You Must Measure Momentum

If I go back to three or four years ago, I was getting on some of the biggest stages in the world. I was speaking next to some of the most successful entrepreneurs on the planet. John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, Tony Robbins, Joe Polish, Robin Sharma.

It was incredible, however, all that activity, all that attention, didn't really yield a lot of results. It's because I wasn't measuring where I felt momentum.

Alex Charfen: 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.

Alex Charfen: Sure, we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then re-write 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.

Alex Charfen: 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. Alex Charfen: I'll be candid with you. I've tried to record this podcast probably three or four times in the past several months, and each time I've started to record it, I get about a third of the way through, and I'm like, "Forget it, I don't want to do this," because it's hard to share the pain, and anguish, and the vulnerable feeling of having tons of activity, but without getting any results.

Alex Charfen: And I was there. It was just a few years ago I was speaking on some of the biggest stages. I was getting a ton of attention. I was getting accolade from the people around me. They were telling me how great I was doing, how impressed they were, and I wasn't really consistent selling it ... consistently selling anything, and I wasn't really making any type of an impact other than going out and making a speech and leaving, which left people wanting more, and left them frustrated and confused.

Alex Charfen: This is a pretty unique situation. I was able to come up with some really intense information called The Entrepreneurial Personality Type, and I was out sharing it, and I wanted to whole world to know it, and I wanted everyone to know what I had figured out and what I had found, but I wasn't measuring anything that showed that I was actually getting any type of positive result. I was filling my calendar, I was seeing the direction I was going in, I was seeing all the events I was getting asked to speak in, but what I really became in all of those events, to be honest with you, was just window dressing.

Alex Charfen: I wasn't selling anything, I wasn't creating relationships with people, I wasn't really making a permanent change. I used to tell myself I was. A friend of mine, Jason Fladlien, said, "Alex is the only person who can cause entrepreneurs to change behavior in a one hour keynote," so I would say, "I'm making a difference. I'm changing behavior." But the reality was, I would go out, and I would do presentations, and people would be completely exited about them, and then they would say, "Hey, what do I do next?" And there was nothing there. Alex Charfen: I wasn't measuring the right things. I wasn't saying, "How do I convert this into something? How do I continue to help? How do I make this more successful? How do I actually create a result here?" The problem was I was confusing the activity and the intention. Attention, not intention, but the attention I was getting with momentum.

Alex Charfen: I was feeling productive, but I wasn't really being productive. It wasn't until I got up one morning and really started looking at things, and figuring out what was going on. I realized, "I need to apply my own content and start measuring if I'm actually making an impact." If you want to be in momentum, you've heard me say this before, you have to have three things: a clear outcome, clear accountability, and a scoreboard that matters.

Alex Charfen: Three or four years ago, I didn't have that. I didn't have a clear outcome. My outcome was go from one event to another, and try and figure out what the opportunity possibly could be. I didn't have clear accountability. I was speaking. I knew where I had to show up. It substituted for accountability, but I didn't know what I needed to do to get to a clear outcome, and there was no scoreboard. Scoreboard's like, "I got a standing ovation," or, "I got invited to another event," but I wasn't producing, creating, building, creating the foundation of anything.

Alex Charfen: It was incredibly challenging, and at the same time, I was experiencing some of the highest highs of my career, speaking on stage with some of the most incredible people in history. I was also more confused, and more frustrated than I have ever been. If you've been there, I want you to know, I've been there, and you're not alone. If you're there right now, if you're creating the activity, if you're doing the stuff, if you're not actually getting into momentum, let me help you. Here's the issue, here's why you have to measure your momentum. Here's why you have to get a scoreboard in place quickly. Alex Charfen: So first, figure out where you're going, then get a scoreboard in place, because activity can feel productive. I felt productive when I was going out and speaking. I felt productive when I was getting flown around the world to get in front of massive audiences. I felt productive when I was getting the attention, getting the accolade. It all felt productive, but measurement would have proven that it wasn't, that it wasn't productive.

Alex Charfen: I was just going out. There were incidental events, and nothing was really being built. Nothing was being created. No long-term effect was actually there. It's incredibly challenging. The other reason you want to measure momentum is if you want to go faster ... Here's one of the challenges. If you want to go fast, if you really want to go fast as an entrepreneur, you can feel like measurement slows you down. Taking the time to count, to stop, to see what's going on, to get perspective, it feels like it slows you down, and as a result, a lot of entrepreneurs don't measure.

Alex Charfen: But here's the challenge. Measurement will actually speed things up. Measurement will actually get you into momentum. Measurement will show you that you can verify your perspective that you're in momentum, and you're actually creating a result. Here's what I know from having been there. When you're not measuring, you can talk yourself into momentum. I know that's hard for me to even say out loud, to be honest with you, but I did. I talked myself into momentum. I talked myself into I was creating a result. I talked myself into I was actually doing something.

Alex Charfen: I remember one of the most revealing conversations I ever had was in 2017 early in the year. I was with Russell Brunson, and we were at Pirate's Cove, and he pulled me aside, and he said, "Man, you've gotten a ton of attention from the entrepreneurial personalty type. I think it's the best content I've ever seen for entrepreneurs." I remember when Russell said that, I was like, "Holy crap." Alex Charfen: Then he said, "So tell me what you're doing with it." I explained to him I had done some presentations, I had done some speaking, I had done a lot of one-on-one consulting, and so I explained it to him. At the end he said, "Yeah, so you're not really selling anything, are you?" I told him, "Yeah, not really, Russell. It's all reputation. It's nothing to do with what I really want to do now." Alex Charfen: I remember in that moment thinking, "There's no way I can talk myself into momentum anymore." Russell just stripped it away completely and made it real, and then he gave me some advice on what I should do. Part of that advice was definitely to actually create something that you can measure and make it real. That's why we have the business that we have today.

Alex Charfen: Right after that meeting with Russell, I released our podcast, which had verifiable numbers. We could see we were building an audience. Then we released our coaching programs, which almost immediately started gaining members. Within a very short time, we were at $1 million a year run rate. We're now at just about a $2 million a year run rate, so we've completely shifted and changed. We even had a month where we hit very close to a $3 million a year run rate.

Alex Charfen: Here's one of things that happens to entrepreneurs, is our fear is, "If I measure, I'm not going to have the progress I want. If I put measurement in place, it's going to slow everything down. If I just go as fast and as hard as I can, I'll get there." But we actually have to understand that measurement proves you're moving forward. Measurement can feel overwhelming and constraining, but the fact is ... Alex Charfen: We just had people come to the house, so I was interrupted. I had to pause the recording, but I'm going to finish this for you. It's actually Emily Hirsh is here, who runs our ads, and is running an incredible ads agency with her kids, so I'm going to go out and play with them, but I want to finish this for you, because here's what I was just saying, that people feel like measurement can feel overwhelming, and constraining, and slow you down, but here's the flip, here's the reality, here's the paradigm shift I found, is that measurement gives you momentum.

Alex Charfen: You need three things to be in momentum: a clear outcome, a clear understanding of what you need to do, and a clear scoreboard that shows you whether you're moving forward or not. Here are some critical measurements that you should have in your business right now if you don't. Start measuring your critical number in your business. For us, our critical number is how many coaching clients do we have? I know how many coaching clients we have as of Friday, because we look at it every single morning. We had 66 in our coaching programs.

Alex Charfen: If you aren't measuring, you're not in momentum. I want you to know, if you're not measuring, you're just not going to get there. So critical number, then measure your revenue, and measure your net worth. I'll be candid. Back then when all that stuff was going on, and we weren't selling, and we weren't creating progress, and it felt good, but it really wasn't, I wasn't looking at my numbers as often as I should have. I was avoiding my numbers. I was avoiding them because I knew they would show me that I wasn't really doing anything. Alex Charfen: In retrospect, I know that. I know that I wasted years of my life not even looking at numbers, and today, it frustrates me to the point where I'm mad at that past self. I have to forgive myself. I'm sharing this with you so you don't have to do that, because when you measure and confirm your momentum, everything in your life will change, and measurement protects you, it protects your family, and it protects your team. If you haven't started yet, measure your momentum. Confirm that it's real. Make sure the perspective you have is what's happening in real life, and you will see everything in your business change.

Alex Charfen: If you're ready to create clear outcomes, clear accountability, and measurement across the board in your organization, let us help you. Let us help you scale and grow your business the same way we're scaling and growing ours, the same way Emily, who's in the next room, has gone from one million, just about 14 months ago, to what we think is going to be three million this month. You can do the same.

Alex Charfen: Go to billionairecode.com, fill out the short application, and set up a call with a member of my team. Let us show you where your business is now, where you really want it to go, and what's in the way of you getting there. We will help you with a plan to get into momentum and stay there. Billionairecode.com, fill out the application. We look forward to hearing from you.