Next Level Pros - #90: 250,000 Businesses are using His system to Grow - Gino Wickman author of Traction

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of the Founder Podcast. In this episode, I’m joined by Gino Wickman, a legend in the world of entrepreneurship. Gino shares important insights from his latest book, revealing the 10 disciplines that promise to maximize your energy, impact, and inner peace. As the creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) and an author whose work has reached millions, Gino's strategies have transformed businesses and lives worldwide. In this episode, we dive into why mastering these disciplines is crucial for every entrepreneur's journey toward true success and fulfillment. From embracing long-term thinking to the power of saying 'no,' Gino's advice is a must-hear for anyone looking to boost their life and business. Highlights: "If you can get both figured out – the drive and the inner peace – you're going to have rocket fuel." “We tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year and underestimate what we can accomplish in 10 years." "Say no to everything that doesn't fit into the first five disciplines." Timestamps: 00:00 - Gino Wickman and the Importance of Inner Work 05:00 - Outer Success to Inner Peace 10:00 - The Power of 10-Year Thinking and Taking Time Off 15:00 - The Key to True Success 20:00 - The Importance of Saying No... Often 25:00 - Delegate and Elevate 30:00 - Your True Self and Work Container 33:55 - Partnerships in Entrepreneurial Success 35:00 - Developing and Shining as a Founder Live Links: Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind:h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com⁠ Golf with Chris h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com⁠ Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

I got to the top of the mountain and then did the serious inner work to find that peace. Now, the million-dollar question is, is it possible for somebody who's starting the climb to do the inner work and find inner peace as they're climbing the mountain, building their business? The short answer is, I don't know. I hope to prove that tens of thousands of times over the coming decades. So we're going to find out. But as we dig deeper in the content, I believe as I've lived by these 10 disciplines, I'm going to share with you for 20 years. And I know they helped, but they didn't have the impact that they had. I mean, these last four years, because I really did the inner work. If you can get them both figured out

the drive and the inner peace, like, I mean, you're gonna have rocket fuel. I think every entrepreneur on their climb is gonna get pinged somewhere on the climb. I think some earlier than later, but worst case, they have this context, I believe will be powerful for everyone listening out there. What's up, Founder Nation?

I am so excited to bring this episode of Gino Wickman to you. Gino is a man that we paid $75,000 to come and personally consult our business for one day. On top of that, we flew our private jet out to Detroit and picked him up in which we were able to spend a few hours one-on-one time, really getting that incredible coaching. This guy has changed the world with his entrepreneur operating system. You do not want to miss this week's episode, so let's dive in. Yo, yo, yo, welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I'm super excited.

I am joined by Mr. Gino Wickman. Gino is a personal mentor of mine. I've read many of his books. Many of you guys have probably heard about all of his incredible accomplishments as an entrepreneur, as a founder. The man has sold over 3 million copies of his different books, a million and a half copies of Traction. His entrepreneurial operating system, EOS, is now being utilized by 250,000 different companies throughout the world. This guy is the man, the myth, the legend. He's recently launched a new book, which I'm super excited to talk about.

Welcome to the show, Mr. Gino. Thank you, Chris. Thrilled to be here, my brother. Looking forward to this. Oh, man. So, Gino, question number one. So I know you've launched a new book. It's called Shine and it's all about like focusing on us as the founder and becoming the best version of ourselves and everything else. But the reality is, is a lot of

guys that are listening to the show, they're just stuck in the daily minutia. It's really hard for them to even focus on anything besides paying the next bill. Tell us a little bit about the focus of this new book and how a guy like that or a gal like that can go and really start focusing on becoming the best version of themselves. For sure. And as I answer that, I'd love to zoom out really quick and just create a high level context for your audience just so that they understand the big picture, which is going to take us right to that question. I am a passionate nut for helping entrepreneurs live amazing lives, have great businesses. Okay. And so very quickly, those five pieces of content are number one, Entrepreneurial Leap, which is a book I wrote in an academy to help anybody that thinks they're an entrepreneur

discover if they are and show them how to start a better startup and increase their odds of success. Number two- Was that the first book you wrote? Ironically, that is the sixth book I wrote. So I wrote these out of order only to have an aha moment two years ago that, holy shit, here's the perfect order. So no, unfortunately, I didn't write them in that order.

I lived them in this order for what that is worth. So number one is Entrepreneur Elite. Number two is Rocket Fuel. And that's the visionary integrator concept I created to help that visionary entrepreneur find their integrator counterpart and take the company to the next level. The third piece of content is EOS in the book Traction. And that's to help that entrepreneur run their business like a Swiss watch. Fourth piece of content is EOS Life to help the entrepreneur

and their leaders live their ideal life. And then the fifth piece of content is the 10 disciplines for maximizing your energy, impact, and inner peace, which is this new book, Shine, we're about to talk about. The reason I want to start there in answering your question is if your audience can envision in their mind out there these five pieces of content in that order, that's basically the life of the entrepreneur. And what I've been helping entrepreneurs do for 30 years is climb the mountain, get to the top of the mountain, ring the bell, succeed by every outer world metric.

They've got the money, the business, the stuff, the accolades, the people, but on the inside, they're still feeling a little empty. They're thinking, wow, is this all there is? They're not feeling fulfilled. And I've seen it so many times that I've been pinged to address this because now it's time to go into the inner world, find peace so that you can both enjoy the journey, make it even bigger impact, but really feel fulfilled. And so with those five pieces of content, that's the mountain. And we get to those 10 disciplines to really go inside. With that said, everything I teach, I've lived myself. I teach what I needed the most. And so I'm the walking example of four years ago, selling EOS worldwide and literally having all the outer world success and then just kind of having an awakening and a

wake-up call and doing some inner work these last four years that have been very profound. I love it. I love it. So, you know, the inner work, I mean, to your point, a lot of guys, and Alex Ramosi actually talks about this quite a bit. He says, you know, the morning routines and the self-work or whatnot is kind of BS. I don't agree with Alex on this, but this is what he says. He says it's kind of BS because the guys that actually do that work, it's only after that they have the success. It's like after that they have this wake-up call of like, oh, I've got time, I've got freedom or whatnot. Now I should start working on myself. And then usually they preach that they did it all along. So what

would you say to Alex in that type of scenario? Yeah, I love that you're bringing that up. And it takes us right back to the question you opened with. And it's the reason that I illustrate the mountain and the climb. And so I'm going to give you two scenarios. Let's pretend Alex is right. Okay. Because I can't speak from experience, although I can, and you'll see, as we dig deeper, there'll be some, but the point is I got to the top of the mountain and then did the serious inner work to find that piece. Now the million dollar question is, is it possible for somebody who's starting the climb to do the inner work and find inner peace as they're climbing the mountain, building their business? The short answer is, I don't know. I hope to prove that tens of thousands of times over the coming decades.

So we're going to find out. But as we dig deeper in the content, I believe as I've lived by these 10 disciplines, I'm going to share with you for 20 years. And I know they helped, but they didn't have the impact that they had. I mean, these last four years, because I really did the inner work. So we're going to find out. I had this amazing conversation with Dr. Doug Brackman. I did his podcast. He wrote a book called Driven. And so he works with driven entrepreneurs. And we had that conversation. It's the age old debate, you know, which one comes first. And he's convinced that if we driven find inner peace on the front end of the journey, we will actually be more driven. We will make even more of an impact. And that's certainly what I'm experiencing right now, because I have not ridden off into the sunset. My drive is 10 times higher.

The impact I want to make is 10 times more now that I have the ridden off into the sunset. My drive is 10 times higher. The impact I want to make is 10 times more now that I have the clarity and peace that I do. Best answer I have for you. And Gino, I agree with you a thousand percent because the reality is, is like in my early, the early stages of my career, when I was a young entrepreneur, I was all about just that hustle, hustle, hustle, and disregarded a lot of my inner workings, whether that was my fitness or my spirituality or my mental peace or the relationships that I had with my family or whatnot. And like a lot of that got disregarded and I didn't have the success that I wanted. And when I built my last business that ended up selling for nine figures, you know, it was because I did everything

by design and I was doing the morning routines, the meditations, the things to, to create my, my inner peace. And I know you have these, these 10 disciplines that you're going to share with us, which I'm sure align with a lot of the things that I did that ultimately helped lead to my success. But I, but I agree with you a hundred, a hundred percent that, that like it, it, if you can get them both figured out the drive and the inner peace, like, I mean, you're, you're gonna, you're gonna have rocket fuel. Yeah. And that's, and that's exactly what I'm, you know, intent to show the world and what we're showing the world, you know, we're doing it right now with our clients and our group coaching, with our mastermind. But with that said, I want to say this, because what I urge out there is for you to continue to listen, even if you're not ready to go inside and you are climbing the mountain

and you are in startup mode and you're getting your ass kicked right now and you're working your ass off, because I believe for you to get this context, for you to get a glimpse today, if not for this precious time we're going to spend together, for us to ping your soul, I describe it as piercing the shield and letting a little light in or a little light out. If we can just do that for you today, it will not leave you. And I think it will serve you faster. So with that said, I think every entrepreneur on their climb is going to get pinged somewhere on the climb. I think some earlier than later, but worst case, they have this context I believe will be powerful for everyone listening out there.

Absolutely. So let's jump into those 10 disciplines, the things that really help us develop and shine. For those that haven't taken a look, this is the new book that got launched. Super excited to read it myself. So yeah, can you share with us some of those 10 disciplines and how you start developing that? Absolutely. And as I go into it, one more big piece of context, and then we'll get into that nitty gritty. And that is the first half of the book is something I call three discoveries to free your true self. Now I'm not going there, but I want to make sure the context is clear because the three discoveries for freeing your true self is the what. So you can clearly see

what's possible. And then the second half of the book are the 10 disciplines to maximize your energy impact and inner peace. And that's the how. That's showing you exactly how to do it. So very quickly, contextually, the three discoveries for you as a driven entrepreneur out there is to number one, understand and discover and realize you are driven. Number two, understand and realize that all decisions are made out of either love or peace. Oh, if you've got that basic premise. And then number three, to discover, understand, and realize that it is possible to be driven and have peace. And so that's the what, that's the big picture. Now we're going into the how to do it with these 10 disciplines. And so with the 10 disciplines, I always love to

start by just giving the audience an overview of the 10, and then you know your audience better than I do. Trust your gut. Let's go wherever you wanna go, the ones that stand out the most. But very quickly, here are the 10 disciplines. Number one, 10-year thinking.

Number two, take time off. Number three, know thyself. Number four, be still. Number five, know your 100elf. Number four, be still. Number five, know your hundred percent. That's your work container. Number six, say no dot, dot, dot often. Number seven, don't do $25 an hour work if you want to make six figures. Number eight, prepare every night. Number nine, put everything in one place. And number 10, be humble. So I'd love to hear what jumps out at you. I love it, man. So I actually have the table of contents pulled up so I can reference them real quick here. And first of all, one of the things I

recognize is because I'm a student of your work. I see some connecting principles as far as tenure thinking. That is one of the things that are established in creating your vision and your direction for your business in the EOS program, which is fantastic. So yeah, let's dive into a little bit more about tenure thinking. Why is that important for an entrepreneur? Yeah, here, here. Well, with each discipline, there's what we call a bold statement. Okay. So I want to start with the bold statement and what the bold statement is and the reason behind it is it's if you would just give me blind faith and just do this thing I'm about to say, you will realize all of the benefits. But unfortunately,

we human beings, we fight that. We need to be convinced and sold. So we're going to get to convincing you. But here's the bold statement. So with the discipline of 10-year thinking, if you would just shift your mind from short-term thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes, that's it. Shift your mind from short-term thinking to thinking in 10 year timeframes. That's it. Shift your mind from short term thinking to thinking in 10 year timeframes. And so what this does for you, so we the driven entrepreneurs, especially in our younger years, we want everything now, now, now, now, now we're very short term focus. And so it took me to eight till age 35 to finally get this 21 years ago. And when I got this and I embedded this in my mindset and my body, it was crazy because instantly time slowed down. There was a tremendous peace that came over me. I started making better decisions and then I literally got there faster. So there's

a great quote that says, we tend to overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but we underestimate what we can accomplish in 10 years. And so this is very, very powerful in terms of helping you to get time to slow down, get out of this hurried pace and actually accomplish more. And then the one other thing I'll throw out there, a quick little exercise we have everyone to do it because at the end of every discipline, there's that in action we have you take. And this is something we can do real time to get the gears turning out there because it's simply step one, write the future date 10 years from now. So think out 10 years, write that date or think of that date right now. Number two, write your age on that date or think

of how old you're going to be. Now picture yourself there on that date at that age and then write down what is the number one most important goal could be personal could be professional doesn't matter but that's the starting point to get the neurons in your brain to start to rewire and get into this multi-decade thinking and again we can dig as deep i love it i love it there's the setting the stage i love it so for anybody that's watching or listening to this i I want you to actually do this practice right now. Close your eyes. Think about where you're going to be 10 years from now. Today, the day that we're recording this is April 2nd, 2024. I'm 40 years old. So I see myself April

2nd, 10 years from now at the age of 50. What does, what, what does life look like for me? What, what is, what have I accomplished? What, what are my, my dreams? What are my passions that I've, that I've been able to, yeah, I love it. So, you know, just going through that, that mental practice, uh, you know, I, the, uh, one of, one of my favorite, uh, things that I love to talk about is that you got to be patient, patient in the process, but urgent, urgent in the execution. Right. And so because so many like exactly what you said, so many of us entrepreneurs, we want it now. We want to be Mark Zuckerberg, right? Billionaire at age 23, 24. Why hasn't this already happened for us? I saw a study the other day, they interviewed a bunch of this new group of teenagers that's coming up. I forget what generation they're called now, but the current

generation believes, it's like 80% of them believe that they're going to be a millionaire by age 23. Wow. And it's like unbelievable. There's just so much impatience in the process. And we actually do the opposite, right? We're impatient in the process, and then we procrastinate the execution. And so, and all we want to do is like, think about accomplishing the goal, then we're actually doing the work and doing the, putting the roots down, uh, right now. And, and, and I think to your point, like if we can nail this

one thing, right? Like that we start thinking in decades, not days. I mean, life will really change for us as entrepreneurs because then we really just understand that I don't have to be successful tomorrow. I'm not defined by my success six months from now. It's a completely different way of thinking. Couldn't agree with you more. Every single word you said, I totally agree with. I love it. I love it. So, you know, I don't want to hit all these disciplines, but discipline number two, we've got to talk about because I agree with this a hundred percent as well as the, the, the old taking time off, you know, and we live in the, in the grind era where it's just like hustle culture of like work 80 hours a week, 52 weeks

a year, seven days, never, never take a day off, never give God vacation, family, anything, you know, and it's a lot of it's because we're, we're impatient in the, in the process, right? Like we, we think that if I do this for two years, I'm going to be a bazillionaire. So talk to me a little bit more about your philosophy on taking time off. Yeah, for sure. So let's start with the bold statement as always. So the bold statement here, if you would just do this, it's take 130 days off per year and don't think about work the entire day. Oh, I just blew about 80% of the minds out there with that statement. 130.

Yeah. I mean, dude, that is literally what? Two and a half days a week? Three days a week? Three days a week? Yes. But let's just look at it. If you took every weekend off and the holidays and like two or three one-week vacations, there's your 130 days.

So this is not that mind-blowing, but the reality of it is most driven entrepreneurs are just working every day. They're thinking every day. And hopefully I will convince you in the next five minutes that you are actually less effective as a result because you got to put on the brakes. You got to stop and let your soul catch up. You'll have more clarity. You got to sharpen the ax, as they say. And so with that, I took 150 days off a year, every year for 20 years, building EOS Worldwide, grew 40% a year for 20 years. So this is doable. In addition to that, I took the month of August off every year for every one of those 20 years. And I believe I was further ahead for it because I came back so clear and so sharp. Now, when I worked, when I was working on those

days that I was not off, I was highly effective, high performing. We'll get to the work container if we get there, but you've got to recharge your batteries. You've got to create time and space. When we talk about building inner peace, if you're going a hundred miles an hour, I mean, literally as driven people, we do a lot of damage to ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, and to the people in our lives. And if you're working every day of the week, you are damaging relationships and you are damaging yourself and it is not worth it. But again, my point is you'll be further ahead as hard as that is to comprehend. Yeah. You know, I'm a, I'm a big religious and believer myself and you know, the, the Bible,

right? Like the earth was made in six days and they rested on the seventh. I think there is there is like and it's interesting. A lot of people look at like a Sabbath or whatever it is is like, oh, that's just a spiritual practice. But this is like this impacts everything. It impacts our physical fitness. This impacts our economic. Right. Like when we take the time to your point and don't focus on work and we sit and we meditate and we, we sharpen the sharpen the ax, like there, there's so much power in that. And, uh, you know, for whatever reason, my dad, you know, taught, taught me this principle. We didn't have a lot of money growing up,

but we always, we always took vacation, took time off and figured out a way to get away, recharge, come back. And luckily that's been a principle that I've been able to apply in my own life. Because I think, I don't know, at least it's my opinion, so much of our day is wasted in, in the grind where, where we're not actually sharp. We're not in the zone. We're just staring at a blank piece of paper or a screen or scrolling, coming up with ideas and just not, not there. And so, um, what, let me throw one more thing in there because, you know, I'm speaking from experience here as a guy who worked his ass off in his 20s nonstop. I mean, I went so hard in my 20s. I literally did damage to my body. It was such a high stress life. I took over a family business at 25 years old, did a big turnaround, but I actually did damage

to my heart. I literally have heart damage. I literally hurt an artery that my heart doctor is convinced it happened at an early age. It wasn't recent, but it was because I live such a high stress life. The good news is it's fine. It won't progress, but I did damage to my body that is irreversible at this point in time, 30 years later. So you will do damage going that hard. My point, however, is then I proved in my thirties that you can actually take time off and be more effective, get more done with that clarity, creativity, and space. So what would you say to maybe the opposite? I know there's a lot of people that are like, Hey, I only, I only work 20 hours a week. Do you think that you can effectively run a business working 20 hours a week?

100%. So 100%, I believe that because, well, why don't we just do this? Because I want to jump to knowing your 100%, which is discipline five, just to make this point really quick. So we call it know your 100%, but what it is is it's your work container.

And that's you deciding, Here's the bold statement. Decide and commit to the perfect number of hours per week and weeks per year that you will deliver your craft to the world. So every one of us driven entrepreneurs, we have a secret formula. We have a maximum output that if we work one more hour, we will start to burn out. One hour less, we start to get bored. And so for me, it's always been 40 weeks a year, 55 hours a week. That's what I worked. Now in that time, in that work container, in my 100%, I was multiple things. I was an EOS implementer as I was creating EOS. I was the visionary for the company. Well, I was the visionary for the company. The math was 45 days a year. So the point is this. Once you decide your work container, once you decide your 100 percent, you can literally delegate everything else. You can go to a million in revenue, 10, 100, a billion. So it's all about protecting the work container and continuing to delegate

and elevate, delegate. So I just continued to delegate anything that would go into excess capacity and kept elevating myself to highest and best use. So 100%, hell yes, somebody could do it 20 hours a week. So let's talk a little bit more about that delegating and elevating. Like, what do you mean by that? I understand what you mean, but maybe go into a little bit more detail for the audience of like, when is the right time to delegate and what is the process of going through that to elevate to your next level? Yeah, for sure. And I have to say one more thing. I'm thinking about this person that's working 20 hours a week. So the answer is hell yes. And we're all different and some will work 10 hours a week. But I know for me, at least up until four years ago, I'm a 55 hour a week guy. It's like 20 hours a week. I would be

bored to tears. So what I want to be careful of, and the reason I'm coming back to this is for all of your audience to say, oh, 20 hours a week is the magic number I can build. You got to figure out your formula. We're all different. Some people work 80 hours a week. Again, in the time you're working, assuming you're taking time off, some work 20. We are all different. My magic number was 55 hours a week. Let me comment on that real quick because I'm very similar to you. Like when I'm on the grind, I want to be on the grind. But then when I'm off, I want to be completely off, right? This last week, I spent eight days traveling with my family. We went up to Whistler, Canada.

I took one business phone call while I was up there. And it was just total focus, going skiing every day, everything like that. But then when I get back in the office, I'm like, okay, I'm ready to be on the phone, getting deep by 7am. And I don't want to be off the grind until 6 or 7pm. And that's the way, and to your point is like knowing your grind. And it was interesting because I have some partners in my business now. And we were having a meeting yesterday. And we were talking about like this exact principle, like what is each of our individual 100%? And being okay with the fact that I like to take a week vacation once a month, but then my three weeks are just completely grind versus the guy that wants to show up to the office every morning at 8 a.m. and only work till 1.

But he grinds and that's his container. Or the other person that literally just wants to be busy all day, every day. And that's their container. And so it, and it's, it's an interesting dynamic when you're, when you're talking about business partners and equity holders and like who, what's fair and, and different things. But, but I think at the end of the day, it's important to understand ourselves. Like, like you're saying, no, no, no, thyself, no, you're a hundred percent and, and, uh, really go. And so, um, I I'd also be interested to, to know like what your, what your advice would be to a partnership like that of a guy that, that is extremely effective

for 20 hours a week. And the other person is a 50 hour a week. Like how, how, how do they work through that? Maybe, you know, friction that they're not the same. Yeah, for sure. So, and I'm going to come back to your delegate and elevate. So don't let us forget that. We got two high ADD guys here. So God only knows what's going to happen, but I'm going to do my best to hold us to task. So here's how that works. So now let's all of a sudden, I'm going to bring a couple of pieces of content into this conversation because partnerships, it's vital to know a couple things. First of all, let's go back to 10-year thinking. So 10-year thinking, what does it look like for you? And if you do decide you're a 20 hour a week person or 30 or 40, that's the life you want. Choose a partner that can live with that.

Okay. There are partners that can live with that. Head it off at the past. Shift your thinking to thinking in 10-year timeframes. You'll make much better decisions. You'll pick the right partners. Number two is decide if you're a partner person or not. So in Entrepreneurial Leap, that book, that academy I created for startup entrepreneurs, I go through all every imaginable issue that you can face. And one of them, one of the disciplines I teach there is to decide if you're a partner person. Not every business owner is supposed to have partners. Okay. And so there's two ways to go with this. One is you're either a partner person or you're not. If you are a partner person, there's two types of partner people. There's a controlling interest partner or equals share partner. Okay.

And so let's pretend you realize you're not a partner person. I have countless stories in the book about partners that realize I don't want to be partners. It's got to be a hundred percent mine. And that works. And by the way, at least half the businesses and it works and you'll hire great people that will work hard for you. Assuming you pay them. Well, if you're a partner person for me, I had to have controlling interest. I've got to be the final decision maker, especially with building EOS worldwide. So I'm a partner person. I give people equity, but I will never give up control. That's the type of partner person I am. The other type is equal share. If you have two partners, it's 50-50. Three, it's a third, third, and third. Four,

it's 25-25-25. You have to decide. And if you are a partner person who likes equal shares, then you've got to find the right partners that understand, agree with your philosophy around your 100% headed off at the pass. And so, like I said, I was the visionary 45 days a year for EOS Worldwide. I had an amazing partner, Don Tinney, who was my integrator going into the deal. I clearly said, I'm giving you 45 days a year of my life to be your visionary. You've got to figure out the rest. And it was a magical partnership.

That guy was, I mean, our partnership was incredible. So that's the answering that first question. Let me go back to delegate and elevate because this is the perfect time to say that. Yeah. So when I decide 45 days a year, then my job is to continue to push myself up to highest and best use, leverage myself as much as possible. So going back to the grind, when I'm working my 55 hours a week, I get a lot of shit done.

I am highly, highly, highly productive because I have amazing people around me that execute well. And so I can leverage myself. Delegate and elevate means you've got to delegate everything that doesn't fit in the work capacity or anything you don't like to do and you're not good at. We have a tool in EOS we call delegate and elevate. And so to delegate all that stuff and elevate yourself to the stuff you love to do and you're great at. And so I just always conscious as the organization grew 40% per year, more and more and more coming at me, I had to get really good at saying no, had to really get good at choosing the things that were highest and best use and delegate everything else to an amazing team

that executed really well. And I can't remember if it's in your book traction or if this actual process came from you, but it's like going in like an actual best practice, like taking out a sheet of paper, writing out what are the things that fill my day, right? Like going through and saying, these are the tasks, these are the things that I love, these are the things that I hate

and figuring out how to eliminate or delegate the things that you hate or the things that are bringing lesser value, right? And constantly focusing on the top tier and continually to remove the bottom. Would you agree with that best practice? Well, that is. So that is an EOS tool. So that's where you're remembering it from.

So that is in my book, EOS Life for Living Your Ideal Life. It's also in EOS if you ever engage in EOS Implementer. But let me walk you through the exercise because I can do it in one minute. And so the exercise works like this. You sit down and you write everything you're doing all day, every single day. And this exercise will take you 15 to 30 minutes, but invest the time it's worth it. And so you list everything you do all day, every day, kind of think of like 15 minute increments is a good way to help you. So you list all of those things and let's pretend hypothetically, there's 30 things on that list. Then we take you to delegate and elevate. It's four quadrants. This will be a little hard to comprehend on a podcast, but think of four quadrants, the bottom left quadrant, the bottom

right-hand quadrant, trying to do this backwards on a podcast, but just picture this in your mind. Bottom right-hand quadrant is everything from that list that you don't like to do and you are not good at, you put it there. The bottom left-hand quadrant is everything you don't like to do, but you are good at.

This is most of the world's personal hell. So most people are doing jobs they don't like to do, but you are good at. This is most of the world's personal hell. So most people are doing jobs they don't like to do. They're good at it. They were put there one day left to die. Do not spend any time in that seat or in that box. So you're going to take everything from the list that you don't like to do, but you're good at. You're going to put it there.

Then there's the upper right-hand quadrant. You're going to take everything there that you like to do and you're good at. Not so bad. That's not a bad place to live. You like it. You're good at it. Put those things there.

The magic, what I did with every minute of my 45 days is the stuff in the upper left hand quadrant, the things you love to do and you're great at it. So you're going to pull those things off the list. And what you're going to find is it's only like two, three, four things. It's not a lot. And so the idea is to do that exercise. You then delegate everything in the bottom two quadrants, elevate yourself to the top two quadrants with a focus on getting to the upper

left quadrant. Again, that's all in my book, EOS Life, but that's delegating. So remind me, what's the difference between those top two? Is it the things that you're great at and the things you're good at? Yeah. Like and good is on the upper right. Love and great is the upper left. Got it. Got it. Got it. And by the way, God puts you on this earth to spend all of your time in the upper left. So embrace it. You deserve it. Don't fight it. Your true self wants to be free and live in that upper left-hand quadrant. That's all of our destinies. And I think the important thing here

is understanding that everybody is different, right? Like a lot of people want to love and be great at things that they don't love and aren't great at, right? Like they see someone else living this superstar life of the visionary, of whatever it be, like some of the influences and whatnot. Like if that isn't you, don't force it, right? Like, goodness, find somebody that you can team up with that's going to, whether you're hiring or partnering or whatever else, and let them be that great person and find the thing that really makes you tick. And do not, do not, because I think this, the phone is the worst thing, right?

Social media glorifies certain attributes, certain skill sets. And, you know, and there's somebody that's listening to this podcast is just like, dude, I don't like speaking on stage. I don't like being in front of the group. I don't like creating the vision. But everything on social media says I have to be that person. And so, you know, I'm sure you'd agree with this advice, but just like find the thing that is really you. Let me say a couple of things I'm compelled to.

It's almost impossible for me not to. So the first passionate plea is don't ever try to strengthen a weakness. That's like madness. I mean, I want to say something really mean and crude, but I'm biting my tongue on it. So don't ever try to strengthen a weakness. And there's a funny quote that Jim Rowan would share that kind of gets to this point about strengthening weaknesses. And it's a little bit crude, but it makes the point. And it says, if you try to motivate an idiot, all you have is a motivated idiot. Okay. And so it's like trying to strengthen your weakness just means you have a stronger weakness. I mean, it's like, it's just silly. I mean, it's just absolute silliness. Man, I couldn't, I couldn't agree with you more. And I think it's taught a lot in our culture that we or conscientious person, right?

Like that, that is not me. And, and I've got to just allow other people to be that for me and surrounded. And that's where I came up with the philosophy that there's no such thing as perfect people, only perfect couples, teams, organizations, and communities because they are well-balanced of strengths that are supplementing the weaknesses that exist in each one.

Yeah, and I wanna share kind of a visual I'm having in my mind as we're having this conversation because bringing it back to the 10 disciplines as a whole, it's like the visual that just came to me and what's happening with these 10 disciplines being implemented in your life is you're removing all the drag in your life. In other words, you're going to just keep moving faster and faster and faster and streamlining more and more and more and getting you closer and

closer to higher and best use. Ultimately, i.e. freeing your true self and shining. That's what is happening here. You're shedding layers, you're getting clear, you're getting into your sweet spot, and you are becoming much more impactful in the world, in the outer world, and you're going to be experiencing much more peace. And that's why I'm convinced for that startup entrepreneur and going all the way back to Alex's belief that a startup entrepreneur can start implementing these 10 disciplines in their life and realize these benefits at the beginning of the climb on the mountain. They don't have to wait, but that's your choice. You decide when your soul gets pinged.

I love it. I love it. Gino, you are dropping some incredible bombs. We got 10 different disciplines. Let's jump into one more before. I love the discipline number six of say no, dot, dot, dot, often. I couldn't agree more with this principle. Can you dive a little bit more deep into that and what, I guess, maybe the controversial statement that you start with each one of these. I'd love to hear more. You bet. So here's the bold statement. So we're going to start with that bold statement. So the discipline number six is say no dot dot dot often. The bold statement is this. Say no to everything that doesn't fit into the first five disciplines. So this is where they build on each other.

Okay. So what that means is when you shift to 10 year thinking in your life and you're thinking in multi-decade terms, when you are taking time off and creating space in your life, when you know thyself, when you're fully being you in the world and you know who and what that is, when you're being still, you have stillness practice in your life,

and when you know you're 100% your work container, what to say no to is abundantly clear. It'd be like somebody saying, here, eat this worm. You would say no immediately. You know to say no to that. Literally every decision gets that easy. I'm speaking from experience. Now with this, I love saying no. And when I'm teaching this to an audience, I literally get the entire audience to look at the person next to them and say no, because most people don't know how to say no. They have an uneasiness in them. They literally feel anxiety about saying no.

You don't quite get it. But the idea, let's incorporate everything we're talking about. We're removing the drag in your life. Okay. And so the idea is to say no to everything that doesn't fit. Whatever doesn't fit in your life, you must say no. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your loved ones. You owe it to your 10 year vision. And so you got to look at why you're feeling obligated and just get really good at saying, no, the last little thing I'll offer up and let's dig as deep as you want is it is a muscle that you're building. Okay. And with that, somebody shared this with me that I didn't realize I do it. Five years ago, he told me this, but what I'm masterful at doing, I have to say no, I mean, literally 20 times a week at least.

There's so much stuff coming at me. But what I always do when I say no is I offer up something. Like, for instance, when somebody says, hey, can you be on my podcast? I have to say no 98% of the time. But then what I say is, you know, I can't, but here's someone that might be great for your podcast or two or three other people. So I offer something up in place that makes them feel a little better. I don't know, maybe me feel a little bit better, but I always leave them walking away feeling good about hearing my no.

You know, speaking engagements, I get hundreds of speaking engagement opportunities every year. I handpick a small handful of them, just got to get really good at doing that. And when I say no to a speaking engagement, I offer up three or four other speakers at different tier brackets, fee brackets, things like that are a better fit for their audience. So I always have a way of just offering something up that takes some of the sting off. I love it. I love it. These are great ideas and truth bombs that you've been sharing. And I don't want to really spoil all the incredible things that are in this book. So I do want to just share with the audience. We'll drop a link in the show notes and everything.

Grab yourself a copy of Gino's newest book. He's got, I mean, just so much more to share about these 10 disciplines. And first of all, I just want to thank you, Gino, for saying yes, because I know you did have the opportunity to say no to being on this podcast and just spending your time with us today and allowing your message to be shared with the world. I love what you're doing with entrepreneurship. I love what you're doing to really change the world through entrepreneurship. It's my personal mission as well. Gino, where are the best ways to find you, to follow you on social media or different platforms? Got it. You bet. Well, the best place to start is go to the10disciplines.com because I want to direct you to one particular resource that is free.

And it's called the True Self Assessment. I would urge your audience to start there. You're going to go online. You're going to take this assessment. It's going to take you a few minutes. But what you're going to see is how free your true self currently really is. And we also offer a free follow upup coaching call if you want to do that after you get your results. But you're going to find out how free your true self is. Really, really powerful tool. Also on that website is the first 27 pages of the book if you want to wet your appetite for free on the book. And if that pulls you in, then buy the book. We also offer a self study for the 10 disciplines, group coaching, a mastermind around it, which is really cool.

So I'd start there and then you'll see the social platforms on there and just go where the journey takes you. But just start by taking that assessment and your true self will know what to do from there. I love it. That's the10disciplines.com. Is that correct? Correct. The10disciplines.com. Appreciate it. Gino,

thank you so much for your time, for your energy, for the absolute truth that you've shared with our audience today. Super excited to release this episode and share it with the world. So thank you so much. Pleasure, bro. Until next time.