SUMMARY

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

 

FULL TRANSCRIPT

[The following is the full transcript of this episode of The Brendon Show. Please note that this episode, like all TBS episodes, features Brendon speaking extemporaneously–he is unscripted and unedited. Filmed in one take, The Brendon Show has become one of the most viewed unscripted, direct-to-camera self-help series in the history of YouTube. It has also been the #1 Podcast in all of iTunes and is regularly in the top podcasts in Self-Help and Health categories around the globe. Subscribe to the free motivational podcast on iTunes or Stitcher.)

I’m always trying to automate. Automate. How can I automate a process that matters to me? So for many of who you know, books matter to me. So we automated the process of selling books just all day long. We’re just selling hundreds or thousands of books. I’m here, hundreds of thousands of books are going to be sold all around the world. I don’t have to do anything. We set it up. I automated that process with online tools and with the team. And so, you got to figure out what are the processes that matter the most and can you set them up to just run? Versus you maintaining it, someone else maintaining it or a system to automate it. So high performers are always automating those things.

My yoga friend said, “Oh my gosh, I’m so busy and under water.” I said, “What do you have to do?”

“Well, I got to do this and this and this.” Turned out she was going to Costco every Saturday spending two, three hours at Costco because you got to go up every aisle. If you did not know, I’m not allowed there anymore. My wife took me one time and she was like, “Never again.” I went up every aisle. I need to know what’s in there, man. Oh my God. I got to go up every single aisle. I’m the worst. You want to go shopping with me to get blueberries? Oh no, I’m going to go look up at everything. Look at the packaging on this. Oh my gosh. I told you I’m easy to distract. She’s like, “You are not going.”

I walked in there. I said, “Look at all these things we need.”

She goes, “We don’t need any of those.”

I said, “But look at that TV. It’s bigger than ours.”

“But our TV is fine.”

I’m like, “But they have one.” I’m a terrible shopper. I’m totally not allowed to do that.

My staff—we went down to Puerto Rico, they took me to the Costco in Puerto Rico. Oh, they didn’t know it’d be the whole day. They had no idea. I had to look at all of it. I’m terrible with that, you can’t have me do it. So I’ve always got to say, “Oh, what’s the best use of my time?” And get the support and the team and the tools to automate things and not be a browser on these other things. It’s so important for you to decide what matters.

I can’t tell you what it is, but you already know. And how can you automate things that they’re running and running and running? Back to the story of the woman at Costco. She’s there every Saturday. I said, “What are you doing there?”

She said, “Well, I have to go buy all the supplies for my four yoga studios.”

I go, “Do you own the four yoga studios?”

She goes, “Yeah, I do.”

“Do other people work there?”

She goes, “Yeah.”

I say, “Well, why do you have to go get the supplies? Why don’t you send somebody?”

“I can’t ask people to do that.”

“Do you pay them?”

“Well, yes I do.”

“Well, what’s going on with you?”

Why do you have to control what you are controlling?

Maybe write it down. Why do I have to control what I’m controlling?

Look at all the things you’re controlling in your life. Why does that have to be you? It’s one of the most profound questions in all of achievement. Why does that have to be you? Who said that had to be you?

Why does she have to go to Costco? Because she said she had to control it. But does she have to control it? Yes or no? No. No. Oh, but think of all the excuses.

She said, “But if I give my credit card to them, they’ll go buy everything in that store.” I said, “No, I would. But most people are responsible. The people you’re paying probably aren’t going to do that. And they give you a receipt too, so that’s good. And it shows up on your card. You’d know right away, right?”

“Well, yeah, I would know right away.”

“And if they take advantage of it, you fire them, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Okay, so we’re good. Bases are covered.”

You need to look at all the things you’re controlling and ask, “What if I removed, automated, or delegated that? What if I removed, automated, or delegated?

What if I removed, automated, or delegated? What if I removed, automated, or delegated?” And the second question then, what if I removed, automated, or delegated—did you get to ask yourself, “Okay, if I removed, automated, or delegated,” like that shirt, “What’s the worst that could happen?”
In her situation, are they going to buy too much toilet paper? What’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’re going to buy one of those things, the buckets of things that last seven months? What’s going to happen? What’s the worst that happens if you let go of some control?

Who’s ever quit a job in this room before? Ever quit a job, like a job with other team members on it? Raise your hand. Who’s ever been fired from a job? Okay. Do you ever notice the fired people make a different sound? There’s that weird laugh. They’re kind of happy it happened, but kind of like, “Should I raise my hand about this? I don’t know what this says about me.” You got fired? What does that say about you? They always make a different noise.

So if you’ve ever been fired or you’ve ever quit, has anyone in the room ever—and be honest—ever quit and left and everything ran fine without you and you were hurt by that? Raise your hand nice and tall. Look around the room. You quit and everything went just fine. You say, “This place is going to burn. This place is going to collapse without me.” You go in a week later, “Hey, what are you doing? Hey, how’s it been?” They didn’t even know you quit. They didn’t even know you showed up. They’re like, “I didn’t even notice you were gone.” Isn’t that the worst? They don’t even know you were gone. It’s ego that feels it has to control. It’s ego. Listen to this. Here’s a crazy idea for your productivity. And I hope you guys are all with me on this because I know I’m being a little silly. But here’s a crazy thing about my life. Everything that I control is my art and I love it.

See, new team members come in sometimes, “Brendon, why are you still writing your email to all the people every week?” I love the people every week and I’m a writer. I like it. Well, sometimes you’re not on schedule. I love the people and I’m a writer. Well, but somebody else could do it. Yes, but I like this part and I should get to do what I like. Entrepreneurs, can I get a hell yes?

Crowd:
Hell yes.

Brendon:
But how many entrepreneurs in the room are doing stuff you don’t like? Say, “Oh no.”

Crowd:
Oh no.

Brendon:
See, we want more hell yeses and less oh no’s. Way less oh no’s. I have control in lots of things that I really enjoy and I really love. And everything else I hand over here. I really think that could change your life, that question.

What are all these things I control and why do I think I have to control them? What if I could automate that, delegate that, or remove that so that I could focus more on the things that really move the needle?

I will tell you it’s how I got promoted faster than everyone else in corporate America. It’s how, by the end of my third year, I had created more online instruction than any of my peers combined.

Now you go, “What? How is that possible?” Because that’s all I did because I loved it. I knew that was a PQO. The second or third peer after me might have, at our levels, if you will, in our industries that I play in, they might have one, two on average, maybe five online courses that might be pretty short. I’ve got 35 online courses. People are like, “What?” The number of our millions of online students around the world. What? How? What was so special about Brendon?

Well, one, two, three, and four. That was what mattered.