F53-047: What I Really Suck At, And It’s All Good

Show Summary: The show today is about what I really suck at. I'm sorry Mom. (My mom is not the biggest fan of the word "sucks.") The reason I want to do the show is I've been guilty of wanting to fix all the things in my business or with me that I was really bad at. I work with clients all the time that aren't being all they can because they're so worried about focusing on or fixing things that they're not good at. A little backstory: When I started Focus53, I actually sent out a survey to 15-20 people that were either friends, former co-workers, former employees, former bosses, former peers from an executive level and I wanted them to tell me what my 8's and 9's were. I didn't want to hear about my 1's and 2' s and 3's. There's plenty of those. But I want to hear what my 8's and 9's were because I want to make those 9's and 10's. I know that's what people pay for, that's my zone of genius. That's what I wanted them to give me feedback as to what they thought it was. Today, I'm paying homage to the things I suck at, the things I didn't ask me to give me feedback on, the things I know that I'm crappy at, but are really important for me to be honest with and for other people to hear. My bigger hope is you'll take away that it's okay to admit there are things that you are horrible at. Let them go. Delegate them. Or just eliminate them from your life. It's important to know that there are things to me that are non-negotiable that you should still be great at or striving to be great at all times.For me, these are my 4 F's: Family Faith Fitness Friends If you're a shitty father, you better get your ass working on that. If you're a shitty husband, you better get your ass working on that. If you're not taking care of your health, you better get on that. You get the point. Those are non-negotiables. So if you're crappy or sub par at those, those should never drop off your list. You should always be striving. And even if you think you're good then you should be working to get better. I know that fits me. I can get better in all those categories and I try to hopefully every single day. So here are the things I really suck at: Structured presentations I'm not a bullet guy, sentence-click-sentence. I really hate structured presentations. It's just not my style. My brain isn't organized well enough to handle those types of things like the fine details of a project execution. That's why I have a project manager or admin staff or people to help me with that because I either suck at it or don't put in effort to be good at it. Traditional sales I am an absolute dogshit at this. I used to work at Cutco, a knife company. I did not learn traditional sales and I wasn't good at it and I didn't enjoy it and I still don't. Being motivated by work, customers, projects, etc. that are uninspiring, that are not a good fit for me or that I don't understand the goal This makes me unmotivated, unfocused, and non-committal so I'm bad at this environment. Providing step-by-step guidance for new employees and teams This is something I've had to work on quite a bit as I've grown as a leader. I acknowledge the fact that you need to have solid training. I'm the person who doesn't necessarily need training. I can be given a direction and go but I understand that's not the case for a lot of people. So having a structure in place to train people not only keeps things on the right path, and it ensures that there is better quality for your organization, it's also important for being able to get new people up to speed without causing you a lot of stress or overhead. That's something I acknowledge and I do better at now but I'm not good at putting it together and haven't been. Food choices I can hammer a jug of Nutella. If it's in my house at 10 pm and for any reason I see it in the pantry or see a Nutella commercial or even get it in my head that there is some in the house, I'm all over it and I'll knock it down. Moderation Moderation is not my strength and this goes along with food choices. If I have one chip, I nail the whole bag. The same thing goes for work, jobs, things I love. If I get involved with it, I have the tendency to go all in. It's not necessarily a bad trait. It's a good trait in many regards but from the Nutella standpoint, that's a really bad one. Even for business stuff, if I go all in forsaking all others, it could damage my four F's above and that's not good for me. Graphic design Anything you see that comes out of my organization is not something I did. Guaranteed, I'm really bad at it. Cutting little kids' fingernails I know this is more of an off beaten path but I cut my daughter's fingernails when she was a couple months old (she's 10 now) and I cut her skin. I actually don't know if I'm bad at it but I refuse to do it as it brings back bad memories and I felt bad hurting her. Reading comprehension and spelling I wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer but I was able to cheat my way around reading comprehension and spelling throughout high school and college. Now I'm paying the price for it. I can't read worth a squat. Thank God for Audible. It takes me a couple times for the the things I read to get through. If it's not something interesting, I just get lost and start daydreaming. Empathy for those who make multiple bad decisions. I'm working on this through faith and I'm getting better at it. But I have a hard time sympathizing for those that are not willing to put in the effort needed to get out of whatever circumstances they are and all they really need is some effort. And I'm working on it through faith and I'm being judgmental but that's something that I really suck at. Not a very Christian-like thing and I'm working on that. I don't suck at this but it's something I do and I'm focusing on... Lying to myself I lie to myself all the time. We all do. I lie to myself that I'm not good enough at things. I lie to myself that I'm not giving my best. I lie to myself that I don't have an element I need to be successful when I know deep down that I'm 100% in control of myself, my success, my future, and my life. I may not be in control of the day-to-day things and I'm on a path by the Big Man upstairs but I am in control of the decisions I make and the journey I'm on and I lie to myself about that. I have lied and do lie to myself and I work on it everyday. The purpose here is not to belittle myself. I know I suck at things but this is for me to express that for some of them, I'm okay with while for some others, I need help or tools with. I work on some of them but for others, I could care less about. The moral of this story: The things that are unimportant to you and turning those into 6's and 7's are not the best use of time most likely. Know what you suck at. Embrace the suck. And work on being great and what matters most. Books, People, & Resources: eye9design - A boutique web design and WordPress agency that just celebrated 10 years in business (an eternity in the web design space). They built hundreds of websites for businesses of all sizes. Finding a web design company is hard. There are lots of options, lots of good ones but lots of bad ones. Let the team at eye9design take care of you. If you need a great website for a great price, visit www.focus53.com/eye9. Mention this ad and get 10%. Download the 15 Most Popular Tools Business Owners Should Be Using