Doing the least with Greg Faxon

Hello, friends. Welcome to episode 202 of the Nope Coach podcast. I'm your host, Suzanne Kohlberg. Joining me today is Greg Faxson, and we are chatting about weeks that work as entrepreneurs. Many of us like, there's that line, how does it go? An entrepreneur, somebody who leaves a 9 to 5 to work 24 7. And we laugh about this, but it's so true. It's like, I'm going to have this time flexibility. I'm going to have this freedom. I'm going to work for myself. But then many of us create a worse of a ball and chain than we had when we had a traditional job. So I'm interested to chat to you about this, Greg, because I know you have a lot of things about, you know, taking action and the right action. So Greg's written a book called Don't Let the Fear Win. You can get it on Amazon or Audible. And there's something you said in the book. It's about the. The illusion of doing everything to succeed. And I think, you know, sometimes we can have this in business as well. Which is why I'm keen to hear your take on weeks at work. Because it's like, well, I'm doing all the things. I'm writing the blog posts, or I'm doing the emails, or I'm recording the podcasts. But is it actually working or are you just, you know, avoiding taking the more challenging action? So.

Yeah, so I think similar to the leaving a 9 to 5 to work 24 hours a day, I think about it, the best part of running a business is you don't have a boss. Also, it's the worst part because you do realize that, but only after you leave your job. At first you blame your boss. Then you realize, actually, there was a lot of structure in my work, which was nice. I pretty much always knew what I needed to be focused on. I didn't have to create my own map and execute it each step of the way. So that's a really important adjustment. Obviously, you make it when you go full time into your business, but I think you're constantly trying to figure out, how do I structure my weeks as a business owner and my work in a way that is actually effective and is sustainable for me. There's this concept which I've been thinking more and more about. I call it doing the least. So we all know that.

Tell me more.

We all know that phrase, like, doing the most, like, oh, like she does the most or he does the most. And sometimes it's like a complimentary thing, like they're a hard worker. And other, other times it's like, oh, they're kind of forcing it. Like they're just, they're doing, they're doing the most with that outfit. And most of us have been conditioned to do the most. Why? Because we start off in school and you basically get rewarded for hard work. The assignment's pretty clear. The did you put the hours in? Usually that person gets the best grade if you just follow the instructions. That maps on pretty well to being an employee because you have clear instructions there. Typically the person who works the hardest is going to get to ascend and make more money. Then you become an entrepreneur and it breaks down. All of a sudden your business doesn't care about how hard you work. Your business only needs you to do the required actions.

That's it.

The only difference between successful entrepreneurs and unsuccessful entrepreneurs, the successful ones did the required actions, the actions that their business needed them to take at the time they needed it to take it. So I have this concept called doing the least. And I think this is actually what we should aspire to as entrepreneurs because in the same way that we can get overwhelmed without structure and kind of sometimes wish like, oh, I wish I could just show up to a desk job and just phone it in for eight hours. If you're able to figure out what actually matters and cut out everything else, you can hack the system, right? You can leave the matrix and just say, look, if I know what those two to three things are, I could just do them in one hour and then be done. There's no requirement that I sit here at my desk and stare at the screen and then leave at 5pm and so for those of us who want freedom in life, which is what motivates most entrepreneurs, I think the skill of doing the least, identifying what really matters and is highest leverage, is cutting out everything else and giving yourself permission to not do it is a really valuable skill.

I love that. I'm just going to back up a bit to the thing you said about school, what it reminded me of. I remember when I was in grade 10 or 11, I wrote an assignment and so did my friend and I got a C. I was a straight A student, so I was very affronted to get a C and she got an A and I remember 10 taking it to the teacher because, you know, I was not happy with this and I was like, like basically my paper is better than hers, hands down. Like I know this. How come she got an A and I got a C and she Was like, I could tell that you dialed it in like, you're capable of so much more. And it was kind of like, I love this concept of doing the lease. And it's like, we should be, you know, from my point of view, graded on the product. And in business, you're not graded on how hard you tried or how much you put in. It's like, can you provide the service? Is the person getting what they paid for, not how hard you you tried? Whereas school, we're conditioned to do more and turn up more, you know, because you can. And I think, you know, that's the shift because it's like, as you said, if you can get it done. Like my husband, he basically isn't needed a lot of the time, but when he is needed, that's what they pay for and have him most of the time. So he will get his work done in a supremely short period of time and then spend the rest of the day playing Xbox or whatever, which irritates me supremely. But it was like, but I could do that too, because how often do we make busy work to tick that box from school that, you know, you should be at your desk and attentive when you don't need to be.

Agreed.

I love that. So concept doing the least. Yes. And my question is, especially for newer people in business, how do you suggest or let them help out to find out what the required actions are? So I don't know about anyone else, but I know when I started business, you don't know what you don't know. So, like, sometimes everyone's like, you need a website. So, you know, spend your money, time, attention, getting a website and then nothing happens. It's like, oh, you need SEOs and you get SEO. Oh, you need to start a YouTube channel. So how would you help people or recommend to people to find out what those required actions actually are?

Yeah, I think there's a couple different phases. If you're totally brand new, you haven't worked with any paid clients yet. I actually think that the, the program that we'll talk about that I'm doing around this probably wouldn't be a good fit because you actually just need a, you need a like 101 business. Just step by step over six to eight weeks, get your payment processor, find your overall niche does not have to be perfectly dialed in. Like send out to your network, sort of, here's what I'm doing and I'm doing some free consults to help you with it and get you started. So you're Going to get in those conversations, do market research, enroll your first clients and you need just to figure out how to get decent at what you're doing.

And you have a program for that as well, don't you? Is that your other program?

Yeah.

Yeah.

What's the name of that one?

Shameless plug coaching business Boot Camp.

So we have that as well on the site. That's very step by step. It's helpful if you're starting from scratch. What I think most of this episode I think we should talk about is folks who have gotten paid clients, but the consistency isn't there. Why, why so hard to just have a consistent business? Well, it's usually because we're not as consistent as we could be. Right. If you think about it like fitness, it's like, why do I get in shape and then I'm out of shape. What is happening where you, you might not be totally consistent with your routines. And so same thing in business. So sometimes to grow, you don't really need to be doing something magical, that's unknown and you've never heard of before. You just need to do what you know you need to do repeatedly. And you need to have clarity on what actually is making a difference. And so what I would say for the folks in the second bucket who are seeking consistency is this. There's only three things that help grow a business. And on the flip side, there's only three reasons why you wouldn't have a full client roster. You wouldn't be in your business. Hit your business income goal. Number one, you're not having enough consults, you don't have enough leads. Okay. People just aren't aware of what you're doing or they haven't been invited to learn more about it. Okay, so there's activities that raise the number of leads that you get. The second is you're not converting enough of the attention that you have. Okay, so your close rate is not high enough. Conversion rate is high. So anything that increases your close rate conversion rate, that will grow your business. Okay, same thing with leads. And the third is each customer isn't paying you enough. They're not worth enough. So either your prices aren't high enough on the front end or they don't retain right. They just don't stick with you long enough. So anything you can do to raise the initial sale and get more sales from the same customers that will grow your business. So those are, that's really it? That's it. Everything that matters in your business falls into one of those three categories. Everything else is admin. Some admin needs to get done. Like, you might need to form an LLC so you don't get sued. That's just required A lot of the admin we think needs to get done doesn't need to get done. And eventually it will get done by someone else, like a va. But the three things you need to focus on, and these are what I would put into, like, the MIT category, the most important thing for your day. Like, I like to choose one mit the night before. That's what the first hour of the day is spent on. It really should be in one of those three categories. So how do you determine. There's a lot in all of those categories. What do you determine what to focus on? Usually it's pretty clear what the bottleneck of your business is, right? You might have a lot of leads and a good conversion rate, but, like, people just don't really stick with you that long. Right. So we know that on the delivery side, we need to get better, and there's things you could do there. Or it could be the opposite. Like, when you get a client, they stay with you forever. They just keep paying you. And maybe you're actually good in sales calls, but just like, the bottleneck is like, you're just not in enough consoles. If you could just double the number of consults you have, you would double the size of your business. And so we focus on that first. And then I would say the final thing. Once you know the bottleneck and you're focused on it's one of those three things, and you've been in business for a little bit. We want to look at what has worked in the past. When we did it, because usually something was working. And then because we're idiots, we just stopped doing it.

Right.

So if. If we want to get more leads, we could literally do a diagnostic and we could be like, all right, the last 10 clients I got, and I'll write a list of their names. I'm going to write where each of them came from. And don't just say, like, they came from the conversation I had with them. Where did the conversation come from? Right. So we want to backtrack. And then it's like, all right, you know, 80% of the clients came from, like, podcast interviews. Like, I went on someone else's podcast and they booked a consultation. And then 20% came from, like, referrals or something like that from existing clients. Okay, that's good to know. So then I would just focus on those two things, and I'd start with the 80%. So maybe we could get more diligent about a system for getting onto podcasts. I know that's one of the reasons we met, is because you have a good system, because it's a big way that you get clients. And that's one of the things I admire about you, is you took something that worked a little bit and you said, how could I get this to work a lot? And those become your mit. So for someone like that, it might be, look, the first hour of every day. If I spent the first hour of every day creating a spreadsheet of the podcast, my ideal clients were listening to, having a template with the pitch that I customized and sending those pitches out, I would get, like, a shitload of consoles. So that's what we want to figure out, and that's how we determine what's important in the business.

I love that. And I love, you know, what you didn't say explicitly, but it's practicing the constraint. So it's like, you know, I love how you first of all made the categories of new in business versus the feast and famine, and, you know, which stage you in, and then establishing, okay, which are the things that work for you and doubling down on them, but then practicing the constraint when the other shiny objects come along. What you call creative avoidance. So for me, yes, podcast guesting is a large part of my strategy. And now podcast hosting as well. When I have my moments that we all do, and then I check my email and it's like, oh, you could do this or you could do this. It's for me, going, that actually isn't a priority for me right now. And not getting distracted. So, like, I have this podcast. Most people listen, I put it up on YouTube for the couple who do watch or like the subtitles, but it isn't my strategy. Three, four times a week, I get an email going, I can maximize your YouTube or whatever one day, not right now. And I think sometimes when things don't happen fast enough for, you know, those of us who are impatient, it can be easy to drop the ball and go and look at the next shiny thing as a creative avoidance.

Yeah. I think that there's a discipline to perfecting the stuff you're already doing, because the new thing always seems, like, a little bit easier. Right? Like, if you're on a. Like, let's say you're doing a workout plan, you're getting into lifting, you're doing that, but then you hear like, oh, there's this kettlebell thing. Or I could do Zumba. It's like that in our minds, seems like it has none of the issues of our current plan. And it's so much easier, only only because it's unknown. And that's why we end up program hopping. In fitness, you never really accomplish your fitness goals if you keep switching it up. And in business, same thing every time you start from scratch again. Then you get to the point where it gets a little bit hard and you have to optimize it and you switch to the next thing. Instead of driving that through to completion and just milking it like you're already getting some out of it. Let's milk it for all it's worth.

Yeah, and I think that's the thing. It's kind of a. It's a way to, you know, potentially let yourself off the hook or it's a way that we kind of shore up against disappointment because, like, if I followed this thing through the finish line and it didn't produce in the way I hoped, I'm going to fundamentally think that I'm a failure or something. So instead I'll just change around a lot and I don't need to sit with that. Or maybe that's just me.

No, I think that's really real. And the way I think about it, there's three. There's only three reasons why you wouldn't have consistency in your business we talked about. The big reason is you're not being as consistent as you could be. Any other consistency still exists, like the economy changes. It's just that we can't do anything about it. So in terms of your consistency, the three things are, number one, you're not clear on what things you actually need to focus on. Right. If you're not clear, you'll get overwhelmed, you'll end up doing little stuff, and then you're not moving forward. Okay, so we talked about how to get clear. Number two, you know what you need to focus on, but you're creatively avoiding, which is the word I use for, like you're doing something else. You're not just sitting there and procrastinating. You're doing something else that's less effective because it's more comfortable by nature. The things that are revenue generating and high leverage are going to be uncomfortable. They're going to require some sort of potential rejection, some sort of discomfort. You're sitting down to write and that uses a little more brain power than checking your email. So you know the thing, but you're creatively avoiding. And then number three, you actually start doing the thing and, and then you stop. And the reasons we stop are, number one, you're not sure if it's working because you're not tracking it. So you just assume it's not working and do something else. Or it's working, but it's too much for one person and you don't have support, or you get excited about something else because it's a shiny object. So those are the three things, if we can get clear, we cannot creatively avoid and do it, and we can keep doing it over time. You'll have consistency in your business.

Yes. Well, thank you so much for this, Greg. It's been fabulous. What do you do and where can people find you? And can you mention both courses that you offer? Because some of my listeners will be in that more beginning stage and some people will be in, like, the. What I call the feast and famine stage.

Yeah. Great. So Gregfaxon.com is the main site, and if you just want to explore more of what I do, there's plenty of kind of free offers there that you can get started with. The course is called Coaching Business Bootcamp. I can give you the link to that that you can link people to. And then this newest course, which we can talk more about in the next episode, is called Weeks that Work. And that's at Weeks Weeks that Work.

Com. Perfect. And for anyone listening, Greg Faxon is spelled G R E G F A, X, O, N. Because I am. What did you call it? Doing the least. And I don't do show notes.

Wonderful.

I love it. Thank you, Greg.

If people get on my email list, they'll automatically be invited to Coaching Business.

Oh, perfect. Even better. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. We'll catch you on the next one. Bye for now.