On any given morning, if you happen to be awake at 3 am, you can have the joy of knowing that you are not the only person awake in the world, so is business coach Clay Clark. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Clay definitely lives out the “early to rise” portion of this quote. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, Clay wakes up every day at 3am and is in bed by 9pm. Some might speculate that he gets up so early because his body wakes him up. Well…… those people would be WRONG. Clay talks about it all the time, how he hates getting up early. Every morning when his alarm clock goes off he wants to curse at it. He, admittedly, has to make the choice to get up every morning. He has to go against what he “feels” like doing, in order to do what is necessary to move closer to his F6 goals. While this might seem like a big concept to some, it is actually quite simple; if you need to accomplish more, then get up earlier. Clay doesn’t over complicate things. He makes the simple decisions that will move the needle the most. As Steve Jobs said, “simplicity scales, complexity fails.”
Clay is very intentional about making the simple decisions needed in order to be successful.
There are 5 very intentional actions that he has built into his life that are foundational to his success. Those simple decisions include:
- Having a morning meta time
- Creating a calendar and to-do list and sticking to it
- Tracking his numbers
- Having a daily huddle with his team
- Leading a weekly sales training meeting.
Building these 5 super moves into your life has the ability to transform everything, whether you are currently a business owner or not. Now…. don’t tune out. I have noticed time and time again with clients that I have coached over the years that when I start talking about simple ideas like these, they get bored. They want new, exciting, sexy ideas. The idea of actually creating a to-do list is not “fresh” enough. Let me just say for total clarity that only the most successful people on the planet do these things. If you are not interested in being successful then skip this, however, if you actually want to be successful, then you HAVE to do the “non sexy” and simple disciplines that are the building blocks for success. If you want to build a house you need a hammer and nail. If you want to build a business, you need the 5 simple super moves. As John Wooden, the championship-winning UCLA basketball coach said, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
Set Aside Daily Meta Time
Morning meta time is simply the time that you set aside intentionally in the morning to motivate yourself and plan for the day. When Clay gets up in the morning, the first thing he does is listen to a Pastor T.D. Jakes sermon. He does this because of T.D. Jake motivates Clay and helps energize him for the day. He focuses on Clay’s business coach mind and brings his attention back to the things that really matter to Clay. It is so easy to get distracted in life and to drift away from building the life and business that you actually want. Your morning meta time must be an intentional time that keeps you on course and brings you back to what is most important. For myself, every morning when I get up I read the Bible. It is what centers me and helps me keep sight of my goals. Ask yourself, when do you feel most inspired? What drives you to action? You need to identify those things and put them into your morning meta time so that every day is a reset that keeps you on course. If an airplane is even 1 degree off its line, then it will not make it to its desired destination. It must constantly make adjustments that ensure it is staying on course. We need to do this for our lives and businesses. Having a morning meta time is how to do this.
Create a Calendar and To-Do List
Oh the calendar and to-do list. Why oh why do people fight to utilize your greatness? It is hard for me to understand why people who want to be successful refuse to organize their life with a calendar and to-do list. Doing this is one of the most intentionally freeing actions you can take to significantly improve the quality of your life quickly. Let’s start with the calendar. The first thing you want to do is identify all of the “rocks” or nonnegotiable weekly meetings/ actions that you do, and add those into your calendar. Next, you stick to that calendar. Woah!! That’s it? Yep, that’s it. What gets scheduled gets done. Make sure that as you are adding these to your calendar that you tell every minute where to go. If you have a weekly meeting with your team that lasts 1 hour, then put that in your calendar. If you need time to knock out business coach action items, then put that in your calendar as well. Next, every morning creates a to-do list, print it off, and carry it with you all day. This will allow you to know exactly what you need to do when you finish a meeting early or get to the time when you are knocking out action items. Also, if anyone ever tells you something that you need to remember, do NOT rely on your brain, write it on your to-do list. Relying on your brain is how things fall through the cracks. Don’t let there be a “crack.” The next morning when you are creating your new to-do list, look at the day before, and anything that didn’t get done, transfer it over. It’s so easy. As Nike likes to say, “just do it!”
Track Your Numbers
Think of the last time you were at a sports game and you are cheering for your team. Imagine that your team has an amazing play and scores. You look up at the scoreboard and it says…….. NOTHING!!! You would be furious. I can hear you screaming now, “what kind of idiots don’t keep score?” You’d be right. You would have to be an idiot not to keep the score at a game. I mean, it’s a competition for goodness sakes. Well…… drum roll please……… in the game of business you have competition as well!! People measure what they treasure. In your business and in your life, you must know your KPIs or key performance indicators, and you MUST track them. Key performance indicators are the stats and numbers that show health. When you go to the doctor they check your weight, heart rate, temperature, etc. They do this because those are some of the KPIs that indicate your overall health. Your business is no different. You must track things like income, expenses, profits, where leads are coming from, google reviews, etc. All of these things go into the health and success of your business. If you are not tracking then you and your business coach will not be able to identify red flags. If you go to the doctor and you have a 104.9-degree temperature then that is a red flag or signal that something is not right. When you track your numbers it lets you know when your business is healthy and when something is off. Freaking track your KPIs today!!!!
Hold Intentional Team & Sales Meetings
There are numerous other simple action items that I could recommend to quickly impact your business, but that last one I want to mention is having intentional team meetings. You need to have a daily huddle with your team and a weekly sales training meeting. The daily huddle doesn’t need to be overly long, it just needs to be the time where you see what your employee’s plans for the day are, deal with burning fires, celebrate wins, answer any questions and address issues that are trying to allow your culture to drift. Your employees need to be expected to come to this huddle prepared with questions and their action plan for the day. When it comes to weekly sales meetings, this is a time of accountability for your team where you show everyone’s KPI’s and how they are performing compared to their goals and the rest of the team. You deal with issues and lead your team by casting vision and coaching them to be better. You play recorded calls of employees interacting with customers and you make this a time where the team gets refocused. I recommend you do this at the beginning of the week so that you can ensure your team is getting started on the right foot.
Remember, simplicity scales, complexity scales. These are simple super moves that you can start today that will literally transform your business. Clay utilizes all of these tools and they are part of the reason that he has never gone bankrupt and has been able to build numerous successful multi-million dollar businesses! If you want to get what few have, you’ve got to do what the few do. There is a reason that 96% of businesses fail within the first 10 years, according to Forbes. Benjamin Franklin said, “vision without execution is hallucination.” Oftentimes, the only difference between you and someone more successful than you is execution. You must actually implement the business coach things I have talked about in your business. How do you do this? Well…. Lean really close and I am going to give you the life-changing secret. You do it!!!!!! You just do it. Do it today. Do it now. You are not going to be perfect. Don’t worry, as you are consistent in your implementation of these actions, you will get better over time. The key is just starting. Start today!
