What’s Your One Thing?

Have you read the book, The One Thing by Gary Keller?  It is a fascinating little read which makes a call to just focus all of your attention on One Thing.  The author backs up the old Native American Quote:

If you chase two rabbits you will lose them both.

Now, when you are running a business like me,  you have a lot of balls in the air. And if you do a lot of work on your business and in your business, there are many different projects to tackle. How can we, busy entrepreneurs take the advice of Keller into our business?  I mean, we just can’t focus all of our attention on marketing and let our sales or client work fall by the wayside.

Well, here is what I have come up with:

1. 1. Focus on one thing in each area of your business.  As you may have heard through my podcast, I’ve become a disciple of
      Get a Grip by Gino Wickman. This one book has given me a structure to my business which not only makes sense but also makes clear all that I have to work on.  For me right now I am focusing on implementing EOS (with some tweaks of course) but also cleaning up each department – one thing at a time.
   2. For each department then I’m cleaning up that One thing.  Let’s use Vision as an example.  My first “One Thing” was clearly defining the company values, writing them down, and making sure they are clear.  This small little micro step – or “One Thing” allows me to accomplish something (I mean really, who doesn’t love ticking something off of a list) and then move onto the next step – which is usually nowhere near what I thought it was going to be which is why the process is so successful.  I’ve stopped having the need to write down all the steps before I get started.  Now, I just commit to taking the next logical step each time.
   3. Need another example?  I have always wanted to position all of my work under the umbrella LLC I own, The Gardella Group.  It needed a URL (which was owned) and a website (what a headache).  A few months ago I checked, and the Florida realtor who owned it gave it up!  I committed to setting up a website on Clickfunnels for it and not making it perfect but just starting.  And now I have a few things I am cleaning up on it slowly but surely.
   4. My first quarter of 2020 is committed to this process.  Slowly but surely working through a number of “one things” in each area so that the different parts (Vision, people, client work, marketing…) are all running smoothly (or actually running which would be a huge improvement to their previous stagnant states.
   5. This idea of “The One Thing” has also helped me to focus – ok, I’m going to focus on Marketing all day – and suddenly all of my professional social media posts are written for next month (not kidding, that happened).  EOS comes into play here because any issues that come up are put on a list to be dealt with at a later point.  Just last week I dedicated a morning to batching podcasts and now I have four “in the can” to schedule over the coming weeks.
   6. And I also put aside a small budget for tasks to delegate which include, in this order:  graphic designer for freebies, help with Clickfunnels when I start banging my head against the wall, and Quickbooks management.
   7. Sometimes focusing on “One Thing” only won’t work if you farm it out and are waiting.  For instance, I recently just moved some websites from GoDaddy to BlueHost (better deal for a few sites that do not yet make money).  The process was painful and had a significant number of problems that had to be handled by those companies.  But, hiring them to do the tech for $147 was brilliant and freed up my time – I managed the process and then moved onto a micro-step or two from another area.

I will share that I had the most productive month of my business in January.  EOS and focusing on “One Thing” has radically changed the way I operate.

Want to get started on your own “One Thing” process?  Pick one area of your business that needs a lot of help.  What is the first micro-step you can take to make it better?

1. The one thing could be hiring a graphic artist off of a fork or Fiverr, to get a new logo or to get some lead magnets done.  If that makes you crazy then maybe your one thing is just poking around UpWork or Fiverr.  Just make a list of the design work you need to be done.
2. When it comes to blogging The one thing could be to search on SEM Rush and find a few blog topics, or maybe Answer the Public to list out 3.   Then start with a general outline.  And for one hour each week do nothing but work on those blogs.  And from there you will see how easy it is to start to publish.

Exciting, isn’t it?   These two books have given me the structure and the mindset to fully grasp what has to be done and move forward in small logical steps for success.  Here’s to your accomplishments!