Say Yes To Less

What's On My Mind

We just got back from a Wyoming dude ranch vacation.​

We rode. We shot. We two-stepped.

​Check out my wife, daughters, and their boyfriend & girlfriend in front of a ranch house concert one night.

What a blast!

​And boy, I needed the break.

​The ranch has spotty wireless and nearly nonexistent cell coverage.

​It was glorious.

​Listen, I love my work. Seriously, I LOVE it!

​We're making such a big impact at BIG: every day, every week.

​But we all need breaks.

​Time away gives us a broader perspective. Insights.

​Mine?

​Think through how I'll make decisions in our opening-up world.

​Doing this right now -- as the world opens back up -- is critical.

​We have SO many more options coming.

​The Groundhog Days are about over.

​So...

​What are you going to say Yes to? No to?

​Here's what I came up with.

​It covers the three biggest decisions I need to make to invest time:

• What delivery work should I personally lead vs. others on the team?
  ​
  My rubric: I have to be providing something measurably different than others on our team. That's very rare. Our team is so good. I should lead < 5% of our delivery work. I'll still stay very involved in the design, setup, oversight, etc.
  ​
• What things should I personally travel for?
  ​
  My rubric: Has to be > $X of future potential revenue: X = the general level of our largest contracts.
  ​
  Traveling has friction. One trip means several other things can't move forward.
  ​
• What marketing/BD activities should we focus on?
  ​
  My rubric: We're nearly 100% virtual/digital now. Only travel for marketing/BD events with potential > $X, with the same X as above. That's a high bar. Digital marketing BD has been SO effective for us in the last year; we're doubling down. Digital events scale broadly and last forever.

That's it. Simple.

​The world is opening back up.

​We now have so many more choices coming up.

​A lot of in-person meetings make sense. But now, more than ever, we each need a strategy for determining which ones to pursue.

​What do we say Yes and No to?

​Ask yourself:

1. What are the top three decisions you often have to make to invest time?
   ​
2. What would have to be true for each decision that would make it worth saying Yes to?

​Write those down.

​Do the things that meet those criteria.

​Say no to the rest.

​Say Yes to less.

What's We Just Created

​Check out the WOW-level recording of our GrowBIG Accelerator session with my author friend Ron Friedman. We called this Decoding the Greatness of Rainmakers.
​
SO GOOD.

Become a collector!

​​Here's an amazing 14-minute podcast episode with my friend and author/speaker Molly Fletcher on how to create and close more deals.

Inspiring!

​And we just dropped an interview series with best-selling author and speaking coach Michael Port. This episode is about streamlining your processes.

​Streamline to succeed!

​

What's Worth Lingering On

I'm not sure why I'm such a pleaser.

​I hate letting people down.

​I can have a hard time saying No.

​I'm better at saying No to closer-to-now events because it's easy.

​Want to meet next week? That'd be tough. Schedules are nuts.

​My weakness is saying Yes to things that are "OK" and far off in the future.

​That's my weak spot.

​The simple rubrics I described above will help me with that, helping me determine what's a Yes and what's a No.

That's gold.​

I had so many other things I realized on vacation too.

I could cover them now.

But I'm going to Say Yes To Less.

Mo