YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → YouTube transcript (TFxT3G5jwtU)

YouTube transcript (TFxT3G5jwtU) — Transcript

4,952 words · 662 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00it's actually pretty easy to beat 99% of
0:02people because most people do the wrong
0:04stuff and for me personally I have a
0:07portfol of companies at acquisition.
0:09comom that does over $250 million per
0:11year and I make these videos because I
0:13am really just shouting at my younger
0:14self of all the mistakes that I was
0:16making by working a lot on things that
0:20didn't move my business the vast
0:22majority of growth isms for the most
0:25part are wrong because if they were
0:26right people would do them and then grow
0:28but most of growth is counter intuitive
0:30so I want you to imagine your business
0:32as a tree okay so let's say you've got
0:34this tree and it's planted in the ground
0:36and you're like where's the top of the
0:37tree don't worry we'll get there and the
0:39height of the tree over time let's just
0:41imagine is your Revenue okay so as the
0:43tree gets taller your Revenue goes up
0:46okay now the problem is let's say that
0:49you have these little offshoots right
0:51that's these little these little these
0:52little these little growth hey the these
0:54are B+ problems hey we should add this
0:56thing to our email sequence hey we
0:57should do this thing for our fall what
1:00happens is the resources from the tree
1:02from you from the ground that are going
1:04into this thing are getting shot out to
1:07the side and so you are growing you feel
1:09like you're solving problems but you're
1:12still here at the same Revenue as you
1:14were last year but once you cut these
1:17things off then all of the resources go
1:21right into the trunk and they just keep
1:24growing and then your business continues
1:27to stay focused on the one thing that is
1:30going to move the tree up the most so
1:33it's not about the amount of tasks that
1:35you finish it's the amount of growth
1:38each task gets you and this is why even
1:42biblically they talk about the way to
1:44keep a tree healthy is to prune it and
1:47pruning literally means you're cutting
1:49things off commitment is the elimination
1:51of Alternatives which means commitment
1:54is literally the recipe for growth is
1:57that you focus all resources on on the
2:00one growth path that you get the most
2:02for right now you have a big list of
2:05things that you think you should do and
2:08what often happens is that you will do
2:09number five number three maybe number
2:11two because those are the ones that
2:13you're like oh I can knock that out
2:14pretty quick oh I can knock that out
2:15pretty quick but what ends up happening
2:16is you get to the end of the day and you
2:17still have that number one thing that's
2:19sitting there on your list and that
2:20number one thing you probably know is
2:22the most important thing that if you
2:24only did that one thing it would make
2:26the rest of the things on that list
2:28irrelevant by comparison
2:30but what ends up happening is that we do
2:32the B+ problems all day because it makes
2:35us feel good because we know how to
2:37solve them the A+ problem is usually one
2:40that's a little bit hairier it has more
2:42variables it's more complex we have to
2:44get into systems we have to do more
2:45analysis and then we have to iterate to
2:47figure out how to solve it and so
2:49because of that we prefer the fast the
2:51fast dopamine or whatever you want to
2:52call it of solving the quick problem
2:55rather than solving the most important
2:57problem so fundamentally most people
2:59want to do a good job I have found this
3:01from the people who work at my companies
3:03is that they want to do a good job and
3:05so what they're afraid of is that if
3:07they have this problem that's underneath
3:09of their purview that you are going to
3:12yell at them and say oh my
3:15God ah look at these fires right but the
3:19thing is is that if you just say dude
3:21there's this massive fire right here
3:24that's burning and by far will burn
3:27everything to a crisp far more than
3:29these itty B fires will that means that
3:31it's okay that these burn and so when I
3:34do a prioritization meeting especially
3:36if it's a big turnaround thing or we got
3:37to turn an apartment around something
3:38like that like this is the most
3:39important thing in the business I set
3:41the agenda up front and I say hey as of
3:43this point nothing that has happened
3:45before today anyone is accountable for I
3:48will blame no one for anything and so if
3:50I ask you in the future of this
3:52conversation who made this or what made
3:55this happen I am not asking to blame you
3:58I'm asking so that I can understand the
4:00problem better so that we can solve it
4:01together and by saying it's like as of
4:04this moment there's Amnesia from the
4:06past no one here will be responsible and
4:08so by doing that the pressure in the
4:10room they're like okay we're on the same
4:13team and going forward if you get and
4:16like I think you have to be specific
4:17with this it's like John if you get
4:19complaints from CS about this stuff your
4:21turnarounds being slow that's okay you
4:23can tell them I said it's fine hey Sarah
4:27in legal if you're having this issue and
4:29people are like hey we got to get these
4:30contracts signed tell them I said it's
4:33fine and remember I pay everybody's
4:36paychecks and so at the end of the day
4:38I'm the one who's got to sign it and I'm
4:40telling you it's okay as hard as it is
4:42for you because you guys all want to do
4:43a good job to let these fires burn we
4:45have to flex we have to focus on this
4:47one otherwise this one's going to burn
4:48us to a crisp I was on a call with one
4:50of my portfolio teams and it was a paid
4:52ads team and they were having issues
4:54with pixel tracking and this issue had
4:57been going on for three weeks and it was
4:59because everyone was distracted everyone
5:00was looking at all these different
5:01funnels and pages and followup sequences
5:04and fundamentally if the pixel is not
5:07bringing in the right traffic none of
5:09the conversion re optimization ever will
5:11matter ever again if the pixel gets
5:13worse and worse and worse because we're
5:15seasoning it with worse data and if
5:16you're like what the hell is Alex
5:17talking about it don't worry it's just
5:19payad stuff but fundamentally if you're
5:21on a payad steam and you know what I'm
5:22talking about if that is wrong Nothing
5:24Else Matters and so the the difficulty
5:27and this is what's tough is that you
5:29have to look at all the other problems
5:31and be like oh yeah all this stuff sucks
5:33we're going to ignore that because if we
5:35don't fix this none of that matters and
5:39even as I was going up and pulling up
5:40some of the pages I was like God this is
5:42ugly and I told her I was like this is
5:43so ugly we should fix this but we're not
5:46going to today because today we're going
5:48to fix this problem we're going to fix
5:51the pixel that's it and once we fix the
5:54pixel in all of these seven funnels once
5:56it's fixed then we can go on to the next
5:58thing but the next thing because if you
6:01reassess you might find out that once
6:03you fix the pixel issue some of your
6:05conversion rate issues might go away
6:06because maybe you're getting the right
6:07traffic in there which is why you have
6:09to always reassess after doing the
6:11solution rather than trying to force Fe
6:13like I think these are the top 10 would
6:15you put eight above seven who cares
6:17you're not even going to work on it
6:18you're just going to work on the one and
6:19then get that done and then you will see
6:22with this new reality in this new
6:24context which of these now will move the
6:26needle the most and so Frank slutman who
6:29as a three-time IPO uh entrepreneur
6:32talks about this in his management book
6:33where he basically focuses every company
6:35on only one thing and so he says some
6:37companies have five objectives some
6:38companies have three objectives his
6:40companies are only allowed to have one
6:42because once you do that one thing and
6:44this is something that I have found from
6:46my experience is that let's say you had
6:48that list of five things to do you have
6:50those five quote priorities if you do
6:52the one that matters the most what you
6:54will often find is that number two
6:57through five sometimes one become
6:59irrelevant other times something over
7:02here actually all of a sudden becomes
7:04the next most important thing which
7:06means that if you had done number three
7:09number five number two on your list and
7:12then done number one then you
7:14figuratively would have wasted all of
7:16the time doing 2 three and five Because
7:18by the time you did number one it
7:20actually made those Solutions IR
7:21relevant everything that I'm talking
7:23about right now is based on a concept
7:24that we call the theory of constraints
7:26which is that you have one thing in your
7:28business that that is limiting your
7:30growth it is the constraint of your
7:32growth and once you
7:50deconstruyendo
7:53million a year so it's a decent sized
7:55room um 25% over 5 million 50% over 1
7:59million and so it's for legit business
8:01owners we talk about this type of stuff
8:03that really moves the needle for
8:05businesses in a big way fundamentally
8:07the goal of strategy which is the big
8:10fancy word that people use is to
8:13prioritize limited resources against
8:16unlimited opportunities there are
8:18unlimited things that you could do to
8:20grow your business you could run Tik Tok
8:22ads you could run LinkedIn ads you could
8:24run LinkedIn outbound you could optimize
8:26your site you could improve your sales
8:28conversions there's a million things
8:29that you could do to grow your business
8:32but there is one thing that can grow
8:34your business more than the others and
8:36that one thing would pale or make
8:38everything else pale in comparison and
8:41so when people are considered excellent
8:43strategists translate that into their
8:45excellent at prioritizing but the real
8:48best strategists see all of the moves
8:50and probably some moves you don't see
8:52that maybe the number one thing on your
8:54list gets you a 2X but there's another
8:56move that has a number one that's a 10x
8:59and and so fundamentally you have to
9:00prioritize against all things you could
9:02do known and unknown and the people who
9:04move the fastest in terms of distance
9:07covered are the ones who get the most
9:09for every unit of effort which is not
9:11about how fast they do things but at how
9:13much speed they cover with the things
9:15they choose to do and so let me give you
9:16a different analogy that you can think
9:18of with so a lot of people have a little
9:20wheel on their car and they're thinking
9:23how do I make this thing spin faster
9:25right they've got this little wheel and
9:26they're like I just got to go around and
9:28around and around and around right but
9:31what they don't think about is that you
9:32could have a
9:36wheel that's this big and if you just do
9:39one revolution you get more than this
9:41one does in
9:4310 and so we want to just think what is
9:46that one big wheel that if I just roll
9:49it once it makes all of the wheel spins
9:51that I have on this tiny wheel
9:53irrelevant so let's imagine you have
9:55your to-do list right you've got your
9:57one you've got your two you've got your
9:59three that's a three there you go you
10:00got your four you got your five the
10:02thing is is that most of the times these
10:04are B and C Level problems because you
10:08know how to solve them yay but this one
10:12is the A+ problem that you have no idea
10:14how to solve and so we spend all day
10:18every day just crossing these things off
10:20and then we are happy at the end of the
10:23day but then we're sad at the end of the
10:26month because we still haven't solved
10:28the one big problem and so you have to
10:31be comfortable with the idea that you
10:33might not solve it for one day or two
10:36days or 3 days or four days but if you
10:39do solve it on the fifth day you get the
10:41A+ solution that gives
10:44you it takes your wheel from a wheel
10:47that's this big to a wheel that's this
10:50big and from that point going forward
10:52when you're rolling you're getting that
10:54much more for every Revolution and so I
10:56want to make this super Tactical for you
10:59once you've identified what the priority
11:02is what the one thing that matters most
11:04is then typically humans us and your
11:07team will likely not want to do it it's
11:09very much in our human nature to just
11:11continue to work less and less because
11:13it's easier and so these are some
11:15tactics that I have done to pull the
11:17future forward so number one if you
11:20change the meetings from end of week to
11:22end of day or twice a day you will
11:24communicate how much more important it
11:26is you to get those things done so so if
11:29you have a weekly Cadence for something
11:31that is the priority for the business
11:33then you should be meeting far more than
11:34once a week probably more than once a
11:36day number two once you've determined
11:39that that is the priority and you have a
11:41Cadence and deadline Associated that
11:43because you're getting feedback loops
11:44that are installed much faster then you
11:46want to eliminate everything that's not
11:49that now they might sound obvious in
11:51retrospect but it it isn't in reality
11:53especially if you have a team and so the
11:56way that we eliminate is by saying
11:58everything that you are currently
12:00working on is not as important as this
12:03thing which means you need to let some
12:06of these fires burn once you have set
12:08that deadline and you've eliminated
12:10everything else then we increase the
12:13frequency of communication so obviously
12:15the meetings set little mini deadlines
12:16because you want to get things done by
12:18then but in between communication also
12:20needs to ramp up so if you check in on
12:22someone after an hour after meeting and
12:24say hey where are you at that that
12:26communicates a very different idea of
12:28the urgency around the priority or the
12:31problem that you're trying to solve now
12:34once you have that communication Loop in
12:36there what you want to also do or that I
12:38have found effective is to make winning
12:42obvious Clear and Present publicly so
12:46that means that if you have a dashboard
12:48if you have a progress marker a
12:49thermometer something to show anytime
12:52someone sees it the progress that is
12:54being made it acts as a reinforcement
12:56Loop for the entire team to get things
12:59done and if you want to go real advanced
13:02mode put a pot of gold at the end of the
13:05rainbow saying once we fix the
13:07conversion rate on our page then we will
13:10all get this thing together and it could
13:11be we all go out to dinner it could be
13:13hey everybody gets the rest of the day
13:15off whatever day we finish it like you
13:16can make the pot of gold whatever you
13:18want but it also shows what's in it for
13:20them so it's easier to say committed
13:22than to stay committed which is the only
13:25thing that matters now as the boss for
13:29first in the beginning you're boss of
13:30you but over time if you develop a team
13:32you become boss of other people and so
13:35what I have found is that you can't just
13:37increase the priority you need to also
13:41increase the commitment and so
13:43commitment I Define it as the
13:45elimination of Alternatives and so let
13:47me give you a simple example marriage
13:49the ultimate commitment relationship
13:51wise means that you eliminate every
13:52other person from your life literally
13:55who's not your wife or your husband that
13:57you will ever date again so you say you
14:00were the only person I eliminate all
14:02others and that is a commitment if
14:04you're in health if you want to commit
14:07fully to something then it means you
14:08have to eliminate everything else that
14:10is not that thing so that's where you
14:12throw away all the food in your kitchen
14:13that's not aligned with your goal you
14:15pour out all the alcohol you eliminate
14:17the alternative so that the only thing
14:19left is to do the thing that you
14:21committed to and within the context of
14:24business you have to eliminate
14:25everything that is not the priority and
14:28the thing is is that it's very easy to
14:30say you're committed and I've noticed
14:31with my teammates a lot of them are like
14:33I'm committed but it's very hard to show
14:36that you're committed so if you want to
14:38teach this process to your team this is
14:40how I think about it number one is you
14:42prioritize you say there's lots of
14:43things we could do but if we just did
14:45this one thing this would be the most
14:47important the second thing that I do is
14:49I create urgency so I say this is very
14:52important this is when we're going to be
14:54meeting about it we have to get it done
14:56by this time but you can't do that
14:58without all also
15:00eliminating everything else that they
15:02have on their plates it's not fair to
15:03say hey we're now just going to make
15:05this incredibly important thing that's
15:07due tomorrow but you also still have to
15:08do your normal work it doesn't work
15:10they're just like it's not going to work
15:11especially on a continuous basis and if
15:13you do one two and three then what's
15:14going to happen is that you will solve
15:16it and you will solve it significantly
15:18faster than you thought because everyone
15:19will be focused on solving it and
15:21everyone will get out of the way to make
15:23sure that it gets done and then you look
15:27at your list and you
15:29reassess and then you rep prioritize you
15:32set the new urgency you eliminate
15:34everything else and you keep going and
15:36the difference between a bad strategist
15:38and a good strategist just comes down to
15:41the thing that they choose to believe is
15:42the most important so this is how I
15:44applied this four-step process to the
15:46paid ads team that I was talking about
15:47earlier so first off I said okay here
15:50are all the things that are wrong with
15:51our marketing and then I said and we're
15:53going to ignore all of them except for
15:56the pixel issue then I said okay we're
15:59going to meet end of day today because
16:01this was first thing in the morning and
16:02people were like well I have a I have a
16:03meeting right now and I was like oh yeah
16:05is it with me they're like oh no and I
16:08they're like well should I I was like
16:09yeah don't be on the meeting and I was
16:11like and if someone gives you a problem
16:13tell them they can talk to
16:15me then I said that also means that
16:18whatever you're regularly doing for the
16:20day it's not that it's now this and then
16:24we went through every single line item
16:26of what had to happen for the pixel to
16:28get fixed and we assigned every single
16:31line item to each person and I said how
16:33long do you think this will take how
16:34long do you think this will take how
16:35long do you think this will take and by
16:37the way I'm asking I'm not asking for
16:38days here I'm asking for minutes and
16:40hours all right and by the time we're
16:42done it's like great so it looks like we
16:44can get all this stuff done in the next
16:45six hours so we're going to meet again
16:48at 4:30 today so that all of you guys
16:49can show off your work and I can tell
16:51you how great of a job you did then at
16:53the end of this I said okay now every
16:56single person tell me back what you're
16:58going to do next now and so here's
17:00what's interesting people came back and
17:03they said something and it wasn't what I
17:04said so I said let me say it again
17:06you're going to do this you're going to
17:08do this and this is going to reroute
17:09here say it back to me and they said it
17:11it's like right write it down and then I
17:13go back to the person ask him again once
17:16everyone gets it right great we're going
17:17to meet in a few hours I'll see you then
17:19at the time of me making this video
17:21right now I'm between the calls all
17:23right which is why I'm so fired up so
17:25once we get on the call once the pixel's
17:28fixed guess we're going to do we're
17:29going to look at the next thing on that
17:30big old list and say all right we had 20
17:33other things we need to do but tomorrow
17:35we're going to work on this one and
17:36we're going to solve that and the thing
17:37is is that so many businesses what they
17:40have and there's this great analogy for
17:41this is that they have this graveyard of
17:46half built Bridges they never get to the
17:50other side of the river because they
17:53never finished the bridge and so the
17:55thing is is that the company is spending
17:58resource ources building all of these
18:00Bridges putting These Bricks here but
18:03they never get one of these dollars
18:04across to the other side into their bank
18:06account and so this is honestly where
18:09most businesses lose all their money is
18:12building these half built Bridges
18:13because no one focuses on completing
18:15their work so we had a portfolio company
18:18that had a show up rate issue and so
18:22they had uh call it a sales event that
18:24they ran regularly in order to turn
18:26prospects into customers and so we
18:29noticed that they were getting a very
18:31low percentage of their prospects to
18:32show up now they were complaining about
18:34lead quality things like that and so we
18:36said okay if we only got the industry
18:40standard Benchmark of leads to show up
18:43to this event we would increase the
18:45revenue of this business by
18:4735% and given the margin of this
18:49business let's say is 10% we would more
18:52than triple the profit of this business
18:54is there anything else we could do with
18:56the resources we have that would give
18:59that kind of a return a tripling of
19:01profit for no
19:03risk in the next 30 days and since the
19:06answer was no then we said great
19:08everyone in this company the only
19:10priority that you have is to get this
19:12number to go up and so then we did a
19:15number of things to make that one
19:17percentage go up and as a result of that
19:21Focus the business did grow by more than
19:2435% because every single person in the
19:26company was aligned with it and guess
19:28what also happened other things fell by
19:31the wayside other things that were not
19:33as important started to burn we had
19:35little customer service issues we had
19:37little issues in the sales department
19:39these were all little things that
19:41normally would have taken away from the
19:43team's focus on that one thing but
19:46because prioritization is so powerful if
19:49you get the one thing right it makes the
19:52rest of it irrelevant the thing about
19:54doing easy problems is that they're so
19:57tempting because we all want to have
19:59that quick win we want to have one or
20:00two wins hey I want to get my momentum
20:02going but what ends up happening is that
20:03you you eat half your day and then you
20:05get a couple calls a couple
20:06interruptions and then the day is gone
20:08and then the next day you still have
20:09that number one that's sitting at the
20:10top but you filled up with two or three
20:11more easy wins and you never get the big
20:15wins to happen that continuous parade of
20:19little wins never moves the ball forward
20:21you never get the breakthroughs you
20:23never get the growth a big part of why
20:26those A+ problems are the big hairy
20:29problems is because they are soaked in
20:33the unknown we don't know how to solve
20:37them and so I want to give you this
20:39Frame of understanding that I have which
20:41is when you have these other things
20:44underneath two through five on that list
20:46you typically know what you need to
20:47start doing how it's going to go and
20:50what it's going to look like at the end
20:51the number one problem you typically
20:54don't know where to start and you don't
20:56know what to do and you don't know how
20:57it's going to end but you know that if
20:59big picture if you solve that one thing
21:01everything else would be irrelevant and
21:03so part of beginning to solve that
21:06problem is learning to understand the
21:09problem itself and so you can't feel
21:11like you're not making progress when
21:13you're trying to understand it and wrap
21:15your arms around it and so there's an
21:16old saying with how do you eat an
21:18elephant you eat it one bite at a time
21:20and so you just have to start pulling
21:22the thread which is how that's my term
21:23it's like I just start pulling the
21:25thread and see what comes and then as I
21:28pull the red my next pool becomes more
21:30and more obvious to me but you don't
21:32know what the next pool is you don't
21:33know what the next step looks like until
21:35you take the first step and the reason
21:37we don't is because it's unknown long
21:38term you want to make sure the team
21:41understands what the priority is and
21:42that's what you're doing as the boss but
21:44if you want to have faster communication
21:47cycles and more people immediately
21:48aligned with the priority of the
21:50business then what you and this is
21:51something that LE I've worked a lot on
21:54is increasing information transparency
21:56across the company that's a lot of big
21:58words but basically just means that you
21:59want everyone to know the same stuff
22:02because if everyone knows the same stuff
22:03the financials the conversion rates how
22:05we make money the profit margins then
22:08everyone else has the same information
22:10now that might freak you out as an
22:11entrepreneur but I remember when I was
22:13listening to Sam Walton's autobiography
22:15he talked about one of the big fears
22:17that he had was like showing all the
22:18financials but guess what the biggest
22:20companies in the world are publicly
22:22traded and every single employee can see
22:25every single thing you could possibly
22:27imagine about the company and yet they
22:29still function and so it is 100% a an
22:33irrational fear that entrepreneurs keep
22:36by thinking that no one should know and
22:38so I have over time continued to loosen
22:42up my my my you know White Knuckle grip
22:44on information because the more people
22:46who know everything the more people can
22:48help me solve the problems if you were
22:50to come tomorrow and say guys this is
22:52the priority like we're got to do this a
22:56lot of people will get overwhelmed
22:57because they don't know because you also
22:59told them something last week and the
23:00week before was also a priority and
23:02they're not done doing that yet and so
23:05one of the practices that I'd like to do
23:06is to pull up their agenda and say show
23:09me everything you're working on right
23:11now okay because you'll find out that
23:13some things you ask them for two months
23:15ago that they might still be working on
23:16and even if they're not working on it's
23:18taking their attention because they know
23:19they're not working on they think they
23:20should be working on it you're like oh I
23:22totally forgot I even asked you to do
23:24that oh uh we solved that other problem
23:26already in that other department which
23:27makes this problem now relevant so sorry
23:29about that if you have more frequent
23:31Loops where you can look at that list
23:33and say oh no this is more important
23:35than this don't worry about that don't
23:36worry about that this one we can deal
23:38with next week table it this is what I
23:40want you to work on and this is how i'
23:42start you can give someone so much less
23:44anxiety around the work so much Clear
23:46Direction and it gives you the
23:48opportunity to give out adab boys the
23:50moment they do it and if this is going
23:52to help you make more money in your
23:53business here's two more videos like
23:54this that'll help you make even more

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of YouTube transcript (TFxT3G5jwtU) , generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,952 words across 662 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.