99% of Your Business' Problems Can Be Solved By Working Harder

My question is really around bottleneck analysis and working on the right thing with extra time or extra— what do they call it— discretionary effort that I have. And so basically things feel a little chaotic and I just don't always feel like I can handle the current workload. And so I'm basically wondering, is our leads still the bottleneck or do I— is it okay if I keep the, keep the tap going for lead generation, not turning that off completely, but basically taking a little time to like clean things up, like tune up the systems, make sure that I'm properly like I'm able to meet all the things that I'm I've promised the clients.

Yeah, I mean, the short answer is yes. I guess my clarifying question to you is like, what's the question below the question? Like, what makes you unsure of whether that's the right or wrong thing to do?

I think it's sometimes easy to get caught up in feelings. Like, I feel like I should do this, when I've thought that in the past as well. And I was glad that I kept like really pushing the gas for lead generation. And sometimes, you know what they say, like the task sort of expands the time you give it. So, and it's also just who am I comparing myself to? So if I compare myself to you guys, I know you guys have really high expectations for capacity, like what can we actually accomplish within a certain amount of time. If I compare myself to the Hormozes, that's like, you know, they're just like, work more, work all the time and just, you know, do more Legion and do more client work and like, it'll all just make it happen. So I guess I've just found like I can't force myself to work all the time. Like I don't want to, I don't enjoy it. And so, you know, is it okay to basically say I have, I have these 4 client slots right now. I don't actually really have the capacity to take on another client with the current number of hours that I'm working. Um, yeah. So it's, yeah, maybe it's a permission question, but I don't want to sell myself short and just say, oh, well, that's, that's all I can actually do when maybe it's the wrong thing to focus on at this point.

Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people here resonate with it. Maybe drop in the chat if that's you. This is, this is what makes business both such a fun game and such a difficult game is the fact that there never is just one right answer and that, um, oftentimes the right answer means being able to hold multiple things that contradict each other at the same time. So what I mean by that is, is the answer, um, can and should you work harder? Maybe. But is the answer also you're working really hard and maybe where you're at, working harder isn't necessarily the the next right decision. Maybe you need to kind of pause and clean things up, and that's what unlocks the next thing. I literally just said two things that are opposite to each other, and both are true. You know, like, if you work harder and push harder, like, yeah, you will probably increase capacity more and achieve more. And yet that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the only right answer or the right answer. And so this, this is why the game of business is so challenging is because you have to sit with multiple right answers. And then ultimately, the only true right answer is what is the thing that is in your personal best interest? You know, like, I like working 7 days a week. Like, I like working really, really hard. You know, I don't think that everyone has to do that. I don't think everyone has to like that. And so the right answer for you is going to be different than the right answer for someone else, where maybe as you've pushed capacity, you realize, you know what, 3 clients, $10,000 a month, I'm living the dream. I'm happy. That's all I need, you know, and that's totally fine. And I think you can give yourself permission to do that. The, the other way of thinking about something like this is And I'm going to say something that requires everyone here to be able to hold two contradictory thoughts at the exact same time. Okay. So there's a big asterisk next to what I'm about to say. Working harder and deploying more volume in anything is almost always the easiest right answer. Just work harder. And the reason that's the easiest right answer is because it is the simplest and it is also the thing that is probably true for the most people in the world, because most people, I think, have not really pushed their capacity. And Rebecca, you've been in PGA for long enough to know, like, you've gone through multiple periods of like, I'm working as hard as I can. And then you push past it. You're like, wait, no, actually, this is as hard as I can. And then you do. And then wait, no, this is as hard as I can. Right. So I think that's what makes it such a simple answer. Because most people aren't pushing to even the first barrier of capacity. At the same time though, when you start confronting friction in your business or when you start feeling like I don't have enough hours in the day or work is bleeding into the weekend or you're feeling like, oh, I'm hitting the ceiling of my capacity, the complete opposite thing is also true, which is working harder isn't actually the solution. And what I mean by that is like there's something about the vehicle that you're in, meaning like the way that you work with clients, your processes, your schedule, your, you know, like we'll just call that the vehicle. There's something about that vehicle that isn't as efficient as it could be. And so until you fix that, what's sort of happening is it's sort of like driving a car that, yeah, it works, but there's like a bunch of gasoline like dripping out of the bottom pipe, right? And so like the car is like, it'll get you to the destination, but that doesn't mean that it's like fully maximizing its miles per gallon, right? And so when you reach that point, when you reach that feeling, it does become more of a game of wait, Let me pause. Let me fix the dripping gasoline in my pipe and then let me work harder again because then you actually get more out of your effort. Does that make sense?

Yeah, the gasoline example is very visceral. I think I heard you had a recent video maybe I was watching where you were saying like one benchmark or like rule of thumb to use is like every time you double your business, it's a good time to clean things up. And I realized that was what happened because I, I was making like $50,000 a year, like kind of in freelance content writing, doing a little of this, a little of that. And then last year I did $100K, and now I'm like a little beyond that as well. So like if I'm on track now, if I just keep the current clients, I'll be at like 150 for this year. So maybe that's why it feels like, all right, there's a, there's a lot of chaos that I need to clean up if, and no one's really complaining, but I feel it.

Yeah.

And so that's why, that's why it's like, okay, well, so far no one's really complaining or no one is saying, hey, why didn't you give that to me yesterday? You know, no one's saying that, but I feel it. So that's where, that's where I, I, I don't want to focus on something that's not actually the problem, but I do see that if I just keep going like I'm going now, I don't— I'm not going to ever take the time to clean up these systems unless I like make it a priority.

Yeah, I think, I think a good for you and for everyone here, a good way of figuring out what is the real problem and what do I actually need to solve for. A quick little exercise that I like doing is I like taking my current situation and multiplying it by 10 and asking what would need to change. So if overnight tomorrow you went from 4 clients to 40 clients, what would happen? Well, like immediately your brain is probably like, well, everything about my model would break, right? Like you would have no, you would have no life. It would be unsustainable. You wouldn't do it. There's no way you can make all those clients happy, right? And so the reason I like multiplying by 10 is because it very quickly reveals like, what are all the things that break? What are all the things that, that, that if you were to increase capacity that much, you would realize like, okay, the system over here doesn't support that. The system here doesn't support that. Right? And so whether or not you wanted to 10x your business is like besides the point. The point of the thought exercise is to reveal and validate to you it kind of doesn't matter if you go from 4 clients to 40 clients or if you go from 4 clients to 8 clients. Like we're just starting with a, larger extreme, but even a double, right, is like all your, all your systems would break. You wouldn't be able to handle 8 clients as it currently is. And so I like going to the extreme and then kind of going backwards and going, okay, at 10x it breaks, at 5x it still breaks, at 2x it still breaks, maybe even at like 0.5x it still breaks, right? And so if that's true, then it— then you can ask the follow-up question of Okay, so what are the things that broke? And that's where you start to build your list of those are the things to improve, right? Like, okay, what broke? I don't have a great way of managing like the calendars and different schedules of each client. Alright, well, you should probably build that, right? Because if you go down the list and do all of the little things that break, then suddenly your vehicle changes and you do have the capacity. Or if you wanted to, you could grow to 8 clients, you know. So I like, I like using that as the thought exercise. And your list of what to focus on is really just where are you trying to get to? What are all the things that break? And then, yeah, absolutely. Like, take the time to fix the things that break. If you don't want to grow at all beyond this, then it kind of is the same thought exercise. It just, it just is how do I build things that allow me to reclaim time? It's not about taking on more clients. It's not about making more money. It's like, I'm happy. Just how do I do things that reclaim more of my time? Makes sense?

Yeah, makes a lot of sense. And I guess maybe the last question on this thread would be how to set guardrails for myself. To be like, all right, this is good enough. Like, I can keep iterating on this and I should, but at some point I need to get back to just really focusing on outreach and sales. Is it like, so for example, I heard, um, Dickie has some good content around like bottleneck analysis and like identifying the most important thing to focus on. So is it like I identify these 3 things. If I can fix these 3 things, I can move on. Basically, I just don't want to be in the, the iterating forever and not going back to adding more.

Yeah. So the good news is everything that we talk about in PGA, it's worth remembering and internalizing that this is a very simple business. Like, I work for myself as a ghostwriter is about as simple of a business as you can have. You're not managing inventory, warehouses, you know, landed costs, shipping. Like, there are so many things in business that you do not even have to worry about or think about, which means the bottleneck analysis is really only a small handful of options. And almost always it just comes down to one single variable, which is do you want to make more money or are you making less money? Meaning if you have 2 clients, what's the bottleneck? Well, you should probably get to 4 or 5. If you have 4 or 5 clients, what's the bottleneck? Well, it's probably something with systems. Reclaim some time because that's either going to make your life better or it's going to increase the capacity for you to grow more. If you have 3 clients, you're right in the middle. It's like, well, neither one is right and neither one is wrong. You could go fill 2 more client slots, make a little bit more money, just work harder. Or you're like, okay, you're not, you're not like bleeding money, you know, but you're also not like maxed out on capacity. If you want to clean up processes, you can. Oh, a client turned, you're back down to 2 clients. What's the bottleneck? You should probably get back to 3. right? Like it is a very simple equation. And so I wouldn't, I wouldn't overthink it. It just like the capacity is 5, you have 4, you're feeling stressed. What's the bottleneck? Let's not feel as stressed. Let's improve systems. 2 clients churn, you go down to 2 clients. What's the bottleneck? Now is probably not the time to sit there and tweak systems. Let's go get back to 3 or 4 clients, right? Like just not, not making it about some bigger thing.

Okay, that's good. Good to hear.

Does that make sense?

All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes sense. Um, I know I'm overcomplicating it. I just, you know, it's like never been at this point in the business before, so it feels difficult, but that's because I haven't done it before.

Exactly. And I, I want to reinforce for you and for everyone, like, this, this is what makes it such an infinite game, because when, when you were you know, making $50K a year, you were like, I can't even fathom making $100K a year. Oh, I would love to have those problems, you know? And then you get there and you're like, wait a second, these— the problems that I wished I'd had, I now have, and they're just as hard to solve. They're just different. And then you solve them and now you're beyond them. And now, you know, you've grown a little bit beyond that. And like, Everyone thinks that it gets, quote unquote, easier, and it does because you build more skills and you become more proficient. But the problems never really go away. You're just trading one problem for the next problem. And the same way that a beginner is uncertain, if you skip forward 10 steps, that person is still uncertain about step 11. The uncertainty never goes away. The problems never go away. You just, you just become more resilient and more equipped. To solve them. And so, the mental reframe is like, as this goes on, you're never going to reach a point where you're like, "Oh, all of a sudden I've crossed this threshold and I have no more problems and everything's easy." You just adopt more and more of a mindset of like, "Oh, here's the next problem. How exciting. Because I know I've already solved the problem at each level before this. So here's the next one. What do we have to do?" And so you're doing it. It's not You know, you don't have to make it a bigger issue than it, than it is. Hey, by the way, if you're brand new to the world of ghostwriting, maybe you've heard the term but aren't really sure what it is or how it's different from copywriting or content writing, check out premiumghostwritingblueprint.com. It's in the description below. Okay, this is a free masterclass that I've put together for writers who want to monetize their skills and love for writing with ghostwriting. This is what I did, and ghostwriting completely changed my life. It's how I quit my job. It's how I quadrupled the amount of money I was making. It's how I've gotten to work with so many smart, amazing amazing people, but also have time for my own writing, like writing this book, The Art and Business of Ghostwriting. Anyways, check it out. If you're at all interested in making money from your writing, I would really encourage you to get into ghostwriting, and this free premium ghostwriting blueprint in the description below is the best place to start.