S2 E75: The Power of Procrastination

You can find all kinds of leadership quotes that talk about being a captain. And there’s some truth in most of them but a pithy quote doesn’t capture all of the critical aspects of becoming a captain in your business. 

As you grow in your leadership journey you may find yourself on the same journey as many of my clients - sailing from captive to captain. 

If you want to grow your business and, at the same time, multiply your impact, income, margin and freedom, it’s time to take the wheel.

Join me in this podcast episode, to get:

• What being captive feels like
• How it feels to be captain of your business
• The questions I ask to guide clients from captive to captain
• What procrastination is telling you and how to harness its power
• The exact homework assignment I give clients to get to the root of problem 
• What you can do today to move forward in your business and identify how a team can help you sail with ease

And, you’ll hear how a conversation with me about your business has the potential to get you started on your journey to captain...with calmer seas than you were expecting.

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Transcript

Winston Faircloth: 0:00

What parts of the business do you procrastinate in handling? So many people give this word a negative connotation. It's almost like the moral equivalent to words like lazy, slaw, avoidance. Hey, they're multipliers. It's Winston Faircloth, and welcome back to Episode 75 of the for love of team. This is the podcast where leaders simplify teamwork, helping you surround yourself with teammates doing the work they love, simplifying your business processes, so that you can serve more focused on the work that you love. Now, a couple episodes back Episode 73. We talked about founders who possibly resonate with this word, they feel captive because they're wearing every hat in their business. I bet you've had conversations with people like this too. But these are the words that I hear when I hear people that are described as captive to their business. They're trapped, unprofitable, overwhelmed, exhausted, they wear every hat, they have no time freedom, unable to grow stock, kept out handcuffed. I've heard that one. This is my all time favorite. I'm running a D i y business a do it yourself business. Well, on our journey together here for love of team, I'd like to invite you to experience the words as the captain of your business, a captain who is aligned, abundant, wealthy, prosperous. This is one of my favorites in flow. profitable, passionate, especially about your team and about the service that you're delivering, you're able to spend an increasing percentage of your time in your zone of genius. You feel freedom with time and with money, you're happy, you're driven, you're fulfilled. So today, let's begin our voyage of moving from captive to captain. And this passage begins with you as the leader of the business, taking a hard look in the mirror and beginning take stock to take inventory. Become more self aware about all the aspects of running your business in this moment, right here, right now. Let's see a lot of mentors out there start by having you play the long game, or casting a future vision of your future team. But I want to bring us back to the point that leadership is an inner game, because in business as the founder, you are the ceiling to your success, your beliefs, your thoughts, your feelings convert into actions or inactions in business. And this is true, whether you are a personal brand solopreneur. Or if you're building a business for long term legacy, and perhaps a transaction when you're ready to exit. And when I work with prospective clients like you one of the very first things I do is to ask a series of questions in a very conversational manner. Think of this as almost our own virtual coffee conversation. You and I sitting around a table perhaps here in beautiful Florida, enjoying a cup of coffee. And our goal is just to help uncover some of your thoughts about your business. So why are you doing this? Who do you want to serve? What are some of your greatest challenges? Your biggest concerns? I see I'm listening carefully to the words that you're using? Do I sense of optimism or dread? Are there certain phrases or words that are used over and over? Are your words limiting or expansive? our conversations, especially as we feel comfortable really are I tell they tell us what is going on behind the scenes. And as we get comfortable? I'd love to probe deeper and ask some questions. Because typically, our first response is just a clue to what's going on underlying the challenge that you're facing. Are you open to sharing some of your key metrics, your numbers, your trends in your business? What are they today? What do you think they'll be in 12 months, there's no outline. There's no script, just a conversation between two colleagues to teammates in business. And here's the challenge while my heart is centered on serving you, I'm also sensing on whether you're willing to grow and adapt. See at this stage of my career, I'm pretty selective about who I can really serve at the highest level where breakthroughs are not only possible, but they're inevitable with just the right insight, just the right moment, just the right breakthrough. There are lots of people you've run into these folks to who just want to recycle their past histories who seek credit from others who are blaming circumstances or other people or frankly, who are just unwilling to do the deal. Enter work to be an inspired leader of a team that you love. Ultimately, these are people who are probably cannot help at the investment level that they're willing to make. In short, sadly, they have a fixed mindset. At this stage in my life, I'm all about growth, not the marketer mathcad, where they're bragging, they're talking about their top line revenue numbers as some way of measuring their worth. I'm attracted to people who are dedicated to learning, experimenting, people who celebrate the successes of others as proof that their own dreams are also possible. Someone who sees criticism, or nose in the sales process is merely feedback. And with this foundation, our conversation eventually turns to a bit of coaching, I reflect back key phrases that you've that you've shared, I asked you to go a touch deeper with the why behind the statement. And this is where the gold absolutely comes up. We can go deeper with hard questions like what comes to mind when you hear the word team? Well, you know, for some people, that's a really bad four letter word, because people have had bad experiences either participating or leading a team. So I'm interested in those bad experiences. I'm also interested in in those really great experiences, what are some of the best experiences of participating in or leading a team, but here's the one that is a little unlikely for a conversation like this. And this is why I think there's power in procrastination. So what part of the business? Do you procrastinate in handling? Let me say that again. What parts of the business do you procrastinate in handling the word procrastination? Man, I'm shaking my head, I'm you can't see me. I'm shaking my head as I think about this word. So many people give this word a negative connotation. It's almost like the moral equivalent to words like lazy slop avoidance distraction, we hide in shame. When we think of procrastination, we can feel so many negative emotions, perhaps even anger at times. As founder and leader we have so much to do. So many hats to wear so many opportunities and people to connect with and to do lists that can just feel never ending. Well, today, I'm here to help unlock the power of procrastination for you as a founder and as the leader of a team that you love. Now, if we're having a great conversation, and someone would like to have a second conversation, one of the homework assignments I typically hand out this stage is what we call an activity inventory. And this is a really simple spreadsheet tool that I provide you with. And what I'm asking you to do for a week is to capture all of your business actions during a single week. In your business. Think of this just like a thought download. There's no judgment or evaluation here, just a thought download of everything you do, and a rough amount of time that you devote to each of these types of tasks that you do. And then if folks are interested, we get back together a week later. And we review the notes. And we're doing this exercise in part to help you dial up the parts of the business that you're really drawn to, and dial down the parts of the business that you dread. We're contrasting those parts of the business that you're drawn to versus the parts of the business that you dread. And see, I think that procrastination is your inner wisdom and inner knowing about the parts of the business that are potential candidates for future teamwork. And the parts of the business you dread have a hidden cost here. It's not only the time it takes you to perform the task itself. There's this hidden almost subconscious cost of all the time leading up to taking on that task where perhaps you fretted you worried Brooker steel uses a word called buffered and yes you procrastinated avoiding tackling that task and every moment you spent there in that state of fret worry buffering procrastination, it represents probably another 10 moments that you were not in the parts of the business that you're drawn to the flow, the parts that you just feel naturally gifted at and drawn towards and see when it comes to building a team and a business that you love. I believe that your number one teamwork goal is to spend an ever increasing percentage of your time in the parts that were your gifted by attracting others who love the remaining parts of the business as much as you enjoy yours. See, people don't believe this. But this is possible and it requires that we change our beliefs about procrastination. Procrastination is not a negative word. It is your inner superpower. It's your inner wisdom. It's your inner knowing. And the more you dial that up that sensitivity that awareness of time Ask where you procrastinate. This will give you begin to give you a clue about areas of potential teamwork in your business. So we have to change our beliefs about procrastination. And one other word that I'm going to talk about next time. And that word is delegation. I think there's a lot we have to unlearn with that word, too. So today's assignment is really twofold. First, if you'd like to have a conversation, virtual coffee conversation that like I just described, text me at 1-754-800-9461 Hey, it doesn't have to be just virtual. If you're in the Tampa Bay area, anytime in the future, text me 1-754-800-9461. It'd be cool to hang out with you. But let's have this virtual coffee conversation about you and your business and this get togethers going to be my gift to you. We'll spend about 30 minutes and you know, you're honestly blessing me as well with this time, because talking to you is going to give me more insights about how I can serve people just like you. So 1-754-800-9461 if you don't want to have that virtual coffee conversation, or in person if you're here in Tampa Bay, and second, take some time this week to notice the parts of your business where you are procrastinating capture those moments of dread tie these back to whatever project that you're struggling with, or considering these will make very interesting topics to discuss on our coffee call together. And then as I promise next time, we're going to talk about what I think is the second barrier to teamwork that you love, which is the word delegation. Now these are just the early steps on your way to moving from captive to captain of business that you love, supported by a team that you love. What could be better than that? Again, if you'd like to book that virtual coffee conversation, that number again is 1-754-800-9461. That's my personal text number 1-754-800-9461. And when you text say, hey, let's have that coffee conversation. And finally, remember, as we say every time leader simplify teamwork, multiplying your impact, your income, your margin, freedom and business bless friends. I'll catch you on the next episode.