SFR 80: Looking Up For The First Time In 5 Years...

"When Does The Hustle Actually Suck?"...

Just do it. Make your dreams come true, so just do it.

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Welcome to Sales Funnel Radio where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now here's your host, Steve Larsen.

Hey, what's going on guys. Hey, that was my little three year old. She obsessed with that Shia LaBeouf thing where he's like, "Just do it. Make your dreams come true, so just ..." She's like quoting it. She's walking around and she says it all the time. It's adorable. It's hilarious.

There's this part of me that's like, "Oh my gosh. I'm so excited." I've never had any success without becoming a monomaniac about something. Just really obsessing, being all about massive volume in whatever the thing that I'm going for whether it's a physical goal, financial, personal development, spiritual, anything. Monomaniac, these sprints of like really high intensity focus is how I've done what I've done.

When I see my little girl do that, I'm like, "Yay, she's got," but then there's other side of it. There's this other side of the coin that I don't think is talked about as much. Gary V who's at the Viral Video Launch a little bit ago, and he talked about ... He's on stage for a solid two hours it seemed like. He did a great job obviously. It's Gary V, but someone asked him ... I don't remember exactly what they said, but the question had to do with some kind of life balance. That's a question a lot of people ask. It's a good question to be asking for sure.

I do get a little surprised at how many people ask it. I guess how frequently it gets asked. I remember Gary V said like, "Look."

Something to the effect of, "You don't want to wake you when you're 37 years old and find out that what you've been doing the last 15 years you hate. You've built something that you don't want to be a part of or you've built something that literally sucks so much of your time in your life away that you really don't have time to live outside of your business."

It's been kind of an interesting experience going back and forth on that. I mean I've worked my butt off for the last five years. I mean specifically over the last five years. Really it's been like eight, but really the last five years has been just high pressure sprinting, very, very, very little rest.

Just go, go, go, go, go, go, go. I get that a lot from my dad. My dad was an extremely successful businessman. He's actually a software architect. He was an executive at IBM. He took on huge roles over at American Express. He was all over the place and set a lot of industry standards for the software world. My dad's the man.

I learned how to work because of him and specifically because of yard work and the way he interacted with me on that. You know what I'm talking about. I talk a lot about that in the early episodes of this show. Anyway, it was a little bit ago. I've been working like crazy, just doing tons of stuff. Working, working, working. One morning I was leaving and I was like, "Hey guys, I'm going to go to work."

My little girls had just asked like, "Hey." They're saying, "Are we going to go to the park?" I was like, "No, I got to go to work." My little two year old like sucked to my leg and was looking up at me with like the biggest saddest puppy dog eyes I've ever seen. I was like oh crap. It kind of rips your heart out a little. Gosh, dang it, am I doing this for the right reasons or is it my own?

I don't know. I'm really aggressive. I'm extremely ambitious obviously. Chances are if you're listening to this podcast, you are also. I mean usually podcast listeners are go getters. Anyway, the whole point of this podcast, I've had a lot of things in my mind lately for how I want to make sure that I'm crafting my life.

I recently have had the experience ... I'm not sure if you guys read the book "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller. "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller. Fascinating book. I looked at that book like many entrepreneurs and said, "Oh yeah, but everyone else has to do just one thing. I could do like 15."

I haven't really taken it that seriously. There's been a few experiences over the last two weeks though where I've been going through it. I've actually had the chance to get to know Don Hobbs who runs the Gary Keller "ONE Thing" events. He's been coaching me through a lot of this kind of stuff. He's been teaching me like, "Steven, man, what's your one thing? What's the thing out in the future?" I'm like gosh, I don't know.

I almost got offended by it at first. I was like, "I don't know." When I was running the two mile race in the army, right, the two mile. You go in as fast as you can for two miles. I never did it by looking at the finish line.

I always did it by looking three steps ahead of me. That's how I've lived my life where I just keep heads down and I just sprint and I just go towards stuff. Build the funnel. Get the thing done. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom and just go, go, go, go, go. It's good because you got a crap load of stuff done. Stuff that takes other people way too long. They think about stuff too much rather than just act and get something out there and fix it as its falling. You know what I mean?

Anyway, and he's asking like, "Hey, what's your one thing? What's your one thing?" I was like, "I don't know. I don't know. I don't honestly know what my some day goals, what my one thing goal is." My thing's way out in the future. Whenever people say like, "Where do you think you'll be in 10 years," I'm like I have no idea. I have no idea. I mean that's what I said to him when he and I were chatting. It almost got a little bit heated. He was like, "You got to know what your thing is." I'm like, "I don't know what my thing is." I'm really good at short-term sprints, getting a ton of awesome stuff done that rocks. I told him. I was like, "Look, I've lived my life this way for especially the last five years."

Actually probably most of my life. I don't plan more than six months in advance because it's guessing. That's what I've always felt. My whole mentality towards that has started shifting and changing. I've started thinking through like okay, what is it that I really want? I know how to hustle. I know how to crush it, but when my little girls are running up to me and saying like, "Look dad, take me to the park," it starts to tug on the heart strings a little bit. It's easier to charge high ticket for my time when you start having those kind of life events happen to you like, "Hey, here's a kid. Hey," whatever.

You kind of check yourself just a little bit. I've been kind of going through that lately and thinking through a little bit more ...

I don't know. I think that living a balanced life is a façade. I still do. A lot of people ask me this type of question, which is the only reason why I'm bringing it up on this podcast. I get this question frequently. How do you balance everything? I was like well, I don't. I don't try to. I've never found success by being balanced. Are you kidding me?

An Olympian is an Olympian because they train their freaking butt off and that's all they do for decades. You know what I mean? I don't try to live a balanced life. I don't try to. I work hard. I don't sleep that much.

I had this screeching realization though about two weeks ago and I've been trying to figure how to say this on the podcast.

I had this screeching realization like why, you know. The ability to work this freaking hard is amazing. I love it. I learned it from my dad. I love working where I do. Emotionally scratches a lot of itches. You know what I mean? It's amazing. I guess that'd be a question that I post back to everyone who's listening. I'm just trying to pass it. I don't totally know the answer yet. I'm still trying to figure that out and I actually feel like that answer will be something that's discovered. It's like a discovered answer mixed with intention.

You'd all find it. I'm not exactly sure what that 10 year goal is, the 20 year goal is. Look, I have no idea. The thing that I know that I do want to do is keep teaching people how to make money.

I'm very, very interested in philanthropy. I really, really want to go do a lot of third world stuff. I look at money as a tool. It's a means to an end. I don't totally know what that end is though. I just kind of have an idea of what those things are. It was these going through more of Gary Keller's "ONE Thing" book, talking to Don Hobbs, Russell, talking to I guess like Dave Woodward.

It's been very eye opening to be like okay, short-term for these things, but like make sure it's actually affecting the one thing you're trying to go for. I've never really been that huge into planning whatever. I lived the last five years of my life going, "You know what? I want to go for that."

Then I'd get it because that's who I am and what I do. I take my target and I destroy it.

That's my whole mentality...

That's my internal persona is is whatever the obstacle is, I'm going to crush it. I'm going to go to the left of it. I can go to the right of it. I'll go above it or below it or I can blow the crap straight through it. That's my warrior mentality. That's like get out of my way. This is who I am and what I do. Don't try and stop me.

My being is built on movement. When I'm forced to sit still for too long, I feel like I'm kind of like entering hell a little bit. I don't mean just like sitting, but like if I feel like there's a lack of movement, it really messes with my head. It really messes with my being in general.

I'm real good at those sprints. I'm real good at those. I'm not trying to just focus on me with this episode today. I hope that you understand the why. Like what is it that you're actually pushing for?

Money's great...

Not going to take it with you. What's the impact? Obviously the impact that you can have is greatly increased by the amount of money you do have, which is how I look at all this game. I want to learn it to make a lot of money for the means ... There's a means to an end, which is I really, really want to do a lot of philanthropy stuff. I don't totally know what that is.

I know that I'll figure it out when I get there and that's kind of how I've lived my life, but I do want to have a little bit more long-term direction and I hope that you're doing the same. If you haven't read that book, I seriously recommend it. It has been an interesting exercise.

What's been funny, it's been hard to actually answer the questions. Anyway, I always get kind of frustrated when people were like ... I actually think I did an episode about this a while ago. It was like, "How do you balance everything?" It was like, "I really don't think that there's such a thing as balanced." Balanced compared to what? Who is it? It was Dan Sullivan. I think it's Dan Sullivan.

He talked about like if you want to feel really bad about yourself, make sure you compare yourself to some ideals because you'll never reach them. They're a façade. They're undefinable, right? If you compare yourself in I don't know what you're trying to do, compare it to pop culture, that would suck because pop culture changes momently, right?

Every hour there's a new thing, there's a new style, a new fad, a new this, a new that. If you want to feel really crappy about yourself, compare yourself to an ideal, right? That's been part of my fear is I don't know want to compare myself to some idealistic thing that's out there.

That's been my fear with setting a one thing goal, but I'm realizing it's a false belief of my own, right?

What Dan Sullivan says is, "Look, rather than gaining your sense of self-worth by comparing yourself to an ideal," he says, "Compare yourself to where you've been. Compare you to you, rather than you to some ideal because ideals change and you'll never actually reach it because they change.

It's undefinable." He was like, "Look back and figure out where it is that you've been and where you're going." Anyway, it's kind of interesting. You got on one side a guy like Tim Ferriss, right? Tim Ferriss boasts a 4-Hour Workweek, which I'm sure he's so popular now I bet that's not true anymore.

For that business though maybe it is, that business that book is about. The 4-Hour Workweek. 4-Hour Workweek, right?

He sat back and he said, "What's the one thing I can do that when I do that, it makes all the other tasks irrelevant?" Right? That's how he approached it.

That's one side of the spectrum. The other side of the spectrum is like Gary V style where it's like sprint, go, go, go, go, go, roar. It's like oh my gosh. Hustle. Hustle until you bleed. Hustle until you get ... Honestly, I appreciate the hustle. I can do the hustle, but the hustle sucks. The hustle is not a sustainable strategy. Right? I believe the need of hustle especially when you're building your business for the first time, you're building funnels in the valley lighter, you're trying to figure out what offers convert. Man, you better be hustling, man.

That is life changing. That is the potential for generational wealth. You better be hustling towards that. That's my mentality. It's like, "Man, you don't like what you're doing in life? Then freaking do something about it and you run at it. You sprint at it." Don't try and save a little for later in case you got to run back. Give it all in the sprint. It's the only way I've ever found that actually gets stuff out and built and done. I'm good at that. I'm very good at that.

That's the thing. Then there's this other romantic side by Tim Ferriss. He was like 4-Hour Workweek compared to Gary V, sprint until you bleed. Hustle, hustle, hustle. You're crap until you're running at all times. Hustle and then the taxi.

Anyway, it's like very different schools of thought going towards hopefully the same outcome that I'm seeing all these other guys go for. It's interesting to watch how people take the path towards whatever they're going for, where it's Gary Keller's "ONE Thing."

Just one thing...

If it doesn't have anything to do with the main event that you're going for or the main goal, don't even attempt it. Other people are like, "Just do it all. Sprint you all. Something will stick on the wall. Go, go, go." I don't have the answer.

I'm not trying to tell you guys what the answer is, but for me right now what I'm trying to figure out is okay, if I can't define a 10 year old, can I define a five year? What is that?

Are the things that I'm building and what I'm putting, is it in supporting of that? The hustle is great and I believe there's a time and season for everyone of those schools of thought. I believe that there is the 4-Hour Workweek style when you figure out the new opportunity and the charismatic leader.

You figured out the cost. When you figure those things out, in my mind it does become a little bit more 4-Hour Workweek-ish. Not that you can take the back seat or actually work four hours, but like it's all about creating the systems and putting people in place and be able to step back and step out. I get that. I think there's a time and a season for that.

I also think there's a time and a season for the hustle...

I remember sleeping literally three, four, five hours a night literally just about every single day of my entire college experience because I was studying marketing and launching businesses and trying to be successful. I was hustling my face off. I worked so hard and then I go to marketing classes and people are like, "Well, we know what you're talking about."

I'll be like, "Man, you guys have not a clue." What we're learning right here is 15 years old. You know what I mean? Anyway, I love the hustle and sometimes we can romanticize the hustle. Sometimes I see too many posts on Facebook of people saying, "I'm doing my 3:00 AM. I haven't slept tonight. I haven't slept great," but you're going to sleep the next 24 hours because you're going to be dead and totally rocked.

You know what I mean? Whenever I see somebody say, "Oh my gosh. Yeah, I worked a straight 46 hours," there are very specific times and seasons where that is needed, but I actually don't think it's something to brag about. In my mind it means that you might be doing something wrong.

Maybe you didn't delegate it properly or you did bad on your launch calendar and you didn't plan appropriately. You know what I mean? Whenever like, "Yeah, I've been hustling doing X, Y and Z," like okay, because of what? Is it because of you truly have that many things to get that or is it because you're trying to be busy because you're confusing that with achievement? Activity with achievements, the same thing.

I always laugh. I think they're tagging me in the post. I can't remember. Regardless, I saw several in a row of people bragging about how they had not slept in a very, very long time. Read the book "Rework." The book "Rework" talks about that very principle. It's dumb. You can't be creative when you're tired. That your part of your brain starts to shut down.

It's like the most high maintenance part of your head...

You're not going to be creative. You're not going to come up with a new opportunity. You're not going to come up with new copy. You're not going to be a very good analytical traffic driver if you're reading stats. You know what I mean? If you're tired, it rocks your world. I still only sleep five, six hours in a night.

Usually it's five, but man, it's taking a while for me to ... Anyway, all I'm trying to say is figure out if you're actually in love with the hustle or are you using hustle to get the end goal. There's a very important distinction.

My hope is that you don't fall so in love with the hustle that you just keep doing it because you don't know what else to do. It's what Tim Ferriss talks about in The 4-Hour Workweek. He's like, "Look, most of us work because we don't know what to do besides work." I love work and work is a sanctifying aspect to it. There's so much personal development that comes from it, but man, it is not about straight hustle. The hustle sucks sometimes. It sucks a lot of times.

Truly for the first time in like four ... I mean five years.

For the first time in five years, I have been asking the question, so what? What is it for? How come I'm doing this? What's the farther end goal? What's the reason that I want to push forward on this? I'm not going to lie. That question has freaked me out because ... Actually Alex Charfen talks about this in the Entrepreneurial Personality Type.

If you guys don't know him, go check out Alex Charfen. He is fantastic. He helps me learn more about myself than I know about myself and why I act the way I do and why I can do these hustle periods. He talks about these very things.

Like, "Look, if someone asks an entrepreneur what their five year goal is, their brains explode because they have no idea how to even think that far ahead.

There's so much stuff that they've got going on." That's how I feel. I don't know what the answer is. It's literally like those old TV sets when the channel isn't on. It's like ssh. Do you know what I mean? There's this blank channel. I have no idea.

Five years from now, 10 years from now, no idea. That can be a little bit freaky. I'm trying to get more clarity on what that actually is and I'm challenging you to do the same and to take it serious and to know what the end game is. Are you falling in love with the hustle? That's basically the whole point of the whole episode I was trying to make with this whole thing. Is it like oh gosh, you got to have ... If you want to be really successful and stuff, increase your volume in that activity.

You will be successful. Have huge ridiculous unbalanced volume in whatever you're trying to be really good at or make money at or whatever it is and you'll be successful. That's like the formula. Just obsess. They'll do well. Obsess, but know that it is a means to an end.

The way you stay relevant, go back to these little tiny obsessing moments. It's kind of like the way I learn now has changed dramatically. The way I learn, I actually have not read a full book in quite some time. Years actually. The reason why is because I realized that I was distracting myself with the activity of reading books rather than applying what the books were saying. Right?

I realized that I needed to change my learning style and I needed to start doing these little more mini learning sessions.

When I first started, it was like this big gulp. Just taking in everything I can. I was reading all these courses, taking all these things in. Then eventually I needed to change my strategy because I was just not launching anything.

I was way too distracted. It's the same thing with your goals and what you're actually going for. I think at the beginning it may not matter as much what that long-term goal is, but I'm starting to ... I'm really, really starting to ask the question, okay, what is the long-term goal? Does this activity have to do with that? Is it sustainable?

Is there a reason I should be doing this or should someone else be doing it for me at a hire out? Those are all the kind of questions and I can feel that I'm in a transitionary period. It's important to be self-aware of where you are in that process. I'm not telling you not to hustle.

Gosh, I'm going to hustle as long as I can. I also know now it's a means to an end, rather than this glorification thing, like this badge of honor. "I haven't slept in 47 hours." Well, then you've got a problem. There's another problem set you're not addressing and because of that, the side effect is happening. Take a step back. Figure out that problem set. What's going on? How come you can't? Anyway, that's all I got for you guys.

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