Only you can know if you feel successful. In order to do so, you must first decide how you will measure your progress on the path to success and happiness. Unless you are Elon, you’re likely treading a well beaten path. Whatever stage of the path you are on, I hope these lessons I have learned are of some value to you. Welcome.

Core product value can be defined as the main reason someone buys from you. Understanding your core product value is crucial and you must strip back your product/service one piece at a time until you identify the minimum effective dose of core product value where customers are happy and keep returning. Your long-term success can be by how fast you can deliver a strategic dose of core product value to your intended target audience. Once you have identified this

If you have a subscription product, your job is now to repeat that every month.

I will state this clearly for you. If someone has a problem and instead of fixing their problem your strategy for keeping clients happy is a strategy of customer delight, you are just waiting to be overtaken by a more efficient competitor. Do not waste time with trying to 'WOW' your customers with fancy websites, software, flowers or gifts. Repeat business is the only proof you are providing core product value.

As Jeff Bezos said in this famous Amazon interview, 'Internet Shminternet'. Amazon's job is to solve customer problems whether of not that is through the internet. You have to become equally obsessed around delivering core product value for your customers. In everything you do you must be able to identify HOW this comes back to solving your customers' problems. A new desktop website design matters very little if your customers use your mobile 90% of the time. Watch Amazon's interview here.

You can sell a pen to someone if that person needs to write their name. This method is identifying an obvious need that must be filled immediately. Your sales conversations need to be the same. You identify whether your customer has a problem that you can solve and then you identify that they do not have a solution to that problem. Now you must engineer sales conversation to highlight either one of two things... the current pain they are in because or the future pain they are about to walk into and be so unprepared if they do not solve this problem now.

Got your first sale, great! You have a massive opportunity now to turn that customer into a customer for life. How? New business is what everyone puts all their energy into - making that SALE!... But then fumbles the opportunity of a delivering an amazing 'WOW' moment for their customer. It is fucking simple: identify your core product, solve that need and deliver your solution in a series of steps... no matter if you're a barman, dentist, magician, wedding planner... DON'T drop the ball when it comes to keeping that dollar.

Pricing is easy. In the internet age it is very possible to create something for a $1, sell it for $10 and deliver $100 of value. Think how much you can make from one golden nugget you read in a book for example. Your product wants to provide immeasurably valuable golden nuggets for your target customer.

One of the main solutions to wasting time is asking quality questions from the right people. If you haven’t done the work you have no right to complain. First, be quiet, and work hard. This is not some mindset hashtag ‘hussle’ message either. It is the simple belief that hard work earns respect and if you find yourself complaining, get busy by working hard and then you will gain a little more favour when you show someone your hard work and then ask a for help/feedback. This is working smarter. You do this working hard, encountering problems and asking questions that will help you overcome your current problem. Then ask people who have overcome your same problems and then just copy their method of success. Once you are successful you can iterate on their version of success, finesse it to your target market and and you now have a solution to a problem you could likely charge for.

How you ask a question of yourself or of others determines the quality of the answer you will get in return. First always ask yourself if you can get the answer on your own. Is it already on Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube or ChatGPT? If you can't find the answer you need to ask someone and this automatically puts you in backseat. How you approach asking someone for their help/information is crucial to get right. 1) Simplify the question before asking 2) think if the person you are asking is likely to have the answer 3) be polite and brief 5) do not put pressure on a response time.

Leading indicators are a method of delivering a sequence of highly orchestrated steps to 'WOW' your customers. Think of any world-class delivery of core product value from an operational point of view... McDonalds or the Ritz... there is a method and a highly engineered process to deliver core product value or that powerful 'A-HAA' moment you returned for.

Lagging indicators serve to fine-tune the effectiveness of your Leading Indicators, providing a reactive measure of how well you are delivering core product value. While lagging indicators might not be my primary focus currently, they are invaluable as evidence of the success (or failure) of your Leading Indicators. It's essential to remember that, although useful, lagging indicators do not guarantee future success. For instance, the S&P 500 has historically yielded an average return of about 10% annually since its inception in 1957. This demonstrates that Leading Indicators can forecast future performance but are not infallible. Therefore, it's wise not to rely solely on them and to diversify your strategies wherever possible.

Your best customer would ideally be a younger version of you with a problem you needed solving. A problem that you found a way to overcome in the past makes you highly qualified to build a roadmap for a product/service you could sell. This is because you inherently understand the problems you will have encountered so your product will likely resonate well with others. Reflect on the services you once wished were available. Leverage leading indicators to meticulously craft an original customer experience tailored to your customers. The key is to first envision the level of service you would find exceptional when you had encountered a previous p

Pareto's Principle, commonly known as the 80/20 rule, suggests that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of efforts. This concept underscores the importance of focusing on the most effective activities that drive the majority of results, offering a strategic approach to efficiency and prioritization in various aspects of business and personal life.

If maintaining self-discipline challenges you, it's crucial to establish a reliable system for accountability. Options abound, from sharing goals with friends or family to engaging a professional accountability partner. At accountable.club, we embrace the 'see, share, do' model: initially, identify a success that inspires you. Next, share your aspirations with a supportive peer group to gain motivation and constructive feedback. Finally, commit to your goal, dedicating yourself to the necessary actions until you achieve it.

Taking your eye off the ball is like taking your eyes off a circling shark. It may or may not bite you but you are putting all you have worked hard for up for grabs due to negligence and in return you will either not know it when it strikes and remain ignorant or be unlucky and pay the consequences. your gut is firing negative feelings to your brain. So take time once every month and go to your customers and simply measure if your core product is being delivered. Here’s three methods to avoid this fatal flaw 1) each month call a small percentage and simply ask them how it’s going 2), send out NPS scores 3) by putting leading and lagging indicators in place so you can measure the performance of tasks you have delegated. Once you have achieved some success you now need to keep an eye no the circling sharks: competitors, distractions, employee boredom etc. Do not throw your hard work away over delegation.

The old adage is true, hire slow fire fast. In reality you need 3-4 stages for hiring an employee. 1) 10-minute phone call with set questions 2) Set them a task which could be as simple as send a video talking about yourself to this email address 3) A short phone call to see they are a good culture fit 4) A 1-on-1 interview with a grading list to help identify A players who can do the job you need TODAY not tomorrow. 5) Before you make an offer, ask them to complete the following sentence via email 'I will join the company so long as X,Y, Z are offered.' Ask this question BEFORE you make an official offer. Tell them to include salary in that statement so when you make them your offer you know they will accept and cannot ask for any final terms which you might not feel comfortable offering after you have made an offer.

It's simple. If you have the interview, they probably like something about you. Assert your confidence that you can solve the problem they have on their plates today. Go in with 3-4 excellent questions written on paper, this makes you look highly prepared. Be able to recite their company website and what they do. Pick out 2-3 things you love about their company, this makes you seem like you are not just there for the money. Regarding money, do not ask about pay until the final rounds, this makes your seem desperate and you should already know what you'll be paid. Make some notes during the interview. Be prepared, know your shit, talk confident. Go in with 2-3 areas for professional improvement you are currently working on and put a positive spin on them. Toast when you get the job!

Can you teach me a skill right now? Are you able to clearly and effectively communicate and provide someone a valuable lesson? If the answer is yes then you can have a valuable conversation with someone in the world right now. Even if it’s fixing a lightbulb, there are thousands of old ladies who need help with that right now. You could be valuable to them.

What skills do you have? I’m going to teach you how to save a company time and money. I could sell my agency onboarding process. I could do this by charging a day rate to agency owners. I could do a free marketing course for unemployed people who want to get into marketing and teach them the basics.

Excessive generosity can lead to feelings of bitterness and resentment, especially if you find yourself overextended emotionally or financially in relationships. Striking a balance is essential; embracing a healthy level of self-prioritisation, or 'narcissism,' is not only acceptable but necessary. It demands strength and integrity to recognise the importance of putting your needs first.

Personal growth often emerges through confronting and overcoming challenges. An anecdote of a friend, who unknowingly possessed exceptional strength, illustrates this beautifully. His discovery of his physical capabilities after being introduced to the gym and experiencing muscle soreness for the first time exemplifies finding oneself through adversity. Similarly, emotional growth can be identified by the nature of the stresses you encounter, from the day-to-day struggles of a homeless individual to the overarching responsibilities of a CEO or president. Recognizing and addressing the areas where you experience emotional stress can lead to profound self-awareness and development.

Like massing blame is not the person you want to be. It's an in

Answer this question. Would you rather take $1million up front or be given 1 cent on day 1 and have that amount double each day for 30 days? Answer: the second choice gives you $5,368,709.12. The power of compounding is crucial and you need to use it in the workplace. If you have a problem, bring in another qualified opinion and apply two brains to the problem. You can often end up with a much more effective solution to the problem with two qualified minds.

Taking your eye off the ball is like taking your eyes off a circling shark. It may or may not bite you but you are putting all you have worked hard for up for grabs due to negligence and in return you will either not know it when it strikes and remain ignorant or be unlucky and pay the consequences. your gut is firing negative feelings to your brain. So take time once every month and go to your customers and simply measure if your core product is being delivered. Here’s three methods to avoid this fatal flaw 1) each month call a small percentage and simply ask them how it’s going 2) send out NPS scores 3) by putting leading and lagging indicators in place so you can measure the performance of tasks you have delegated.

Going off the radar in an entrepreneurial sense means you are dedicating yourself totally to your goal at hand. Some call is monk mode, and this is a useful tool and test of your calibre as a person who can set and achieve goals. You are simply so focused in your work you are simply unavailable when you are normally totally available and this may distort people's perception of you. You can use this tool in short sprints to make massive progressive.

First you need to actually have revenue coming in. After that, you need to break down the tasks you are doing for that revenue into four groups: $10, $100, $1000 and $10,000 per hour. As a one mean team you'll be doing nearly all the tasks in all the buckets, but as soon as possible you need to delegate those tasks in the smaller buckets to others. If you never do this, you will never grow. This is when hiring comes into play.

You only want A-Players in your company or people who fit your company culture, are trustworthy and can do the job that needs doing today. Hiring slow and firing fast is true and you need an effective process that first ranks potential employees for their suitability. Here's three useful stages for making great hires. First, a 10-minute phone call with set questions. Second, a 45 minute interview. Third, a task which closely resembles the exact problem you are hiring them for. At each stage, rank them A/B/C/D. If you have no candidates who you rank as an A player, start the process again.

Ask the candidate to complete the following sentence… ‘I will join the company so long as…’. Ask the to include everything they want. Once that have completed this step, send them an email asking them, ‘Thanks, we are just finalising our interview process here. If we made you an offer with X,Y,Z (pay, start date, holiday, bonuses, training etc) included, would you accept this kind of offer? Once they respond, simply make them the offer, in-person is best.

You want your employees to experts in their roles. That is simply someone who can get on with the job and get a positive outcome with the most efficiency. This is why special forces were invented. They are highly niche in one area of problem solving and they are in small numbers. That is what you want your team to be.

These very lessons you are reading are the result of me taking 30 seconds to write down a thought on my iPhone. Note taking is a compounding action. If you are employed you will 1) impress your bosses 2) forget less 3) be more organised 4) get more done 5) become more valuable to your organisation 6) give yourself the freedom to outsource with a proven structure.

"If you need a machine and don't buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don't have it"

When a woman regrets sleeping with a guy and wishes she didn’t it’s because she doesn't feel enough rapport was built with the guy. Buyers remorse is that same thing. The customer has purchased without enough rapport being built in! Before the ask for a refund settle their nerves. Give them a call or text personally to welcome them as a new client and congratulate them on their choice. You did not build enough rapport and unless you are a doctor administering epinephrine to saves someone from anaphylactic shock you don’t have the right to administer the pen and waltz off.

When you become very good at something you may often find the task mundane or boring. What was interesting and challenging before is now a source of boredom. You have reached a level of competency that you can likely do the task quicker and with less mistakes than when you first started and this brings monotony. You want your team to reach this same level of monotony and this is when you know they will have reached a level of competency and you can now trust they will do the task well.

Many times football teams lose a star player and everyone panics. How will we survive? At my company we lost someone who made 100% of our sales for two years. How did we survive? Two years on we had added another £2million in revenue. Our sales did take a hit in the short term but the new constraint breeds creativity and resourcefulness. Another time we lost an employee who could easily solve every single problem a customer would come to him with. He was like a plane on autopilot taking customers everywhere. We only wished we could find 10 of him and we always wandered what we'd do if he ever left. The one normal working day he just walked in and said, thanks guys but I want to leave, and handed in his notice. The constraint forced me to build a new employee onboarding system teach and train employees what we taught him in person. Now we can take anyone and turn them into a skilled employee in months. People will leave and this is an opportunity to sharpen your sword.

No I am not getting hippy. You need to live and breath by your daily workflow. How are you administering core product value into what you are working on? Then you must obsess and become fanatical about your daily workflow and ask yourself the questions you must know the answer. What is my plan today? Did I achieve yesterdays target? Do I need to change or update my workflow tomorrow? Am I ticking off at least one major action each day which drives me forward towards my goals? This must be written down in your daily workflow and you must sweat to it.

A moat was an effective way for castles to keep their enemies at bay. You must do the same with your business. Be hard to imitate both internally and externally. We had a competitor of ours at the agency (Alexander 12) who we somehow pissed off, I don’t exactly remember how but we did. He then decided to pivot into the same industry as our agency. I heard of this and he even prised a few clients away from us. Did we react directly to his new interest in our niche? No. We simply continued living and breathing our daily tasks, taking step by step towards our goals. Widen the distance between our competitors and us and making what we did harder and harder to copy. One small product improvement, or one new video testimonial. Focus on the work in front of you and keep the main thing the main thing.

Spreadsheets and an absolute god send. They are cheap and powerful, simple and complex, controllable and scalable. Learn them well.

By far the most progress you can make in yourself is learning how to set yourself a simple plan of action mapped out in a 12 week sprints with milestones with some form of collateral you have put up which is at stake. 12 weeks is long enough to get serious work down and the two week intervals give you short milestones to be held accountable to and focus on. On your check in calls you will review your leading and lagging indicators in order to decide if your leading indicators require adjusting. By far the biggest component here is having an accountability partner who controls your collateral.

Stress arises from one, or more likely, multiple, demanding situations before you. Attempting to solve problems while your attention is consumed by other stressful situations is akin to quicksand. Without proper action, you will only sink helplessly further and further. Setting and forgetting is a tool to give you the best chance of staying present in the moment. You do this by simply focusing purely on one problem at a time and breaking it down into as many individual chunks as you need. The more time passes and experience in solving this problem you get, the less you will have to chunk problems into individual steps. However, when you are in a quicksand like moment, your default state should be to pause and break the problem down into a number of steps, or chunks, so you have clear set of simple actions you can focus on, get present in and tackle in a focused manner. Now how does this relate to achieving an overarching goal? You’ve likely heard of the saying, "It's not the destination, it's the journey." by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This quote is aware that there is an end destination in mind we are striving for, but this can only be achieved with a mind that is present during the journey and aware of the obstacles to come. When you encounter an obstacle, you pause and simply break the problem into a series of manageable chunks. Over time the nature of the problems you face will increase in complexity but the process does not change. We all have the same 24 hours in a day you see, so it's the quality of our actions that determines the progress towards of end destination. Your quality in those moments is only heightened be presence and focus. Therefore, when you set a goal and you have good reason to commit to that end goal, you must then forget the goal and become full present in the journey at hand. Through this process of setting and forgetting, we free ourselves from the useless fantasy of what and where we will eventually end up and instead get lost in the moment. When you achieve this, you enter a state of flow where time passes differently and you may end up lost in the moment or lost in play. Isn't this the goal of us all?

Remove as much negativity as possible from your life. A good start is to simply reset how you perceive others’ opinions. Simply ask yourself, does this opinion you are about to react negatively to really make a difference to your overall outcome? If the answer is no but you choose to react, you are only taking time and energy from your main pursuit. You can do that when have achieved your goals, but now you must work on yourself. This is a time to prioritise narcissism or altruism.

Losing a customer from poor management, lack of customer service and not learning from it and putting in place markers to avoid this is a slippery slop. Customers changing their mind or firing you is their prerogative so do not appear desperate in those circumstances. But every client you sell must receive a carefully cultivated and refined series of steps to devlier core product value as fast as possible (leading indicators).

Well earned feedback is a tool in your belt you have to use strategically. Do not dish out praise like candy. It has to be earned and one or two well placed compliments are a great way of foster motivation in your staff and at the same time, offer genuine praise.

Having successfully emailed a business owner turned author who sold a company to Steve Jobs and received advice and emailing Ben Francis’s assistant to meet him for a tour of GSHQ from him and asking him business questions to playing golf in Spain with a guy who sold a company for £100+ million after he invested in our company to approaching the CEO of carwow in a restaurant in London and he offered my business partner and I a 45 minute meeting where he gave us tons of advice to sending a bottle of red and white wine to two CEO’s of a girl I dated because I wasn’t sure which they’d prefer… I will personally admit I am not the best at networking and don’t really enjoy it. But it is very valuable tool and you need to sharpen it. You’ll notice with all here examples  the same strategy. 1) every time it was me taking the lead first 2) my strategy was same in person or over email 3) deliver value by was of a non-needy, genuine compliment 3) don’t linger here and immediately switch to a very short and simple question 4) do not ask for anything directly (advice, time, investment).

These meetings are a pitch fest. If they give you a badge, you stand up and introduce yourself for 30 seconds and there is an onlooking table of 'experts'. They are all business owners with little to no business experience and just want you to sign up get their referral fee. Save your time.

Sold a new customer? Dedicate 5% of the sale towards becoming 'friends' with them a strategic gift! Now this is not a way to save them from leaving you as a customer but it is just one more way to separate yourself from the competition plus they will likely change their view of relationship. You have a chance to go from a simply business transaction to looking like you genuinely care. 

This is a simple one. With your team at work whether it be yourself or a friend I highly recommend you have a call everyday work day at the same time and go round in a circle and say first what you are grateful for in the day. Second round, what core product related tasks you completed yesterday and will today. Maximum 10 minutes.

If you ask a tree what the time and it wasn’t busy in the moment it would simply laugh and respond ‘the time is now’ or ‘what is time’. When you ready to ingest a wholesome opinion on life, go and read The Power Of Now. It’s an excellent book but mind-bending where you might find yourself getting strange looks in a nude spa in Berlin because you have been reading the same page for 15 minutes.

An effective tool for communication I use is by saying the following: “Before we have this conversation I just want to say, whatever you say, if you feel you have said something wrong or it came out slight wrong and you want to rephrase it or simply take it back in it’s entirety. That is totally okay. You can take it back, I will simply forget it and wait for you to reassemble your thoughts. If I have a negative knee-jerk reaction to something you have said, please make me aware of it.” By stating this you are giving them freedom to be brave in their communication and open with their true feeling and intentions. You cannot do more than this. 

You are not your emotions and thoughts. You are simply a witness to them. The following test is a good challenge of your current level of consciousness. Ask a close friend to tell you something not nice about you or your past actions. We all have our imperfections, moments where we didn’t act in a way we are proud of. Ask them to simply explain your actions to you and how they, or others, would have judged you negatively. You must try to put yourself on stage and shine a negative spotlight onto yourself. Now observe how does your mind and body react? Do you feel negativity on the form or anger, fear, depression, defensiveness? Can you be a witness of your thoughts and feelings, thank your friend, and carry on with your day unaffected?

A Navy Seal once said of his BUDs training that, no matter what the instructors put him through that day, he was sure of two things. First, they would have to feed him. Second, they would have to let him sleep. What happened between those two points was the challenge but each challenge welcoming celebration at the end of it. Carry this attitude with you when you feel nervous before a challenge.

In 2008 Cristiano Ronaldo's mother fell in and he told Sir Alex Ferguson, he can't play football and he needs to go home. Sir Alex responded in a caring way which attended to Cristiano's initial short-term needs and the clubs' desire to have the player back whenever possbile. Sir Alex responded, 'Of course, we need you here but your mother needs you more, go straight away'.

Now when a team member asks for time off your default feeling should be 'Yes, we need you here but go do what you have to'. Of course, you need to consider why, but if you are managing them correctly, your staff will treat you and your company fairly and with respect. They know they have an important role in the company and they do not want to let the team down. If these things are untrue, you need to consider if you have the right person in the right seat in the company.

This one is a simple one. First you first you must the find person that fits your company, then you find them the right seat. You can define the former as a person that fits your culture, you can leave to do a job after training and they will report honestly on their performance and in a timely manner. Next the right seat HAS to be one that directly or indirectly generates revenue for the company. Simple as that. The wrong person in the right seat is disastrous (think MI5 agent going rogue).

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