Fake Momentum Will Cost You

This is The Momentum Podcast. For entrepreneurs, momentum is like oxygen for the rest of the population. We need it to feel alive. We need it to be alive. When we're in momentum, we feel like we're unstoppable, like we can do anything, like we're on top of the world. When we're not in momentum, we'll do just about anything to get it back. In this episode of The Momentum Podcast, Alex is going to help you define what momentum means for you, but also give a very serious warning. Right now, a lot of the world feels like it's out of momentum. We see a lot of fighting with people online, chasing conspiracy theories, getting into political arguments, and so many more things, and all of those might feel like we're accomplishing something, but for entrepreneurs, it's fake momentum, and it'll cost us. I hope you enjoy.

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.

So today I wanted to just jump in and talk about this concept of fake momentum. But first, I want to talk about momentum. For the entrepreneurial personality type, for entrepreneurs like you and I, for those of us who get up in the morning, ready to make things happen, who have that drive to move forward, who have that innate motivation, that can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to, momentum is one of the most important feelings we can get. When I talk about momentum, I often ask audiences, how many of you feel that word? Not just hear it. How many of you, like you feel it to your core? Hey Ron, what's up, man? Thanks for being here. For us, momentum is that feeling of making progress, of moving forward, of getting what we want to have in the world, of making things happen, of creating the outcomes that we really want. And for us, that feeling is just as important as oxygen for the rest of the population. For entrepreneurs, if we're not moving forward, if we're not making things happen, we can actually feel the chemical depression of not being in momentum. Now, flip a coin and we can feel the chemical high of being in momentum. Let me explain that. When the world is falling in our way, when we are making things happen, when we're going forward, when we're creating the outcomes we want, we feel it chemically boosted. It's not just chemically. In fact, when we are making things happen, when things are going our way, like think back to the last time you felt like that, maybe it was today. I certainly had a day like that today. I've had some days in the past few weeks that did not feel like that. But man, today was a momentum filled day. Got a ton of stuff done this morning. I recorded an amazing podcast, had a great meeting with my wife, Cadey. My glasses here are a little dirty, so I'm going to continue to try and clean them as I record this podcast. But the momentum today was over the top. And here's what I can tell you about being in momentum. When I'm in that feeling, I actually feel physiologically boosted. I am physically boosted. I can do more. I can get more done. I can accomplish more. Actually, I have more stamina and I have more fun throughout the day. Not just physiologically. Secondly, when I'm in momentum, I have this amazing feeling of being cognitively boosted, like I actually think I think clearer, thoughts come to me faster. I can see the future more bright. I can see the future more brightly, more brighter, in a brighter way. I don't know, I'm saying that wrong. But when I'm in momentum, I feel that cognitive boost of making decisions better. And then here's the big one. When I'm in momentum, I feel a chemical boost of momentum. I actually feel the chemical high of having things happen, making things go forward, making outcomes, creating the things that I want in the world. Now, here's the challenge. And this is why I'm doing this podcast. Right now, the world, every entrepreneur I know everywhere is in a struggle with the world, with the environment, with what's going on, to maintain their momentum. Let's get real. There has been been so much going on in the world that for a lot of us, it's been difficult to maintain momentum. In just the past few months I've had members and clients and friends who've had their businesses shut down. We've had people who have gone from a hundred percent of the numbers they were doing to 50 or 40% of them. We've also had people who have doubled or tripled in business, which feels like momentum, but oftentimes that can be just as difficult to navigate as business going down. And so here's what I'm seeing. Here's what I'm seeing, is I'm seeing a lot of entrepreneurs who may be out of momentum, and they're chasing this false or fake momentum. And here's what I mean by this. Fake momentum is getting online and fighting with somebody else, having a political argument, chasing conspiracy theories. I mean, I've seen people I know, who I know run businesses, who I know are supporting teams, who I know are leading people out there, making massive posts on Facebook that take a lot of time to write, that are nothing more than an argument, or a fight, or this dissertation on what they think is happening in the world. And here's here's why I call it fake momentum. In a situation like this, where the world is changing, where things are shifting, where we are seeing all kinds of stuff go on around us, as entrepreneurs we need to be really cautious and disciplined and clear with ourselves what we are doing to actually move our lives and our businesses forward, and getting up in the morning and getting on Facebook and fighting with somebody, or getting into a political argument, or arguing over conspiracy theories, unless your business is involved in one of those three things, you're only going to feel the fake momentum. Now, let me tell you where this comes from, and I'm going to tell you how to get out of this, but I want you to understand why this fake momentum is so important to us, why those feelings are so important to us, because I want to be very clear. I want to empathize with everybody. There are times when I do this. It's a lot less than I used to when I was younger, and it's a lot less frequently, and I catch myself now doing it. But here's what I believe happens. For us as entrepreneurs, when we're in momentum, we get all the happy chemicals. You know what I'm talking about. We get a little drip of adrenaline. We get some oxytocin, some serotonin. We are feeling good, right? We get that chemical high of momentum. Well, when you think about the chemical high of momentum, of making things happen, of going forward, it's very similar to the chemical concoction we get when we go into fight or flight. Now on the fight or flight side, we don't get as much serotonin and dopamine, but when you get the adrenaline and thyroid and all kinds of other sex hormones and other things that make us feel amped, make us feel charged, make us feel a little sped up, a little accelerated, and it's very similar. The two are very similar. It sometimes can be very hard to tell apart. In fact, I often talk about the adrenal cortisol loop versus the serotonin and dopamine loop. They feel very similar. They have similar effects on our bodies. And so here's what I see so often today with entrepreneurs. We're going out and we're chasing fake momentum. We're getting in the arguments, we're getting in the frustrations. And here's why. For us as entrepreneurs, see, I believe we are evolutionary hunters. And if you haven't heard this theory before, let me share it with you. See, I think entrepreneurs are that small, tiny little percentage of the population that get up in the morning, go into the future, create a new reality, come back to the present, and demand it becomes real. And we put up with the vulnerability and the criticism and the pain and the frustration that it takes to make that happen. And when I say that we are evolutionary hunters, see, I think if we were 10,000 years ago or 20,000 years ago, or whatever you believe as far as humanity, let's just go back a long time, before technology, before civilization, entrepreneurs would be that small portion of the human tribe that get up every day, grab a rock and a stick, go out, and keep the human tribe alive. We go out and hunt. We go out and fight. We go out and make things happen. We go out and bring home what we need to bring home. We go out and change the status quo. While the rest of the world literally clings to average and desperately struggles to maintain the status quo, we go out and say, "How do we make this place better? How do we make it new? How do we change things? How do we improve things? How do we make it better for everybody?" That is the evolutionary hunter in us, constantly driven to make things happen. And if you just take a second and think about yourself, tell me, do those words, evolutionary hunter, resonate? Haven't you always been on the hunt? Aren't you always looking for something new and next and bigger and better? And doesn't that feeling of going out and making things happen, and going on a hunt, and going and creating new, isn't that who you really are? And so here's why this is so important. See, the feelings of getting up in the morning and making things happen and doing the right things also are similar to the feelings of fighting and arguing and getting into conflict. And as an evolutionary hunter, sometimes we have a hard time telling the two apart, because throughout history, we've done both. We've created progress and we've gotten into a bunch of fights and conflicts and other stuff. And the reality for the evolutionary hunter is if we get stuck in this place with fake momentum, that can be just as addictive as success. And I'm seeing it. I'm seeing it on a daily basis. I've watched entrepreneurs, since March, go from running successful companies to maybe not having such a successful company, but now dedicating what it appears to be almost full time to fighting and arguing, and trying to make a point and trying to prove a point, and really not creating any progress for themselves or their business in any measurable way. In fact, what they're doing is they're making themselves more agitated, more frustrated, more anxious, more argumentative, more reactive by, on a daily basis, getting up and jumping back into the fight. And so here's how you can avoid fake momentum. And I've got an exciting announcement coming up here in just a second. But here's how you can avoid momentum, or sorry, avoid fake momentum. If you want to make sure you are actually creating momentum, there are three elements that are necessary for the entrepreneurial personality type. There's three elements that are necessary for the evolutionary hunter. They're the same thing. So the first thing, if you want to make sure you are creating real momentum, and you're not just in a fight or an argument, or you're just not getting the chemicals somehow, you have to have a clear outcome. Here's what I can tell you that's very clear for me on some of the people that I'm observing, that I'm friends with on Facebook, that I've known for a long time, that I actually know are really good entrepreneurs. They're solid human beings, but this situation has knocked them sideways, and they're going out and there is no clear outcome. Like if you're going to get in fights over politics and conspiracy theories and statistics and medical stuff on Facebook every day, you tell me what your outcome is. Do you really think you're going to solve this whole thing by going on social media and fighting? There's no clear outcome when we're in false momentum. When we're in fake momentum, the outcome is ambiguous. It's not clear. It's just us doing things to get feelings. So one, we need to have a clear outcome. Two, we need to have clear accountability. We need to know what we are responsible for. What are we actually doing? Well, if I know my clear outcome is to grow my business, and I know what I need to do for my team is shoot videos and go out and talk, and make [inaudible 00:12:17] and make sure I'm finishing everything that my team's assigned to me this week, then that's what I'm going to focus on, because I want real momentum. And the third thing that's necessary for momentum, now this is a big one, we have to have a scoreboard. For us as entrepreneurs, as evolutionary hunters, we actually need to know, are we succeeding on this hunt? If this was 10,000 years ago, and we were all out with rocks and sticks and we were chasing down a deer or a bison or a lion or whatever it is, we would know through proximity, through this visual distance, saying, are we getting closer? Are we making progress? Are we winning on this hunt? And that would drive us forward. But today we don't have the actual hunt. We can't actually see the thing that we're stalking. So what we need to have is a clear outcome. I want to grow my business by this much. Clear accountability, these are the things I'm going to do. And a scoreboard, are the numbers going up? Are more leads coming in? Are more conversions happening? Are people happy with our product? Are they looking at what's going on? Are they seeing what's happening? Are we making things move forward? So we need to have that clear outcome, clear transparency with a scoreboard, and clear accountability, so we know exactly what we're doing. And that is how we ensure as the entrepreneurial personality type, as the evolutionary hunter, that we stay in momentum. Because when we're in momentum, that feeling of being boosted, that serotonin dopamine loop we get into, that feeling of being engaged and ready to go, and making things happen, and literally feeling like we are as alive as we can be, that is who we are meant to be. And so as an entrepreneurial personality type, outcome, transparency in the form of a scoreboard, and accountability ensures that you are in real momentum. So on a daily basis I ask myself, is what I'm doing right now creating momentum? And I am just like everybody else. Sure, I will occasionally answer a Facebook post or give an opinion somewhere. In the past few months I've even made a post or two, maybe three or four, that have gotten a ton of controversy and arguments and stuff going back and forth, but I try and minimize that as much as I can, and I stay focused on, am I chasing my outcome? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing right now? And can I measure the fact that I am creating success? Can I measure the fact that I am moving forward towards the outcome I want? Because here's my fear in an environment like we're in right now, always my fear is I'm going to get caught up in the tactics of the crisis, I'm going to get caught up in the details of the crisis, and I'm not going to actually move my life and business forward, because in a time period like this, for us as entrepreneurs, as evolutionary hunters, we have to absolutely 100% focus on growth, focus on forward progress, do as much as we can to keep moving forward, and get as much done as we possibly can, because the world right now is fighting against everybody's momentum. It's trying to hold everybody down. This is the time to double down and make sure that you're doing what you really should be doing on a daily basis, and not wasting time on things that are going to give you the feeling of momentum, but let's get real, they are probably really taking it away from you. So don't chase fake momentum. Make sure you have a clear outcome, transparency, accountability, you know where you're going, what you're measuring to see if you're making progress, you know exactly what you should be doing. You're moving forward. You're in momentum, and you're actually making things happen, because right now I believe there's more opportunity available to entrepreneurs than there has ever been in modern history. This is the biggest opportunity we've ever had. When there are this many people in pain, when there's this much confusion, when there's this much frustration, that is a huge opportunity for us as entrepreneurs. So stay awake from the fake momentum. Make it real by creating outcome, transparency, and accountability and you will go forward and achieve the goals that you want, stay in momentum, and accomplish what you want as an entrepreneur, so you can go out and make a massive contribution. Now if this resonated with you, I've got an exciting event coming up. October sixth, seventh, and eighth, I'm going to be recording content for our platform for three days. I'm going to be recording content that's normally behind our paywall, and I'm going to be recording content on the entrepreneurial personality types. I've got some notes here. The entrepreneurial personality types, I'm going to go in depth on what I was just talking about now. Our personality, the attributes of the entrepreneurial personality type, how we can improve every single attribute of our personality with one tactic. I'm going to be teaching a ton about this. I'm also going to be teaching on our billionaire code, client centric mission, which is the overall longterm vision and mission for your company. I'm going to be talking about our momentum planning system and even the momentum equation, which is how you yourself create momentum. Now, normally it would cost thousands of dollars to join one of our programs and be able to see this information. But October sixth, seventh, and eighth, I'm going to be recording for our members, but also live streaming to anybody who wants to sign up. And so if you go to momentummasterclass.com, you can register to be there, so that on October sixth, seventh, and eighth, I'm going to be doing a morning session and an afternoon session, a couple hours each, each day, so that you can be behind the scenes with me in studio. And here's my promise to you. Not only am I going to record this content, but as soon as we hit cut and we've made a wrap on the videos, I'm going to stay around and answer every question that you have. So go to momentummasterclass.com. I'd love you to join me for three days of absolutely free training. Here's our goal. You know, there is a lot going on in the world right now. There's a lot of frustration, reactivity. There's a lot of irritation. There's a lot of anxiety. I want to get thousands of people together on October sixth, seventh, and eighth. We're going to go through some amazing content for entrepreneurs that will help us create momentum. And at the end of those three days, I know that your life, your business will be completely shifted, and you will be in momentum, and you'll have the plan and the structure and the tools to keep you there. Go to momentummasterclass.com and sign up. I can't wait to see you October sixth, seventh, and eighth. And thanks for being here today.