Short summary:
“The Greatest Hack” and “Your Greatest Enemy” by Karl Bryan offer powerful and enlightening perspectives on the critical issues of data security and cyber threats that pervade our modern society.
In “The Greatest Hack,” Bryan skillfully unravels the complex web of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where personal data from millions of Facebook users was harvested without consent, ultimately influencing political campaigns. Through meticulous research and compelling interviews, Bryan sheds light on the far-reaching implications of unregulated data collection and the urgent need for transparency and accountability in the digital realm. By showcasing the potential dangers and manipulation of personal information, this documentary serves as a wake-up call for society to protect their privacy and demand stronger safeguards.
Complementing this eye-opening exploration, “Your Greatest Enemy” delves into the realm of cyber threats and equips readers with invaluable insights to defend against invisible adversaries. Bryan’s expertise shines as he unveils the tactics employed by hackers, such as phishing scams and ransomware attacks, and offers practical strategies to fortify our digital lives. This empowering book serves as a comprehensive guide for individuals and organizations, highlighting the importance of cyber vigilance and providing actionable steps to enhance data security.
By combining the knowledge and revelations from both works, readers gain a holistic understanding of the challenges we face in an increasingly interconnected world. Bryan’s works emphasize the urgency of proactive measures to protect personal information, maintain privacy, and navigate the digital landscape with caution.
“The Greatest Hack” and “Your Greatest Enemy” empower individuals with the knowledge and tools necessary to confront data vulnerabilities and combat cyber threats head-on. These works serve as invaluable resources, fostering a society that is well-equipped to safeguard against the ever-evolving challenges of the digital age.
Main Article:
“The Greatest Hack” by Karl Bryan is a thought-provoking and insightful book that delves into the world of personal development and success. It offers a unique perspective on how individuals can overcome their greatest enemy – themselves – and achieve their full potential.
Bryan starts by emphasizing that the greatest enemy we face is not external circumstances or other people, but our own self-limiting beliefs and negative thought patterns. He argues that these mental barriers hold us back from reaching our goals and living a fulfilling life. By identifying and challenging these internal obstacles, Bryan believes that we can unlock our true potential and create lasting success.
The book explores various strategies and techniques for conquering self-doubt and building self-confidence. Bryan emphasizes the importance of setting clear goals and having a strong sense of purpose, as these factors provide the motivation and direction needed for personal growth. He also highlights the power of positive affirmations, visualization, and gratitude in rewiring our mindset for success.
In addition, Bryan provides practical advice on managing time effectively, overcoming procrastination, and developing a growth mindset. He emphasizes the significance of taking consistent action and maintaining a resilient attitude in the face of setbacks. By adopting a proactive and determined approach, readers can overcome obstacles and achieve their desired outcomes.
“The Greatest Hack” also explores the concept of fear and how it often paralyzes individuals from taking risks and pursuing their dreams. Bryan encourages readers to embrace fear as a natural part of the growth process and to view it as a stepping stone to success. He shares personal anecdotes and stories of individuals who have overcome their fears and achieved remarkable results, inspiring readers to do the same.
Throughout the book, Bryan provides practical exercises and self-assessment tools to help readers apply the concepts discussed. He encourages readers to reflect on their current mindset, identify their limiting beliefs, and create a plan of action to overcome them. By engaging in these exercises, readers can gain a deeper understanding of themselves and begin the journey towards personal transformation.
Ultimately, “The Greatest Hack” is a powerful guide to conquering self-doubt, overcoming fear, and unleashing one’s true potential. Through engaging stories, actionable strategies, and a compelling narrative, Karl Bryan inspires readers to take control of their lives and become the best version of themselves. It is a must-read for anyone seeking personal growth, success, and fulfillment.
Transcription:
[00:00:02.420] – Show Announcer
Welcome to Business Coaching Secrets with Karl Bryan. If you want to attract new high end coaching clients, fill live events, and build a widely profitable coaching practice where business owners pay, stay, and refer. You’ve come to the right place. In this podcast, Karl provides his keys to the kingdom for finding and signing high paying clients and building the coaching business of your dreams. Here we go!
[00:00:42.530] – Karl Bryan
Hey, hope everybody’s doing good. Karl Bryan coming at you. I am here, Sam’s RodeDog, my boy, RodeDog. He broke his wrist playing soccer, so he’s in getting X-rays, the poor bugger, and can’t make it today. So you’re stuck with me. And I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. He said he sent me a few ideas. And what I’m going to do is I’m just going to… Follow me on my personal Facebook page there. I do some random thoughts every once in a while. And I also drop those into emails and blog posts once in a while. So I’m going to do some random thoughts to inspire your inner baller. How does that sound? Random thoughts to inspire your inner baller. And I sent that to RodeDog and he liked it. He thought that was cool, so, so there you go. That’s what we’re going to do. What am I going to talk about? I tell you what. Having a drink with my bud, he’s a big deal. I live in the Caribbean here and he’s a bit of a big deal. He owns some very, very large hotels and very, very large yachts.
[00:01:49.160] – Karl Bryan
He just got an honorary doctorate at the university that he went to. Anyway, it’s a bit of a big deal. And uhm, so he owns, again, the guy’s worth like real, real dough, like 100 million on a bad day. Anyway, does that matter? Not necessarily. But the guy thinks at a slightly higher level. I’m sitting there talking to him about his hotels. And again, when I talk hotels, I am talking like beachfront, really impressive. The penny drop there, what I found, it was just like the guy’s got a higher level of thinking, right? So like the greatest hack is not a strategy. The greatest hack is not a tactic. Most certainly, the greatest hack is not working out Facebook ads. The greatest hack is a way of thinking. You know what I mean? Like, just some people are thinking in thousands. Some people are thinking in hundreds of thousands. Some people are thinking in millions. Some are thinking in tens of millions, hundreds of millions. And some people like Elon Musk are thinking in multiple billions. And then not just in multiple billions, but that parlay that into solving monstrous problems, right? So he’s talking about a specific island that he feels has got a lot of opportunity. And you know, just other people are not thinking. They’re thinking about like the island that we live on. And then he’s thinking about an island where there’s nobody. And he’s thinking it. And by the way, he understands that it’s probably going to take at least five and potentially 10 years to pop. But he also knows that 10 years it pops and he wants to be Johnny on the spot. So the nuts and bolts of it was that he’s just thinking at a higher level. We do some hockey here. And like so he used to you know, help run the League and be like a major sponsor. And he used to go… If you’ve ever seen the Stanley Cup presented, you’ll see like it travel, there’s a specific guy who’s literally his full-time job, 365 days a year, to look after the Stanley Cup, which is debatably the most celebrated trophy in all of sports, the Stanley Cup. It’s very cool. It’s huge. But anyway, when it’s presented, the guy is wearing white gloves. He’s polishing it on the side of the ring and he’s presenting it in white clothes. Well, I want you to guess when he was running the hockey League here, guess how he presented the trophy to the kids that won.
[00:04:14.310] – Karl Bryan
Your instincts are correct. He’s wearing white gloves. And again, it was just another example of where… you know, you know, well I don’t know. The guy thinks at a higher, higher level, the end, and that might be something there. You’re trying to fill an event with 10 people at the local Chamber of Commerce. Maybe the problem is not that you can’t get 10 people to the Chamber. It’s that you’re thinking in the equivalent of thousands when Elon Musk is thinking in billions and solving massive, massive problems. So instead of trying to put 10 people there, maybe you want to be trying to aim to put 100 people there over 10 events, right? By the way, why do I say that? If you put 100 people in a room and you are, you know, a coach with a bunch of staff, you’re going to drop the ball. I would prefer you to have less attendees and excellent follow-up than lots of attendees and horrible follow-up. You’re just lighting leads on fire. And if you know anything about business, you know that the most difficult and the most expensive function of any business is generating a new client. So you should be very, very careful with that. But that being said, just thinking the greatest hack, it’s not this tactical thing, it’s not this strategy thing. It’s certainly not advertising on Facebook or working out a really great personal message on LinkedIn. It’s a way of thinking. It’s a higher level of thinking. So my question, as I throw it to you, I want you to think, what you know, on the scale of 1 to 10, I want you to rank your level of thinking, you know. Then, by the way, if I were to acid test that, show me how many people do you have on the payroll getting paid per month, whether they make a sale or not, they’re commission salespeople or salespeople. They’re 100% on commission, it doesn’t count. How many people do you have on the payroll? The second part of that acid test is are they smarter than you? Because everybody knows that you should hire people smarter than you, but very, very, very few people do it, and have you done it? You’ve hired somebody, and how many people do you have hired that you could genuinely say are smarter than you? The good fortune that I have is that it’s really easy for me to hire people much smarter than I, due to my low IQ.
[00:06:39.520] – Karl Bryan
Anyways, you know, so just you know, yeah it’s a higher level of thinking, see them like, when I go to the local bar or I go to the local restaurant and I leave a tip, you know, I uhm, generally speaking, I’m not leaving a tip based on them. Frankly, I’m not leaving my tip based on the level of service. I leave a tip based on who I am. I really hope that does not sound pompous. It is not describe you know, meant to do so. It’s just that that’s what I do. When I go to the local bar, I’m just, you know, you could imagine if I’m leaving big tips. When I say big tips, I’m not leaving thousands. I’m not even leaving hundreds in most cases. But I can tell you, I’m not leaving 15, 20%. It’s not what I’m doing. I think that there might be a little bit of magic in that. Even when you go to the local bar, you go to the local restaurant, you go get dinner with some friends, do you grab the tab? It’s not about, Hey, did you… For me, I don’t know. By the way, again, it’s not that I got it all worked out by me stretching the imagination, but I’m not grabbing the tab because you grabbed the tab last time, right? I’m grabbing the tab because the guy brings over the bill and I’m just willing to pay it. Again, I’m not worried that the bill is 100 bucks, do you know what I mean? That is not gonna be, that is not life-threatening to me and it’s just who I am. I would encourage you… No, I want you to think of different people that you have gone out for beers and you’ve gone out for drinks within the past. And I want you to think of the people that grabbed the bill with semi-consistency. And then I want you to look at the business they have, the wages that they earn, the way that they do, the way that they live their life. And I think that you might find that those that are grabbing the bill are possibly playing life at a slightly higher level. Slightly, maybe not, by the way. You got your environment and you’ve got your network. But I’m going to suggest that acid test. I would end up being correct. So, you know, working on them, it’s like you’re working on your business. Are you working on your business or are you working in your business? We’ve all heard of that, the E-myth. Which by the way, the E-myth is a great book.
[00:08:52.180] – Karl Bryan
The challenge I have with it, Michael Gerber has never actually built a real business. Right, he’s talking about going away for six months and then coming back to a bigger company. And I’m going to suggest that’s just not happening for you. That’s not happening for me. That’s not happening for your client. It’s just not happening. But anyway, so work in your business, work on your business. But what’s way more important than that, and that’s working on you, you know, who you are. Anyway, something to think about there. You want to have a great company? No doubt you do. I do. Your clients do. Do you know the hack to doing that? Have great clients. Now the problem is, as I say that, here’s my challenge. Define a great client for yourself and then define a great client for your client, the chiropractor, the dentist, the butcher, the candlestick maker. What’s an example of a great client? Or is it highly detailed, you know, to the point, where the level of education that they have, the number of kids that they’ve got, the suburb that they live in, the car that they drive, is it realy, really tightened up? I’m going to suggest that it’s not because it very seldom is and I think that that might allow you to operate at a higher level. But again, you want to have a great company, you got to have great clients. Like, as a coach, I got to tell you, again, running around and trying to find broke people that are scrambling is just a really bad way. It may be where you’re at, you’re in the sandbox and just getting going and that’s fine. Everybody’s gotta, you know, we all started at the sandbox, then we come out. But let me tell you, as you get going and you get clients, you get a little bit better at this and you get some runs on the board, you want to be taking successful people and making them mega successful, you don’t want to find failing people and trying to pull them up. You know what I mean? You’re not going to go swimming with drowning people. That’s not an ideal business. So thinking about that, great client, but can you define a great client? I’m going to suggest that will be a good use of your time. Here’s something else that I wrote down. I’ve said this on my personal profile, I had a few people throw this quote out there and then tag me or whatever it is on Facebook.
[00:11:21.840] – Karl Bryan
And it’s that… What is it? Your greatest enemy is not fear. Your greatest no, sorry. Your greatest enemy is not failure. Your greatest enemy is failing in front of others. I believe that to be true, right? For you here, and the note that I wrote down is that your greatest enemy is not failure, it’s comfort. I want you to think about that, right? Comfort. When you say to me, I will not cold call, I’m going to suggest that that comes from somebody who is desperately clinging to comfort, not willing to get outside their comfort zone. And some very smart people, much smarter than I, will tell you that all of your goals, all of your dreams, all of your accomplishments, what you define as success lives in your most uncomfortable moments or in a very uncomfortable place from where you’re at. Remember, you got to shape. In order to start your new life, in order to get your new life, you’ve got to turn your back on your existing life. Think about that, what that might mean. You’ve got to give something up to get something. It’s a yin and yang. It’s a principle. It’s not my principle. It’s not my opinion. It’s not, you know, Harvard’s opinion. It’s a fact of life. It’s a universal principle, right? So I’m going to suggest that comfort. You’re thinking that fear might be your enemy and what you’re challenged with. And in actuality, it’s comfort. So do what you will with that bit of advice. Here’s something else that I wrote down. So I’ve got this file on my phone. And when I get an idea, basically, I go to this file and then I just go ping, ping, ping, ping. I should really take this stuff and put it on Twitter, by the way, is something I’ve been thinking about. But it’s for me. But then debatably, whatever, it could be some good stuff. Here’s what I wrote. A real founder keeps the company dialed in on product and not dialed in on company. Now, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I think that you will find most companies, and I’m going to some, you know, some, you know what I mean? Like internally with our company and where we’re going with Focus.com, and just a lot of what we’ve been doing over the last 12 months, 24 months, where we are, you’ll never, you’ll struggle to find a company in our world, in our space, I believe, that is more dialed in on product. Like we are obsessed with product. We just integrated artificial intelligence. We just launched a new program called Flash Coaching, 12 months in the making and behind the scenes. You can imagine a lot of very, very, very poorly paid or completely unpaid work going on. And so we are really dialed in. I’d like to think we’re really dialed in on product. But I can tell you that it is really easy to fall in the trap of decentralizing your company, which if you don’t understand that, that’s a very important concept. But really you know who’s got the right titles and who’s responsible for what? Where’s the SOP? Meetings, meetings, meetings, bloody meetings. And now what I find, or what I have written down, a note to myself that has been very, very powerful, is a real founder has everybody dialed in on product, not going around and around in meetings on company. Although you have to have some structure, you’ve got to have some systems. That’s a 101. But if it starts to think 80-20, if it starts becoming 80% company and 20% product, you’re in all kinds of trouble. You know, it’s Steve jobs would say, if you want to have a great company, what do you got to have? Can you answer that for me? Great products. You want a great company, you got to have great products. Just think of Steve Jobs and what he was about. If you’ve ever watched any of his movies, you’ll know he was completely obsessed to a fault, and that’s why he got fired back in the day because the Macintosh was just too anal, too attention, you know what I mean, too attention to detail and just done everything, micromanaging everybody, losing his mind, being too emotional, etc, etc, etc. The darn thing just never got out and it just cost way too much and it was too expensive. And it was not the success that it could have been and ended up getting fired over it. So he, you know, to a fault, but he just product, product, product, product, the iPhone, the iPad before that. No need to explain. You guys know Apple. No doubt you do. Another thing that I would say, a growth loop, which becomes part of the product. You want to know how Facebook grew, Instagram grew, Uber grew, ChatGPT is doing it right now. It’s basically a growth loop. Think referrals on steroids, but you want to understand growth loop and growth loop effectively becomes part of the product. That is again you know, Facebook, Instagram, Uber, Airbnb, Hotmail back in the day, ChatGPT, etc. That’s how those companies grow. What Seth Godin would tell you is you got to build something remarkable. I believe that might be the title of one of his books, may or may not. But at the end of the day, Seth Godin, a very impressive fellow, he will talk about being remarkable. And by the way, remarkable, if you define it. It’s one thing. When I say remarkable, you’re thinking, Oh, wow, something really cool. You think a Ferrari driving by maybe, or something that’s really incredible. The first time you saw your iPhone. But Seth Godin will define it as something that people remark about. Okay, so then what happens is you end up with word of mouth on steroids and everybody’s talking about what you’ve got. Iphone, iPhone, iPhone, Airbnb, Airbnb, Airbnb, TikTok, TikTok, TikTok, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube Reels, you know what I mean? Or Shorts or whatever. So that’s what he saw, it’s remarkable, which is obvious. It’s got to be credible. But are people remarking about it? And then he would suggest that that would be success. And by the way, if every client sent you two referrals, what would happen?
[00:17:41.560] – Karl Bryan
And the answer is you’d triple your business. So when was the last time you got two referrals from one client? When was the last time your client got two referrals from one client? When was the last time they tried? When was the last time they monitored, track, measured how many referrals they got from any one client? I’m going to suggest the chances are probably never, and that would be a mistake. So again, if you helped your client, not do Facebook ads, not hire 10 people, not hire a new salesperson, go to their clients and get two referrals per person or per client, you triple their company. It’d be three times the size. There’s something to think about. By the way, I believe that Microsoft, who owns you know, so Microsoft owns Open AI ChatGPT. It’s basically Microsoft. I think that they’re going to release a phone that’s going to be based on AI. That’s what my little spidey-senses tell me, or actually, it’s what spidey-senses, it’s people much smarter than I, in the know, and this is what they are saying. Anyway, I just think that that is what’s going to happen. And look out, that would be pretty mean. Artificial intelligence is not going anywhere. You probably know that we did a 7-hour masterclass on it last week. Date stamping this, but anyways, it was very, very, it was good. We integrated software, we integrated artificial intelligence into our software, and then we released it at the end of the day. At the end of the 7-hour masterclass, it was really well received. We also launched Flash Coaching, which is a new product that we have. Speaking of which, my next note is product over service. You’re not going to find many billion-dollar companies that do service. They do product. What we have tried to do and I have tried to do over the last close to two decades is the product ties coaching. I was a very successful business coach, and I did all kinds of numbers. I began, I managed to generate leads, get the clients. It came very naturally to me. The delivering of the coaching was always by a million miles. My problem was never getting the client. It was having a log jam because I was working with so many people, keeping up, and then trying to keep all the balls in the air. So what did I do? Product you know, product acceleration software, digital acceleration software, Flash Coaching, our onboarding portal, and again, our onboarding process, which we’ve actually built custom software for our onboarding process. At the end of the day, that is all product, product, product, which there is absolutely a service component to it. We’ve got nine roleplay specialists, two onboarding specialists, by the way, plus some lead generation coaches. But at the end of the day, we’ve got lots of people that go through level 1, level 2, level 3. There’s a service component to profit acceleration software because if you can’t use it and you can’t get the clients, you can’t use it to close clients, it’s not going to be very good for you, right? What am I getting at? What’s the message? Product over service. When you’re working with your client, you want to make sure… well, not make sure, but I would want, if I had a contingency deal with a client, I would be working with them if they were a service-based company towards having a product. And by the way, think the way I’ve explained this in the past is think hard with soft. So if you buy a computer, what is the equivalent of do you want fries with that?
[00:21:22.020] – Karl Bryan
What is the equivalent of do you want fries with that? And the answer is, do you want to want an extended warranty with that, right? So that’s an example of hard with soft, right? If I was selling, let’s say I was selling purebred dogs, and then I would definitely sell dog… I wouldn’t just sell the dogs, I would sell dog food. And if you gave me the option, I would sell dog food all day long, twice on the Sunday, without exception, over the dog, right? Because one is recurring based and the other is a one-time sale. To the point where, again, if your dog died, I would show up with another dog, he’d be very big and he’d be very hungry. But he would give you the dog so I could continue to sell you the dog food. But understanding that I would sell you the dog and then I would put you on the drip to sell you the dog food. But what I would also be doing with selling you the dog food, which is something hard, is I would be doing quarterly checkups, which is service, where I’d be coming in with a vet and we would take the dog, do all kinds of tests on the dog to make sure that they’re healthy. That’s pretty obvious, right? Then we got to change their diet. We got to put them on supplements, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you know how crazy passionate people are about their dogs, if you’re listening to that, when somebody actually go for that, the answer is a hard yes. And they will buy their dogs the equivalent of supplements, et cetera, you know, to put in their food, whatever. Hopefully you’re getting that soft with hard service with product. So product and service. Again, if I was going to build you a swimming pool, but then I wanted to service the swimming pool and sell you the chemicals and open and close your pool throughout the year, again, with 100% certainty, hopefully you know this, but which business would I rather be in? Building pools or servicing pools and selling the chemicals? And the answer is the back end recurring revenue all day long and twice on Sunday. Really, what I would want to do is both. Again, I’d give you the beer keg to sell you the beer. I’d give you the coffee maker in order to sell you the coffee, but I want to have a business based on that.
[00:23:40.630] – Karl Bryan
Anyway, so helping your company become more product and also recurring revenue based or subscription based is something else I’d be throwing in there. Poor dream by night, wealthy dream by day. Think that might be obvious, but you might be having some really great idea. If you’re having an idea at 10, 11, midnight. And then like in the morning, it’s a really bad idea. Which, by the way, the best way to have a really good idea is to have lots of ideas. But at the end of the day, make sure that you’re also dreaming by day and not just allowing this to something to be by night. So I’m going to say the real wealthy, the Uber wealthy dream by night and day. But it’s during the day where… I would bet that the iPad was dreamt up during the day. I would dreamt that the iPhone was dreamt up during the day. I would think that Uber was dreamt up during the day. Don’t just dream by night. If you don’t slow down, you’re not going to get that opportunity. Like, you ever notice when you go on holidays that you dream like way bigger? That’s not unique to you. That’s not unique to me. That is, you know what I mean? That is semi universal. So the question is, when you meet a business owner and they say they haven’t had a holiday in three years, is that a good idea? And I’m going to suggest absolutely not. And my question is, when’s the last time that you went on holiday? And then was your goal to totally decompress and not think about your business? Which, by the way, unplugging is a really good idea. But shutting off your idea, what I call idea sex, right? Not having idea sex while you’re away, I would suggest that that’s a really bad idea. So making sure that you’re doing that. Here’s a quote that I wrote down. I think I’ve actually covered this on the podcast recently, but it’s so good. I don’t think I could ever say it enough. But never underestimate. This is Charlie Munger on Elon Musk. And again, I have this little file. I go to this file every day. So when I read it, this is very close to the top. And it’s never underestimate a man that overestimates himself. I believe that successful business owner, there’s a lot of delusion there.
[00:26:08.870] – Karl Bryan
Again, like making the NFL, making the NHL, being ranked number one in the world in tennis, being ranked number one in the world in golf, being ranked and being a world-class cricketer and representing your country, etc. Playing soccer, playing football for England at the World Cup, and making tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars to do it. It’s very, very unnatural. Building a business that stands the test of time. If you spent two minutes going through the statistics, you know what they are. They are not in the average business owner’s favor. So I’m going to suggest that overestimating yourself might be… there’s some, there’s characteristics of a successful business owner, and one of them is insecurity. But then it’s also coupled with what I’m going to refer to as delusion. Again, let’s call that overestimating yourself on steroids, which is a real interesting contradiction where you’re insecure, but then you’re over, you know what I mean, your delusional in terms of what you could accomplish. It’s a weird, really good mix, but again, very contradictory. I’m going to suggest that that is something that you should try. And I believe that that could become a skill. So maybe you’re listening and you’re like, yeah, but I didn’t grow up with parents that were super positive and they weren’t entrepreneurs, or I wasn’t in that environment, or I got started late. So is that really for me? Is that going to work? And I’m going to suggest that delusion could be a muscle. And your muscle might not be very strong. But what happens when you go to the gym every day for 365 days? What happens when you double? I always say, What happens when you double a penny for 31 days, you end up with $10 million. But the real magic happens 27, 28, 29, 30, 31. Right? Well, I think that your delusion muscle is something that could be built over time in a very real and tangible way. So, I want a challenge you to do that. Maybe, and again, a year is going to be possibly, you know what I mean, that’s too much to get your head around… Why don’t you just sit down, pen, paper, you. Maybe what you could do is work on creating some outlandish, crazy, unachievable goals every single day for 30 minutes. Don’t spend all day doing this, right? But 30 minutes by yourself, dark room, pen, paper, and you, and writing things that are completely out of touch that you could accomplish, that you could do that would really, really impress your kids, impress your grandkids, and impress your spouse, impress you. Really impress you. So I don’t know. I think that there’s magic in Charlie Munger’s statement on Elon Musk, and that is never underestimate a man that overestimates himself. You might see that as a backhand. I believe that that’s a compliment. Again, I don’t see Charlie Munger investing in Elon Musk and his companies, but I do think that is very much a compliment. So, that’s something that I got there. And also, product service. Sorry, I skipped over this. Product, your product slash service, your client’s product slash service should be filling demand, not creating it. I want you to picture two different motions. I want you to dig a hole. Just imagine this metaphorically, right? Or just close your eyes and think about this for a minute. You’re digging a hole, and on the other side, so it took you X amount of time, okay? And now I want you to take three steps forwards and now what you’re going to do is you’re going to fill a hole. Which one is easier? Which one is 10 times easier? Filling the hole. You know, if you really identify your ideal client, you don’t have to sell hard because the right people will find you. They will find your clients.
[00:30:27.530] – Karl Bryan
So what you’ve got to be doing is you need to be filling demand. What is it that they are looking for? What is the marketplace looking for? When we got going with profit acceleration software and that, again, coaches, not the ones in the sandbox, leads, leads, leads, leads, leads, leads. If I want to generate leads, morale for my company, I just put an ad out offering leads for coaches. And I will be semi-inundated. And if I do it for… If I put some effort and some money behind it, some manpower, I’ll absolutely be inundated. But the problem is, in many cases, what you’re doing is getting the sandbox, folks. What you want to be doing is you want to be going to people who are… Remember, if you want to have a great company, you want to have what? Great clients. So going the higher end business owners, going to people who’ve been successful in business, going to successful coaches, and taking them from good to great, great to outstanding, outstanding to out of this world. But what they’re trying to do is they are trying to… they are charging, let’s just say, hypothetically, three grand a month, 36 grand a year. And they’re trying to find a way to get five grand a month, 60 grand a year, or 10 grand a month, 120 grand a year, and having a contingency in there. That’s what they’re trying to do. So what we do so hard, this profit acceleration software. Notice it’s not revenue acceleration software, it’s profit acceleration software. Again, top line versus bottom line. Huge air that business owners make right there. But we’re trying to do is we’re trying to go to successful people and allowing them to elevate. One of the other ways we do it internally is that we’ve got successful clients and then we help them build a team of 10 coaches. Again, our high-end individuals, they love the idea of having a team of 10 coaches. Somebody who… Think about who I am, when you’re tipping, don’t worry about what they do, worry about who you are. When you are really dialed in with who you are, your spirit, and you’re that person that would overestimate themselves. The idea of having 10 coaches underneath you is insanely attractive. Well, guess what? That’s why we have the program. Anyway, I want you to think about filling a hole versus digging a hole.
[00:32:46.830] – Karl Bryan
Similar conceptually, but effort, again, is like 10 X harder for one. So think of an 80-20. But remember 80-20. 80-20 is not 80-20. When you go 80-20, and then you go to the 20 and do 80-20, then go to the 20 and then do 80-20, and then you go to 20 and do 80-20, you end up with 150, right? So what are those 1% clients? What are those 1% products? What are those 1% services? What are those 1% activities? What are those 1% productivity hacks? Again, I talked at the very beginning this about there’s the ultimate success hack is not a tactical… It’s nothing tactical, it’s nothing strategic. It’s a way of thinking. My mentor all the time, stop and think, stop and think, stop and think, stop and think, stop and think, stop and think, stop and think. At first, like I said, it semi got annoying where I was like, Oh, my gosh. I’m thinking like, What do you… But now, again, it’s a muscle. You know what I mean? I would like to think that I have strengthened that muscle over time by continually going and stopping and thinking and pushing myself to think at a higher level.
[00:33:57.280] – Karl Bryan
I don’t have it worked out to be very very, very not what I’m saying. But that being said, yeah, I don’t know. Maybe I kinda got it worked out. Anyways, thinking about filling a hole… Again, when you identify your client’s ideal, I want you to capitalize ideal. I want you to bold it. I want you to italicize it, your ideal client, you don’t have to sell because they come and find you. I want you to think about that. I’ll be on the phone consistently with somebody who says, Whatever, but you know, I yada yada yada, I heard about this, that, the other, and I had to find you. We hear it all the time. Thinking about that, I’d also like to think we built something remarkable that people talk about, and that’s certainly the goal. And again, I think some of those… So you hear about that, and I want you to think, but are you spending time? Is your coaching that good that your client talks about it? That’s the question. And if it’s not, work on that versus lead generation. And you might find that you just experience that ultimate hack, or it’s a higher level of thinking.
[00:35:20.620] – Karl Bryan
Yeah, I got some other… I’m going to wind this up. I got one here in case. RodeDog would have a field day with this. But this is the guy, I can’t remember his name, but he owns GoDaddy or he certainly owned GoDaddy for a long period of time. He may or may not still own it, don’t know. But anyways, his quote is, you can’t win a farting contest without shitting your pants. Not supposed to sweat on this sports. But anyways, you can’t win a farting contest without being able to, you know, to wet your underwear. So what does that mean? I don’t know, you know, you know comfort, you know. Like again, you got to… Comfort is your enemy, not failure and fear of failure. It’s fear of leaving your comfort zone. I want to push you there. I’m just looking for something I want to tell. So, Magic Johnson. I definitely sent this in an email. I might have sent this in the podcast recently, but I think it’s really good. Magic Johnson, back in the day, Magic Johnson is a billionaire. And what do they say about success? Success leaves clues. So I’ve got a couple of kids that I’ve mentored or coached, whatever, that are playing the NHL.
[00:36:45.530] – Karl Bryan
They play in the NHL. And what I recently said to one of them, I said, Man, look, again, what’s the goal? You’re going to play in the NHL and you’re going to make lots of money. What happens to most people that make millions of dollars in their 20s? What’s the money look like in their 40s? And sometimes it looks amazing. But what does it look like? Let’s go 80-20. What does it look like 80% of the time? And not real good. So one of the things I told him, I said, so a friend, one of my really, really, my best friends growing up, his dad owns a box. And I said to him, man, you know what you should be doing? You should be taking every one of the people who own private boxes and take them out to dinner. And by the way, should he do it after he… Is he big news now while he’s playing on the first line of the power play? Or is he big news when he retires? When do you think they’re going to rather have dinner with him? And the answer is right now. So I said, Take some time. And he should not, at the expense of his hockey career and skating and practicing and all that stuff. Don’t necessarily get out in leftfield. But it’s absolutely something I would recommend. By the way, you probably know where… So what I’m going to say about Magic Johnson, and that is he took all of the front row ticket holders, which is affecting me in the same thing, the really expensive tickets. Let’s put it that way. He took them all out to lunch and he did it individually. He didn’t take them all at once. He took them individually. And the moral of the story, learn to network. An absolute super hack of success is learning how to network. Be with people that make you think at a higher level, act at a higher level, operate at a higher level. So learning to network. By the way, if you want to learn to network, one of the things you got to do is preparation for 10 to 20 minutes prior to the event. And by the way, when I say networking, there’s B and I. That is the sandbox on steroids. And a lot of cases, that’s just Lucy and Frank trying to avoid the work that they really should be doing.
[00:38:57.290] – Karl Bryan
The failed realtor, the failed mortgage breaker and a failed financial planner are all hanging out together. And then they’re all failing, so they feel comfortable around one another. And that’s not, that’s harsh, maybe, but that’s not where I’m going to encourage you to network. Maybe you’re in the sandbox and maybe that’s where you got to start. But I’m going to the golf club. I’m going to the oil and gas club. I’m going to the old boy. I’m finding out where the old boys are hanging out, and I’m finding a way to get in there. And when I get in there, by the way, so networking, what’s a really good way of sucking at networking? And that’s B boring. You want to go in there… You know what I mean? You got to come with some energy. You got to come… The most successful guys, the guy worth 10 million, the guy worth 100 million, the guy worth a billion. I’m telling you, these guys want, you know what I mean? They were once where you’re at, or maybe you’re already there, and then high five to you. But there’s a good chance if you’re looking to network with those individuals, maybe you’re not already invited.
[00:40:04.210] – Karl Bryan
When you get in there, look, they’re looking for people with… Do they want to hang out with people with low energy or high energy? And the answer is obvious, high energy. Do they want to talk to people who are educational or not educational? The answer is educational. Do they want to hang out with people who are entertaining or do they want to hang out with people that are not entertaining? Trust your instincts there, entertaining. So my question is, when you go to that meeting, what’s your level of energy? What’s your level of education? What’s your level of entertainment? And by the way, preparation for 15 minutes might be practicing your story. It might be like having a look at the list of people and then going to their LinkedIn profile, their personal Facebook page, their website, their about us and reading up a little bit about them. So when you go speak to them… If somebody’s got no kids, you know what they don’t want to hear? Hey, how many kids do you got? So if I knew that you didn’t have kids, by doing a little bit of homework, I could avoid that question that could debateably, depending upon the dynamics around not having kids, might end the conversation.
[00:41:15.420] – Karl Bryan
And then if they got six kids, I’m telling you, they want to talk about those kids. By the way, how old are your kids? You got any grandkids? Your kids graduate. And by the way, I might be able to work out if his kids have been off, one’s a PhD and one’s a doctor and one’s a lawyer, hey, this guy probably wants to talk about his kids. If the kids are all on drugs and not doing well, maybe he doesn’t want to talk about them. I don’t know. How could I establish that? I don’t know that I’m going to be able to get granular or really work it out. But by looking at your Facebook post, if you got six kids and I can’t find a photo of a single one of them, that might tell me. I don’t know. But maybe the guy that was doesn’t want to talk about his kids. I don’t know. I think I’m giving you a horrible example. But hopefully, you’re getting the idea. Three things, energy, education, entertainment, do a little bit of homework before you get there. When you go in, they’re not looking. Okay, here’s another saying, though. And I can have been guilty of this at different times in my life and different dynamics and situations. But your greatest weakness is your greatest strength turned up too loud. Think about that. Your greatest weakness is your greatest strength turned up too loud. You’re a really entertaining fellow, and you show up to this meeting and you’re too entertaining and too over the top, not a good idea. And you’re a newbie, right? You’re a first-timer, not a good idea. You know what I mean? By the way, being able to navigate the dynamics of a room, which some people do naturally and some people don’t. But with you know what I mean? By doing it a lot, you’re going to get better at reading those rooms. And that’s why going to, which I am horrifically guilty of this. I’d never, I do not go to events. If it’s not my event, I’m not going. That is not said in a pompous, arrogant way. It’s just the way I guess who I am. I’m not on stage. I’m not going. Good, bad and different. But that’s just been my M.O. for the last two decades. I’ve been to a few events, by the way, but very, very, count them on, definitely, two hands and probably just one. That’s full. I’m not suggesting you should be going to events. What you will find when you go to the events, the best event, the speakers were great, the education was great. The real magic is… we hear this at our events, they’re like, is this Coaching Mastering K2? The real magic is around the bar or at breakfast, at lunch, at dinner, talking to the others that are in the trenches doing what I’m doing. And that’s where the real magic lives. The real magic lived in the networking. So that may or may not provide some value. But I can tell you this, when you roll up to these meetings, being boring. And by the way, I’m a you know, a bit of an outgoing personality or outgoing person, sorry. So that might be… so you might go, yeah, but that’s easy for you. But remember, it’s your muscle. And by the way, there’s people that meet me with 100% certainty, like, that guy’s annoying, right? You know, you might be a little bit more laid back. So don’t try… What am I trying to say? If you’re like introvert and don’t try to be extrovert and you’re extrovert and don’t try to be introvert and don’t try to be someone you’re not, right?
[00:44:47.440] – Karl Bryan
When you’re going to network and you want to have high level of energy, but that high level of energy for you and high level of energy for me are two different things. So a higher level of energy, higher level of education, higher level of entertainment. If you’re a little bit more subdue individual, then just play it that way. Maybe you’re going to go a little bit deeper. The way your superpower is going deep, quick. Well, then do that, because that’s not boring. Remember, what you got to avoid is not being remembered. That’s lame. So anyways, hopefully, I don’t know, I’m doing the greatest job of all time of explaining that. But energy, education, and the ability to be entertaining, very important whilst networking. So there you go. I think going to events, maybe there’s some value for you, and maybe we’re going to be doing more events in the future that you could come to. You heard it here first. Anyways, look, folks, I appreciate it. We’re missing the RodeDog. Hope his wrist is all right. We’ll get an update. Hopefully, he’s doing good. But I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you listening in and look after yourself. And we’ll speak to you next week. Bye bye.
[00:46:04.390] – Show Announcer
Karl Bryan built profit acceleration software 2.0 to train business coaches how to find any small business owner more than $100,000 in 45 minutes without them spending an extra dollar on marketing or advertising. This becomes a business coach’s superpower. So as a business coach, you’ll never again have to worry about working with business owners that can’t afford your high-end coaching fees. Check us out at Focused.com.
You may also listen to our Episode 206: The Greatest Hack + Your Greatest Enemy on Spotify.