Ask This Before You Begin

This is the Daily Boost Podcast with Scott Smith. How are you? Come on in, please. Good to have you. Yes, COVID still has its grip around me a little bit today.

I actually feel pretty good. The head's fairly clear, although my wife says I'm crazy. She might be right. And the voice and the sinuses, ick. I wish us well.

Ah, four questions I think you should ask before you do anything today. Clarifying questions are going to help you kind of figure some things out. It's me, Scott. Good to have you.

Yeah, COVID got me. I apologize for the sloppy sound of my voice and the tight sound of my throat. And I'm going to try not to make any gross sounds. I try to give you something that you're going to walk away from saying, wow, that was worth it, no matter how he sounded.

I was out in Las Vegas for a week there. My friend, Corey Sather's Death Valley Run. That was great. Went to Vegas, sold Penn and Teller. Had a good time there.

Came back with COVID. Didn't have any more shows. I made plenty to be gone while I was gone, but then I got sick. And if you ever wanted to ask me, Scott, when do you hate your job?

I don't use, I don't, hate is not a good word, but it sounded like the one I needed to say. Like right now, I like talking to you. I love the message I'm going to share with you today.

But ma'am, like I just slurred my words there. That's because I'm holding back the stuff that's going to come flying out of my nose here any second. It just makes it more difficult to do, but that's okay. I still want to do it.

But I was on Death Valley and I met Colin. Colin is a businessman, very, very righteously successful. He was supporting and sponsoring Croy's run across Death Valley.

I met him about five minutes later. We were sharing a bedroom together. Hey, he's your roommate. Had no idea who the guy was. Got to know him really well while I was out there.

Lots of great conversations. Lots of time together talking in the car following Croy. And in business, I noticed he was doing a lot of social media. I said, what are you doing that for?

He said, because nobody tells the truth about business. His business is easy. Just some things you put together, just do them again and again and again. Very simple stuff.

So most people don't talk about that. They talk about everything that's but that. So I try to be honest about that, the good and the bad, but just the simplicity of it. And yet we really resonated because I see that all the time myself here.

When I run face your passion programs, you know, I say we have to face your passion, have the courage to go do what you want to do, what you feel in your dreams or in whatever in your heart you want to do. Right.

We also have to be realistic about how we're going to fund that passion. We've got to pay for it along the way. I get it because I get people all the time who come here and say, man, I just want to do this. I say, yes, we can, but let's be real about it.

A lot of my clients are mid-career professionals. They come to me saying, I really want to change my job, but man, I like the golden handcuffs a lot. I'm not leaving. Can you help me make it better?

Yeah, I get it. That's being realistic, right? That's real thinking. A lot of people don't get that. They don't get there. So, I wanted to talk about a gentleman's book.

His name is Brent Pinvidic. Brent, I think I got it right that time. He wrote a book called The Three Minute Rule. Now, he works in Hollywood. He sells motion pictures, sells movies.

He has a script. He goes to a studio, goes to investors, and he pitches it. And typically this is a pitch fest where there's a bunch of people lined up in the lobby and they're coming in. They got a couple of minutes to pitch.

People just need to get films made because they got to fill the pipeline, right? That's all it is to it. So you need to pitch it well, pitch it fast. Most people these days over pitch.

Most people spend an hour doing something that would only take 60 seconds to do. So he has a three minute rule that he uses every time he pitches. Now, I will tell you from a coaching standpoint and just living standpoint, and I fall into this all the time myself, but as a coach, 99% of the people that come to me are falling into this trap.

When they get to me, they're completely sucked up in what I'm going to go through today and we have to sort it out. And what I'm going to give you here in just a second is not only something will open your eyes, it may even frustrate you because you may realize, oh my God, I don't know what I want.

So let's do this, okay? What are these questions that live within this three-minute rule? There's four of them. The first one is, what is it? Do you understand exactly what you want?

If you've listened to me more than a couple of times, you will know that I just believe that what comes first. A lot of people say, no, Scott, it's the why. The why is first. You got to have your why.

I agree. You got to have your why, but it's not first. Usually there's something out there that got your attention and that's what, and you don't know what that is.

Why do you need more money? Because I need more money. That's why I need to do this. I need more money. Why do you need the money? Well, because I got to fix the air conditioning.

Oh, that's the what, right? What is it? Do you understand exactly what you want? 99%, maybe more of the people that get on a call with me on a regular basis, whether I know them or not, do not know what it is.

Within about 10 seconds, we get a lot clearer, but they don't know. So is there something going on in your life right now? Is it your job? Is it a relationship?

Is it a project you want to do? And you're like, man, if I just figure out what it is exactly, I could do it. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that sentence right there. If I could just figure out what it is, I'd go do it.

Well, guess what? Yeah, you got to figure out what it is. So if you're stuck, is there a possibility you don't really know what it is? Do you understand exactly what you want?

I bet you a dollar you don't. Second question, how does it work? How are you going to do this thing? How are you going to reach your goal? What's the likely outcome going to be?

Now, I expect you not to necessarily specifically know how to make it work. Because if you don't know what it is, how can you do a plan, right? But sometimes people don't even know the goal.

They don't have any idea how they're going to go after it. They just think it'll work out. There's a way, there's a framework. If I find the way. Yeah, maybe.

But until you do know, there's no way to get there. So you got to know what it is until you know what it is. Can't get it. Can you? You got to know how it works.

How's this thing you're going to do going to work? How are you going to go about getting your goal? What's the outcome going to be? Or it's just not going to work.

I know it seems weird, right? Well, Scott, if I had that figured out, I'd have it figured out. I know. How can I know how it's going to work if I don't know how it's going to work?

Yeah, I know. It's weird, right? But at certain times, don't you find yourself just knowing exactly how to do something? My guess is there's a million things in your life right now that you know what it is and how it works.

A million things. I guess there's also some of the things that you're kind of dreaming about doing. You have no idea. That's okay. We work it out. Number three, can you do it?

Is your plan reasonable? Do you have the time, the skills, the money? This is really true. So many people come with a dream and I love the dream. I never want to turn anybody down.

But as a coach, I'm going to validate that dream. I'm going to pressure test it. I'm going to make sure I'm going to look at it and see, can you actually do this? Is your plan reasonable?

And I'll ask you your plan. And maybe we'll go back and forth and bounce a plan back and forth. And even if I give you ideas, I still want to know, is it reasonable for you?

Do you have the time? That's a big question of mine. A lot of people don't have the time. I want to make an extra $20,000 a month, not an unusual request.

And yet they've got two hours a week to work on it. Possible. I'm sure it is for everybody. No, it needs more time. Do you have the skillset? A lot of people come to me.

They want to run an online business, but they hate going online. I can get somebody else to do that. Not really. Do you have the skills that necessary?

People say, Scott, I want to be an expert. I want to be a podcaster or a YouTuber or something like that. I need to be an expert. I said, okay, what do you need help with?

Can you help me figure out what my expertise is? Probably not. You should already know that. Do you need money to get this done? I don't know. Maybe not.

Maybe so. But you need to know, right? So it's what is it you're going to do? How does it work? Can you do it? Is it a reasonable plan? If you're a parent, how many times have you looked at a child?

So they said, I can do it. And you say, tell me how. And they tell you, and you go like, you'll know in 20 years, right? Are you still doing that? And finally, number four, are you sure?

If you're willing to put in an effort, are you confident you can achieve your goals? Not that confident, fake it till you make it. I'm sure I can. I deserve this.

You don't deserve anything. You can earn it. Are you sure? Really? For sure. And there's a different kind of really for sure. This is like, I just got this.

I know it. There's a swagger in there. Can't be stopped. Are you that kind of person? You need to be. So this is not to put you down at all, but more than anything, this is for me to say, hey, I want to lift you up.

I want you to look at anything in the mirror you're looking at right now, anything you want to do, any plan you have, and simply say, well, what is it exactly? How does it work? Can I do it? Am I sure?

If you can answer all those questions 100%, you're going to go do it. I promise you're just going to go do it. If you're blocked in any way, I also promise you probably don't have clarity in those areas.

Make sense? I know. This is a tough part of it. But if we can just get it down to that, think about this, of the millions of things I talk about, if you can just get it down to what is it?

How does it work? Can you do it? Are you sure? Brent's four questions. Kind of fixes everything, doesn't it? Just say yes. It's true. All right. I had enough of me sniffling today.

See you tomorrow.