The Cure for Entrepreneurial Anxiety

This is the Momentum podcast.

I'm kind of excited to be doing this podcast, to be doing this topic. It's called The Cure for Entrepreneurial Anxiety. Entrepreneurial Anxiety. It's real. Entrepreneurs want to do more. We want to put more out there. We want to make things happen. We want to be in momentum. We want to have the world falling in our wake. And when we get into a place of having entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial anxiety, it slows everything down.

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.

I want to share a story a few years ago when I was talking to a friend of mine that was on a call with Robin Sharma and such an out of body experience to even say that still, you know, it's interesting. I've known Robin for years, and when I was younger, I read his book, The Monkey sold his Ferrari and it had a major impact on my life. Years later, I was in a genius network meeting. I gave a presentation. Robin Sharma was sitting there. He passed me a note. It was like the craziest thing ever. I had this note from Robin and it said, like, we have a lot. And I said something like, we have a lot in common. We should we should connect. And I'm like, oh, my God, Robert Charfen is asking me to connect. I did what anybody would do, right. Took out a camera and took the picture. And then I'm like, oh, God, did Robin just see me take this picture of the note? It's kind of funny how we met. And after that, I spoke at a couple of his events, his annual title. And some of it was actually just an incredible, incredible experience. But looking back to that conversation, I was talking to Robin one of the first conversations we ever had, and he was saying something about how he wanted to do so much in the world. He wanted to put so much out there. And he was he was just feeling like it wasn't happening fast enough. And I said, yes, Robin, that's the restless agitation of entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial anxiety. And I remember he said, say that again. And I said, is restless agitation of entrepreneurial anxiety, Robin, and things like restless agitation. That is such a good description of how I feel. It's like I want to be able to do more. I want to be able to put more out there. I want to be able to make things happen. And it actually makes me feel agitated and anxious that I'm not doing enough. Can you relate to this feeling? I know I do. When there's not enough things going on, whether especially when I was younger. Now, as I've worked and led teams and matured a little bit, maybe, maybe not according to the people closest to me in my life. But I definitely have some I've gotten to the point where we're kind of feel like I have to be doing something all the time as long as something is happening out there for me all the time. And that's really how you cure entrepreneur and entrepreneurial anxiety. Let me let me explain what I mean by that. See, I think that this agitation, the way that I was explaining it to Robin, it comes from us having this gap in the contribution we want to make in the world. Let me explain what I mean when I believe every entrepreneur, every one of us wants to make a total, huge difference. We want to make an impact. We want to make a difference in the world. We want to change people's lives. We want to move things in the right direction, move things for the better. And, you know, I might have a rose colored glasses view of entrepreneurs, but when I look at my membership, when I look at the people we work with, that is who I see entrepreneurs ask because that's who shows up for us. Sure, there's people out there that just want to make money. They're not really going to make any difference. But you know, what's funny is when I start making money and then they want to make a difference, it's just kind of how we're hardwired and we have this desire to go out there and change the world. And here's the issue. When the the contribution we want to make is greater than the infrastructure we have in our lives, that allows it to happen. That causes massive anxiety. Now, I want you to know something. I don't think you're ever going to make the impact that you're ever going to have, the infrastructure that needs exactly what you want in your life, exactly the contribution. But when there's a big gap there, that's where this anxiety comes from. That's where this restless agitation comes from. That's where this frustration comes from, that we don't have what we want in our lives to be able to make the contribution to the world that we want. And so here's how we get past this as entrepreneurs. Here's how here's how we tamp down on growing anxiety and entrepreneurial anxiety. Here's how we hold it at bay when we as entrepreneurs create a clear strategic plan that connects the long term to the day today that has a massive impact on the anxiety we feel. I've worked with hundreds. Well, at this point, it's thousands, tens of thousands of entrepreneurs. If you go back to our information products company in real estate, we had over forty eight, forty nine thousand members. And so I've worked with tens of thousands of entrepreneurs. And here's what I see over and over again. We are that small percentage of the population. And if you heard me over my podcast, you probably heard this before. With a small percentage of the population that goes in the future, we create a new reality. Then we come back to the present and we demand it becomes real. We are the very small percentage of the population that goes through this journey. And when we go into the future, we crystallize that reality becomes more important, becomes more exciting, and then in the present, we want to make sure we're getting there. But here's the challenge. Most entrepreneurs, that's about the total of the process and the frameworks. They have to think really hard about the vision for what we want and then work every day and hope you get there someday. But this is maddening. This this in and of itself, having this compelling future and then trying to figure out what to do each day that's going to get you there is incredibly frustrating and debilitating and it can slow us down. In fact. In fact, I want to let you let you off the hook if you've been procrastinating and not doing the things that you should be doing and you have a list of things that just aren't. You're not moving fast enough yourself, you're holding yourself back if you feel like you're the biggest bottleneck. I want you to know something without question is that there's a very high likelihood that is a protective instinct you have. That is a protective instinct to slow things down, to procrastinate a little bit, to not go too fast, because you don't have clarity as to how you're going to go from the day to day to that long term outcome. Here's how you solve this. We teach entrepreneurs how to create clear strategic plans that connect the long term to the day to day. It's the same thing that happens in every single locker room of every professional sports team at the beginning of the year, right at the beginning of the year. If you walk up to a rookie on his first day on a team and you say, hey, man, what are the goals around here? Tell me, what are you working towards? They will tell you that there's no hesitation. I want to get to the Hall of Fame. I want to win the Super Bowl or the championship, whatever it is for my sport. I want to win the season when I want to be this month, win this weekend. And if I do everything I've been assigned today, the workouts, the rehab, the the drills that I have to do today, I have a chance to get to the Hall of Fame. That is an incredible feeling for everybody who's on a sports team. And when I look at sports teams, one of the reasons that I feel especially professional sports teams, one of the reasons I feel is so I'm so together, so moving in the same direction is they all know the goals. They all know exactly the outcomes we have. Now, when you look at a small entrepreneurial business or really any entrepreneurial business, a lot of times you ask what are the goals to the entrepreneur themselves? And they don't have that same clarity of long term year, the season, the month, the week, the day when we create that bridge, when we create this process, this structure, we actually create certainty, certainty that what we're doing each day will get us to our long term. And if you have certainty around what you're doing each day, we'll get you to the long term. There's almost nothing you won't be able to do. And here's how you create this. In an entrepreneurial business, you create a strategic plan that Super Bowl or sorry, that that Hall of Fame outcome, that is your client centric mission, that long term mission, your team is driving towards the Super Bowl. Those are your one year objectives, the season, your 90 day targets, the month, your 30 day goals. And then each week we create weekly commitments. So you know exactly what you're doing each week. And then in the business, each day is game day. See, this structure will not just help you, but it will help every member on your team have certainty as to where you're going. And here's what's even more important. There are added benefits to this structure. Your team is going to accomplish more, faster. They're going to have certainty. They're going to get things done. They're going to stay out of each other's way. They're going to get into momentum. They're going to move forward like crazy. But here's what's really important. As the coach of your team, as the CEO of your business, when your team has that level of clarity, when they know exactly where they're going, you no longer have to take the field. You no longer have to jump in tactically and take things over. You no longer have to jump in for your team members and tell them what they need to do. In fact, you are no longer the biggest bottleneck in the company. See if you don't have a strategic plan. Here is a factual reality. If there's not a strategic plan and something on your team wants to know what's next, where we go and what happens in the future, how do I anticipate what do I need to do next? They must ask you. There's it's like physics, you can't get around it if you're the only one who knows the future and your team wants to get there. They have to come and ask you. This is where we get crushed as entrepreneurs. I call this transactional management where you tell somebody what to do or they ask what to do. They get it done. Then you check, check, check, check. And it was done. You tell them what to do again. Again, it was done. Tell them what to do. Again, it's excruciating for us. It hurts us. It makes us feel exhausted. Now, if we reverse that and we create a clear strategic plan, we can completely change the way we interact with our teams. When we have a clear strategic plan, we give them clear outcomes. We coach their success along the way because that's our job as the business owner. That's our job as CEO. And then we get massive leverage results and leverage results. I mean, when your team is going after an outcome and you're coaching success, they start duplicating your decision making. They understand what you want better. When someone's guiding the way towards a goal, they learn at an accelerated pace. When you're coaching them, they're going to learn at even higher, accelerated pace. You're going to start to close that contribution gap and gain and build the infrastructure around you so that you can make the difference in the world that you've always wanted to make the difference in the world, you know, you're known to make. So if you feel anxious as an entrepreneur, I want you to know something, it's real. We all feel that restless agitation of not getting anything or not getting enough done. In fact, we feel that restless agitation, of not getting things done. What we don't have clarity when you create a clear strategic plan, because what happens, you can you create clarity for you and your team. Even if you're a solo partner, you create clarity for yourself. You'll stop the procrastination, you'll get more done, you'll be more excited, you'll be more motivated. You'll get into higher levels of momentum when we create a clear strategic plan. We also don't just create clarity, we create commitment. So I confess, confidence is clarity and confidence. When your team has clarity as to where they're going, they're more confident minute to minute. I don't want to just skip over this point when your team is more confident minute to minute. You know what they do? They they take more initiative.

They push forward faster. They do more, they get more done. They don't slow things down. They don't look back. Now, let's flip that coin. If your team's not confident, they're holding back. They're trapped there. There there's some some delay with them getting stuff done. They're waiting for somebody to tell them it's OK. If there's not clarity and confidence, your team is going to be doing the salaries you're paying them. You're not getting as much as you could. If they have clarity and confidence, you're going to get so much more from them, because if you have clarity and confidence and they believe in those two, you're going to get commitment and commitment from your team members is crucial. Commitment is where your team members lean in, where they're excited about what you're doing, when they start really giving ideas and pushing things forward, where they are driving the outcomes in your business and helping you get to where you want to go. This changes everything on a team. And not only will it lower your entrepreneurial entrepreneurial anxiety, but for us as entrepreneurs when we have a team that has clarity, confidence and commitment, we feel that ourselves beginning the momentum.

And here's what happens. We become more creative, we become more capable. We become better at everything that we do. I know this. I watch it all the time. I work with hundreds of entrepreneurs. And when they have clarity, confidence and commitment, as soon as they get that first strategic plan assembled, it's incredible to watch the shift and how they approach what they're doing, the shift in how they feel about themselves and what they do on a day to day basis and the shift in how much even an entrepreneur is capable of getting done. When we have clarity, confidence and commitment, what we can do in a day is way greater than when we don't. It just makes sense, doesn't it? And so as entrepreneurs, when we create a clear strategic plan, we change everything for ourselves, for our team and for the people we serve. This is and it's going to lower your anxiety. So if you're ready to create a clear strategic plan or get more information about where you are as an entrepreneur, we have a framework called the building code. It's the nine levels that every entrepreneur goes through from startup to one hundred million dollar business. I've shared this at events around the world.

I actually shared it with Robin Chamas, Titan Summit, Capitalism, Dotcom and Genius Networks, so many different places. This framework will show you where you are as an entrepreneur, what you should anticipate you're going to be working on next and anything you might have missed along the way. It is life changing. It might give you the clarity you need right now. All you have to do is go to billionaire co dotcom billionaire code dot com, answer a few questions for my team.

Watch the video on the billionaire code. You can download the Matrix and our ebook. The billionaire code decoded it so you can understand exactly where you are, what you should what you're going to be doing next and anything you missed along the way. It's all written out there for you. The billionaire code is life changing. I would love for you to check it out so that a billionaire COCOM and if you have any questions about strategic planning or how we may or may may be able to help you grow your business, you can register for a call with my team right there at the same place. Billionaires code dot com. Thanks for being here today and I will see you next week.