Replay: How to Achieve More by Doing Less with Michael Hyatt

Your Dream Business

English - August 15, 2022 00:00 - 1 hour - 59.5 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: Replay: Creating a Successful Online Course or Business with Amy Porterfield

Next Episode: Replay: How to Build Relationships and Stand Out on Social Media with Mike Stelzner

Today’s episode of the podcast is a throwback to one of my earlier episodes, where I got to interview amazing Michael Hyatt.

We talked all about how we can become more productive without having to increase the time that we have – and what Michael doesn’t know about managing your time, getting organised and being productive isn’t worth knowing!

The episode shares a mix of simple mindset practices and various hacks to help you become more productive, because who doesn’t need to know how to do that?

Filled with lots of incredible information, you’re going to want to grab a notebook for this one!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Why not all tasks, meetings and opportunities are created equal. Focussing on the things that really matter is what will really allow you to achieve more.
There is such thing as a double win, where you can win at work and succeed at life. You just need to have that balance.
You are the most important asset your company has and if you don’t look after your energy levels, your business is going to suffer.
When you’re taking time off, whether it is for a vacation or a weekly break, make sure you’re not doing any work at all.
Outsourcing your work is a great way to increase your productivity, as well as your income.
If you know you enjoy something, you need to do everything you can to ensure you’re doing more of it. If you’re not enjoying something, you need to eliminate it.
If you find yourself responding to a lot of requests, consider setting up your yes-no-yes responses as an email signature.
When it comes to large projects, consider the 10-80-10 rule. This is where you are involved in the first and last 10% of a project to oversee it. You’re the architect, but you don’t have to be the builder.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE
The biggest tip when it comes to being focussed and driving results is to ensure you get a good night’s sleep. A well-rested mind will be your most productive mind.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

The 3 steps to becoming more productive.
How the 3-by-3 system will help you achieve your goals.
The simple hack that will help you say no to things you don’t want to do, in a positive way.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Your Dream Business Live Event

Michael Hyatt Instagram

Michael Hyatt Website

TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to the special summer podcast editions where I am giving you some amazing replays from the phenomenal wee bowl I have interviewed over the last how many years of having this podcast. I should actually work it out when I actually started the podcast cuz I can't remember. It feels that long ago. I'm gonna I'm gonna look at it before the next episode probably record the next episode and I'll tell you in the next one. But anyway I hope you're having a really lovely summer. A couple of things I just wanna remind you about is I am recording this in hope that there are still some places left to my event cuz if not it'll be sold out. That's when you look at it. But I still have my event in September. Now at time of recording I literally have about six places. So you might be lucky and still get a place.

We're not talking about it much over the summer....

Today’s episode of the podcast is a throwback to one of my earlier episodes, where I got to interview amazing Michael Hyatt.

The episode shares a mix of simple mindset practices and various hacks to help you become more productive, because who doesn’t need to know how to do that?

Filled with lots of incredible information, you’re going to want to grab a notebook for this one!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Your Dream Business Live Event

Michael Hyatt Instagram

Michael Hyatt Website

We're not talking about it much over the summer. So I should imagine those places will probably still be there. But if you want to join me for an in-person event where we look at your business and go through your business then please do check it out I'm gonna put a link in the show notes but but if you go to my website you can find the link there as well. It's on the homepage. Okay on with today's episode. So today's episode again one of my favorites but also one of the most popular ones that I've put out. And today's episode we are replaying is Michael Hyatt's.
Now Michael is a crazy smart man and like has the nicest family in the world. If you've listened for a while you know that I am very good friends with the lovely Mary Hyatt who is his daughter. And she coached me and she's amazing. And I've been very lucky to go out to Nashville lots and lots of times. I'm going out again in end of September and been to Michael's house and hung out with the family. And they're just the nicest people. But they're also crazy smart. And what Michael doesn't know about trying to manage your time and be productive and organized I don't think is worth knowing. And the feedback on this episode was really really good.

People got so much from it practical stuff as well as being inspired by the story and by Michael himself. He's also like I said a really nice guy to talk to. So I really enjoyed this episode. Without further ado here he is.
There we go.

Michael: Where you located?

Teresa: So I'm actually in Shropshire in England obviously. And yeah so kind of we're about if I was to go to London on the train it would take me about two hours. So but I'm more kind of in the middle really. So when I was up in Newcastle just this morning at an event. So that was, it was a fair trek actually it's like four hours. But but yeah so we're kind of in the middle. But Mary's actually been to the house which is ACE cuz she was uh when she came over with Bentley to do his tour she was like we're going to this place called and she she tried to it was Rosebury and I was like "It's Rosebury." And she's like "Oh,oh right." She and I was like that is literally minutes from where I live Mary. So it was so lovely to have her here and and cook her a very traditional British dinner.

Michael: Aw. That's awesome. She spoke very highly of you.

Teresa: Oh, no. She's honestly. I adore Mary and coming over to Nashville and spending some time with her. We my husband and I came over We'd obviously spent a little bit of time with her at Bentley when they came here. But you never really know until you kind of then are spending quite a lot of time. And we literally laughed the entire time. We had the best time so.

Michael: Oh good.

Teresa: Yeah It was brilliant. Brilliant. So right. Thank you so much.

Michael: She's one of my favorites

Teresa: You know kind of fifth favorite along with all the others. I love it. Okay So I will do by your intro and outro afterwards so we'll just jump straight to introduce you straight away if that's okay.

Michael: Great.

Teresa: So I am very honored to welcome the amazing Michael Hyatt to the podcast. Welcome Michael.

Michael:: Thank you Teresa I'm delighted to be on with you.

Teresa: Honestly I am very very grateful that you found the time. I know you're a very busy man and I know that my audience are gonna love what you have to say and get so many good takeaways from this episode. So I'm very excited. But just in case and it is a just in case cause I'm sure my audience have heard of you. Could you just briefly tell us how you got to do what you do today and have these amazing books and do this business that you have today?

Michael: Well I spent most of my career in the book publishing world. Most recently as the CEO and the chairman of Thomas Nelson publishers which began as a British company in Edinborough in 1798. I wasn't at the company quite that long. But I was like the seventh CEO in the company. And so I decided in 2011 we sold the company to Harper Collins uh publishers And I decided it was now or never I was gonna launch out and become an author and speaker which had been my dream thing for a long time. And I'd been in business for myself before before I was at Thomas Nelson and decided it was time to you know become an entrepreneur again. So I did that. So I had I had started blogging believe it or not back in 2004.
I broke my ankle and I decided while I was laid up after I'd had surgery on it that I would take on this thing called blogging. And so I was pretty consistent at it for years and years and years into this present day. But that had created enough of a platform that when I left Thomas Nelson I was able to write a book on it which was my book platform get noticed in the noisy world. That book went on to become a New York times bestseller. And I was able to create a membership site called platform university based on that. And kind of everything else happened you know as a result of that so.

Today we have 40 full-time employees. We've uh we're really focused at Michael Hyatt and company on leadership development today. So we have an extensive coaching program for entrepreneurs. We have some physical products like the full focus planner and just kind of an array a suite of products. So.

Teresa: I love that. And you know it's really interesting that one you came from a job if you like and then obviously went into being an entrepreneur. And also what I love about where you are now today is the fact that you came from a fairly traditional corporate background. The stuff that you talk about today for me seems like you've taken a a big leap in the sense of how you are and what you promote and kind of the life you you lead and the balance that you have because actually I don't know about you but I worked in corporate world for for quite a while. And and actually some of the things that you and I promote in terms of becoming a good leader I don't think they were around you know. I I was a I worked for Land Rover I was in their their head office in the UK. And you know I don't think those kind of things existed back when I was there maybe 10 years ago.

So it's interesting that you have been at corporate and now you are you are promoting all these amazing things. Do you think that well did you get any of that from working in corporate? Was it a great corporate place to work or?

Michael: Well it was kind of mixed you know I mean I you know you learn a lot from bad examples. You know in fact I think sometimes you learn more from bad examples and I I certainly worked for some leaders that weren't great. You know and I I was inspired by that to you know to try to find a different way. At Thomas Nelson when I arrived there back in 1998 I wasn't real excited about the culture. I felt like the culture was toxic.

And one of the things I I did kind of as a mid-level manager is I said "Well, I can't really change the world above me but I think I can change the world below me. And have some impact on the culture." So I bet I set out to be very intentional about creating a company culture for our division. And then it was kind of contagious because it you know one of my contentions about culture is that it drives operating results. It's a unseen force that drives operating results.
And so I you know it started driving our operate radio results. The division I was running was the 14th Division out of 14 divisions in the company we were the worst performing. We had zero revenue growth. We were losing money terrible company morale. But we in 18 months we went from number 14 to number one. And as a result of that people wanted to know "Gosh! What what are you doing over there?" And so a lot of it was having to do with the culture and leadership and some of the things actually I talk about in free to focus about productivity.

Teresa: Yeah. And the other thing I must mention is I was very lucky when I came over to Nashville I actually went to your office. And I I put it on instant story and I actually wrote this is better than my house. Like your office is a phenomenal. It's so beautiful. From where you are coming from and the talking about culture and things you have created something where surely your team must be absolutely in heaven to go to work. You know it's such an amazing environment for them.

Michael: Well you know I I really see my team as a stewardship responsibility for me you know I have a responsibility to take care of them. And and what really gets me excited is creating an awesome working environment where they can discover their strengths. Where they can work kind of in their zone of genius. We call it the desire zone, uh in my book Free To Focus. But you know we've tried to we've tried to say okay if we're gonna build an amazing company that's gonna grow and really scale sustainably what kind of environment do we have to create to attract those a level players.
And so I remember my daughter Megan and I. I don't know that you met Megan, who you met Mary?

Teresa: Yes Uh no I didn't meet Megan. No I didn't. No. I met Marissa I think.

Michael: Ah she's my youngest.

Teresa: Yes. Yeah, that was it.

Michael: Megan's my oldest and she's also the COO of Michael Hyatt and company. But she and I went away for a day and we said okay how can we create this amazing environment for our employees. So, so get this this is where we started. We said let's approach this like anything in marketing. So let's create a sales page. So if we're gonna create a sales page that's gonna really attract and convert you know the best employees, the best perspective employees to become employees. What kind of benefits would we have to have it? I mean we're thinking it almost like you know when you sell a program and you create bonuses and we thought okay so what do the benefits have to be. And so we came up with some crazy stuff on that page and you know we give our employees a 30 day paid sabbatical. After three years we give them unlimited PTO. They can choose to be off whenever they wanna be off. They can work from wherever. You know we have generous paternity leave provisions and all that. So that all just came outta that desire to to create a place that would attract the right people.

Teresa: And that's wonderful because you know like you, you've worked, I've worked in mixed places. Some places that were nice. Some places that were just horrendous culture and terrible morale. And they treated their team like absolute dirt you know they were terrible. And I remember at in this one company I worked for I had a team under me and bit like you I thought there's nothing I can do about that but this I can. And I realized that my team who were doing the work if we didn't look after them and treat them nice and appreciate them and focus our attention on them then they wouldn't do a good job and we wouldn't have a service to sell. So for me, the owners of the business and the people who ran it got it all completely wrong.
It was like they treated those people like they were no one and they treated the directors like they were everything and it's like, but what if tomorrow they all decide they're gonna do a terrible job cuz you haven't got a business left if that's the case.

Michael:: No that's right. In fact I I often say to my people and when I'm out speaking to CEOs and business owners. I say "Look, your job your first job is to take care of your people. If you take care of your people your people will take care of your customers. And if they take care of your customers the customers will take care of you. But don't ever get that backwards."

Teresa: Yes. No you're right That's awesome. Such good advice. So uh I said today I want to talk about Free To Focus your book that I've read it's a well I've read a few books and this one for me it was a really good standout book that I think my audience are gonna love hearing about. Because when you start a business, and I made this huge mistake. So I started my business and I thought how hard can this be. How naive was I. And I thought I've been in marketing for like 15 years. I know marketing like the back of my hand. I can do this, this bit's easy. But what I didn't appreciate was what it's like to run a business. Like cuz I had never run a business and how do I manage myself?

So you know I could have all the best tools and hacks and everything in the world. But if I wake up in a day and I don't feel like doing that work or if I get overwhelmed and then I can't focus on anything. The impact on my business that I have personally is obviously massive, And what was so great about the book is there's it kind of turns a lot of stuff on its head in terms of how we think we're trying to be productive and how we think we're trying to manage our time effectively. And actually we're doing the complete opposite. So can we start by just looking at what are the kind of myths that that business owners and CEOs and people get wrong when they're trying to or they think they're trying to be super productive.

Michael: Yeah I think one of the biggest one is they fall preyed at what I call the hustle fallacy. And this is the idea that if you wanna achieve more you have to work more. And the entire premise of the book in fact the subtitle of the book is a total productivity system for achieving more by doing less. And and I think you know not all task, not all meetings, not all opportunities are created equal. And I think the sooner that we realize that the more we can focus on those high leverage activities or meetings or opportunities that really drive the results. So that we can have a life and a business.

Because I've seen so many business owners burn out when they've you know they bought into the hustle fallacy, they're working 70, 80 hours a week. And there are so many people out there, so many business gurus that that are out there teaching that. And what they don't see is when people have a health crisis or they blow out their most important relationships they go through a crisis in their marriage or their kids aren't talking to 'em anymore.

And I I just think none of that has to happen. I'm after what I call the double win where you can win at work and succeed at life. So that and is very important but that does require that we think about work differently and sort of set kind of as a goal I think that we're gonna achieve more by actually doing less and focusing on the things that really matter and letting the rest go.

Teresa: And the other thing that I love particularly about this and you generally in terms of how you put yourself across and and your message is that balance. Is that it's not just about all your focuses on work, all your focus on building the business, all your focus is that, it's the fact that you talk about your wife and your children and your...