RYB 897: The “ONE THING” Can Change Your LIFE and Business with Geoff Woods

00:01 What I noticed was that the most successful people showed up looking to give, when they were talking to you, you felt like you were the most important person in the room. And I kept hearing the same question over and over again from different people, which was something along the lines of, out of everything you're focusing on. Where do you need help? Most right now, Hey, Hey, Hey, what's up, everyone. Welcome to the rock, your brand podcast. I'm your host, Scott. Bowker a serial entrepreneur on a mission to help you. This show is designed to teach you to inspire you, to motivate you, to take massive action and build a future proof business. So whether you're just starting out or taking your existing business to the next level, this is your home. Now, if you're ready, I'm ready. Let's rock your brand. What's up guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Roku brand podcast.

00:56 This is episode eight 97 and today I am fired up because I've got an amazing guest that has an amazing story, and also did a little bit of a therapy session on me. Seriously, you're going to hear this happen live as we are on this call. Now, his name is Jeff Woods, and he's part of the one thing. And if you are not familiar with the one thing, well, it's a very well known book out there, which you all should read. And one of the coauthors is Gary Keller. Who's also a well known name in the real estate industry, and that's kind of where he got his start. But this one thing, this book was just a book until about five, maybe six years ago, Jeff Woods was at a conference and everything changed for him in, for the one thing. So again, I'm going to encourage you to listen to this episode.

01:58 This is not where I thought it was going to go. I'm so glad it did, but you're going to hear Jeff actually do a little bit of help here. A little bit of therapy on me as we talk about the one thing for me at the time of this recording. And I think you're going to get a lot from it because this exercise you can do for yourself, but just, this is just a crazy story. That again, just goes back to what I've talked about in my book. The take action effect is that you never know when that one thing that you do, you make a decision and it changes everything. So like I said, I'm super excited for you to listen to this episode. So I'm going to stop talking so you can listen to this episode and get ready to go deep into the one thing. All right, Jeff, welcome to the podcast, man. Thank you so much for coming on. This is going to be a lot of fun. How are you doing, man? I'm doing delightful, Scott. Yeah, no, this is going to be fun, man. You and I were talking a little bit before we hit the record button, but you know, I'm, I'm a big believer

03:00 In simplifying things. Not always easy, like you said. Um, but, uh, there's a book out there that kind of talks a little bit about this and why don't you bring up that book that we're going to be, we're going to be talking about that, but really about like how narrow it is. Well, if you're, if you're watching this, you're going to see it. The one thing that's right. That's right. So the one thing is the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. And there's a few words there that matter. I said simple truth and their simple truth behind extraordinary results. So these are timeless principles that have been proven to unleash just massive growth in every area of life. It was written by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And for those of you who know Keller Williams, the real estate company, that's Gary Keller. So it's the largest real estate company in the world. These are the principles he used to scale it to 200,000 plus people. And my introduction to the book was I prior to co founding this company with the two of them, I was in medical device sales, which was, that was fun. I mean, I was in Southern California. I wore scrubs every day, ran through hospitals, sold a device that saved lives. Try to get my wife to call me McDreamy, you know, all the good things.

04:16 But Scott, I think I was where a lot of people who listen to this have been, which is you're waking up feeling happy, and yet you're not fulfilled. Life was good, but I remember just so viscerally feeling like I was meant for more. Couldn't see what that was or how I would get there. And two things in my life happened that changed my perspective and forced me to start taking action. First look is a colleague of mine had a stroke. And at the time he was 35. Wow. My wife and I had just bought a house in orange County, had our first child and my wife decided to become a stay at home mom. Wow. Scott, I was standing in the kitchen one night asking the question. If what happened to my colleague had happened to me, what happens to my family? That was very unsettling.

05:07 Yeah. The next week my company needed to make a change to our commission structure to remain competitive in the marketplace. The result was I lost 40% of my income. Oh. So you put those two things back to back and it forced me to start asking different questions. And I had heard that Jim Rohn quote, that you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You ever heard that one? Oh, I heard it. Yeah. Numerous times I live by it, by the way, do you, okay. So I would say you're one of the few, because most people hear the quote, but they don't actually stop and ask who are my five and if they ask it, they don't actually search for the answer to the point that they could write the names down. I wrote the names down. Oh, okay. Yeah. I looked at the list and was overwhelmed with gratitude.

05:51 These are amazing people. I always want them to be my friends, but that was the aha moment. I had five amazing friends. What I was missing was five amazing mentors. It's a difference. Oh, huge difference. Even though friends play a role, a mentor plays a different role there where you want to be and they can guide you on how to get there. And that set me on a journey to surround myself with mentors. You fast forward, it's our national sales meeting. And when I walked into the ballroom, this book, this exact book, actually like this is the book really sitting on my chair. Yeah. And I remember looking and going, Oh, that's interesting. And then Jay who coauthored the book of Gary walked out on stage. And for the next hour he blew my mind the whole time he was talking to Scott. I remember thinking, what do I say to him to make him interested in me?

06:46 What could I give him to make it worth his time to invest in me? And when he came off stage, I cornered him. And what I didn't realize was that the one thing had already become one of the highest rated business books of all time. And that created a problem because Gary Keller's one thing, chairman and CEO of Keller Williams. Jay's one thing. Writing books with Gary, they were looking for somebody who's one thing was the one thing. And that became my opportunity. So I quit my medical device job, move my family from Southern California to Austin, Texas. And for the last five years, we have built a business that changes the way people view time. Okay. So let's pause there. We've got to unpack a little bit.

07:25 Yeah. Cause, cause that sounded really smooth, man. That sounded smooth as ever like it's like you go there, the books on the chair, I'm senior, like I'm going to go, I'm going to go make myself seen. I'm going to go. You know, like I'm going to make sure that they know who I am and I don't know how I'm going to help, but I'm going to do something.

07:45 How does it happen to

07:46 Where you do get noticed? You do get to pitch your idea, which I don't even know if you had the idea, how does it happen? That you're like, alright, now I'm going to help you.

07:55 You build this thing into something greater is smart. People ask that question. Yeah. Here's what happened when I, my goal at that time was to upgrade my five. When I started going to meetings, networking meetings, masterminds, most people showed up looking to get. What I noticed was that the most successful people showed up looking to give, when they were talking to you, you felt like you were the most important person in the room. And I kept hearing the same question over and over again from different people, which was something along the lines of, out of everything you're focusing on, where do you need help most right now, how might I be able to help you? And I remember the first time somebody asked me that and I I'm putting this person on a pedestal. They were way successful. And they're asking how they can help me, like what it left an impression.

08:47 And my aha was, um, cause I wanted to start doing it. If I'm going to surround myself with the right people, I need to start behaving the way they behave. And when I started to people out of everything, you're focusing on, where do you need help most right now, how might I be able to serve you? How might we be able to support you or help you? I quickly realized I didn't have to be the person to help them always. It wasn't about me having their solution. A lot of times they described somebody I knew. And I figured out that there was just as much value in making a connection to the right person as there was me being the person that they needed or worst case scenario. I'm not the person. I don't know the person, but I heard somebody say, you know, I'm not the person.

09:26 I don't know the person, but can I scout for you? If I come across that person, can I circle back and make an introduction? And when somebody said that to me, I was like, Holy smokes. So I started saying it and all of a sudden I had, I had my talk track down. So when I approached Jay, I asked him, I said, first and foremost, thank you. My name's chef. You just blew my mind. This is exactly what I needed. I feel called to help share this message. I want people to know about this out of everything. You're focusing on, where do you need help most right now, how might I be able to help you? And he said, well, we're always looking for opportunities to share the book. And I said, well, I started this podcast called the mentee. It does pretty well. I would love to feature you.

10:03 You said awesome. I'm like, what's your Ching. So I did the interview with Jay and at the end of the interview, I asked him out of everything you're focusing on right now, where do you need help most? How might I be able to help? And he said, and we're still looking for more exposure. I said, you know what? I have relationships with a lot of podcasters. Can I make introductions so I can get you on their shows? He said, Oh my gosh, that'd be amazing. So I made the introductions. So that's two times now I've asked how I can help. I circled back a month later, how the interviews go? What are you focusing on? How can I help? We're looking for more exposure. He had no idea. I was writing for entrepreneur.com at the time. I didn't even say it. And I just wrote an article and blasted it and I saw him sharing all my posts.

10:49 And so I commented, what are you focusing on? How can I help? So let's pause here real quick. Yeah. How many times did I offer to bring value without asking for a single thing in return? Yeah. I mean, that was the fourth time. Yeah. That fourth time I asked the answer changed. He said, we're looking for a CEO for a publishing company. And at the time Scott, I legitimately thought of three people that I, that were in the publishing space. I was like, Oh my gosh, these, these are great guys. I said, I know some people, but I'm not clear on what you're looking for. Let's line up a call so I can learn the job description and I'll make the appropriate introductions. When we got on the phone, Scott, he really surprised me because he did not describe the people that I was thinking of. He described me. Oh, the rest is history. Wow. So why didn't you think that you were the role they were looking for? I was a medical device. Sales rep. I'm not a public.

11:46 Oh, I don't know. That's kind of the question I was going to ask you too, is like, so what do you know about like that?

11:52 Nothing, nothing, but

11:54 They were looking for somebody who had it

11:56 Strong sales background who had a strong finance background who knew specifically how to turn content into dollars. That was the thing they were looking for.

12:08 I have a strong sales background.

12:10 I got some of the best sales training in the world was Xerox. Then I was president's club winner in medical device, sales, CEC, strong finance background. I majored in accounting. I was an accounting TA I, that was almost my profession.

12:21 Check, knew how to turn

12:23 Content into dollars. I turned the mentee into a hundred thousand dollars business in 10 months

12:28 On the side check, check, check. That's great. You know, so what I'm hearing and I think people listening should hear is, well, number one, surround yourself with, uh, you know, those people, right? Like try to get five, but again, like not just friends and family it's necessarily, it's the, you know, men mentors or men, you know, people that can mentor you or that you could learn from, right. It's like people that are a little bit further along than you, um, in, in the journey and that are willing to help. And that can take some time, you know, finding those right people. Um, so I'm hearing that then I'm hearing deliver value without asking for anything I've lived by that. I mean, my background on the podcast was I did 50 episodes before I made a dime, right? Like I was just delivering value and just kept delivering value.

13:18 And I knew that the opportunity would, it would, it would appear when I knew what it was going to be after I knew what my market needed and wanted and then I would deliver. But a lot of people, they start it with just the idea of how do I get, how I turn this into money right away versus how do I deliver value? And that doesn't, that can mean to a customer or could be to someone that you want to do business with it as a partner. Um, so that's what I'm hearing. And I love hearing that cause I huge believer in that it's like give and you know, you know what, what's the saying? Like big dig, the, uh, big, the, well now before you're thirsty, right? It's like, you might, you and I have this conversation. You don't want anything from me. I don't want anything for you. We're just kind of jamming here and who knows nine years from now, we could cross paths. Hey, you know, there's this thing. Or you know, someone or you just never know, well, we fundamentally understand the principle of this Scott, because if you have a bank account, you get it. If you don't

14:14 Or want to earn the right to show up to the ATM and make withdrawal,

14:19 You have to do first. Yeah. You have to deposit it to make it up.

14:22 Pause it. And what happens if you take too many withdrawals?

14:25 Well, you're going to run out the money

14:28 Apps coming out. Right. It's the same thing with relationship capital, which is, are you making enough deposits? So you have a positive balance. So in the moments, when you have an ask in the moments, when you need support, you can actually take the winter.

14:41 Yeah. Yeah. It's the pausing, the Goodwill in the bank. Right. It's like deposit that and uh, you know, you'll, you'll get rewarded. Uh, so let me ask you this, cause this is just a side

14:52 Note. So let's talk about that podcast that did a hundred K. Yeah. I'm kind of curious on that little side project. Tell me how that went now. Was that happening when you were selling medical devices? Okay. So walk, walk me through that. Where did that idea come from then? We'll go back to the one thing

15:08 I started focusing on upgrading my five. Okay. I was very intentional on going to networking meetings, attending masterminds, paying to attend masterminds. I wanted to get in the room. And I remember it was the night before a conference. I was sitting by the pool, having some cocktails with a bunch of guys who were attending the conference as well. And we were getting to know each other and I was telling him my story and told them how I started surrounding myself with these really interesting mentors. And they started asking, who are some of these people, give me a sense of who they are. And when I started walking them through who these people were, they were like, Holy smokes. How did you surround yourself with these people? Like one guy was Tony Robbins, executive vice president of sales. He'll build Tony's company. He was the first guy Tony ever let go on stage.

15:54 He became a mentor. You ever seen the movie? Jerry Maguire. Oh yeah. Yeah. That's, that's a real sports agency in real life. The guy who was the CEO of that sports agency became a mentor of mine. So like I had gotten in with a really interesting group of people and somebody looked at me and said, dude, you should start a podcast. I went what? And he said, you should just record the conversations you're already having and share them with the world. Most people don't get to have those. I went Holy smokes. And the mentee was born. I was the mentee documenting my journey from employee to entrepreneur little. Did I know that by pressing record, I would legitimately document me going from an employee to an entrepreneur in 10 months. That's great.

16:35 And so what was your, what was your first,

16:37 First way of monetizing that I did one thing, the same thing that got me in relationship with mentors. I said on the podcast, I genuinely want to help you. If you have questions about how to put this into practice here, go to this URL. And I gave a URL that redirected to my scheduler, Mike, I was usually using Calendly and I would legitimately get on the phone with listeners to understand where they were struggling and how I might be able to help after enough calls Scott. I heard the same question over and over and over again. How do I find my first mentor?

17:16 I realized there's a problem and I knew how to solve it. So I called those people back and said, Hey, I'm thinking about coming out with a course to help people find their first mentor. If I were to do that, what would you be willing to pay for something like that? And they told me, I said, great, do you want to do it? They're like, sure. I was like, cool, what's your PayPal. That's awesome. And I pre-sold it. Then after that, they, they wanted to have a community of people who were surrounding themselves with the right mentors. And I developed a continuity program. Then people wanted to get access to some of my mentors. So I started a mastermind where I literally had my mentors come in and we would spend a weekend together and you come as well. And that led to a hundred K in the first year.

17:53 That's beautiful. No, that's great. I mean, again, though, one thing there that I want people to listen to, like you did the work of getting on calls for free, basically learn what the market needs and what it wants. And it's like, it's pretty simple, but a lot of people don't want to do that. Cause it's like, I don't want to talk to people.

18:16 And you got to give you some context. We had a newborn baby. Oh wow. Um, we had just bought a very expensive house in orange County and then my income gets slashed by 40%. I'm not able to neglect my day job. I'm still working full time then trying to maintain my wife's sanity with a newborn. It's not like I had lots of hours. So this meant, I remember so many nights when I just wanted to go to bed and I was like, Jeff, just get in the office and do 10 minutes. Just do 10 minutes, 10 minutes. Yeah. And that 10 minutes would turn into 20 or would turn into 30 or return an hour. And I'm up early. Like I was literally burning the candle on both ends, which is not something I recommend over a long period of time. But I had to, my reasons for being successful were greater than my excuses.

19:04 And I was willing to make that investment. And I got my wife on board saying, I need to do this for us. We need to start paving the road for us to actually be in control of our future. And this is what it's going to have to look like. And she got behind me on that, but it was hard. It also did create the opportunity for me to move to Austin, to, to partner up with the people I partnered up with, which are you kidding me? If you had the chance to partner up with a self made billionaire and get paid? I know it's pretty awesome. You fast forward five years. I mean the way that I think now as a result of being in that proximity, the knowledge that I have is insane.

19:47 That's crazy. I mean, it's a, it's a great story. So let me ask you this, the day that you were in,

19:53 In that conference, where you had that book on your chair, you didn't make your introduction and stuff.

19:59 What was it that blew your mind from that talk? Like what's something that came from that, that you're like, you know, like, like the one thing, like what was it that made you go like, aha. Like I need to do something different. What was it?

20:16 You ever heard? The quote? People don't remember what you say. They remember how you made them feel. It's very much that I don't necessarily remember what Jay said. Okay. I remember how he made me feel. I remember thinking, Holy crap, this is extraordinary. Like these thoughts are amazing. And just go on. If I could be surrounded by him and Gary, if this is how they think, what would become possible for me, my life, there was, there is one moment of content that I remember. And it was when he was talking about the domino effect. So Scott, when you were a kid, did you ever line up Domino's Oh, absolutely. How'd you knock them down?

21:04 Um, you know, with the one at the, at the front and I would just kinda give it a flick and then what happens if I line them up correctly, then they would all start to kind of hit each other and then complete, you know, the domino

21:17 Jay told this story of how in 2009, there was a group out of the Netherlands that broke the world record for domino falls. They lined up 4.5 million domino. And what's amazing about this is not that the, what it takes to line up 4.5 million dominoes. What was amazing is that when the leader of that group knocked over the first one, it unleashed the equivalent of 94,000 joules of energy, which to put that into context, that's how much effort it would take you to drop into 545 consecutive pushups. Okay. So let's really put that into context. Do me a favor. Hold up, hold up your finger. Like you're about to flip a domino. Let's do it on three, one, two, three flick. Okay. How much effort did that take? Not much that effortless action created the equivalent of 545 consecutive pushups. That's crazy. And here's the moral of the story.

22:11 Um, the path to getting everything you want starts by getting one thing at a time. This means you have to think big, but go small and trust. The dominoes will fall. And I remember Scott, there was this graphic of what happens when, when dominoes fall. Cause there was a researcher that showed that a two inch domino can actually knock down that one. That's 50% larger. So two knocks over three, three knocks over four and a half. If you read the book, you've seen this image of the hockey stick growth by the 18th domino. Actually I'll just open up for you guys by the 18th domino, that two inch little domino can knock over the leaning tower of PISA. Oh yeah, there you go. By the 23rd domino knocks over the Eiffel tower, 31 dominoes in you are 3000 feet above Mount Everest. And by the 57th domino, you could build a structure that would reach from the earth to the moon.

22:53 So think about that literally 57 dominoes. You could almost reach the moon. Yeah, that's great. What was amazing about that was him saying we all have this vision of a 57th domino in an area of our life. It's a big goal, but the path to getting there isn't by doing everything, it's actually narrowing it down to one thing that is so small, that it's a two inch domino and effortlessly with the flick of a finger at false. And if you can become the type of person who knows what that one thing is and does it day after day after day, over time, you can achieve extraordinary results.

23:26 Yeah. So I guess the cause I mean we live in a, like a noisy busy world, right? Like, and as entrepreneurs, like our minds are racing, we're chasing shiny objects, right?

23:37 Seeing a different opportunity or maybe this thing's working, but it's not fun anymore. It's boring. It works. Now we've got to figure out something that's broken. How does someone

23:46 That's in that frame of mind know that it's kind of, I'm not seeing the results, but I know if I keep at this for long enough, I could, or I should. How does someone almost like retrain their mind to think that way?

24:04 Let me make sure I understand the question is the question. If somebody doubts, if they're doing the right one thing, how do they be consistent doing it?

24:11 That's, that's actually a different little bit of a spin on it. I liked that because that is a question too, like I'm doing this thing. I'm not seeing the results, but am I doing it right? Am I, am I doing it? And it's not going to work. I'm going to waste all that.

24:21 I mean, the way you intended it and I'll answer both.

24:24 Okay. Um, the, the first way was more of, you know, like, um, I'm wondering, um, I know where I want to go, I think. Right? So I'm going to put the time and effort in, because I know like, just for example, like to build a website and get traffic to it, we got to put content out there. It's going to take maybe three to six months before Google even indexes us. So I don't know if that piece is going to work, but how do I keep going? Not knowing that it's going to actually work, but I think it will. Here's what it is.

24:56 Think big, go small trust. The dominoes will fall. What most people do is they think big. I want to have all this web traffic and then they ask, well, what can I do to get it? And they come up with an answer. I gotta create a lot of content. And because they have an answer, they latch onto it. Like it's the answer.

25:24 The opportunity is

25:25 To acknowledge that the first answer that you have may not be the best one. You've actually got to look at all the things you could do and then identify the one you should do first. And this is where the focusing question of the book comes in and I'll share it with all of you. I'm going to warn you. It is a simple question. Do not let its simplicity, undermine its significance. That would be a mistake. So here it is. What's the one thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else would be easier or unnecessary. So let's break it down. So you really understand. Cause there's a lot of words in there. It's what's the one thing, not two things, not three things you get to pick one, that's it one what's the one thing I can do that's important can not, should not, would not feel guilty if I don't, you can do it. It's a two inch domino. It's so small. You're like, I got that. It's one thing you can do such that by doing it because the dominoes are lined up correctly, everything else would be easier or unnecessary. So Scott, can we just flip this

26:44 On you? Sure. Let's get, give me a real goal. You have, it's big. You have no fricking clue. Like you're just like, I don't know how we're going to get there. Uh, there's a lot. Um, if we're talking like business-wise, uh, this of all the goals. Yeah. Let's the one that's most important to you personally or professionally? Okay. I would probably say is to streamline my current business, this, uh, and really have it where it's running, where I'm not thinking daily as far as what is my next, what is my next move or marketing move? So two things I'm always looking for is clarity and alignment. So one are people really clear on what the heck they want. You'll find most often people are not, we need to help them. And then alignment is, are they really clear on how they line up what they do with the end result that they want the activities?

27:45 So from a high level, I'm seeing, I'm hearing you say, how do I create a business, a real true business that doesn't require me to be in it where I get to work on it. Is that accurate? It, it is somewhat. Uh, I still like, for example, uh, I, last year I had a really crazy year. It was a great year. Wrote a book, did my first live event with 250 people. Like it was just awesome. Right? That was a great year. It was very stressful. Did a high level mastermind, like all of these things and then found out it's just, it was too much actually got the shingles twice. Um, you know, to stress, you know? And I'm like, I started my business years ago as a photographer to free up my time. So I could spend with my kids, raise him, baseball, all that stuff.

28:31 And then you get, you get to a certain level and you're like, I made it. And then you're like, but it's not what I thought it was. And then you're like, Oh, wait a minute. Now, all I want to do now is I want to just serve the people that I want to serve. And I want to do it in a way that lights me up makes me feel excited, but I'm not trying to do everything. I'm just trying to do that one thing, which is bring people into our community, but have mechanisms that are bringing them in without me having to keep feeding them every understood. So there's two 20% questions I'm going to keep asking that will generate 80% of our clarity. If you give me an answer, that's a result. I'm going to ask you. What's one thing you can do to accomplish that.

29:08 If you give me an answer, that's a little vague. I'm going to ask you how will you know, if you're successful? So let me ask you this, what you just described in terms of they come into our community. It's streamlined. We serve at a really high level. Like that's our one thing fast forward to the end of next year. How will you know if you're successful? Yeah, basically we'll have, uh, three or four, uh, basically basically like workshops that basically lead people into our community. And those are gonna serve people at a micro level that will help them get a result. So then they'll also be to join in the community. So I would say have like four of these, these automated in a sense where they're educating training, but then the qualifying and bringing them in. So here's the beauty of doing this and recording. This is you're going to get to listen back to this now I can't wait. And everybody is going to, I'm going to ask you how clear is he? Scale of one to 10? Not there yet. No. And there's no judgment in that. That's what I'm here to help. Scott do me a favor. Close your eyes. Oh boy. Okay. Well, I feel like I'm in counseling, dude. You just wait. Okay. Take a deep breath.

30:20 Fast forward to the end of next year. How will you know, if you're successful? I will be able to basically have everything that I need to get done in my day to day business by noon, 12 o'clock. And at the end of that, I will have already served all of the responsibilities. People have been served in my community, but I'll also feel as though I can turn it off and know that everything is still running in the background. So what I heard you say, go ahead and open your eyes. Good job. I open them up. Oh, good. I'm hearing you say is you'd actually have clarity on what your 20% priorities are and they'd be done by lunch. Yeah. Cool. So let's pause. Notice what happened like his first, the first question I asked, it's kind of all over and I ask it in kind of all over.

31:19 All we needed to do is just change his pattern. Just break his state up, which is why I had you close your eyes and take a deep breath. Cause I knew that would immediately calm you and call your mind. And it would also make it easier for you to really search for the answer versus feeling like you should have it already. It's important that that did help a lot actually. Yeah. Okay. So cool. Now let's go smaller. What's one thing you can do to make sure you get the things that matter most done by noon.

31:48 Uh, well I think it's, uh, building those, those systems, right? Building those systems. And actually one of them is being built as we record this, I'm actually doing one of these, these type workshops where it's going to be an educational piece. That's going to lead people in, but also self qualify. So it's ones being built as we speak. So I'm actually in that process. Right. So let me ask you the next question. What's one thing you can do to make sure you build the right systems. It's the one thing that I can do to make sure that I build the right systems. Uh, I think what you're asking is, is like, how do I know that that's the right system? I'm not, um, smaller. Yeah. Uh, I will know. I will know that. I think with what you're asking is, is I will know that it's the one thing that will, it, it will confirm that by doing that one, then I can replicate to do the second, the third and the fourth.

32:54 I'm not building those other three right now. I'm building the one I'm learning, you know how that all feels, but then also can it be automated? Okay. So what's one thing you can do to figure out what the one is. I'm going to run this through. I'm going to, I'm going to basically next Tuesday, depending on you're listening to this, um, I'm doing a live workshop where I'm going to teach this one step in the process of what we teach and I'm going to prepare for it. So I'm basically going, okay. So to answer your, I'm going to repeat, preparing that slide deck tomorrow, actually, how will, you know, if you're successful there in creating the slide deck or actually fulfilling what specifically has to happen for you to say I've prepared for the slide deck. I will have gone through everything and know that I'm going to give a killer presentation that people are gonna walk away with and go, wow, I, I should have paid more for that.

33:50 That was amazing. So what's one thing you can do to make that happen, to make sure you're prepared to basically create it and then run through it before I actually present it. Cool. So let's go smaller. What's one thing you can do to make sure you create it. Make sure I schedule it and I get that done tomorrow. How much time would you need? I've already kind of thought about this. I probably need about two to three hours. What's one thing you can do to make sure you have that two to three hours reserved. I put it in my calendar. Why would you like to do that? Uh, I am going to do that tomorrow. Uh, and I am going to schedule that for, uh, 10:00 AM Eastern. So you know, from 10 to one you're good tomorrow. I am. Yes, because I did leave time open this week for that. Cause I knew I was doing this. So do me a favor cause I want to putting it off, but I've been putting it off and I can I come in here and be your partner on this? Sure. Grab your phone. Oh, okay. Open up your calendar. Okay. Time block. Okay. So tomorrow we're going to schedule this.

35:14 Are you really open from 10 to one or is there something that's going to stop you? I'm good. Nope. Good. Alright. Block it. I am good. No, cause I did. I left tomorrow just about wide open because I knew I was going to be doing this. So there we go. It's on the calendar. Let's pause. And I dissect what happened. Um, I think this is great before we even did it. I said, there's two things. I'm looking for. Clarity

35:38 And Alliance.

35:40 When I ask her

35:42 If you're successful at the end of the next year,

35:44 When we started,

35:47 There's a lot of things, all directionally, correct by the way, zero judgment. But the problem is the purpose of the goal is not to achieve the result. It's to help us be appropriate in the moment. Just like those dominoes. We can understand what the last one looks like, but we gotta be able to work it back to specifically. What's the first one that I need to knock down. That tiny inch little thing, what you just did. Yeah.

36:08 You grabbed your phone and time blocked it.

36:11 That was the lead domino. Because now you are more likely to show up tomorrow for that time. Yeah. As you've set, the intention research shows that when we identify a date, time and place that we're going to do something, we are three times more

36:24 Likely to do it. Literally

36:26 The act of doing a time block, cripples your odds of doing it. That is

36:31 Scientific. Yeah.

36:33 If you show up with the intention to prepare that slide deck, you know exactly what you have to do by the end of that time block to feel like you're successful, which will make it more powerful. When you show up to deliver that webinar, which will help you understand if that's the right system, which will make all the other stuff

36:49 Fall. Yeah. No, that's, it's so funny. It's so simple. But yet, like you said, we, we, we think big and then

36:57 We, we think, we think small, but really we're still

37:00 Thinking too big. Yeah.

37:02 Great example of this. Isn't that image I showed you the 18th domino knocks down the leaning tower.

37:07 You ever seen the Laney tower in real life? No, it is in fact leaning yet. If I challenged anybody to run and knock it over, would they be able to do it? No. No. Well, why not?

37:17 God, it's heavy. It's already leaning. Like just give it a little hip check. Things should fall. Yeah. But this is what we do in our lives. We're still going to big and day after day after day, we're ramming our head against the wall and wondering why it's not falling. And it's cause we're actually not going small enough. It's like somebody who wants to transform their health says, Oh, I'm just going to wake up earlier. Still too big. Cause if it was small enough, your track record would show,

37:40 Are you getting up? Right. We got to go small and trust that if you do these things, it will fall. The other thing I want to point out Scott is that you did something most people don't do. When you were asked the big question you searched for the answer.

38:00 Just people within a matter of seconds hit this wall.

38:03 Paul called, I don't know. And they give up

38:07 Search and then they go search for stimulus, like checking email legitimately. That's what they do. They get asked the big question. They don't know. So they open their inbox and let somebody else tell them what they should be doing in that mode.

38:20 And that's why

38:20 People spend their time and don't invest.

38:24 Yeah. I mean, dude, man, that this was a great exercise. I mean, I'm so glad that we did it. It was a little, it was a little uncomfortable doing it here. You know? Like technically not lie, but we're recorded here. Right.

38:36 But it's going to be back. Yeah. But the, you know, the, the whole thing that I like with this though is no matter where you are, like people would look at where I'm at and be like, Scott's got it all figured out. Like it's all perfect. You know, it's not, and I've hung around with some really successful people, um, different levels. And they're all searching for like simpler and what is the next thing I'm supposed to be working on? Is this right? Like, so I just want people to understand, I wanted to do that exercise too, because I want, I want people to know, like I'm transparent, I'm open book. It's like, guess what? Like we all are going to run into these things. No. As you're growing, you're learning and you're expanding and you're doing all of these things, new opportunities are going to rise. New issues, new struggles are going to arise. These are tools like you just gave me though. And that I knew, but kind of running through it. It actually allowed me to go, okay,

39:30 I need to do that again. I'll just go back and I'll just listen

39:33 To those questions to help them.

39:35 And there's something that's worth pointing out. Cause we didn't hit it. And we need to, we reverse engineered. Didn't ask you, what do you need to do right now to make everything possible for next year? Because it's too wide of a scope versus fast-forwarding and imagining where you want to be and getting really clear on how will you know for successful. And this is something, this is the biggest mistake. People make goal setting. They set their goals looking forward. They imagine, what do I want to do this year? And they pick something that seems right, but it's actually a deviation from where they really need to go. And over time, just like if an airplane gets 10 degrees off course, and doesn't correct, you ended up in a massively different destination. It's the same thing with our goals. And this is something that we teach every year.

40:17 We facilitate a couples goal-setting retreat as well as one for individuals and teams this year, we're doing it virtually, but we literally have these people sit down and we don't say, what are your goals for the next year? We facilitate an experience where they actually go out like 20 years and really have to search for how will I know if I'm successful in my life personally and professionally 20 plus years from now, dude, that takes some searching. But once they have that direction, we ask them, okay, where do you need to be five years from now to feel like you're on track again, that requires searching. But once they have that way, then go, okay, what do you have to do this year? To know that you're on track for your five, all of a sudden, all the things they could do

40:59 Really narrow.

41:00 These are the things I need to focus on for the next year. And then we help him. He go even smaller. Where do you have to be? By the end of this month to be on track, we'd have to be by the end of this week to be on track, open up your calendar. These are the two to three things you got to do this week to know that you are in alignment with that vision that you have for your life. It's how people get clear on what they need to say yes to each week, which makes it a lot easier to say no to all the other things. And they do

41:26 With the people

41:30 That matter to them. Because otherwise they're never on the same page. Yeah, dude, man, this was great. I do want to ask you, uh, as far as okay, the company now, like you've built this company. Oh yeah. There's a company.

41:44 It was a company. Tell me, tell me about the company. Like tell me about like

41:49 What did it start with and what it's grown to we're in the business of time, it's our most valuable resource problem. The problem is most people spend it. They don't invest it. Everything we do helps people better invest their time so they can achieve extraordinary results. Now how we got there, the company started out as an online training company. We started creating online master courses to help people live. The one thing it then shifted into, we did not want to be in the business of having to wake up and sell every month. So we shifted to continuity. We'd rather have the forever customer versus the customer this month. And by building a community of people who were living, the one thing we also started realizing all these companies were calling us, asking us to come in. So that launched a corporate training division, where we go into small companies of like five employees all the way up to some of the largest companies in the world.

42:49 I mean you named many of the fortune 50 500,000 people. We help make this part of their culture that led to a coaching company. It led to events like our couples goal setting retreat and the retreat for individuals and teams. And ultimately it's going to lead to us creating technology that helps people invest their time. But from if I had to really simplify it, we create content that engages people and builds authority and trust. So content reaches, number one that drives the growth of the database, which drives the growth of the customer base, whether it's online, training events, corporate consulting, coaching, which drives profit, which funds technology that's the business model. Got it. Well, that's awesome.

43:31 And so what what's going on

43:33 With your side project? Uh, other mentee. Yeah. Oh, I sold that. Okay. Cause Jay said to me, dude, you can't be the face of the one thing and have two things. Huh?

43:46 That's a good point. That's a good point.

43:49 So I actually, I shut the business down and I remember on the last podcast, I said, you know, this will be the last episode. Maybe unless somebody comes out of the audience and wants to take it over. And um, people started calling me asking if they could buy the business. So I sold the business. If you had told me I could start a podcast and sell a business. Crazy. Holy crap. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.

44:10 Great. Well, Hey, let me ask you, so how can people get

44:13 You get more from, from you and yeah.

44:16 The one thing, how can people get more?

44:18 Um, sure. So first and foremost, you're already listening to a podcast. So I would, whatever app you're using. If you just click the search icon and type in the one thing, ah, O N E T H I N G the one thing you will find the podcast, that's also the name of the book, our website, instead of it all spelled out it's with the number one. So the, then it's the number one thing.com. So the one thing.com honestly, I would say for most people who are listening this, if they had to start somewhere from a, how do we put this into practice? I would say, check out the virtual goal setting retreats that we're doing this year. It's hands down. One of the best things we do. And it's super affordable because we're doing it virtually this year. And that's the one thing.com/set my goals and the things that they'll, they'll learn in this as first and foremost, how to identify what their core values are like the three values that really drive their purpose.

45:12 Because all of a sudden, when you have that clarity, Holy smokes, everything you do is backed with purpose. Then we actually facilitate them casting that someday vision setting, the five year goal is the one year goals. We help them understand what do I need to do this month, this week and setting up a cadence. So they have the relationship with their goals, not just setting the goal. That sounds that's great. And I love it. How it's goal orientated, but then it's broken down into what you need to do. Like, like, yes, like you did for me, like what I need to do tomorrow. You know what I mean? Like it's like you break it down and I I've done a lot of that stuff myself. I now I actually do like every Sunday I lay out my week, what am I going to do this week?

45:50 What am I going to hear? But some weeks get a little fuzzy. Right? It's like, I know I got to do that, but I'm kind of not looking forward to it or I'm not sure I want to yet. And you just put it off, put it off. But like you said, you put it in your calendar, it gets done, but you got to have the clarity I'm wearing. What's important about what you just said, Scott, you're a married man. What's what's your significant other's name? Lisa, can you remember back to that? Like one of those early dates that went so well and you were just like, Oh my gosh, like I really like her. Oh yeah. I remember the first night that I met her and that I didn't think I had a chance. That's what I believe. So let me ask you this. How ridiculous would it have been if the night that you met her and you were like, Oh, there's something about her, man.

46:33 I would love to, to explore this. How ridiculous would it have been? If you said her, you know what? You seem really special to me. I would love for us to grow a relationship together. So let's do this. Let's get together in a year and see how it's going. No freaking way. I know that's not what happened. We start dating. We'd go on dates in between dates. We communicate in between communications. We're thinking about them. That's how you have a relationship. And here's why I share this is we fundamentally understand how to have a relationship with another person, but we don't know how I have a relationship with our goals. And the world does not need a new way to set their goals. They need a way to have a relationship with them to the point that every week you can date them and understand, are we on track? Are we off track? If we're off track, what the heck do I need to do this week? What belongs on my calendar so that I know by the end of this week, we are back on

47:30 Track. It's not about the result. It's about the behavior. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Jeff, man, this has been awesome. This has been great. I'm probably going to have to invite you back on at a later date. What? To dig a little deeper. I love maybe I need another therapy session. I don't know. I'll just say yes down. How's that? That sounds amazing. But Hey, I just want to thank you so much. This has been super helpful. And I just think it's amazing. Just your story, like forget about like what you're doing and all lives are changing. I mean, that's awesome, but just how you arrived there, I think is so amazing. I mean, the book I wrote is called the take action effect, which is all about the moment that you decided to do something changed your life forever. And there's multiple ones of these.

48:13 Well, you've got that one that you made a decision that day to say, Hey, I'm going to go up there and make myself known somehow some way I'm compelled to do that. I'm going to do it. And here you are. It's just amazing. And I just want to thank you for sharing that and inspiring others and uh, and really stepping up and helping a lot of other people just by being part of the one thing now. So I want to thank you for coming on, man. It's my pleasure, Scott. Thank you for having me. Alright. Well there you have it. I wasn't kidding. Right? Another great episode. Great interview. Great story. And you just can't make this stuff up guys like this one little, the one thing, this one, that little moment for Jeff, for him, he seen the book on the chair. He picks it up.

49:00 He sees the speaker and then he's like, this thing really resonated with me. I'm going to try to make myself get in touch with that person or help that person or get involved. And one thing led to another and here he is the vice president of the one thing and all of the great things that they're doing over there. So took the book and turned it into a brand, which is pretty awesome. So guys, if you want the show notes to this episode, which I think you're going to want them head on over to brand creators.com forward slash eight 97. Once again, that's brand creators.com forward slash eight 97. I'll link everything up there. The show notes, the links, all the goodies will be over there. All right guys. So that's it. That's going to wrap it up as always remember, I'm here for you. I believe in you and I am rooting for you, but you have to, you have to come up, say it with me, say it loud, say it. Proud. Take action. Have an awesome, amazing day. And I'll see you right back here on the next episode. Now

Speaker 4: 50:00 It's rock your brand.