Trizle

• You go to a conference. You dress up.
• You go to your in-laws. You dress up.
• You go to the grocery store. You dress up.
• You go to the movies. You dress up.

You go running? You dress up.

When you're in public, you look your absolute best.

You've got a rep to keep.

You make things look good when you make things public.

Make the Public Work for You

If some Schmoe dressed you in raggedy clothes, and put you in front of people you want to influence, what'd be your first inclination?

• "Trash the raggedy clothes, and put on the sweetest clothes I can find!" -- you'd say.

Likewise, when you put your business stuff in public, you subconsciously drive yourself to make the stuff as fabulous as possible.

• Lagging on some product? Make it public to drive yourself to pretty it up.
• Lacking team productivity? Make team efforts public to drive pretty work.
• Being a bad boss? Make team efforts public to drive pretty work.

Be fabulous.

Drive yourself publicly.

p.s. We just redesigned Trizzy, and we're about 20% done. Check out how much our redesigned website sucks right now! Yay!

1. You procrastinate on some task.
2. You wait for an inspirational spark.
3. Time passes, and you've got nuthin'.

What are you thinkin''!

Most peeps think completing big projects takes:

1. comprehensive planning
2. compiling all necessary resources
3. setting aside a huge chunk of time

And so, we human people avoid working on our super important stuff -- killing productivity.

Hint: Your brain's tricking you.

Here's how to trick it back. What We Underestimate

We underestimate the power of 30 seconds.

We underestimate how a ridiculously-tiny-amount-of-time can make us much/much/much more productive.

In 30 seconds:

1. You'll make some mean project your best friend.
2. You'll get your juices flowing to annihilate the project.
3. You'll propel yourself beyond those 30 seconds kicking some project's boot-tay.

In other words:

1. The first 30 seconds will turn into a minute.
2. That minute will turn into several more minutes.
3. Those several-more-minutes will turn into _ minutes/hours/days of productive work.

Being super productive just takes a tiny spark.

No-Mo-Procrastino

The cure to procrastination:

1. Take out a stop watch.
2. Take 30 seconds to cut into a project/task/goal.
3. Celebrate.

You've geared yourself produce gobs of productive work beyond those first thirty ticks.

• Avoiding an important email? Produce something/anything in 30 secs. Ignore quality.
• Avoiding your taxes? Take 30 secs.
• Avoiding a monthly project? Take 30 secs.

Booyah. Winner.

30 seconds.

Choose one:

1. a) Destination
2. b) Journey

What'd make you more happy?

El journey.

Super happiness comes not from extrinsic rewards, but from being-in-the-zone to accomplish something fabulous.

What Makes: You = Happy

You feel happiest when you immerse yourself in a challenging task that:

• has a clear goal
• provides immediate feedback

That's according to happiness psychologist expert-o Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and his decades of happiness research goodness.

He calls it the flow state, where:

• You're fully lost in your work ' losing self-consciousness and a sense of time.

Think of an NFL quarterback. Two minutes left. Down by 5.

The Keys

1. Define goal: __.
2. Lose yourself in the work.
3. Get feedback.

Be happy.

Immerse yo-self.

1. You're rocking your business.
2. You're doing it by yourself.
3. You want some help.

Yet, despite your 98799048859 interviews, nobody passes your test.

You've got high standards. So what do you do?

Lower Expectations?

A lonesome entrepreneur who wants people ' but can't find any 'perfect' being probably thinks this:

• 'The absolute right person, with the right skills, the right experience, the right background, the right demeanor, the right yaddas must somehow fall on my lap.'

What's Wrong With That?

The 'perfect' being that perfectly matches your list of requirements probably:

1. doesn't exist
2. or, is so distant that you'll have to take years finding

Better Way to Hire?

Consider three companies:

• Company A: hires amateur qualifications
• Company B: hires only perfect candidates with perfect characteristics/charm/experiences (waits years to hire 1)
• Company C: hires potential; molds into their ideal employees

Who'd kick the others' asses 5 years from now?

• A squanders their resources.
• B destroys their own potential.
• C has created a force by recruiting promising talent, and transforming them into a team full of superstars.

B's lost potential?

They could've used the lost time molding potential into perfection ' quickening the process exponentially.

Yes, you want the absolute best.

But, don't forget you can also mold folks into the 'absolute best' (i.e., your company's ideal employees).

Seek potential.

Mold into superstars.

1. You aim to build one ridiculously large project.
2. You complete nothing.

Contrast that with this beautiful thang:

1. You aim for a small goal; you complete it.
2. You expand that small goal to a slightly bigger goal.
3. You complete that too. You gradually go larger.

Gunning for Everest's top prevents you from seeking progress; yet, aiming for Everest's little-tiny-mini basecamps gets you moving upward-and-upward-and-upward ' everyday.

Small-achievable-easy-simple goals get you moving efficiently. Yes, Go Big ' But'

Indeed, have that larger goal in mind; but, don't depend on it.

Using that larger goal to inspire your work won't get you sufficient daily progress.

Small goals ' on the other hand ' excite you to complete something by today ' everyday.

• Erina: Today?
• Tebow: Yeah! Today!

The Beauty of Aiming Small

Think of Newton's Laws of Motion:

• Force = Mass x Acceleration
• An object in motion tends to stay in motion.

When you aim for a big project'

1. You complete nothing ' until you complete that big project.
2. Because you've completed nothing, you'll have to use tremendous force/energy/mighty-mite-mite to finally complete that big project.

Momentum says Boo! to You.

When you aim for tiny projects'

1. You complete one small goal easily/efficiently/quickly.
2. You've built momentum to complete a follow-up small goal.
3. You gradually increase momentum to pile on more small goals.
4. 'OH THIS THING IS AUTOMATIC! I COMPLETE SO MUCH WITHOUT EVEN THINKING! KABAM!'

Getting into the habit of completing things makes it easier to complete more things.

Momentum loves you. Real-World Examples of The Small Magic

Examples to inspire your compa-nay: Facebook:

1. Founder Zuckerberg dude aimed to build a social network for his school.
2. He turned it into a social networking multi-billion-dollar empire.

Wal-Mart:

1. Sammy aimed to build the most fabulous little convenience store in town.
2. He gradually turned that little store into the world's largest retail empire in the world.

Google:

1. Sergey and Larry aimed to complete a research project on search engines.
2. They transformed it into a revolutionary company rivaling the biggest market caps in the world.

Small-to-big-say-hay.

Aim For The Small

Small things drive you to complete bigger things.

You'll automatically drive yourself to start beautifying/expanding/empowering what you just completed ' for on-and-on-and-on.

Winner = You.

Think small. Let big come.

You're working like a crazy @^^^@.

1. You trying to complete Task ABC for a client by tonight.
2. But, you've lost yourself by the many gory details that you haven't comprehended.
3. As a result, you're using tremendous brainpower to get barely anything done.

You're only 10% there. You feel like you're getting dumberer.

'I've over-exerting my brain!' you scream.

How to Get More Out of Your Brain

Think of it like this:

• The more you have to think about doing something, the more you use your brain.
• The less you think = the more you conserve your brainpower fuel. Yay!

How can you do stuff without thinking?

Remember when you first started driving?

1. You thought about every-frickin'-little-detail about driving correctly.
2. Your hands were in a 10-and-2 position.
3. You adjusted all mirrors.
4. You did safety checks. SAFETY CHECKS.
5. You ensured you were tightly positioned in your seat.

And yet, you still sucked.

Flash forward 10 years later.

You wake up late, screaming: 'I'm late to an uber-important meeting!!'

1. You're blasting the radio.
2. You're switching lanes like it's nobody's business.
3. You're on your headset doing a call with your boss.
4. You're eating a frickin' apple. APPLE.
5. You arrive in style.

What just happened?

When you were:

• 17 years old: You used your entire brainpower to drive.
• 27 years old: You barely used any brainpower to drive.

So-what's-the-deal-i-o?

You use less of your brainpower when you set a routine.

1. You start to think less about performing a task.
2. It gradually becomes automatic.
3. You gradually become sexier.

It's like brushing your teeth.

• Some 3-year-old chump has to look in the mirror.
• You on the other hand can do it with your eyes closed, while jumping on one foot.

Routines = crazy good = more brainpower fuel conserved for you.

Example-UP

Some productively awesome routines to empower your life + business:

• Learn 1 new thing everyday.
• Get employee feedback, weekly.
• Help a customer rock, daily.
• Exercise, constantly.
• Laugh, hourly.

Set some routines. Get more brain. Holla.

1. You're running a software development company.
2. Your clients start offshoring your work.

What should you do?

• a) Bitch.
• b) Exploit your new opportunities.

(Did-ya-answer-B? Yay!) 'My Software Work's Going Overseas?!'

Weak companies like status quo.

• They think it'll constantly bring them riches.
• So, they rest on their laurels.
• And, they fail to improve.

When some spark smacks their industry in the buttocks, they cry out in pain:

• 'Bad!'
• 'Boo!'
• 'Unfair!'

What would Cool Business Builder do?

'Clients are going overseas with their software development?'

1. 'Perfect! We can now provide more value to our clients!'
2. 'We'll exploit our software knowledge to strengthen our business clients' efficiencies.'
3. 'Instead of primarily developing software, we'll build productize software for 'em!'
4. 'AND, we'll offshore that development to exploit our opportunities further!'
5. 'WIN!'

BaaaaBooom! The Power of Responsibility

The wisdom:

1. You can't control some things.
2. You can control some things.
3. Worry about what you can control.

If Joe Schmo chucks a lemon at you:

1. You catch it.
2. You make lemonade.

You'll exponentially improve your odds to rock your business when you take personal responsibility for everything that happens to (1) you, (2) your industry, (3) your team, (4) your whatever else.

That drives you to exploit opportunities to keep your company ticking ' and rocking, expanding ridiculous value to the world.

Win.

Responsibility. Opportunities.

1. You hire Bob to be your Idea Man.
2. Bob has many ideas.
3. Bob's ideas ultimately suck.

Customers have more urgent needs that need fulfilled.

Too bad: You just spent a ridiculous sum paying Bob for his speculative ideas that didn't work.

A Better Way

What if you could:

• avoid risky hires?
• find a great-idea person for free?
• excite your customer base for free?
• grow your bottom line for free?

Oh, that'd be sweet, no?

BUT YOU CAN! HIGH FIVE!

Who?

Your Customers.

They'll:

1. tell you how your company sucks
2. show precisely you how you can improve
3. help you drastically improve your products/services
4. offer ideas to grow your offerings
5. AND THEN, buy more of your products!

What in the @^^%^?! Are you @^^%^ kidding ^@!@! me??

Woohoooo! (Oh yeah, we're all excited for you too.)

Your Valuable Employees

Companies that:

1. don't listen to their customers
2. actively seek feedback

shoot themselves with bazookas.

**They're ignoring the vital group who could ridiculously improve their companies for $0.00.

Relying on employee input is essential; but, relying only on their input leaves crucial brainpower on the table.

Instead, work with your customers to build one ridiculously-awesome company that serves the world for all to see.

Heart customers.

1. Manager Billy thinks he's a great manager.
2. His entire team thinks differently, but doesn't let him know.
3. Manager Billy continues running his ship like he's King Kong.

That's the typical relationship model between managers-employees in most companies, according to research done by a London and Switzerland professors.

Manager: I'm the Greatest

Think back to your:

• last office manager
• last college teacher
• last [insert superior name here]

How'd you feel about the superiors? Probably felt like most people: "Dude's got to get down on his ivory tower." Yet, without any requests for feedback, you kept your mouth shut; and, the relationship kept kind of sucking.

Employee: You're Not the Greatest

Ask any of your employees how they feel about you.

• You might be thinking now: "They love me."
• What they'll probably say: "Good, but lots to improve."

Challenge yourself to understand the absolute brutal realities of how you manage. Ask 'em:

• What are the top 5 things sucks about how I manage you?

You'll improve yourself as a manager -- setting your employees free to fully focus on perfecting their crafts, instead of wondering what in the mother @^^%^ you're thinking about them.

"What sucks about me?"

You think you could help some schmo's business; but, you're scare of asking.

• "He'll reject me!"
• "He'll laugh at me."
• "He'll say no!"

Are you right?

Test Your Assumptions

To get 5 questionnaires answered, how many people would you have to randomly ask?

• 10?
• 20?
• 30?

You'd probably guess 20, like the participants in a Stanford study who guessed around 20.

The real answer: 10.

• People underestimated their successful requests by half.
• That's HALF.
• KABAM!

Conclusion: Humans underestimate the likelihood of someone agreeing to their requests.

Say NO! to Being a Pimple-Butt Wimp

Remember, people:

1. Overestimate NOs.
2. So, they avoid requests.

That's why entrepreneurs rarely meet their potentials; they underestimate how many folks they could help (or folks who could help them). Break your assumptions; you'll get more successful requests.

Ask it like you somebody.