Prune to Prioritize Growth: Cutting Out the Junk | Tom Ferry Podcast Experience

So here's the thing. Entrepreneurs, leaders, salespeople, we all want to create consistent, repeatable, and scalable ways to grow our business and our income. And we want to do it better, faster, and more seamlessly. Why? So we can actually enjoy our lives, take vacations, and spend the quality time we want with the people that we love. How do we do all this without spending a fortune or running ourselves ragged? That's the big question. And this show is dedicated to the answer.

Hey, welcome back to the show. Wherever you find yourself watching this, one thing I know to be true is if you want to have a breakthrough in your performance, you've got to prune and prioritize if you ultimately want to see your production rise. What do we know? We know that we only have so much time. And as I've mentioned to so many people in the past, I've said, if you go inside your closet and do you ever find yourself saying, the closet is full, yet I have absolutely nothing to wear. I. I've had that same experience. My wife does it every time we go in the closet. And I say to her, but what about these 47 black shirts? And she says, none of those are the black shirt I'm looking for. Well, what do we know to be true? That if she goes in and eliminates 50% of those shirts and she donates them to someone else, that it'll be a hundred percent for them and they'll be super grateful to have it. Now she has room to add the things that she wants. Well, metaphorically, this show is about just that. What do you need to prune? What do you need to let go of? What do you need to stop doing? And then how do you ultimately prioritize in a. A way that you're absolutely staying in your zone of greatness, doing your best work, because that's where growth happens. To help us do that. I've got Jimmy Mackin, I've got Jason Pantana, and my main man coming in from the uk, My golfing buddy, Matt Nichols. Right. So, Matt, for the people, that was just a year ago we did this show together. Give people some context. How big of a. Of a company do you have and how does it maybe compare to other companies in the uk and then let's get into the transactions, and then we'll get into, like, what you've done to sort of, like, the vine bush prune, to let it grow, because you've had a fantastic growth year.

It's been good. Yeah, very good. So we've been trading for 15 years we have three bricks and mortar offices, about 40 staff, sales let ins landing new homes.

Yeah, we're dominant in our area. So we're in Worcestershire, which is the place where the source comes from. People can't say it very well over here, but we're in the middle of. Middle of England, basically just below Birmingham. And it's, you know, it's. It's a good market. It's not London prices. It's fairly kind of average. 275 is about an average price where we are. Yes. But there's a good number of transactions that take place in my hometown, which is where I live. There's a. A real dominance of the purple boards that you'd see out there, which is our. Our company colors.

Yes, I love it. So. So how many transactions last year between. And when you say staff, the model is different for the people. Help people understand the model there, versus if they're in the US or in Canada or maybe throughout Europe, closer to Australia.

Sure. So. So every office, or the three offices will have their own manager. Each. Each manager will have a valuation manager who'll go out and do the appointments. So they're the listing person that you'd have over here. Then they would have sales consultants and sales specialists. So they're kind of like a team within a team, if that makes sense.

Sure.

One thing I did last year, though, which has been a massive game changer for us, was to promote from within. My sales manager was like, really proven himself to me. Great culture, really, really led the team well. So I promoted him to be a sales director. We did the org chart. I realized it was going to be good for me as well to bring him into that position, because instead of having seven people reporting to me, I've got three people that report into me now. And he's. He's closer to the ground now. It. It makes a lot of sense for the business. Yes.

So we want to talk about the things that you cut. I know in working with Sandro, you're amazing coach. You had a nice lift in your performance. Did the market go up by as much as you grew from, you know, 23 to 24?

No, not as much. I mean, 23 was tougher than 24, so it's definitely a better market. But for what we managed to achieve, with our turnover going up 17, it was a buck in the trend, basically, in our local area, we actually sold less houses than we did the year before. But because the guys had driven the fees up, the income was better, so even better.

So less time More fees, more money, maybe, and I'm not saying this to be true, but maybe a little more peace of mind. I know, certainly for you, because I follow you on Instagram and I watch you travel.

Yes, yes.

So. So before we jump, Jimmy, when I say. And Jason, same thing when I say you need to metaphorically, not metaphorically. You have to prune, bash the wine vines, the grapevines, or you don't get the new juice. When you think about that, what immediately comes to your mind, whether it's pruning or prioritization, if somebody wants to grow their business.

Yeah. I'm reminded of the. The story and the rise and fall of Evernote. We all remember this back in, like 2013, where the, I think is the CEO time bounder Phil was on stage at every tech conference saying, I've got 100 year business plan. And he was touted as a sort of visionary and sort of shortly there on after having success, they started to introduce all these different product lines. At one point, they were selling lots of T shirts, notebooks, swag. And what eventually happened, as we all know, as the story went, is that their user base sort of began to shrink quite significantly despite the fact that. That they had massive momentum. And I think that's the thing that most people don't understand about this, is that once you start really getting momentum, you almost feel like it's. Jim Collins talks about this is the undisciplined pursuit of more.

Yes.

And so this idea of once you get some momentum, it's like, how do you slow things down so you don't get into different types of businesses or different types of activities that pull you away from, as you say, your zone of greatness. So I think, I think the lesson that, that I'm taking from you and now Matt, is just this idea of slowing down a little bit, becoming a little bit more focused, a little more disciplined to create those opportunities ahead of you.

Yeah. And I think what stood out to me was your story about your sales manager becoming a sales director, where you were looking from within. And I think a lot of people could use a reminder of I should look at the talent around me and see who's in culture, who's a good fit, how can I gain some efficiencies for myself, for everybody, and make everybody win together? I'm thinking about, I think it was from Carol Dweck's research where she talked about what makes people engaged in their work. And one of three necessities that make somebody engaged in their work is they have to have a path for growth. And I think being able to look out for the people who are with you and making a path for their growth enables your growth. And so I think doing it alone and just kind of being a microcosm to yourself is. I think that's putting too much burden on you and there's an opportunity to do less by having others come around you to support.

What would be your advice, Matt, for people who are watching right now, who are looking to hire someone to actually take away some of the chips here? Because I think a lot of us right now have historically hired out of desperation. We're so busy, we got so many things going on, we just got to fill this one role. So this role sounds like it's actually taken off for you. So what was the thing that you think worked really well and how the audience can maybe apply that to their business?

I think for me in the team, I'd kind of probably spotted it about a year out, and I think that's probably the best thing to do. Even if you don't think you need them right now, probably get them in anyway, because if they could have just time alongside you, just to learn it the way you do it, it's probably the best way to do it. And I think Dan, who's my sales director, he joined me as a negotiator, so he is that kind of. That. He's gone every rung of the ladder to get to this position. And the great thing, I think, when you set up your own business is you know how you want to do it. So you're always going to be a little bit reluctant to give over the reins. Someone, but if they've been with you for that long, they do it your way. Anyway. We're quite clear on our culture. We do the EOs, we have traction. We do, you know, Blueprint Quarterly, we do weekly scorecards, we do all those bits and pieces. So we've got a Good Foundation. Since 2020, we've been doing these things. So, yeah, he's had a long time of kind of living and breathing it the way that we do it. But from a hiring point of view, I think it's tricky because obviously on interviews, people always come across Amazing in that 15, 20 minute, 30 minutes you speak to them. But you've got to spend probably quite a bit of time with them, see if they fit in with the company. I've played a bit of golf over the last two days already, and playing with people who obviously who are team leads and they're also Brokers on their own. You can kind of see there's that reluctance to give away stuff. But then you're seeing their phones ringing on a Friday evening till late into the night. That's not a lifestyle for me. I think that's, I think that must be such hard work. Whereas I shared my emails yesterday that I had with someone we play golf with. I had one. One email all day. And that's, and that's, and that's a nice. I'm sorry, I'm not going to make people feel bad.

That's going to be the title of the show.

One email all Day.

That was it. And it was, that was the only work related email. It was one and it was a curtsy email. It was nothing important, but that's where I wanted to get the business to. And also I think kind of getting this to where it is now, I'm free to come up with some new ideas. I've got lots of energy. I'm not getting pulled into everything that's going on. They don't involve me in most conversations, but they do if they need to. It's a really good spot to be in, so it's worth it. Whoever's thinking about it, they should do it.

So there's this conversation around. When you're building a business, you take one of two paths. You build like a lifestyle business. You're going to do everything. You get to technically control all the money, ideally in your mind, make all the money. But the reality is you hit a certain place where there is just no more time.

Right.

And, and most people suffer through the experience. And I know the person listening, you can relate to this. I've been there myself. Even though when I started my company, I, I left in the morning and came home with 11 employees in a lease for 3,000 square feet. And my wife's like, oh my God, I thought we were just getting started. I go, well, we started. But even then, 11 employees wasn't enough for how much we were going to do. So there's that, there's that balance. So, so how do you in your mind get over the. No one does it better than me. I'm the best. My clients expect me. You know, my name's on the door. It's Nichols Realty.

Right?

You know what I mean? Like, where's Matt? I want Matt to solve this. How do you get over that? Or maybe talk to the camera over there, to the guy or gal that's listening. How do they get over this? Like narcissistic. Nobody could do it better than me. I am the best. And I'm not saying that to be disrespectful. I'm saying because that's what it is, Right? How do they get over that? And then how do they hire that next person?

So it's three words. Done beats perfect. For you, perfect is the way you do it. When you see someone else do it, it's done. It's not the same way, but you have to kind of just absorb and take that.

Yes.

And I think the freedom of having other people do it and do it their way is that they might not do it your way straight away, but you can, you can build in and you can feedback and you can check in with people and, and just help them through it. I think I still get a lot of people that call and ask me to go out and value their property and do the, do the listing appointment. But I'm quite clear that I've got a great team that can do that. I've got complete confidence and faith in it. All the results that they're seeing, all those soul boards they're seeing, it's that team. It's not me anymore. It's not me, like coming out and doing the appraisal. So I think people do understand that. And I'm still there for like, I'll still take a phone call from somebody who wants advice. Shall I take a stairlift out my house? I'll do those little ones. Because that, that just keeps me kind of in, in amongst it as well.

Well, hold on. So. So it begs the question, like, Magic Johnson, very famous, you know, basketball player, was a horrible coach. I would never want to be coached by Michael Jordan. But you're talking about two of the greatest of all time, right? Think about how many, how many, how few coaches make it from. They would call it soccer, we would call it football in the Premier League to be able to elevate to that level.

Yeah.

Were you a phenomenal real estate agent?

I think in my day I was, yeah. No blowing smoke, but yeah, I think I was. I think I was very good. I don't think I was a great manager, if I'm honest with you. So I was good agent, not great manager. That was probably the tough part of my career, managing other people. But now talk about kind of flywheels, like, once you get it spinning, I only have to like nip into each office every week. I do a check in with the managers every Monday. I'm like, I'm, I'm there, I'm there enough. They can ring me at night, whatever, that I'm around for them. But, but really it's like Bill Walsh said, you go give the bats the heavy hitters. Like you just got to feed them what they need and just make them fly, really. And that's what I'm doing.

Do you know, stands out. So you're already teeing folks up. When you're out meeting with a seller, for instance, you've got this person who does this thing. So you're already drilling into the idea of specialization.

Yes.

And I think that's a massive value proposition. I think a lot of people do have that, I do all the things kind of mentality, but they're missing out on the benefit of being able to claim specialist who are experts in this specific capacity which actually improves your perceived value with the customer. And I'm also, I'm thinking about our guest speaker. We're in Orlando right now for our retreat and our guest speaker, his name is Rory Vaden, he wrote a great book called Procrastinate on Purpose. And one of the frameworks in it was he asked the question how do you know what you were supposed to be focused on so that you don't become the person who's a one man band doing their own thing all the time. And he went through a five step process. You have to look at every specific task and ask what can be eliminated and if it can be great, what if it can't be eliminated, can it be optimized? And if it can't be optimized any further, can it be delegated to somebody else? And if it can't be delegated to somebody else, could it be automated? And then. Or actually I missed those two up. Could it be automated and delegated? Sorry, Rory. Yes, I went in the wrong order. And the last one is if it can't be automated, delegated, if it can't be optimized any further, if it can't be eliminated, the last choice word is concentrate. It means it's yours to handle that. And so I think just having that ruthless sense of what am I contributing, that's going to be my highest and best use at all times. And allowing other people to find their highest and best use will let you go further than you ever could alone.

Very true. And I mean, the reason I kind of got into Tom Ferry coaching is because I loved what you guys were doing from a podcast point of view, but just putting yourself out there and that's making the phone ring. So the fact that I'm free to go and do podcasts, I'm going to do PR and all those bits and pieces. It means that people come to us anyway. They see what I do in the community. We've got loads going on in my hometown where I'm involved. I'm the chairman of a group that basically are changing our hometown completely. It's going to be legacy stuff that everyone's going to enjoy, but that's only because I'm free from taking that phone call, going out to that appointment and going back to your point, Jason, we, we call it sticking in our swim lanes. So basically, I do have someone goes out to do the listings once they've won the instruction. There's one person that phones it out and they know their database, they know their buyers. Then there's someone else who does the viewings for us. They do the negotiation and they do the vendor care. And then after we've sailed, sale agreed, we then go to our sales progressor and then they progress the sale all the way through. So everyone has their role.

Yeah.

Obviously if there's holiday, they have to, like, step across and do a little bit more, but that's good for them as well because they get to experience what the other roles feel like without complete commitment. They've got to get into it.

So I want to ask my friend watching a question, wherever you are, I'd love to for you to leave a comment. What do you need to prune in order to grow? What do you need to cut? What do you need to stop doing? And if there was a priority that you knew you needed to give your edge to for 90 minutes, an hour, two hours, three hours, whatever it may be. 30 minutes, 15 minutes, I don't know. You know, what do you need to cut? Let us know in the comments. And what do you think you need to better prioritize and focus going back to your conversation from Rory Vaden in order to get the lift. Because otherwise, you know what? I know as a business owner, time is the only thing that matters. I'll spend more money to save time. Like, anytime someone comes to me with an idea, hey, I've got this new concept of a company. Oh, it's going to make you more money. I'm like, I, I, it's not as of interest to me, but the moment I saw Uber, I was like, holy crow, this is going to save me time. Right. I'd have to wait for a cab. You know, is the, is the company that I'm hired, like, anything JSX versus American Airlines, you know, like anything that can Save me time. I'm interested. But at a certain point, then you have to look at what you do. Where do you waste time, right? And like that's like this, this whole experience of 20, 25 in a new year. Like, you guys know my coach, she's on me. Like, it's going to require a different version of you, a different gear, a different edge. And at a certain point, I don't have any more room to add. There's, there's too many shirts in the closet. So the only thing I could do now is cut.

You've got to be honest with yourself. I mean, saying no to some things just makes it better as well. As you say it's like the cut. Is that saying no?

Yes.

If they can't have me, they don't want to use someone else in the team, then they're not using our business. Like that's, that's fine for us because the next phone call you'll get is something bigger and better. It often works that way. But I guess people that are out there at the moment listing themselves, doing the showings themselves, doing the open houses, they just don't get time to stop and think about things. It's just the phone's always ringing, they've got emails to return to. It's just right. There's plenty going on, isn't there? But it is, it's a, it's a mindset change. I think that's the first thing. And once you've kind of done it, you'll, you'll really understand you should have done it sooner. But it's, it's easy for us to sit here and say we're doing it now.

What happens when it goes wrong? I mean, you got this great team, everything's firing in all cylinders. Everyone's great. You're, you're sitting there taking a phone call once in a while. But when things go side, when things don't go the way, the way that, and forget about being done, they're just not even at your standard. How, how do you handle that today? Because I'm sure people who are watching right now, the reason I asked the question is that it's all good until something goes sideways and then, and then the instant reaction we all have as founders, as managers, as leaders is to get ourselves jump right back in.

Yeah.

So, so what's your advice and guidance for people managing this sort of growing pains that are natural?

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Yeah, I think I was trying to, as you were talking then, think of things where it has gone wrong and just to try and trail back to what I've done. I think ultimately you've got to kind of let them decide how they're going to deal with it, support them with it. You may, you may actually need to make a phone call just to kind of smooth things over. But, but really you want them to try and work their way through it because next time it happens again, it's not going to feel like a massive chaos. Yeah, it won't, we won't seem so bad. So, yeah, I mean, there's, there's been issues, don't get me wrong. And it's not perfect. We're not the perfect business. I don't think anyone out there is, but I don't think there's been anything that's been cataclysmic for us, like nothing that's destroyed our name, our reputation and, and I've always been quite cautious because I have chose to put my name above the door. Like you got the name on your business. Like you, it's, it's a little bit more to you when you put your name above the door, but now I.

Think so then, then flip it for us. What have you done structurally to avoid those nuclear events? Because clearly if it's not happening, it means like, there's something you've been able to do from a management perspective to ensure that you're not, you know, running into Those problems as often as most people would be.

I think we've got kind of like clear kind of visions and values. They've got their own kind of non negotiables in their office. They've written their own culture for each office. Each office is slightly different. They share those with me. I had no, no part to play in that. We've got staff handbooks, we've got all those bits and pieces. I onboard every new starter. So I kind of get to sit with them on their first day and kind of explain the business, get them into the, into the idea of how they're going to join and what's going to happen. But I think the managers, they give them a bit of freedom but then they can pull them back in when they need to. So yeah, they do core reviews that, I mean when you're, when you're at that size you realize that it's not going to be perfect, it is going to be done instead of perfect. Yeah, but you just need to kind of just keep an eye on them and just help with the training.

I think if everybody level sets. It was Henry Kaiser, I think who said the famous quote, business is problems in work clothes. Business is problem in problems and work clothes. He says in every basically business his problems.

Yeah.

And every great business is just a problem solving machine. And I think we have to get out of the notion that you're not going to have problems, you're not going to have near death experiences, you're not going to have moments where everything feels like it's going to crumble. I mean I've certainly been there multiple times. Whether it's something as tragic as 9, 11, oh my God, how are we going to recover from this? Will my clients ever sell a house again?

Yeah, right.

Well, ever get on an airplane again? Right. We have these moments in time. But I think just to acknowledge like problems are just a normal part of the deal. I mean if they weren't like, like do your kids do everything you ask them to do?

They don't do much.

How about, how about your team? Like no, but like, but you set up appropriate guard rails. Right. And I think, I don't know, maybe just the older you get, I think the more you realize like everybody's doing the best they can with what they got. So, so if they keep running into the same problem over and over again, it's on us to say, what are the tools I need to provide? What's the education I need to provide? Because you can just say screw that person. They made the same 10 mistakes over and over again. But if you don't stop and say, hey, they're doing the best they can with what they got now, what else do they need? How do I, how do I help them? Are we always perfect when we do it early on? As a manager, I made every mistake. As a leader, I made every mistake. But I think over time you begin to realize, like, hey, if you have no problems, you got the problem of no problems. You're, you're not pushing enough, you're not growing enough, you're not challenging yourself enough. You know what I mean? Like, like the moment you get on that status quo and everything is okay, that's a slippery slope to the beginning of serious mediocrity. So, like, I kind of like, have a different shift towards, like, give me the problem.

But that's, that's kind of where I feel the business is now that whilst we've kind of grown and we've had a great year, we're growing again. I now need to go and find us new challenges so we can set up our own mortgage brokerage, we can set up our own conveyance in this. There's all these other things that will be good for the company. I need the challenge. I'm not, I'm not stopping. I'm 41 years old. I've got loads of time left to me, so I need, I need new things to be doing. But because I've got that clear thinking time and I've got that space in my head, I can go out and look, look for the other opportunities, which is good for the company.

Yeah, I love it. I love it too. So, fellas, rapid fire, any question you want.

What is your favorite color?

What is the average air velocity of a whooping pigeon?

Yes. Was that Life of Brian?

No, that was Monty Python.

Right?

Monty Python, Yeah. I think it was Life of Brian. Yes.

Sorry, let me, let me ask you a question and then we'll pass to Jason. You've been doing this for, for how long now, Matt?

21 years in total. 2015 years as my own business.

So one of the most interesting trends we're seeing right now are sort of the, the acceleration to becoming a top agent. Meaning that if you look back historically, I remember it felt like it took several years, maybe even a decade or more to get to be coming at this sort of status that we see as top agents. But now we're seeing agents emerge from basically doing nothing to selling 50 million, 100 million plus with what feels like a few years. So because everyone has no patience. You've been doing this for 21 years. You're starting over. You want to build a team, you want to build a brokerage, you want to, you know, have the life that you're describing. What is. What are some of the shortcuts that you think you can give the audience today that would help them go from point A to point B? Not in 21 years, but in, like, two years.

Yes.

Okay. So obviously it's slightly different out here in terms of model size and bits and pieces. I. It feels like a lot of people do it very independently and they work on their own doing everything. I would have thought admin is one of those things that you've got to kind of free up. I'm not sure what admin goes into a sale over here, but I know what it goes into sales in the uk. But that kind of bringing in a member like that, that's going to assist you to take some of those jobs off your lap is going to be useful because you can just keep going out and doing the next thing, which. Which may just be listing, throwing it over your shoulder. Listing throwing it over your shoulder and getting someone to catch it and carry on. But I think that's really important. 15 years. For me, the biggest thing that I did was get really embedded in my community. So I became, probably within the first five years, I was the lad who played rugby there and went to school there. And then there was a fire that happened in the community and I started a crowdfunding a GoFundMe page. We raised £16,000 in something like, I think it was about four days. The council that engaged with me asked me, like, what do we want to put back in? And all those things. And all of a sudden my business went from here to here. And so if you're kind of, you know, your heart's in the right place, you've got that kind of feeling about you, then it's going to get the support of the people around you. I think the real estate agents over here in America, they do a lot more work than we do. We got a lot of come list me calls. You guys are out door knocking, you know, you're getting people to come to these open homes. We don't. We don't do all of that. We don't have to do all of that. Yeah, but it's about being that person that people want to use and trust. I think that's the. That's the first bit.

Yeah, I love that.

So the question on my mind is, I think for we're talking a lot about delegation, a lot about hiring, a lot about surrounding yourself with people who can help you scale your vision for your business. I'm thinking about a lot of real estate agents who, they move into a team setting and then they start hiring roles they don't fully understand. They need a videographer, they need somebody who's got some kind of a technical trade, social media, something like that. And it's not really within their realm of understanding. And I think they have Mrs. Because they don't understand the role. What would be your advice for an agent who finds himself at that precipice of I need to do more, I need to do YouTube. I need to get someone who can help me understand AI. I need all these different subjects that are beyond my core competence. How would you engage those types of challenges?

Well, I do what I did. I just followed you, to be honest. I have now built a team. I've got a marketing manager, I've got a videographer and we've got a VA out Manila. So like we've got, we've got a squad that does those bits for us. But you know, we've got that many staff that we had to, we had to do it. To answer your question, I think you just got to get over yourself to begin with. Done beats perfect. My, my videographer says it very often because just doing a raw footage, filming. You were filming walking down the fairway the other day like this, these bits, these, these moments are probably close enough to begin with. Yeah. I've seen some amazing sped up tours taken on a phone, on a gimbal. It's, it's not really needing all of those bits. You probably running before you should walk. I think that's probably the biggest part of it. And I do genuinely think if you could do what you do best and you can get someone to take the jobs off you, to allow you to do your best, best work more often, then that's going to be great for your business. And then, then gradually. Yes, you might need to kind of throw people in. I have heard it might be on one of your podcasts that, you know, people have employed a videographer because it almost holds them accountable because they've got someone for a day, they've got a batch.

Jeremy and I said it there. They.

On the podcast, that was it. I listened to it. So like he's got to batch film in one day because he's employed someone to do it. Yeah, one day a week. Yeah. Maybe that's, that's the right way of doing it, but not if it's going to cut out some of your other work.

Yeah, right.

I love that. But I also think about the fact that when you apply that person, you can also take all their listing photos. There's so many other things.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Delegate the workout.

All right, so we started the show by saying if I want to increase my performance, if I want to make more money, if I want to get more time back, I got to prioritize and I got to prune. And I've heard a lot of that so far. But as we, as we wrap this up, just kind of rapid fire around the, around the room. Best thing, you know, an agent should prune from their day to day activities if they want to grow. What's one thing we all hallucinate? We see people do, we do ourselves that we know if we cut it, we free ourselves up. It's not the highest, best use of our time. It's going to make us perform better.

Yeah.

So we have a triangle where we say no to some clients. And basically the triangle is made up of three sides. As everyone will be aware. You've got price. Is the price right? Is the fee worth it? And have they got a personality we can deal with? So I love that if you get two out of three, you're okay. If you have two wrong and you only have one, you don't deal with it. So if you've got the price right, personality is there, the fee's not quite there. You're going to sell it, you know, you're going to get, you're going to get a fee from it. But if you've got the price and the fees right, but the person, you can't deal with them, just don't take it, just, just cut those out. So let's say no to some things at the beginning, but working that way.

I think take back your mornings. I mean, I think this is the biggest mistake I see for anybody, real estate or other entrepreneurs is they wake up and the first thing they do is check their email, go on social media, and before they know it, it's, you know, one o' clock in the afternoon. And none of the things they needed to accomplish for the day to grow their businesses have been done and they're kind of already into the whirlwind. I think it was coach Janet that said this. Like, mornings are for me. And I just, I, I just, I just love that phrase of just like take back. So prune any external communication with the world, you know, before noon and then Just watch the magic happen from there.

Right.

I love that. And to build on that, I talk to my coaching clients often about batching their communications. So I believe that nothing can derail your creativity or your focus like a. And you're looking down at your phone, you're getting notifications, you're seeing DMS and so turning off notifications. And I know we've been hearing this for a long time, but some still haven't done it. I think disabling notifications and taking back the control of when you choose to respond, it could be the last five minutes of every hour. It could be three or four times a day. But I think you get derailed in doing the work in front of you. And, Tom, I know you've been talking about this a lot. It's about being distraction free and having focus and getting diluted results when you are distraction free. And so I think it goes hand in glove, Jimmy, with what you just said. It's about. It's about choosing the way you want to structure your day, choosing the tasks that you're engaged in to your point, about knowing where your highest and best use is and being focused on those activities and sticking to it and not allowing yourself to get distracted.

Yeah. Mine is also the myth of multitasking. If you. If you Google or go to perplexity or whatever, you search and you type in, can someone multitask? The answer is, there's no such thing. The only thing there is is task switching. So I can switch from this task to that task. Right. And. And the challenge is, if I said to you, can you count? You'd say, of course. I'd say, well, let's time how fast you can count from 1 to 26. Right? And you go, you know, what do you think? 26. And I'm like, oh, 6.46. Right. Then I'd say, do you know the Alphabet? You know the song? And you go, of course. Right? Abcdefg all the way to Z. And most people do it about one second less. And then I say, now go A1, B2, C, 3, D4, E5, G. And the average person around G goes.

And we just did this earlier with all my coaches making the point. And I think it was Renee who was doing it. First of all, I think he finished at, like, Z22. So he missed, like, four numbers, right? And it took him a minute and a half to. And half the crowd was either hooting and hollering or trying to help him get it right. And the point for my friend listening is if you try and do two or three or four things simultaneously. If you actually look at the studies, it tells you two things. First, you're more likely to make 50% or more errors while you're doing the work. And what drives us all nuts is it having to do the work the first time, or is it the second time, the third time, the fourth time? Is it correcting the errors, or is it doing it right the first time? Right. And most of us will say, like, we. We write something. And then I'm like. And then someone will walk by and go, tom, by the way, you misspelled this, you misspelled that. You missed, right? So we're 50% more likely to make more errors. But the frightening part of the study is you are 40% less effective, 40% less effective when you're trying to do this, then that, then this. And let me check my phone and what's going on and what's happening here, and, oh, I need to call Matt. I'm supposed to be writing these handwritten notes or shooting this video, but I'm doing nine other things. So I say what has to be true for me to be more effective in everything I'm doing in 2025, sitting with my friend on the golf course, not on my phone with my wife, hanging out, doing a podcast. What has to be true? I need to be doing one thing. Doing one thing exceptionally well that's in my schedule. Well prepared, focused, and organized. And then switch to the next one. And I have been so guilty of thinking that because my brain works fast and I can do all these things at once. But then I look back and, yeah, I got a lot of stuff done, but it always took me way more time, and it was always a mess.

Not as good. Yeah.

So I guess the thing I would say to my friend listening is the end of task switching is. Is the prune I'm making for 2025.

You know, it's for the audience right now, Tom, I think it's important that they know that you practice what you preach. Because right now, the Rams games on, and you have not looked over once the tv.

I was thinking, the problem is I'm looking at that camera. But it's like. But I know I don't know the score.

I saw his.

Yeah.

If you saw me go like this touchdown, then, yeah, then it would have been bad. Yes. But. But it is true. And for my friend watching, like, hey, if it's time to set appointments. Set appointments.

Yeah.

If it's time for you to get pretty you know, get ready for an appointment. Get ready for an appointment. If it's like the big one for me is if it's time to be with my wife, be with my wife. It's time to be with my sons, be with my sons. Like, that's the thing. And again, I just go back to that. Even. Even if I could be, you know, even if I'm good enough to have less errors, what I know to be true is I. If I can get a lift of 40% more efficiency and do it in less time.

Yeah.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner for me.

Yeah.

Just for me. So. All right. As we wrap up, Matt, it is always a pleasure. Do I owe you money from the golf match?

I bought it. I bought it with me. Yeah.

Okay, good. All right.

The two skins in the end, fast.

Pay makes good friends. All right, so thank you guys so much for being a part of the show. Thank you always. You know how proud I am of you.

Thank you.

I'll see you here next time next year, but I'll see you before then. But this has been a fun thing for us every year.

Yeah, fantastic.

All right. And thank you so much for watching. What are you going to prune? What are you going to prioritize? What are you going to do? How is 2025 going to be your best year ever? Let me know in the notes. See you soon.