Dan Martell - How To Make Big Decisions In Your Business

00:00:00.000 Hey there, Dan Martell here, serial entrepreneur, investor, and creator of SaaS Academy.

00:00:03.940 In this video, I'm going to teach you how to make big decisions, even if you have no prior

00:00:09.380 experience in making those decisions. And be sure to stay to the end. We're going to tell you how

00:00:13.500 to get access to my precision scorecard, because the key is measuring so that when you make these

00:00:19.580 decisions, you know if it had an impact. Let's get into it.

00:00:30.000 So recently I was working with one of my JFDI clients,

00:00:38.560 which are 10 million plus in ARR.

00:00:41.060 And one of the questions they asked me was,

00:00:43.040 Dan, look, I love having you as a coach,

00:00:45.460 but when I've got to make decisions with my team

00:00:47.880 and I've never done them before,

00:00:49.680 I've never been in that area of the business,

00:00:51.580 how do I make them fast?

00:00:53.340 How do I educate myself?

00:00:54.600 How do I move fast?

00:00:55.700 So I want to share with you guys how to think through that.

00:00:57.980 Even my personal journey,

00:00:59.240 There's been some huge decisions like, should I move to San Francisco?

00:01:03.540 Should I bring on a business partner?

00:01:05.640 Should I raise venture capital for my startups?

00:01:08.540 Should I pivot my business or stay the course?

00:01:12.160 These are the kind of decisions that have the ability to shape your destiny.

00:01:17.320 And if you've never done them before, it can feel scary.

00:01:21.040 Literally, you can stay up at night, not sleep, anxiety.

00:01:24.300 I mean, I've even had clients break out in like hives

00:01:28.320 because of the pressure of making these decisions.

00:01:31.980 So what I wanna share with you guys

00:01:33.140 are the specific steps that I use

00:01:35.700 whenever I get into a new area

00:01:37.520 and I've gotta make decisions fast

00:01:38.960 because if you don't,

00:01:41.980 the backlash of not making a decision

00:01:45.040 could be even worse than making the wrong decision.

00:01:47.340 So let's get into it.

00:01:48.480 Step one, define the problem.

00:01:50.720 So Charles Keterin has a quote that says,

00:01:52.720 a problem well-defined is a problem half-solved or something like that. And I honestly thought

00:01:57.940 it was Einstein that said it. But the way I think about it is too often people come to me for advice,

00:02:02.880 for coaching, and they're like, hey, Dan, how do I run Facebook ads? And the real challenge is that

00:02:10.160 the problem they're trying to solve is not how to be good at Facebook, is that they're trying to

00:02:15.640 increase traffic to their website or they're trying to increase lead generation for their

00:02:20.420 or demo request funnel, or whatever it is.

00:02:22.760 So for me, it's being really intentional,

00:02:25.420 really clear around the specific problem

00:02:28.420 you're trying to solve, and then figure out

00:02:30.900 the optionality for doing that.

00:02:32.760 Because if you can't get clear around what it is specifically

00:02:37.100 that's stopping you, and that is the problem,

00:02:40.040 then all the other feedback you can get from people

00:02:43.820 will be around the wrong thing, right?

00:02:46.080 Because I can tell them, hey, here's

00:02:47.320 how you run Facebook ads, here's the four different stages

00:02:49.900 of your funnel.

00:02:50.740 Here's the way you set up your remarketing pickles.

00:02:52.060 I can tell them all of that, but that won't serve them

00:02:54.760 if the underlying problem is actually not more traffic,

00:02:58.300 but a better offer or a better funnel.

00:03:00.620 So number one is we need to define the problem.

00:03:03.980 Number two, research the solution space.

00:03:06.580 So no matter what problem you're trying to solve,

00:03:08.660 there are people that are way smarter than us

00:03:11.300 that have written books, talked about it on podcasts,

00:03:15.220 written blog posts around the specific solutions

00:03:18.840 to that problem.

00:03:19.780 So what I like to do is deep dive.

00:03:22.320 You might only decide to say,

00:03:23.460 look, I'm gonna block an hour of my time

00:03:25.060 and I'm gonna get into it.

00:03:26.380 I'm gonna research the top books,

00:03:28.080 buy those on my Kindle.

00:03:29.140 I'm gonna subscribe to some podcasts,

00:03:30.700 search some titles,

00:03:31.420 maybe just get right into the episodes.

00:03:33.500 I'm gonna research some blog posts,

00:03:35.480 research my tip for all of you guys,

00:03:37.180 if you don't know this,

00:03:37.800 I like to use Google Images.

00:03:39.420 So Google Images,

00:03:40.460 what you can do is find frameworks.

00:03:42.000 I'm a very visual thinker and I like to draw.

00:03:44.660 If anybody's ever been in one of my trainings,

00:03:46.440 I love to design models to help people think clearly about the problem.

00:03:51.720 And Google Images will show you the blog posts that have images

00:03:55.920 to help give you some patterns to understand the specific problem.

00:03:59.680 So to me, I want to really understand and research the solution space

00:04:04.620 for all my different options around that specific problem.

00:04:07.900 Number three, connect with mentors.

00:04:10.640 Now, if you don't have a mentor, you're still unclear what a mentor is,

00:04:14.000 I'm going to link up a bunch of videos I've done in the past around identifying the mentor,

00:04:18.900 connecting with the mentor, five questions you shouldn't ask your mentor, because I think it's

00:04:23.340 really important. But the way I define a mentor is somebody who's already been to the place you're

00:04:27.920 going and can kind of look back and give you guidance into the steps, okay? So assuming you

00:04:33.500 have the mentor, I know when I was deciding if I should move to San Francisco or not from Canada,

00:04:38.760 it was a really tough decision for me. And I turned to one of my mentors, Ken Nickerson,

00:04:43.160 because I wanted to make sure that I

00:04:48.020 didn't make the wrong decision.

00:04:49.700 I didn't turn my back on the city that I grew up in,

00:04:52.820 that I was, I had a lot of pride in being Canadian.

00:04:56.440 But I also knew that my dreams and my aspirations

00:04:59.960 were very much pulling me towards Silicon Valley

00:05:03.080 to see if all my crazy ideas could actually

00:05:06.040 work among some of the best entrepreneurs in the world

00:05:08.940 in the software space.

00:05:10.560 And it was Ken's advice where he said to me,

00:05:14.180 he said, look, the biggest thing you could do

00:05:15.880 for your province, for Canada, is to go there,

00:05:19.420 learn as much as you can, and teach everybody back home.

00:05:22.080 And I feel super privileged to have had people like Ken

00:05:25.680 and others mentor me along the way

00:05:27.340 so that I was able to do that,

00:05:28.980 specifically when I started my company, Clarity,

00:05:31.360 because not only did I learn and I took a bunch of stuff

00:05:33.980 and I taught it back to everybody,

00:05:35.340 I knew my entrepreneurial friends,

00:05:36.500 but I even got investors to wire money in my company.

00:05:40.320 I raised $1.6 million in funding for Clarity,

00:05:42.760 and the coolest part is it was investors in San Francisco

00:05:45.480 that wired the money to a Canadian bank,

00:05:48.540 and that was a really proud moment for me.

00:05:50.640 So all that to say is connect with mentors

00:05:53.140 because they're gonna be able to give you insights

00:05:56.860 into the future to help you prioritize

00:05:58.800 your decision-making and give it context

00:06:00.900 because sometimes we just don't know

00:06:02.560 how big of a decision is it

00:06:03.820 and what are the factors I should be considering

00:06:05.540 around that specific problem.

00:06:08.620 Number four, verify with peers.

00:06:10.740 So here's one of the frustrating parts.

00:06:12.440 If you have a mentor, you have a bunch of advisors,

00:06:14.800 is sometimes you will get conflicting advice, right?

00:06:17.660 So the suggestion I give my coaching clients

00:06:20.120 is that you want to get as much insights,

00:06:23.020 as much data, as much information

00:06:24.880 around the decision you're making.

00:06:27.900 And then try to have a peer group, okay,

00:06:30.760 of people that you trust that are on the same journey.

00:06:33.240 Maybe they're one or two years ahead of you

00:06:34.780 that you can use to essentially calibrate your decision.

00:06:37.620 because here's the reality.

00:06:38.800 Your mentors might have done what you want to do

00:06:41.300 15 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, right?

00:06:44.540 Your advisors may have never done this.

00:06:46.340 They've never been the founder.

00:06:47.240 They're just really great experts in whatever field.

00:06:49.880 So what you want to do is find people

00:06:51.520 that are on that same journey.

00:06:53.220 So for example, in the sales space in my life,

00:06:56.020 I have a guy named Keith.

00:06:56.840 He's one of my best buds.

00:06:57.980 And what we do often is when it comes

00:07:00.440 to anything sales specific, the process,

00:07:03.220 the funnel, the conversation, et cetera,

00:07:04.980 I'm always asking him like, hey man,

00:07:07.060 I'm thinking of changing the offer, changing it to a two-step

00:07:10.300 close, or I'm thinking of adding this funnel in front of it

00:07:13.040 to kind of pre-frame the rest of the conversation.

00:07:15.540 Whatever it is, having somebody, I can go do my research.

00:07:18.940 I can talk to my coach.

00:07:20.080 I can talk to my mentors.

00:07:21.440 But having somebody that is a peer

00:07:23.140 to be able to give it a final check, to me,

00:07:26.040 is one of the most powerful things.

00:07:27.920 So make sure you verify with your peers.

00:07:30.180 Number five, decide and adjust.

00:07:32.480 OK, here's the deal, JFDI.

00:07:35.360 It's my license plate.

00:07:36.360 it's on my wall in my garage, it's in my house,

00:07:38.320 it's in my office, JFDI, you can Google it

00:07:40.860 to figure out what it stands for.

00:07:42.640 But here's what I've discovered, is for many of you,

00:07:45.860 the biggest challenge you're having is making no decision.

00:07:49.040 It's actually not the making the wrong decision,

00:07:52.120 it's you haven't made the decision.

00:07:53.640 Your team is waiting on you.

00:07:55.060 They're waiting to be led,

00:07:56.820 and what you haven't done is decide and move forward.

00:08:00.880 Here's the coolest part.

00:08:02.240 There is very few decisions that you could make

00:08:04.940 that you can't unwind if in two months,

00:08:07.600 three months, six months,

00:08:08.580 you realize you made the wrong decision.

00:08:10.300 But not making that decision over two, three, four,

00:08:13.760 five, six months will just bring the morale

00:08:16.120 of your team down, will slow you down

00:08:18.380 from being crystal clear on strategy and execution

00:08:21.360 and will be bigger as an issue,

00:08:25.700 will cause a bigger impact on your business

00:08:27.620 than if you would have just decided,

00:08:29.740 move forward and learn from that feedback loop.

00:08:32.260 So quick recap, how to make big decisions

00:08:34.300 with no prior experience.

00:08:35.940 Number one, you want to define the problem clearly.

00:08:39.320 Two, you want to research the solution space

00:08:41.800 and the opportunity.

00:08:42.680 Three, you want to connect with mentors

00:08:44.760 who've been there before.

00:08:46.020 Four, verify the feedback and strategy

00:08:48.540 and decision with peers.

00:08:49.940 And number five, decision and adjust.

00:08:53.040 Commit JFDI style.

00:08:55.320 As I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

00:08:56.580 I want to share with you guys an exclusive resource

00:08:58.440 called the Precision Scorecard.

00:09:00.300 Now, if you're not currently measuring the activity,

00:09:03.620 the results that your team is producing in your company,

00:09:06.860 you need to create a scorecard.

00:09:08.600 And if you click the link below to download my Precision Scorecard,

00:09:11.100 I will teach you how I do it in all of my companies.

00:09:14.220 It's very different than most.

00:09:16.120 For example, one of the things that we do is we measure weekly

00:09:19.380 and we set a projection and figure out what our actuals are on a monthly basis

00:09:24.300 so we know within the month, the first week, the second week,

00:09:27.160 are we trending to goal?

00:09:29.060 And they stack up to the quarter to the year

00:09:31.280 so that we know we're going to hit our numbers.

00:09:33.280 because in the software space, in SaaS subscription,

00:09:36.540 if you don't hit your number this month for new customers,

00:09:40.040 it is really hard to catch up in the second month

00:09:42.580 and third month, and you get way off your projections.

00:09:44.400 So you can click the link below

00:09:45.860 to download my specific approach to scorecard

00:09:48.600 called the Precision Scorecard.

00:09:50.420 And if you like this video,

00:09:51.640 I would ask you to subscribe to my channel.

00:09:54.540 Smash that like button.

00:09:55.920 If there's anybody that you care about

00:09:57.440 that you think this could serve,

00:09:58.740 feel free to share with them directly.

00:10:00.820 I appreciate you guys being here.

00:10:02.000 And as for usual, I want to challenge you to live a bigger life and a bigger business.

00:10:05.080 And I'll see you next Monday.

00:10:07.200 Scorecard.

00:10:09.120 Get the scorecard.

Dan Martell - December 23, 2019

How To Make Big Decisions In Your Business

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