Graham Cochrane (00:07.47)
What if I told you that just six words could completely change your business? I'm talking about six simple, powerful words that when applied can unlock massive growth and even lead to millions of dollars, whether you're a beginner entrepreneur or you've already made millions. If it sounds crazy, I get it, but it's true. And in today's episode, I'm breaking down what these six words are, why they're so powerful when you put them together.
and how you can start using them today to transform your business. Let's dive in.
Graham Cochrane (01:08.078)
One of the problems with growing a business is there are a million things you could do on any day of the week. And one of the problems with growing a business in today's modern world is that you not only know of all the things you could do, but you get to virtually watch everyone else do all these other things you haven't even thought of yet to potentially do in your business, which leaves you paralyzed, overwhelmed, unsure about what
tactic or strategy to implement in your business to get you where you want to go. Unsure of whether what worked for her will work for you or what's working for them will work for you. And what that leads most business owners to do is one of two things. Either you get overwhelmed and you do nothing and you just wish and hope that your business grew and you just sort of become
a victim of this belief, this story that you end up writing subconsciously in your mind that success is just not for me. I'm just a $20,000 a year side hustle person or I'm just a $100,000 a year person or I'm just a multi six figure a year person or I'm just a million dollar a year person. Whatever level it's at, you limit yourself to what you're currently doing and you tell yourself a story that that's just who you are.
And so you no longer expect to grow because you're just overwhelmed and you just resign to just do what you're doing and what you've always done. Which is okay if that's what you want. It's not okay if you want more. So that's one result from all of these tactics and strategies that are available to you. That's either one choice you make. You get overwhelmed and you do nothing. The other one is that you try to do all of them.
And so now the problem with trying to do all of them is that there's still only 24 hours in the day. You still only have the size of a team or the capacity for yourself that you have. And you still have your other responsibilities, both people and tasks and whatever else is in your life that even if you can do all the things, which is literally impossible because a new thing is invented every minute, but even if you could, eventually you hit the wall.
Graham Cochrane (03:28.769)
And you burn out, you realize, man, I pushed hard for six months on that and I can't go any further. And you flame out, you burn out. And then you're actually worse than the person that got overwhelmed and stayed where they are. You then end up exploding or blowing up your business and now you have nothing. You're actually worse off than when you started.
Graham Cochrane (03:47.48)
So let's talk about that because what I think both people need, whether you're the person that ends up doing all the things and you're burning out and you're like, or you're the person that's like, I just can't, I just can't do this. Maybe this is not for me. Maybe I just am not meant for growth. For either of you, whichever one you are, what I believe you need is a filter. What I believe you need is a simple framework to help you always know
what to do in your business. Wouldn't it be cool if you had a simple framework that you could come back to that would always guide you in the right direction so that you would always know what to be doing in your business to position yourself for massive growth? Wouldn't that be cool? Would that be helpful? Let me ask you, would that be a value to you? That's maybe the better question. I hope so, because I'm going to give it to you today. I'm going to give you
my business manifesto. I'm going to give you the six words that I build my business around. I'm gonna give you the six words that I give to my $54,000 a year coaching clients. I'm going to give you these six words because I know that they have the power to transform your business. And what I love about these six words is that I can give them to you now and then we could never interact ever again.
You could never hear any of my other trainings. I can never bump into you anywhere. And if you refer back to these six words, even five years from now, even if your business is in a totally different world, even if you're in totally different business, even if the economy is a totally different economy, they will still help you make millions. They will still help you know what to do next that's gonna lead you to growth. Isn't that powerful? All right, let me share with you what these six words are. And then I'm gonna unpack these six words so you understand how to use them.
And then you're have some homework to do after this episode. Because I hope you know that doing stuff actually leads to growth, so I'm gonna give you something to do. All right, are you ready for the six words? Have I teed it up enough, have I teased it? These six words are actually one sentence and one phrase. Ready for it? Do more of what is working.
Graham Cochrane (06:07.243)
I say it one more time for those in the back. I said, do more of what is working.
Now if you exit out of this video or close out of this podcast because you feel like that's incredibly stupidly simple, then I'm to be sad for you because you're missing out on millions of dollars and a lot of clarity. Do more of what is working. When my clients come to me and they're asking me about, I do this? Should I do that? I'm capped at 300 K and capped at a million. I'm kept. This is where we start. Do more of what is working. Okay.
There is a lot baked into this one sentence into these six words. The first question you have to ask yourself is what is working? Do you know what's working in your business?
Graham Cochrane (07:00.397)
You know blows my mind? Most of the entrepreneurs I talk to don't actually know what's working. they know how much revenue they made last month and they know what they do all day if they're really good. A lot of people couldn't even tell me what they did all day, but they don't actually know what of all the things they did last week, last month actually created the business success that they're having at whatever level that is. So do you know what is working? And specifically,
What is working in three areas? The number one thing you gotta ask is what is working to generate profit in my business? Not revenue, profit. Because who cares how much revenue you make unless it's just for bragging rights. I literally know entrepreneurs who do tens of millions of dollars in revenue a year, but their profit's closer to three or $400,000 a year.
The revenue is a much more impressive number. I'm an eight figure business owner. True, but you're really a six figure earner underneath all that. Which is nothing wrong with that. It's just who cares about revenue? I care about profit. I care about how much money do I get to take home and do with what I want to do with. I want to know how much money I have to spend on my housing, my cars, my vacations.
my children, my food, my experiences and travel, all these things, right? That's what we wanna know. So I wanna know what is working to generate more profit. Because your revenue can actually dip and you can make more profit. Maybe you have a bloated team, maybe you a bloated tech stack, maybe you are doing events and...
creating offers and products that have high cost of goods, so it just takes so much revenue to create that you're like, you know what, that's a lot of time and energy to sell this really expensive thing that I have hardly any profit margin on. I'm gonna cut all that and do something that's way more profit, high profit margin, and way less effort, time, and cost to create. So there's a lot of things going on here. So you have to ask yourself, what is working to generate more profit in my business? What is generating the most profit in my business right now? That's the number one thing I would wanna know.
Graham Cochrane (09:08.485)
What is it? Is it an offer specifically? Is it a task you're doing? Is it a piece of content that's leading to, like, what is the thing that's working to generate profit? If you know what that is, so powerful. So then the second part of that statement is do more of it. Do more of it. Years ago, I started posting some content on Kajabi as an affiliate.
I've always been recommending Kajabi. I've been using Kajabi since 2013. They didn't have an affiliate program until 2018. So I've been using Kajabi and evangelizing Kajabi for five years before I got ever got paid to do it just because it's the best product on the market. And I've used it for both of my million dollar businesses and I love it. Then they created a partner program aka an affiliate program. said, Graham, you should totally join this program. You're gonna make a ton of money. And I said, I'm not gonna make a ton of money.
But I love the product, and of course I'll use an affiliate link, sure, maybe I'll make a few hundred bucks, maybe few thousand bucks. So I did one video to test it. It was like how I use Kajabi to run my million dollar business. Posted it on YouTube and I walked away. Three months later I got an email from Ali who started the partner program and still is one of the big people over at Kajabi. She said, Graham, you've got 25 active people signed up, did you realize that? I said no. And did the math and that was like 10 grand a month.
in recurring revenue. I was like, I just created an extra six figure a year income stream recurring to my business off of one YouTube video? Hmm, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, that's working. Let me do more of that. So I posted more videos on YouTube and I emailed my list about Kajabi and I put those emails that performed well. Another thing, emails that performed well, those emails worked, let's do more of that. I put it in my funnel so that everybody goes through those emails.
and so on and so forth, right? And I've able to, I've generated millions of dollars just through Kajabi alone, which is crazy, right? Do more of what is working. Okay, what's working for profit? But that's not the only thing you gotta ask yourself. What is working for your joy and your energy? There are a lot of things that you could do that maybe you're doing that are generating profit in your business that you hate, that you loathe, like you're just like, I gotta do this again. Like if you hate doing webinars, but they print money,
Graham Cochrane (11:31.032)
Be like, dude, I freaking hate webinars. You don't wanna do more of those just because they make money. Because yes, you can eke out a few more dollars, but it's not sustainable. At some point, you're gonna blow up. So you're gonna stop it eventually, or it's gonna just destroy you and you're gonna angry. So let's stop doing those things that aren't working for your joy. So what is working for your joy? What is working for your joy? Is it when you post content? Do you like posting content? Do you like doing your podcasts? Is it?
that you like jumping on one-on-one coaching calls. What is working for your joy and what gives you energy? I have my clients go through an energy audit. I don't have time to go through that today, but I have them look through what are the tasks and people and environments that are giving you energy and the ones that are draining your energy. And most of my clients, they eventually quickly figure out these things give me joy and energy in my day-to-day in my business. Okay, good. Now we know what's working for your joy and energy. How can we do more of those? Ironically,
The more you do things that give you energy and joy, the more you're operating in your zone of genius. If you want to coin sort of gay Hendrick from the big leap kind of language. And the more likely you're going to attract the ideal customer and you're to blow their minds because you're going to people are going to see your your essence. They're going to see you and your sweet spot. And that's attractive. And that's no sales script, no marketing, no strategy can out can outperform
you being fully you, authentically you, out of a place of pure joy and love, it's just there's nothing more magnetic than that. So you're gonna grow your business by virtue of you just operating in that zone and you're gonna be able to sustain your business. You're not gonna burn out. This is a huge thing I help my clients do is shift from an energy focused business to an, excuse me, an effort focused business to an energy focused business. Because energy fueled business, excuse me, effort fueled businesses fade, which is pushing, pushing, pushing. Effort fueled businesses fade.
but energy-fueled businesses flourish. And that's what you wanna do is you wanna be energy-fueled, not effort-fueled. So you gotta know what gives you energy and joy, and then do more of that. So for me, I love learning. I love connecting with cool people. I love doing the show. I love coaching high-level entrepreneurs. So I do those things because they give me joy. Not all of them generate profit, some of them do. But most of them, all of them give me joy and energy.
Graham Cochrane (13:54.37)
So I'm do more of those. And then number three, what is working? What is working for your schedule and your margin? The three things I help entrepreneurs with is create more money, margin, and meaning in their business. What do those mean? More money. All my clients wanna make more money. I wanna make more money. Sure, let's get all the money into the hands of the good people in the world like you and me. So let's make more money. Yes, I help my clients do that. Meaning, I help my clients figure out their purpose.
design a business around who they are, not design themselves around what their business is demanding of them. So they have mission, they have purpose, they have clarity and confidence. This is what I'm doing in the world. This is the good I'm putting out in the world. I can put my head on my pillow and feel good about what I did today because I have a lot of clarity on my identity and purpose, right? I wrote a whole book on this called Rebel. Find yourself by not following the crowd. That's what this whole book is about. But the middle is margin. One of the hallmarks of the wealthy to me,
Like you're truly wealthy when you can just disappear from your business for multiple weeks at a time and money keeps flowing in and nothing breaks. One of the hallmarks of the wealthy is when you can take Fridays off to just have a date day with your spouse. One of the hallmarks of the wealthy is when you can wake up whenever you want to. You can take your kids to school and pick them up from school. You can be at your kids soccer games, musicals, cheer practices, whatever you want to see.
One of the hallmarks of the wealthy is when you can take a two hour lunch on a Tuesday because a friend or family member is in town and you don't have to check your watch to get back to the office. One of the hallmarks of the wealthy is when you're in a season where you've been launching and growing and pushing and you're exhausted that you can just sleep for a week and just put everything on pause and not even travel just to sleep and be lazy and play video games and watch Star Wars and sit by your pool.
and drink a matcha latte if you want to, and then come back next week more fully alive. One of the hallmarks of the wealthy is when you go on into your office on a Wednesday, and there's a lot of things you need to do, realizing you're not gonna perform at your best, and you really just need to go for a long walk, that you just cancel, reschedule, and you go for the walk, and the business keeps going. All of these things.
Graham Cochrane (16:14.679)
could be summed up in one word, margin, buffer. You're not packed so full that you have to be on all the time when you're awake. You actually have gaps in your money-making, rain-making time.
to be human, right? I just got off of a call where I'm in a mastermind with a bunch of incredible Christian entrepreneurs and one of my good friends Jordan Linscomb and his wife Mindy were talking about building healthy family relationships because this mastermind is all about not just growing your business but your family and your faith and all these things. And he's a drummer also and he was saying, rhythm, we love rhythm in music.
And the reason we love rhythm is because rhythm is a combination of beats and rests. It's not just constant beats. It's the beautiful combination of beats and rests that make a satisfying rhythm. Our schedules need to reflect that. If you have no margin in your schedule, you do not have a beautiful life. You have a banging, baa baa baa baa baa baa baa. It's chaos. And you can last for a little bit.
And some of you can last longer than others. But the trajectory for all of that is crashing and burning. It's not sustainable. This is why I teach my clients to have a dream week. Because a dream business is just a dream week stacked on top of itself every single week. You design a dream week once and you run that for 80 % of your weeks, dream business comes out of that. And part of that is creating margin. So what is working for your schedule and creating enough margin in your schedule?
And if you feel like there's not a lot working, find the one thing that is, because I'm sure there's one thing, one thing that's working. And whatever's working, do more of that. Do more of what is working. What is working for your profit? What is working for your joy or energy? What is working for your schedule and margin? And just do more of those. There's also an implicit question and command inside of this statement that's not explicit, it's implicit, it's hidden, it's baked inside, but it's right there, it's evident, is
Graham Cochrane (18:27.969)
The question, what is not working? In fact, that might be the easier one for you to answer right now. What is not working for growing the profit in your business? What is not working for your joy or your energy right now? What is not working for your schedule or your margin or the rhythm of your day to day?
Might be valuable to know what those things are. Not for shame or guilt. You don't even have to share this with me or anybody. Just you need to know what is not working. And my friend, there's something always not working in every season of life. In fact, seasons are a big part of business and life. There may have been something that was working in a previous season before you had kids that's no longer working in this season of raising children. There may have been something that was working in your business and life.
before you got married, but is no longer working now that you're married. There may have been something that was working in a previous season of your business, but now in light of the economy or in light of the shift in your industry or in light of AI or in light of whatever it is, is no longer working. That's okay. There's no shame here. There's no condemnation. It's just a fact. There's no feelings attached to it. just like that used to work. That is no longer working. So I used to do more of that because it was working. It is no longer working. Okay.
Well then what do we do with the things that are no longer working or never were working or just currently aren't working? You do less of those.
Graham Cochrane (19:53.804)
Very obvious, right? But are you doing this? Have you mapped this out? Do you see how these six words do more of what is working? Could lead you to have incredible clarity on what to do next in your business? And that includes what to stop doing.
Imagine a hypothetical client. You're looking over my shoulder. You're sort of hanging on my office, watching me on a call with one of my clients. Imagine I'm having this conversation with a client and you're just listening in. And I ask him, hey, what is working in your business right now in these three areas? And he tells me, like, okay, great. What is not working in your business? And he has this really long list. This is not working. This isn't making money. I spend a lot of time doing this. This is not working for my schedule. This is not working for my joy and my energy.
Imagine I tell them, okay, let's stop doing all the things that aren't working. Shock. Let's just stop doing all of them. Let's do less of those, AKA do none of them. And what if he had the guts to trust me, because most people hold on to the things that they hate just because they're familiar. What if he had the guts to say, okay, Graham,
I paid you a lot of money, so I'm gonna do what you say. I'm all in, right? Because people who pay, pay attention, and people who pay a lot, pay a lot of attention. So let's imagine he's paying a lot of attention because he's paid a lot of money. And so maybe Graham's not crazy, maybe there's some shred of wisdom in there. And so he's like, I'm gonna stop doing all these things. Well, how magical is that? That now he's freed up a ton of time.
And he's not losing revenue or profit because it wasn't working for his profit. He's no longer frustrated or angry, actually has more joy and more energy because he's no longer doing these energy sucking things.
Graham Cochrane (21:56.542)
And he now has a ton of free time in his week because he's freed up all the time that he was spending to things that weren't working. So he has this giant surplus now of time and energy to then do more of what actually is working, even if only one little thing in his business is working. Well, then what's going to happen if he does more of what is working? He's going to make more profit. He's going to have more joy and energy and
more than likely if it's related to a schedule and margin, he's gonna have more margin and a better schedule. He's gonna be way closer to what I teach as a dream week.
And like this is obvious on the outside, but if you're overlooking this conversation as I do this with this client, he might think, this is stupid, this is dumb. I know, of course, if I knew what wasn't working out, stop doing it. That's actually not true. But you and I watching, you can see like, yeah, bro, why is he doing that? Like, clearly that's not putting money in his bank account. Why is he? He's posting five reels a day and none of that actually makes money in his business. And he hates it too.
and he doesn't have time to go to his kids soccer game because he's busy editing a reel. He's finding a trending audio for the reel that it took him 30 minutes to edit that only 30 people are gonna see. Like you could see that and go, yeah, that's crazy, bro. He should just stop doing that and he should start doing more of this one thing that's working. Like his webinar seems to be working. He just does more. And you and I would be like, yeah, high five. Because when you're on this side of it, you see it more easily, but we don't see it in ourselves. So this is why you have to do the dirty work of actually respecting
statement, do more of what is working and letting that be a filter and guide you in your business. you're, again, going back to the very beginning, you're either overwhelmed, you're just paralysis by analysis, you're frozen, and you're just coming in every day and you're just twiddling your thumbs functionally. you're busy. You're focusing on inbox zero, you're posting on social media, you're watching more courses from people. You might even listen to this podcast. But what are you doing to grow your business?
Graham Cochrane (24:01.293)
Or you're the person that's doing all the things and you're burning out.
Now you have a filter to say, okay, I can stop doing all this crazy stuff and just do this. Or you, if you're overwhelmed and paralyzed, you can say, I actually know what I should be doing. And I'm gonna stop doing these things that just keep me feeling safe and productive, but they don't actually produce the fruit I want in my business or life. This becomes your guiding phrase. Do more of what is working.
I wanna give you a simple piece of homework in a minute. I'm gonna explain it. This is what I give my high level clients. It's so valuable. This could literally change your business. But before I give you that tactical thing and we close it home with that, where are you in this conversation? Just check in with yourself. Honestly,
Graham Cochrane (25:01.303)
How well would you answer these questions? Do you know what is working?
and your profit and your energy and joy and then your schedule and margin. And do you know what is not working in those three categories?
It's a simple yes or no. And then more importantly, because you can figure those things out, are you willing to do something different? Because if you don't have the result you want in your business,
It's because you're not doing the thing that it takes to get that thing in your business. And the reason you're not doing the thing that it takes to get that thing in your business is because there's a belief you have or a story you tell yourself, even at a subconscious level.
that keeps you exactly where you are as a person. The reason I talk about mindset and personal growth and taking ownership over these things, as well as giving you tactics and strategies and ideas for practically what to do in your business, is because your business and your revenue will always cap out at your growth's cap.
Graham Cochrane (26:19.377)
as a human, as a person. If you want to make more, earn more, have more, you have to become more. And this is why you need to invest in yourself. This is why you need to read books. This is why you need to take courses. This is why you need to hire a coach. Like pay good money for a coach. Pay money where it's uncomfortable. Where it forces you to like, am gonna show up.
I just, have.
Graham Cochrane (26:53.525)
Three coaches right now. I have two coaches in a mastermind that I'm currently in. And then I just hired another coach. Two of these coaches are very different. I've hired a third different coach for a different area.
Graham Cochrane (27:11.977)
I spent more money to hire this coach than I paid for my first two houses that I bought combined.
Graham Cochrane (27:24.235)
It's crazy for me to say that, but at the same time, it's not crazy because I know, well, A, I have the money, but like B, I know that in order to get somewhere I've never been, I have to do something I've never done, and to do something that I've never I gotta become someone I've never become.
And to do that, I need to sit under the mentorship of and the challenge of and the encouragement of and the wisdom of someone who is that person who's done those things, who has the things that I want. And to do that, you have to pay to play. And the paying is what gets me to be bought in.
It's what gets me to pay attention. It's what gets me to write a new story and say like, hey, it raises my expectation of what I need to get out of this. So you better believe I'm going to get a ton of value out of this. And it's going to be uncomfortable. And so I'm not just the only one telling you to do new things and stretch your brain. Like I do this myself. I literally have three coaches now and now I'm in two masterminds. That's a lot of money.
Put that combined.
I've spent millions of dollars on coaching and personal growth because I know that if as I become more, I can do more, I can have more. So the question for you is, are you willing to become more? Are you just gonna listen to this and go, that was cute.
Graham Cochrane (29:00.855)
It's your choice, man. But if you want to make millions of dollars, have 10x the impact you're currently having, have more transformation in your clients and customers' lives, or just have 10x the amount of fun that you're having in your business, then something's gotta change. You gotta do something different. So you have to be willing to take action. Are you willing to do that? It's an invitation. I can't make you, you gotta decide. If you are, I wanna close this with giving you simple homework. Ready?
If you're not driving in your car, write this down. It's gonna be six simple steps.
I've talked about the 80-20 rule a lot, it's also called Pareto's Principle. But Wilfred Pareto coined this idea and saw this lopsided nature in the universe that 80 % of the results are usually generated by 20 % of the input. So 80 % of the outputs come from 20 % of the inputs. 80 % of your revenue comes from 20 % of your products or offers. 80 % of your revenue comes from 20 % of your customers.
I've been in the church world as a volunteer my whole life. 20 % of the volunteers do 80 % of the work. 20 % of the tithers that support the ministry are responsible for 80 % of the ministry's, you know, revenue to do the work. So this 80-20 nature. What's great about this is that in your business right now, 80 % of what you're doing is a giant waste of time. It's not moving the needle. That's great news because that means that
you can literally focus on just the 20%. You can do more of what is working, which is that 20%, by the way. You can sort of see how do more of what is working is my way of teaching the 80-20 rule in a command.
Graham Cochrane (30:52.077)
So everything I do in business is built around this concept of the 80-20 rule. So here it is, six steps to implement some homework for these six words, right? Step number one, and I literally want you to do that this week. So if you're driving and you can't do it right now, do it this week. Promise me you're gonna do this before you listen to another episode of my show. Number one, I want you to, on a piece of paper or a notes app, list every task you do daily, weekly, or monthly in your business.
Just list them.
as bullet points and every single task, I mean literally every task. So for example, I upload YouTube videos every week. That's not a task, that's actually multiple tasks. I would write that as come up with a YouTube idea, perform or record the YouTube video, edit the YouTube video, create a thumbnail for the YouTube video, create the title and description for the YouTube video, upload the YouTube video, post it to my blog, email it out to my list.
Right? Schedule it, whatever. That's like eight things minimum. So I want you to write down every task, no matter how big or small. Some you do every day, some you do every week, some you do once a month. And maybe if you have some that are quarterly or annually, you can write those down as well. That's gonna take you the longest time and part of, and I have my clients do this, part of the reason you do this is so that you are forced to see all the stuff you're doing. It's gonna be exhausting.
and a little depressing to see it all, but it's the truth. It's like this is what I'm doing for better or for worse. That's step one. Step two, circle the tasks that require your face, voice, or specific skillset. Circle the tasks that require your face, your voice, or specific skillset.
Graham Cochrane (32:49.697)
meaning only you can do these.
And you have to be honest. One of the things that I thought required my specific skill set for four years was answering my emails. Turns out that is BS. That was just fear and pride mixed together. Fear that if someone else answered my emails, they would somehow say something wrong or misrepresent my brand or piss somebody off or whatever. Or they'd miss something important at all these fears. And then the pride of like,
only only I can serve my audience and only I can get them their refund or get them their password. It's like that's ridiculous, right? Or that people need to hear from me. And I prided myself as being I'm to be the brand that responds to every email. And guess what? That was a great idea when I got no emails. Turns out when you're getting hundreds of emails a day, that breaks down real quick. And when you're spending four hours a day in your inbox and you don't have the time to go serve your people.
then your ideology of answering every email is broken. So that's when I realized after four years, I need to hire somebody. So that did not require me specifically. So circle the ones that require your face, your voice, or your specific skillset. That's the second step. Step number three, star the ones or put a star next to the tasks that you listed that give you energy. Just look at the 40, 50, 100 things you wrote down and just put a star next to the ones like, when I do this, I'm like energized, man. Just good to know.
So we've done three steps so far. You've listed every task that you do in your business currently, that you do, not that the business is that you personally do. You've circled the ones that only you can do, because they require your face, your voice, or your specific skill set. You start the ones that give you energy.
Graham Cochrane (34:36.727)
So now look at the tasks that are remaining that aren't circled or starred. So these are basically tasks that don't require you and don't give you energy.
of those remaining tasks, I want you to go through each one and ask yourself, this is step four, can I eliminate it? And if you're unsure, ask, if I eliminate this task, what bad thing will happen?
If you can't really think of a real bad thing, like if I eliminate this task, does the business fall apart? Or another way to ask is, is this task absolutely necessary for the business to function and thrive?
Some tasks don't print money, customer service for example, but it's absolutely necessary to the You gotta serve your customers. You gotta have somebody there for communication. They can't be emailing or messaging into a black hole, right? But a lot of the things we're doing could be eliminated. You always eliminate tasks first. You do not hire, you do not outsource, you never wanna outsource something that nobody should be doing. Why would you pay someone to do something that no one needs to be doing?
This is where the biggest gains are for my clients is when they start to eliminate stuff that they thought they needed to do because they've always done it or because so-and-so does it or because everyone does it or whatever the blame. It doesn't matter. Who cares what anyone's done or said you need to do? Everyone's business is different and most of the stuff we do is a giant waste of time. It just makes us feel productive. So eliminate, that's step four. So you cross those out. Okay, now whatever's left, this is step five. Whatever's left on that list of things that you don't have to do,
Graham Cochrane (36:20.257)
that don't give you energy, that you can't eliminate, automate. Ask yourself, could I automate this? Is there an app? Is there a tool? Can AI do this? Could I automate this? Because it's absolutely necessary, not for me, and I don't want to do it, and I can't eliminate it, can I automate it? Never hire a person when you could automate it, because it'll be faster, more efficient, and cheaper. So you automate absolutely everything you can.
And finally number six, every single task that is left on that list that you don't need to do, that you don't wanna do, that cannot be eliminated so it's necessary for the business, that cannot be automated, meaning a human has to do it, then you delegate. That's when you hire somebody. Part-time, full-time, 1099, W-2, doesn't matter to me, whatever fits the need, then you delegate.
If you did those six things, and you don't have to do all those things in one go, but you could know the answer to those questions in one go. You could sit down for 30 minutes and know that you could do all six of these steps. You'll see everything you're doing, you circle the ones that only you can do, you start the ones that give you energy, and then you instantly say, okay, I can eliminate these. These can be automated. You look up some tools. Okay, I could automate those. And these need to be delegated. Then now you can go action on that later, but at least now you have a plan.
You have a plan to eliminate and free up and streamline and just better manage your business, specifically what you do every single day, week or month. And now you're starting to see a little bit about how am I able to generate $2 million a year working five hours a week? It's not that I'm smarter. It's not that I'm faster. It's not that I have a huge team.
largely is because I just stopped doing what everyone else is doing because it's like, it doesn't make sense. This isn't putting money in my pocket. I'm not going to post on Instagram all the time. I just saw the head of Instagram said you should be posting five times a day. What a giant waste of time. For most businesses, it's a giant waste of time, especially mine. I get, I would make way more money if I just email my list or follow up with the past client and ask if he wants to do a VIP day. Like, why not just do that instead of
Graham Cochrane (38:39.425)
You know, putting out five reels a day, it just makes no sense. So I just stop doing most of the stuff. That's the only reason I'm able to do it. And then things that I can't completely eliminate, I've automated or I've delegated. But what's amazing, there's not much to automate or delegate when you eliminate a good chunk of what you're doing. And this is a practical outworking of the six magical words that we started today with, which are, do more of what is working.
So I hope this has been helpful to you. I hope this has gotten you to think. And I hope that you are at a point, whether you're at the beginning of your business journey or you're decades into this thing, where you're willing to suspend disbelief and actually try something different. Do this work. Apply these six words every single day to your business. Filter everything through these six words. If you do, you're gonna make millions. You're gonna have so much more fun in your business. You're gonna impact a lot more people.
And you can always know what to do next in your business no matter what's happening inside or outside of your world. It'll be a guiding light for you. I trust this has been a huge help to you today. Thanks as always for your time. It's the most valuable asset you have. And I'll see you on another episode real soon.
