Entrepreneurship

Change Your Set Point Weakness

June 19, 2018 by Ari Meisel

This last Monday was national cotton candy day.

That’s right, that’s actually a thing. Go figure. I guess the cotton candy lobby is a powerful force indeed.

But it reminded me of something in my own life: my sugar addiction.

I was crazy for sugar. And let me tell you, access to large amounts of refined sugar is a pretty modern and recent thing. Even regular old white table sugar wasn’t something widely available until the second half of the nineteenth century.

Our bodies haven’t had a whole lot of time to adapt to it, and we’re naturally “wired” to seek it out and get as much of it as we can at once.

That’s because for most of human history, sugar’s been something that’s nutritionally dense, especially in calories — which you need when you have to walk everywhere, you probably do physical labor every day, and food is something you have to actively seek out.

Load up on seasonally available fruits while you have them, before winter sets in.

So you’ll naturally snack on sugar whenever you have the chance. It’s rewarding on a really basic instinctual level.

But it’s not natural, when it comes down to it.

Tons of people struggle with a sugar addiction. I’ll go ahead and clarify that I don’t mean “addiction” as in a seriously debilitating dependency. That can happen, sure, but most of us just get hooked on sugar without realizing it.

I had to break my own sugar addiction, which is what I wanted to talk about today.

I’m not talking about some magical miracle cure. That isn’t a thing. There’s no pill you can take that will suddenly make sugary snacks revolting and nauseating to you.

You have to address your own habits and change your behavior if you want to curb your sugar addiction. It’s not necessarily easy, but your teeth and your waistline will thank you.

A lot of us have tried to do this with something in our lives. Maybe it’s sugar, maybe it’s smoking, maybe it’s procrastination.

But it’s easy to fall back on old habits. You make a change, and make some progress… then something happens, and you fall back into that original pattern you tried so hard to break.

You spent all that work, and it seems like it was for nothing.

Part of the problem, I think, is an awareness issue. We don’t consciously realize it when we slip back into those old patterns, because they’re so deeply ingrained into our behavior.

And one of the biggest catalysts is stress. You try to cut back on sugar — or whatever other relatively non-life-destroying but bothersome vice you’re dealing with — and you’re in some stress-prone situation.

Like you’re without an insurer.

Then some stressful event brings that to a head, and the mud hits the fan, and you go, okay, forget it, I’ll just have one.

And you skip your afternoon run, or you go buy a bag of Dove bars, or whatever. You justify it because you’re stressed, and a lot of vices — especially sugar — are comforting. They release serotonin in your brain and help counteract anxiety.

But you just end up feeling bad. And your “clean streak” is ruined, and you think, gosh, I’ve failed. I lost. I might as well give up.

You shouldn’t, but you feel that way when you “break your streak,” and it makes you feel like you’ve ruined everything and might as well not even try. (In reality, you could just go back to the changes in your behavior. One bad meal won’t ruin your diet, just like one good meal won’t fix your weight problem.)

This happens in business too. You try to do something, to make a change, to break away from a habit that’s holding you back. Maybe it’s procrastination. Maybe it’s being cheap when you shouldn’t. It can be all kinds of things.

Whether it’s a professional issue or a personal one, like my sugar problem was, you have to change the offending pattern of behavior, for the long term. That’s what it comes down to.

You have to do this *actively*. If you’re not conscious of your behavior, and don’t actively go against the grain, you’ll fall back into a “homeostasis,” because the patterns are ingrained.

You go back to a “set point,” to what’s comfortable.

You have to change that set point. You have to make the new behavior pattern your new default.

My friend Ben Ahrens, who has a great podcast, is writing a book right now on “set point theory.”

And the thing is, it works best if you change that set point by changing your behavior gradually, and consistently. You’re working towards a “new normal.”

Will you stress eat a bag of Doritos again at some point in your life? Sure.

But that isn’t a failure. It’s just a stumble.

You did what you did. Fine. Go back to the new pattern. Eat clean again tomorrow, and every day again after that.

You’ll trip and fall. It happens. But you have to get back up. Don’t just sit there on the floor and mope.

Now, this doesn’t always work in every single case. I’m talking about confronting habits like procrastination, or poor eating habits, or lack of exercise, or too much sugar. This isn’t for substance addiction or anything super serious like that, and I do want to make that much clear.

But over time, when you have more good days than bad, and keep moving forward more than you trip and fall over, you can gradually shift that “set point.”

You create a new normal for yourself. Your old normal was eating too much on a daily basis.

Your new normal is a healthy, balanced, calorically sensible diet with just a tiny bit of sugar every now and again.

Will you eat a pint of ice cream while sobbing and binge watching Netflix a year from now after a bad breakup?

Yeah. Stuff happens. That’s okay. The point is, that isn’t your normal anymore.

Shift your set point, and create a new normal for yourself. That’s the real solution for behavioral change — whether you’re fighting a bad habit in your personal life, or trying to change a problem you’re having in your business.

Want to Get Things Done Right? Here’s the Question You SHOULD Be Asking.

June 10, 2018 by Ari Meisel

Are you focusing on “Who” or “How” as a Founder?

Being a founder means figuring out how to make things happen.

You start with an idea, some great new thing that you want to make happen.

The first question your mind comes to is usually this: “How?”

How can I bring this product to life, turning an idea into something tangible?

How can I market this, getting it in front of the right people at the right time?

How can I get the funding I need?

How can I make this profitable?

There are a lot of “hows” involved here, and they’re all important and legitimate questions.

But in the midst of all these “hows,” founders miss another question that’s even more important: “who?”

Businesses are made up of people. Sure, some things can be automated here and there. Physical products can sometimes be made completely by robotic equipment in factories. Some kinds of business tasks can be partly or fully automated, like bookkeeping or data entry.

But people are the heart and soul of commerce, and as of today, there is no business in existence that doesn’t have people at its core.

“Who” Over “How”: Why Planning Should Start With People

Many of the things you need to plan and figure out as a founder have a huge “how” factor.

Examples include things like social media marketing, sales funnels, and other sales and marketing operations.

The processes are important, sure. But if you want to get anywhere with them, you need to make sure you have the right people first.

People with the right knowledge and skills to make things happen. Even the most well optimized and well planned processes can’t be put into place effectively without the right people running them.

Delegation is key.

Of course, it’s a little more complicated than just “delegate things to get more done.”

Delegation isn’t one thing, it’s more of a spectrum.

That spectrum runs from “do exactly what I say, verbatim,” at one end, to “do whatever you think is best, as long as it gets done” at the other.

Domino Delegation

My friend Joe Polish runs the Genius Network event.

His domain name is “TheFirstDomino,” and there’s a reason for that.

It’s because of how human connections create chains of causality that ultimately get things done.

Joe himself is “the first domino.” He’s the “first mover” in this scenario.

When you know Joe, and you need something done, you can get what you need through his network.

Joe passes it along to a resource you need, the second domino, which connects you to someone or something else, and so on.

Joe gets as much done as possible… while doing as little as possible himself.

As that First Mover, he also makes sure the people who come to him actually know what they need. He won’t hit the next domino until he’s sure.

He’ll ask things like, “Why do you think you need that?”, or suggest, “You actually don’t need that person, you want this person instead.”

As First Domino, Joe makes sure that when he falls, the next domino he hits will be the right one.

He does this by having a great selection of go-to people, the “second dominos.”

Find Your Go-To People

Founders are skilled innovators and business developers. You might also have some other relevant skills, depending on your professional background.

You might be a copywriter, or a web developer, or a social media marketer.

But your business will inevitably need things for which you’re not necessarily the best person.

That’s where your “go-to people” come in.

Rather than figuring out the “how” in areas you’re not familiar with, find the right “who,” the person who already has the “how” part down perfectly.

Tons of successful founders have these “go-to” people. A go-to app developer, a go-to copywriter, a go-to marketing consultant.

Knowing the right people is essential here. This type of “domino delegation” gets things done faster, more efficiently, and a lot more effectively than trying to wear all the hats yourself and figure out the “hows” independently.

Ask “Who,” Not “How”

Next time you have a problem, or you need something done, don’t ask “how.”

Ask “who.”

Don’t ask, “How can I construct an effective sales funnel?”

Ask, “Who do I know that knows sales funnels better than anyone else?”

This goes for just about everything. By using “domino delegation” for anything outside your core areas of expertise, you can focus a lot more effectively on what you are good at, while making sure all those other things get done well.

How To Use Less To Get More.

April 12, 2018 by Ari Meisel

(aka The MacGyver Method.)

I spend a lot of time talking to people about decision making. Yesterday, I came up with a pretty cool example that seems to resonate with a particular generation (mine).

So everyone remembers MacGyver right? Super cool guy, terrible haircut, worse fashion sense, But he got shit done with very little.

No one ever said to him, “ Here, go to this Home Depot and pick out whatever you want and do what you gotta do.” No. They said, “Here’s a paperclip and a box of Bisquick. Go make a bomb.”

Limited choices.

You see, we can’t innovate when we have too much at our disposal. As entrepreneurs, we have a lot more freedom than most, and our brains are not wired or comfortable within that broad framework.

So start constructing “Artificially Restrictive Limits” for yourself and your business . Give yourself less to work with, and you will see, almost immediately how the blocks become unblocked and the change happens.

Give yourself the gift of:

Less Time — Bring a project to fruition in half the time you planned. Remember perfect is the enemy of done.

Less Money — What automated or outsourced systems and processes could you put in place if you had to slash 20 percent off your operating budget? The technology is out there right now, find it.

Less Space — Actual physical limits. Use one shelf for your shoes. If your shoes do not fit on the shelf, stop buying shoes.

How To Be Happier and More Productive.

April 2, 2018 by Ari Meisel

(Hint — It’s about your agility).

I guess one could define agility as the ability to change direction quickly, but it’s so much more than that.

To be agile requires the ability to see not only the direction you are going, but the change you need to make to get there.

It reminds me of that experiment that gauged our powers of observation.

Did you see it? No?

Well, watch it again and concentrate only on the gorilla.

That’s agility. It was right there the entire time. But you weren’t focused on it until it was pointed out to you.

Many entrepreneurs have lost the ability or freedom just to see the gorilla.

Too much is at stake.

Too many fires and not enough water.

Too much time spent on things they are not good at.

Breaking up the log jam requires a profound shift in perception and it rarely occurs at team building seminars or by reading yet another “Guaranteed Business Success” airport paperback.

It comes from disruption; the seeds of revolution.

Before you get all freaked out about my word choice, I’m not channeling Marx and Engels. I am not a Political Scientist.

I’m an entrepreneur who has had his fair share of failures; loads of times where I was following the directions, head-down on some project I loathed, but knew had to be accomplished.

I was missing the gorilla.

The paradox is that you become more agile and therefore more innovative, when you impose restrictions upon yourself. If you are doing everything, you are accomplishing nothing.

So how do you break this cycle?

Try this little exercise on agility.

Make a list of the things at which you are excellent, then another one for situations where you adequate and competent, but not particularly engaged. Finally make a list of the things you are not enthusiastic about at all, but do anyway.

Guess which one of those lists is your gorilla in the room? The key to becoming more agile? The essence of the disruption that needs to occur to propel your forward?

Right.

Today is the day you stop doing things you are not good at.

Let it go.

Give it away.

Someone really can do it better and faster than you.

You are wasting your talent.

It’s time to embrace disruption or be crushed by your overwhelm.

Your choice.

How Are Your Resolutions Working Out?

January 22, 2018 by Ari Meisel

Did Sharon give up her Pall Malls? Did Connie finally swear off chocolate and gin? What about Bert? Those thirty extra pounds he’d gained since leaving the Army, did he lose them?

Guess what?

Our parents and grandparents were no better at sticking to Mel Torme-induced, whiskey sour-soaked resolutions than we are.

It’s not a generational thing, it’s a mindset thing.

In fact, did you know that only 8% of people actually achieve the New Year’s Resolutions they set for themselves? This is often because most of our goals are not actually achievable and we have no real plan to accomplish them. So we smoke, drink, eat, fail, over and over again.

At Less Doing, we believe in setting small, achievable, and effective micro-goals.

So instead of “write book”, you can “write 500 words each day”.

Instead of “get better sleep”, your goal could be “turn of all screens at 8pm”.

Rather than, “lose forty pounds, the intention can be, “no sugar after dinner.”

Here’s a video I did recently that may help explain this better.

So, dream big, but fill each day with small productive wins. Take the stairs once, instead of the elevator. Make one call you don’t want to, compliment a coworker you dislike. Forgo Netflix for one chapter of a book before bed.

The successes will build up slowly but naturally, will alter your perspective in a truly positive way and provide a really strong foundation for progress.

Now, isn’t that a whole lot more productive?

How To Cultivate a Culture of Mutual Respect

January 22, 2018 by Ari Meisel

I’ve talked a lot about team building and delegation and now that you’ve probably got a handle on it, I’d like to include the essential missing pieces.

Trust and Mutual Respect.

I’ve waited until now to talk about these intangibles because I like to be the guy who puts in the last puzzle pieces. I know, it’s a jerk move. I’m still a work in progress.

So, trust and mutual respect.

You can outfit yourself with all the very best processes to become more productive, to scale up or down, whatever your model. But you can’t buy trust and mutual respect. You have to cultivate those qualities, and it must start with you.

In other words, if you want self-esteem, you have to do esteemable things.

The more esteemable acts I perform, the stronger I feel and the more attracted I become to others who are on the same path. It’s taken a long time to become a good judge of character and it has been directly proportional to the kind of character I continue to develop inside.

We must, as founders, respect the individual gifts each member of the team brings to the mix. Instead of being suspicious or envious or befuddled by them, we need to embrace and learn from each person’s unique qualities.

Relinquish your ego’s desire to take credit for others. Give credit where it is due and never, ever imagine that you are the smartest person in the room.

The paradox here is that once you have established this level of detachment, you can begin to trust and once you begin to trust, you can do anything, absolutely anything. Sometimes, this process takes years, and sometimes you just know.

Still, I marvel at what technology can do for us. I’m always curious about advancement and how being replaced by technology is not the end of human life, it is the beginning. It frees us to explore the endless possibilities of the human spirit.

So my team is small, wildly eccentric, and completely isolated from one another. But we are connected by a trust born out of mutual respect for one another’s badass talents.

My relationship with them and the bond they have formed with each other can’t be memorialized in a 400-page contract. There’s no algorithm for it. It is the product of authenticity and transparency.

There’s no computer in the world that can get excited about the possibility of something new, only humans can do that, and that’s amazing.

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