I was talking to a new business owner the other day. We were talking about his new opportunity to take his skills and passions and multiply them through his business. He’s excellent at his craft and he’s realizing the transition into business owner means that he’s going to need to develop a different mindset to win each day. He asked me, “Matt. How do you make it all happen?”

I smiled. It wasn’t the first time I’ve walked a new business owner through their start-up phase. I said, “It takes a massive amount of internal motivation to stay laser focused on your goals. No one else is going to help you achieve your dreams. It’s all you.” I paused. I wanted to let him take that in for a second. I continued, “Sure. You can hire an employee or a contractor or a company to help you with parts of your goals, but it’s not going to be the same as you doing it. It just isn’t. No one is going to care about the ‘big picture’ like you will.”

He seemed stunned. Like maybe I had shattered his dream of running a business where everyone runs around and does their work in the most efficient way while he’s able to take vacations every month and things continue to run smoothly. He looked down at his notes. Then, he looked back up at me and asked, “So then how does it work?” 

I told him about some of the super successful entrepreneurs I met. I’ve met lots; probably over 10,000 business owners at various events in one form or another. Some managing teams of dozens of people. Some launching new products in other countries. Some working from their basement with a three monitor setup and perfectly content to not having a staff to manage. It’s all about preference. And almost all of them do the same thing when it comes to chasing their dreams. They all understand balancing priorities through intentionality. 

They’re able to accomplish, in a week or a month for example, what most people accomplish in a year. They’re hyper efficient. But where does this come from? Do they just not sleep? Is their coffee that much stronger than everyone else’s? Do they ignore their health, their families, their friends, and just get after their goals every second of every day?

Some might. But most understand how to be intentional about their time. Dave Ramsey tells people to tell their money where to go and be intentional about it. When you’re in business for yourself, you have to be very careful what you spend your time (and money) on. Each day will come and go without you doing anything. Which is why you need to remember that if you want your goals bad enough, you need to prioritize them and don’t get distracted.

What does intentionality look like? 

Intentionality is a mindset of being very direct and focused on what’s most important to you independent of any other variables or input. Basically, it’s being so focused on your goals that everything else is just noise. When you’re being intentional, you bring a focused type of energy to a task or project in a very deliberate way. You’re not distracted. You’re not confused. You don’t waste time. You know what the goal is, you’ve mentally committed to it. And you’re working your plan. 

I warned the young entrepreneur before me that many. Many. Many entrepreneurs I meet are distracted and not intentional. Their attention is directed towards whatever seems to be the most urgent task on their task list. “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” 

In business though, especially when the business is dependent upon you for RESULTS, you have to be intentional each and every day. This is even more difficult when there are undoubtedly lots of different tasks, projects, employees, bills, priorities all the time. It’s difficult. But, this is what separates successful entrepreneurs from those stuck or dabbling in entrepreneurship; intentionality.

When you’re successfully intentional with your time and attention, you can balance all of life’s priorities. Here are the steps.

• Step 1 – Make a list of all your long term goals.
• Step 2 – Prioritize them in a numerical order.
• Step 3 – Separate the top 5 from the rest.
• Step 4 – Breathe. The top 5 are the only one’s you’re going to focus on for now.
• Step 5 – AVOID the rest of the list.
• Step 6 – Back fill the plan for your top 5 goals.

Related Article: Stop Letting Emotional Interference Limit Your Performance

This strategy comes from the “25/5 Rule” that is widely (but wrongly) attributed to Warren Buffet. In this article, Buffett said that “the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything.” Read more about his life advice here. You have to be laser focused on your own goals and priorities. I write about this in more detail in my book, Taboo Business Questions.

When you’re able to identify your top 5 long term goals, then you need to “back into them.” This is a skill that I learned from one of my very first mentors when I was 18 working at a bank. It’s one that I’ve used at just about every stage of my life since then. Backing into your long term goals is a process of identifying where you’re at, what the goal is, and then being realistic with the plan to get there. If the goal is truly lofty, then it might take you longer or you may need to devote more concentrated time to it. The key, though, is that any effort towards anything other than your goals is a distraction. 

When you’re an entrepreneur, you have to remove distractions and noise.

After I told the young and talented new business owner about this 25/5 Rule, he turned a new page in his journal and asked me to clarify the part about backing into the long term goals. He asked, “Matt, exactly how do you back into it? What does that look like?”

I told him this story. 

When I worked at the bank, my goal was to get $12,000,000 in new loan production each year. That was the goal. At first, I got really frustrated because a few months went by where I didn’t get any new loans. I was new. I was also 18. I didn’t know much of anything. But my manager pulled me aside and told me not worry about the actual production goal. She told me that the loan production goal was a lagging indicator. She told me what I should be focused on was making my sales calls, booking appointments, taking apps, and working the system.

She and I worked on developing leading indicators (things I could control) to get me closer to the ultimate goal of booking $12M in new loan production. The leading indicators we developed were to make 25 calls a day and to meet 10 new people every day. She told me that if I stuck to this plan for 2 weeks, I should have between 5 and 10 new appointments and have taken loan applications totaling around $1M. She went on to say that if I stuck to this plan for 6 months, I would have between $40M and $50M in loan application “in the pipeline.”

She told me to stop worrying about booking loans and to start worrying about making calls and meeting people. She said, and I’ll never forget this, “Matt, if you are only focused on booking $12M in a year, you’ll spend all year trying to make it happen, but you’ll fail. You have to get your first loan booked first. And to do that, you need to take your first application. Before that, you’ll need to have an appointment. And to get an appointment, you need to meet people. There’s only 2 ways to meet people. Sit at your desk and hope they walk in, or make some calls.” 

So, I left the meeting with a renewed focus for my time and attention, and I got another cup of coffee, and I started making calls. That’s the only thing I could control. So that’s what I did. I made calls.

Fast forward a little in the story, After the 2 weeks, sure enough, I had booked 15 appointments, took 12 loan applications, and had $1M in loan production in my pipeline.

After 2 months, of every day making over 25 calls and meeting 10 new people, I had $85M in loan production in my pipeline. After a year, I had booked $75M in loan production and was promoted to branch manager.

It’s from this story, from this very advice from my manager, over 10 years ago, that I’ve been able to balance priorities through intentionality. It’s how I back into complicated and outlandish goals. Break it down. Back into it. Then, remove the excuses.

Related Article: The Strategic Approach

From meeting as many entrepreneurs as I have, hearing their stories, understanding their respective journeys, that I’ve come to realize the most successful entrepreneurs all do the same thing. They are intentional with their time. They know the key to win at business; Balancing Priorities Through Intentionality.

So. In your business, what goals do you have? How do you prioritize them? How are you intentional about your time so that you can balance all your priorities? 

In my next few blogs, I’ll go over some more “Business Basics” where I’ll discuss winning a month, and understanding your break even.