🏔 My Stupid Simple Formula to Destroy Shiny Thing Syndrome and Get Sh!t Done
🏔 My Stupid Simple Formula to Destroy Shiny Thing Syndrome and Get Sh!t Done
Trade busyness for high impact action
🥳 Hey, Kasey here! Welcome to this week’s 🏔High Growth Founders🏔 newsletter.
If you are a builder, creator, or project starter who embraces life’s challenges to extract the growth lessons within them, you are a High Growth Founder.
And this newsletter is for you.
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In this Week’s Issue:
Growth Insight: My Stupid Simple Formula to Destroy Shiny Thing Syndrome and Get Sh!t Done
HGF Episode: Jackie Bebenroth | The Power of Aligning Your Business with Your Passion
Growth Tool I Love: Learn to be a Twitter editing master
In November, Erica Schneider and I will be cohosting a Social Writing course on Maven. This course will teach you:
Find your social writing north star to stay committed and consistent
Build your original idea engine to align your ‘why’ to your audience’s ‘so what’
Write scroll-stopping hooks without the clickbait
Write a body where readers devour every word
Turn good first drafts into masterpieces
If you are remotely interested, sign up to join the waitlist and find out when we officially launch.
Welcome new subscribers!
We officially hit 1400 just before I scheduled this issue. I deeply appreciate each and every one of you. If there’s something I can do to support you or your journey, don’t hesitate to reach out and let me know how.
Growth Insight: The High-Impact Focus Formula
An entrepreneur’s greatest strength? They see opportunity everywhere.
Their greatest weakness? They see opportunity everywhere.
A lack of focus is perhaps the most common entrepreneurial self-sabotaging behavior. Especially for those of us with ADHD or other forms of neurodivergency.
This lack of focus manifests itself in a myriad of ways:
Struggling to decide what to do first, so delaying the decision or doing something low-impact and menial while attempting to decide.
Feeling busy all the time, but rarely making measurable progress in your business.
Trying to “multitask,” doing too many things, and accomplishing little to none of it.
Starting something, making progress, but getting distracted before completing it and starting something else.
Giving up on projects too quickly, convincing yourself you’re ‘pivoting’ when you should be iterating to make it work.
Getting overwhelmed so not doing ANY of it.
These distraction manifestations are disruptive and frustrating as hell, especially when compared to the immensely satisfying feeling of knowing what to do, when to do it, and how to get it done.
At the end of a productive few hours or day, when you felt in flow, able to get shit done that needed to get done…it feels magical!
I struggled with this for years until I learned a new method I call the Focus Formula.
What is the Focus Formula?
The Focus Formula is a simple methodology I learned from the VP of Product at a startup where I worked. He used this process to measure and rank potential product features so he could plan his product roadmap.
I have taught this method to dozens of entrepreneurs I work with. About 75% of them come back a week later, gushing about how dramatically it changed their work and processes for decision making.
In my day job, I have used this process with the board of directors for a few clients, helping them remove the emotion from decision-making and achieve consensus on what to do next to move their organizations forward.
How does the Focus Formula work?
It takes four easy-to-understand and execute steps that take the guesswork out of prioritization. Give the Focus Formula 20 minutes and you will know what to do next in your business — and life.
Step One: Know the Immediate Goal
Your first step is to decide on your Immediate Goal, or what matters most in your business (or whatever part of your life you’re working on).
I encourage you to think about what problem you could solve or a goal you could hit that would immediately relieve the pressure. Something that could buy you some time to work on other initiatives.
Often this is revenue related. If you can bring in an influx of cash, you can stop stressing so much and work on longer term, more meaningful projects.
Common Immediate Goals:
Revenue
Hire someone to help you
Wrap up a frustrating project
Your decision on this most pressing goal directs the rest of the focus formula.
Step Two: Your Big Vision Goal
This step may be a bit more challenging but is nevertheless important. Define your longer term goal for your future. What is something BIG you are working toward?
Example: my big vision goal is to land a book deal and write a book about harnessing adversity to live a more meaningful life.
You want to incorporate these bigger more meaningful goals into how you prioritize your tasks and bring focus to your life.
Step Three: Take Inventory
Now it is time to braindump every task, project, or activity you feel you need to complete. Be exhaustive.
The big projects, the little tasks, all of it.
Make sure to include everything stressing you out, the many things you want to work on, and the other projects you feel you should work on. All of it.
Simply writing it all down will likely reduce some of the pressure in your brain.
Step Four: Score Your Options
Here is where it gets fun. You are going to rank (1-6) each one of your tasks, projects, and activities on five important criteria:
How much does this activity impact your Immediate Goal?
6 = the most and 1 = the least.How much does this activity impact your Big Vision Goal?
6 = the most and 1 = the least.How quickly can you get it done?
6 = immediately and 1 = a long time.How much does doing this work excite me?
6 = so much I can barely hold it in and 1 = ugh, not at all, I’m dreading it.What is the likelihood it will be successful?
6 = 100% chance and 1 = it’s a serious long shot
Ranking your options on these five important criteria make it simple to understand where you have the opportunity to create the greatest impact.
Step Five: Total Your Scores and Get to Work
Once you total your scores, you have a clear plan of what to do and the order in which to do it. It eliminates the guesswork of prioritization and creates a roadmap for your activity.
Additional considerations:
Weighing the Immediate. You may decide that your Immediate Goal is so important it should take priority over your long-term goals, for now. That’s okay! Remove the Big Vision Goal from your ranking or increase the relative weight of the Immediate Goal
Regular Updates. Your life and business change rapidly. It’s important to regularly update your Focus Formula to ensure it meets your current needs and stays relevant to your ever-evolving reality.
HGF Episode: Jackie Bebenroth
The Power of Aligning Your Business with Your Passion
Jackie’s founder story is packed with actionable advice that can change the trajectory of your business.
She is an inspiring and skilled brand strategist so not only does she share some insights into her work, but also how she 4xed her revenue in only a few years.
In this episode she shares:
Aligning your brand story and your vision — how to make it uniquely you in a way that strengthens your marketing
How brand isn’t just about marketing, but about customer experience
The #1 resource she used to 4x her revenue in only a few short years
Listen Now! Website | Apple | Spotify
Growth Tool: Learn to become a Twitter thread editing master
Erica Schneider is a downright force. She’s a scroll-stopping Tweeter, is spit-take funny, and inspires me daily with her courage and does not give a sh*t attitude.
She is a genuine master at Twitter thread writing and her editing is a miracle to behold.
After lots of encouragement, she decided to post a live thread editing session she created for a follower.
And it’s brilliant. You’ll learn more about thread editing in this video than you will in any digital course you download.
As always, I appreciate the hell out of you.