Another wild week is in the books.

Lots of challenges this week. Hard conversations - being tough with people you respect and holding them accountable.

After talking about momentum and being prepared for tough times in business last week, I got smacked in the face - extremely hard - twice this week.

First, a 4-year-old client told me they were taking things in-house.

Second, an A-player on our team resigned and found a new opportunity elsewhere.

This is the reality of running a business. Great times are immediately followed by brutal times. I’m used to it at this point.

But it raises a key point I discussed last week: being proactive rather than reactive.

Both of these sucked badly. But I was prepared for them and had a hunch that both could happen.

Tough times are never far away in business. Always look after who you have, both clients and your team, as they’re your best bet for a sustainable future.

Speaking of which, I'm not taking my eyes off the ball with service delivery to ensure we’re growing in a healthy way and not being destructive.

That’s the main issue I see with other agency owners: they get greedy focusing on revenue rather than incremental profit.

In bygone times when lead generation was more predictable and cash flowed more freely, owners could be more aggressive and take more risks.

These days, the pace of referrals, volatility in the market and challenges in building the right team due to competition and technological disruption are higher.

There are opportunities but there’s also fierce competition making it harder than ever to win deals, retain them and attract (and keep) the right team.

Fast growth is out, sustainable, healthy growth is in (at least from the conversations I’m having).

Anyway…

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve been keeping notes on my phone based on things I've learned in life and business that sporadically appear in my head while I’m in the shower, at the gym, or walking outside.

Since they’ve started accumulating and don’t fit into my conventional posting format (on email & content marketing), I figured I’d share them with you all.

Without further ado, here are 5 lessons about life and business.

1: When you’re younger, you compare yourself to others. When you’re older, you compare yourself to who you were yesterday.

A recent thought I had whilst at the gym the other day.

I used to be a fiercely competitive lifter.

From the age of 15, I would travel to the gym with friends and compete across a range of lifts: bench press, deadlift, and squats.

I’d be secretly incensed if one of them would add weight to their bench press faster than me.

Some of us even started to spread malicious rumours about the lads that were growing faster saying they were on steroids.

When you’re younger, you’re immature and insecure.

You’re trying to validate yourself by putting others down.

When you’re older, you realise this isn’t a zero-sum game.

Competition is healthy and it’s all about being the best version of yourself rather than competing with others.

The question I ask myself now when I look in the mirror this evening: “Am I proud of the man I’ve become and my actions today? Am I being true to myself?”

It’s completely unrelated to other people. It’s all about holding myself accountable for my actions (inputs) to take me towards my goals.

If I fail, I get frustrated at myself and don’t look to blame others. That’s just cowardly and a cop-out.

2: Most people deviate so far from their original mission when starting a company that they forget why they’re doing it

Stop for one second and ask yourself: what’s your end goal with your business?

If it’s a random number, I can guarantee that it won’t make you happy.

Most of us started businesses to build a better life for ourselves: mentally, physically, and spiritually.

If along the way you end up in a worse position across all of those 3 than when you started, you’re doing something grossly wrong.

You need open-heart surgery on your business to dissect what the problem is and then reverse-engineer your focus and goals to build something that helps move you towards your definition of success.

That may mean less (or more) money than your original target. But you have to define it and then figure out the inputs needed to take you towards your goals.

There are many ways to define success and financial metrics are just one factor that determines the quality of our lives.

I believe we all need to define KPIs and goals for our health and relationships and pause to measure and reflect on whether we’re heading in the right direction for these facets as well.

Otherwise, what’s the point?

I’ve set OKRs for my health & relationships this year, exactly the same way I have my business.

And I’m tracking the behaviours that will hopefully take me towards my desired outcomes.

Most people focus exclusively on their businesses and end up creating a monster that derails the other two.

But when they’re forced to take time to reflect on why they’re doing what they’re doing, most would be horrified at how far they’ve wandered off track (been there for countless years, so I’m not one to preach).

3: You need an identity beyond your business

If all of your value is tied up in your business, you’ll end up miserable and ostracise other people.

For years, I cut myself off from friends, family and the outside world to work my ass off to grow Magnet Monster. And I think most founders should and probably do the same to varying degrees the first time around before they get established.

But eventually, you need to get some type of balance back in your life.

I saw a Hormozi post the other day where he said that he’d skipped friends' wedding days for over a decade. Come on – is this the type of life we’re aiming for?

Entrepreneurship is a life-changing, incredible journey. It will make you a better person until it doesn’t.

At some stage, you have to pivot your focus and rebuild your identity. Otherwise, you’ll be the boring person at Christmas dinners completely immersed in your own ego, waffling on about how much money you’ve made to people who don’t care.

Life is about multi-dimensional success. Business is just one component of that - don’t let it become the only thing that defines you.

4: Innovation is fleeting and doesn’t last - Branding is your true moat

4 years ago, I started talking about things in email marketing like:

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• Qualitative research
• Competitions/quiz emails
• UGC campaigns
• Why most platitudes were fluffy nonsense designed to dupe brand owners
• Using email as more than a sales channel

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Today, everybody talks about these types of things.

I’m not arrogant enough to suggest I created these narratives alone, but I helped popularise them in the DTC ecosystem, especially on LinkedIn.

Today, when I log in, every single person makes posts about the above.

Innovation doesn’t last; eventually, it becomes the norm and accepted model.

Apple’s iPhone is no longer unique. There’s a slew of other smartphones that are better today.

Want to know what lasts? Branding.

Apple hasn’t driven any significant innovation for a long time now, yet they’re still the most valuable company in the world.

Salesforce is still an absolute giant because of their name, not because they have the best product.

Your methodology and belief system are the same if you’re selling a service.

Believe in something strongly, and be the first to popularise it. Others become the disciples carrying your message.

There is no greater moat than brand. But in order to build it, you’ve got to be disruptive.

Once you achieve it, the legacy lasts forever.

5: Spontaneity is the spice of life

Out of the blue, I decided to fly to South Africa in February with my family to visit some of our team there for a couple of weeks alongside Andy.

This was completely left-field and unplanned.

At first, I rejected the thought: “I’m in a good state of flow with work and it’ll halt my momentum”.

And that’s partially true.

But f*** it, why do we do what we do, at the end of the day?

We started these businesses to create epic memories and this is an opportunity that you never know if you’ll get back.

Life is short and you need to take advantage of any chance to enjoy it.

The season of hustling for hustling's sake is largely over for me.

Now, it’s about using my business as a tool to improve other aspects of my life.

And what better way than to use it for spontaneous adventures that will last a lifetime in the memory bank?

Take that unplanned trip. Go to the meal tonight you were invited to. Join the festival on a few days notice. If you “feel” like you don’t deserve these things, it’s probably because you’ve been working incredibly hard and work has consumed your identity. Dangerous.

I’m here to tell you that you deserve it. So go and enjoy it.

I can’t wait to share the experience with you guys in a few weeks.

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