Top 10 Takeaways - Podcast 423 with Dan Sullivan

BiggerPockets Podcast 423: Who Not How: Stop Doing the Things You Hate, Free Up Time, Be Happier and Richer with Dan Sullivan

Hosts @Brandon Turner and @David Green and Guest Dan Sullivan

1. I think procrastination is build up lifetime wisdom that says “I hate this type of activity.” Procrastination is not a bad thing, so I often noticed that what you shouldn’t do, you already procrastinate at. The problem is you obligate yourself to do things that you will procrastinate at, and that puts you in a real bind.

2. The promise of Dan Sullivan’s book, Who Not How, is dead serious and simple. Every time you apply Who Not How by imagining a new goal and getting “who’s” to work toward, you will improve you time, increase your income, expand your relationships, and deepen in your purpose. Every human is great at something, but they don’t get to spend time doing that. They don’t recognize that they’re really good at it. So my sense is that, set really big goals for yourself, get excited about the goal. And then you will ask, “how am I going to do that?” You don’t ask that question of yourself. The question is, “Who’s going to do this with me? Who’s going to do this for me?” And that’s the thing. You just have to switch to dial in your brain not to say, “how am I going to do this?” You’re not going to do this. You’re establishing a vision. You’re communicating the vision, and you can find other people to do it.

3. If you really want to get to the next level of financial freedom, wealth, the life you really want, the stuff in your life you’re doing right now still has to be done, but you need to find the people that are going to do it. Winning doesn’t happen by an individual player, winning is done by teams. So this entire concept of team building is hand-in-hand with financial freedom and living the life you really want. This is a skill you have to have to get there.

4. Free up half your time by doing activities that require your unique ability and hiring people who enjoy doing things you are not good at. You’re the biggest obstacle to your own progress when you’re doing something that you hate doing. I can do detail work really well for about three hours, and then I’m tired for two weeks. Of someone’s unique ability, they can do that seeing every single day and love you experience more and more as they go along. And that’s really the thing. I’s not that you can’t do it in a pinch, it’s not that you can’t do it when you’re up against an emergency, I can perform and all sorts of task areas if it’s an emergency as long as I know I don’t have to do it tomorrow. Unique ability is a lifetime in the same niche.

5. You can identify your unique ability by asking other people who you think have an insight into who you are. It could be a friend, it could be a family member, it could be someone that you’ve done projects with, and say, “could you say three things that I should always do and not do anything else, what would be the three things that you think I should do?” Don’t worry if the feedback you get seems too easy. Your unique ability is the easiest thing in the world, you don’t have to even think about it. You didn’t have to go to training school for this, you didn’t have to do it, you just have this unique ability. The other feedback loop that will really help you is to ask your team, “Look, could you tell me what I should be focusing on? You’ve observed me for six months, you’ve observed me for a year, and what do you notice that if I just focused on this thing, then everything would work a lot better? And then all these things I shouldn’t be doing, who’s going to handle it?” And I tell you, your team, if they’re a good team, they’re honest people and everything else, they’ll tell you exactly because it makes their life easier.

6. Your entrepreneurial vision is what holds the team together. It can’t be just about money. It has to be about one of your great personal goals. For example, “I want to create the greatest real estate team that’s ever existed.” It has to be great for all of us.

7. You can clarify the biggest thing that you want your team member to do and communicate your wishes clearly with Dan Sullivan’s Impact Filter. You have to be sold on the project first. This isn’t delegation. This is handing up a job to someone who is just Infinitely better. And what makes them better is they can do it every day and enjoy it and you can do it for three hours and then take a two week break.

8. Ask job candidates, “If you come to work here, what do you think you’re entitled to?” And if they start giving you a list they’re gone. But if they say “Well, I don’t think I’m entitled to anything, but I’d really like the opportunity to learn to be part of your culture.” That’s the right thing to say. But it’s amazing, an entitled person won’t see the trap. “Glad you brought it up because I brought a list.”

9. You hire a house cleaner to become rich. You aren’t rich and therefore hire a house cleaner.

10. Writing books as a collaboration and giving all the profit to your collaborators can drive customers to your business. Your collaborators will get all the money but you will get all of their capability. What would you rather have, money right now or 100 times capability in 10 years?

* Bonus Takeaway - Dan Sullivan’s entrepreneurial vision, is “that in 2044, I’m 100 years old, so it’s 23 years from now, and the total networks of strategic coach entrepreneurs, and I think it’s going to be about 10,000, what about 2500. So 23 years, I’m sure it will be at 10,000, the GDP of the strategic coach network that year is 15 trillion, which would place them Second to the United States right now as a GDP. And that’s my goal to create the thinking and the tools for entrepreneurs to stay within their unique ability and create massive unique ability cooperation around the world and using the tool now, if zoomed in to improve it all over the next 23 years, we’ve got the tool that we can do it with. And I don’t have to have the 15 trillion, I’ll just check the sofas after they stand up and I’ll find it and loose change. I’ll find all my money and loose change.” You can learn more at Strategic Coach.

* Bonus Takeaway - If you’re trying to get into real estate and you want to be part of someone else’s team start putting the shots right now, start analyzing deals, get really good at the skills needed. And that might be buying your own particular smaller deals right now, might mean getting really good at analyzing or really good at lead generation. Even if you can’t close the deals yourself start getting rid of those skills needed so that when you got the deal, you can take it to somebody.

* Bonus Takeaway - Find a group of people, whether it’s a performance coach you pay, for a mastermind group and accountability buddy, it doesn’t matter, find somebody that’s going to hold you to your best self and watch the transformation in your life. Do you know how expensive that habit is of not admitting you’re wrong, or not working with other people well? Whatever the thing is, it’s so expensive. People don’t realize how expensive it is to hold onto character flaws or traits they have that are hurting them. And a performance coach his job is to get in there, isolate but the thing is, highlighted, and then help you get it out of you.10.