JUST ONE THING
Break Free From React Mode
Episode 186
With Rick White, 180BIZ
Today I’ll talk about preparation. It's a word that’s missing on our industry. Why do I say that? Because you need to look at what you're focused on. Most shop owners, not all, but a lot of the shop owners are in such pain because they're in constant react mode. They only focus on what's going on right now, right here. They're not looking around. They're not seeing things. If they would look up and look around, they would see issues coming. They would see trends. They would see potential and opportunities. But they don't. They don't see it because all they're focused on is getting to the end of the day, the end of the week, or the end of the month.
When you focus heavily on money, you lose sight of your destination.
When you focus on money, when you focus on production so heavily, you lose sight of your destination. Granted, if you're not getting the money, you need to work on it. That's a given. You need two visions. You need to focus on two things, not at the same time, but you need to focus on two things. You need to focus on what you're doing today and on where you want to go, what's going on around you. Both are important. I if all you do is focus on today, you're going to react forever. However, if all you do is focus on the future, you're dreaming, and your business is going to fail because you're not making money. So, you must have both.
When you recognize issues and trends coming up that you may not be aware of, that's a big deal. When you see an opportunity pass you by, that's a big deal. It hurts when you're reacting. In my opinion, you are in pain because you're not prepared.
The word of the day is Preparation.
That's the word of the day. Preparation. Preparation is key. What's that old saying? I call it the five Ps. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance. That’s six Ps. You must see what's going on around you. Then you must plan. This is where you're proactive. This is where you get out there
and you look around. You might see that there’s some construction happening that may cause an issue.
What can we do about it? That's the big part of it. Prepare. So plan first, prepare second. Having a plan is essential. You need to see what's coming.
Then plan for it.
Here’s third word. At first, I was going to say, perform. Plan, prepare, and then perform. And that made sense to me. But then as I thought to myself, I realized that perform has a lot of weight to it. It means I'm upfront and I'm being judged and people are criticizing and everything else, so perform I decided wasn't a great word. I don't think it captures exactly the concept that I want to get across today. So, I want to talk to you today about is to plan, see something coming, see an opportunity out there, see how you're going, see where you're going, so you're going to plan. That's recognizing either an issue or a potential coming your way, and then you're going to say, “Okay, what am I going to do about it? What are we going to do about it?” It's even better when you get the team involved.
Joe Frazier said, “Champions aren’t made in the ring…”
Yes, but then you're going to plan. Then you're going to prepare, what do I have to get ready for? What do I have to practice? I love the quote from Joe Frazier where it basically says winners or champions aren't created in the ring. They're recognized in the ring. We don't get that often enough. We don't understand that concept. You don't see the 98% of the preparation that went into someone like Joe Frazier or Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali or anybody that's great at what they do. You don't see the preparation behind the performance. That's the issue we have today.
On-the-job training is a myth. Here's what really it is. It's on the job reacting. OJR. It's on the job reacting. You need to prepare. That means recognizing that things will slow down. The economy will have some issues. People will get scared. I must prepare. I've must reevaluate how we're presenting things. I need to give options. I need to train my staff so that they are more empathetic. They can see someone stressed out. This is preparation.
Plan, Prepare, and Play
instead of calling it a performance or a perform, I want to call it Play because play is fun. Play is learning. Play is, I don't need it perfect, but I'm going to do it better. It's plan, prepare, and play. Part of prepare is practice. You need to practice. You spend too much time reacting and not enough time practicing the plan. Be aware of what's going on, put something together and then you're going to prepare. Part of that is practice, practice, practice. Then play.
Everybody. I want to thank you very much. If this is something you really resonates with you, please share this video. I guarantee there is someone out there that is tired of being beat up by react mode. When you feel like you're getting beat up all the time, that is a really good sign that you are in react mode, that your focus is on right now today, and you're missing out on what's coming. Some of the stuff you can avoid, right? You can swerve out of the way. Other parts of it, you're going to go through it, but you can go through it elegantly might be uncomfortable, but I would rather go through something uncomfortable rather than something painful.
I want to invite you to our shop owners route table. It's the second Thursday of every month, 7:00 PM Eastern. You must be a shop owner, but if you're a shop owner and you would like to get together with, I don't know, 50 to probably about 65 of your closest shop owners, you want to be here, it's absolutely free. No selling, so please share this.
We also have a webinar series, A pocket business genius, awesome series. It's your chance to get more of me without the expense of a coach. You are going to love this. Not only do you get a live webinar, but you also get a library of over 80 management webinars, and I just want to say everybody, I want you to have a great week this week.
I want you to have fun this week. You know what I have found is when I can be aware of what's going on and plan and I can prepare and practice, it really does become play and it's fun. Work should be fun. Not only do you need it, so doesn't your team, and so don't your clients. I want you to go out and have fun this week. Have a great week. Go make some money. I'll see you all next week, everybody. Take care. Bye-Bye.
