[Music] hi Shannon Waller here and welcome to the inside strategic coach podcast with Dan Sullivan Dan I'm excited because today we're going to talk about something that came up in the workshop that I was in that was really a breakthrough for so many people in terms of how to get ideas into motion and how to not get stopped when we're presented with an amazing new idea but sometimes we just get overwhelmed so talk about the things that came out of that conversation what the Breakthrough was what we're talking about here is a little diagram that I did right at the beginning of a workshop just put it up on one of my smartboards and what I Illustrated was an entrepreneur getting a big idea and I just pictured that as a big star with light rays coming out of it I had the entrepreneur going on a path and then the path forked out had two branches an upper branch and a lower Branch little background here Shannon Dean Jackson and I have been doing a podcast since the middle of 2016 called The Joy of procrastination and you know it's a funny title and it's an intriguing title because I've never met anyone who doesn't procrastinate about something in particular situation but what we discovered is that one of the main causes for procrastination in entrepreneurs is that you'll be really emotionally engaged with a new possibility or a new idea then you find yourself procrastinating and we found from examining our experience and the experience of everyone we know that the reason why you procrastinate is you ask the wrong question after you see the new idea oh I love that so Dan that's a really exciting idea that there's actually a solution to the procrastination problem that so many people experience so what's the wrong question that we're asking well typically and I use my own experience what I would always do is say oh this new thing this is really exciting I really want that how do I do that and that's the wrong question wow so how is the wrong question how is the wrong question because if you ask yourself the question how you picture yourself actually achieving this new result but since it's a bigger and better result than you have right now you don't have the capability to actually get this new result so instead of asking the question how you ask the question who ooh much better question so what does the who allow you to do differently than the how well what I'm saying is this result we have to achieve this we have to achieve this not I have to achieve this but we have to achieve this that immediately says well I probably have some of the capability necessary but I already know what that capability is so I don't have to say how am I going to proceed here but most of the capabilities that are needed for the new result are actually other people's capability so by bypassing how I'm saying I'm just going to identify the who's plural who are going to be part of the team that are going to achieve this new result or maybe it's just one person and all I have to do is talk to this person and the person can produce the result maybe there's already existing capabilities out in the world that achieve this kind of result just as a matter of course and all I have to do is put together a really good communication to the targeted who's and just say I would like this bigger result and explain to them uh what my purpose is so it's impact filter territory and all of a sudden I'm very very excited and I don't get bogged down and there's no complexity to it because I've just simplifies yes I want this new bigger result now I'm looking around at all my resources and I'm just going to write down a little game plan and get it to all the right people and we're off and running and it may be that the only thing required of me as the entrepreneur to get to this much bigger and better result is a half hour of writing up an impact filter and then sending it to all the people whose capabilities are really appropriate for the new result and we're off and running and I'm very energized by that it doesn't involve any more complexity for me actually the communication just simplifies things for me and my role in getting this bigger and better result is simply to establish it as a project and then other people's capabilities can actually achieve it this is really exciting it's like you've just cracked the code of solving the procrastination problem for so many entrepreneurs and there is a lot of excitement in the workshop that I was in and I heard about it from future ones so talk about how anyone who heard this how did they respond well it's interesting because I took about five minutes at the beginning of the workshop and then we went into the normal activities of the workshop but right off the bat hour after hour uh I had about 50 people in the workshop 50 entrepreneurs and every time they were talking they say you know that diagram that who not how that's the concept that we're establishing here it's who not how and people kept talking about it all through the day and then I always have a wrapup at the end of the day where I go around and ask each person in the workshop what's the real takeaway for you and they says that diagram that that just solves so many problems for me I I see myself so bogged down where I'm trying to do the how and all I have to do is switch to giving a clear framework and a project that'll attract all the right whoos yeah so that's a real mindset shift then for people because I think a lot of us especially entrepreneurs who often start uping what we call Rugged individualists the how is so much that they're focused on and they become really capable and and this very true of team members too is from my experience we're so focused on the how it is a big shift to get not being about you and I like your point in about we already know what our own capabilities are and if we were capable of doing all that we would have done it already and so all of a sudden the mindset shift is okay who are the who's out there reminds me of Dr Susan Whoville but it's who are the people out there with the resources and the capabilities and they know the house and we don't have to so all of that complexity Fades away what are some things that people can do to seems to me there's a few key mindsets or even skills needed in order to actually put this into action so what do people need to do differently to really focus in on the who's well you know in coach terms the number one thing is that the entrepreneur is really clear about his or her unique ability then you get the profiles of the unique abilities of everybody who's in your organization but what I'm going to suggest is that this leads you naturally to maximizing the unique abilities that you have available inside your organization but then you begin looking for capabilities outside your organization and that means that the marketplace becomes a source of capabilities that can achieve things and all you have to do is establish collaboration so I call it teamwork inside of your organization when you're access in other unique abilities outside the organization I call it collaboration it just expands what you're capable of doing I'll give you an example we have a fantastic client from South Carolina by the name of norm dunigan and Norm has created this amazing self-serving Pub a beer Pub it's all electronic you walk in and it's got 40 electronic beer dispensers they're all on the four walls of the pub and he's had it for about 6 months and it's just been Dynamite he's so excited about this this was just an idea that he had and then he just identified all the who's who could help him actually create this and they put the whole thing together I think 8 months start to finish they were serving drinks at the 8mth Mark and now he's saying gee he says um this is a fantastic idea this could go National and all of a sudden he's confronted with the house of goha and I said you didn't do the house when you created the first one so why would you do the house when you're creating a hundred of them you know and I just asked him the question well what would it take to have a hundred of these across in the United States in this case I said there's somebody out there who is a master at taking an idea like this and just scaling it really really fast and just got so excited because he was bogged down he was bogged down in the how of doing it he's never done anything on a national basis I said there are people whose skills are taking a local solution and making it national you just have to find out who who would be as excited about your idea as you're excited about that idea so create a project where you're going to attract who who will now take this idea and he's got it all patented and everything he owns the idea he owns the design now he just has to find another capability in the marketplace that entrepreneurial obviously who will take the idea bigger and so what it does is the not asking yourself how when you get a new idea but replacing it with who saves you from procrastinating saves you from complexity saves you from being dragged out of your unique ability into areas that are really frustrating and they de-energize you so this is a huge concept for us you know I wish I had known this 30 years ago true we might be much further ahead than we are but the reason why this idea has come up now is because of everything that we've done over the last 30 years exactly exactly the other thing is not only does it get you out of that current procrastination but I get the sense that so many bigger possibilities open up when we don't have to get bogged down in the how and we can focus on the who National doesn't look quite so scary and I think about all of a sudden if I can just focus on building up my capability Network which is term I made up today then all of a sudden my future is so much bigger cuz I know for me my own personal thinking my thinking is based on my capabilities I know what they are and I will plan and forecast and set goals around those capabilities but when I start thinking bigger and I include everyone else's capabilities around me and I focus on what are simply the skills I need to be a great collaborator all of a sudden sky the limit there's no end to what's possible yeah I think that's the point and you know going back to the original definition of entrepreneurism that I take from the author in 1804 this John Baptist say a French Economist said that an entrepreneur is someone who takes resources from a lower level of productivity to a higher level of productivity so what we've just laid out is a three-step first of all know what your own resources are personally that's your unique ability and get clear about that and then inside your organization surround yourself with a capability network using your term here Shannon that stage two where projects that are fully possible inside your own organiz ation then you become the person who identifies the project and then you find out the who's among your team members who can actually complete the project so that's stage number two but there are much bigger things that you could accomplish in the marketpl if you extend that same principle outside you have great unique abilities you have a great unique ability team it's a self-managing company and with that self-managing company now what you can do is look for the who's that your self-managing company can collaborate to go much much larger and so it's a three-part process and we're seeing this I mean this is really the future of the Strategic coach program is to have you be great about your unique ability stay inside of it have your team add all sorts of other unique abilities and your company stays inside of its unique ability and then you can go much bigger by finding collaborators other entrepreneurial innovators in the marketplace where you can then collaborate and you can go even much bigger with national and Global ideas this is very very exciting Dan thank you so much and I have the sense of this great abundance of incredible capabilities especially in our very interconnected networked world that we live in right now so abundance is the name of the game I love it yeah and we've inserted you know as part of this podcast just to download the diagram that actually got everybody so excited so you can just hit the link related to this podcast and the moment you see the diagram you'll understand why it's a real breakthrough idea perfect I love it so everyone remember who not how will be the secret to overcoming any kind of procrastination especially on your big exciting ideas thank you very much Dan thanks Shannon great if you enjoyed listening to this podcast please make sure you subscribe and as always thanks for listening and we'll talk to you next time on the inside strategic coach podcast