October 26, 2020

The Frameworks Every Entrepreneur Should Learn | My First Million Podcast

Check out My First Million Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes.

Instead of making a to-do list, ask what is the one highest impact thing I could do today?
- Prioritize the rest of your tasks based on impact and urgency
Set clear measurable goals that are both ambitious and realistic
- Then set your anti-goals, the things you don’t want to happen along the way
- Run quick calculations on what it will take to succeed, then spring into action
People don’t care about you or your product, they care about what the product will do to them
Plateaus are an inevitable part of growth, embrace them
Be impatient with action and patient with results
Build an audience first, it makes everything easier and gives you optionality

Host: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) shares his favorite ten frameworks for entrepreneurs

Even though they feel good at the moment, To-Do lists are not the best way to be productive
Instead of making a to-do list, ask what is the one highest impact thing I could do today?
- Keep in mind: Impact, not difficulty
- This will make you more productive and less stressed
For your other tasks, use a power box instead of a list
- That is, categorize your tasks in terms of impact and urgency to help you prioritize

Set clear measurable goals that are both ambitious and realistic
- Think “I want to have $5MM in liquid assets by the age of 35” instead of “I want to achieve financial success”
Set your anti-goals, the things you don’t want to happen along the way
- For instance, sacrificing your health or family
- Don’t be in the position where you won the battle but lost the war
Run quick, back of the envelop, calculations on what it will take to get there
- Brainstorm strategies to conquer seemingly hard to hit numbers
Always take action when you make a decision, get 1 hour of momentum
- For instance, talk to a customer or make a prototype

Mario is a potential customer, he starts off small then finds your product which makes him big and powerful
- It’s a mistake to then start obsessing about and marketing your product
- Instead, describe how customer lives improve if they use your product
  - Then back it up with evidence, explanations, and social proof
Keep in mind, people don’t care about you or your product, they care about what the product will do to them

When faced with a plateau, some give up and move on, others push through
Masters embrace plateaus and understand they are an inevitable part of growth. Here is a recipe for getting unstuck
- Relax and get in the right state of mind
- Use the 3 Ms:
  - Music
  - Movement, do a physical exercise
  - Meaning, frame the challenge in a different way and give it a new meaning
No matter how bad it gets, remember “this is gonna make for a hell of a story later”
Ask the right questions. For instance,
- What are the data and evidence telling you?
- What is a stupidly obvious thing you haven’t tried?
- What would a friend or a mentor do?
- Who is successful at this and what are they doing differently?
Last but not least, Be impatient with action and patient with results

Build an audience first, it makes everything easier and gives you optionality
- Start with a newsletter or podcast or a YouTube channel
- Keep in mind; it’s a marathon, not a sprint. So, enjoy creating the content

Common founders mistake: Bad news demoralizes them, so they avoid looking anywhere they might be bad news
- Instead, create a culture where you see all the data, good bad or ugly
  - As a result, you focus on the learning and see the truth

Cows stand on a field all day, every day, slowly chewing on low nutrient grass
- This is similar to a daily 9-5 grind
By contrast, lions sit and observe till a prey comes along and sprint to get the prize
- They enjoy then rest waiting for the next prey
As Naval puts it, “Knowledge workers function like athletes – train and sprint, then rest and reassess”

If you are operating in a new or a niche market, you want to promote the lifestyle, not your product
- In other words, don’t market your product against competition as if you are selling horse saddles
  - Instead, promote the lifestyle of horseback riding to the masses, when someone admires the lifestyle, be there offering the saddle
Case in point, Slack is the dream of working without long email threads, not a chat app

Instead of sending a cold email, try making it personal and friendly, here is a trick
- A senior manager tells a sales agent to email a potential client. The agent forwards that interior email to the client with a little brief, asking if they are interested