Tips from Atomic Habits Author James Clear

Business brain, episode 479 for Wednesday, August 30, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we take ideas, we dissect them together so that we can tune our Business brains and be better at living our charmed lives. Sponsors for this show include Miro Dot Podcast, where your first three Miro boards are free forever. It's a great visual platform. And Zinch, where at the URL financing that works.com you can save 250 bucks because they're waiving their app fee for Business Brain listeners. We'll talk more in depth about both of those in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire. Back here in Durham, New Hampshire, after being at Podcast Movement in Denver, I'm Dave Hamilton and still out here in.

Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How you doing, man?

I'm good, I'm good. I learned many things at Podcast Movement. One of the things that I learned that I was eager to share with you and everyone here is, you know, how is with chat with ChatGPT. Right. So this is for those of us that are using AI as to assist us in our work. One of the limitations of Chat GPT is the number of characters that you can paste in. So if you want it to distill something down.

Ah, yes.

You know, you got 2,000 characters, maybe it's 4,000, I can't remember. But it's. It's not very many.

You gotta break it up.

Yeah, you gotta break it up. And it starts getting weird and it forgets and, you know, those sorts of things. Well, I had several people over the course of the, you know, 48 hours that I was there. Tell me about this engine called Claude 2. I've heard of this. Yeah. Well, this is the, this is the key. It's at Claude C L A U D E A I. And it allows you to upload text files, PDFs, and you can say, great, take this. This text file of like, I uploaded our. We take the transcript. We. We have this AI engine called Whisper, generate a transcript for the podcast, right. Listens to the. The audio, generates a transcript. It's not perfect, but certainly close enough to then distill down. I uploaded that as a text file to Claude 2 and said, take this and distill it down to two paragraphs for the show and boom, it worked great. So, yeah, right now, really stoked. It's free at the moment. You know, I don't know. Like, who knows?

Yeah, yeah, things are going to evolve.

But yeah, I Was. I was excited.

Pretty cool. Yeah, man, I like that.

Yep. So let's check that out. We got an email from listener Jeff who asked. He says, I recently left a position as the IT director of a global organization. So I had a dozen or so people in the US and teams around the world. I was frequently dealing with issues that impacted our global sites and I was the one having to problem solve and troubleshoot with people calling me for opinions and ideas from everywhere. Then I left the position and all of that stopped the next day. I knew it was time to go. But it turns out, mentally, maybe even emotionally, this was way harder than I had anticipated you folks. Dave, he says specifically you talk about recently sold the Mac observer where you were of course in charge and I'm guessing that you probably had similar issues. How did you deal with that or did that not impact you in quite the same way? In other words, how do you transition from being the dude to what's his name? With Mac observer it was a little bit different because a, I kept all my podcasts right, including macgeekab, which was certainly a part of the Mac observer for a long time. But also we kept business brain and, and kept gig gab, the show for musicians that I do. So right. You know, I was still like, I didn't give up every part of my identity and I was also on a two month consulting retainer to help with any transition issues at Mac Observer. But I did stop immediately upon the sale happening or upon the sale being announced to the staff and sort of the keys being handed over. I immediately stopped going to staff meetings. And so that was the emotionally tough part for me. We had really built connection, right that connection. We'd built a really good team, you know, and, and we sold this just after sort of the COVID lockdowns were sort of winding down. And during those lockdowns that team, we all became a real support system for each other and, and losing that. But yeah, it was as, as excited as I was to have my, you know, noon to 1pm or noon to noon 30 slot every day now free and not having to organize my day about around being around for that daily sort of sync up with the staff. I was also like, whoa, after like three days of not being there, I was like, oh, I missed the team and I couldn't go. Like I couldn't just reach out to him and say hey, we should hang out. You know, because obviously that would have been weird. Inappropriate. Yeah.

But yeah, it is a real challenge.

Yeah.

My take on it's A little bit different because I've also had the experience of becoming, like, no longer the man, if you will, while I still own the company.

Right. I think that's a great goal, too. Yeah, exactly.

Well, it is, but at the time, I thought I was making a mistake, I was screwing up. You know, kind of like, wait, they don't. They don't need me here anymore. And actually, it was my wife that pointed it out. You know, she says, hey, these people don't need you here to do this. Go do something else. And so that doing something else kind of freed me up to start something while I'm in the office. And so I changed my whole philosophy about, okay, well, this place that I was going to every day is kind of the base of my operations. And when somebody needs me, they'll come ask me. And I walked around in the morning. I've talked about that a lot. You know, I cooked barbecue for them Friday. So I kept connected, but nobody wanted me coming around to them most of the time because they were doing their job. So finding something else to do. And then when I. It did help when I eventually did sell that business because I kind of had already worked my way out. But you do lose that connection with the people, which is. It's terrific. It's one big thing about starting businesses that I don't think people talk enough about. The benefit of building kind of your own community.

Oh, yeah.

Hugely rewarding.

It's your own commit. Yeah. It is your own community. But, you know, you will. You were the dude there, Jeff. Right. And you are no longer the dude there anymore. And maybe right now you don't see yourself as the dude anywhere, but you will be again someday. Like, you will create an environment, either your own business or you will work for, you know, somewhere else where. Where you have this as part of your skill set, making yourself seemingly indispensable. Of course, none of us are actually indispensable. Right. You know, somebody could always take over, but. But that thing where people really come to rely on you, you've already proven that you can do that once. I can tell you that it means you can do that again. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I. I responded to Jeff, you know, go, go, go volunteer in the meantime until you start something. Be that, like, with score they love, you know, people like you that can help other executives and young business people that are just getting started. So that could be very rewarding for you.

All right, look, I want to tell you about our sponsor, Miro. Listen, at first glance, this might seem like just a simple digital whiteboard. But Miro's capabilities run far beyond that. It's a visual collaboration tool where the whole team can build on one another's ideas and create something innovative together from anywhere. This whole shift that we've done to distributed work has broken many old and existing processes. Right. Well, Miro, our sponsor, gives your entire organization a way to replicate in person meetings, no matter where you're working, and all those rituals to drive your business forward. You can shorten time to launch so your customers get what they need faster. With Miro, you. You need only one tool to see your vision come to life. Planning, researching, brainstorming, designing and feedback cycles. It can all happen across teams in Miro. So you can hop into a board, check progress, leave feedback, or even contribute at any time. This speeds up input and that means you're speeding up outcomes. And you get to cut out any confusion on who needs to do what by mapping out all those processes, roles and timelines. That's a super important thing. We talk about that here all, all the time. Your first three Miro boards are free forever when you sign up today@miro.com podcast. So you really want to go and take a look at this. You get to view and share the big picture overview in a cinch. Because when everyone has a voice, everyone can tap into a single source of truth and this keeps everybody engaged. So again, your first three Miro boards are free forever when you sign up. Sign up today@miro.com podcast and our thanks to Miro for sponsoring this episode. Next up is our sponsor, Zinch. Look, if you own a small business, you know that unexpected costs can arise at any time. But Zinch understands that the unexpected is actually expected and happens when you're running a business. So why wait around for a sudden impact to your business? Check out Zynch today to see how you can become prepared and stay prepared. And this is because Zinch is a direct lender tailored to small and medium sized businesses that makes loans simple, fast and flexible. And Zinch can approve up to $250,000 in under two days. When you partner with Zinch, you won't have to wait months for a traditional bank loan, right? You've got different expenses that come up the cost from expanding your workforce to some problem that like destroys your technology. Maybe you need to get a new computer because of a lightning strike, like I did. Right? Zinge can help you with what you need when you need it. Their specialists work with you to help you choose the best solutions for your needs. And there are no commissions or third party approvals. So Zinge can give you better rates, faster approvals and keep your info secure. Don't wait for an emergency. Apply today with Zinch for a limited time. Look, Zinch is waiving application fees for everyone that listens to business brain here. That's a $250 value for just minutes of your time. So go straight to this special URL. Financing that works. Com again that's financing that works.com loans made or arranged pursuant to a California Finance Lender's law license. And our thanks to Zinch for sponsoring this episode. Shannon, you found this video from a guy named James Clear. He spoke at a, at a ConvertKit conference, I guess it was. And this video blew my mind.

Amazing.

He was talking about, for lack of a better term, motivation. But in fact what he did was talk. He did not talk about motivation. He talked about avoiding needing motivation to do things. He talked about setting up and architecting your life and your environment so that things just get done. And I would love to talk through this a little bit.

Some of the things you know.

Yeah.

James Clears, the author of Atomic Habits, which is another terrific book and I love the concept of this, this talk he did at this ConvertKit conference. And the first thing that really, or one of the biggest takeaways for me is to be successful, focus on the start and not the finish.

Right.

And that's such a, a systems way to think instead of putting this. And I know people love these big hairy, audacious goals out there, right. Try to striving toward towards them. But so many people fail at that with the end as the goal but starting. You know, he gave an example of someone that wanted to just get to the gym more. And so they really focused on getting out. They were living in, I think New York City, focused on getting out of their apartment and hailing a cabin. That was the first, that was the system and that got them to the gym. Not a bunch of other stuff about getting in shape and all this kind of thing. And I just thought that those small steps. He talks about this a lot too.

He adapted the 2%, the 2 minute rule, right. Which is from David Allen and that whole thing. And the two minute rule is a good. I like this rule. If you think of something to do or you are presented with something to do and you know that it's going to take you two minutes or less, you're already thinking about it, you're already focused on it, do it now. And that way you're not putting it back into your mind again, right? Because it, it's already there. Just do it and you're done. Of course, going to the gym and working out, as he, you know, as, as James Clear pointed out in his talk, is going to take more than two minutes. However, starting that process is not going to take more than two minutes. And so focus on the two minutes to get started because once you're going, it's really easy to keep going. And he, he talked about four stages of habit formation. Right. Noticing things that you want to change. Right. Wanting to change it, doing something. And this falls into that doing category. And then of course, liking the results and what I loved. And to take the gym analogy sort of, you know, I know we're sort of jumping around in this out of order, but you know, if we've started with the doing, right, the two minutes, okay, figure out the first two minutes and then you're off to the races, right? The, the liking it, especially with, say, working out. And this is true with a lot of things in our lives, we won't see the actual positive impact from working out for, you know, weeks or probably months. Right. Like, it's going to take some time, maybe even years. So you have to find some artificial thing about it that you can like and enjoy. And he says, he suggests the Seinfeld strategy. And the Seinfeld strategy is this thing where an up and coming comic asked Jerry Seinfeld, you know, they were like backstage somewhere, you know, and Jerry had a name for himself, this up and coming guy didn't. And he asked Jerry how, you know, what advice do you have for me to be successful? And Jerry said, well, the best thing I can tell you is, you know, you want to get better at writing jokes, you want to write better jokes. And the way to do that is to write jokes. Don't like, don't just wait around for the good ones, just keep writing jokes. Yeah, do it. And, and he says, do it every day. And when you do it, you know, get one of those year long calendars that shows a day, you know, has a box for every day. And when you write jokes for whatever, even 10 minutes, 15 minutes, whatever it's going to be, put an X through that day. And then Seinfeld says, you're going to have a couple of false starts, but once you get going, you're going to have four or five days in a row. Don't break the chain. Always write new jokes. And that can become your reward. Now, James Clear adds an asterisk to this he says, you know, you are going to miss, you are going to break the chain. Something's going to happen. Don't let that completely derail. You have a rule that never miss twice in a row. Right. So if you break, the chain isn't considered broken because this is only your own perception of it. Right. You don't, you don't even have to share this with anybody. It's your perception of the chain. So as long as you never miss twice in a row, the chain is still intact and you're still doing your thing. And I loved this. You know, that's brilliant.

He, he says, you know, habits, habits are the compound interest of self improvement.

Right? Yeah, I love that.

It's a great line.

Yep.

And he's, he's focused in. And we'll, we'll link this video for you in the show notes, this talk and is stacking up these little 1% improvements, whether it's, you know, you're writing every day, doing jokes every day, like in that example. And it, it's really powerful and it really works. He also talks about your environment, you know, and around you, and not be, not being a victim of the environment, but actually architect of the environment. So if there's, you know, food that you don't want to be eating, well, don't, don't have it near you, you know, put it in the back of the cupboard.

Put it on the counter. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, put it in the back of the cupboard. So maybe once in a while you're going to dip, dip into that. Or if you want to read more like, you know, I want to read every night when I go to bed. That's just my thing. And so my book is right on, right on my nightstand next to bed. I get in bed, the first thing I do is I reach over and I can grab my book. So it's, you create this environment, you know, if you don't, if, if TV or Netflix is sucking you in, take it off, take it off the tv. Don't, you know, remove it or do something different and think about these little small changes that you can make that really improve and think about how you can use them in your business. You know, what, what happens when your employees walk in the door in the morning?

Right?

How do you want that flow to work? And what do they see first off, you know, are they seeing problems? Are they seeing, you know, motivational place? We used to do business with a repair company. And one thing I loved is as, as you walked down the hall, he had framed pictures of Just quotes, you know, motivational things. But then as you. As you got further into the building, they had comments from customers and how their business had helped them or good, you know, positive feedback, that kind of stuff.

Sure.

And he would always change those out so there was something new to read. And then you worked your way back into the break room to kind of stash your lunch or whatever.

Sure.

Think about how that impacts you, your employees, you know, what's in their way or what's helping them, you know, to get things done that you want them to do.

It's worth watching this video, that one. I have one more thing from the video to share. And then another thing that just sort of serendipitously crossed my path right after I watched this video. He says this is more about setting your perception of yourself, and I'm paraphrasing here, than it is anything else. He says, you know, the actions that you take provide. What he said was the actions that you take provide evidence for who you are. I would modify that phrase and say the actions that you take provide you with evidence for who you are. If you study Spanish every week, you'll believe that you are studious. Right?

Yeah.

And I loved that idea. And after I'd finished watching the video, in fact, it was the next day, I saw someone post a quote that is attributed to Mel Robbins. And I don't know if this is correct or not, and I don't. I'm not sure I know who Mel Robbins is. I don't think it matters. The quote is you. You'll watch an entire Netflix series, even when the first episodes are slow, because someone told you it gets better. But what if you looked at your goals like that and watched your life get better instead?

Yeah, that's good.

Right?

I recently. Yeah, I recently posted on X Twitter that, you know, because everybody talks about, you got to keep doing, going, going, going. You can't quit. And they're right. I mean, if you listen to our first podcast, you know, eight years ago, I was terrible. You know, when I go back and listen to that. But, you know, 478 or 79 into that, it's a whole. It's a different story, hopefully. So it's changed.

We're not sure it's better or worse.

Yeah, correct, correct. But thinking all the iteration that we've done.

Absolutely.

Logos, names, lengths, frequency, all these different things that you try out, and it's, you know, you're stacking up the little improvements and hopefully over time, that's going to take you to a successful place and go watch this video. I think you'll really love it. And tell us what you think. Feedbackusinessbrain Show. We'd love to hear from you. And you get entered to win a MacBook.

That's right. Just like Jeff did in by submitting his question to us at the beginning of the show that was we talked about. Jeff's entered. You can be entered just like Jeff Feedback at BusinessBrain Show. Make sure to check out financingthatworks. Com and of course, miro.com podcast. Keep living that charmed life. We'll see you next time.