You Must Defend
Your Time

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum Podcast: made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers, and creators of all kinds, those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution. Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny, we define it. We don't understand defeat, because you only lose if you stop and we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future, and instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be.

You must defend your time. There are nine levels of the Billionaire Code and the sixth level is the last one we covered. Leader, three to 10 million dollars. And it each new level of the Billionaire Code - and I'll take you through them once again to get to where we are - Seeker, zero to $40,000; Starter, $40,000 to $100,000; Promoter, $100,000 to $300,000; Builder, $300,000 to a million; Operator, a million to three million; and then Leader, $3 million to 10 million is the last one we covered. And on tomorrow's podcast I'll go into Owner, $10 million to $30 million. Only 100,000 in the US and you really want to understand this level. In fact, it's my favorite level.

I've spent a lot of time in 10 to $30 million companies. It's one of the places where I really like to exist. I love the Owner level and I can't wait to share it with you tomorrow, but today I wanna talk to you about this concept of defending your time. See, the one thing that I want you to remember about the Billionaire Code is that at each new level, your focus and what you do as a CEO changes almost entirely. I mean, let's just go back through where we are now. As a Seeker, you're looking at self identity and market clarity. How do I stop pressure and noise? Who am I going to help? You shift from there to Starter. Now it's consistent, deliverable and avatar clarity. Massive difference. Then you move to Promoter. Once you've figured out your avatar, you have to start automated lead generation. How do you get more of them to come towards you?

Then once you've got lead generation and Builder, how do you leverage sales so you can get to sales higher? Then once you've leveraged sales and Operator, you have to have delivery systems. How do you get those delivery systems to go forward? And then in Leader, the last level we covered is transformational leadership.

So there is always something new coming for you as an entrepreneur, and I believe one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that the vast majority of entrepreneurs never ascend up the Billionaire Code is that they do not have the habit of preparing themselves for what will come next. Because here's what I want you to understand, to be aware of, to see as a business fact: success creates deficits, and as a CEO, you must make space for what you will need to do next. You need to constantly be clearing out your time. And this is not a habit we have as entrepreneurs.

I often say that for entrepreneurs, one of the most important things we can do is lower the pressure and the noise in our lives so we can ascend to leadership, so we can show up the right way, so our skills and abilities will show, so we can make our greatest contribution. But when you look at the average entrepreneur, even those building teams, they appear to be in a competition to see who can take the most pressure and noise.

And I want to give you license; I want to give you permission; I want to implore you right now to look at your life differently once you start building a team. Because what you must do when you build a team is you must prepare for the constant transition you will be in, leading a fast growth company. In fact, it's not just once you start to build a team, it's once you just start growing a business, you need to prepare for the constant transition you will be in.

Whenever I see an entrepreneur and I say, "Hey, how are you doing?" And they're like, "Oh, I'm in a major transition. Things are really hectic right now. There's a lot going on," I think to myself, "Yeah, that's how it always is." That's how it is for any entrepreneur growing a team. Because if you want to go from zero to $100 million, you have to expect that you are going to be in almost a constant state of transition and you must constantly be clearing space for what comes next.

And here's what will happen. And I just want to warn you upfront, if you do this the right way, you will hit the day where you look up and you say, "What's going on? I'm not needed. I don't feel important. I don't feel certain. I don't feel significant," because your team will handle everything without you.

If that sounds like a pipe dream, I want you to understand I've gotten that message from at least half of the clients that I coach. In fact, I can remember getting it from Layla [Hormosi 00:05:20] where she left me a Voxer and a voicemail. It sounded something like this: "Hey, I don't want to sound like I'm whining or sound weird, but I feel kind of like I don't have anything to do. The team's handling everything. What do I do next?" And I explained to Layla exactly what I'm explaining to you. First what I said was, "Layla, congratulations, you're doing it right. This is exactly how it should feel. You should feel like you have an empty plate. You should feel like there's runway in front of you. You should feel like you've cleared up space. So Layla, I want you to know congratulations because very few people can do this.

That was the first thing I told her, because I wanted her to understand and I want you to understand when you hit that day, you're doing it right. Your job as a CEO is not supposed to be busy. Your job as a CEO is to be aware and present and available. Your job as a business owner is to be able to show up for your team, to have them see you, for you to see them, for you to hear them, for you to have the state of mind where people are getting through and where you can actually see what's going on in your business. Because being busy as a CEO will damage your business every single time. See, each new level of the Billionaire Code, it becomes increasingly important. See, I took you through Leader and in the next few episodes I'll take you through Owner, Investor and the highest level $100 million dollar plus as we go through this. And I want you to understand how dynamic the shift in behavior will be as you go up the Billionaire Code.

It's going to be constant and absolute. And here's the challenge that we have as entrepreneurs: as we build a team, as we bring people in to support us, as we grow our organization, we will consistently and constantly want to help them take things off their plate and make it easier for them. Most of my clients have this habit of, I'd something comes up, they'll say, "Hey, I got it." And one of the things that I have coached all of my clients to do is in your monthly meetings and your quarterly meetings and your weekly planning meetings, my clients have a mandate to try and do as little as possible for the team. I know that sounds crazy, but see, when a CEO is doing everything, when a CEO says ... I have a client, Natalie Hodson, who is brilliant. I mean, hands down, this woman is one of the most brilliant entrepreneurs out there.

Alex Charfen: Natalie wrote an ebook called Abs, Core, and Pelvic Floor and sold over a million dollars in eBooks. She is a publishing phenomenon. She has a following around the world that will buy anything she puts out there. And Natalie and I have been working together for months now. And at the very beginning when we were working together, she had this habit of every time her team needed something, she would say, "I got it."

And I remember we were on one of our group coaching calls. Natalie was there, Ashley was there. Ashley is her operator. And Natalie was saying, "Well Alex, it's just my nature. It's just who I am. When somebody says they need help, I just say 'I got it.' So I don't know how I'm ever going to stop that." And I said, "Natalie, here's how you're going to stop it. I want you to anchor something for me. Every time you say 'I got it' for your team, I want you to know that you are slowing them down and holding them back from growing as people."

And I could see on the Coom call we were on that Natalie looked like I punched her. She kind of startled and looked at me and she said, "Holy cow, that's really ..." She said "That's kind of mean," or something like that. I could tell that it impacted her. And she said, "I've never really looked at it that way." And I said, "Well, Natalie, if your team needs to learn how to do something, if your team needs to learn how to get something done for you, if your team needs to get something accomplished, and you're constantly stepping in and saying 'I got it,' how does your team grow?" I said, "If your kids needed to learn how to read or do their homework or learn something, would you just do it for them?" And she said, "No." And I said, "Well then why are you doing it for your team?"

It's the same thing. See, as entrepreneurs, we think it's helpful to jump in and say, "I've got it," but we have to anchor that to holding our team back. Because your job as an entrepreneur is not to get everything done. Your job as an entrepreneur is to see that everything gets done. Your job as an entrepreneur is not to do the work. Your job as an entrepreneur is to make sure someone does the work. And your job as an entrepreneur is to build the company and grow the organization that creates the client effect that's consistent enough that you retain your clients and you grow your organization.

And I can remember watching Natalie react to me telling her that every time she said 'I got it' he was holding her team back from growing as people. And months ago she stopped. She said, "I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to stop. I'm going to pull back. I'm going to let my team show up. I'm going to let them do what they need to do." And today Natalie is doing more business from her organic marketing, not paid marketing, than she did from her paid marketing last year.

Today she had a new product launch and in the first five days of her product launch - not today but in the last couple months - in the first five days of her product launch, she did more than she had previously done in the first five weeks of her product launch. Why? Well, because Natalie's brilliant, because Ashley is amazing, because she's recruited an incredible team, but none of those work unless the entrepreneur gets out of the way. And in the past few months, Natalie has changed her behavior, increased the level of trust she has for her team, allowed them to show up and actually do what they need to do.

She stopped saying "I got it," and she's allowed her team to tell her where they need her input. And as a result, she's absolutely knocking it out of the park with the biggest results that she's ever gotten as an entrepreneur. Why? Because she stopped saying, "I got it." Why? Because she stopped being busy as a CEO and why? Because she started not just giving away her time, defending her time.

So as you go up the Billionaire Code, one of the habits, one of the edicts I have for you is to start watching your time and defending it. And what a CEO should be asking every single day is not "How do I do this?" but "Should I do this?" and not "Should I do this?" but "Who should do this?" And you should start getting yourself out of as much as you possibly can because here's a fact: the speed with which you offload what you're doing and change your behavior is the speed your company will grow.

Lee Iacocca, one of the greatest CEOs in history, one of my business heroes, the guy who went into Ford, created the Mustang and because he wasn't done there, he went over to Chrysler that was completely bankrupt and then had a team there are put together that minivan ... Not only saved that company, but it created an entirely new class of car. Iacocca is one of my business heroes. And he has been quoted as saying, "The speed of the boss is the speed of the team." And here's the challenge with that quote today, far too many entrepreneurs take "the speed of the boss is the speed of the team" to mean that they have to work harder than anybody in the building. False. In fact, Iacocca would've never told you that.

What he would have said is the speed with which you offload and change behavior is the speed that your team grows. If you really look at what Iacocca was saying, that's exactly it. It's how fast do you as a leader change your behavior, defend your time and clear the space for the work that you don't even see coming yet? Because here's a fact as an entrepreneur: unless you've been up the Billionaire Code before, you will never anticipate how much work and how much effort is necessary from you in the next level of the Billionaire Code.

And so your job on a daily basis is to clear space in front of you so you can achieve what you don't have in front of you yet. Your job on a daily basis is to clear the space so you can do what you need to do that hasn't even arrived yet. And your job on a daily basis is to make certain that you are defending your time so you have that time to apply to the company and to grow it as fast as you possibly can. Because as an entrepreneur, if you are doing the same thing every day and you are not changing behavior, then your company is not growing as fast as it can and you probably have become the biggest bottleneck.

But as an entrepreneur, if you're constantly shifting, if you're growing your team, if you're letting them do more, if you're taking things off your plate, if you're defending your time, if anywhere you are uncomfortable, you are putting a process, a project or a person in place to take care of it ... That is how fast you are going to grow your company.

Because here's what I want you to understand: the whole hustle mentality and work harder and just dig in and crush yourself, it works at the beginning. It's how you get out of Seeker and Starter and Promoter and Builder. But once you start building a team, if you show up as a frenetic, over-caffeinated, hyped-up, hustling CEO, it's going to damage you more than anything else. In fact, you want your team to see a present and aware and capable and available CEO so that they trust you to work and so that they trust you to do their best work, so that they trust you to give you their discretionary time, so that they show up in a way that you're getting everything out of every person in the business.

So as a CEO, you must defend your time. And if you aren't now, today's a radical time to start. Because if you want your business to grow, there is one correlation I want you to make. Your business will grow as fast as you offload and change behavior because that's how the structure, the infrastructure of your organization will actually expand. That's how you actually figure out what you need to do next. That's how you really put the right people in place and watch your business explode.

Defend your time, and you will see everything in your business improve. You will see your team show up in a different way, and you will watch your business grow and scale to the level you've always known it should be.

If you're ready to defend your time, if you're ready to grow your business, if you're ready to take advantage of the opportunity you've created and stop leaving money on the table right now, go to BillionaireCode.com.

Here's why. One, I want to give you the full Billionaire Code with a detailed explanation so you can see clearly where you are, what you should be doing, and how you can advance the absolute fastest. And two, if you're interested, you can get on the phone with one of my team members and talk about the programs we have that can help you grow and scale your business, hire and recruit the right team, and communicate with everyone within a system that allows you to constantly offload where you're uncomfortable, grow an infrastructure around you, and achieve your greatest contribution.

If you're tired of leaving money on the table, knowing you could do more, and being frustrated with the people you have around you because you just aren't getting enough done, go to BillionaireCode.com right now. Get on the phone with a member of our team and let us show you how we can help you grow and scale your business and go make your greatest contribution. BillionaireCode.com.