Run Your Business So Fast It Feels Illegal

I used to work 12-hour days, 6 to 7 days a week for nearly a decade. Today, I run my business in about 4 hours a day with more output and triple the revenue. So how is that possible? I'm going to break it all down in today's episode. I'm going to show you exactly what I had to build to make this possible, what I had to let go, and what my day actually looks like every single day. I'm also going to share the honest truth about who this works for. And who does it? Before I get into the how, I got to give you the foundational idea that really is the takeaway of today's episode, because without this, none of the tactics will matter or work. The reason I can run my business in just 4 hours a day is simple. My only job is to deliver my secret sauce. That's it. Every business has a secret sauce, has something that makes it work. That one thing, that one skill, that one contribution is the one output that only you can provide. That's your secret sauce. For me, it's teaching, communication, sharing my experiences in a way that connects and creates value for the audience here on the podcast, in my courses, in my events, on stage. That's what I do. That's my secret sauce. Everything else, the publishing, the scheduling, the shooting, the editing, the marketing, the paying the bills, the payroll, all that stuff, right? Doesn't require me or my secret sauce. My job is to provide that, the content. The system that we've built around that handles everything else. Here is where most entrepreneurs get stuck. This is where they just don't get it and aren't able to get out of the rat race. They are doing everything. They're doing the secret sauce and they're doing everything around it. The editor, the scheduler, they're being their own EA, they're being the customer support agent, They're being the bookkeeper, they're being the social media manager, they're doing everything. And as long as that is true, as long as you're doing things that don't require your specific contribution, you will never get your time back. That's just the truth. Just admit it and accept it because that's the first step of getting out of that situation. Because just to break it down, you're not just doing your job, you're doing 5 other people's jobs at the same time. The path to 4 hours a day is not working less. It's relentlessly eliminating everything that is not your secret sauce. And I'm going to tell you, it takes a little work to do this because first, you have to change the way you behave. But two, you need to hire people, train them, take that off your plate. Next thing, what else is on my plate? Hire somebody, train them, get that off my plate. It's a process until all there's left is that one thing that you do best. Now, I know some of you are thinking this in your head. Omar Zenhom, that sounds great for you, but I can't afford to hire anyone else to take the things off my plate. And I want to talk directly to these people. The person that just said that in their head. OK, if that's you, listen up, because that's the crux of everything. If you can't afford to make the hires that would free you up and your time, you may have a business model problem. This is something that you have to just recognize, because once you recognize it, you can fix it and you can get out of the situation. What do I mean by a business model problem? Well, it probably means your margins are quite thin, like your margins are 20%. If you are keeping 20% of every dollar you make, it's very, very hard. I would say nearly impossible to reinvest in your business, in people, in systems that will allow you to step back and start working less hours and just focusing on your secret sauce. You should be targeting at least 60% margins. 70% is even better. 80% is even better. 90%. Now you're talking. And with technology and the tools available today with AI, this is more achievable than ever. And here's the flywheel that starts to happen when you get the economics right in your business. When you start making enough margins, you make enough profit to hire out the things that are bogging you down and those things are off your plate and now you can move your time and energy to focus on your secret sauce will allow the business to make more money because you have value to offer the world. And get this, your secret sauce gets better because you are working and spending time on that secret sauce. The quality of your decisions improve, which is huge, by the way, because as your business starts to grow and scale, This is the biggest lever that you can pull that can give you the most leverage. The better decisions you make, the more impact you'll make on your business. And this is how your business grows without feeling laborious, without feeling like a chore. You start generating more profit, which funds more hires, which frees more time, which makes your secret sauce better again. And it compounds over and over and over. But here's the thing. This is the reality. This is the truth that I want to give you in your face right now. Okay? It only starts when the margins are right. So before you ask, how do I run my business in 4 hours a day like you, Omar Zenhom, ask yourself if your business model actually supports it, if you have the margins for it. Because if your margins are 20%, 30%, the amount of volume you have to have in order for you to be able to outsource and grow your team and start taking things off your plate is very, very challenging. So instead of trying to climb this incredible hard, high mountain, just go up a hill by having higher margins. Make it easy on yourself. I want to get really specific because I think specificity is more useful than theory. OK, most of my days are built around one thing: shooting episodes, doing what I'm doing right now in this episode. Not every day, but most days involve content in some form. This is what I do most of the time. Now, there's going to be some one-off days that I do something else, where I have to attend a meeting or I have to do an orientation or help somebody as they're joining the team. But most of the time I am doing content. This means I'm shooting episodes, I'm doing ideation for content ideas with my team, I'm contributing to the script process. Even scripting is something that I'm actually moving away from more and more as the days go on. I'm just now refining the script to make sure it's in my voice, but I contribute my ideas in the beginning, in the ideation phase, so that it's written properly. By the way, I'm not reinventing the wheel. All the best shows, all the best programs that you've seen on Netflix or on TV, they have a team of scriptwriters, and then the talent goes and adds their nuances on it, and then they deliver their show. Whether it's, you know, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, or even some of your favorite reality shows, it doesn't really matter. Okay? It all starts with a great script and it requires a team of people to create a great script. But as you could see, my main job is what I'm doing right now, delivering the content, not the full production. Outside of that, that's just not my job. There's other people that are going to edit, that are gonna shoot, they're gonna process it, that are gonna post this stuff on the social media platforms, YouTube, uh, podcast platforms, whatever it might be. So what do I do outside of the content? Well, basically my job as the CEO of the company is to make high-level decisions. The other thing as a leader that's important is self-improvement. You have to invest in getting better so that you can make, guess what? Better decisions. Whether that's reading or taking courses or going to conferences or going to a networking event and learning from other people. And in my opinion, this self-improvement part is not optional, okay? It's part of the job because if I don't get better, I can't move with the market. I can't make the right decisions for my business. I'm doing a disservice to my team and the customers and everyone in between. Investing in myself is investing in the business. But to be clear, everything else from publishing to admin to customer support to finances, from handling the team day-to-day systems, this is not my job. And it took me years to get to this point because I was resisting. I wanted to have my hands on everything. But then I realized that maybe I'm not the best person to do this. Maybe I'm best to serve my company by just focusing on my secret sauce. And once I started doing that, things started to grow. Things started to change, and I had a better life. And guess what? The rest of the day is mine. I have 20 hours left after those 4 hours, right? I got to sleep and eat, of course, but plenty of time to enjoy. I want to be honest. About something that's very important. A 4-hour day does not happen by deciding to work less. There's an infrastructure you need to build to make sure that it supports that, that nothing falls in the cracks because you haven't thought of it or you just let go of it. This is why you gotta make sure that not only you hiring people, but you're also using technology, you're using systems, you're using things that will automate the process to make sure that nothing's left behind. So number one, Like I mentioned, you need to leverage technology, but most important, people that can take things off your plate. Every hire you make that takes something off your plate is buying back a piece of your time permanently for the long term. This is not an expense. This is one of the best investments you'll ever make. Number 2, systems. People think because I publish 3 episodes a week, I must be recording 3 episodes a week. No. If I did that, I could never take a day off. You know, if I get sick, I wouldn't be able to, you know, publish a show. I wouldn't be able to take a holiday. No, we batch. We actually shoot about 6 episodes a week. This means 2 days of shooting, maybe 2 to 3 episodes each day. We're about 6 to 8 weeks ahead when I go on holiday. That way, when I'm going on holiday, I don't have an anxiety attack that, you know, we're not going to publish on time. No, everything has a system. And this is just an example of one of our systems. We don't revisit the content calendar every day or every week. We batch that as well. That's a system. So we come up with all the ideas for the episodes for the next quarter, and we nail those ideas. We come up with titles, we fill the show sheet. So we understand the show sheet is like a spreadsheet basically that has all the content for the next quarter, the next 3 months. Number 3, margins. We talked about this extensively, but your 4-Hour Day is funded by the business. OK? You need enough profit to hire the people and build the systems that make it possible. This is not a tactics problem. This is an economic problem. You need to look at the economics of your business and make sure you're holding on to enough cash after everything is said and done. Profit. If you fix the economics of your business, it's very hard for you to fail. Everything else follows. Hey, if this episode is resonating with you, if you feel like you're getting a ton out of it, I highly recommend you subscribe. I'm actually working on a new episode that's coming out soon, so I want you to subscribe so you don't miss it. And it's called What to Do When Your Business is Slow. When things are slow and things are not moving along, how do you kickstart it again? How do you get things going so that things are on the up and up? Well, subscribe to the podcast on whatever app you're on right now so that you get that episode as soon as it drops. Now we're going to get a little uncomfortable, okay? Because the 3 things I just described to you are, you know, somewhat tactical, strategic, And most entrepreneurs understand that, but they struggle when it comes to the psychology of it. And I tell people I run my business about 4 hours a day. They respond in almost the same exact way. They all say, "That sounds amazing. I would love to do that." And they just go back to checking Slack every 20 minutes or their email or their inbox or whatever it might be. And here's the truth. Most entrepreneurs don't work long hours because they have to. They work long hours because it's comfortable. Because they wear busy as a badge. Because they feel like they're being productive. Because they feel like they're doing the right thing for their business by just being busy. Because if they say, "Hey, if I stop working, you know, 8, 10 hours a day, what am I going to do with my time?" That actually is a discomfort. People don't know what to do themselves. I know a lot of people that sold their business. I'm actually a part of a big group called the Post-Exit Founders, and all these people, have this problem. They've sold their business. They have all this time in the world and they don't know what to do. And they kind of get into trouble because they have a little bit of an uncomfortable feeling of like, I'm used to being super busy and now I have all this time on my hands and I don't even know who I am anymore. And this is like a smaller version of that where you're cutting back a few hours a day and you're getting a little bit anxiety. Like, what am I going to do with these hours? What do I, do I go for a walk? I don't have any hobbies. I don't understand what to do with free time. And here's the truth. The reason why I can work 4 hours a day has a lot to do with one word: focus. When I work, I work. I do not like to do anything else. I don't like to jump in and out of personal stuff or looking at things I want to buy, online shopping or plan a trip. No, that stuff is done outside the 4 hours because that kind of muddies the water and extends the day for no reason. What I like to do is I just like to focus on the task at hand, the things I need to get done today. I get them done as soon as possible after breakfast, and then the rest of the day is mine. If I want to doomscroll, if I want to go play poker, if I want to go play basketball with my friends, I can do it. And I actually enjoy my free time because I didn't just dabble and kind of waste time while I was working. If you actually tracked how much time you're wasting in between tasks, doing some personal stuff or just kind of looking on social or kind of wasting, you'll realize that you're actually spending hours doing pretty much no work. So be mindful of that and be honest about that. Now, in my opinion, the goal for every entrepreneur is to have a business that runs itself, that you can go away for 6 months, go on holiday, enjoy yourself, and the business doesn't only run, It grows. That is real entrepreneurship. If you have to be there for it to function, then that means you have just bought yourself a job. You are self-employed. You're not an entrepreneur. You haven't built an asset that makes you money. I know that sounds a little harsh saying you're not an entrepreneur, but in my opinion, true entrepreneurship is building something that allows itself to grow. You have built the asset, you've built the team around it. You have everything in place, the systems, you've empowered them and they can do it. Now I'm not there yet, but that's my goal. That's where I want to go in the near future. And that's why I'm forcing myself not to work more than 4 hours a day. Why? Because 4 hours can easily become 2 hours. And then 2 hours can be 1 hour. And then it could become maybe 4 hours a week. And then before I know it, I can probably step away and maybe check in every so often, maybe every month or so. And that really is a dream, to allow your business to fund your lifestyle. So I want to be very specific and practical about what's in my 4 hours. Like I mentioned, my secret sauce, which is creating content. But also getting better, self-improvement, reading, learning, networking, going to events, going to a business lunch is part of my 4 hours. And lastly, making high-level decisions. Now, this requires sometimes me attending meetings and understanding the context of the decision I'm about to make. But everything else, posting on social, scheduling, editing, shooting, customer support, all that stuff, not my job. Now, before you go, I want to leave you with this. I want to bring this home. Running your business in 4 hours a day is not a shortcut. It's actually the result of building something real, something that is built on systems. OK? The right business model with the right margins will unlock everything. And this is why I always say that margins are not the most important thing in business. They are the only thing. The right hires doing the things that are not your secret sauce are going to change the game for you. The right systems that are in place And by the way, these systems can get built by the hires, are essential to have repeatable work happen day after day. And then don't forget the psychological element, the psychological willingness to step back and let your business run. By the way, this is part of the challenge of entrepreneurship where you have to do something you're uncomfortable with. You're uncomfortable stepping back. But in order to grow, you got to do things that are uncomfortable. Don't get in the way of your business's growth. OK? It took me 10 years and 12-hour days in those 10 years to build the foundation that I'm talking about today. So I'm not telling you, you need to do this right now. I'm not telling you it's going to take you 10 years, but I'm telling you it does take some work to build the foundation. And this should be your goal and you should be working towards that. And if you're working the same amount of hours or the same amount of time this year versus next year versus the year after, you're not making progress. Don't make that mistake. And don't forget, the key to this all is the economics, is the actual margins of your business. Increase your margins and you will increase your freedom. If this episode made you think differently about how you're spending your time, here's one that you're going to absolutely love. It's one that I published recently and you can check it out on whatever app you're using right now. It's called The 5 AI Tools That Have Replaced a $60,000 Employee. Because everything we're talking about is about leverage, okay? And this is the ultimate leverage in today's day and age, using the right AI tools to be able to produce bigger outcomes for you for less time and money. Go check it out, and thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next one.