Peaceful Profits Podcast Ep. 23 - Simple Strategy For High Performance
Synopsis:
High performance doesn’t come from doing less—it comes from designing a business that can do more without you burning out.
In this episode, Mike Shreeve explains why volume beats perfection (100,000 messages > 100), and how to scale output with software, automation, and Who Not How hiring—while you stay focused on the vital few.
Great for Peaceful Profits for entrepreneurs exploring Peaceful Profits services, Peaceful Profits coaching, and Peaceful Profits training programs.
Transcript:
Simple Strategy For High Performance
[00:00:00] Hello, my dear friends. Hope you're Shreeve here. Thank you very much for listening to today's episode. Today, we're going to be talking about a very simple, you could call it philosophy, concept, idea, construct, framework, whatever you want to call it. It's something that you can hold in your mind that you can use to simplify the act of high performance.
For example, whenever you're feeling overwhelmed due to complexity, if you're ever wondering what the next right thing for you to do is, if you're ever trying to gauge whether you're on the right path, etc. This is a concept that you can use to [00:00:30] simplify the overwhelm, etc. You can also reduce your stress massively because applying this principle removes many variables, it removes a lot of unknowns, it places responsibility in actual Linchpin momentum to the things that actually matter and et cetera, et cetera.
Now, the problem with this particular concept, which I'll tell you here in a second, is that a lot of people completely misunderstand it. So I'm going to tell you the concept. You probably already know it. You're probably going to have ideas about what you think it means. My goal is to show it to you in a new light so that you can reconsider it [00:01:00] and actually apply it in the way that will give you growth, give you peace of mind and help you to build a business that's actually worth running.
Okay. So the concept is, it's very simple. It is that more. Is in fact more. Okay, that more is in fact more when it comes to business So in the entrepreneurship world, there is this obsession, especially with newer entrepreneurs That less is more. That the focus of an entrepreneur should be, this is the belief That's out there, that the focus of an [00:01:30] entrepreneur should be to do fewer and fewer things Okay, and if you've listened to any of the stuff that I have taught in the past, you may think that's what I'm suggesting as well.
And the reality is, that is right, but not right in how most people pursue it. In fact, let me illustrate the difference here. Okay, let me illustrate the difference because you may think the nuance doesn't matter, but it actually does because it has output in it. As a result of how you apply your [00:02:00] understanding of the nuance.
So let me explain if you send a Hundred direct messages. Okay, whether you're connecting with people on email or whatever it is If you send a hundred direct messages Because you're thinking less is more and I'm gonna send as few as possible and they'll be laser guided and I'll go through all this effort And I'm gonna send a hundred and I send a hundred thousand Okay, you send a hundred And I send 100, 000.
Who do you think, now realistically, try to put your biases aside. Who do you think is going to end up with more clients? The person who [00:02:30] sends 100? Or the person who sends 100, 000? It should be fairly obvious to you that the person who sends 100, 000 direct messages will outperform the person who sends 100.
Now, if it isn't obvious to you, if you have arguments against why 100, 000 direct outreach messages versus 100 direct outreach messages is somehow less or is going to net fewer [00:03:00] clients than the person who sends 100, I would challenge you as to whether you have bought into the incorrect nuance. So let me address some of those objections to show you.
The fault in that thinking, right? So let me see if I can explain this in the world of entrepreneurship. There is a line of thinking that says there is a pathway in which 100 outreach messages can in fact outperform a hundred thousand outreach messages. What I am saying is that line of thinking is incorrect.
That line of thinking is keeping you from growing your business. That line of [00:03:30] thinking is literally tripping you up unnecessarily because more Does, in fact, equal more. Let me address some of those objections. One of the first objections is, But Mike, what if my 100 messages are better than your 100, 000?
Okay, that's a very common especially if people are trying to sell you something, right? My linkedin messages are the best in the world and you can send fewer of them and they'll beat your messages or My copy it performs in such a way It's a very common way to sell something to an audience to suggest that there is [00:04:00] you know So much more power in what I do that.
You can't essentially outwork what I do Now this is damaging and it's really dangerous because what you are, what would have to occur for that to be true, okay, what would have to occur for this to be true that a hundred is better than a hundred thousand is that your message would have to be a thousand times better than my message.
A thousand times. Now if you hear that and you think, oh that's totally possible, Again, that's something that [00:04:30] probably shows that you're newer to the world of entrepreneurship, that you don't have a lot of experience in sales and marketing and things like that. Because the reality is that in 2022, the time that I'm creating this, the playing field is pretty even.
It's not like it was 15 years ago when I started where there were some people who could get a thousand times better result on a direct outreach message because nobody knew that you should keep direct outreach messages short. There was still very much in the pioneering days that people were just trying to figure stuff [00:05:00] out.
Most people were doing it completely incorrectly. That's not the case these days. You can go to YouTube. blog posts, low cost courses, coaching groups, mentorship. To be a thousand times better than someone today is unbelievably rare. In fact, I would assume that if you're listening to this podcast, you probably aren't in the camp of having access to the people who are currently doing things a thousand times better than somebody else.
Regardless of how they might be pitching you their coaching program, [00:05:30] regardless of how they might be, selling you into this thing to convince you that their method is a thousand times better. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people don't have better methods, but a thousand times better?
No. I've been doing this for a very long time. What I'm seeing these days is that there are methods that are better, but they might be fifty percent better. They might be a hundred percent better, which is to say they're one times better. But a thousand percent better? No. But what's even more interesting is if you consider what I'm saying here, if you send a hundred, I send a hundred thousand, your message would have to be a [00:06:00] thousand times better.
Just to net the same result as my 100, 000 messages. So we're not talking about realistic numbers here. And this is the problem with the world of entrepreneurship right now, where they're constantly telling you, less is more. Try to figure out how to just do one thing, and it gives you all the results you've ever wanted in your entire life, and et cetera, et cetera.
Because mathematically, much of that type of messaging and thinking is actually impossible. Now, here comes the next [00:06:30] piece, which is also important to understand. If I send 100, 000 messages, let's say that in the beginning, your 100 messages are better. And let's say that I'm sending 100, 000 messages, and when I send the first 10, 000, they're not as good as yours.
Then I send the 15, 000, they're not as good as yours. At about the 20, 000 mark, guess what I have more of than you have? Repetitions. Practice. Practice. actual data. At 20, 000 messages, I know more about my [00:07:00] prospect, about the people who say yes, about what they actually respond to, and etc. I know more than you do by a factor of a lot.
And I still have 80 messages left to send. So again, this concept of I'm better therefore I can do less, it just isn't true when you factor in the fact that if you do more, you practice more, you get more data, and you have more information than the person who's doing it less. Now, you may say, Okay, that makes sense, but are you saying now that I need to go send out 100, 000 messages?[00:07:30]
Are you saying that the only way to be successful as an entrepreneur is to work 90 hours a week? And the answer is, No! No, please don't! That's not the point of more is more. The point of more is that you understand that your business, not you, but you, Your business has to figure out how to send a hundred thousand messages.
And this is one of the most profound shifts that you can make as an entrepreneur is to [00:08:00] realize that more does in fact equal more, but that doesn't mean you're the one who has to do it all. So you have to be able to hold these two different ideas in your head. If you want to be a high performer, the one idea is that yeah, the person in the business who can send 100, 000 messages will get way more clients than the person in the business who can send 100.
Also, I don't have to send all 100, 000. I just have to make sure that my business does. And this is where less is more makes sense. Because [00:08:30] you may have been listening to this podcast episode up to this point and saying, Wait, hold on a second, Mike. You tell us all the time. 80 20. Work yourself out of the day to day.
This seems like you're contradicting yourself. I'm not contradicting myself at all. This is how you, this is true entrepreneurship. To understand that this thing you have created that we call a business must produce a significant output. And that if you really want to simplify your life, stop trying to split hairs creating a business where you put these really stressful constraints on it where [00:09:00] you say this business must be successful after only 100 messages.
Because, I illustrated it earlier you're going to have incredibly good messages, much better than average, probably better than the skill set that you have, when you could just say, this business is going to be simplified and we're going to reduce stress because this business understands that more equals more, and even if my messages aren't that good, as long as I play volume, as long as I produce more, I will succeed.
Even if my volume and the things I produce aren't as [00:09:30] good as everybody else. I'll get more repetitions, I'll get more practice, I don't have to be a thousand times better, and etc. But then at the same time, holding in your head, it's not your responsibility to do it all, it's your responsibility to make sure that it all gets done.
And so now you can see why understanding that more is important. Allows you to set better strategy more realistic strategy for yourself It also allows you to shape the business and to do what is necessary to grow as an entrepreneur Most people who are solopreneurs who are stuck all by themselves.
They feel every single [00:10:00] repetition Every if they're the only ones sending out messages and getting the rejection and having to book the calls and all They feel every single one. So to them, a hundred messages feels like a hundred messages. To me in my business, a hundred thousand messages feels, I feel less of that than if I were to send 10 messages.
Does that make sense? So again, this is what we're talking about is a shift in mentality, which then informs your decisions and informs your strategy. The idea is to have a hundred thousand messages go out in your business and make [00:10:30] it feel to you specifically less than sending 10. That is the nuance.
And it's an important nuance. Because you don't want to slip too far into either direction. You don't want a business that says less is more, therefore we're going to output less things. And you don't want a business that says more is more therefore. I'm going to do more myself I'm gonna work 90 hours a week and crash and burn You want a business that understands that the output of more is What will get you to where you want to go and that you as the business owner can focus on doing less is more By [00:11:00] creating systems and center and I'll give you two examples of how you can quickly make this happen in your business Number one is software There's a really popular tracking platform right now That has a lot of people seeing tremendous success with the tracking platform a lot of reports of oh my gosh We turned this on and we realized how much money we were losing and we're realizing what our actual ROAS was and etc Now that is a very good example And what a lot of people don't realize is that the reason that particular software is doing so well in terms of results for clients [00:11:30] is because that software made it unbelievably easy You To track.
It's not that they're actually more accurate. We've had, we've done independence studies internally just to make sure that what we were paying for it isn't actually more accurate than alternatives to tracking like UTMs and things like that. It's just that because it's so easy, literally a couple of, click a button, a couple of places here and there, and within an afternoon you can have your entire business set up for tracking that those business owners who are experiencing for the first time actual tracking at a large scale.[00:12:00]
They're seeing the result of more is more made easier by a software. So let me see if I can explain this better. These people who are claiming all the success just weren't tracking before. A piece of software made it so easy that in an afternoon they can click. It does 20 to hours a week of work without them having to involve themselves in it at all.
So they've increased more is more because now they're tracking everything and from tracking nothing to tracking everything and of course the natural byproduct is When more is accomplished the output is more of what we want And [00:12:30] so you increase your tracking volume using a piece of software and the result is more Like magic, the output of tracking more, which is clearer pictures, understanding what's working, what isn't working, and et cetera.
So that's an example. Another example is, and I don't recommend this software, but a good example is something like a LinkedIn software, right? So LinkedIn software back in the old days when it was a little bit cowboyish still to do it, LinkedIn software has worked so often simply because not because they were magic.
It's just that they got it done. They would [00:13:00] send a hundred messages a day where most people just don't. You see how a piece of software can make more is more. I'll tell you for our company, we have automated as much of our CRM as possible with followups and et cetera. Why? Because I know I want more followups.
That's what I want as a business owner. I want the, I want more followups than anybody else in my industry because I know more is more. However, I also know trying to have a salesperson do that manually is a terrible idea. [00:13:30] So in that instance, we're looking for less is more. In other words, how can we put less pressure on the sales person, but still get more is more, which is more follow up.
Automation through CRM. The same thing can be said of funnels. If one funnel is working, if you write a book and put the book in a funnel and run it to traffic, instead of trying to make your funnel perform a thousand times better than any other funnel, take a look around. There's a reason the people at the very top of your [00:14:00] industry have more than one offer, have more than one funnel, have more than one etc.
Okay, so these are things to consider, to ask yourself, are you on the right track? Or are you always trying to think of how can I create a miracle by doing much less than everybody else and that one thing being the once in a lifetime home run, right? Look, you can take that approach and you can say, okay, I'm going to write one more.
I'm going to do one funnel, and I'm going to have one offer, and that one book and that one funnel and that [00:14:30] one offer are going to be the greatest thing that's ever created, and everybody in the whole world is going to want it, and you can live your life that way. What you can't then do is complain when that doesn't work, because what you're complaining against is that the miracle didn't occur.
I'm not, I can't live my life that way, right? I've got kids, I've got a family, I have bills, I have payroll, I got stuff that has to get done. So instead of waiting and hoping for a miracle, I just accept the fact that more is more. And I do that. The second way, so we have [00:15:00] software as the first way, the second way to implement more is more while still getting yourself out of the more is more to make sure that, 100, 000 outreach messages feels like 10.
It's very simple. Dan Sullivan has written a book. It's called who not how. A very good book and there's been some reviews of Dan's and look I'm not affiliated with Dan in any way to be honest I don't really know him that much but i've seen reviews of the book where someone says something along the lines of This whole book could be summed up in a sentence There I just saved you a bunch of time from reading it and all that kind of good stuff and I think to myself [00:15:30] You know what?
They're right The Dan Sullivan book who not how is this simple? Instead of trying to figure out how to accomplish something Figure out who can help you to accomplish it That's basically it except there's one problem There's one problem with that and that is that's easier said than done number one And the Dan's book does have a lot of really good ideas and number two.
I find it somewhat hilarious That the people who are making those comments tend to be the same people who [00:16:00] struggle with the concept Okay, so if you're one of the people who reads that book And I recommend that you do. Again, I'm not affiliated with Dan in any way. It's a good book for opening your mind and getting you started on the pathway to figuring out how can you as an entrepreneur get more.
So that you can live the more is more concept by in, by using people rather than software, or maybe people in conjunction with software to make this happen so that you can build a team that can send a hundred thousand direct outreach messages per month. And you feel almost none of it, right? It's happening without you.
It's [00:16:30] happening despite the fact that you're doing other things or whatever. People are going to be an important component of that if that's ever what you want to do. But my recommendation to you is if you are struggling with Or you are oversimplifying or you're casting aside this concept. I think you're the, you should read that book and re read that book a few times.
Until it becomes a consistent living principle within your life. That you constantly and consistently default to who, not how. Who can help me [00:17:00] with this? Who is the person that can help my company to produce more? Okay. It doesn't mean you have to have a huge team. It doesn't mean that you need to be spending all of your time in management positions and all that kind of good stuff, right?
There's still a lot of, like I said, the who, not how is a good intro into this world. After that there, you could spend the rest of your life learning the concept, perfecting the concept living the principle and things like that. There's something else that I like to do when I consider, say for example, applying the who not how [00:17:30] principle.
It's very simple. It is, I like to put in this sort of, so that I can x. So I say, who can help me with direct outreach messages, so that I can, and then whatever this other thing is. So that I can take a vacation this year. Or, what I prefer to do, so that I can work on this other project I've been wanting to work on.
So that I can write that new book. So that I can hire another person. Et cetera, and et cetera. So that I [00:18:00] can launch that new product. So that I can, whatever. It's a nice little again a little nuance but in business you'll find nuances are important And they can extend basic concepts and principles into something big and beautiful Okay, so I think we've probably covered this enough that what I really want to To make you Understand.
Okay, is that? the 80 20 rule less is more constantly optimize Work as little as possible make as much money as possible is real It is true As [00:18:30] long as it is pursued within the understanding that your business, okay, so personally you can follow the 80 20. Personally you can live the less is more.
Personally you're the business owner. You can, work five hours a week, whatever you want to do, but your business must live by the principle that more is more. Otherwise you'll just constantly struggle. Because what you're trying to do is perform an unlikely miracle. Right?
You're trying to make the thing you're doing [00:19:00] equivalent to a thousand times better than what everybody else in the market is doing. And it's very unlikely in today's world, with easy access to information and coaching and etc. It's unlikely. Again, you may be the exception. Congratulations. There's lots of people who live the life of being the exception.
That's wonderful. I've never been that. I've just been this, the journeyman, the, let's just get it done. Let's not, stress ourselves out by thinking everything we do has to be an absolute home run. More is more. Your business has [00:19:30] to be responsible for that. You can do whatever else you want to do within that.
Okay, so that's it my friends I think this is enough of a episode here to help you if you would like some help in Getting yourself to this point. So first off understanding which strategies are more Understanding how to set up a team to create the kind of strategies and implement the kind of strategies that do produce more Even if you yourself are personally working less if you would like to Have help with Implementing who [00:20:00] not how.
If you'd like to have help in building something that can, for lack of better phraseology here outproduce your competitors, or even just outproduce what you did last year. Go ahead and book a call with us, peacefulprofits.com/call we have lots of different options and one of the things that we really like to do with our clients is make sure that their offers can produce more.
So in other words, whatever it is that they're offering, they can take on more clients, more customers without any change to their own schedule. [00:20:30] Meaning it's the appropriate more is more as applied to the understanding that the business, the structure, the way it has been built, the operations, et cetera, can handle the more is more.
We start with the offers. We look at your validating that offer to make sure that actually works, your basic marketing. And then we go into scale and making sure that you're able to produce marketing assets that they don't need to perform a thousand times better than everybody else. But they can produce more because of the way that they are built the way that they're structured And [00:21:00] the strategies that are implemented.
So if you'd like help with any of that again, it's peacefulprofits.com/call That's it for me today. My friends. I hope this was helpful and we'll talk to you later.