A Success Secret: Put The Work In When No One Is Watching

Now.

One thing we are very proud of at Complete Game Consulting when it comes to teaching is we have two models we live by. In fact, these two mottos are in our core values. Number one, we go first.

So no matter what we teach you, no matter what we teach your team, we have tried and done ourselves first. And number two, everything we teach, we still do ourselves. Why is that important? Well, what I'm about to walk through today, when it comes to habits, rituals and discipline, and what I'm doing in my life to have success with all three, I want you to know what everything I'm about to teach you, I am doing today. I believe it is so important for.

Teachers and mentors, those who are giving advice, to back up their advice with execution. If you're getting advice from somebody who is not executing on the words coming out of their mouth, it's somebody you shouldn't be taking advice from. What you're going to hear from me today, I apply in my life every single day.

And it has helped me to have tremendous success in business and life. As I mentioned, I am still work in progress in some areas. We all are. But I think these habits, rituals and disciplines that I'm going to share with you are going to help you to start heading towards the right direction of achieving your full potential. You see, when it comes to the insurance industry, we think the training has to come by way of knowledge, product and strategy. But I'm going to tell you, that is not the secret sauce. The secret sauce is what is going on between the ears. What's your mental strength? What's your mental athleticism? What's your ability to instill the habits, rituals and disciplines to have success. Because I'm here to tell you as somebody who has had success both in sports and in business, the secret to your success.

Is the work you're putting in off the field when no one is watching. It's not what happens in the boardroom. It's not what happens when you're speaking on stage. It's not what happens when you're trying to close a proposal. Nope. It is all the work you put in when no one is watching. When I was pitching at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and I knew that I had to change my habits and rituals and my discipline to become a better pitcher and a better teammate. That is when I started achieving success. That's when I started putting all the work in off the field when no one was watching. When my buddies wanted to go out and get drunk on a Friday night, I hit the weight Room on Thursday night at 9pm when they were out for drinks at the local bar, who had the Thursday night specials or they were hanging out at the apartment? I was in the gym, working on my craft. That is what is going to create success in your profession and your life today. Because I have to say this, and I know this is going to probably hurt some people to hear it. One thing I struggle with by observing the behavior in the insurance industry is I see a lot of people who appear to have a lot of financial success. But when I look at them, both visually, individually, and how they, how they lead their lives, I can tell these are not successful people.

How successful are you if you're making a lot of money, yet you feel like shit? You barely can wake up in the morning, you have no energy, you're on the road, eating late, eating like crap, drinking too much? Are you successful?

That's a question you got to look in the mirror and ask yourself. The insurance industry plugs way too much emphasis, puts way too much emphasis on financial success. I want to know what these people are doing with habits and rituals and discipline in other areas of their life. Are you truly successful? Yeah, you can sell an insurance policy, great.

But how long is that going to last if you don't have the right habits and rituals and discipline? Now, if you're struggling and you're not selling enough insurance to have the success you want, what you're about to learn, I believe can help you get there.

And here's the problem. When it comes to this type of training, what I like to call the mental game of insurance. Nobody teaches this when you enter the industry, which, by the way, very few do by design, right? You are sold the dream of financial success. And you are sold that if you hang around long enough and just do the right things from a sales standpoint, you're gonna have success. But here's what they don't teach you. They don't teach you how to be mentally tough. They don't teach you the habits you need to instill to have this success. They don't teach you about rituals you should incorporate in your life every day. And they do not teach you how to be disciplined on and off the field, in the office, outside the office. No one teaches you this. I'm gonna teach you it today. Because I truly believe if you apply the athlete's mindset to your business, to your life, you're gonna have a lot of success. And for those listening in, if you are, that former ATH is going to make a lot of sense for you. And I'm willing to bet you're probably incorporating a lot of these into your life already.

Now, here's the question I want to pose before I get into habits, rituals and discipline and how I'm using all three today to have success. Here's the question I want to pose. What are you doing right now to give yourself an advantage on the competition?

I heard this said in a podcast recently. I believe it was a Lewis Howes podcast. And I thought that was such a good statement. They were asking Lewis Howes why he instills the habits and the rituals he does. And his comment was his answer was, I want to try to get any advantage over my competition I possibly can. And again, bring this back to the insurance industry. When we think of giving ourselves a competitive advantage, where does our mind go? It goes to product advantages, strategy advantages. Right? Sometimes price advantages. No, no, no, no, no. What are you doing to give you an advantage over your competition? What are you doing off the field? Your competition isn't that is going to help you crush them on the field. And I'm going to talk about a few here that I think have had a huge impact on my life to the point today where we are growing substantially at Complete Game Consulting. There are days where I feel, and I don't share this, to to be arrogant by any means, I want to make a point. There are days I feel unstoppable simply because I know I'm instilling the right habits, discipline and ritual. And that's the key. You can feel unstoppable because when you feel unstoppable, guess what? Your confidence is at an all time high. When your confidence is at an all time high, you are going to take the necessary actions to achieve the success you desire. Which means, guess what, you're reaching your full potential. So let's talk about habits.

What are some habits I am currently applying in my life? Mainly in this case, I'm going to share some business habits that I am applying right now to allow us to have a lot of success and allow us to continually to create sustained growth. The first habit I want to talk about is how I plan my weeks and my days.

The first thing I do every single week, no matter where I am, it could be at home, we could be on vacation. I don't care where we are. Every single week. I take about 45 minutes to an hour on Sunday morning and I plan my week. Now I've shared this at length. I wish I had a copy with me. I don't. I Use the Clever Fox Planner. It is a beautiful planner. If you aren't using a daily planner, weekly monthly planner right now, go check out the Clever Fox Planner. I do not get paid by them but it is an amazing planner. Maybe I should. I have shared this daily planner with so many people I think I need an affiliate link. Anyways, every Sunday morning I plan my week and what I love about the Daily the Clever Fox Planner is it forces me to ask myself some questions. Number one, I look back at the previous week and I look at the wins I sustained that week. They could be personal, they could be professional. What were my wins from the previous week? Then it asks me or forces me to look ahead at the next week, the week I'm planning for. And it I have to lay out a few things I'm excited for. What's coming up this week that I'm really excited for? Could be a big proposal. Maybe it's something professional or personally, maybe we're going on vacation that weekend. Whatever it is, what am I looking forward to it you got to get yourself fired up for the week ahead. And then I go into the hard work of all right, what are my to dos? What are my biggest priorities in business? What are my biggest priorities personally? And what do I have to get accomplished this week to look at the week as a success? And which things are the most important? Because as you know.

All things do not have equal weight when it comes to priority. There is not two things which are of equal priority. There is always the most important priority and everything else. So it forces you to prioritize. So the first thing I do, the first habit I instill every single week is planning my Sundays, planning my weeks, excuse me, on Sunday mornings. The second habit, which also involves planning, is I plan the next day, the night before. Now you might ask yourself, andy, why do you have to do that? You're planning the weeks on Sunday. Well, guess what? Things change. Things adapt. Things evolve as the week go on. Sometimes you don't get to things on a given day and they've got to move to the next day. But before you go to bed every single night, you must look at the next day and lay out the day. Because when you wake up, you have got to know what the game plan is already. If you're waking up on a Tuesday morning and you have no idea what your priorities or your game plan is for the day, you're already behind the eight ball. You have got to go to bed with the plan intact. The best, most efficient advisors I know in this industry are planning their tomorrows the night before. And the third habit I instill on a weekly basis, and this comes back to what we do as a company at Complete Game Consulting, is every Monday morning.

I create my content for the week.

This is something that I see a lot of people struggle with. I've talked to you at length in previous episodes about how content today is the oxygen to your business. If you're not creating content, you're going to struggle, but where people struggle is blocking the time to create that content. They need to create to get get the attention of your ideal prospects. Well, the easiest way to do that is just block out a specific day of the week or a specific time of a day every single week and just repeat that process week after week after week. So every Monday, specifically Monday mornings, is when I create the content we need for our company. And now I know it's got its place on the calendar. It is shelved every single Monday. And I don't have to think about it. When the next Monday rolls around, it's time to create content. You see, when I look at the habits right now, the three habits that I just shared with you, planning my weeks on Sunday mornings, planning every tomorrow, the night before, and using Mondays to create my content, the content we need to grow as a company. What this comes down to is time management. One of the biggest reasons I see insurance professionals falling short of their full potential is they do not know how to manage their time. They're not using their time effectively. They're spending their time on things that are not creating results.

Just like we talk about in the health insurance industry. Do brokers help companies create activity or create results? A lot of advisors are spending way too much time on activity, not enough time on things that drive results.