Football Hack #4: Let the referees do their jobs. On the field and sidelines next to the action, the referees are crouched low, eyes on the field, making sure that the game follows the rules and is as fair as possible. We pay these people to be impartial and tell us uncomfortable truths; they don’t always get it right, and they are not always the most-liked people on the field for sure! But could you imagine a game without them? This is a personal pet peeve of mine. We get cli- ents who pay us to be the pros on their campaign … and then promptly demand something that will torpedo all of our efforts. I’ve seen it time and time again: If we can’t convince them to go another route, their product satisfaction steeply declines, and we lose them as soon as the contract period is over. It’s madness! Why would you hire an expert, then ignore all of their data on what works and what doesn’t? If you’ve been in my shoes before (or are now), sometimes you need to save people from them- selves, and that’s just the truth! We will very rarely take on a client wanting to mail quarterly (except for some very specialized niches) because the data shows us that it just doesn’t work. Better to light your money on fire than to take on something that you know will fail to meet standards. Football Hack #5: Check out the watch party. When the game is done, win or lose, the players sit down and analyze the game film. What worked? What didn’t? Where were their trouble areas? Celebrate and learn from your wins. Evaluate your losses. Not everything you try will be like running the ball in from the 1-yard line on ev- ery play, although even that can prove difficult at times. Sometimes you have to go back to the drawing board with your failures and recalibrate your plan. Try, try, and try again. Keep what works. Throw out what doesn’t. Most importantly, pump yourself up for the next “game” by remembering that you have all of the tools to succeed. Opportunities are endless these days. Continue seizing them! Continue growing. Continue analyzing. With the right team behind you and the right playbook, you can’t lose. Newsletter Pro may have updated its colors and design flow, and the bright blue and orange is no longer everywhere you look in my office, but make no mistake, we are still hardcore BSU fans in my household. When the season starts, you will find me firmly planted behind the blue field, surrounded by my kids, looking for opportunities to continue learn- ing and cheering for the Broncos with all I’m worth.
to loosen the reins and let them do the tasks I’d hired them for, I realized that a lot of those things I insisted on doing could actually be done just as well or better , even if they got done differently. Football Hack #2: Develop your playbook. Players do not go out on the field and wing it. They study the playbook, run the drills, and make sure they are physically fit enough to perform in good condition. They spend time adjusting their strategy so that each teammate’s strengths are used to their ultimate advantage. Now, I’m a 9 out of 10 on the Kolbe Quickstart scale, so slowing down to put a fully realized plan together is sometimes painful. But it is worth it 100% of the time, and it’s one of the areas I’ve worked hard to perfect over the years in order to be an effective leader. We all know that growing and scaling has just as much to do with sys- tems, processes, plans, and people as it does with having a great idea or starting an innovative new project. Football Hack #3: TOUCHDOWN! I read a fascinat-
ing study recently by health behaviorist Dr. Emily Nagoski. She wrote the book “Burn- out: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle,” and I took a lot
of interest in her research about the fastest way to process stress and feel better. Turns out it has nothing to do with forcing yourself to “relax” but has everything to do with celebrating the fact that you survived! So, when you see someone on the field running with the ball like their life depends on it, avoiding tackles, jumping over opponents, and making it to the end zone unscathed, their victory dance is actually a necessary part of fin- ishing the body’s stress cycle and telling it, “We won! We made it! We’re safe.” This is a big one for me. As business owners, our stress doesn’t look quite as obvious as trying to avoid a giant football player from literally slam- ming us to the ground. But Dr. Nagoski’s research shows that filing taxes, firing an employee, or even sitting in rush-hour traffic feels the same way to our bodies . So, the advice is to let yourself have a “TOUCHDOWN!” when the moment is over to let your body know that it made it through safely.
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