Rob Dube (00:21):
Hello, everyone. My name is Rob Dube and I am here with Gino Wickman. Gino, how are you?
Gino Wickman (00:27):
I am fantastic.
Rob Dube (00:29):
I love it. I love it. Today, we are going to discuss the power of focus and how to eliminate distractions to win your day. Gino, if you can't see, if you're not watching on YouTube, Gino's spacing out right now. So unfocused.
Gino Wickman (00:48):
You telling like I'm not focused, yes.
Rob Dube (00:48):
He is so unfocused. So, here I'm going to start with some thoughts to get your gears turning as ways or usually. First, you're famous for a few things. Just a few. But one of them is the phrase stay focused. You ingrained that in my head over 20 years ago. And I got to tell you, it really helped me. I truly believe that focus is so critical for entrepreneurial success, in that it does connect to greater inner peace as we teach in our book, Shine. Also, focus doesn't just mean you're focused on your own. You want to be incredibly focused in your interactions with people at your company and your customers, because they feel your presence. And you are a leader and they need to feel that. Last thing, low-hanging fruit, you've got to put away your devices. I'm not sharing anything new here, but it is definitely a distraction and it definitely takes discipline. Simple, but for many, hard. All right. What's coming up for you?
Gino Wickman (01:51):
So many things. So many things. So, that first thing you mentioned, in all of my correspondence, my signature is always stay focused. And so, people make fun of that. I've been doing that for over 20 years now. I love it. But what I realize is that it's really a directive for me. It's me talking to myself, because I have ADHD and attention deficit disorder. And so, it's really hard for me to focus, which surprises people because I am so hyper focused. But it is a discipline that I've learned. Given the option, take off all the guardrails and I am very unfocused. I can be very scattered. But I'm just able to keep myself hyper focused on the end game, whatever that end game is. So, I would start there, that I realize it's a directive to myself, but I've been saying stay focused to the world for decades. What does that prompt for you?
Rob Dube (02:57):
Well, one of the first things that was coming up is I wanted to expand out big picture, because I was thinking about all the times at imageOne, where there was shiny stuff, as you like to say. And in our meetings, I would actually say, "Listen, we've got to stay focused." And then sometimes we'd even get a little bit of shit like, "Oh, you're just saying what Gino always says. He doesn't understand," that kind of thing. But I look back now, it's been over 30 years, and the company's been extremely successful. And I truly believe, because while all the competition was playing around in this, and trying that, and doing this, and getting into the new that, we just kept our heads down. And we just kept doing the machine.
Gino Wickman (03:46):
Hear, hear.
Rob Dube (03:46):
And it fricking worked out really well. So, I wanted to zoom out. And I'm going to zoom in a little bit, but what's coming up for you?
Gino Wickman (03:54):
I love that you said that, because the place that my mind was going next was... I don't know if you remember the story, but when I met with you and Joel for the first time, your business partner, it was to talk about engaging me as your coach. And in that conversation, you were in some other business. It doesn't matter what the business was, but there was your core business and there was this other business you were in. And I'm like, it was so apparent to me. And this is a little bit of a long story. I'm going to try to tell it fast, but it was so obvious to me. It's like that does not compute. One of these things is not like the other. And so, I was convinced you need to spin that business unit off. And the faster you do that, the faster you cut that thing loose, you're going to soar. And so, I sent you a book. And so, we left the meeting and I overnighted a book to you called Focus by Al Ries.
Rob Dube (04:39):
Focus by Al Ries.
Gino Wickman (04:41):
And one of my favorite books of all time on the subject of focus, because he gives great insight into multiple companies, the ones that focused, and the ones that didn't, and how much more successful the focused ones were. And so, obviously, that was a light bulb moment for you because you spun that business unit off fast.
Rob Dube (04:58):
Fast.
Gino Wickman (04:59):
We engaged, it won you over, and so you engaged with me. And so, I start there because what a great story that you experienced firsthand. Number two, though, is that we're getting into my philosophy and what I'm trying to teach the world. And that is you have to stay focused on your core. And so, I teach that to every client. And it's all about keeping that entrepreneur focused on their acres of diamonds and not get distracted by shiny stuff. And so, that is a common trait of an entrepreneur who gets distracted by all this shiny stuff. Well, if you will focus, you will be further ahead in the long run.
(05:35):
My belief is that you should do the same thing every day, every week, every month, every quarter for a decade. You'll build an amazing organization. And for most entrepreneurs, that's boring. It's just so boring. But you've got to get comfortable with that execution and the boredom of that if you want to truly build something great. And the serial entrepreneur you read about, that is building five businesses simultaneously, you're talking about a one in a million situation. They are not a dime a dozen. That's the exception, not the rule. For the 99% of us, if we just all focus, we will build an empire if that's what you want to build.
Rob Dube (06:16):
Yeah, that's so good. So, let me bring it down a little bit now, again. Something I was thinking about with imageOne, this would happen to me personally and it got me thinking a lot when I was running the company. So, people would pop their head in my office and say, "Got a minute?" And I would always say, "Yeah, of course." I think most of us are wired to do that. And then that became a thing at imageOne, because I noticed how this daily distraction was pulling me off track in so many ways, just that simple yes. And so, we made it a thing at imageOne, where we said there's no more got a minutes. Even a phone call, got a minute phone call, you have to schedule something.
(07:00):
You have to get on somebody's calendar and have focus time together. And that took a lot of pressure off of people and it made them more efficient. And so, I was thinking about that and I thought, "God, Gino, he must've seen it all when it comes to this kind of stuff."
Gino Wickman (07:15):
For sure.
Rob Dube (07:15):
So, does anything pop up around just day-to-day stuff for somebody who's leading a company?
Gino Wickman (07:20):
Yeah. Well, just grabbing a few things you said. I'm going to grab three, because they're so perfect. They're perfect examples. And so, let's start with interruptions. And I somehow was masterful at this in my twenties, running the family business with lots of people coming into my office. And so, in EOS we call it a level 10 meeting. So, for lack of a better term, I'm going to use that terminology, but we're just talking about whatever your standing weekly meeting is with your leadership team. What I believe is 90% of the issues that your people bring to you on your leadership team can be solved in the level 10. And so, if you do the math on, let's hypothetically say simple math, 10 interruptions in a week, each one of those interruptions on average are probably going to take 30 minutes. So, you just lost five hours of your life.
(08:06):
Well, believe it or not, if when that interruption comes, you simply say, "Bring it to the level 10. Bring it to the level 10. Bring it to the level 10, or i.e., your weekly meeting. Bring it to the weekly meeting. Bring it to the weekly meeting." In that 90 minute weekly meeting, in the one hour of issues solving time you have, you will solve those 10 issues because the whole team is there. It's much more focused. Everyone is focused on the issue. So, do the math on that. You solved 10 issues in an hour that would've taken you five hours. And if for no other reason, because all parties were not present to solve that issue. So, that's point one in terms of creating focus. That weekly meeting with your leadership team is vital. Push everything to the weekly meeting.
(08:49):
Number two, devices. In any meeting you ever have, there should be no devices. Whenever I do a session with my clients, electronic devices are not allowed. They are so distracting. And so, here's what I know: In an eight hour all day session, if devices are fair game or alternate universe, eight hours, no devices, that session with no devices is always rated higher, it's more productive, everyone's focused. When there are devices, when your device goes off or you peek at a text when we're in the middle of talking about an issue, we lost you. And sometimes we got to back up the truck because you missed it. There we go. We just lost some time there.
(09:32):
But just you disengaging with the energy of the team for that brief second, we lost you and it's less effective. So, there should be no devices in any meetings and you should take a break from devices as often as you can. Oh, and then one little funny story is I had a client who thought they cracked the code on me when iWatches came out. And so, he had an iWatch, with his texting on his iWatch. And he'd sit there with his eyes crossed, looking down and he'd be tapping away. So, that lasted about 15 minutes-
Rob Dube (10:02):
It's hysterical.
Gino Wickman (10:03):
... until we had to do away with that. And then just the last thing you mentioned, this is so important. Focus, we're talking about focus. Just focusing on the conversations you're having. So, take meetings out of it. One-on-one conversations with people. You need to focus, you need to engage, you need to be present for those people. If you will focus, be engaged and be present with people, you build better relationships, they trust you more, they'll get more done for you, they'll fight for you. But you'll get more accomplished being completely engaged, instead of thinking about 100 different things, which is what we ADD entrepreneurs tend to do. So, just get better at focusing on the person in front of you. Those three things will transform you, your business, your output, your impact, your focus.
Rob Dube (10:52):
What is your thought around unstructured time?
Gino Wickman (10:55):
Well, I would suggest that outside of that weekly meeting... And I'm saying this to the driven, visionary entrepreneur that's asking me that question. I'm not prescribing this to everyone walking the earth, to every driven entrepreneur. But to you that just asked me that question, outside of your weekly meeting with your leadership team and outside of those very focused, engaged one-on-ones that we talked about, and outside of not being distracted by devices, go schedule your creative time to let it fly. So, for me, one of the ways that I release my creative energy is I sit in a Starbucks at intervals, typically once a week for a good couple hours and I just brainstorm.
(11:45):
I also love brainstorming with people, and so I then make time for that. But that can't get mixed in and rolled in, so let's go to your quarterly. And so, we urge every leadership team to meet every quarter. Well, when you're in your quarterly, it's about execution. You can't trade out those eight hours for a day of creative brainstorming, although that's what goes on to a certain extent. Just schedule that time. If you want time to brainstorm, be creative, then schedule that time with yourself, with your team. But it's outside of that focused pulse that we talked about. You don't throw out all that structure for the creativity. You just add the creativity up and over all that structure, and then you have this beautiful magic-winning combination of structure and creativity.
Rob Dube (12:33):
Yeah. And a couple of Disciplines come up for me on this one. Say No Often, say no to the pop-ins, put it on the L-10 agenda, like Gino mentioned, or whatever your process is. Say no to your devices. Set them up in a particular way so you are focused and they aren't bothering you. Or better yet, just put them away, put them in the other room. And then Discipline number eight, Prepare Every Night. I think when you're really clear about the next day's plan, it'll keep you really focused, really on track.
Gino Wickman (13:05):
Oh, yeah.
Rob Dube (13:05):
So, anything else come up for you on that?
Gino Wickman (13:07):
Yeah, these two silly little things, but these add up. I'm reminded of back when I had an office, and this goes back many years. I've been virtual for a couple decades now. When you run into a time waster, so somebody that you can tell they're wasting your time, one fun thing was it's a psychological thing to do. But you literally get up from your desk and start walking them to the door. And they don't even know what's happening, but they psychologically will stand up with you and start walking them to the... And you walk them to the door, and out the door, and it literally works.
(13:39):
Now, in a virtual world, when it happens on a phone call or a Zoom call, I just very politely say, "I've got something going on in four minutes, so I literally have four minutes left. So, just want to make you aware of time." You say that very nicely, and politely and gently. But if you don't do that, if I don't do that, there's a 15 minute very unproductive conversation that's about to happen. And I can shut that down in three, four minutes with that simple discipline, walking them out the door or just letting them know the time constraint. And people are always appreciative, aware. Anyway, it's a really powerful way to save you hours a week in interruptions and keep you focused.
Rob Dube (14:21):
Discipline number 11, walk them to the door.
Gino Wickman (14:23):
Walk them to the door.
Rob Dube (14:26):
Any other thoughts coming up for you, Gino?
Gino Wickman (14:28):
We've said it all.
Rob Dube (14:29):
We're up against time. Okay. Thanks again to all you wonderful listeners out there. Thank you for joining us. We'll look forward to seeing you next time. And in the meantime, stay focused and much love.
Gino Wickman (14:42):
Thank you for listening in today. We truly appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. And please tune in for the next episode. Until then, if you'd like to see where you are on your True Self journey, go to shedandshinepodcast.com to take the True Self-assessment and receive personalized guidance. If you're all ready to begin your inner world journey with Rob and myself, please join us for the next round of the 10 Disciplines group coaching program. We wish you all the best in freeing your True Self. Stay focused and much love.
