Work less (really) just 2 hours a day!

Postcards from Rethink Central

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Most of 2018 I was ill. It started in the fall of 2017. I had an ear infection. It didn’t seem that serious but I ended up in hospital.

I was ill for about 18 months.

The infection affected my balance and my eyesight. So I would fall over in the street. I also felt dizzy for about four or five months. Not just a little dizzy. It was like being drunk. Obviously, this affected my work. I was very busy concentrating on not falling over. My brain got very tired.

It’s all sorted now. It’s great. Lots of neuro-physio has sorted the whole thing out. And frankly, I wasn’t in any pain at any point.

I also wasn’t in any financial distress because my business and the way I work supported me.

I’ve always been verging on the workaholic. I worked in film for a long time and we worked like demons there. In fact, that’s how I thought you had to work. But, with the ‘year of the ear’, I discovered that actually you can work considerably less and get more done.

It was very, very strange. Let me tell you about it.

So, instead of working 10 hours a day, I’d have about 2 really useful hours each day.

I’d decide ‘what is the most helpful thing I can do in those 2 hours?’ each day.

Sometimes, helpful meant I’ll go to the supermarket. Which, bearing in mind I couldn’t walk in a straight line and it was like being blind drunk and sometimes just blind, that’s actually quite hard. So today’s mission might be ‘buy an orange’ and that would take up my 2 hours.

But more often, it would be ’what is the most useful thing to do for my business? I have 2 hours. What is the focus?’

And I would work only on the thing that took me closest to profit and to helping my clients.

What I think of as ‘the path to the money’.

When you’re that focused – I could only work 2 hours a day – and weirdly, my business still grew. I mean not by a lot, but still by $30,000.

When you bear in mind that instead of working 10 hours a day I was working just 2 hours a day. That’s astounding.

And it’s because I run Masterminds.

Because they’re super efficient as a time-saving device. I was working beautifully with clients. I could hold my focus for the 2 hours of the group. Have a little nap afterwards. Sit there feeling slightly dizzy. Then perhaps run a second one or perhaps run a second one the next day. And that was fabulous.

The other thing that really helped me is that

my business is quite mature so I already have a few assets.

I already have some courses done. I have some lovely sales pages written. So I didn’t have to really create stuff from scratch.

Obviously, if you’re in the creation process that’s going to feel like a hard ask. But what it means is carry on. Get it done because those assets will set you in great store.

Once you’ve built a sales page, it’s something you can use for years and years. That’s why really high-end copywriters charge $100k or $200k  for writing a sales page – because it’s an asset in your business.

So, I sold a couple of courses, I ran Mastering Mastermind. I ran it live.

That was much more than 2 hours those days. But it’s live – it’s just a conversation. So sometimes I could just ’look’ a little bit instead of looking very specifically. But I ran that course, I ran my Masterminds and I had my sales pages working for me. And it really helped.

The real focus, the lesson to take away from this:

– concentrate on what really works

– work out where the money comes into your business

– concentrate on that and only on that

– ditch everything else.

I stopped doing Pinterest. I stopped my test accounts. I only worked on the stuff that really mattered. And I got super consistent on that.

That’s how my business grew while I worked a tiny fraction that year.

I spent the rest of it listening to audiobooks and mostly asleep. And frankly – it was fabulous. I always said I wanted a year off reading. And that’s pretty much what I got. I wasn’t expecting to feel dizzy at the same time, but it was amazing.

You can do this in your business. Assess where the money comes in. Focus on that. Ditch everything else.

And, if you’d like to see some of my microblogging, come and follow me on Instagram @RethinkCentral. Because that’s where you’ll see regular updates about this.

I send a newsletter now and again – do join that, you’ll get all the information about new courses and special deals when they come up.

But if you want to see my stuff daily, look at me on Instagram because that’s one of the levers that work for me and my business. Looking forward to hearing about what works in your business.

Come along to a Q&A or a MasterClass.

Apart from that, think about it: only work 2 hours a day – grow by $30,000. It’s truly possible. This isn’t some fluff, because I did it.

Next live call is May 9, 2023 - 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.
Come along to ask your questions about launches, strategies for marketing, Masterminds or whatever you're stuck on in your business.

Add your email below and I'll send you the zoom info for the calls. See you there!

Or come say hello on Instagram here.  I microblog daily.