Entrepreneurship Dashboard > Time for a Reality Check
GET YOUR BUSINESS OFF TO A GREAT START… OR KEEP IT MOVING FORWARD
John Carlton: Time for a Reality Check
Overview
Show Notes
Action Items
Resource Links
John Carlton kicks the day off with a great discussion of how to do a reality check.
This is a lot more than just “hi, how’re you doing, did you have a good night?” this is 45 minutes of pure gold.
Start with writing everything down, break it down, keep to “Operation Moneysuck”, do you automate…
…way too much to write down here. I took 2 pages of notes and just hit the highlights.
Reality Checks: Take advantage of the opportunity
Get clarity on your situation. Get your problems, goals and sticking points all written down.
Start breaking them down. Get index cards and put each idea onto a card.
Categories:
- Done
- Need more info (break it down some more)
- Need new resouorce (employee, software)
- Need to outsource
- Need to fix it now or can you ignore it for awhile
Try to keep the items you work on within 1 to 2 steps of operation moneysuck
8:56 He gives some examples of Operation Moneysuck
Don’t get ahead of yourself. Stay simple.
If you can’t sell face-to-face you will have trouble selling online.
Build your business logically…step by step
15:04 If you don’t know what to do next keep breaking it down. Where are you now? How many steps away are you from doing what you want to do?
It’s ok to be wrong…fail fast
Start looking at what professional help you need.
Do you need to brainstorm and mastermind?
Do you need more education/coaching?
23:19 What does your business look like at the next step?
Pick one thing and finish it. Multitasking is bad. You can do a lot of things in a morning, but one thing at a time. Use a timer.
Use deadlines and measure progress.
Be able to move on. The past is in the past.
Do you want to automate? Outsource? Hire other people? You need to get traffic.
27:36 Look for clues that you are zooming past your core competency. Get help if you need it.
Become an expert in what you do. Box your ego and lock it up so you can look at your business dispassionately.
Speed reading: Shows you how to devour information
Book Recommendation: The Closers by Ben Gay
- List your major goals, problems and sticking points
- Get out a series of index cards and list one on each.
- Put each into one of the following categories:
a Done
b. Need more info (break it down some more)
c. Need new resource (employee, software)
d. Need to outsource
e. Can you ignore it for awhile - List the steps you need to take for each
- Get to work
One way to get honest feedback about your business or business idea is to join a Mastermind group. Find out about John and Stan’s Platinum Mastermind here.
John mentions the value of outsourcing to free yourself up. We have an intro to outsourcing to the Philippines here.
A great aid in breaking stuff down is a mind map. We have info on how to create a mind map here.
We have ideas on how to become more productive here.
If you want John and Stan to give you a reality check and are a Marketing Rebel Insider’s Club member, you can apply for your own hot seat here.
If your copy needs help, you can learn to do it yourself or be better able to manage a copywriter by taking the Simple Writing System. Check out the free intro here.
John also mentions the value of speed reading. We have a guide to reading a book quickly and efficiently here.
Books mentioned in the video:
The Closers, by Ben Gay II
Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
My Life in Advertising by Claude Hopkins
Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy