Are you brave enough to commit to #inboxzero? EP #141 - Shorty

Howdy, guys. Dan Lanny here, host of the how to Scale a Video Business podcast, creeping up here on week 51 of 2020. Time for today's Shorty. And today we're going to be talking about are you brave enough to go Inbox Zero? It's a topic we've been digging into the last couple of weeks inside the Mastermind. And it's interesting, actually, just how much resistance there can be to something that is actually very, very simple. I'm going to tell you why I believe Inbox Zero is such a powerful tool for productivity in your business.

So.

You know, I used to be someone who had like 20,000 emails in my inbox, and it was almost like a badge of honor that, you know, I don't know why. It's like a kind of comfort blanket, isn't it? But what I've learned is that.

Other people's emails coming into your inbox are other people's to do lists. And if you're looking to scale your video business, then you have to get a handle on that. And there's probably going to be some resistance to this because everyone's got an excuse or a reason why they've gotta have all these inbox emails. And a lot of people use email like Instant messenger, which is not healthy. But we've been rolling out Inbox Zero to all our members recently, and for the most part, everyone's really on board with it and discovering some incredible clarity as a result. But there's a few people who are needing a little bit of gentle persuasion. But, you know, very, very successful friend of mine, Ben Simkin, who's been on this podcast, you know, he said it, one of our masterminds just recently said, you know, you can make money or you can make excuses, but you can't make both. And so Inbox Zero is really the first step in creating white space, creating clarity.

You know. So here's some benefits of why you should keep Inbox Zero. So let me first of all explain what Inbox Zero is. It is going into your inbox, right? As soon as you've listened to this, selecting every email that's in your inbox and archiving it into a folder called, you know, archive emails, you know, 15th of December, 2020, so that what you're left with is white space in your email inbox. Nothing to deal with. Now, what this does is several things. So first of all, why should you keep your email inbox empty? Well, there are many benefits, but first is you won't miss an important email ever again. When you use the Inbox zero method, because stuff won't get lost, you won't leave people hanging because you respond to each email in a timely manner. You certainly won't become the bottleneck in your business and you won't feel stressed about thousands of emails in your inbo. And you end up respecting others by responding to them promptly. And you're able to feel great knowing that you have nothing else to do so you can get on with more creative, fulfilling and strategic tasks. The trouble with having a lot of email in your inbox is that you end up overwhelmed with just like a pile of things to do. And so what we typically do is we go to our inbox and go, right, I'll just check my email. And then you spend time responding to or dealing with emails. And I would say that probably 90% of your inbox is crap. It's just mailing lists. I was talking to my guys this morning on the first coaching call that we did, you know, and Qantas here in Australia, you know, I'm on an email list for Qantas, but they've got about eight sub lists. So I get the Qantas emails about wine, I get the Qantas emails about spending my points, I get the Qantas emails about booking flights, I get the Qantas emails about partner offers. And, you know, I get it. You know, Qantas aren't able to fly as much and so they're, they're maximizing their asset, which is their email list. Totally support that. But I don't need an email every day from Qantas offering me something. So I've unsubscribed from everything. Now what I've done is I. Every day I'm just clearing out more and more. And I've gone through this process a number of times. But, you know, human behavior habits are such that, you know, sometimes you slip back into old habits. We're all human. But I was reminded of the power of Inbox zero. And I've been running a pretty, pretty lean email inbox for a while, but, you know, a few days go by and suddenly they built back up. So we kind of all committed to doing it in the group. And one of the great advantages of the Mastermind is that we hold each other to account. And the power of this is so important because it's the discomfort of letting go of that security blanket of emails. Now, if you want to take it a step further, I've actually gone and taken all the apps off my home screen on my Phone, apart from finance and banking. And so that's something that my mentor Will Wang from Growth Labs said, if you really want to go like next level focus. So I have a zero inbox and nothing on my phone. So what this means, and it's pretty weird at first, what it means is that whenever I look at my phone, there's nothing to distract me. I'm looking at my finance numbers, I'm looking at my banking numbers. So I'm monitoring cash flow and revenue. I then go to my desk and I have no emails to look at. So I just go to my strategic plan and work out what's next on the list. Or I'm working directly with my clients and so my focus is entirely on my clients and my business and nothing else gets in the way. So if you're feeling like, you know, overwhelmed by, you know, just the sheer volume of stuff in your inbox, try this. Delete everything, put it all in a folder. I mean, you don't need to delete it. You can just move it all to an archive folder and from there you will be amazed at how much time and space you get back. And Jethro, one of my clients this morning was saying, man, you know, this really highlighted how reliant I was on, on dealing with that inbox. And it raised a lot of questions for him and self awareness. And his wife Trudy actually said to him, he said, you know, if you're struggling to make a decision on something that's costing you $0, how are you going to make a decision on the million dollar decision? So he was really open about sharing these insights. And it was all because we created some space and we are big advocates of creating space in your inbox, creating white space in your calendar and white space on your phone. We have become so addicted to our devices and to our inboxes that it's actually a problem and it's a productivity problem. So if you have a very clear strategic plan and you have no distractions, you can actually achieve an enormous amount more than you perhaps could have done even a couple of weeks ago by just clearing your inbox, clearing the apps off your phone.

And creating white space in your calendar. And the white space in the calendar is all about, about being very clear about what you want your strategic outcomes to be for the day. And look, I get it. You know, if you're on location and you're shooting, you're in production, that's everything goes out the window. I'm talking about the days that when you're not on production.

You'Re able to then start being very strategic and, and you'll find yourself just not wasting time. Back in the early days running my business, I could spend hours and hours doing nothing, you know, you know, just literally hours in the edit suite, you know, browsing something, looking at something on B and H, you know, tweaking a project, learning how to do something on, on YouTube and playing with that. And it wasn't necessarily productive for my business. And so what I, what I wanted to share with you today is that if you're not being as productive as you could be, or you feel like you, like, you know, you're not getting the results you want, then, you know, you've got to ask yourself, are you making excuses? Because you can't make excuses and make money. You've got to. It's one or the other.

And so this process of email inbox zero is the starting point to creating more space. And when you have more space, the first few days are going to seem really weird. But once you've gotten over it, you'll find yourself just getting into this deleting habit. And the feeling of clarity, the feeling of space is unbelievable. It's like going from a busy city center into the countryside or onto the beach. It just gives your brain time to think and you're. You're suddenly not missing anything. And, and, you know, just to confirm, you don't delete anything. It just all goes into a folder, which means that your immediate folder, your inbox, is at zero. Try it, guys. Honestly, it will change your life. But the question is, are you brave enough? You've been listening to the how to Scale a Video Business podcast with me, your host, Dan Lenny. If you're a video business owner, hit a ceiling, and we benefit from mentorship, support, and coaching, then check out how you can work with me over@denlenny.com don't forget to subscribe and rate the show over on itunes, and we'd really appreciate you taking a few minutes to leave a review. And don't forget to share. If you feel you've gotten value from this episode and you think it would be useful for other filmmakers, you know, then please do me a massive favor and share it on social media and in groups that you might be in. So thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.