Dan Martell - August 07, 2023


How CEOs Buy Back Their Time


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

213.49788

Word Count

2,226

Sentence Count

74


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Here's three strategies that are not found in my best-selling book,
00:00:03.720 Buy Back Your Time, on how you can get even more leverage.
00:00:06.520 And I talk about calendar outcomes and leadership of your direct reports
00:00:10.620 that most people struggle with.
00:00:12.640 You know, recently I was doing a coaching call
00:00:14.620 with one of my clients in my elite coaching program,
00:00:17.000 which is for non-software founders,
00:00:18.860 so people that are not in tech,
00:00:20.700 building HVAC companies and coaching companies and agencies.
00:00:24.540 And they had read my book.
00:00:25.720 They installed the perfect week.
00:00:26.960 They did the time and energy audit.
00:00:28.200 They understood audit, transfer, fill,
00:00:30.340 but they were still running into people problems
00:00:32.500 or how do I connect my big vision
00:00:34.560 that I talk about in chapter 13,
00:00:36.120 dream bigger, achieve bigger into the calendar?
00:00:39.120 And then what about the people?
00:00:40.680 Like, okay, I bought back my time,
00:00:42.520 but I still feel like people are coming to me
00:00:44.260 to ask questions for me to give them the answer.
00:00:46.540 And I wanna be able to start working through people
00:00:49.440 because that is usually the complexity ceiling
00:00:51.460 that stops people
00:00:52.440 because they don't understand to work through people.
00:00:54.900 So I wanna unpack the three things I share with that client
00:00:57.560 that help them see the future, the vision,
00:01:00.000 get the blueprint for the next level
00:01:01.840 that's not covered in the book.
00:01:03.800 Let's get into it.
00:01:07.460 So this is an advanced strategy
00:01:09.300 for leading your direct reports, okay?
00:01:11.420 So anybody that's in leadership
00:01:12.980 has people that they manage,
00:01:14.580 they're accountable to,
00:01:15.560 their performance reviews,
00:01:16.780 their compensation,
00:01:18.180 their training, their coaching.
00:01:20.140 And as the CEO,
00:01:21.460 most people don't realize
00:01:22.860 that you should force yourself
00:01:24.440 to only have seven max.
00:01:26.580 Like, I'm talking Max.
00:01:27.780 One time I remember asking one of my mentors,
00:01:29.680 this guy Travis, he had built a company
00:01:31.540 to 5,000 employees in four years.
00:01:34.800 And I said, Travis, I can't even comprehend.
00:01:37.580 How did you do that?
00:01:39.020 And he said, well, I only ever have
00:01:40.720 five to seven direct reports.
00:01:42.880 And I'm like, what do you mean?
00:01:44.000 He goes, my job every day is to wake up
00:01:46.660 and create what's called management bandwidth.
00:01:49.460 And I'm like, okay, I like the sound of this.
00:01:51.080 What does that mean?
00:01:51.620 He goes, well, at the end of the day,
00:01:53.280 whatever we're trying to execute
00:01:54.680 or any crazy ideas I come up with for each division
00:01:57.860 in my business, I can move things forward
00:02:01.400 based on the ability of my team to move that forward.
00:02:04.920 So I have to look at each leader
00:02:06.660 that reports directly to me and say,
00:02:08.480 do they have the skills, the capacity, et cetera,
00:02:11.000 to move this forward?
00:02:12.580 And if I don't, then I've got to either upgrade them
00:02:14.740 or I got to coach them, right?
00:02:16.080 Or they, yeah, they might have to transition down.
00:02:18.460 Whatever it is, I want you to consider this idea, okay?
00:02:21.360 When you have direct reports, cap yourself to five.
00:02:24.680 maximum seven if you have to go to seven and really squeeze it out all right go to seven but
00:02:30.760 i'm telling you if you force yourself to only have five direct reports or seven direct reports
00:02:35.020 and those are the people that no matter what you want to get done in your life okay those are the
00:02:40.320 ones you work through it'll be a game changer and the key is is always have them come to you with a
00:02:46.060 one three one and i talk about this in the book but it is so important i want to repeat it anytime
00:02:51.200 they come to you with a problem I want you to immediately ask them back what's your thoughts
00:02:55.240 always what's your thoughts I literally was doing a one-on-one this morning with one of my direct
00:02:59.000 reports and they brought up three things and they forgot to bring a one-three-one so I can just keep
00:03:03.660 it simple and short what are your thoughts they said here's a problem I'd love to get your
00:03:07.600 perspective perfect what are your thoughts I want to hear from them I want to hear what they've
00:03:12.280 evaluated I want to hear what they've considered I want to hear what context that they've gathered
00:03:16.620 research conversation to have with other people. And through that feedback, I'm going to listen.
00:03:21.200 And then together, we're going to collaborate to come up with an outcome. Why this is powerful.
00:03:25.720 And this is where most people mess things up and they create a ceiling of complexity
00:03:29.420 is that you are teaching that person how to self-solve. You're teaching the person how to
00:03:35.120 fish. They don't need to come to you in the future because over time, they know you're
00:03:39.260 going to ask them that same question. What do you recommend? And oftentimes when we actually
00:03:43.340 stop and reflect. We know what we need to do. We just, I don't know, sometimes we just think that
00:03:49.180 maybe it's easier to have somebody else tell us. Or if I get somebody else to tell me what to do,
00:03:53.720 then it's not my fault if it doesn't work. And as a CEO, you may be doing that to your team where
00:03:57.960 you're always telling them what to do. So I want to encourage you. This is the thing I gave my
00:04:01.780 client. Cap your direct reports to five at most seven. Number two is how to fill your calendar
00:04:08.340 with the right things.
00:04:10.480 You know, it's cool to buy back your time,
00:04:12.360 but I often have people,
00:04:13.480 and I talk about this in my book,
00:04:14.800 where they buy back all this time
00:04:16.220 and then in a year they wake up and they go,
00:04:18.460 all right, I'm not really working too much
00:04:20.880 and I don't have a lot of stuff going on,
00:04:22.640 so I bought back all of this time,
00:04:24.920 but I don't feel productive.
00:04:26.340 I don't feel fulfilled.
00:04:27.700 And if you look at the drip matrix in my book,
00:04:30.060 drip is delegate, replace, invest, and then produce.
00:04:34.100 Most people don't realize,
00:04:35.380 but it is literally on the left side,
00:04:37.700 This is how we transfer things off of our plate, right?
00:04:40.540 Delegate and replace.
00:04:41.580 And then on the right side, it's all about investing, okay?
00:04:44.380 And then producing.
00:04:45.760 What do we do with the newfound time?
00:04:47.840 So this is my recommendation to you.
00:04:49.840 I always look at my calendar through a rhythm, okay?
00:04:52.660 It's energy management.
00:04:53.800 It's not time management.
00:04:55.320 I would much rather get into a flow of batching
00:04:58.180 a certain type of call in a certain day of the week,
00:05:01.760 maybe in a two-hour sprint where I'm like back-to-back-to-back
00:05:04.540 50-minute calls doing something that needs to get done
00:05:07.620 than managing those calls over the five days of the week, right?
00:05:11.520 So I really want you to think about the energy flow of your week.
00:05:15.020 And most people don't put in, these are the big ideas,
00:05:18.860 the skill development they need to develop to get to the next level,
00:05:22.480 the belief systems about how the world works
00:05:25.040 that they don't even realize are there.
00:05:26.800 It's oftentimes the things that you believe that are simply not true
00:05:29.800 that is an issue.
00:05:31.160 Sometimes we got to give some stuff up to make space
00:05:33.920 for the things we need to add, right?
00:05:36.540 Oftentimes, you gotta ask yourself,
00:05:38.080 what am I willing to give up?
00:05:39.260 If I want this crazy goal, what am I willing to give up?
00:05:43.200 Where's the space gonna come from?
00:05:45.260 And that's what you do with your calendar
00:05:47.760 so that it is in there, that it is part of the flow
00:05:50.660 so that you never feel like all you're doing is nothing
00:05:53.500 where you bought back all this time, right?
00:05:55.260 I had a client yesterday tell me,
00:05:56.820 I hired an executive assistant six weeks ago
00:05:59.300 and I now have 35 hours a week.
00:06:01.580 What am I supposed to do with that?
00:06:02.740 I'm like, you forgot the other part.
00:06:04.880 You forgot the invest.
00:06:05.840 you forgot to produce and the part is about becoming more so you have more to give right
00:06:10.880 so that for me is skills beliefs and more important your character traits the confidence
00:06:16.420 the communication skills the belief the self-worth you know you're never going to achieve a penny
00:06:22.420 more than you feel you deserve than you feel that belongs to you that you feel you're valuable at
00:06:29.980 most people under charge for what they do because they don't feel like they're worth more and that
00:06:34.540 where you got to go deep so you buy back your time to then go and actually schedule the investments
00:06:40.460 in the books in the mentorship in the training in the community in in whatever it is to help
00:06:46.220 you level up so you can become more so you've got more to give number three is outcomes to calendar
00:06:52.300 see when i coach clients i don't know i just see the world a lot differently i look at my calendar
00:06:57.820 i look at my vision i look at my goals for the year and i just i'm always mapping it like are
00:07:02.860 are the things I'm doing this week,
00:07:04.280 align with the things I wanna get done this year,
00:07:06.340 to the month, to the quarter, et cetera.
00:07:08.440 And oftentimes when I ask people,
00:07:10.580 they don't understand what's the number one thing
00:07:12.720 holding them back, right?
00:07:14.040 So they might have this crazy goal,
00:07:15.260 but when I say, well, what's the leading domino?
00:07:17.100 What's the one thing if you actually executed,
00:07:19.400 it would make everything else easier.
00:07:22.120 And once you know that, then show me your calendar.
00:07:25.760 Because one of my non-negotiables is every morning,
00:07:28.560 I wake up and I focus the first 90 minutes of my day
00:07:32.280 on the project that is going to move things forward.
00:07:35.780 And I stay on it, and I execute,
00:07:38.420 and I'm obsessive about it, and I put in the time,
00:07:40.940 and I create the activity so that it becomes inevitable.
00:07:45.240 See, most people don't put their outcomes in their calendar.
00:07:48.680 They just allow themselves to be distracted
00:07:50.440 by the squeaky wheel.
00:07:52.320 Whatever client's the noisiest, team member's the noisiest,
00:07:55.300 biggest fire they gotta put out,
00:07:56.780 they don't give themselves the gift
00:07:59.680 of blocking out the time
00:08:01.160 to move their most important project forward
00:08:03.620 so that everything else takes care of it.
00:08:05.620 And this is why I work with my executive assistant.
00:08:07.420 This is an advanced buyback strategy,
00:08:09.540 is she knows my goals.
00:08:10.920 She knows what my projects are
00:08:12.400 and we lock them into the calendar.
00:08:14.460 When we meet up, it's like,
00:08:15.780 okay, tomorrow morning you're working on this.
00:08:17.440 You also have this project, you have this thing coming up.
00:08:19.160 Do you want me to put 30 minutes there?
00:08:20.400 Yep.
00:08:21.240 Do you want me to put 60 minutes there?
00:08:22.080 Yep.
00:08:22.920 Do you want me to schedule a meeting with this person?
00:08:23.860 Yep.
00:08:24.680 Put it in the calendar.
00:08:26.320 See, some of you guys buy back all this time
00:08:28.200 you have this calendar space and it's blank that's not supposed to be how it works if you follow the
00:08:33.720 perfect week formula that i teach in the book you would know you want to allocate it but most of you
00:08:38.040 guys forget to allocate the outcomes the projects the tasks the meetings the conversations the
00:08:43.400 creativity that are really going to allow you to co-create with people at a higher level and that's
00:08:47.400 another thing most of you guys are building by yourselves and i want to invite you to consider
00:08:51.560 build with other people because you will do way more for somebody else that you made a commitment
00:08:56.280 too right you won't cancel a meeting on somebody else but you'll cancel working out with yourself
00:09:01.160 you'll cancel doing the hard work with yourself you'll cancel doing the sales calls the sales
00:09:06.040 chats the sales outreach with yourself schedule it with somebody else make yourself accountable
00:09:11.800 to them that co-creation will be like a three x it is one of my secrets right i love to build
00:09:18.040 companies with other people because it just makes the whole process more fun that is my invitation
00:09:23.960 to you. I want you to think about it. How efficient are you really with your time? And that's why I
00:09:29.020 wrote a whole chapter called The Time Assassins. Because sure, you can buy back your time, but why
00:09:34.280 don't we start with this? Why don't we eliminate the waste? Why don't we remove the things that
00:09:39.940 are vices, that are bad patterns, that are habits, that are robbing us of those precious seconds
00:09:46.020 every freaking day? Why don't we start there? Because sure, you can go spend a bunch of time
00:09:51.680 and money and hire people and manage all these people to buy back your time only to waste it or
00:09:56.640 you can get honest with yourself look in the mirror and say what do i need to do to become
00:10:02.440 even more productive with my time how do i force myself and create these forcing functions
00:10:06.880 it's like the day before you go on a big trip for most people it's the most productive day of their
00:10:12.220 month why because you know there's this forcing function to go on vacation set the scenario up
00:10:18.320 for you to win.
00:10:19.780 That's my invitation for you.
00:10:21.060 How do you level up your time
00:10:22.900 so you produce even more with the time you got?