
October 26, 2020
The Frameworks Every Entrepreneur Should Learn | My First Million Podcast
Check out My First Million Podcast Episode Page & Show Notes.
Key Takeaways
- 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
Intro
- Host: Shaan Puri (@ShaanVP) shares his favorite ten frameworks for entrepreneurs
Your To-Do List is Killing You
- 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
How to Kickoff a Project
- 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
Big Mario Marketing
- 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
Getting Unstuck
- 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
Having an Audience is Like Steroids
- 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
All News is Good News
- 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
- Instead, create a culture where you see all the data, good bad or ugly
Work Like a Lion, not a Cow
- 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”
Don’t Sell Saddles
- 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
- In other words, don’t market your product against competition as if you are selling horse saddles
- Case in point, Slack is the dream of working without long email threads, not a chat app
Cold Emailing to Close Sales
- 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