Living The Red Life - Expectations Will RULE or RUIN Your Life - Listen Carefully!

Episode Date: February 1, 2024

In this insightful episode of "Living the Red Life," we delve into the crucial topic of setting the right expectations in various aspects of life. Whether it's about achieving your dream life, running your business, managing your team, or improving your personal well-being, understanding and managing expectations is pivotal. Join us as we explore why expectations are the number one skill in life for success and happiness.---Key Topics Covered:The Importance of Setting Expectations: Understanding why setting the right expectations is essential for success in business, team management, and personal achievements.Expectations and Money: A candid discussion on the role of financial expectations in achieving a richer and more fulfilling life.Expectations as a Life Skill: Exploring how mastering the art of setting expectations can be one of the most valuable skills in life.Clarity and Alignment: Strategies for ensuring clarity and alignment in expectations between individuals, whether in professional or personal contexts.Common Misunderstandings: Addressing the frequent issue of miscommunication and how unclear expectations can lead to challenges in business and personal relationships.Practical Tips: Offering practical advice on how to effectively set, communicate, and manage expectations in various scenarios.---Key Takeaways:Why Expectations Matter: An in-depth look at how setting clear expectations can dramatically improve your business and personal life.Miscommunication and Misunderstandings: Discussing how unclear expectations are often the root cause of many issues and how to avoid them.Expectations and Success: Linking the ability to manage expectations effectively with achieving higher levels of success and satisfaction.---Join us in this episode of "Living the Red Life" as we unpack the power of setting the right expectations, a skill that can lead to being healthier, happier, and more successful. Whether it's in your personal life, your business, or your team, learn how to align expectations for optimal outcomes.---Don’t forget to subscribe for more insightful episodes and share your experiences with setting expectations in the comments below!#LivingTheRedLife #SuccessMindset #Expectations #BusinessStrategy #PersonalGrowth #TeamManagementConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

You have to constantly reset expectations. Why? Well, most people's memories suck. You set expectations, a month later they forgot, the expectations went back to their old ways. Number two, people change over time. Your expectations with an employer or a spouse, when you started dating or when you first hired them, it's going to change a year from today. Things are now serious. You've developed as a person. You have different, you've learned things, okay? Your business has changed. Your personal relationship has changed, what you look for in a spouse has changed. My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill,

join me in Wonderland and change your life. Guys, welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Today we're going to talk about setting the right expectations in your life to get the life of your dreams, to run your business more effectively, to run your team more effectively, and to be healthier, happier, and richer. We all like money here, I think, so that's an important one. But when it comes to expectations, I've learned it's pretty much the number one skill in life if you want to be successful with businesses and teams and even people. And, you know, the more successful I become, the more I hear the word expectation come out of my mouth. And what I've realized after, you know, 12 years of running businesses and I guess the last five years or four years of running teams of 50 people, 100 people, up to 300 people, working with major celebrities, billion dollar brands is expectations, expectations, expectations, right? And today I'm

going to talk about why that's so important and how to apply it in your business and your life to have more success. So when we talk about expectations at its core, what does that mean? Well, it means how do we make sure the other person is aligned, right? How do we make sure the other person is clear? And one thing I've realized over many, many years is most of the time people are not clear on what you mean, what you want, what you say. And even when you set expectations, sometimes they're still not clear. So imagine how unclear most people are when you don't set expectations. So we as a company try and do everything we can most of the time to set very clear expectations. A good example of that is when a client signs up, we literally have what's called

an expectation call. And I installed this into my business about five or six years ago, right, where I literally sat a client down and I said, here's exactly how it's going to work, right? And when we try and task out a project, we try and set clear expectations. When we try and onboard a new hire, we try and set clear expectations, okay? And even when you have maybe a personal relationship, you have a friendship, it's very important to set expectations with those people. When I look at, you know, my own relationships, other people's relationships, arguments, a lot of the time they exist because expectations won't clear out the gate. And a lot of the time people's perception is not the same. It's actually very, very different. So you might go through a romance or relationship, right, outside of business and think it's going

this direction, right, to the left, and they might think it's going to the right, and you have very different expectations in what you want from a partner, a spouse, right, it could be the same with a friendship, your friend could think they're an amazing friend, but you think they're a terrible friend, because they have a certain level of expectations and so do you, the same with your staff, your staff think they need to be doing all these things and they think they're a great employee. And then you and your management team are like, we got to fire this person. They suck because the expectations aren't clear. Now, of course, there's lots of reasons they may not be clear and there's lots of reasons you may find them. They just suck, right?

Or they may be delusional where they think they're doing a great job and they're just really not. But it's very, very important in all these aspects to build the expectations and obviously when you can to write them out. Now, that's the common sense part that I got out the way in the first minute or two. What's next on expectations is how do you set expectations in alignment with your goal? I talked about this recently in my mastermind. Most of the time, there is an alignment with your goal versus what you do and what you expect of your team. So say your goal, right, is to do a million dollars a year or a million dollars a month, whatever it is. You have to set very clear expectations on what it takes

to get there with your team and break it down, okay? So I just did this this morning with one of my sales managers on one of my celebrity brands. I said, hey, me and the celebrity, can't say who it is, but we want to be hitting this amount of net profit each per month so that this is a great deal and super interesting and lucrative and we're excited about it, right? So we broke down what that number is.

And I said, so you're clear on expectations, I'm going to break that down for you. That means you need this many sales reps, you need this this many sales calls they have to be hitting these KPIs and off you go right and that that one I don't know five minute bullet point summary I gave to him probably helped him more with alignment of vision and KPIs and direction and knowing where to go than he's probably got in the last 30 days, just one thing, because it set very clear expectations to him. And if I hadn't have done that, and probably the past version of me years ago wouldn't have, and many of you wouldn't

have, if I hadn't have done that, he might have had a couple of sales reps, been closing a few calls, thinking he's crushing it. And then the week after we shut down the project, he goes, what the hell? Why you shut down the project? Because I go, dude, you're making 60 grand a month. That's nothing, right? It's like we want to be making 600 grand a month, for example. And he goes, well, you didn't tell me that. I've had my two reps. They've been doing good, right? So you see how it gets very, you know, kind of condolented and gets very confusing between two parties if expectations aren't clear. Another great example of that is driving revenue, right? So when we talk about driving revenue in a business, for example, if revenue goals are set, okay, which often the CEO has in their head,

they have to share that with their team. Again, sounds obvious, right? But then the next thing is once you set those goals with the team, right? Those KPIs say, hey, I want to do a million dollars this year. What are the expectations that need to come behind that to make sure that those people hit those goals, right? So they may think, okay, well, we got to hit a million dollars a year. We got to go away, do our jobs, right? Whereas in your head, you might be like, you've got to launch a new product every week. We got to launch a new ad every day. We got to go and post on all five social media channels. So you see the difference between giving a big goal, hey, I want to hit a million dollars a year, and they go, okay, well, and they're just going to go off and do their job now, right? They don't really pull the pieces together because they're employees. So it's your job to then set expectations on what are they going to have to do to help support on that goal.

So if the goal is a million dollars a year and they run social media and you've decided as the CEO, not saying if this is right or wrong, this is an example, you've decided to hit the million dollars a year, you need to be posting on Instagram and YouTube twice a day, okay? Then you have to go and tell the social media manager, hey, the goal is a million. You heard that in the meeting, right? Cool. Well, my expectation from you that will get us towards that goal and where you play a part is you need to be posting twice a day on Instagram, twice a day on YouTube with viral content that gets us millions of views. Are you clear on those expectations? Yes or no, right? So now you've set very clear expectations on how they play a part in that bigger goal. This is what most CEOs and entrepreneurs miss. You guys all set goals

probably for this year, right? But then how well did you break down on those goals and what every single person and department needs to do and the KPIs they need to hit and the work they need to put in to achieve those goals. So it's really, really important because your brain naturally as an entrepreneur might naturally do this, right? Your brain naturally can reverse engineer or at least mine can. It can reverse engineer all of the steps because we see the big picture and most of us as entrepreneurs are unique individuals and highly talented, highly skilled, performing in the top one percent. Not everyone does that, right? Not everyone thinks that way. Not everyone can do that. Most of these people in your business are thinking about what are they having for dinner tonight and paying their electric bill when they get home and watching the next episode of their favorite TV show. They're not thinking about how

many posts they need to do every day for you to hit this business goal. Okay, so you have to go and, and obviously they should, they're being paid to do it, right, unless they're working for free as volunteers, that they should, but you have to go and hammer it into them so they can never turn around and say, I didn't know what I had to do, right? It's your job as the CEO or the founder

or the C-suite team, or maybe the department head to go and say, this is exactly how you play your part in this. Okay. And this is the same, like I said, whether it's relationships, teams, friendships, you have to set clear expectations, clients, you have to set clear expectations. If any of you have ever run an agency before, um, I have, right. And I still own one that I'm not involved in. Generally, the expectations will be wildly different between client and vendor or contractor or agency. And even when we hire external agencies or contractors or vendors, I literally sit down with them and I bullet point out expectations and make them agree to it verbally and in writing. So they as an agency and me as an owner can never say you guys didn't

perform you guys didn't do your job i want to make things so black and white that they either did those or they didn't right and they agreed to it and they were super clear and we do the same in reverse like i said with our clients so one of the best things you can do to avoid a bunch of stress to improve communication to improve alignment of vision, to improve communication, to improve alignment of vision, and to improve general workflow in your company or in your business is clear expectations, okay? So we talked a little about how to do it with your team and business. The next thing is achieving your personal dreams in life and your goals, right? I try and set very clear expectations with outside my business, people around me, whether it's friends, family, spouse, etc.

Hey, these are what I'm going to do and my expectations are you and this is what it's going to take for me to achieve my goals. I'm pretty relentless and ruthless and like this is my vision. This is what I'm going to do. This is the life I want to achieve. This is what I'm working on. And this is the train going 100 miles an hour and you can either be on the train or you can get out of the way of the train because the train doesn't stop. But if you want to be on the train, these are the expectations. These are what I need to achieve my goals, right? And this is how every high performer works. If you go look at, and I reference sport a lot, go look at any

pro athlete. Generally, the ones that are obsessed will be like, these are my expectations. I need ice water in the fridge. I need a protein shake at 7am. I need to take into the basketball court at 7, 15am to shoot for two hours, right? And then I need this and I need this and I need this and I need this and I need this and I need this, right? And they create this list or this system of everything they need. And then everyone around them has to be super clear on those expectations. And you see when they're not, you see the celebrity or the pro athlete storm off or get in a strop or get frustrated, or at least I see a lot of it because I work with a lot of celebrities, right? When they show up and something isn't ready in a studio, when they show

up and their agent didn't tell them about this, or when they show up and they didn't know they had to bring a change of clothes, or the lighting wasn't right, or hair and makeup wasn't ready, boom. Now there's a big problem, right? Why? Because expectations either weren't clear, or if they were clear, someone just failed to do their job. But most of the time, that becomes a gray area. Most of the time when you're working with people, well, did they not do their job, or just did no one say, well, where's hair and makeup, right? So again,

how do you improve this? You go, just to be clear, expectations, hair and makeup must be there an hour early. Okay, now who's involved in booking hair and makeup? Is it Rudy who is the business partner with the celebrities and his team? Is it the agent, right, that represents the celebrity and the celebrity's team? Is it celebrity spouse or right, that represents the celebrity in the celebrity's team? Is it celebrity spouse or manager, right? So again, expectations, okay? Firstly, we now have assessed there has to be hair and makeup, but then expectations is who's getting hair and makeup, right? And then the further of that is, is there a specific person? Do they need to do a specific type of job within that, right? Is there a specific style they

like, okay? So expectations can go a long way in diffusing situations, making situations better, and of course having everyone aligned, like I said. And like I said around friends and family, make sure whatever you do, and I talk about this a lot on my podcast, you're going to spend half your life working. You're going to spend half your life with your friends and family, right? Roughly, maybe more time on one side or the other. But if either side aren't aligned on your vision, your mission, your goals, and expectations, you're going to be unhappy. You're going to be unhappy at them. They're going to be unhappy at you. You're going to feel that they don't support you, right? Whereas in their eyes, they do support you. The expectations just weren't clear. So have

a think tonight with your spouse, your family, your children. Where are the expectations? Are the expectations written out? Is everyone clear on the expectations? Do they know what supporting me looks like? Do I know what supporting them looks like? Because I can promise you, and you know, a good book to read on the personal side is the five love languages. The five love languages basically describe everyone receives love differently. Some people like words of affirmation. Some people like gifts. Some people like physical touch. Some people like quality time, acts of service, right? Five love languages. Now you could be giving someone gifts all the time, right? I'm a best boyfriend in the world. I give them gifts every week, whereas they hate gifts, right? All they want is quality time. And if you didn't know that, and they didn't say that to you, say, hey, by the way, the gifts are great and all. I love the

gifts. But just so you know, my expectation and what I really want from this relationship is a couple of hours every day, right? Or I want to see you at least four times a week. And when I do see you, we have a couple of hours where you're not working we're doing fun stuff having fun blah blah blah blah that would be them setting good expectations now if they don't ever set those expectations in your head you're buying gifts you think everything's great and boom the next week they break up with you and you go what the hell why they break up with me well because in their eyes they're unhappy you spent no time with them but you thought you were a great boyfriend because you bought them gifts and

they smiled when they got the gifts and said how cute it was. They were just being polite, right? Really, you weren't giving them what they wanted. But it's disappointing for you because you were putting in the effort. You're just putting in the wrong type of effort because the alignment of vision and the expectations were not clear. So do what you need to do in personal life. Have these conversations, right? And I guarantee it's a great exercise. It's very fascinating when you have these conversations and you say, hey, what are your expectations in this relationship? What are your, and I ask myself, what are your expectations in this role, right? What do you think I expect from you? Okay, what do

you expect from the company? Okay, so it's always interesting to hear because I tell you after managing thousands of people and working with thousands of people, expectations are wildly off. Like it's crazy how different they're going to be and how wildly different they're going to be to what you think. And if they are not good out the gate, you will have a problem. Okay, so you've got to build all your expectations around your goals, around your dream life, around your team, and around the people that spend time with you, okay? Because remember, your energy and environment will dictate your success, okay? Now, the good thing about finding the right people and the people that you love and that support you

and those people where you just jive with really well and you're like, this is my person, we generally naturally share the same expectations okay so i'll give you an example if i find another ultra successful organized person runs a bunch of businesses and we say we're going to have dinner at 7 p.m they're probably going to show up at time on 7 p.m or if they're running late they're probably going to communicate and feel really bad because they what? Value time. They're a successful person. Now, when I had non-successful friends, right? Normal people, they would happily be late. And it drove me crazy because I value my time so much as an entrepreneur. And I got to a point where I would end friendships just because they'd be late. They were unorganized,

blah, blah, blah. That's why they're unsuccessful. But they don't value time okay now one thing in hindsight when i was much younger i could have said is hey just to be clear if we're going to and i did do this eventually just be clear if we're going to meet at seven we need to meet at seven i'm not going to wait till 7 30 so if you need to just meet at 7 30 please tell me this now because my time's valuable that is me setting an expectation right and a further expectation would be if we can't meet on time, I'm not going to meet with you anymore because it spoils the relationship, spoils the experience for me,

and I feel it's disrespectful of my time. Expectations, right? Now that person knows 100% that your time's important, that they want an honest time when you can actually meet and you're not going to be late. And if you don't meet at the time agreed, then you don't want to be friends anymore because it's a big deal and you think it's disrespectful. Now they have no chance, no opportunity to say, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know. If they still don't

meet, then you don't want to hang out with that person because they don't respect you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're not organized, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? So this goes to every piece of life, setting expectations. Now, look, do you have to do it as robotic as I'm saying in every opportunity and area? absolutely not in business can it be more robotic yes because you're trying to make it super clear and business should be more black and white okay when business isn't black and white and it's left to everyone's imagination that's when you get a lot of problems and dysfunction and all those things that stem from that. Now, in a friendship

or a relationship, right, like a love-based romantic setting, it probably doesn't need to be as black and white. It can be more like the love languages. Tell me how I can be a great boyfriend. What would be the three or five things that would make me a great boyfriend, right? So you can ask what, and that's secretly you're asking, what are the expectations in this relationship? And then you say, great, do you mind if I share with you three or five things that are super important to me? And everyone wants to know that answer. If someone cares about you, they're dying to know that answer. They go, yes, of course. And now you're setting your expectations back. My expectations back are, if you're, if we're going on dates, we meet at the right time. My time is very precious, right? I hate being, hate people a bit late. That's one expectation. Number two is

if we are, if I order protein shakes, right, and we have them in the fridge and you want some too, let's order double because I don't want to be out of protein shakes in the morning, okay? Luckily, I'm the only one that drinks protein shakes in my house, so it's not a problem. But these little things, right, because it's the little things. Hey, if we're on the last bottle of milk, reorder the milk on Instacart. I don't care if it costs $7 in delivery and you're only doing a $30 order. I'm just going to pay that and be without milk, right? Whatever it is, little things or big things, right? You set your expectations. And of course, if you're setting your three, four, five big things, you should set them. Now, here's the last piece I'll say on this. You have to constantly reset expectations. Why? Well, most people's

memories suck, firstly. So you set expectations, month later, they forgot the expectations, went back to their old ways. Number two, people change over time. Your expectations with an employer or spouse when you started dating or when you first hired them, it's going to change a year from today. Things are now serious. You've developed as a person. You have different, you've learned things, okay? Your business has changed. Your personal relationship has changed. What you look for in a spouse has changed. Everything changes over time. So the expectations should change too. If you started a hire when you were doing $2 million a year, and the year later you're doing $7 million a year,

expectations are very different now. Your business grew by 300%. So instead of those two Instagram and YouTube posts, maybe you now need to do four. But if you never told them, they're going to just tick away doing their two Instagram, YouTube posts. They're not doing two and two. They're not doing basic math and going, well, we were doing two and two when we were a two million business. Now we have way more followers, way bigger brand. Maybe we should be doing more posts. They don't think like that. They're an employee, right? Some of the time. Some do, don't get me wrong. But so you have to be responsible and going, hey, by the way, you probably noticed in the last year we've grown. We really now need to do free posts a day on both

platforms because we have double the followers and a lot of the big YouTubers I've noticed are posting multiple times a day. This isn't true, by the way. This is free and free. I'm just making this up. And so now we need to post more are you clear on those expectations do you have the tools the skills the ability the budget the time to hit those expectations if not they should be telling you most of the time they won't tell you they'll walk away in the head and go I hate my boss he says all these stupid goals they won't be they won't dare or think to tell you right they'll just walk away and then complain in the head so you have to to say, are you, you know, this is a bonus.

You don't always have to say it, but are you good? Any questions? You feel you can do that? Okay, great. Let's go and do it, right? So you have to keep resetting expectations as stuff changes in your business, in your life, in your team, in people's roles and responsibilities, okay?

So there you have it, a masterclass on expectations. I promise you, setting good expectations in your life will make you happy and more successful. It will get people more aligned around you. It will cause way less frustration, especially with teams and clients and it will probably improve personal relationships too. expectations. I wish I could tattoo it across my arm to remind me because even me that's all over there shooting a whole episode, we often forget. So continually remind yourself, your team, your team leaders and people around you to become clear on expectations before you start anything new. You start a project or if stuff's going south, whether it's a personal relationship, business relationship, team or client, get aligned on expectations. That's a wrap for me and I'll see you guys soon. Take care.