Hello and welcome to another edition of Grow Your Business on BRiN. I'm John Di Natale.
Let's look at the things that we should do on the other hand so
we've just talked about the things that we should stop doing, let's have a think
about the things that we should do now to move towards our goals and do them on
a regular basis. The first one is: to review. I think it's important every now
and then to just stop and have a look back and go right what's happened in the
last month, six months, twelve months. And I think you have to do this
through two lenses; the first is a critical lens and I think this is the
one we all feel pretty comfortable with. This is the one we tend to
default to. The critical lens says well this is what happened, this is what went
wrong, this is what we did, this is what we could do differently. And that's okay,
I'm more than happy with that kind of analysis because it's important because
we take the learnings from that process and we apply them. The second lens though
is what I call the gratitude lens and that really is to look back and say well
what went right? What are the things that did go well? If you're
struggling a little bit right now I'm pretty certain that if you look
carefully you'll find things that are good, you'll find things that are adding
value, you'll find things that are working well, you'll find things that you
worked for that you now have, that you should be happy about; the clients you
currently have, the assets you currently have,
the lifestyle you currently have. You've worked for those and you should be
grateful that you have those. So they're the two lenses; a critical lens and a
gratitude lens and then have a look back and see what we need to learn from the
last period. The second thing to think about is: your 'why'. Now there's a lot of
talk about 'why'. You've seen lots of things about finding your 'why', I'm sure,
and tapping into the 'why', but I think it's really important. What is the thing
that drives you? What is the thing that really gets you out of bed in the morning?
Yes I know you want to succeed, I understand we want to build a business,
I understand we want to create wealth and lifestyle, I get all that. But what's the
real motivator behind that? What really drives you? The picture
you're seeing is a pic of me when I was very young and that's my family.
And for me it was interesting to watch my family and the families around us in
terms of how they establish themselves in a new country, okay, in the 50s when
when they came out here it was tough.
As it is now for people, I'm sure, who uproot their lives and move to
another country and start again. Not having capital, not having the language
advantage, not having understanding of the culture and what have you.
So I've watched people work very, very hard all their lives to build a life for
themselves, and along the way not really made some of the decisions that would
have helped them get to where they want to go and really get to a point where
they could live a life that's fulfilling and fun along the way.
Decisions around investing, decisions around businesses and getting involved
in businesses and the types of businesses to get involved in, and just
being able to have a plan for a financial future.
This often wasn't a big part of the thinking in this generation, it was more
about work hard, pay the bills, own your home, which is not a bad goal
but unfortunately when you reach your 60s and you're now looking for a little
more lifestyle, you don't want to work as hard perhaps as you have for the last 20
or 30 or 40 years, many of the people of that time didn't really have a plan for
what that would look like. So one of the things that drives us - me and my team
is to actually help people make those decisions to create the lifestyle
at some point that we really help them live a much more fulfilled and a much
more happy and enjoyable life down the track. So that's part of my 'why', it's part
of why I do what I do.
Tapping into yours is really important.
What is it that really is deep within you that is important
to you that drives you and that makes what you do make sense. Not just for the
job and the dollars and the time and paying the bills,
but for something bigger than that. I really encourage you to have a think
about what your 'why' is and what that looks like and where it takes you.
A really important driver. Have a plan. It's really interesting I often say to
people you know you need to have a plan. In fact I was asked recently
doesn't everybody have a plan? The short answer is no. Not when it comes to things
like my business; they may have a business plan but they don't really have
a plan in terms of where the business is going to take them, my life interestingly,
most people spent more time planning their last holiday than they do playing
their entire financial future for instance. So having a plan for wealth
creation, creating security, building assets, building cash flow, being tax effective,
all of those things. Have a plan and get some advice, don't just
think you can do the whole thing yourself. Very few people I know who have
been very successful have made that journey alone.
Very few. Most have advisers, most have got guidance from people, they have really had
some help to get there and they tap into that expertise to help them make better
decisions, so have a plan, get some advice, and then move forward.
Next thing to do: take some CEO time, as I call it.
The CEO is you; the CEO of your life. Every now and then it's good to just
unplug, it's good to just spend some time away. I don't know what works for you?
Sit by the beach? I like to take a notebook and a pen and no phone and no laptop and
no tech of any kind and just go sit somewhere with a coffee and
doodle for a while and scribble some stuff and think about things and see
where I'm heading and all that sort of stuff. That works for me, whatever it is
for you that allows you to just get out of the normal day-to-day stuff for a
little while and have a think about where you are and maybe do some of the
things we've talked about here in terms of the thought processes around these
key areas. Spend some time doing that and just unplug for a while. You'll find that
you think more clearly, you'll find that ideas pop up in that process that
wouldn't really appear on a normal day so being able to unplug and just get in
there and really think about where am I at and what do I want to do,
is really important. The next one: get some mentors. I know we've
all heard about mentors, we've heard about people who have mentors. It doesn't
have to be a formal thing. It doesn't have to be
something where you engage somebody's services. Find people who are doing what
you want to do, find people who have achieved the goals that you want to
achieve and go and talk to them. You'll be amazed at how many people will say
'yes' when you ask for guidance. Whatever industry you're in, whatever
goal it is you've set for yourself. If you can identify a couple of people
who are very successful in that space and approach them and say,
'Hey look I'm in a similar space to you, I would love to be able to get some
guidance, I'd love for you to be able to give me some input. Would that be possible?
Could I come and have a chat to you for 10 minutes or 15 minutes?'
You'll be amazed at how many people say 'yes'. In my experience, even direct competitors
can be great mentors. You can form friendships with your competitors
and learn a lot from each other in terms of what they're doing, what's working for
them, what's not working for them and in effect build the market and
there's more for everybody. So have a think about who the successful people
are in your space and go and approach them. I know that they probably
seem up here when you're down here. Don't let that bother you.
Everybody started here, okay? So they've been on the journey, they've learned some things,
they've made the mistakes. People say it's good to learn from your
mistakes, it's also good to learn from other people's mistakes so you don't
have to make the same ones. So go and find those people who are successful,
approach them, get in touch, say hello, get a meeting set up and go and have a chat
and I'm sure you'll learn heaps from those people and they're usually very
willing and very happy to share that experience with you.
And the last thing, I touched on this earlier, is: be thankful, be grateful.
One of the things that we do not enough of I think is just give a little bit of
gratitude for the things that we have. Fortunately, I get to travel
around the world and I get to speak in different countries and what have you
and I've just done a tour of parts of Asia and it really makes you realise
how good we may have it in the places that we live,
and the lives that we've been able to build for ourselves. So be thankful,
be grateful for the things that we have. Keep striving, for sure,
don't misunderstand me. If you're completely happy and you're
comfortable and you don't want to stretch, that's fine. I understand that.
Tthat's perfectly acceptable. If you want more of course strive, stretch,
go for the goals but also don't forget to be grateful for the things
that we already have. And have a bucket list. Okay there's lots of talk about bucket lists.
There are a couple of people who just talk about building your bucket
list and making sure that you actually go out and achieve some of these things
in your life I think it's really important to do some things that just are fun.
Just things that we wanted to do at some point, that we
probably thought were impossible. I can share a little story with you here;
in my early 20s with a friend we sat down and wrote a bucket list, which was
really a career bucket list, in lots of ways. There were lots
of things we wanted to achieve and things that at the time we thought were
completely unrealistic and impossible. But we wrote them down and we got
to work and we started doing some things and of course we got distracted and
went in different directions and then lost contact and what have you but
interestingly I happen to find that piece of paper you know probably 25
years later and everything that was on that list I've ticked off, which is
pretty cool when you think about it. I don't think that's a coincidence.
I don't think that happened just because. I think when you write things down and you
set big goals for yourself, it programs your subconscious in ways that I don't
understand, to actually then direct you to achieving those goals, to bringing
those things into your life and to making the connections you need and
making them happen. I really encourage you to create that list. They can be fun
things, they could be adventure things, they can be work-related, they can be
anything you like but whatever they are for you get the list down and
let it sink into your subconscious and then get to work
and I'm sure that in 10 years time you'll be able to look back as I did and
and cross some of those off. So to wrap up, here's the final thing.
All of these tips, all of these ideas are all useful, however if we don't pursue them, if we're
not consistent, if we're not persistent, we're unlikely to achieve the things we
want to achieve. This is one of my favourite quotes from Babe Ruth who said,
'It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.' And if you don't give up it's
pretty hard to get beaten. You can continue to strive, you can continue to
improve and you can continue to move towards your goals and along the journey
I wish you every success. Thank you for watching. I hope you've enjoyed this episode.
If you'd like more information on me or any of the experts on BRiN,
you can visit brin.ai/experts and take advantage of all the information that's there.
Until we see you again remember, life is for living.