Everything Is Not An Opportunity

I'm in an airport about to fly to Canada. So this podcast might be a little noisy, but I had to take a minute and record it to remind you that everything is not an opportunity.

Today, I'm not just talking to you, I'm actually talking directly to myself because as I was getting ready today to come to the airport, I started complaining on Instagram on my Instagram stories. If you don't follow me on @AlexCharfen at Instagram and I do a lot. I share a lot of personal stuff there. A lot of what's going on for me, a lot of what's going on with the family, and I just didn't want to leave today. I'm at an airport flying to Canada to go to the Archangels event, which I'm really excited about. I'm speaking there. Giovanni Marsico is a good friend of mine. I know I'm going to have a ball. I know that's it's going to be really important for our business that this is actually one of those events where I get a lot of incredible contacts, a lot of business out of it. Just because so many people who follow Gio are doing really well and need to build a team fast.

So everything lines up for me to be at this event. It should be exciting for me, and it's just not. Here's why. It donned on me today when I was being driven to the airport. I've been saying yes to too much. What happens is we get to these places in business where things start going well. We buy ourselves a little breathing room. You start building a team or maybe you get your first assistant or maybe you get to the point where your team is at the point where you want to grow or you have ... Sorry, not where you want to grow. As a team were you feel like you can grow, and it starts looking like everything's an opportunity.

What's interesting too is when you don't have a lot going on, everything starts looking like an opportunity. What's happened for me lately is I've gotten some really good people on my tam. Iyla Brooke who's helping me run the company is, when I say runs, I was going to try to say the department, but there's like a list of things she's doing right now. But we've been talking a lot about where we're going to focus, and I realized I've been saying yes to a lot. I've been saying yes to a lot of what I'm doing in the company, yes to speaking opportunities that I've gotten, yes to events that I've gotten invited to be present at. I've been at a lot this year, and I'm realizing whenever you say yes to something, you're saying no to something else.

The exchange for me of traveling is that is no to being present and aware and in my office and in a place where I'm really highly creative and can be a huge support to my team where they need me, and when I say yes to traveling or being at an event, I'm saying no to being able to focus with my team or being able to interview people or grow the team or when I say yes to being at an event, I'm not focused on the one thing that's going to move my business forward the most. So I have to be careful about everything that I do, every event that I'm at, and if I say yes to a podcast or yes to whatever it is, it's always an exchange.

So I want to remind you as an entrepreneur that everything isn't an opportunity. I'm going to lecture myself on this on the way out because I'm going to be relentlessly selfish with my time. I think that's what we have to do because as entrepreneurs, once you understand the billionaire code, which I get it, I wrote it, and I know where our company is right now and I know what we need to do and where we need to apply energy and me being on the road isn't that thing right now. Even though this is going to be a great event for us and even though I think I should be going, I think when I look back in the past six months, there's been way too many things where I've said yes that have added up to where I should be the most excited at an event for Archangels and it's a close friend of mine, tons of my friends are speaking. I'm going to see people I haven't seen in a while. It's a really good event for us business wise. Instead of being excited, I'm feeling apprehensive. I don't want to go and it's because I've said yes to too much leading up to this.

What happens to us as entrepreneurs when we start treating everything like it's an opportunity, when we say yes to everything, when we make every appearance, when we do every podcast, when we do every speaking opportunity that we have, when we appear on TV every time they call, when we do any of those things, what ends up happening is we are actively saying no to focusing somewhere else. So at whatever ...

Sorry. I got distracted because there's a guy here at the airport who's now very purposely giving me dirty looks like three or four times because I'm recording this podcast, which is totally cool because I don't really like to talk to people. So I'm pretty sure he's not going to talk to me because he probably thinks I'm crazy. Oh, and I'm wearing Swannies, so everybody thinks I wear sunglasses instead, but I wear Blue Blockers. That was an interesting exchange. I can feel his energy radiating towards me. He's really frustrated that I'm recording this podcast.

That's the other thing. You have to also look at the opportunities that you have, and this is a good time to bring this up. You have to look at the opportunities that you have and you have to ask yourself, which of your currencies are you spending. There's five currencies that create our success. There's time, there's cash, there's effort, energy, and focus. If you're spending your time, your effort, your energy, your focus, like when you travel, it pretty much takes everything. You have to understand all of those are not directed somewhere else. So, for me, it might be a lot better idea to stop going on the road and speaking and to do more podcasts and to go speak for free to more people's online groups because that gives me way more leverage.

You have to start thinking not only is everything not an opportunity, but are the opportunities that you actually want and start purposefully going and looking for them. This is something ... It's funny. I preach to my clients and I talk to people about all the time and it's something that I always when I'm coaching someone, it comes up. If I start seeing them step over the line and start committing to too much, but it's something that I end up doing myself. So this podcast will serve as a license.

I hope you can hear me. They're going to start boarding my flight. So hang on. I'm going to let her stop talking so you can hear me. How do they always find somebody where you can't understand them? Okay. I think I'm far away enough from her speaker now that you can hear me.

So when something's going to take your currencies, when it's going to take your cash, your time, your effort, your energy, your focus, you have to slow down and ask yourself if that decision your making is supporting what you want as an entrepreneur right now.

Man, I hope you guys can hear me. These guys suddenly they're using like a different, alternate, insanely loud system than what they normally use. This is awesome. Somebody left an entire ankle brace at security. How are you walking? How did you get away from security? You left your entire ankle brace. What type of insurance scam are you pulling? Anyway, sorry. As an entrepreneur, once you know where you should be focused, that's where you should be applying everything. Oh, I think I was just saying that this podcast will serve as a license to my team to hold me accountable for this, and I expect you guys too because when you in your business or your life start treating everything like an opportunity, you'll very quickly find out is that nothing is. If you're ready to take your business to the next level, if you're ready to really know where to focus and to understand how your business can grow, if what you're looking for is strategic planning, understanding what to do next, and understanding who to hire, and how to communicate to your team in a way that everyone understands where you're going and they can support your efforts, then get in touch with us.

Go to momentumsession.com and book a call with a member of my team. We look forward to talking to you and helping you understand what it's going to take to build a team around you in a way that you're comfortable with and in a way that they can hold you accountable and in a way that you can start to really create massive momentum because you're getting held exactly where you need it. Go to momentumsession.com and book.