happening. And are they are they getting what they need to deliver the outcomes that I want as a business owner?
Samantha Riley (12:28):
Yeah, let’s just quickly touch on what you know, we talked about how to create a plan that works for your business, whether you’re doing 12, you know, 90 day cycles, 12 month, goals, eight week, whatever it is, but also having this check in, I think this needs to work for you.
So we weren’t until just recently doing daily stand ups realize that we needed to bring them in for a bit to get the team back on track of being very diligent about what were the important tasks, and not, oh, there’s a bright shiny object here over there. Let’s do that. Because it’s a little bit more fun. So we do that as a daily stand up. But our checkout at the end of the day is just some slack channel with text. So it doesn’t need to be the same the same way as I work out what works for you.
Tim Hyde (13:14):
Yeah, yeah, I think yeah, just Alright, the more progress through, the more important that frequency becomes if you’d probably doing less volume, right now, you can probably get away with weekly, I probably wouldn’t even monthly.
Samantha Riley (13:26):
I think that’s so far. Yeah, that’s too far.
Tim Hyde (13:29):
You know, fortnightly weekly, you know, what all daily is probably, we will move to once you move enough volume through when you’ve got one, you’ve got a substantial beast that you now need to feed on a regular basis. And that’s how you need some more accountability before it becomes unruly. I got a question for you, Sam, we and we spoke about this briefly. off air again. You know, as the CEO, would you find yourself we’ll give you some pirates. Yeah.
Samantha Riley (13:57):
And now I love it that you’ve asked this because this is a question that I asked myself. And I also asked early on whenever we’ve got a project, I always say, you know, if you were the CEO, or I am the CEO, but if I was the CEO, and looking at myself as the third person would I find myself will give myself pay rise, I would definitely give myself a pay rise. But it’s a really great filter to work through. Okay, well, would I be happy with an employee that had, you know, completed that project in the way that I did? Or the way that that other person did I love this filter. It’s very easy then to see yourself in the third person and say, Alright, this needs to be changed. We need to change your focus here. I need more support in this area and whatever it is.
Tim Hyde (14:45):
Yeah, absolutely. Let’s talk briefly, I want to raise this same around accountability. Because it’s one thing to have the plan and potentially you’ve identified the needle movers you potentially you and all your team or your leadership team have identified a whole bunch of different needle movers, right? If you want to sort of really filter those down to one or two actual projects that you’re going to focus on for that six weeks, you’re not going to suddenly pick up 38 projects.
Samantha Riley (15:15):
Because there’s not going to happen if you do if you do come up with ADA projects, there’s no way that you can get that done. So it’s about, you know, even if you do a brain dump or brainstorm 38 projects, then it’s about okay, well, what’s the 123 projects that we’re going to focus on on this quarter? And you know, where you’re going is, then how are we going to? We’ve talked about how we keep our team accountable, but how are we going to keep ourselves accountable. And this is so crucial, because we are the drivers of our boss. Yeah,
Tim Hyde (15:46):
I think the interesting thing about even just the project selection and sort of was put accountability, just to put a pin in it for a moment. But the thing about finding which projects you’re going to work on, and the ultimately doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re making progress towards something because you start making progress towards something, it becomes a habit.
And the next cycle, you’ll pick another project, which will also move the needle forward. But it’s the propensity, I guess, to try and work on several 100 things at once. Don’t go anywhere,
Samantha Riley (16:19):
can I just say that I want to call you out. And something you just said that it doesn’t really matter what the project is. I did have a client many years ago, who every 30 days, his project was our I’ve worked through this stuff, I need to update my website.
And every month it came up over and over again. Oh, I’ve changed my direction of change my message, I’ve got clarity on this change my website? No, just you do not need to change your website every 30 days. Now look at my project. Oh my gosh. Right. I mean that we have covered that in an episode that you don’t even need a website to do sales. But you do need to make sure that your projects are going to move the needle in the direction that you’re trying to get to.
Tim Hyde (17:04):
Yeah, obviously goal. But that’s, that’s important, right? We know what a goal is, we’ve identified some projects, and we wish it was than just pick one, and make sure it’s executed to completion not so lately, I’ve got halfway, but now I’m at the end of the month, so I won’t do anything else and all abandon that. Right? Yes, that’s where we start to stagnate. But coming back to that accountability piece has to take that, you know, bring back that pin. How do you see that keep yourself accountable, you can use already is simple and easy techniques.
Samantha Riley (17:32):
Tell me some of your techniques, Tim,
Tim Hyde (17:35):
like a post it notes stuck to my computer screen says, this is the thing and every time I look at it, I go, Have I done something towards that have I done that thing? There it is right there. You know, if I haven’t done that scene, then maybe I haven’t been productive to what happens sort of moves the needle. Another way you can do it, you know, Joe into your calendar for the next six weeks, 90 days, whatever.
And block out some time every single day, half an hour, 15 minutes an hour, it doesn’t really matter how much you do. But if you’ve got that thing, and you spend that time doing that activity, you’ll get closer to your goal than if you don’t and make that sacred. Right, don’t let other things overlap that don’t suddenly go oh, well, I can take a meeting because I can move the thing. Sorry. I’m busy at that time.
You know, so on and commit to and have the diligence to commit to it. Report back to somebody, get yourself a coach. If you don’t have one, and announce it to them, whether it’s a single coach, whether it’s a community that you’re involved with and say this is what I’ve committed to and ask for someone to hold you accountable for
Samantha Riley (18:45):
- Absolutely. I have a coach and what as you do, we spoke about it last week, I’ve got numerous coaches, and my business coach, each week’s training is in my calendar, I do not miss it for anything. Because that’s important for me, as the coach to help be able to help my clients, I need to make sure that I’m always ahead of the curve.
So, you know, I’ve seen over the years in different programs, I’ve been in people that don’t show up, I remember you and I had the same coach for a little while. And you and I I think we’re the only two people in the whole community that consistently showed up every week besides maybe one or two other people. And that was like, you know, 5060 people in that community. And we were that there was only about five of us that showed up diligently week after week after week. And guess what? The results gets me the results were because that was in our calendar as importance. So it’s not just about being accountable to deliverables or or whatever it is, but whatever is important to moving the needle needs to be in your calendar needs to be blocked down.
Tim Hyde (19:54):
What do you reckon that people don’t do it. We’ll talk about self sabotage here when Okay, you’ve got your goals, you’ve got a plan, you know what you need to do? You potentially got some accountability in a system to kind of go and meet this. What do you think people stops people from doing? And as I said, you know, out of that group of 60 odd, you know, members, you know, with that particular coach, there was only five people turned up. So presumably 55 Recite, it’s not as important. Yeah, yeah,
Samantha Riley (20:21):
totally, totally. I think that there’s a lot of fear. And that can be either moving away from fear or moving towards. So it’s either a fear of success, like, what if I achieve this success? And I can’t sustain it? It sounds weird. But I see it a lot. Like, what if I actually get there? And I can’t sustain it? Or what if I get there? And I realize I’m not good enough? Or what if I can’t get there in the first place? Or, you know, if I don’t show up, I don’t need to be accountable, which makes me feel better about myself, is lots and lots of different ways, that it’s usually some sort of mechanism to keep yourself safe.
Tim Hyde (20:59):
Yeah, I think that self sabotage is an interesting one, that, you know, you’re moving towards a space that you’ve never been in before, that will be different from where you are right now. And unknown. Where you are right now. And while I’ve been here before, this is a little bit safer. So I can kind of hang out here and, and kind of be okay. So in many ways, you’re right, it is actually sort of both a fear of success and a fear of failure at the same time. What if I totally move? Well, you definitely won’t if you don’t try.
Samantha Riley (21:29):
Totally, I was sharing with you before we started recording that I had a session with one of my coaches yesterday. And it was, I literally had sweaty hands before the call, because I knew I had to deliver on some numbers. I was like, Oh, I don’t know where this is gonna go. But here’s the thing, if you don’t bring into the light, those things, you know, the really important numbers or needle movers, and it stays in the dark, you’ll never get there, you need to bring it into the light of day. So you can create a plan or a strategy to move forward in something that makes you feel uncomfortable.
Tim Hyde (22:05):
Absolutely. And when you’ve got this doing the work, actually to seems really easy. You can probably even take half today off because you don’t know work that moves you towards the goal.
Samantha Riley (22:14):
Absolutely. Definitely floats off. Definitely Friday’s off and definitely before three. So we’ve talked about a little bit of a fear of holding you back. But you know, there are a lot of things that are happening in people’s worlds that hold them back from doing the work. And I think a lot of times it’s just this overwhelm or a lack of which an overwhelm is just a lack of clarity. So not really understanding, you know, whether it’s what to do next, or how to make something happen can really keep people stuck.
Tim Hyde (22:47):
Yeah, I agree. I agree. Let’s quickly recap those, you know, to do the work. Firstly, meet with your team, involve them with the planning of your goals and projects, reverse engineer the process? Where are you now? And where do you need to? Where do you want to go to identify the projects that may fill the gap, decide on the one project that you’re going to work on that 80 to two in the current cycle, put that project in your calendar, and then be accountable daily to actually doing it?
Samantha Riley (23:17):
Absolutely. Whether you’re accountable to yourself to your business partner, to your coach, to your accountability, buddy, whatever works for you. You were talking before about a post it note, I just want to give you this one little tip. Leon and I have got we went to office works.
And you can get these for about five or 10 bucks. The little manual counters that people use when they’re counting people on a bus or going into a venue little little clickers. Yep, the little clickers. We’ve got a clicker each for how many people have we spoken today? And if we haven’t reached our number, guess what? There’s no leaving the chair. We got to get it done.
Tim Hyde (23:55):
I love it. But again, simple thing to keep yourself accountable to achieve your goal, which makes you do the work?
Samantha Riley (24:02):
Absolutely. I want to refer as we finish up to a quote by Peter Drucker that always sticks in my mind, I think about it every single day, show me your calendar, and I’ll predict your revenue. It’s so important to actually have a strategy so that you can actually action that strategy and put it into place. Tim, it’s been great chatting with you about this topic today.
It’s a topic that I really enjoy talking about because it’s really the mean potatoes behind everything that we do, we can have all these fabulous tactics and shiny new things. But at the end of the day is all about getting the work done. It’s all about doing the work. So I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and it sparked some ideas in your mind about what you can do to move the needle in your business.
That’s what we’re all here to do. Share with us on social what’s something that really stood out for you in today’s episode and let’s keep the conversation going. All the links are in the show notes over at influence by design podcast.com And we will see you all there. It’s Tuesday on another episode of Influence By Design.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence By Design podcast. If you want more head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who are growing and scaling their business to join us in the coaches, thought leaders, and changemakers community on Facebook, the links are waiting for you over at influencebydesignpodcast.com
Leave a Reply