Today I want to talk about the idea of Working Smart versus Working Hard and what you actually need to do if you're going to make progress in your business.
I know many people in the industry, a lot of products, and a lot of coaching services, that teach you to work smart instead of working hard. And in my opinion, it is vital to work smart in your business.
It is essential to identify the 20% of activities in your business that will account for 80% of your result. This is known as the 80/20 rule - an authentic, tried-and-true principle. Then you want to focus your energy on the 20% of activities that will yield 80% of results - and that's working smart.
The truth is if you really want to make progress, if you want to go fast, if you're going to do what every Six, Seven, and Eight Figure Earner does in their businesses - you need to work extremely hard on the Smart activities in your business.
So, the 20% of activities in your business: Generating leads, Closing sales, Following up with your leads, Hosting Webinars - are all part of the 20% of my business. You'll want to work extremely hard on that 20%.
When I first got started in this industry, I read a book called 'Magnetic Sponsoring' by Mike Dillard. Probably many of you have read it as it really changed the whole industry and shifted everything towards attraction marketing. But one of the principles that he talks about in that book is Working Smart vs Working Hard.
Mike is a genius at Selling, Influencing and just creating a bond with his audience. And that book did a fantastic job of making you want to become part of whatever Mike had going on - wanting to listen to Mike - and he made it sound really sexy to Work Smart instead of Hard.
Unfortunately, that led me to not do certain things in my business that I didn't want to - based on buying into the concept of working smart instead of hard. That basically led to me not doing work - and not doing the work ended up costing me around $12,750 - Which led me into a massive mound of debt. Basically, at that point, I was totally broke.
I had to ask my family for financial help to keep my house, making me look like a complete failure as a new Internet Marketer. Slowly, I managed to get my feet back beneath me and built my business from the ground up to finally get moving in a positive direction again.
So, in reflecting on that experience - and so you can avoid making the same mistake - I think one of the most powerful things you need to focus on is working smart. But, I also believe that many people get held back by the thought of only Working Smart - which may keep them from Working Hard.
A perfect example is a piece of content that I'm currently creating and how this will lead to my next activity for the day. So, instead of being satisfied, feeling that I've worked smart enough for today, and then doing nothing - I will continue to focus on my business and tie this content into the first quarter of a webinar that I'll present later this week in a new promotion.
The highest leverage activities in your business will be Offer Creation, Hosting Webinars, Emailing your list, etc. Those types of things are the activities you want to put the most effort and energy into.
Now, does that mean you don't create content?
Or that you don't communicate with your list daily?
No. You need to do it all!
But you need to focus your energy on working extremely hard and diligently on the 20% of activities - the Smart activities for your business - to create the most significant result & the most momentum.