Kenny Chapman shares how a ransomware attack shut down his computer, forcing him to pivot to studio work instead. He recommends focusing on what you can control and sticking to three weekly priorities so disruptions don't derail your core goals.
Hey, everybody, Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach, coming to you with this week's video version of Freedom Friday Focus. Now, this week I'm talking about productivity. And I've got kind of a fun story because in our weekly mastermind coaching group, the group of contractors that we coach each and every week in productivity and profitability, I was teaching a concept and a process about remaining focused in the spite of challenges in the things that happen on a daily basis. We run these progressive service companies, we've got our day planned out and everything's going to go great. And then, boom, something happens, something changes. Well, I get off the phone from that call and I realize that I was infected with a new ransomware virus that locked up all my computer, everything in there. I can't use it. All of a sudden, I'm dead electronically. Now. Catch your breath. I know that gives most of us anxiety when we even think about that, right? But now what do you do? How do you handle it? These are things that it might not be a computer. It might be a team member, it might be a vendor, it might be a client, it might be whatever it is that comes up and just takes your legs out from under you and challenges you for the day. So for me, all of a sudden I realized, you know, I've got to pay these people $750 of ransom in order to get a decryption software. No, I'm not doing that. So I work with my IT team. They're wiping my computer totally clean. We've got to start over. All the things that. Not what I wanted to do, not what I chose to do, not what I thought I was going to do, not what I had planned to do that day because I had a very full day booked of computer type work. Now that's out of my hands. So what do I focus on? I've got to focus on what I can control. I've got to let go of what I can't control. So the only thing I can do is get productive with tasks that aren't electronic. So immediately I shift gears. What do I need to do that's not tied to my computer? Hey, I've got studio work that I need to do in my new studio at the new home office. I've got a lot of office work that I've been needing to work through and get cleaned up on. I've got a lot of things that. Okay. It wasn't at the top of my priority at the beginning of that day, but as my day unfolded, I had to continue to reinvent. Now I'm going to have my top three for the week. I'm still going to get my top three done. As I advocate you start a week only have three big rocks. We're going to do a lot more things. Those three are still going to get done. But it's about productivity. No matter what, when you focus on it, it's going to happen. So be mindful of that. Don't get thrown off track. Before that would have cost me two or three days of productivity and fall into poor me and why me and how did this happen. None of that's going to serve anybody. Get productive no matter what. I'm Kenny Chapman, the blue collar coach. Until we talk again, have a better than fantastic day and I'll see you next time.
