How to Make Your Presence Count | Unlocking Impact in 7 Minutes

Good morning, Believe Nation! Today's message is Make Your Presence Count. Over to you, Trey Songz.

I wake up every morning. Espresso keep me going. I wake up every morning. There was a point where I was putting out a new song every week. You know, it was Trey Songz Music Monday. I put out a new song every Monday for like 2 and a half months. Before my mixtape came out, which was Anticipation, which got 50,000 downloads the first night, you know, Ready came out. Ready's had 6 or 7 singles. I think that has a lot to do with it. Going on tour with Jay-Z, who is an international superstar, that definitely brings a lot of attention to my name. I performed with Stevie Wonder on the BET Honors. You know, I kissed Toni Braxton on stage. You know, like, so it was a lot of steps. Towards where I am now. And I think that it's just beginning even still, you know, that's why this run is so jam-packed, my schedule. That's why I'm in a different country every day, because I need to make my presence felt. And even when I come back next time, I'll work even harder to make my presence felt because I still— I'm working here this time like I'm a new actor. My manager told me we're going to come out here, we're going to act like it's 2005. And what that means is act like I just gotta make it, you know? So I don't feel as though I'm a superstar here yet. I'm working my way there.

So one of my personal goals is to wherever I go that my presence is felt. I wanna make sure that the thing that I'm spending my time on has an impact. I'm heavily driven by impact. And it's not from an ego point of view, not that when I walk into a room you need to worship me, that's not the goal. But wherever I'm spending my time, that things are gonna get better. That if I'm spending my time in this business, this business is gonna get better and it's gonna help the community. If I'm spending time making videos for you, that you are digesting them and using them and helping them to make you get better and build awesome businesses that impact our culture. It's the goal. If I felt like these videos were not having an impact on you, then I would stop making them. I would still consume them for myself. There's a number of habits that I picked up that it wasn't having an impact on you guys, but has an impact on me, so I just keep doing it for myself. I look at the morning gratitude series as an example. I had a YouTube series where every day I went on and shared 3 things I was grateful for and encouraged you guys to come on and do it with me. And we had a good loyal audience coming and doing it, but it wasn't having the impact that I wanted, and so I cut the series. I still do it personally myself every morning with my wife, but I don't share it with you guys because I want to make sure that the things that I'm spending my time on is worthwhile. I think everybody should have the opinion that wherever you walk into, whatever room you're in, whatever business you're in, you're going to make it better. It's your goal to make it better. Again, not from an ego point of view that I'm amazing and I'm going to do this, but from a genuine desire to make things better, to help people, to elevate, to lift like If you are not making things better, you're either making things worse, which isn't great, or you're just apathetic. And is that the life that you want to live? Do you want to walk around going into all these rooms, and the rooms are your life, your business, your friends, you know, these different rooms of your daily existence, and just be apathetic and not really caring what happens? Where if you go in with the intention of, my time matters, my life here is limited, I want to make every second count, It shifts your perspective, and I think it's really important. One of the things I do on a fairly consistent basis is look at my schedule. I look at where am I spending my time. I live and die by my calendar. Where am I spending my time? It's the most precious asset that I have. I'm never getting it back. Where am I spending it? And doing a constant audit of, are these the right places? Should I still be making YouTube videos? Should I invest that time to go off and do something else? Or not. And the thing that always tips the balance for me is, are these things leading to a major impact or not? My goal is to help a billion entrepreneurs. Whether I reach that goal or not, it doesn't matter. It's the process. It's the work that I'm doing has to have the potential to help a billion entrepreneurs. If it does, I'm into it. If it's not, I'm not going to do it. And I encourage you to value your time more preciously and to do a severe audit to look at where you are spending your time and are you having a positive impact on your customers, on your suppliers, on your friends, on your relationships, and everybody around you. Make your time count. So the question of the day today is, I'm curious, what are you spending time on that you probably shouldn't, that's not really having an impact, that you're not making your presence felt? Where are you wasting your time that you want to change in your life or your business? Leave it in the comments below. I'm super curious to find out. I also want to give a quick shout out to Ibi Hadid. Thank you so much, Ibi, for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. It really, really, really means a lot to me, and I really hope you're enjoying the read. So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love, and I'll see you guys again tomorrow morning for another shot of espresso.

I wake up every morning, espresso keep me going. I always tell people the biggest, biggest benefit to my career was probably in the beginning, the thing I hated the most, like how long it took me to get to where I feel was where I was getting my just due.

Yeah.

You know, my first album came, of course, at the crib, it's going crazy. Just Gotta Make It, Gotta Go, Wonder Woman, everything. And our nucleus on the East Coast, we— but I wasn't as successful as I wanted to be for a very long time. But The older I get, the more I appreciate that process, that learning curve, the ability to grow gradually. So I had to learn everything in front of everybody. Like, I didn't get catapulted immediately into success. That gave me appreciation for the journey to get to success. They gave me appreciation. That made me work hard. Like, that's why I work as hard as I do now today, because I feel like if Gotta Make It would have went number one Billboard chart, top of success, my first single ever, I don't think I had the same work ethic. Just be honest. I love to do music, so I always rap and I always— and you know, the funny thing about is when I was rapping and singing, it was like, it was like something out of this world. What, he's going to sing and rap, but he's an R&B singer? Like, and the beauty I love about music nowadays is that you have artists that almost everybody do both, right? You know what I mean? So I think that's a great part of the evolution of music is, uh, artists being creative and believing in themselves no matter what box that people try to put them in. Because no matter what you're trying to do with your life, other people gonna try to put you in this box. Definitely. So you gotta push through. But I'm not in it just for the money, you know, the cars, cars, clothes, hoes, I suppose. You know, that's— and that's the tricky thing about that song, you know, is that when I say I suppose, it's kind of like thinking in hindsight. Is that really what success is? No, it's not. That's what success is perceived to be and what we're taught that it is through TV, through movies, through videos, etc. But success is really what makes you happy in your heart. Making music makes me happy.