8 Principles To Help You Think Better Part 1

Do you think I left you? I didn't. I'm back. Took a little hiatus from some episodes here recently, but back in action today. No interviews, just you and I. I've got a quick update for you of just revisiting really kind of what's been going on in the past quarter, how it may or may not affect you and then also what's coming up as long as well as some strategic episodes, strategic guidance that I want to give because these are some things that I've been working with clients on and they've gotten a lot of, a lot of benefits from. So I figured obviously I'd pass it on to you. And first, let's start with a quick update. So over the past quarter, three or four months, been really, really involved in two primary things. Got one business that with some partners that it actually looks like it's not going to work out for various reasons. We're probably going to shut that down. I'm not going to go into all the details of it there, but it's something that spent about nine months working on building. Really proud of what it could. However, some things just don't always work out and you got to chalk this up to another learning opportunity. And I bring this up because not everything I touch turns to gold. By far from it. Actually, I have way more failures than I do successes. And I know you guys probably do as well. And especially like they say, if you don't have more failures, you're not trying hard enough or you're not trying enough things. But trying to chalk that up to a learning experience. In the meantime, I started working with a handful of other clients, including one really excited about because it's a company that I started off as a consultant, ended up becoming kind of the almost the CEO and chief strategist of the entire company. But I'm really excited about what they're doing. I'm happy to tell you who it is. Company called Vestrite V as in Victor E S T R I g h t.com, there'll be a link in the show notes. It is a really unique academy that teaches how to do some really unique land investments. And this is something I've never seen before. I've been slightly aware of the general concept, but Cody Bugen, who is my client and now my partner in this company, is the one who's been developing land for about 20 years. He has a really unique approach to the way he approaches land investing. And this is not buy and hold. It's also not wholesaling but it's a very unique method. You can go over to vestrite.com and look around. Got a new website coming up here real soon. Not sure if it'll be live by the time you see here this episode, but if you're interested at all and really unique business opportunities, something I personally have my hands in, I invite you to go check it out. In the meantime, over the past quarter, in addition to working with some coaching clients, working on like really high level executive coaching, helping them to shed some limiting beliefs both personally and about what their business can do, I've been really excited about some of the results we're seeing with some of the clients and I really, really enjoy coaching. I've done a majority of my business has been consulting and starting companies and doing all of this stuff. But I really love giving back and helping to show other entrepreneurs new perspectives about the way they build their business, the way they build their life and the way they achieve balance. Kind of stumbled into this. I don't consider myself a life or a business coach per se, but I do really enjoy working with people who need a thinking partner, need a kind of a concierge trusted advisor in that route. So you're probably going to see a little bit more of that for me going forward. In the meantime, the past couple years I've been deeply involved into bitcoin, the crypto space. More recently into the Web three projects. I've got one that we are strategizing launch of a new Web3 project. I won't go into details yet, but as a subscriber to the show, you'll be the first to hear about it. And in the meantime, speaking of like bitcoin and crypto, etc. Now a lot of people out there, it probably just bought their first crypto this past year in 2021. I was fortunate to get in a little bit years ago and then more so about a year and a half ago after one of my episodes with Tai Z. I want to say it was released in August or September of 2020 and he really turned my eyes onto what's possible there. And it's just been a tremendous learning experience throughout it. So I encourage you to go back and listen to that if you haven't listened to it in the past. Although it's dated, bitcoin was around $10,000 when he was talking about this. The principles in that if you really want to understand crypto, bitcoin et cetera are the exact same. So feel free to go click the link in the show notes and Listen to that. Now, I don't have an interview today. It is just you and I, and I hope that's cool. I do have some interviews coming up, but I wanted to. I wanted to share some strategic advice, some thinking principles. I call these cognitive keys, if you would, to help you get a better handle on what you're doing, both in your business, in your life, et cetera. This kind of comes from some of the coaching I do, but one of the very first things I do with all of my clients as I sit down and I explain some of the. My first principles and some of the topics that I try to operate from. Operating modalities. I guess that's not really the word, although that comes from nlp. I digress. So I'm going to give you an overview here, and then over the next few episodes, I'm going to dive into these a little bit more and I'm going to talk to you about the way they work and why they're important and how you can use them. Okay? So the very first thing I do, the very first principle that I do whenever I'm working myself with clients or whatever, is uses the acronym of casc. Now, this simply stands for compile, analyze, strategize and execute. This is very fundamental knowledge, right? But sometimes it gets missed. And some people just jump right into execution because they're quick starts, like myself. But what I always try to remind myself, and I've got it on my wall case, which is compile the data, compile the information, do the research, then analyze it, right? Then come up with your strategy, then execute. And I guess I could say K, sir, with an R, which is review. The result of this very foundational, very fundamental. You probably didn't learn anything huge there, but I want you to remember, compile, analyze, strategize and execute. It allows you to slow down and do things a little bit more methodically. And as I've gotten older, wiser, more experienced, and more failures under my belt, I've started to become more methodical in everything I do. And that's the first principle. And in fact, if I'm working with you as a client or we're in a workshop or a bootcamp that I do, then this is the very first thing I let them know too, is we're going to compile the data, we're going to analyze it, strategize, and execute it. But then the next piece we do is we go into this Disney dream storming strategy. And this has been such a critical, a critical exercise in My life that it was the very first episode of Bacon Wrapped Business that I ever did, explaining what this is. And I'll go into this in more detail even on future episodes, even though, yes, it was my very first one. I'll explain what the Disney dream storming process is. So Disney Walt, as I call him back in the day, learned that whenever you're planning out something, whether it's a new business, a creative endeavor, a project, you really want to separate the three, I guess, voices or perspectives that are happening at any time into the dreamer, the planner, and the critic. And to keep it really brief and simple, when you're dreaming of what's. Or creating the vision of what's possible of what you want to create, don't plan it and don't critique it. Let those two come later and just fully try to visualize the dream and ask what if and what could happen and what would be amazing and how do I want this? And just dream and almost look at it like you're watching it unfold on a movie screen. And then once you've got the dream, go into another. Walt had another office that he did this with. Go into another office, go into another head space, go into another place in your office or your house and plan it out. And this is just, you know, storyboard it out. What has to happen in order to get this, this done? Like, let's say I've got an idea to create a new ecommerce business. Okay, this is what I want to sell. And then what has to happen? Well, I got to get the product, I got to get the Shopify store, I got to sell it on Amazon. I got to do 1, 2, 3. And chances are you actually know what needs to happen more than you think you do. But there's going to be gaps in there. But you just lay it out now. More importantly, when you're planning this, you don't have to have all the answers, but don't add new things of the dream and don't critique it. Let that happen. Just. But look for the gaps. Look for, okay, these are the. What I know needs to happen, and then circle where the gaps are. And then finally, and I think most importantly, now's the time when you want to get into the headspace of the critic. And the critic is the one who is there to prevent you from screwing up, right? They're looking for the obstacles. They're not critiquing you. That's really important. And they're not critiquing the dream or the vision necessarily. What they are doing is critiquing the plan. Making sure that this dream and this plan is ecological for you and that it actually serves your best and highest good, avoids any major opportunity costs and avoids you, or at least brings to life the potholes and pitfalls that can hit you while you're bringing this to fruition. Now, the reason I bring this up and it's so foundational to me is if I'm working with a client, if I'm working with business partner employees, even in my personal life, I let people know what this is. Because most importantly, if I go to them and I go, hey, I've got an idea, step into the dreamers room with me. What that immediately does is it lets them know that, okay, I'm just dreaming here. I'm just coming up with the vision and the ideas, but I'm not yet planning it or critiquing it. But there will be time for that. Okay, so I'm going to do another absolutely new episode about this going into even more depth because I'm a better podcaster than I was when I first started off six years ago. But you can feel free to listen to the very first episode of the show and listen to that. Now. I'm going to kind of go quickly through some of the other principles here because I am going to dive a little deeper in future episodes. So inversion theory. Inversion theory is something that I. It's a. It's a mental model that I discovered by reading some Charlie Munger who is Warren Buffett's business partner. And he said that a lot of people think that Warren Buffett and I go to great lengths to be absolutely brilliant investors and ways to make money. But in reality, we go to great lengths to avoid losing money. So we think of all the ways that might lose us money and we just don't do those. Sounds simple, but the way inversion theory works is what goal do you have? Let's say your goal is to lose weight. I want to get in shape. Let's not even say lose weight. I want to get in shape. I want to have a six pack abs and I want to have the best body of my life. Okay, so what's the inverse of that goal? The inverse of that goal is to, I guess, get in the worst shape of your life. Get fat and out of shape. Right? So just take the goal and then flip it around. What's the inverse of it? Now think of it doesn't matter. Think of three to five ways that are almost guaranteed to get you that inverse goal, which Would be how to get out of shape and be, you know, fat, flabby and out of shape. Well, okay, number one, eat junk food. Number two, don't exercise. Number three. Oh, I mean, those are the two biggest things, right? Let's just keep two because we'll keep it simple. Don't exercise and eat junk food. Now if those are guaranteed to let to keep you out of shape, then you could argue that the inverse of those would get you the opposite result, right? So if I just ate healthy food and worked out, then I would be in shape. Now this is so simple, right? It's almost forehead slappingly simple. But take what you want. Let's say I want to get more customers. Well, what's the inverse of that? I want to prevent customers from, you know, buying from me. Well, what are three ways to prevent customers from buying from you? Well, don't advertise. Maybe have absolutely, you know, be the most expensive with no unique selling proposition, right? That's three simple ways that are probably going to prevent you from getting clients. So you could argue that the inverse of those are guaranteed to get you clients, which would be advertise with a unique selling proposition and have competitive pricing. Right? Real simple. Anyway, this goes really deep. I'm just scratching the surface of this because I want to set this up for deeper episodes or I should call them epicizzles in future ones. Now the next principle that I look at is called the chain reaction or domino theory, because I'm always looking for the root cause of a problem, like what restricts easy flow and how can I. This is kind of also theory of constraints. But what can I remove that will make everything go smoother? And more importantly, what is one catalyst I can create which will create a chain reaction and just knock down dominoes, right? So if I can remove what's blocking the flow and then find the thing that one thing will lead to the other will lead to the other. Then it allows us to find the root cause and then I guess the root catalyst of things we want to happen. And it also allows us to focus on one thing at a time, really simplifying things down. The next principle that I go over and use all the time is design thinking. Now design thinking is a way of innovating or solving problems. But a lot of people, they just jump right into brainstorming ideas, right? And design thinking. And design brainstorming in essence is a much more methodical way of doing this, whereby there's, there's really like six or seven steps, which is first define the problem. Then define the goal of the problem. Right? A lot of people start with the goal, but I like to define the problem. What is causing us issues? Okay, now let's define what you know, if that was gone, what would be the goal of what we want to do? And sometimes the goal is just solve that problem. And now is the ideation phase. Ideation phase is you're starting to just come up with basic ideas and you're just throwing them out there. This ties into this Disney dream storming process that I talked about. I try to follow this Disney process when we're doing ideation. And then once we get some ideas and we put them through this matrix that I created, we score them and we find out, okay, these are the ones that we kind of want to, to put into place, but instead of just necessarily jumping right at it, we try to prototype it or create an mvp, a minimally viable product or service that can just kind of get it going so that we can execute on that, watch the results and see if it works without over committing at the right time. So I try to use this design thinking methodology whenever I'm working with clients or working on my own businesses, etc. I'm going to keep going. This actually is a, this is a three word phrase that is always used in the ideation process, which is how my, which is a big difference in the way it feels. I mean, just say it to yourself, like how, like if you're trying to accomplish something, how do I make this, how do I make bacon wrap business more popular than Joe Rogan's show? Right. So I might say, how do I, how can I, how should I, how could I make it? Or how might I, how might we do it? So if I'm working with you, for instance, and you're trying to get more clients, or you're trying to overtake a competitor who's on your heels, say, well, how might we do this? And what that allows you to do is kind of divorce yourself from the, from the need to do it or the commitment to do it. Like, how do I. Well, if I say how do I, that presumes that this will work. But if I say how might we, it presumes it might work. It might not, but it kind of removes a little bit of the emotional commitment to it. Hopefully that makes sense. I'm going to move on a little bit. I love to ask who not how? It's also a name of a great book by Ben Hardy, but who not how? How can I find other people and leverage their help when working together. Like I like to ask the question, who else has what I need? Who else needs what I have? Right? Who else has what I need? Who else needs what I have? You know, what if, what if we combine forces? What if we do this right? That's the ideation process or how might we work together? And then I might ask, why not? Right? So who not how? That's the ultimate leverage point. And then the last piece is simplification. I'm always looking to simplify everything. One, because I hate aggravation. But number two, because that is the best companies, the best lives in the world are very simple lives. There's a great book called, I think it's called Just Simplified by Richard Koch, also the author of the 8020 principle. And he talks about how the best companies are always simplifying and they're either simplifying their operations essence so that they can bring you the lowest price, or they're simplifying the value proposition to you. They're making everything simple for you so that you can, so that they can charge you the highest price. And one example would be Amazon. So Amazon has gone to great lengths. They've made it very, they have a very complex system behind the scenes so that your experience is enjoyable and simple, but so that they can bring you the cheapest price. So they've made it very simple. It's a complex way to make it simple to bring you the lowest price and it's hard to compete with Amazon. On the flip side, Apple has gone to great lengths to make your experience so simple that they can charge you a premium for it. Now, the book will go into more detail in a future episode. I'll even go into more detail about this. But we're always looking, are we simplifying our process so that we can compete on price or some other value lever, or are we simplifying your experience so that it's so good and so much better than everybody else, we can probably charge a premium. Okay, so there are other principles, there are other cognitive keys that I use, etc. However, this is a, this is a primer on this and I am going to go into much more detail in future episodes that I'm going to be recording this week and I'll start to drip them out to you. I hope you have enjoyed them. And if you have any questions about this or anything else I've covered, please, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at askbrad@baconwrappedbusiness.com and I will see you on the next episisl.