I have two kids under five. They’re amazing.
But I only need to leave them for five minutes before the living room with all their toys becomes a hazard zone.
And frankly, it’s not that different than how we run our businesses. We play (work) and before long, things get a little.. disorderly.
All things tend towards chaos and complexity if left unchecked.
Having downtime and slack in the system helps. But you know what helps even more?
Having fewer toys.
One of the most common things I hear from the consultants inside Mindshare is that we’re all a little bit overwhelmed.
We do too much. We believe we can do everything, help everyone, and be everywhere.
But you want to know a secret? So little of it actually matters.
There’s a good chance that 20% of what you are doing right now is driving 80% of your results.
And yet, we pile on more instead of focusing on doing fewer things better.
How do we know what to do then?
We follow our instincts. We try things. We experiment.
But then we look backward and see what worked.
The signs will be there. They might be boring—maybe even a little obvious—but they’ll be there.
You might find that most of your leads will come from referrals and word of mouth. And that means relationships are the key to you growing your business.
Or you might find that your YouTube channel is going gangbusters and is driving all your opportunities. Doing more videos is probably not a bad idea.
Or you might find that 80% of your profit comes from a very specific type of customer. Perhaps make them your sole focus and ignore everything else.
Our job isn’t to be busy.
That feels like the way but it rarely is.
Our job is to try things, see what works, be objective about it, and then do more of it.
It’s a process of adding and removing things based on what works.
So sure, experiment. Have fun. Throw the toys around. Follow your hunches and interests.
But then take a hard look backward and ask yourself one single question: what’s actually driving business results and what is just busywork?
Avoid the chaos. Keep it simple.
—Kevin