Momentum Podcast: 197

Of Course You Want To Quit

by Alex Charfen

Episode Description

You are unique. You are the type of person who builds empires. Here’s the challenge with how empires are created, you must start at the beginning and go through all the levels. It’s frustrating, you feel like you’re not doing enough or seeing results, everything you’re doing is near tactical so there’s hardly anything that’s strategic. You’re going to want to quit because at every level it’s going to feel like you’re not where you want to be. You know you’re hard wired as a strategic, future focused, visionary human being.

Full Audio Transcript

I'm Alex Charfen and this is the Momentum podcast, made for empire builders, game changers, trail blazers, 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. Instead of just day dreaming 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.

Of course you want to quit. As I've taken you through each level of The Billionaire Code I've tried to pause in between each one and share with you the important lessons, the important strategies, the understandings that I have about how to ascend The Billionaire Code. Tonight I want to share with you what I think is probably one of the most important and most foundational strategies we teach our clients about how to get up The Billionaire Code because here's what happens for people like us is that ... Let me clarify that. Here's what I mean by that. If you listen, to my podcast I just make the assumption that you and I have a lot in common because let's be honest, I'm incredibly polarizing. There's a lot of different people out there who wouldn't understand half of what I'm saying, and there's a lot of people who are offended by what I say.

If you're listening, that means that you are one of us. It means that somewhere in the recesses of your mind you know you're meant for more than you're doing right now. You're meant to have a bigger effect, a bigger impact, a bigger contribution, to make more happen than how you're showing up right now. If you're like us, that means you want to accomplish more and put more out there. What type of person looks for those types of outcomes, or what type ... Sorry, what type of person has those types of thoughts? What type of person has that outlook on life? Here's what type of person, a highly strategic, future motivated individual. It's somebody who is very strategic and has been gifted with the ability to go out into the future, create a new reality, come back to the present, and make it become real. If you're listening to me and you think you have that ability, you do. We have to learn how to trust it. I want to help you know how to do that.

Today, I'm going to give you one of the most foundational questions, sorry equations that I use in coaching, that I use myself, that I share with every client I have, that has been part of every program I've taught for years. It's the equation that I teach every strategic person that I meet, every visionary entrepreneur, every visionary operator, every person working in somebody's company who I know is meant for more and who's going to climb the ladder, who's going to make more stuff happen there, every team member I've ever had, this is what I've shared. Because you are a strategic person and I surround myself with people like us and they come in all types of positions and personality profiles and all kinds of things, but I find entrepreneurial personality types because I want to be around people who want to do the same thing I do, go out in the future, make something new happen, and come back to the present and execute like crazy.

The reason that you have aspirations to do so much more and do more, why you have already accomplished so much, but I know you discount your accomplishments. I know that when I say you've accomplished so much you think to yourself no I haven't immediately. Today I interviewed a new client who was applying to be part of our grow and scale program, and she's extraordinary. It was so awesome to talk to her. I haven't gotten permission to share anything from her yet, so I'll leave her name out of it, but she runs a $1.4, $1.3 million business. I don't remember exactly. I talk to so many people around that size, in the millions, that I forget the exact numbers, but she's over a million dollars. She's crushing it. She has tons of opportunity. I pointed that out to her because she said I don't feel like I'm doing enough, I don't feel like I'm showing up as enough. I said I just want to point this out to you, and she actually said, "Yeah. Uh-huh. Okay. What's next?"

I'm not kidding because people like us don't feel our accomplishments because we're so strategic. We're evolutionary hunters. We are evolutionary hard wired to go out to the furthest future we can see and that hard wiring is that if we go out to that furthest future as we can see, and we are willing to commit and come back and make it real, we will keep the tribe alive. That's why it compels you from such a foundational level. That's why you've always known you've had to do more. That's why you've been frustrated at every level you've been in so far. That's why you've had such a hard time in so many different situations where it looks like everybody else is really easy. Because you are unique. You're the type of person that builds empires. Here's the challenge with how empires are created. You have to start at the beginning of The Billionaire Code, and you have to go through all of the levels that really don't feel anywhere near strategic enough.

Think about where you are if I've already covered your level, and if I haven't I will in the next few podcasts. But just think at seeker it's where we're working on self-identify and market clarity. It doesn't feel strategic at all because we're not doing anything other than asking a lot of questions and trying to figure out who we want to serve. It's frustrating because at that level we're not making a big enough impact. We're not doing enough. We're not actually seeing results that are exciting or compelling enough. At seeker it's like you're barely out of the gate. Everything you're doing is near tactical so there's hardly anything that's strategic. But you know you're hard wired as a strategic human being. You are a future focused visionary human being. Don't let anyone tell you different.

That's why it's hard to be at starter, $40 to $100,000. So seeker is zero to $40, starter is $40 to $100,000. That's where you're trying to get a consistent deliverable and more avatar clarity. First it's market clarity, then it's avatar clarity. You want to understand who it is exactly that you serve within that market. That's barely strategic, and you're not even making six figures yet. You can't feel strategic so you're agitated and you want more. But you're going to feel like you want to quit because at every level it's going to feel like you're not where you want to be.

You get to promoter and what are you doing, you're getting automated lead generation. You're really cleaning up lead generation and then automating it, or figuring out how you can pay for leads, or figuring out how you can consistently generate leads in a safe and clear and legal way with permission based marketing so that whatever type business you have you should be doing that. It's still doesn't feel strategic because you're not making an impact. You're not doing anything that's big enough. There's not enough leverage there because your focus is on lead generation.

Then you go to builder and it's leverage sales. Again, this doesn't feel strategic. It feels tactical because you literally have to figure out how to either get more sales without sales people or bring in sales people and start training them. Both feel incredibly tactical because you are a strategic thinker. That's why "management" is so hard for you because management is where you have to bring in a sales person and talk to this sales person. You're strategic, you're meant to talk to the sales manager, or maybe you're so strategic you're meant to talk to the VP of Sales, or the director of sales, or maybe the VP of sales, or the executive VP of sales, or somebody who's in an extraordinarily higher level because you know that when you're on the phone with one of your peers and you have a strategic conversation they take notes on what you say. So you are this higher level strategic thinker.

Then as you go through operator, now you're working on delivery systems. It feels like it's getting less strategic and more tactical as you climb The Billionaire Code, but what you have to understand is that each level you go through moves you to a higher level of strategy. The next level at leader, transformational leadership, $3 to $10 million, this is where you start feeling a level of strategy if you're doing things right. This is where you start feeling a much higher level of leverage if you're doing things right. You notice I didn't say this was at a million dollars because it's not. Most businesses at a million dollars feel absolutely completely chaotic. It's one of the hardest size businesses to run. At leader you start feeling strategic.

Then you move on to owner, $10 to $30 million. This is where you're working on culture and recruiting, and team development. That feels incredibly strategic because you're coaching people who are having a massive impact in your company. You're actually coaching the person that you were in the previous level for all of your executives because that $3 to $10 million company at $10 to $30 million has executives that are responsible for a part of your business that you could equate to the same size business you were running before. Then that repeats itself as you become even more strategic climbing The Billionaire Code. When you get to investor, $30 to $100 million, that's where you're working on scale and expansion, and coaching and supporting your team to maximize the return on time. It's incredibly strategic because you're making only the high level decisions.

Then you get to the final level of The Billionaire Code, $100 million plus. That's where you're working on maximizing your legacy and your contribution. That's about as strategic as you get. At $100 million plus, when you show up somewhere, you're so strategic you raise the value of the room. At $100 million plus, you can have partnerships, and impact, and change things. So, that's where you are going to feel incredibly strategic. You are an evolutionary hunter. You are a momentum based being that is highly reactive to constraint. You were put on this planet to make a massive impact and to change things, and you know that. You know you want to do more from wherever you are right now. You know you've always been driven to do more, but you are going to want to quit at every level of The Billionaire Code until you get to the place where you feel strategic enough.

At each new level you will feel a new level of strategy. Some entrepreneurs, they get to $1 to $3 million and they just stay there for a long time. Some get to $3 to $10 million and they stay there for a long time. That's strategic enough. You have to ask yourself how high you want to go. Because at every level here's what will happen. The shift and the transition and the change that you must go through, the behavioral change that you will have to make, the shifts that you will see around you, the number of people you're exposed to, the amount of leverage you have around you, the amount of checks you have to write, the amount your expenses go up, the amount your exposure goes up, the amount you feel vulnerable, at every new level of The Billionaire Code it's going to go up. Each new level of success carries with it a level of pressure and noise that is inherent to the volume you will be doing and the business you will be running and the amount of money you have.

Cadey and I found out a really weird way, or not really weird way, we found out in I think the way anybody who makes their money, doesn't have family money, there comes a time where you have enough money you actually have to pay someone to manage your money and help you understand how to protect your money, and what type of a structure you should build so you don't lose your money, and what type of interlocking series of asset protection systems you need to have so you don't lose it. At that point, each new level of The Billionaire Code has a level of pressure inherent with being on that level. I remember having to sit down to those attorney meetings drove me crazy and I loved my attorney. I mean I really loved my attorney. No one says that and means it.

Elizabeth Morgan, who does our asset protection, I sincerely love her. I think she's a genius. I think she may be the most brilliant attorney on the planet. She does my asset protection. She's the person who wrote the asset protection manual for the Certified Financial, I can't remember what the acronym is, but she wrote the book for everyone who does asset protection in financial planning. She wrote their curriculum. She wrote the articles of incorporation for Lichtenstein. She's incredible. But I couldn't stand having to go through all of the meetings for the details because it was like, just details. I just wanted to get it over with and get through it because it didn't feel strategic.

At each new level you're going to have things that confront you like that. You're going to have these details that come up and feel massive because it's going to be the first time you've ever seen them. I want to give you some perspective that at every single level they're going to be there. I mean I can remember thinking holy crap, did we now just make enough money that we have to pay money to keep our money. Like what the heck is this? Who ever knew that would happen. Building a structure around your wealth, I mean there's all kinds of things that happen. And being incredibly careful with certain legal issues and certain things that you do because you are exposed. If you're a high net worth individual, you're a target. So here's the thing you must do to go up The Billionaire Code.

I want to share with you. This is called the contribution equation. This is what I was talking about in the beginning of the podcast. As you climb The Billionaire Code, you are going to have to be obsessed with this equation. It's four steps. It starts with lowering pressure and noise. What I mean by that is you need to lower the pressure and noise relentlessly, obsessively, and continuously in your life. You need to look at the things around you, the people around you, the places you go. If they frustrate you, or you don't like it, you need to resolve to fix that. When you look at successful people throughout history, they have obsessed about this. The amount of people who have tried to make their lives more comfortable. I mean Edison invented the swivel chair to make his life more comfortable. Heck, half of Edison's inventions were to make his life more comfortable.

Obsessively and relentlessly lowering pressure and noise in your life will help you go up The Billionaire Code because each new level of the code carries with it its own pressure and noise inherent with getting there. You must relentlessly, obsessively and continuously lower pressure and noise to make space for what is coming because you've never been there, and you can't see it coming, so you constantly have to be doing this at every single level. The day you take your eye off this ball is the day that things are going to get very difficult in your business and typically for an entrepreneur in your life as well, and it goes fast. So obsessively, relentlessly and continuously lower the pressure and noise in your life. I mean physiologically do everything you can to eat the right foods, exercise daily, move, get up and do a primal walk in the morning. If you don't have the right routines, if you don't have the systems and strategies, put them in place now. Take our momentum master class. It is the fastest way to put the keystone habits in an entrepreneur's life to lower all the pressure and noise at once. And that's not just an empty promise. That's really what that program does if you go through it.

Second, because this is what I've obsessed over for most of my life, second you have to, in the second step in the contribution equation, after you've lowered pressure and noise, is you ask for protection and support. You increase protection and support. You tell people what's really going on. You be transparent. You tell them where you are on The Billionaire Code because you want to know the fact is there is no shame at being on any level on this chart, none. There is no shame at being an entrepreneur at any level. Because if you're climbing The Billionaire Code, then you are my brother or sister, and there is nothing wrong with you, and you are not alone. We have to start embracing each other and telling each other what's really going on, and understanding what's happening in each other's lives because there's way too many clubs and master minds, and conferences, and get togethers where it becomes fake it till you make it, don't let them see you sweat, make shit up about what you're really doing.

It's really, at the end of the day, lie and deny, and people get stuck and they plateau, and they can't move forward, and they get frustrated, and they get upset, and they get angry. If they have a small team, they're angry at them. If it's not the small team, it's their family, or their wife, their kids, their husband. We don't want to do this. So stop the madness and start telling people transparently what's really going on so that you get the protection and support that you need. Be honest, because when you are people will show up and they will help you. It's like a magic trick. If you tell people what's really going on, they will help you. Be real. This is one of the hardest things for us to do.

I call it the entrepreneur's dilemma. We need more help, more protection and support than the average person to get to our full potential. We want to do more, but any time we have to ask for protection and support it makes us feel vulnerable and exposed. Well, I've got news for you. If you want up The Billionaire Code, this is a requirement. Get over it. Start asking and you'll get better. It's worked for every single person I've ever worked with. And it's gonna suck. If it doesn't suck for you, then you are like the first entrepreneur in history I've ever known who was a born manager. Because for near every entrepreneur I've ever known, for everyone, it sucked, and it was hard, and it was frustrating. Building a small team at the beginning was tons of let downs, and difficult days, and lost sleep, and missing kids stuff. And so it's hard, but if you're willing to ask you will have the protection and support you need to get through it.

If you lower pressure and noise, and you increase protection and support, your strengths and abilities will show. I've spoken in front of thousands, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs, and I always ask a question. How many people in this room would say that the majority of their success has been based on what they learned at school? You know, in tens of thousands of rooms there's a handful of people who have raised their hands, because people like us don't learn traditionally. We learn from the in betweens. We learn from when we are searching, we're seeking, we're figuring things out, we're understanding, we're creating that future. That's when our strengths and abilities truly show. When you lower the pressure and noise in your life, in your mind, and you increase protection and support, which has you feel that leverage, your strengths and abilities will just go up. You have to trust this, that this will happen.

If you do that, the fourth step of the billionaire, or the contribution equation, is you lower pressure and noise, you increase protection and support, your strengths and abilities will go up. They will show in a way you've never imagined. Then you can go and make your greatest contribution because every single one of us, including you, knows that we are meant for more, and we want to do more, and be more, and make a bigger impact, and create a bigger outcome, and leave our dent in the universe. You know you want to make an incredible contribution on this planet and leave things different than you found them. So I think we should just shortcut it and start thinking about that in the beginning. But I want you to understand something. I am a capitalist. When somebody asks me what political party are you, I say capitalist because neither that's there right now represents my interest as a capitalist.

I think capitalism is the purest system in the world. I think it saved humanity. Capitalism is one of the most human things there could be possibly be. What is it? We created a system of trust in a fiat currency because that's all it is. It's trust in an accounting system where I can pay you this unit of measure so that we can exchange value, and you can return to me value. What is more human than exchanging value for value? But I want you to understand as well that when I see the contribution equation here's what I know about capitalism. Capital flows to the greatest contribution. If you look where the money is flowing, it is flowing to the company, the people, the teams, the organizations, that are making the greatest contribution. Why is Click Funnels exploding? Click Funnels is exploding because Russell has helped his clients sell over a billion dollars online, with a B. He's knocked out a huge milestone, billion dollars in company success because that's the contribution he's making. That's why Click Funnels is being valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars because capital flows to the greatest contribution.

If you're ready to go up The Billionaire Code, if you're ready to get to that place where it feels more strategic, if you're ready to get out of the place where you don't feel like you're doing enough or you're growing enough, I want you to just remember lower pressure and noise in your life obsessively, relentlessly and continuously, increase protection and support, be transparent and tell people what's really going on, the help you need will show up. If you do those things, your strengths and abilities will show. They will just show up. They will go up and you will see yourself get better at what you do, and you will make your greatest contribution. The next time that that fantasy comes up in your head that says I just want to quit and go back to doing it all myself, I want you to remember that's not a bargain that you're going to want to make because you and I both know you can't turn it off and you wonder why anyone would want to.

Thanks for being with me tonight. If you have a minute, go back and subscribe to this podcast. Make sure you don't miss an episode. I want to make sure I help you along your entrepreneurial journey. If you've been listening for a while, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave us a review on iTunes. I read every single one and my team reads them. We get excited every time we get one. I just want to thank you in advance, and thank you for being a listener.

Thank You For Listening!

I am truly grateful that you have chosen to spend your time listening to me and my podcast.

Please feel free to reach out if you have a question or feedback via our Contact Us page.

Please leave me a review on iTunes and share my podcast with your friends and family.

With gratitude,

Alex

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