Knowing What Matters Most

Weekly Recap

Happy Wednesday!

To define this last week I would say “out of breath”.

Ever had those? Phew!

Well, here we are heading into the final 80% of this work week, and I’m telling you, motivation is a slippery slope from here on out.

Stick with it and give your 100%!!

I was able to carve a little time out for 1 of my 2 passion projects and formally begin the research process - CANNOT wait to share this with you :D

Have you worked on any fun projects recently?

Knowing What Matters Most

Man alive - I missed a Tuesday.

I don’t use AI to write these, and like you, I’m only human.

This is the hard part about establishing new habits - enduring the missed reps but still going.

This honestly is why my health has deteriorated so much over the past year - I didn’t keep going after missed days.

Eventually missing a rep of a good habit establishes a bad habit.

So, let’s start again, albeit a Wednesday, and keep on with Learning, Applying, Sharing.

I’ve recently had the opportunity to work with some pretty incredible investors - they have completed what is my goal of building and selling dozens of businesses.

In the process of working with them I’ve been learning a profound lesson about what separates the mature and immature entrepreneurs.

Now, whether or not this interests you - there’s a really powerful lesson that applies to all of life.

With more new and immature entrepreneurs and leaders, what you see is a chasing after shiny objects.

And in today’s age, it’s marked by rushing to Claude or ChatGPT and dumping their heart into the session and saying “tell me all-knowing one, what to do!”

Internally at my company we affectionately call the results of this “bloat”.

It is more prevalent than you would realize.

On the other hand - observing mature and accomplished entrepreneurs and leaders I see the same tendency to check out the shiny thing, but a relentless obsession with focusing on the right numbers.

Right numbers?

Yep - and this is what has kept me immature in my own entrepreneurship (this past quarter has been an enlightenment and turning point for me).

Right numbers are how the successful keep getting more successful (among tenacity, discipline [critical], counsel, etc.).

They obsess - and I mean OBSESS - over the 1-5 numbers that matter most.

Nothing else.

The rest is distracting.

They are watching their subscriber count, their resource opt-in, their CAC, their LTV, their churn. (As an example)

The rest of us - first, we don’t have numbers, we don’t know how to determine numbers, and we’re stuck in this cycle of doing work that NEVER should be done by us.

On a recent project with one of these guys I mentioned how a simple addition could be done with Claude, otherwise I would have to charge our new rates (economy only gets tougher out here folks) and he said “Are you kidding me?? I want to make money. No way I would do it myself.”

Noted.

See they can articulate clearer than anyone, who they are, where they’re going, what they’re doing about it, and which numbers matter most to achieving this feat known as profitable growth.

OK ok ok … how and why does this matter to anyone else other than an investor?

It does - more actually.

In our own lives we keep coasting by, trying new things, never really getting clearer about where we’re headed.

When you write down your vision (try writing your obituary first if you haven’t - fun project), you will notice there are certain key goals that make up this vision.

What are they? What are the milestones to achieving those goals (mini goals on the way to big ones)?

What numbers can you watch to ensure you’re on the right path and to tell you when you’ve reached which milestones/goals?

And it will be more than 3 numbers - that’s totally ok.

But what are they and what can you do about tracking them?

In picking up my fitness again (feels like an uphill battle tbh), I have body weight numbers to watch (about 4 specific ones), blood work benchmarks, workout rep numbers, etc.

At work, we’re implementing scorecards soon - providing clarity on the 1-5 numbers each team member should be watching, once there is a better system (nearly done!!) to track and measure these numbers.

The “pros” are no more than regular people who feel the same emotions, get tempted by the same distractions, have to work hard at discipline, and labor over clarifying their vision just like you and me … but they DO it.

No matter how hard, they do it anyway.

I’m brushing up my series on identity (it’s so important) and as I do, this is a great aspiration to set out there.

Know your numbers.

Put in the work.

Feel whatever you feel.

Do it anyway.

From here, we build the framework to make this even easier to accomplish.

This is so exciting guys!

Talk soon!

Live purpose-filled and relationship rich!

-DC