How to speed up your process by looking for shortcuts.
On this episode Russell talks about being stressed and short on time for getting work done. He talks about how he finds shortcuts in order to get things done, and why he calls it, “Putting his Todd hat on”. Here are some of the awesome things in this episode:
-- Find out what Russell tends to cut out of his life when he doesn’t want to miss a party, but also has tons of work.
-- See what he means when he says he has to put his Todd hat on.
-- And find out what kind of shortcuts he’s currently doing to save himself a week’s worth of work.
So listen here to find out how you can put your Todd hat on to save yourself time when you are super stressed.
So it’s like, I hate, I don’t want to ever be the person who misses the party because of work. So I’m like, ‘I have to be part of the party.” So I’m doing all this stuff and making sure I’m not, that I’m there. And yesterday, my daughter, it’s not her birthday yet, but they all went to roaring springs, which is a big water park here, for her birthday. So I’m like, “I can’t miss that.” So I ended up waking up at like 5 in the morning and worked from 5 til noon, getting basically a whole full work day in. Then I took off, went with them to Roaring Springs until like 8 o’clock at night we got back. And then I worked from 8 until like 2:30 in the morning. So I worked like 2 shifts that day, plus the shift with the kids.
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Hey, what’s up everybody? This is Russell Brunson, welcome back
to Marketing Secrets podcast. Today I want to talk about
shortcuts.
Okay so, I don’t know, if you follow me on Instagram you’ve
probably seen the pieces of it, but I’ve been slightly cracking
over the last 5 or 6 weeks because the load has been heavy, like
insanely heavy. In fact, 6 weeks ago I made a list of all the stuff
I have to do and I was just like, ‘I don’t think this is possible.”
And couple of nights I couldn’t sleep, I was up until like 4 or 5
in the morning because I couldn’t fall asleep because I stressed
about it. Which then made it worse because the next day I couldn’t
even function, I was tired and losing days and it was just like,
ugh.
Anyway, but I’m at the end. I’m at the last week. And in a week
from now I’m going to be on vacation for like 2 weeks with my
family and just unplug and (breathes deeply) catching a breath of
fresh air. But it’s been heavy. And it’s interesting because
yesterday, well, this weekend my sister came into town, which has
been so much, her whole family.
So it’s like, I hate, I don’t want to ever be the person
who misses the party because of work. So I’m like, ‘I have to be
part of the party.” So I’m doing all this stuff and making sure I’m
not, that I’m there. And yesterday, my daughter, it’s not her
birthday yet, but they all went to roaring springs, which is a big
water park here, for her birthday. So I’m like, “I can’t miss
that.” So I ended up waking up at like 5 in the morning and worked
from 5 til noon, getting basically a whole full work day in. Then I
took off, went with them to Roaring Springs until like 8 o’clock at
night we got back. And then I worked from 8 until like 2:30 in the
morning. So I worked like 2 shifts that day, plus the shift with
the kids.
So sleep is like, basically I’m like, ‘I gotta get rid of
something, the only thing I can get rid of is sleep. I’m not
getting rid of fun, I’m not getting rid of family, I’m not getting
rid of projects. I’m going to pull out sleep and just get rid of
it.” which you can’t do for too long.
Anyway, now it’s Tuesday so I got Tuesday and Wednesday for me
to go and getting all the new coaching modules that are going to be
launching next week. I have to get those all done, then plus I have
a 3 day event, which is a virtual event, which means I’m the only
one there speaking. So I’ve got a dozen or so presentations or so
that I’m working on there, needless to say it is a lot. The burden
is heavy. But the good news is it’s almost the end. The end of this
week I’m going to be able to unplug and just be like,
(breathes).
So what I want to talk about though, is shortcuts. Because in
the process of this, as I’m moving forward as fast as I can to get
all these things done, I have to look for shortcuts, because
there’s no way to get everything done. It’s impossible. So you have
to look for shortcuts.
So one of the nice things that I like about this whole, I don’t
know maybe it’s bad, but for me, I try to get everything, I don’t
pre…..not that I don’t pre-plan, I just, it’s like, just in time
production. Like, everything will get done just in time. It doesn’t
get done early ever. It never has in my entire life. I never got
homework done until the minute it was due. I never got projects
done, because if it’s like, if I plan it too far in advance then I
have all this time to think, and then , I don’t know, the greatness
comes when you’re under pressure and stressed, and you start
discovering these shortcuts.
So yesterday, we got back from the water park, I’m sitting
there, it’s like 8 o’clock, almost 8 o’clock at night, I’m about to
start working on the modules again. I’m just like, “I’m not going
to get this done in time.” And I’m thinking, “how can I shortcut
this? How can I shorten this?” I’m looking for the shortcut right.
And then it appeared. And the shortcut in this situation was,
“Who’s products, who’s content, who’s courses could I license to
shortcut what I’m doing?”
And all the sudden I was like, “Oh my gosh.” There was this
module I had to create and it probably would have, I mean
realistically it would take about a week to create the whole thing.
And it would have been good, but I don’t know if it could have been
great. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s someone in our
community who creates something that’s great. Can I shortcut, I
wonder if she’d be willing to let me license it?”
So I called her up through Voxer, I’m like, “Hey, I need a quick
favor. Would you be willing to license me your entire course?” and
within about 15 minutes we figured out a deal and a structure and
today I’m wiring her money and she’s sending me her course, and I’m
going to be plugging that into the training to fill this gap.
And what’s crazy is it just shortcutted me a week. I just bought
myself a week back that I would have had to figure out somewhere,
like on the boat in Lake Powell. That wouldn’t have worked. Anyway,
but I bought myself a week back. And the reality is what she
created was so much better than what I had created. Like it’s
already, man, I’m looking at the stuff that she’s sending over and
I’m like, “This is way better than what I would have done.” She’s
so much more detail oriented and everything is more thought
through. But it was just a shortcut. It was a shortcut that saved
me a week worth of time, it saved me so much stress and anxiety,
and then it actually turned out better than if I would have done it
myself.
So it got me thinking like, where else can I shortcut things?
I’m looking at now everything I’m doing right now in this window.
I’m like, what can I not do? What can I give someone else? What’s
the things? Where can I shortcut things? So for me it was licensing
a course, and licensing content. And then this morning I licensed 3
other people. I’m like, “Hey, you’ve got something like this, do
you have any product I can license? Or a course or a thing I can
license? I gotta teach this concept but you know better than I do.
Can I license it?” and people are sending me stuff, and I’m
speeding up my process.
Anyway, I want to share this because I had this conversation
with Todd who, those who don’t know Todd Dickerson, he’s my
business partner at Clickfunnels, he’s a dude who built the
original Clickfunnels. He’s a genius. Literally the smartest person
I’ve ever met. Don’t tell him that because his head will get
bigger. No, he’s like literally the smartest person I’ve ever met
in my life.
And it’s funny because we were talking about him and other
developers and things like that, and he said, he told me, “The
thing that makes me the best of developers is because I’m so lazy.”
I’m like, “What? Dude you are not lazy. You are the hardest
worker.” He’s like, “I know I’m a hard worker,” but he’s like, “The
reason why I’m such a good developer and I get things done so fast
is because I look at everything and I’m like, oh I can do this and
there’s a 6 month version and I could do this and it could get done
in 6 months. But is there a way I can get this done in 2 days
instead?” And that’s the thought he always looks at. “Instead of me
coding the whole thing from scratch, if I borrow this here and this
here, and then get these libraries…” I don’t know, this is all
coding talk I don’t understand, “then I could get done in 2 days
versus 6 months. Maybe I’d have to not do these 4 or 5 features,
but it’s done in 2 days versus 6 months.”
And it’s funny because he’s trained our development team to
start thinking that way. In fact, Ryan Montgomery who was our CTO
for a long time, that was always the joke for him, it’s like, ‘When
you look at problem you’re like, okay this is going to take me 6
months. Then go get your Todd hat, put your Todd hat on, and think
what would Todd do? And Todd would be like, “I wouldn’t do it that
way. I would just shortcut here, here, and here and get it done in
2 days as opposed to 6 months.”
So that’s the joke. Put your Todd hat on before you come back.
That’s good, now put your Todd hat on and re-evaluate and come back
with a shorter timeline right. So I’m thinking about that now and
it’s like, I just basically put my Todd hat on right, to shortcut
these modules and things I’m doing that weren’t realistic for me to
get done in time. And now it’s like, I just bought myself a week,
I’m moving forward quickly now. And it’s exciting.
So I want you to start looking at your projects that way, and a
lot of times there’s shortcut. A lot of times there’s a way you
could do something faster. You could be licensing someone’s
product, you hiring somebody. It could be like a million different
things, but what’s the shortcut you can do today that gets you
there faster? Put your Todd hat on and figure out how to get the
shortcut.
So I wanted to share that today because by putting my Todd hat
on today I saved myself at least a weeks worth of work, made the
product better, and everyone’s happy. The person I licensed the
product from is ecstatic, they got a ton of money, and they’re
going to get all this credibility because they’re in our product. I
got to save myself time and effort. Our customers are going to win
because they got a better product when all is said and done. And
it’ll all get done faster because I looked for the shortcut.
So there you go, there’s the thought for today I wanted to drop
on you guys as you’re doing your projects and figuring out what is
the shortcut. Putting your Todd hat on and figuring out the
shortcut. With that said, thank you guys so much for everything and
hopefully you’re moving forward on your projects and getting back
to changing the world in your own little way. And with that said, I
will talk to you guys all soon. Bye everybody.
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