Dan Martell - How To Overcome The Ups & Downs as an Entrepreneur TODAY

00:00:00.000 Hey there, Dan Martell here,

00:00:01.280 serial entrepreneur, investor, and creator of Saskatchewan.

00:00:03.420 In this episode, I'm gonna talk to you

00:00:05.140 about how to deal with the entrepreneurial roller coasters,

00:00:08.080 the ups and the downs.

00:00:10.400 And be sure to stay at the end

00:00:11.560 because I'm gonna actually give you access

00:00:13.580 to a private masterclass that I put together

00:00:17.060 that talked about the four stages

00:00:19.080 of the entrepreneurial roller coaster.

00:00:20.840 But more specifically, in this episode,

00:00:23.120 I'm gonna talk to you about the five ways

00:00:25.280 you can overcome those highs and lows today,

00:00:29.400 especially if you're having a hard time.

00:00:30.860 I mean, it speaks to my heart.

00:00:32.340 I know it can be hard to build a business.

00:00:34.500 And if you're in a dark spot

00:00:36.400 where you just need some encouragement and some strategies,

00:00:40.000 that's what I got for you.

00:00:41.200 Let's dig in.

00:00:54.380 I wanna start off by sharing a story

00:00:56.380 of somebody that I know pretty well

00:00:58.500 that had their business completely decimated by COVID.

00:01:04.200 Essentially 70% loss in their business.

00:01:07.400 And this is a brick and mortar business

00:01:09.140 that has staff and infrastructure and leases

00:01:11.640 and equipment and inventory.

00:01:14.520 So it's not like these digital companies

00:01:16.000 are gonna scale up and scale down.

00:01:17.580 They literally were dealing with the worst case scenario.

00:01:21.520 And for weeks, they went into work

00:01:23.520 trying to figure it out and fix it.

00:01:25.280 And it was just like demoralizing

00:01:26.660 and just felt like the world on their shoulders.

00:01:29.520 And I remember seeing him and asking like, how's things?

00:01:32.220 And I could just feel in his voice

00:01:33.640 that he was just feeling beat down, okay?

00:01:37.100 And what happened was over the next hour,

00:01:39.980 we talked, because I took the time to sit back

00:01:42.420 and think about kind of like what they're going through

00:01:44.720 and how can I support this person?

00:01:46.880 And what would I wanna hear in that case?

00:01:49.340 And essentially what I went through

00:01:50.900 was just asking a series of questions.

00:01:52.900 And these questions were specifically designed

00:01:55.340 to help them rebuild their confidence,

00:01:58.680 rebuild their excitement for their business,

00:02:00.780 look at the opportunity, shift the meaning

00:02:02.840 they were giving to the pain,

00:02:04.880 to the frustration they were dealing with,

00:02:06.760 and leave that conversation, their words,

00:02:10.140 reignited, reinvigorated, and excited about the future.

00:02:13.940 So I wanna break down specifically the five strategies

00:02:17.040 that I use in that hour conversation

00:02:18.980 to help you get through this rollercoaster

00:02:22.040 you're dealing with to get back to the highs

00:02:23.960 and away from the lows.

00:02:25.340 Number one, success filters.

00:02:27.340 So here's the deal.

00:02:28.420 I gotta explain the simple concept that I shared with them

00:02:30.480 was at each stage of growth, of business success,

00:02:35.260 of revenue, of team size,

00:02:38.180 there's these filters that you can call resistance.

00:02:42.380 Some people call it resistance, you call it frustration.

00:02:44.940 And essentially they're there in design in our lives

00:02:48.220 to make it hard for people to achieve that next level, okay?

00:02:52.400 So just so you know, if 1,000 people started a race, okay,

00:02:56.300 and you said, I wanna see who can run

00:02:58.200 the furthest for the longest,

00:03:00.120 there's gonna be these natural break points

00:03:02.420 amongst 1,000 people along that journey.

00:03:04.920 These are the filters.

00:03:06.280 As you get higher, business size, growth,

00:03:09.500 challenges, et cetera,

00:03:10.720 you're gonna naturally hit these filters.

00:03:13.140 And what I explained to them was

00:03:14.620 that this is just another one of those filters.

00:03:17.220 Now, you might look at the world and say,

00:03:19.160 well, this isn't fair, and why is this happening,

00:03:21.120 and this is not normal,

00:03:22.240 and this is a black swan event,

00:03:23.660 I would argue that, you know,

00:03:26.280 it doesn't matter if it's COVID,

00:03:28.300 your bank pulling your line of credit,

00:03:30.580 a key team member, like an exec team member

00:03:33.560 embezzling in your business,

00:03:35.100 like we're gonna deal with challenges.

00:03:37.020 Those are these filters, these obstacles,

00:03:39.100 as Ryan Holiday talks about in obstacle is the way.

00:03:42.260 And I share with him that business is supposed to be hard.

00:03:46.540 Now, this is a tough thing

00:03:48.040 for somebody who's going through challenges to hear,

00:03:50.880 but I really wanna make sure that you understand this,

00:03:54.180 that at each stage of your desire of success,

00:03:58.360 I guarantee it's gonna be hard and you will be challenged.

00:04:02.620 And I want you to know that it's absolutely normal.

00:04:06.000 You should expect it.

00:04:07.380 There's no way of avoiding it

00:04:08.880 because what's happening in that moment of challenge

00:04:12.520 is you're being forced to either step up

00:04:16.720 and become the person who can deal with that

00:04:19.080 or resign to accept the level of success.

00:04:22.940 And that's just a fact.

00:04:24.180 If you're okay and you're happy with the level you're at

00:04:27.040 and you don't wanna break through

00:04:28.480 and grow through that change,

00:04:30.700 then just understand that that's normal.

00:04:32.260 And these are filters that are placed,

00:04:34.140 it's almost like universal laws of the world

00:04:36.380 that you can't move up without dealing with

00:04:39.400 the friction and challenges at that level

00:04:41.920 to be able to become the person who has the permission

00:04:44.880 to deal with the next big challenge.

00:04:46.900 And the truth is it doesn't get easier, you get better.

00:04:51.640 Number two, accomplishment list.

00:04:53.740 So even though you know there's these filters

00:04:56.220 and these challenges, one of the ways to kind of work through

00:04:59.080 and think through this challenge

00:05:00.300 is to remind yourself how incredible you are, okay?

00:05:03.800 I say this to entrepreneurs all the time.

00:05:05.800 Every day you wake up to make the world a better place

00:05:08.720 for everybody else to benefit from.

00:05:11.260 And that only happens

00:05:12.520 because you decided to build a business, okay?

00:05:15.620 It doesn't matter if it's a lawn care company,

00:05:17.520 a car wash company, a house cleaning company,

00:05:19.660 or a high tech software company.

00:05:22.860 Every business exists to solve a problem and add value.

00:05:26.760 Meaning that whoever your customer is,

00:05:28.840 they have a better quality of resources and support

00:05:33.100 and they're able to do more.

00:05:34.180 That's all money is.

00:05:35.440 That's all entrepreneurship is.

00:05:36.720 It's an exchange of value.

00:05:38.960 And I just think that's amazing.

00:05:40.420 So for you to have gotten to a point

00:05:42.520 where you have a business,

00:05:43.420 where you're dealing with challenges,

00:05:45.620 you've probably done some really impressive things.

00:05:48.300 Things that if you look back on,

00:05:50.140 you'd be really proud of yourself

00:05:51.800 if you recognize them, if you just acknowledge them.

00:05:54.300 So the way I do this is I keep a list, okay?

00:05:56.740 I keep a list on my phone

00:05:57.920 that is all of the accomplishments I've ever achieved

00:06:01.160 since I was born that I took a moment to stop

00:06:04.380 and say, I'm really proud of that accomplishment.

00:06:07.360 You know, not too long ago, I finished my second marathon

00:06:10.240 and that was a new accomplishment

00:06:12.360 that I get to write on the list.

00:06:13.600 The reason why is it's my second marathon

00:06:16.240 is because when I did my first in 2009,

00:06:18.100 it took me five and a half hours

00:06:19.380 and I swore I would never do another one.

00:06:21.940 It was so painful.

00:06:23.440 The last three miles, I was walking,

00:06:25.560 like my muscle seized up.

00:06:27.000 I was limping.

00:06:28.240 It was horrible.

00:06:29.340 I said, why would I do that?

00:06:30.940 I'm 230, back then I was 230 pounds.

00:06:33.500 You know, I'm 6'3".

00:06:35.160 And people like me shouldn't run.

00:06:37.500 And that was the story and the narrative I told myself.

00:06:39.700 Now, fast forward to last summer,

00:06:41.700 I ended up doing half Ironman, so 70.3.

00:06:44.760 That was crazy.

00:06:46.060 And then I decided to retest and do a marathon.

00:06:49.880 And everything in my body said, this is gonna be tough.

00:06:52.720 And I decided to push through, start with my friends.

00:06:55.780 We did it and I finished in four hours and 12 minutes.

00:06:58.240 So an hour and 18 minutes faster than my previous best.

00:07:02.340 And that's now on my accomplishment list.

00:07:05.200 Why is that important?

00:07:06.340 It's because no matter what big meeting I'm getting into,

00:07:08.840 what challenge I'm facing with,

00:07:10.080 I can literally go through all of the times

00:07:12.660 that I've been tested,

00:07:13.800 all the times that I've put myself in a hard situation

00:07:17.820 that I've decided personally to push through

00:07:20.220 and do a hard thing and overcame it

00:07:22.320 and just reliving that moment,

00:07:24.160 reliving those emotions, reliving that excitement,

00:07:27.120 that's what's gonna allow you to re-energize and reset

00:07:30.000 when you're dealing with your tough time.

00:07:32.000 Number three, reconnect your future.

00:07:34.400 So one of the reasons my friend was having such a hard time

00:07:36.620 is because his future vision for the company,

00:07:39.960 their goals for the year,

00:07:41.120 their goals for the next three years,

00:07:42.380 their goals for the next 10 years,

00:07:43.960 literally came crumbling down, okay?

00:07:47.440 Everything that they planned to do

00:07:49.300 got cut by two thirds that year.

00:07:52.120 Everything they plan on doing the year after,

00:07:54.400 literally it's a full wipeout, like blank slate.

00:07:57.540 What's even possible?

00:07:58.920 What's the world gonna look like?

00:08:00.800 And what happens is when people run out of future,

00:08:03.580 when people don't have a vision for what's possible,

00:08:07.140 it makes it really tough to connect the hard work we do today

00:08:10.980 towards the potential outcome into the future.

00:08:14.140 So what I did is I just asked them,

00:08:15.900 take a 10-year vision,

00:08:17.840 take a 10-year projection in the future,

00:08:20.620 describe to me what your life could look like,

00:08:24.160 what could your business look like in 10 years,

00:08:26.480 in a decade, right?

00:08:27.580 Because maybe you've heard the great quote

00:08:28.800 that says we overestimate what we can get done in a year

00:08:31.560 and we underestimate what we can get done in 10.

00:08:34.740 So 10 years out,

00:08:35.960 describe me what you could create with your business.

00:08:38.040 And he went off and he says,

00:08:39.500 well, in 10 years, man, we could do this.

00:08:41.400 We could change locations.

00:08:42.540 We can rebuild our office.

00:08:43.800 We can redesign our thing.

00:08:45.600 We can have all these partners.

00:08:46.620 We can work with higher caliber customers.

00:08:48.020 We can do more creative work.

00:08:49.440 And it got, I could just feel the excitement.

00:08:51.960 And I said, tell me how you feel about that vision.

00:08:55.080 And it was just in having him anchor the language,

00:08:58.640 anchor the emotion, anchor the vision

00:09:00.900 and visually see it and describe it.

00:09:03.540 that allowed him to get reconnected

00:09:05.920 with the potential of a future,

00:09:07.480 even if he doesn't have the plan, okay?

00:09:09.200 I always say, focus on the where,

00:09:11.660 disconnect from the how.

00:09:13.120 Focus on what you wanna get.

00:09:15.460 Don't worry about the how, okay?

00:09:17.200 Some people are like, well, I can't think of that

00:09:18.980 if I don't know how I'm gonna do it.

00:09:20.040 Don't worry about it, because trust me,

00:09:21.820 the world is incredible.

00:09:23.580 And what you plan on accomplishing

00:09:25.820 and how you plan on doing it

00:09:27.320 probably won't happen seven out of 10 times,

00:09:30.000 but you'll still get it done if you focus on it.

00:09:32.320 So that's a big idea is reconnect with your future.

00:09:36.700 Number four, get around positivity, okay?

00:09:39.380 Now, I just happen by happenstance

00:09:41.720 to run into this person, ask them how they're doing,

00:09:44.500 and kind of be the kind of person

00:09:46.200 they felt comfortable sharing their situation with.

00:09:49.260 Now, what I do when I'm in this challenge

00:09:52.620 with this frustration, what's going on where I'm on a low,

00:09:55.280 is I'll personally write down three names of people

00:09:58.080 that always pull me up, okay?

00:09:59.980 When I write that list,

00:10:00.900 I think of my buddy, Todd Herman.

00:10:02.520 I think of Clay Bear.

00:10:03.840 I think of my buddy, Keith Yacke.

00:10:05.140 These are people that for me, when I talk to them,

00:10:08.000 they light me up, okay?

00:10:09.620 Yes, they're incredible entrepreneurs.

00:10:11.240 Yes, they're incredibly talented in their domain, et cetera.

00:10:14.140 But even if they weren't,

00:10:15.240 I just wanna be around positivity.

00:10:17.680 I wanna be around folks that see opportunity,

00:10:21.060 not constraints.

00:10:21.840 I wanna be around people that think expansively,

00:10:25.100 not contraction, right?

00:10:26.900 Like I want people to talk about the future,

00:10:30.900 not the past. And to me, that's what positivity is about. It's the possibility of what we can do.

00:10:37.180 And it's understanding how do we find the lessons in the challenge that we're facing.

00:10:41.760 You know, I think that's the biggest gift. If you get around people that are not only positive,

00:10:45.980 they're going to help you to see a different perspective. So your issue's here in your palm

00:10:51.300 of your hands, and you're looking at it through a certain lens, and it's not supporting you. It's

00:10:55.700 not energizing you. And what great positive people will do will just give you a different

00:11:00.200 perspective to look at that specific problem, to see the opportunity in it. Number five, audit

00:11:06.940 habits. Now I'm here to give you some tough love. I'm not here to cajole you and tell you it's all

00:11:12.640 about rainbows and butterflies and soft blankets and all that fun stuff. I'm here to say to you,

00:11:17.400 you're in this position because you made a certain sequence of decisions in the past about your

00:11:24.000 business, some assumptions, some growth, and you need to ask yourself, what did I miss? Okay.

00:11:29.760 what did I miss?

00:11:30.960 What did I miss on my financial optics?

00:11:33.120 What did I miss on the market?

00:11:35.120 What did I miss in the way I reacted?

00:11:36.960 What did I miss about the fact that I'm feeling this way

00:11:39.100 and not feeling energized?

00:11:40.540 What's my strategy?

00:11:41.840 What's my daily habits?

00:11:43.160 Because here's the deal.

00:11:45.180 At the end of the day, there's things you can control

00:11:47.640 and there's things you can't control.

00:11:49.320 And if you focus on the things you can't control,

00:11:51.680 I guarantee it's gonna be a spiral down

00:11:53.320 further and further and further and further.

00:11:55.020 And maybe you never come back.

00:11:56.320 And that's just the truth.

00:11:57.640 Some people do not come back.

00:11:59.380 from these pits of despair,

00:12:02.460 from these crazy trials and tribulations.

00:12:05.380 They don't make it.

00:12:06.300 We love the story of the person that overcomes it.

00:12:09.720 That's not the norm.

00:12:11.620 So instead of focusing on what you can't control,

00:12:13.400 you have to be honest with yourself and say,

00:12:15.600 hey, here's my habits.

00:12:17.600 Here's my weekly success habits,

00:12:21.520 my business fundamentals, my principles.

00:12:23.040 What did I not do?

00:12:24.560 What did I stop doing?

00:12:26.260 Am I still waking up at the same time I know?

00:12:28.260 Am I working out every day?

00:12:29.720 Am I getting around people?

00:12:31.480 Am I planning?

00:12:32.320 Am I being strategic?

00:12:33.280 Are all the things I used to do that made me feel alive

00:12:35.700 and feel confident and feel like I had an exciting thing

00:12:39.100 to create together?

00:12:40.140 Have I stopped doing those things?

00:12:41.580 Because if the answer is yes, then go back to doing them.

00:12:45.880 One of my favorite questions to ask coaching clients is,

00:12:49.260 tell me a time when you felt absolutely in alignment

00:12:53.180 and had conviction and certainty

00:12:55.460 about your success and your future.

00:12:56.940 Tell me about that time.

00:12:58.260 what did your life look like?

00:13:00.300 What were you doing?

00:13:01.100 How did you wake up?

00:13:01.860 What did your day, how did it unfold?

00:13:04.480 And when I ask them that question,

00:13:06.320 they can go to that point in their life

00:13:07.740 and they can describe it.

00:13:08.740 And then I ask them, how different is your day today?

00:13:11.460 And they usually smile and they go, you know what?

00:13:13.860 I don't do this, this, and this anymore.

00:13:15.920 Perfect, that's the opportunity.

00:13:18.440 Those things, you already know what you need to do.

00:13:20.740 You just need somebody like me to hold a mirror up

00:13:23.000 and say, hey, this is the guy that used to do these things

00:13:26.180 or the girl, why aren't you doing them anymore?

00:13:29.040 And that's, for me, you gotta audit your habits

00:13:31.640 because if you're in this rollercoaster,

00:13:35.080 you need to get a feedback loop

00:13:36.900 to see for the opportunities to learn and grow

00:13:38.760 so next time you can deal with a bigger problem.

00:13:41.520 See, most people, it's factors of zero, okay?

00:13:44.040 So like a $10 problem, $100 problem, $1,000 problem,

00:13:46.960 $10,000 problem, $100,000 problem, $1,000, million problem.

00:13:48.860 So you guys get the picture.

00:13:50.500 You're essentially saying every day when you wake up

00:13:52.780 is can I deal with a $10 problem?

00:13:54.160 or maybe you're at a $1,000 problem level.

00:13:56.540 You need to get to the $10,000 problem level.

00:13:58.340 You need to get to 100,000.

00:13:59.400 Trust me, you'll get to the point

00:14:00.420 where you're like a Richard Branson, an Oprah, a Mark Cuban,

00:14:03.100 where they're dealing with million dollar,

00:14:05.600 $10 million problems.

00:14:07.220 And they're dealing it like the same way

00:14:09.120 you deal with a $10 problem.

00:14:10.560 Maybe if somebody like you lost $10 in some kind of thing,

00:14:14.060 it was like a scam,

00:14:15.180 you would like let it ruin your afternoon.

00:14:17.320 That's crazy.

00:14:18.300 You gotta up your level, your psychology.

00:14:20.660 And it's really comes down to your habits

00:14:22.580 because the habits kick in when the motivation goes away.

00:14:25.060 So quick recap, number one, success filters.

00:14:27.820 Number two, accomplishment list.

00:14:30.280 Number three, reconnect your future.

00:14:32.700 Number four, get around positivity.

00:14:35.120 And number five, audit habits.

00:14:38.260 Now I mentioned at the beginning of this episode,

00:14:39.460 I wanna share with you an exclusive training.

00:14:42.140 It's a masterclass I gave at the Founders Summit a while ago.

00:14:46.760 And it's specifically around

00:14:47.940 the entrepreneurial rollercoaster

00:14:49.980 or in the four stages of that rollercoaster

00:14:52.980 and what you as an entrepreneur can do

00:14:55.720 to actually protect your team from yourself.

00:14:58.540 And when you're feeling like you're in this,

00:15:00.820 you know, informed optimism stage,

00:15:02.900 how to leverage that to actually go do

00:15:05.060 the right types of activities

00:15:06.240 are gonna drive the business.

00:15:07.420 And when you're not in that stage

00:15:08.720 and you're in this informed pessimism stage,

00:15:10.660 and there's four stages,

00:15:11.780 how do you protect yourself, your team from that mindset?

00:15:16.320 So click the link below to get access to that.

00:15:19.300 and as per usual, I want to challenge you

00:15:21.100 to live a bigger life and a bigger business

00:15:22.880 and I'll see you next Monday.

00:15:25.440 I got anonymized better. 0.95

00:15:26.780 I got in shit the other day for talking about somebody. 0.99

Dan Martell - December 28, 2020

How To Overcome The Ups & Downs as an Entrepreneur TODAY

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