Great Assistant

My Close Rate Spiked by 145% in 90 days 🚀 Here’s what I did… I answered a one-sentence exercise which instantly revealed the 3 parts I must cover to close the deal. Now, I don't profess to be a sales expert, and I rarely talk about it. Back in Jan 2023, though, my closing rate sat at 33%. By Mar 2023, it had jumped to an astonishing 81%. 33% to 81% is an amazing 145% improvement! So I just had to share this secret with you. 𝗠𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: “What has to be true for someone to buy from you?" Yes, “the prospect has the money” is part of it, but look beyond that. At my hiring company, Great Assistant, this is what needs to be true: 1. They know they need an Assistant The Entrepreneur isn’t waffling, e.g. “I could probably just do this work myself.” They're clear they definitely want an Assistant because - dang it - there are just too many big opportunities to pursue!  Being trapped in email all day means the Entrepreneur is allowing major opportunity to die on the vine.  So they're already 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 they need an Assistant. 2. They want our 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥 of Assistant They’re clear they want a domestic, dedicated, direct hire.  The kind of Assistant who wants to be a career Assistant and wants a long-term, multi-year, career-type opportunity. The Entrepreneur is clear on the massive difference (and advantage) of a North American for $25 / hr, instead of vaguely believing an overseas Assistant for $5 / hr is the same but cheaper. 3. They want us to find an Assistant for them They are clear they don’t want to do this.  They don’t have the time, confidence, or appetite. A client has to be a “yes” on all 3 of these to invest.  And if they are, they invest quite quickly. If they’re a “no” on any of these, I have a few provocative questions I can ask that helps shake them off the fence, one way or the other. After those questions, though if they still aren’t a “yes,” then there’s no amount of verbal judo or objection-handling I can do that will create a sale that sticks. Maybe I 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 make a sale (MAYBE) but they’d be questioning the process the whole way through and, generally, be skeptical. {That’s what happens when a prospect buys the offer, not the program.} Knowing my “3 Things,” we now front-load that into our pre-qualification steps, such as explainer video, on the intake quiz, booking page, etc. All of this pre-qualification has dramatically cut down the number of bad leads which make it onto my calendar. Speaking only with warm, qualified leads is ahmaaaazing. Hope that helps! Tim :) P.S. Do you fit the 3 criteria above and are looking to have us help you find an Assistant? Reach out and answer these questions to see if we can help. If you make it past our application process, you’ll see my calendar to book a call. https://lnkd.in/gmtMrmJq

Save 500 Hours / Year With This Simple Hack You might hate me for this… Imagine what you could do with an extra 500 hrs / yr. 500 hours is the same as 2-3 months of completely free time. You could… • Build a new product • Do more high-paid coaching • Study high-level training • Lose a bunch of weight by working out • Achieve bucket list items (e.g. travel) • Relax and unplug Isn't this the kind of stuff that made us Entrepreneurs in the first place? You could also tackle a life-changing project like writing a book. If you spent 500 hrs writing and properly promoting a book, you'd definitely add over $100K in new revenue, probably more. {Writing my own book was less than 100 hrs.} Before I tell you 𝘛𝘩𝘦 500-𝘏𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘤𝘬, I predict you won't want to do it. You'll probably think: • That's not for me • Only rich people do that • Sounds weird • I don't have the money for that • What will my mother think? I had all those same objections too. But I promise you it's worth trying.  Try it for just 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬. HERE WE GO... 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟱𝟬𝟬-𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸 I asked myself what tasks were: • repetitive • time-consuming • annoying The very first task which came to mind was COOKING. At first, I tried weekly meal prep. Faster, yes, but still repetitive, time-consuming, and annoying.  Still so much grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning! I'd made the typical Entrepreneur error by asking "how." I needed to ask the better question of "who" should be doing my cooking. So I considered a chef. But that's wildly expensive, like $30/dish. Then a fellow Entrepreneur suggested a meal delivery service. I came across Snap Kitchen and gave them a try. (Lots of meal services across the US and Canada) I was STUNNED by how much time I saved... 10 hrs / week x 50 weeks / year = 500 hrs per year. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘞𝘢𝘪𝘵, 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦... I took it to the next level: I contacted the Fitness Institute at The University of Texas at Austin and hired their Registered Dietician, Brittany Crim. We designed an ideal weekly menu. She asked about my activity level and goals. Then we opened up the SnapKitchen website and picked meals which fit my weekly menu. We also figured out what groceries I needed to be delivered from Amazon each week. Suddenly, I was eating exactly as I should every week, with zero cooking, cleaning, shopping, or THINKING. I dropped fat, gained muscle, and had way more energy. As James Clear (Author of Atomic Habits) says, "Make the right decision the easy decision." At this point, you're probably in one of two camps: 1. OMG, this is amazing, I'm doing this immediately   2. This sounds smart, but I could never do it Which one are you, and why? Let me know in the comments. TF :) P.S. If you still think it's too expensive, just think how much $ you can make with 500 extra hours…

If I offered you $10M dollars would you take it? There's one catch... You don't get to wake up tomorrow. Or ever. Life is over. Do you still want the $10M? I'm guessing you'd probably say, "NO!" What this means, then, is every day of your life is worth more than $10M dollars. And you'd be right to say so! If every day of your life is worth $10M dollars, then each day you waste is also a $10M loss. So I wonder... How are you spending your days? Are you pissing away your life doing things you hate? Working with people who drain you? Tolerating a dead-end situation? If you're waiting for a sign to make a change, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘵. Reclaim today and every day. Because every day is a ten-million-dollar day, and you're worth it. What's one thing you're going to start changing today? Onwards and Upwards, Tim :) P.S. Credit: I've heard this "million dollar day" metaphor elsewhere and have struggled to find the originator. One possible source is Frankie Wilkinson. Another is Quentin Venter. If anyone has a definitive source, I'd love to know it. It's important we give credit to bright people who work hard to come up with nuggets of gold such as this. Thank you.

Best Tool to Avoid the Dreaded ‘Re-Work’ Nothing is more frustrating to everyone involved when there’s “re-work” on a task or project. I share some consequences of this at the end of this email. Usually, this can be avoided if the instructions are clear from the get-go. Here’s a tool that I invented called… …360 Delegation to create clear, specific instructions. 1. Vision - what do I want done? - why are we doing it? - when are we starting? - what are milestones along the way? - what's the deadline Pro Tip: include a sample of success; e.g. if you're having your teammate send an invoice to a client, then show them a successful invoice from the past 2. Resources What resources are required to be successful? - logins - training & coaching - checklists - money - authority, and/or approvals - teammates to work with - how long a rep should take - etc 3. Definition of Done - what user stories need to be true? - what are we doing with the finished product to store it? - are there contracts we need to check against? - here’s the definition of what “done” looks like. Instead of a task taking 5 days of back and forth because there was missing information… …it can now be done in 1-2 days. I also know of people who have quit their jobs because the amount of re-work for each project was unbearable. It’s demoralizing when you really think about it. All that hard work and effort down the drain because the communication wasn’t clear from the beginning. So if you or your team is experiencing a lot of re-work on projects, I would highly recommend adopting this tool and trying it for 2 weeks. Yes, it takes a bit more time and effort upfront to get CLEAR on the Vision, Resources, and Definition of Done… …but I promise you it will be worth it when the project gets done RIGHT the first time. Onwards and upwards Tim :) P.S. Want an Assistant who is pre-trained on 360 Delegation? Click the link and book a call to see if we can help. Just answer a few questions then find a time on my calendar that works: https://lnkd.in/gmtMrmJq

3 Keys to Responding VS Reacting so you don’t get sucked into the drama of life. When I can live in a place where I’m responding to my external circumstances (instead of reacting), I live a more peaceful, harmonious life. Here are the 3 key factors that I practice: 1. Prioritizing Health Getting good sleep (7 hours ideally)  Talking to my sports psychologist to clear my mental head trash Working out - CrossFit or beach volleyball Having a great coach  Developing my spiritual practice,  …etc.  It's amazing how much better my decisions and responses are when I’m awake, alert, and sharp. 2. Protecting Free Days I learned this amazing concept from Dan Sullivan when I was in his program. Having this ‘Free Day’ creates the space and time for the muse to work and downloads to happen.  Sometimes even just Free Hours are huge - shower thoughts are a real thing! 3. Hiring an Executive Assistant This one is all about delegating not only tasks, but responsibilities.  I used to have 101 mental "browser windows" open, and I got nothing done.  The right Assistant, though, someone I can trust, freed up not only my time, but also my psychic load so I could focus on the big things. I've often said… … "The heat of the moment is the worst possible moment to make a critical decision."  I think front-loading these other decisions first - Health, Free Days, and Assistant - makes everything else that comes to us significantly easier to navigate. Onwards and upwards Tim :) P.S. Need help hiring an Executive Assistant to free up your mental ‘ram’ so you can focus on the big things? Reach out and let’s have a chat: https://lnkd.in/gmtMrmJq

Email is Such a WASTE of Time You'll never reach your potential if you're stuck in email all day. According to an article in Harvard Business Review, knowledge workers in America spend, on average, 2.6 hours per day on email. This year has 251 work days, so that's 652.6 hours spent reading and responding to email. That’s 27 word days… That’s 11% of your work time gone into the abyss, never to be seen again. HBR article here: https://lnkd.in/gJvsX2d 𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹, 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵. It's also the punishing cost of changeover.  Every time we answer an email, there's the inevitable time wasted getting back on-track, "what the heck was I just working on?" Again, research says it takes us 23 minutes to get back on track after we get distracted. Over the years, I've tried countless different strategies to reduce the damage of email to my life.  Does any of these sound familiar? • Software tools - Newtown, Superhuman, etc    • Time blocking - answering email only twice per day, à la @timferriss    • Writing hacks - restrict all of my replies to 2 sentences or less    • Productivity tricks - e.g. Pomodoro technique    • Folder strategy - changing the layout of my inbox's folders 𝗡𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗦𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗔𝗕𝗟𝗘 𝗦𝗢𝗟𝗨𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦. Yes, they all helped me answer my email 10 - 20% faster. But what happens when your business grows 100%, 200%, 300%, and the volume of emails you receive climbs that much too?  No technique, brain hack, or software will save the day. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁-𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱, 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰, 𝗱𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁. I did this over 10 years ago, and I got freedom from email for the first time ever. Email freedom is possible.  I've been there for 10 years now, and it's changed my life forever. How will you spend your time once you're free from email too?  Tim :) P.S. Want to free yourself from your email inbox with a trusted, right-hand, domestic, dedicated, career-minded Assistant? Book a call to see if you’re a fit for our program: https://lnkd.in/gmtMrmJq

Business "Oxygen" Metrics: It's Not Revenue, It's CASH! In continuation from my previous post, let's debunk the myth that revenue is the oxygen of business—it's not; it's CASH. Picture an entrepreneur as a scuba diver, exploring the depths for adventure and treasure. If a diver runs out of oxygen, they're in trouble. Similarly, businesses can survive without revenue, sustained by cash—sometimes from investors, not customers. Revenue acts as the flippers for a diver, accelerating the direction they're heading. It's a great amplifier, but it won't save a business with negative margins. Doubling sales for a negative-margin business accelerates its demise. Dysfunction in revenue can come in various forms, like selling a product at a loss or dealing with high-maintenance clients. Positive margins don't guarantee safety either. A major contract might bring in a million dollars, but if the fulfillment period is 90 days and costs must be covered upfront, the lack of cash flow can lead to bankruptcy despite the promising revenue. The Big Lie of Entrepreneurship is that "Sales Cures All." More revenue can bankrupt a business. To succeed, focus on: Direct costs: What does it cost to make and fulfill the next sale? Indirect costs: What is your monthly overhead? Cash inflows: When do you receive cash from customers and investors? Cash outflows: When does cash leave your account to pay vendors? Ensure revenue exceeds expenses, and cash inflows exceed outflows. Once profit-positive and cashflow-positive, invest in growth wisely. As my mentor Keith Cunningham says, "There's nothing worse than running in the wrong direction, enthusiastically!" Onwards and upwards! Tim 🙂

The Big Lie of Entrepreneurship {which no one questions} In the glitzy realm of entrepreneurship, success often masks a harsh reality. Take a moment to consider the entrepreneur who, amidst a glamorous award celebration, was privately grappling with impending bankruptcy. Unfortunately, such tales aren't uncommon. I've witnessed companies boasting skyrocketing revenues while hurtling towards financial ruin due to shrinking profitability. In one case, a company hit $10M in revenue with deteriorating margins, leading to bankruptcy despite my warnings. Facing a similar challenge during the pandemic, my company's rapid revenue growth was overshadowed by mounting losses. Recognizing the peril, we strategically halted new client acquisitions, prioritizing profit margins. This decision saved our company. This brings us to the prevalent myth: "Sales Cures All." Whether fueled by fast-growth awards or echoed in countless Masterminds, the relentless pursuit of sales often goes unquestioned. Metrics like sales calls, clicks, followers, and more dominate discussions. I understand why entrepreneurs fall into this trap—I was one of them. Financial education for entrepreneurs is lacking, leaving us to rely on our bank balances for guidance. However, the truism that "sales cures all" crumbles when faced with payroll crises or mounting bills. So, if revenue isn't the true lifeblood of business, what is? In my next post, I'll unravel the critical business metric that deserves our attention. Tim :)

This time of year is all about goal setting and vision planning. I love dreaming big and crafting a vivid picture of what my future could hold. One powerful exercise that has truly transformed my perspective on the future is the Five Year Vision. It's like taking a journey into the future, seeing life as I've always dreamed of it. It starts by answering these questions… What's different? What have I achieved? Who are the people around me? And what kind of impact am I making? This deep dive into our aspirations is an exercise in hope, urgency, and purpose. It's about creating a pragmatic roadmap towards realizing our deepest desires. The power of hope is second to none, and it serves as the North Star guiding our every decision. This exercise has helped me not just to dream big, but to take inventory of personal and business achievements I want to accomplish in the next five years. It pushes me to craft my ideal typical day, envisioning the rituals and experiences that bring joy, purpose, and fulfillment. The wonders of this exercise extend beyond just wishful dreaming. It's about setting clear goals, defining what success means to you, and unlocking the pieces of the puzzle that lead to a fulfilling life. If you’re up for it, take some time (30 - 60 mins) and answer these questions in VIVID detail. Trust me, it's a self-reflective journey that can unearth a renewed sense of clarity, purpose, and determination.

Are you tired of chasing after that “lottery winning moment” or the elusive “big break” that seems to solve all your problems? I know I used to be. You may have heard about the time I couldn't even walk due to a stress-related illness. It made me realize that chasing these grand slams, these 'Silver Bullet' dreams, wasn't the answer. Success isn't about hitting home run after home run – it's about the staying power, the resilience to face whatever comes your way. AKA… Sticking to the PROCESS, regardless of the outcome. For me, the key to happiness was switching from “Have, Do, Be” mentality to “Be, Do, Have.” Happiness isn't a destination – it's something to embrace right here, right now, no matter your current circumstances. So, stop waiting for better health, more money, or more knowledge before taking that next step in life. Ask yourself, 'How can I make a difference TODAY with what I've already got?' Dealing with my illness, I learned about the wellness wheel, and it's been a game-changer. It's all about balance across different dimensions of our lives like physical, emotional, psychological, career, family, and yes, even sexual. Make sure you're caring for all aspects, so you can keep running this marathon we call life. Here's a reminder to not waste another day waiting for 'that thing' to make you happy. The keys are already in our hands – we just have to use them.