Nicola Gelormino (00:02):
What can you do to ensure the continued success of your business year after year? Join us to find out I'm a sed edition of the Inside BS Show. Hey, now I'm Nicki G. This is the Inside Bs Show, and we are talking about what you can do to ensure the continued success of your business year after year. I am here today with my partner Dave Lorenzo, the godfather of growth. Dave,
Dave Lorenzo (00:28):
How are you? Hey, now, Nicki g, Nicki, G in the hoodie. She's wearing a hoodie, folks, it's fantastic. You can't see it, but I can. What's up, Nicki G, tell me, how do you ensure that you're successful year after year? Where did you come up with this topic? I bet you saw an interview.
Nicola Gelormino (00:45):
Spoiler alert gave me this. So I was watching an interview with Tom Brady. I mean, it's great. Tom Brady is great, and when you put him anywhere, incredible, incredible athlete and very accomplished will likely the greatest quarterback of all time. So Tom was talking about his success and what he said applies not only in the professional sports world, but it also applies personally and professionally. So I wanted to share this with you and have a discussion about it. So he was asked, how does he ensure that he continues to be successful year after year, right? They just won the Super Bowl. You're coming off a great year and your year resets. It starts over. It's no different in life, no different in business. So you have to think about what am I going to do to ensure that I can have a successful year the next year?
(01:34):
One way that he does that is through consistent discipline. Think about that for a minute. It is not just being disciplined in what you're doing, but you are doing it consistently day after day, every day of the year to be able to be successful. So think about this with respect to, we'll say life for this example. Think about this with respect to exercise. Your goal is I really want to become healthier and more fit, and I'm going to give this a shot. Can you commit to doing it every day? Can you commit to doing it for a week? Can you commit to doing it for months? You have to be able to show up and keep doing it over and over again if you want to accomplish the goals that you're setting for yourself. It's no different with your business. Dave and I talk a lot about how we are unbelievably busy as entrepreneurs and we have that same schedule almost every week.
(02:35):
So how do we continue to be successful? Now, for me personally, it is consistent discipline. It's showing up every day and trying to do the best that I can do at my job. There are going to be days where things happen. They don't go right, especially in business, you could lose a major client, you could have an insurance claim you have to deal with. You could have something happen in the market or an external source, an external factor that impacts your business. But what you can control is showing up every day and doing the best you can do, and that's going to help ensure that in the long run you are going to be successful and you have to ask yourself, you be serious to yourself. Can you do this? If you're an entrepreneur, the answer has to be yes because it is about you and you are the person who can control that. What do you think, Dave? It's
Dave Lorenzo (03:29):
Easier to get to the top of the mountain than it is to stay on the top of the mountain and it ain't easy to get to the top of the mountain. I've not won a Super Bowl. I've not won an Olympic gold medal. So I will defer to anything that Tom Brady or any other successful and repeat successful person has to say about the drive to keep going. Here's what I do know. If I look at people in the business world who have achieved success repeatedly over and over and over again, there are three things that they all have in common. The first thing is that clarity of purpose that we've talked about, and the willingness to sacrifice everything that's outside of what they're looking to accomplish. So you and I had a stated goal the other day on a show. I don't know, I hope that show has aired by the time we run that show, by the time this show is aired.
(04:31):
But we've said it to each other a number of times that this is going to be a business. Our business is going to be a business that does a hundred thousand dollars a month in revenue by July 30th, 2024. In addition to that, we think it is going to be a hundred million dollars business. I think in five years. I think you pretty much fell out of your chair when I said that, but to make that happen, we have to eliminate everything else that is not helping us get to that goal. Tom Brady eliminated everything from his life that was not winning Super Bowls when he was a Super Bowl champion quarterback, he eliminated everything from his life. That was not that. Derek Jeter, same thing. Five World Series championships. His 20 year career eliminated everything from his life that was not driving him toward winning a World Series.
(05:27):
Mariano Rivera, same thing, more people. My son loves it when I throw out this stat, more people have walked on the surface of the moon than have scored a run on Mariano Rivera in the playoffs during his 20 year career. He eliminated everything else from his life that was not leading toward winning a World series or excellence. In pitching his nephew, his brother's son, was unfortunately and horrifically in Mariano's pool in his home in Panama. He went home, went to the funeral and flew back that same day and pitched that night in a game because he eliminated everything else from his life that was not in pursuit of his goal. So the first thing that you have to have if you want to get to the top of the mountain, is clarity of purpose and the willingness to sacrifice everything else that is not in alignment with your clarity of purpose.
(06:33):
99.9% of people do not have that. We are going to find out if you and I have that. Okay? So that's the first thing. The second thing that you need to have, if you want this to be part of who you are, is a focus on the fundamentals and consistent, perfect execution of the fundamentals. Every day we don't put out a show. We lose an opportunity to get our next great client every day that I'm not in front of an audience of my ideal people. My unique ability is I take complex subjects and distill them down so people can understand them, and I can do it in a way that speaks to large groups of people every day that I'm not in front of a large group of people, I miss out on an opportunity. So if I'm pressure washing my driveway, I'm losing money.
(07:33):
If I'm driving my car to drop something off that I could have paid somebody to take to someplace else, I'm losing money. If I'm not in front of an audience every day that you don't flawlessly execute the fundamentals of your craft and working in your unique ability, you're losing out on that opportunity to get to the top of the mountain or to stay on the top of the mountain. And the third thing is surrounding yourself with people who are more successful than you and are willing to push you forward. It's easy and it's human nature for us to surround ourselves with people who are not at the same level as us. It makes us feel good. It fills us up. From an ego perspective, it is much harder on the ego to surround ourselves with people who are better than us and push us, keep moving us forward.
(08:25):
Human nature, we want to be the best, so we want to take the path of least resistance. So those are the three things that we can all do today to be repeat champions at whatever it is we do. If you're a garbage man and you're listening to this and you want to win the Garbage Man of the Year award, if you do those three things, you're going to win the garbage Man of the year award consistently over and over again. But most people cannot do those three things consistently. They don't want to sacrifice. They don't want to focus on the fundamentals. Oh, it's boring. It's boring to do the fundamentals over and over again. They don't want to surround themselves with people who are better than them. They don't want to get rid of their old friends. Oh, it would be disloyal. No, that person's dragging you down.
(09:14):
I'm not talking about your lifelong friends. I'm talking about the people who are constantly telling you you can't do something or you shouldn't do something because you would outshine them, right? So those three things, if you can do, you could be the Tom Brady of your field, of your profession, of your company. You could be the Tom Brady of that. If you do those three things, that's it. It is really that simple. But you don't want to do it now. You need to ask yourself why you don't want to do it, and you need to get that crap out of there. And once you do, then start doing those three things.
Nicola Gelormino (09:52):
That's so true, and he's such a great example for this because he worked so hard for his success. This isn't someone who just got,
Dave Lorenzo (09:59):
He could run his whole career. He couldn't run. He couldn't move around of the pocket. He was terrible. Couldn't run.
Nicola Gelormino (10:05):
Yeah, right. I mean, I remember what the scout said about him was off mean. They were brutal when he was being scouted. He was drafted on the sixth round, and you know what he said is when he finally got his opportunity, when Bledsoe got injured and he got on the field, he said, I'm getting well. If I ever get on that field, I'm never getting off it. I'm not losing my job. And he did it, and he did this every day to make that happen. And all of you listening can do this every day to make this happen in your professional and personal lives, but are you willing to do it? It's not easy. Let's be honest here. It is hard. You will be tired, you'll be completely run over weeks. You're trying to just survive and get through them, but can you do it? And you have to be able to answer
Dave Lorenzo (10:49):
That to be the best at anything. There are two places where you win that. This is how I coach up my kids. When I work with my clients. This is how I talk to my clients. So I've told this story before when my son was into martial arts and he lost his first tournament in the finals and he lost to a kid in a split decision and everybody in the room thought he should have won same tournament next year in the finals with the same kid, and because the kid was from his karate school, the coaches, the sensei's wouldn't coach either kid up. So I worked his corner for that fight and I said to him, listen, you won this championship in preparing in running three miles a day in going to the karate school six days a week in sparring, four days a week with kids who are bigger and stronger than you.
(11:38):
That's when you won it. How are you going to keep them from taking it away from you? Now, what are you going to do in the next three minutes that's going to keep them from taking this away from you? You won the championship in the gym preparing. Now you got to keep them from taking it away from you. That's Tom Brady's mentality. When Bledsoe got hurt and he went in, he said, they are never taking this away from me. I will leave on my own terms when I am ready. We all have that capability. It goes back to when you're sacrificing, when you are executing the fundamentals flawlessly and consistently. When you're surrounding yourself with people who are better than you, that's when you won the title. Then in the moment of truth, you're demonstrating that it's yours and you're going to force them to take it away from you.
(12:30):
When you go to trial, you've spent years preparing for trial. You've spent years preparing motions and going through all of the discovery process and potentially settling, going through mediation after mediation, and then you get to the moment that comes when you've prepared your case all the way through and you feel confident when you are walking into the courtroom to begin jury selection, you feel confident that you've got a winner. If you don't, you shouldn't be walking into that courtroom, but you won that case in the two years of work you did leading up to it. Now when you enter the courtroom, you are there to make sure they don't take it away from you. That's the way it is in your job. When I go to give a speech, I don't show up and throw up. I don't show up and go up on stage and give a kick ass speech that leaves people with their mouths wide open or that leaves them wanting more or that makes them run to the back of the room to sign up for my service.
(13:38):
That doesn't happen in the 45 minutes when I'm up there. That happens in the years and years and years of experience and then writing the stories and honing the stories in front of smaller audiences over and over and over, over time, and then practicing the delivery, recording the practices and suffering through those recordings, making the changes and delivering it again and again and again. And then I have already created an environment where 30% of that room is going to sign up, 90% of that room is going to be on their feet and a hundred percent of their room is going to feel the emotional impact of my words. I did that in that 10, 15, 20 year period and the practice period leading up to it. That 45 minutes is me not letting them take it away from me. It's me delivering in the moment of truth.
(14:36):
So you win that championship in all the work you've done before and then you demonstrate it, and in Tom Brady's case, he demonstrated it on Sundays. That's what he did. So that's the formula for success, but you don't want to put in that work. Anybody could be what I am. If you have the ability to speak, there are a lot of people out there. You and I know a lot of people who are very articulate. We know a lot of people who are more animated than I am. We know a lot of people who are better looking, more charismatic, make a better connection with people. The difference is I am adequate at all of those things and I flawlessly execute the fundamentals. I make the sacrifices, and I surround myself with people who are better. I was out from 10 o'clock at night to one o'clock in the morning doing standup comedy in front of drunks and homeless people, getting my ass kicked by hecklers so that I could get better. Nobody else was willing to do that. That's why I can do what I do now. But other people aren't willing to do that in their professional lives. They're just not willing to do that. That's my thought. Those are my thoughts on that.
Nicola Gelormino (15:53):
Yeah. Look, I'm on the same page as you. I mean, people aren't willing to put in the sacrifices. More people, most people, most people are not willing to put in the sacrifices to get to the level of success where you and I share this, we are, you have to be able to do this if you really want to be successful, and it is an accumulation of what you are doing every day. When you wake up and you make that decision in the morning, can I put in the work? Can I put in the work today that's going to be something I do every day over and over again to be able to achieve the level of success I want? Or are you going to look at the people who are able to achieve that and say, well, I can do that too. It's not as easy as it looks, and it is really about this. It is building the success day after day and all of what you don't see that goes into it that makes it happen.
Dave Lorenzo (16:48):
There are haters out there for everyone in every profession. You can peel back the layers of the onion and you're going to find the clues that will lead to people being successful down the road, the things they did before that will lead to them being successful. Here's an example, and we'll bring it back to Provisor because there are a lot of people who listen to this who are part of Provisor. I go on the road and I'm on the road during the time when I'm supposed to run my provisor meeting or I go on the road and I have to run my high net worth meeting. I'm bringing all my gear on the road with me. I'm checking two bags so that I can run the same type of meeting with the same level of consistency. Whether I'm in a hotel room in Ohio or in my office, in my studio with all my gear.
(17:33):
I had to run a meeting, impromptu meeting from a closet, no joke in my parents' house, and I did the best I could. It was 90% of what a regular meeting would be. I could have easily said, Nicola, run that meeting. I'm not going to be able to it easily, easily. But that's not what true players do. That's not what champions do. You do the work, you make the sacrifice. People just aren't willing to do that. You and I know a lot of group leaders who three or four meetings a year, they take off why I got to drop my kids off at school.
Nicola Gelormino (18:10):
So let me leave you with this. For those of you who are listening, it's your decision. What decision will you make when you wake up tomorrow after hearing this? Because the decision that you make is going to determine your level of success.
Dave Lorenzo (18:26):
I love it. This is the Inside BSS show. My name is Dave Lorenzo. I'm the godfather of growth, and you are Nicki G, and we're here every day with a great new show for you. We'll see you right back here again tomorrow, folks. Hey, do us a favor. I don't know how you found the show, but I'm betting you probably found it because somebody sent it to you, somebody recommended it to you, somebody shared it with you. Do yourself a favor. Do another entrepreneur a favor, share the show with a friend. Share it with another entrepreneur. It's good karma for you, and you may just change someone's business or change their life. We'll see you back here again tomorrow, folks. Until then, here's hoping you make a great living and live a great life. Take care.