The 3 Self-Audit Questions That Will Change Your Future

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How can you build in bright spots no matter what is happening? Because I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but it might be something with your business. It might be that you're having to take care of a sick parent instead of thinking, Why is this happening to me? How did this happen? What did I do to make this happen? You guys, it's not that at all. We get to have the life that we focus on, but you have to create that actively. And we're back with another episode of He Said, She Said.

Okay, before we get started, we're— by the way, we have a great episode about questions you need to be asking yourself to see if you are on track for your goals or not. We're going to actually give you kind of these self-audit questions and they're really good. And I'll tell you where they came from in a minute. But before we do that, we're doing something that we have never ever done before. And really it's Lori doing something that she's never done before. So you guys know that we have Mentor Collective Mastermind for people who have a business up to $500,000 a year. And then you know that we have Elite Level Mastermind which is for everyone that has typically a 7 or 8 figure business. You know that once in a while I take on one-on-one clients for working with you side by side, locking arms for 6 months or a year, and being able to redesign your business, connect you to people you need to be connected to, etc. But Lori has never ever been a part of one-on-one consulting, one-on-one coaching. And she could— well, I don't want to put the words in your mouth, but you can't even mean— you're like, I'm kind of getting the bug to do it.

Well, I've had a few people just ask me if I do coaching. And here's the thing, is that, Chris, you have always handled like the really clear strategy so well that I've always been like, well, he's really the strategist, but I am such an ideator. Like the amount of vision and ideation that I have, especially for other people's businesses, is a gift. Like I am super aware that it's a very clear gift that I get downloaded with lots of ideas, lots of vision for people. And I also know that I'm really incredible at clearing up the fear for people and showing them how important it is to go for those big things and take those risks. And so, and also just helping people with risk assessment is huge for me. So with that said, um, I'm very excited because I'll be coaching with you.

Yep.

So we will have both strategy with creative ideation, and together I think that that just makes this perfect power duo of getting somebody to their goals in a really big way.

Literally the best of both worlds. But couple caveats here. We're only doing it for one person or one couple. That's it. This is not like some big thing that we're doing going forward. So one person or one couple that has a really awesome business. Your business must be already earning over $500,000 a year and you wanna get to 7 or 8 figures. That's kind of like a real sweet spot that we can crush. The last thing is the investment is not for the faint of heart, but the ROI is absolutely insane. When you get Lori's skill sets and connections and my strategy skill sets and connections, I literally can't think of a better combo to lock arms for 6 months or a year. So we gonna do this thing, but it's going to be very much a we love you, you love us, perfect fit kind of thing. So listen, if you want to do this, go to chrishutter.me/coaching and fill out the real quick application, and we'll chat to see if it's a good fit. Again, that is chrishutter.me, M-E, /coaching. chrishutter.me/coaching. Coaching, one-on-one, I guess we should say two-on-one coaching with one person or one couple that has a business already over $500,000 a year in earnings that wants to get to 7 or 8 figures. I'm really excited to do this with you. It's pretty—

yeah, I can't wait.

Okay, so this is related. I was listening to a podcast today and while I was working out, and it's the All In podcast. It's like my favorite podcast out there. And they had Mark Benioff on. As their guest. Mark Benioff, if you guys don't know, is the founder of Salesforce. And if you don't know what Salesforce is, then might as well just hit end on the podcast right now. It's literally the biggest software company in the United States. Hands down.

I didn't know what it was.

Are you being serious?

I'm being serious.

My gosh.

I just made somebody feel better.

Okay. Well, anyhow, imagine owning the biggest software company in the United States. That's Mark Benioff. It's called Salesforce.

Okay.

All right. Now, he was asked on there, like, what made a difference in the most important, like, little crux in your career when, when you were stuck, when you were trying to get this thing off the ground? He said, hands down, Tony Robbins. And they pushed him. They said, well, what do you mean? Like, we always hear Tony does special things. You own the biggest software company in the world. Like, what did he actually do for you, or is it just all hype? And he said, Tony sat me down and he looked me in the eyes and he asked me if the The quality of the questions I'm asking myself are leading towards the future that I want for me and my business. Mm-hmm. And he said a simple question and then making me answer it to him and then us diving deep on that changed my life forever. And Salesforce wouldn't exist without working with Tony. Wow. That's what he said. He said Salesforce, now the biggest software company in, in the United States, wouldn't exist.

Wow.

If I hadn't hired Tony. And I was like, holy crap. It was all about the quality of the questions that Tony made him ask himself. Now, you and I, we do a pretty good job of asking ourselves questions. I've even done some podcast episodes lately on my solos about little self-audits I've been doing, and then I kind of do 'em out loud and I share my results and I give people the questions to audit themselves. But we have 3 questions that really, you may or may not wanna ask yourself, to be honest, that really back up the idea that the quality of your questions will determine the quality of your life and your business. So we're gonna share each one of those. Lori, I'm gonna tee 'em up and I want you to kind of share a little bit about each one. Is that fair?

Sure.

Okay. So for all of you listening, the first question that I dare you to ask yourself is this: if somebody audited my daily routine for a week, would they believe that I am doing what it takes to hit the big goals that I profess that I want?

Hmm.

Let me repeat this one. If somebody audited my daily routine for one week, would they believe that I'm doing what it takes to hit my goals? And I gotta be honest, if someone like Tony looked me in the eye and asked me this, some weeks I'd pass with flying colors. And there was a lot of times where a lot of weeks I was lying to myself and I wouldn't.

Mm-hmm.

And so having this check-in and asking yourself this question really objectively, or having someone ask this of you, It's really powerful.

Oh my goodness, I, I feel like this makes me really think about— if it's not on your calendar, it's not happening. And also, if I looked at your calendar, what would I be able to tell you about you? And so I'm even thinking about my calendar, and there's definitely some glaring holes in there around some things that I want to be doing. And I think that If we ask ourselves this, even in a journal, like if this is a journal exercise, maybe once a week or on a Monday, this would be huge moving you forward. Like, I know that this concept is not original, and I know that I have done this in my life before, but man, it might be one of the single most effective exercises is asking yourself, is your calendar reflecting what you actually want and what would need to be on there If it's not.

Yep. So if you looked at my calendar tomorrow, literally just coincidence, right? 7 o'clock in the morning. What's the first thing on there? A Frello meeting.

Mm-hmm.

Because Frello right now is the most important business in my life. Then the gym. It's literally on my calendar. Yeah. Because what you guys don't lay down on your calendar won't happen. Period. I don't care what you don't lay down on your calendar first is not a priority to you.

Mm-hmm.

Right? What you do lie down on your calendar first is a priority. So tomorrow it's 7 o'clock in the morning, a Fellow meeting with a mentor, by the way. So Fellow and our mentor. Second thing, going to the gym. Third thing, a business lunch with a friend that we may be starting a business with together. Hmm. Those are the first 3 things of my day. That shows you where my head is at. That shows you what's important to me. Now, are there other things I'm, yeah, plenty of other things, but the first things you lay down on your calendar will indicate what your future looks like. Or as I phrased the question, the first things that you lay down on your calendar or into your daily routine is either going to make someone believe that you're doing what it takes to hit your goals, or you're not. Mhm.

I mean, you know, I think when you are in a big growth phase and you want to be moving forward, like, you're going to look at our weekend calendar and it's busy. We have calls on there for the weekend and I really don't know anybody who has not had those rocket ship moments without having a really busy calendar and things in places that you don't necessarily want. Like, I was just thinking about, Chris, how we used to tell people all the time, like, you know, you don't take a meeting like before 11:00 AM.

Yep.

And now I do.

And now I'm taking meetings all the time. But what I wanna clarify around that is that it hasn't been at the detriment of your health or your workouts. And that's what we used to believe is like, nope, that time in the morning is all for us. You know, this is like making sure that you're caught up and getting all the things done that you need to get done. But now a lot of those meetings are things that absolutely need to get done in the morning because your team is all over the place or because they're high priority and we know that they need to get done right away. But we've made sure to keep the most important things in the calendar as well.

Yeah, because the filling my own cup is also one of the first two things on the calendar in the morning, right? 7 o'clock meeting and then 8 o'clock going to the gym. So what you lay down on your calendar will show where your priorities are.

I think it's just, it's a Tetris puzzle piece of figuring out what's gonna go where as you get busier and as you start, you know, moving through, working towards creating a life of your dreams. It's not always gonna look how you want it. It, it's not always gonna feel perfect, but I think that you definitely, if you prioritize the things that are really important to you, you're gonna find space for it.

Yep. Amen. Okay. Second question. Ready for this one? Am I doing the work that leads to an exciting future, or am I doing the work because it's simply become habit?

Oh man. Okay, this one's huge because you can start to get to a place where you are busy and that can feel like productivity, or you're like, I'm so busy but nothing is moving forward. I think this is a really huge question to ask because it is quite possibly the easiest thing to be doing things that don't move the needle, but truly feel like you're exhausted, you're busy, and you can't do another thing. And I think that when you're moving from busy work to work that moves the needle, this is gonna be one of the most challenging things that you've ever done because it's gonna require you to be a different person and probably do completely different things and get access to or hire new people to do the other work? And this is like literally changing your identity with this question.

My brother has a reminder that pops up, uh, like one of these first-place reminders that pops up on your phone 4 times a day, every single day, and it says, am I being productive or am I being busy? And that really fits the spirit of this question. But really, the spirit of this question is, are you dictating what you do each day to build an exciting future Or are you just doing stuff because it's become default or habit? Like, are you choosing your daily activities or are you reacting to the world around you? And I know you're like, you don't get it. I have to, I've got kids, I've got this, I've got that. But the problem is if you are not choosing what's on your calendar, there's always some flexibility. There's always some things you don't wanna do, trust me. But if you don't have a spirit of choosing what's on your calendar, you are certainly not choosing your, your, your future and it's not gonna be an exciting one. So. I dare you to ask yourself this question: am I doing work that leads to an exciting future, or am I doing work because it's simply become habit? Okay, the third one: if I died tomorrow, would my friends and family say that I was living a life that made me happy? If I— I think this is the most important one you can ask yourself. I'm not kidding. Like, if not to be happy What is the purpose of living if not to create experience? What is the purpose of living if not to have plenty of bright spots throughout a day, a week, a month, a year? What is the purpose of living? Now, we all have tough chapters, tough seasons, tough everything. You and I are going through shit seasons the past couple of years, it feels like. Yet I can answer. If I died tomorrow, would my friends and family say that I was living a life that made me happy? The answer would be yes. So you have to stop and reflect on yourself, and this is where you may not like the answer, but guess what? The first step is awareness. The second step is change. The first step is awareness. The second step is change. So if you died tomorrow, would your friends and family standing up there at your funeral, I know, kind of grim. Say, I'm so proud of so-and-so because I know that he, I know that she was living a life that made them happy when this thing happened. You know, when my dad passed away way too early, unexpectedly, at 72 years old, he passed away at 9 in the morning on the dock at his lake house where he was so working on the boat, by the way. Where there was nothing on the planet that made that man happier than being on the water and working on something mechanically, preferably a boat. Mm-hmm. He worked on boats his whole career. He worked on boats his whole life, building big ships. This man loved being up early.

Mm-hmm.

Working on something, tinkering early, and being on the water. And so he fell over with a, you know, widowmaker heart attack, unfortunately. Doing what he loved, literally in a moment that he was, I'm guessing, happy as a pig in shit.

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Yeah, this makes me just think about the bright spots that you said because I am in a challenge season right now.

Yes, you are.

While simultaneously understanding that I have a lot to be grateful for. But sometimes when you are in the challenge, you can't see it. Like you just really— you're inside of the bottle trying to read the label. And that is a really tough thing. And so I think something that really resonated for me that you had said is building the bright spots. And I'm really working to do that because I've had a lot of people recently tell me when they were struggling or their companies were struggling or going through a major challenge, they were like, look, like, you still have a life. You still have people to care about. You still have people that care for you. Like, you cannot wrap your whole identity around a thing that is happening. And if we are to do that, we will probably always be wrapping our identity around some form of problem that's going on because Life is full of them. That's all it is. Joy and pain and problems exist all on the same two-lane highway. And so I think for me, I'm working really hard to also build in the bright spots and not attach identity to things that are going on or happening that feel completely out of my control. Because if you do that, it's just you're, you number one, will not get the energy or the creative thoughts to get out of the situation. And you will not, you know, your, your whole life could be one problem after another if that's how you're gonna perceive it. So how can you build in bright spots no matter what is happening? Because I don't know what's going on in your life right now, but it might be something with your business. It might be that you're having to take care of a sick parent or a sick child, or maybe you have a child with special needs and all of a sudden you do have to think about your life in a way of how do I really look at the bright spots rather than what does look and feel like a large challenge in my life instead of thinking, why is this happening to me? How did this happen? What did I do to make this happen? You guys, it's not that at all. It's literally that life is just full of challenges and that we get to have the life that we focus on. And so the bright spots are going to be the thing that are going to make you realize that you do have a life full of good things, but you have to create that actively.

Yeah, I, I couldn't agree with you more. I think you said it super well, and I'm going to go back and use my dad's example one more time. He's the happiest guy I knew. And it's not that he was always doing happy things. This is what I want people to get. He wasn't always doing happy things. He was finding happiness in the things he had to do.

Hmm.

He found happiness in his morning cup of coffee. That's typically enjoyable for people. But then when he had to go do an oil change on the car, cuz that saved money versus having someone else do it. That's not a happy task, but he found happiness in getting underneath the car and doing the oil change. Yep. He'd put on the music. I call it Saturday music. It's all that '80s yacht rock that I love now, you know, because it's nostalgic. He'd turn on the music. He'd have the garage door open. The car would be up on ramps. He'd be underneath there getting dirty, changing oil on the car. And then he had to mow the lawn. But he found joy in mowing the lawn. He would always talk about, ah, out to get my exercise. And he'd put on his old school headphones with the little fuzzy things, right? Yeah. And he saw it as a chance to listen to music. His Walkman. With a cassette tape in it, and you'd see it as getting exercise, but it was really mowing the lawn. Most people don't like mowing the lawn. Then he'd have to fix something in the house for my mom. He, there's always something broken in the damn house and he'd have to come in and fix it, but he'd find joy in doing the things that are not typically joyful. And that's the message I want you to get, guys, is this question of if I died tomorrow, would my friends and family say that I was living a life that made me happy? It doesn't mean you get to do everything that's a happy thing to do. It means you're finding joy in doing things even if they're not joyful things to do. Mm-hmm. And that is a superpower to be able to build. So these are the 3 questions, guys. The quality of your questions will determine the quality of your life and your business. So I want you to ask yourself these 3 questions. I want you to be honest, or I want you to hire a mentor to go through these with you. Number 1, if somebody audited my daily routine for 1 week, would they believe that I am doing what it takes to hit my big goals? Number 2, am I doing work that leads to an exciting future or am I doing work because it has simply become habit?

Mm-hmm.

And number 3, if I died tomorrow, would my friends and family say that I was living a life that made me happy? So good. And if you want help with this, for the first time ever in history, Lori is gonna work with you one-on-one. Lori and I together, you get 2 for the price of 1. Again, that's crazy. It's nuts. So go to chrisharder.me. Coaching and fill out that app. We'll see if we're a perfect fit for each other. It only works for a perfect fit for each other. ChrisHarder.me/coaching. Can't wait.

All right, you guys, we will talk to you next week. Bye everyone.

Bye guys.