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Welcome to the Never Been Promoted podcast and YouTube channel. I'm on a mission to help you cut the tide to all the things that are holding you back so you can unleash your entrepreneurial. Hey. Welcome to Never Been Promoted. Hi. I'm Thomas Helfrich, your host. We are live again, And, today's conversation is a good one. It's one I've been putting off for a while. I thank you. It's about procrastination. We have an expert today, Chris Abdey. He is a he's a professional I mean, procrastination coach, which I think it's maybe anti procrastinate anti procrastination. I have a tough time saying that word today. But but he's gonna go through kind of the types of procrastinators, why you do it, and and give you 3 solid tips of kind of how to overcome it outside of just, you know, obviously finding time with them to go work with them to go do that. This is a huge problem in an entrepreneurship in life, but in particular entrepreneurship, you just don't have the time to procrastinate. I know I do it more than I should. I've gotten better about it. I'm excited to have this conversation to go learn about it as well. Listen. If you're just the first time here, thanks for coming. I'm gonna be clear on our mission, which is to help entrepreneurs get better at entrepreneurship. In particular, you know, I love the world, and I want I want more men in the world. I really want the US to have more entrepreneurs, though, to be to be clear. I I I think the US needs it. I think it's a great advantage competitively for us, and I wanna do my part to make as many as possible. I wanna make a 1,000,000 new ones just this year alone. So if, if you guys get any value from this, please, you know, do the the whole likes, do the follows on YouTube, all those kind of fun things. It really helps the channel and also, it helps the guest too to kind of, you know, doing do what we're needing to do to further this mission. Without further ado, let's meet Chris Abdey. Chris, how are you? I'm trying to work my controls in the background there. Chris, how are you? Doing well, Thomas. How are you doing? I'm good. Should I be concerned it took us 9 reschedules? No. I'm kidding.
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Oh, come on. It was only 7.
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It'd be funny if if, like, we've been trying to schedule this for a year. He keeps putting it off to, you know, the number one procrastinator perfection. Right? It's their it's their it's bad. Yeah. Chris, where do you where you where you where do you live? I'm, based in Saint Catherine's, Ontario right now. In Ontario. So it's it's it's winter there now. It's August, middle of August. So, the summer's over. It's full winter. You guys skip fall. That was August 6. And, I I was in Canada this summer. I went to Banff National Park to see Lake Louise and, all all that kinda. And anybody who who's, who likes mountains, clear air, nice people. I did run it we did run into a grizzly bear, on the trail, which was frightening, but no one died that I know of. You gotta go see it. Canada. I have a new respect for Canada. It is gorgeous. It was, like, 45 degrees too in the middle of July, and I was like, holy moly. People live here? Really? Anyway, Chris, how are you? I'm procrastinating to have this conversation. I don't wanna do it. It's gonna it's gonna hit too close to home. Why don't you give a minute? Introduce yourself. Like, what what it is you do? Give us the one liner or 2 liner on that, and and tell me about how you got to there.
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Right. So my name is Chris, and I'm a procrastination coach. And sort of how I got there was, all throughout my life, whatever position I've held, whatever company I've I've been in, I've always been a, a coach to helping people, you know, lead better, more productive, so, you know, schedules and, you know, whether it be at work or for their, you know, for their lives as well. And so, a few years ago, I decided that, you know, I wanted to actually help people. I mean, I was already helping people, so I just didn't have the title. So I went out and, I started creating these programs. And, what happens is a lot of times, people don't really even understand that they're procrastinating or how they're procrastinating. So, we look at I look at everything. You know? I look at your focus. I look at your mental state. I look at your energy levels. And, I just try to educate everybody. It's not just about sticking things in your calendar because I can do that all day long and still not do it.
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Yeah. I can all stick things in my calendar that are that are very low value, which is, often a form of procrastination is not focusing on the highest priority tasks because Low hanging fruit. And I let's dive right into this too. So, first of all, define what procrastination is and isn't, and and then let let's dive into maybe some of the different types.
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Sure. Well, procrastination is it's such a huge topic. But, essentially, what it is is that you're delaying, some activity or delaying some item on your to do list or or goal or a dream or a vision. And, it's just, you know, just putting it off for whatever reason. We can go into different kinds of, procrastination. What isn't procrastination? I mean, procrastination is not a, it well, I mean, it's not a I guess it's not a symptom. It's and it's not something to be ashamed of. I mean, we all, you know, we all do it for one way or another. I actually, actually have a quiz that you can take on my website that will tell you what kind of procrastinator you are. Just for the sake of time in this podcast and to not inundate everybody with information, I'll just go over the different kinds that that, that there are. They're basically 5 main How long does it take? I'll I should go fill it out right now while we're on it. It's it's only 8 questions. It's, literally only 8 questions. And, when you're done, you're describing
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the different kind types. I'm gonna try to figure out how to share that screen, and we're gonna go figure out what kind of procrastinator I am. Okay. Why you're why. So you you what are the what are the different types as I, if I I sorted out the background here? Okay. So we've got the perfectionist.
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You know, anybody who's putting things off because they feel mainly, they have unrealistic standards. They have the fear of failure. They have an overemphasis on the outcome, detail oriented to a fault, and, you know, that's their kinds of ones. So they fear judgment or criticism, or they think it's all or nothing kind of thinking. Right? And then we have the dreamer. I actually fall into this category, so I'm I'm near and dear to this one for sure because, I myself fall in this category. We have high creativity and imagination. We involve ourselves in idealism. We avoid routine tasks because, you know, they're routine or repetitive and, you know, if they don't engage us creatively, we just have much in doing them. We're often, you know, disorganized. We have to recognize that. And we have some difficulty carrying out plans with execution because we're more enthralled with thinking about it than actually doing it. Right? So that includes, you know, sometimes a fear of reality, escapism, a lack of structure, and an overwhelming details. You know, you might have a vision, but you don't necessarily know how to, how to do that. Right? And then, and then we have the warrior. Right? So the warrior is, you know, characterized by excessive anxiety, overthinking, self doubt. They're always worried about the consequences of doing or not doing something, so they can actually, you know, get involved a lot in what we call a paralysis analysis or analysis paralysis, where, you know, you have difficulty making decisions because, you know, you're you're worried about the outcome. Right? And then we have, the crisis maker. This is an interesting one because the crisis maker actually thrives, when they're under the gun. You know, they work well under pressure. You see a lot of crisis makers in, in in traditional corporate settings. You know, they do things at the last minute. They're it could be, you know, hooked on the adrenaline. They seek thrills. The only issue with that is that a lot of times is the crisis makers have inconsistent work quality just because, you know, they're rushing things at the last minute. Right? And, this could be a different you know, many different things. The most common ones are an overconfidence in one's ability. So we tend to, underestimate how long a task is gonna take us because, you know, we, you know, we think we're we're pretty good. In a lot of cases, we are, but when you get involved in that, then you tend to take on tasks at work and they just pile up and then 1 or 2 slip through the cracks and, you know, 1 or 2 obviously, you know, suffer. Right? Mhmm. And then we've also and then the last, you know, we've got the the fire. I see a little bit of this in myself as well, but, I mean, we all have a little bit of that. Right? So into the fire, this type of procrastination is that you don't really like being told what to do. But, again, who doesn't? You know, who likes being told what to do. Right? So, you have resistance and authority. You have a need for autonomy, and, there's a lot of passive resistance there. You might have a lot of contrarian attitudes, and, generally, this type of procrastinator does have more internal conflicts, because they know that, you know, these things are important to do, but just because they're being stipulated, it has to be done by, you know, someone who wants to beat your wife or the government. Right? You have to do it, and we just have that resistance to it.
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Yep. I'm I'm about to break your machine. I think I'm gonna have every one of those here. Let's do, let's look at this here. So can you see the the screen here? Yep. There we go. I'm gonna start my quiz on your site. So this is a I took it out. It's it's a hold on. Let me show you the address that you got here. procrastinationstation.ca. That's not California. That's Canada, people. And, okay. Here we go. How do you typically approach big projects? My granny is gonna be in the steps. Can I answer more than 1? Oh, I didn't hold on. Can I go back? Shit. No.
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It's intuitive. It's intuitive.
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Oh, I I I would want have to think about it too much. I didn't even read the other ones. There you go. It's part of it. Alright. Hold on. No. No. It tells me what to do. I have a grant. Alright. Let's go with that one. Grand ideas. How do deadlines affect you? Get stressed, restrictive, and honest. I resist. I find yeah. Let's go with that. Alright. What do you do when you've when faced with a new task? I start delaying until I feel I have started perfection. Perfect plan. No. I get lost in dreaming of possibilities, but struggle to act. Overthink all potential problems. No. Procrastinate until I'm forced to start by external pressure. I question being told to do I probably could go with that one as well. I think that's probably the most lined up. When you procrastinate, what is usually the reason? Result won't be perfect. Nope. Interested in thinking about the idea and then working on it. I will tell you. I I, I'm one who would be fine just collecting money and not having to work. Some people say they are like that, but I I can honestly say I'd like that. Anxious. Nope. Nope. This one. Okay. I think the second one's gonna line up to the second thing. How do you usually handle routine tasks? Nope. Yeah. I find them boring and struggle to stay engaged. That's probably very true. I worry about, nope. Put them off. Yeah. I struggle between answers 24 on almost every one of these. Is that true? Is that is that set up? You can tell me the mechanics behind this afterwards. What's your typical reaction of feedback? No. I feel like it doesn't fully understand my creative vision. No. I appreciate it most. We provide it right before deadline. Oh, I should take feedback well. Like, I seek it. I probably have to go to the second one again. That's probably the best. That's a hard one. When you think about completing a task, what is your main focus? Am I am I passing this thing? I'm having stress now. I don't I don't think I can fix it. I can't finish. Just kidding. Alright. Picture the idea of but ignoring the steps, the thrill of satisfaction. Oh, pressure. No. It's I am whatever number 2 is is me. How do you feel about long term projects? Oh, yeah. Number 2. I'm enthusiastic, but lose I'm a dreamer. No question. Alright. I can claim my free strategy call here in a second. That's that makes okay. There's no question of a dreamer. And I will tell you, I'm one who when I get a good routine, I like to stick with it, and I hate breaking it. So give me example. Give me example. If if I don't work out every morning at 8, including Saturdays Sundays, the Saturday or Sunday disruption could be enough to not make me wanna go on a Monday. Does that make like, that's how I'm wired. And so what happens is when I break a routine personally, I can't take the dreams and the ideas of what I wanna become and put them in action. And so so is it fair to say that you would would a tip be just create a routine and just go do it even if it even if it's just like, hey. Like, we have a new service coming out. I'm struggling to kinda I was telling you this off camera. Like, I'm struggling to really kinda put pen to paper to do a few things. And and when I was forced in a car to have nothing else to do, I did 3 hours of amazing work on it. And then what do you do when you do that, though? When when I don't really like routines, but, man, when I see when good, all I wanna do is repeat it because I love the outcome. Like, like, I struggle with that.
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Yeah. So specifically for for Dreamers, you I mean, you're you hit the nail on the head. I mean, one of the biggest things you can do is, you know, establish routines and and structure like, structure routines, and just incorporate those into your daily lives. And, and by that, you'll be exercising your, well, you'll be exercising, for lack of a better word, your discipline muscle. Right? Mhmm. So because dreamers need to take consistent action. So, you know, you always be on the move, so, you know, time blocking and where you dedicate, you know, specific times to particular tasks can help create, a good framework for you to, support, to support progress. And one of the other important things is to incorporate, creativity into your execution. So when you when you're a dreamer, you might take a a a task and and, actually, this is a very good one too. Turn your tasks into games. So Oh, gamification works so good on me. Oh my god. Yes. You know, and your wife says, oh, don't leave your dirty socks in the bedroom floor. Like, alright. Well, we're playing, you know, sock basketball. You know, we're gonna do 3 points across the room, toss them all dirty laundry to the basket. See how many points we can get and how much time. You know? That just that sort of just that sort of thinking really help as well. Getting in that a reward system is good for just about any kind of procrastination as well, that little bit of positive reinforcement. So after you've done your game, you know, if you get 60 points, you know, give yourself a little bit of whatever your favorite kind of, candy is or salty snack or, you know, within reason. Right? So that you're just,
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you know, going through I'll allow myself to do 10 push ups. I can do push ups until I Okay. Well, I've been back. Addicted to push ups, people. I'll have to take your word out. I'm just saying it's good advice I'm not taking. Just anyway, keep going. Sorry.
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Right. So yeah. So that's for for a dreamer. In in more general samples too, a lot of procrastination will go into the biggest ones, especially in in, you know, entrepreneurship is, you know, feel fear of failure, or worrying about, judgment. You know, I like to call it the witch wound. I didn't coin the phrase, but I mean, it's pretty accurate. You know, you're afraid of putting yourself out there because you're afraid of, you know, criticism or what people are gonna say, what they're gonna do. And, a lot of this is just tied to either past experience or, you know, future, you know, future projections. Right? So something that that I really like for procrastination as well is just mindfulness. So it's just staying in the present moment. Right? Because the past already happened and, you know, we keep reading it every day, but we this is not stuck in our minds for some reason. It is past results do not, you know, guarantee or project future performance. You know, we see this everywhere. And yet, for whatever reason, we tend to take one bad experience in the past, and we apply it to all our future experiences. And so by, you know, letting go of the past and being rooted in the present moment and focused on what we're actually doing, we can, get over the procrastination. And, the other part is the future. I mean, we're always worried about a future that hasn't happened So what's interesting is that the human brain can't, you know, it can't process, a solution to something that doesn't exist because the future I mean, it doesn't exist. You can't, you know, you can't quantify it. You can't go into it. So your brain has just done overdrive figuring out all these things you can do when you can't take any action. That just causes causes a feedback loop, and it can cause burnout. So by just staying in the moment and just focusing on exactly what you're doing and giving 100% of your effort to that, you'll find that your your task lists sometimes don't seem as daunting anymore because you're focused on the task and the journey to get to where you're going. You're not concerned about where you were, you're not really concerned about where you're going. You just know that you're taking that step right now.
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Well, that's it. So are those somewhat universal rules no matter where you are in the the things that like like, the 3 tips, like, one, having a routine that focuses on the execution of a process towards some kind of idea. Mhmm. Even if you're I mean, for 2 delays because they're perfectionist, like, that's a different game. But, like, is that one of the universal roles? Because, like, universal tips, I think, that'd be great because, you know, obviously, you can't solution for everything and stuff. But tip 1 is develop some routine that breaks up a larger idea in into small deposits of of benefit, the the atomic habits kind of idea. Right? Correct.
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Yep. The, the bigger the task and the one rule that you have is no no step is too small. So if you had if you can take any task that you don't wanna do and you break it into the smallest steps possible, it doesn't matter. You can have a a task as easy as, you know, picking up, dry cleaning. And you can literally break it down to, you know, step out the door, open the car, turn the car on. And as you check these off, you'll notice that that you don't actually, like, hesitate as much because those steps are are really, really, really small. And, and mindfulness is also a big one. And I'm trying to think that the best, the best third one. Gimmick gamification is good. Also, your support groups.
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I'm just trying to think what For some reason, the opposite of the spectrum. So, I'm definitely okay is good enough. I mean, good is good enough. Let's just get it out there, get some feedback. You know? Perfectionist, though, you know, it it I call it the Schwarzschild ratio problem. So it's the that's the map that determines the event horizon of a black hole and inside of which is perfect. So if you cross that event horizon, not only are you chasing something that can't be found because it's endless forever, and you just keep slowing down the further you go into it, and no one on the outside can help you. So, so so how does somebody who procrastinates because of, we're we're getting to the whys, but just let's say they listen. I I has to be perfect before it goes out. What what do you how do you help that person? I've never seen that behavior broken.
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Well, perfectionism is very difficult. I I can tell you, I I am a little bit of a perfectionist sometimes, and that's just normal. Everybody has that. One of the things one of the most important things to do when you consider perfectionism though is to just get something out there and just just let it, just let it flow because you can't do anything with no, with no data. You can't do anything with no, experience to back it up. Right? So that's one of the most important things for, the perfectionist. And also just and I know this is kind of contra you know, it's kind of contra indicative, but you embrace your past mistakes and imperfections. You you go back and, it's a variation of the power of 3 rule where you go back in your life and you look at 3 times where, you know, things didn't exactly go as planned, but you had a a fairly decent outcome. Right? And then you look at the past, and then you do what you call, like, the thought trap challenge. You say, okay. If I don't put out this, podcast today, if I don't, you know, put out this website today, what's it costing me in the long run? And do I have any evidence that suggests that, you know, if I put it out, then it's gonna fail miserably? And what evidence do I have to suggest that? And, normally, we don't have any.
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Yeah. And do you think sometimes, though, the why behind that one's almost more important?
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For sure. The the why is a big one. You wanna know why you're you're I mean, is it the fear of criticism? Is it the is it your name? Is it, ego? Is it, you know, or does it stem from something in your past where you're just you have an action because you've had such a horrible experience that you don't wanna put yourself out there? So, yes, it you're right. It is very important to figure out where it comes from. I mean, I I look at sometimes where,
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I I'm not a lazy person, but I hate doing small busy work. I like it, and I certainly hate redoing things over and over. But in, you know, in sales and building a company, the wins are in the repetition of a good process. There's there's this there's no other way around it. You just repeat good things, good behaviors, and you have good outcomes. It's the best thing that it's gonna happen if there's good market conditions or bad market conditions or whatever it is. Your best outcome is one of them in your creative process. I hate that. I wish I I wish I just fell in love with that and that was, like, my calm spot. Yeah. So what do you what do you jump in here because, like, I because that that's where I'm, like, I know it because I I but I that's the and when I was struggling on your quiz of between 2 and option 4, which is under pressure, the under pressure is where I always end up jumping in because it's like, okay. I know I have to do this now. I'm just I'm tired of not making enough, or I'm tired of having to do that. And where I usually get over the hump is when I'm like, you know what? If I just do this hard work for the next 2 weeks, the next 2 years could be better. So and and so instead of taking a year to procrastinate, just go get your get your ass in gear and go do it. Is that normal to have those 2 things tied where you're a dreamer and then pressure, or is it are there combos?
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There there are definitely combinations. One of the things in procrastination is and, actually, it's very interesting you said about this stuff you don't like to do, and you you you have to do it, but you don't like it. And a lot of that is just perspective and mindset. So I have to do it, like, a just a a small we can actually do a small, experiment here on the show. It takes, like, 30 seconds too. It's just, pick something that you have to do that that, you know, you just you don't like doing. Pick something you have to do. That I don't like doing? Yeah.
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I hate doing website copy.
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Okay. And and when you think about doing website copy, you know, and you say I have to do it, how does it make you feel?
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I mean, just it's just like it's like, what do you call it? Claustrophobic. Gotcha. So it's like pressure and crushing it. It's like that that resistance. Like, you just you're dragging And I still do and I don't do it well, so it it makes it even worse. I just like, I don't wanna do it. I can't do it well, and it's frustrating because it's not anyone else's fault. I just know that no one else can it's in my head. Now AI has helped, by the way, because I can get my head stuff out and people can then take and do it. But, it's frustrating because I don't wanna spend time doing that shit because it's just like, I have to do it. And it's just it's like almost over it's too much. Gotcha. You you part of for me and and that you do this, part of that is tied to entrepreneurial ADD a bit where you have a lot of things going on and you're spread too thin, and so you do almost nothing. And so, like, this podcast is good because I have to show up. I have to be attentive. I have to, you know, prepare. That forces me to do stuff, but I love doing it. Right? It's fun. So so when you're talking about, like, website copy, it's like it makes my day when I find a, like, a partner for a business partner who can really write that stuff because then I'm like, oh my god. You you take off a huge thing that I don't I just don't like to do. So so for me, I sometimes procrastination ties to just being too thin. I just don't really have the mental inner energy to do it because then, you know
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Right. So pretty simple. It's something that that you have to do. So it sounds like that could do with a lot of delegation. You know? If we had the time, I go into the Eisenhower, matrix. It's really popular. But if you take that now and you say, I have to write website copy. But why why don't you just turn it around a little bit and say, I choose to do website copy because I know it's gonna make me a little bit better at it, and I know that it's gonna help my business. And if you say I choose to do it, how does that feel?
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I mean, you're gonna get all tricky with me. I feel much better. Well, yeah, I mean, we don't again, we don't like that that intrinsic But that I mean, wait. That's a mindset thing, and you're a 100% right. I'm choosing to do this, and it's not that anybody's telling me to do it. And I tried delegating out. It just doesn't work, and then it ends up creating more work. And it's the example that came to mind. There's probably a 1000000 other things that I just, you know Oh, yeah. Well, part of it is capability. So so a lot of stuff I procrastinate is, you know, Taylor's Kids Are Naked. Get it out there, but, you know, your personal brand when your personal brand's involved with, like, our business or this or that, I take a step back like, hey. Is this really what I wanna say? So I'm writing a book. It dawned on me very early that what's in my head and what can come out of my mouth does not transcend to a piece of paper to write it down. And so I had to go through finding the right ghostwriter that had the right style because I really wanna get this done. And, you know, writing a book, what 90% of it is procrastination, just so you know. It's part of the cycle of it. But I found the right ghostwriter, I believe, that's helped me move to tell the story and do it in a way that I could never do, but the way I wanted to do it. It's like that's what's in my head with this person's written, but when I try to do it, man, forget it. The I don't know if that's procrastination or just realization that it's gonna take forever to find it's like decide quickly, change slowly. Maybe complete your thought of that, but I I think when you when you talk about I think that's where I get caught up sometimes is where am I thinking versus procrastinating. And sometimes I just have think time that I I feel like I should be working, but I feel like I am because I'm I'm thinking through the problem, instead of working through. I don't know. This is where I sometimes get caught up is the thinking piece that's so important before you actually go do something.
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And that's the the characteristic of the dreamer right there because you're you'd rather be thinking about it. You get caught up in the details, but then executing it is where you have the issue. Right? Executing is is sometimes challenging. And what what usually, execution comes when I know I don't have the skill set to do it well. Right. So in that sense, you know, definitely a support network and delegation. Delegation is a big part. I know that that, you know, there there's a few stigmas out there right now that say, you know, we have to do everything or, you know, we have to multitask to be you know, we have to be superhuman. I I absolutely hate that, and it's not the way to be productive at all. I mean, if you're putting 20% of your focus on writing a book, 20% of your focus on doing website copy, 20% of your focus on your podcast, know, you're only get gonna get 20% of the results. Right? So, you know, we need to focus on one thing at a time. We can do multiple projects at any given time, but only put your focus and energy to one thing at a time. And if you don't do it well, you know, there's no shame in delegation. There's no shame in in Agreed. Sending it off to somebody who can do it better than you. I mean, I I can I'd love that. I that's my whole business model is delegation. So because I like I said, I don't actually wanna work. I just wanna
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people goes, what would be an ideal job for you? I'm like, it's it used to be like, I wanna be a golfer. I'm like, but that's also kinda lonely and you're on the road. And I'm not very good. But I I do I do I'd rather just talk, have conversations. And so, you you know, you so many how you you navigate to where you really wanna go with that because you can't delegate that one out. Not yet. AI might let you do it later. Is there a pharma procrastination you just can't someone can't get over?
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I mean, that is honestly totally up to the up to you. If you don't, you know, if you really are in your own head and you keep telling yourself over and over again that you can't get past it, then then you won't get past it. The, you know, the power of the mind is is we're we're still learning so much. But the truth of the matter is is that anything you put your mind to, you can do. So I I mean, you can literally overcome any kind of procrastination that you want. The only thing is is that, you know, sometimes you need you either need to push, you know, if you're like a crisis maker, you need to push, or maybe you just need a support group, you know, a friend or or, you know, someone you trust to, you know, to be an accountability partner, to get you past that. But, I mean, to just sort of sit back in this sort of defeatist attitude and say, no. I can't get over it. Well, no. It's because you don't want to get over it, which is a really hard thing for a lot of people to accept. You know? Yeah.
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What's, in your own life, what was the kind of number one thing you had to get over?
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The number one thing I had to get over my own life in terms of, especially in terms of procrastination, it it most of mine stemmed amazingly enough, most of mine stemmed around relationship type things. Like, I when I was younger, I didn't really like confrontation. I was a people pleaser. So I used to put off, you know, simple things like, my mom would call. I just shove the phone aside and say, you know, I'm too busy. I'm too busy. I'm too busy. You know, I'm doing this. I'm doing that. I'll call you later. I'll call. I'll pick up the phone later. And it's because I didn't wanna deal with that. I just didn't wanna stick up for myself. I didn't want to, you know, make I didn't want to risk people not liking me, so I would put off those interactions where I knew that I would be confrontational or, you know, contrary or or potentially have them not like me anymore. Right? And that stemmed from a deeper form of of, you know, self validation. Right? So I had to look at that. Well, you know, why do I need these people to like me? Like, so, I mean, yeah, for me, that was definitely that for sure.
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You know, it's, I hate talking on the phone. Like like, it's just I I just don't enjoy it. Like, especially if you have the whole I just and and and I I don't think that's procrastination, but you you you sometimes you just don't like doing things. And if you don't actually have to do them, then then I say don't. Like but if you have to do something, you know, it's like, it's definitely getting something done you can know you can knock out in a couple hours. It's when you know you have to knock out it knock it out over 2 months for a couple hours every other day. That's when it's like, oh, that's a especially when it's business related. Like, I need to do this content. I need to do this. And it's like this is where I think some of your coaching comes in of I assume you go through and say, hey. What look. What's the top priority that's, like, on top of mind every morning? Like, I know what I need to do. And for me, it might be like, hey. I really wanna kinda work through this. You'd be like, just okay. What are the business operations you're gonna have to show up for? Great. Do that. Now go find in your calendar, or do you do something like 30 minutes and just go work 30 minutes on that one thing? And there's another hole. Go find another 30 minutes and just go work on that one thing. Now if you can if is it like then do you take that thing and say, what are the things you need to get done in it and just go work on that one task? How do you take me through that? Because I'm gonna go do it right after this. And this whole thing is about me getting free advice. This is what the whole podcast is about, by the way. Just that's So long.
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I mean, you're you're partially right there. Finding out the time blocking is very important, but it's important to know, for your particular case, I mean, you're talking about these things that you don't that you have to do and you're talking about splitting them up. The Pomodoro technique is is is that. And it just means, like, working in in short spurts followed by some sort of restor activity that, that you find enjoyable. I call it the crap sandwich. So I take all the all the tasks that you have to do during the day, and you you do the one the ones that you absolutely positively don't like, and you try to see if there are other tasks that you have that you could do at a, you know, right before or right after that you would enjoy. And then that way, you've got something that that, you know, gives you a high or as an energizer, Then you got something that takes you down a little bit, but then you got another energizer to sort of end your day. And that's why it's it's really important, especially when you're talking about doing these things that drain you. It's important to look at your schedule and say, okay. I'm going to be meeting with Bob at 5 PM on Saturday. And, you know, I don't I don't like Bob. You know, he's, you know, he's somebody I've dealt with a while. But, you know, I don't I don't like him. He really leaves me feeling drained. He's such a negative person. And so you say, okay. Well, why can't I meet Bob, you know, a little earlier in the day so that I have something else so they can get over that so that, you know, I cannot be a total, you know, grouch when I'm, you know, speaking to my family after I talked to Bob on on a Saturday, you know, afternoon. I don't wanna be talking to him in the 1st place. You know?
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That's that's a good point. And, and by the way, here's the here's the trick thing, though. It's I just it's not that I don't mind doing it. It's just I hate the start. Does that make sense? Like, once I'm into it, I'm really into it. And that's kind of my character. You know, like, my idea is if I'm gonna learn how to go, you know, play golf, I'm gonna go take a year off of work and go play learn. Like, right. That's a bit extreme. I may have done that in my twenties. But the point is, I'm one who just kinda goes, when I'm all in on something, I'm all in on it. And when I'm not, I'm not. And and and where the rub comes from me is and I'll give you examples. So for Instantly Relevant, we we do business consulting, growth strategy, and specifically around LinkedIn. I'm pivoting the company over the next 18 months to where the lead kind of factor will be verifying other agencies' ability to deliver because, honestly, it's it's a big problem, and there's there's not a really good way to do that right now, in my opinion, out there. And so but that puts the whole company at risk. And because if you pivot and then you get away from this brand of, hey, we help you with the agency, not that we wouldn't stop doing the work, it's just that you're not leading with that story. You lose business. You're threatening revenue while you're chasing a new revenue stream. That threatens the company for cash flow reasons. That's what puckers me up. That's why I'm like, hey. Do I really like, so so I don't know if that's procrastination or just have I so so maybe walk through that where you maybe I'll extract that a little bit for anybody listening here. So it's you have a need of a it's it's a pivot in a business basically or an extension, and you have potentially a threat if you do it right or I mean, if you do it wrong. And there's also a threat in if you did it right, then it may not work. That but you have something that's kinda working now. That's the procrastination step that I've identified. They're like, oh, man. I'm really ready to let the tiger have a cage on this.
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Right. So, I mean, that is your that is all mindset. That is you are operating from a scarcity mindset. You're operating from the mindset that if it goes right, you know, I can do everything right. And you know what? There won't be enough money for the company or there won't be enough flow or there won't be enough this. Or it goes wrong and you say, oh, well, now I now I screwed the company over. There's not gonna be enough this. There's not gonna be enough that. You see the commonality there. It's not enough. You know? But, you know, it's always enough. So the first thing that you gotta you gotta think to yourself, after you do all the research, after you've done all this research and you're a smart guy. I'm sure you've done all the research.
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You've got the plan. The research? No. Definitely not. Some research. Some of? Okay. GPT's done some for me, which is great. Thank you. So, so my question,
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to you would be, you know, do you have any evidence that, you know, if this hap if you pivot like this, do you have any evidence at all in any of the research or past experiences anywhere that said it that, you know, it would be a a risk? You know? That'd be the first thing.
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Well, I I know it's so this is the thing. I I've landed. I know it's a problem in the industry. You know, what happens for it usually means we sell the first one, we sell the second one, we sell the 10th one, we learn, and then I'm full on. It's just getting to the point of launching to make sure we can close the first few. And we're close. Don't don't get me wrong. Like, this thing is about to just go the the I I am definitely working with the idea that this is a better business model. This is a better thing for the customers. It solves a better problem. It takes place in my it has everything every upside possible. As an entrepreneur, as many people know, niching is so important, but it puckers the butthole up faster than anything. Because you're like, oh my gosh. Am I really so me focusing only on this and saying this is what we're gonna do, then then what downstream happens is all the content changes. Even this podcast moves probably to be more about marketing. Like, everything gets centered around this idea. So when I say I change this, it affects all of it. And it affects even like I said, this podcast and the things that we'll talk about will probably it will have shift to marketing to become more of a top of funnel. The the so the point is there's a lot of impact once I do this that I'm like, man, it will I think it'll work. I think things are good, but, man, it'd be a lot of untangling and unwinding if it doesn't. And so that that's the part that makes me just let's let's just
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let's keep working through this. So yeah. Well, that I mean, that's, that's just what makes life interesting, though. I mean, would you want everything to go perfect all the time? You you get Hell, yeah. I I wanna know no pain, no challenge. That'd be great. Exactly. So, you know, you you've got these plans and they're they're laid out and but, you know, what could go right?
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You know, what what Exactly. Go right? You've seen Well, I mean, this go wrong. What could go right? Exactly. So this is the go right from a financial standpoint. Right? There's 86,000 agencies in United States. We wanna work with maybe the top 5%. Like, that's who I think we wanna qualify as as a worthy agency. That's about 23100 agencies, and we're targeting around $1,000 a year. That is not a greedy company. It's a great lifestyle business that might might gross in a couple $1,000,000 a year. That's that like, maybe we do half of that. Maybe it's like a1000000. The point is it's not a huge company, but it would be a great lifestyle business that would be top of funnel to other things. That's a likely scenario. And and for me, it's like, okay. Let me understand what the first few steps are to do that. And I'm working through it a bit. I I'm overplaying the procrastination piece. I actually do work through it. To me, it just doesn't go fast enough. And that's part of my personality. I don't have enough hours in a week to do this. So, but but I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs who who do that and do nothing. They they think through things and they don't work through it. And the other pieces, I think you'd agree, right, is the mindset of is the greater threat to do nothing?
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Yeah. So that that definitely is a is part of it too. I mean, you you have to think not only, you know, what so what could you lose basis based on, you know, what could you lose by not doing it? Like, what are you losing by not doing it? I mean, you'll you know, it's better to do it and and regret doing it than to do it or to not do it and regret not doing it. Because if you regret it and you did it, at least you did it. You know, you learned, you got some valuable from it. If you regret it and you didn't do it, then you're just sitting there regretting you didn't do it. Now you can't do it. Your moments passed and then, you know, you shrivel up and well, that's an exaggeration. But You know, it's the, Eminem song right there. Yeah. It it's it's like a snake that eats its own tail. Right? You, you know, it it eats at you and and, and regret, trust me, you don't wanna deal with regret. You'd rather deal with the, these experiences that that, that you have in your learning and your journey Right. Rather than regret. Because regret is a long process.
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It is. And, you know, you don't be lying in the grave thing. I wish I could've, you know, wish I could've been. And, Bailey, it's a closing idea. Just kind of, you know, at the time here, I I'll say if you're thinking of becoming an entrepreneur and you and you're just thinking to start, you know, you're like, what are the next step is for you? It's a side hustle. Maybe it's, hey. You just got laid off, and now you're at the option. Do I find a job? Do I find, you know, do I start my own business? Do I do both? The answer is yes to all that. But just take the just just, you know, just take the you know, I'm one person who says, like, if you're in the position where you need to go find a new job because you're unhappy, I would assume you're gonna be unhappy in the next place too. Just I'm gonna throw that out there. So is there something that would make you happier? Well, you know what? Start it. Don't don't you will not regret starting it. You won't. And and that was my idea when I was like, you know, I'm not gonna really look for a job anymore. I'm gonna just be all in on this. The worst thing will happen is I'll have to go find a job 5 years from now, but I'll have 5 years of running a company experience. And so there'll be some job that makes sense for. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm unemployable. But after that, we're we're we're pretty good. Who let's let's leave it in with this. Right? So who who do you work with best? Who do you want to contact you through your website?
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Oh, well, I mean, I'm I'm open to to everybody and everyone, but, I really I really try to focus on those that they they feel they feel stuck. Maybe they're trying to start a business or maybe they're stuck in their own head, and they they wanna get out of the rat race. And, I mean, I I I went through this. I chased the almighty dollar. I burned myself out. I imploded, my life pretty pretty well actually when I think about it. And, you know, I really thrive when when I help, others not fall into that same pitfall I did because, you know, you do. You wind up working for somebody else. You wind up, you know, doing something that you're unhappy with. And in the end, you know, what you're working for, you pretty much well, I'm gonna say, like, 92% of the time, you wind up actually losing what you were working for anyway. So, in the long run, it's not worth it. And I and I really thrive when I can help somebody build something that they've had in the back burner for, you know, who knows? Some of them had back had plans on background for 4 years or more. You know? And just being able to help them get out of that and get building something and then looking at it and say, hey. You know? I knew the guy that built that. You know, that to me is, you know, a reward in in of of itself.
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That's awesome. And and I think, you know, like, listen, if you're if you're struggling to get going on something and it become and I'd say more, just not one thing. If it just seems to be a pattern, I will leave you with this. It will definitely spill over to everything. So the mindset of getting yelled at for not doing the dishes or for getting to go put the socks away when you're in the mindset of, hey. I need to kinda execute that so I can get a better outcome, which is maybe RULS or avoid a pain, it does spill over. And sometimes you need you need help. Like, you might be, you know, kinda low. You might be kind and these things all factor into procrastination, just not feeling motivated. You know, go go check some testosterone. Maybe you could go check your blood on something. Maybe something's going on. These things are all related. And if you don't think they are, you're wrong. You you I will flat out tell you you were wrong. They are completely related because I was definitely much more a procrastinator a year ago for, you know, stop drinking. Stop you know, you know, you know, when you drink to take off the edge, you lose your edge. And and I think you could do that with lots of little things in your life, not beyond drinking or whatever else, but these are just major things to hit. Just go have a conversation with Chris. I would say that it'd be a good good idea to meet with you on that because I've met with you offline. I you're you're I like your style. It's very chill. It's very listening oriented, and it's it's, you're easy to work with. So I appreciate you coming on today, Chris. Hey. No problem. I appreciate you having me on here, Thomas. Of course. I'm gonna put you in the periwinkle room. I ate all the snacks, and the rest are virtual. So enjoy being in there. I'll be right back. Thank you. Hey, guys. Thank you so much for listening, to the to the Never Been Promoted podcast YouTube channel. Before we say goodbye, I just wanna thank you for, you know, being part of the journey here. And, you know, we wanna really help you cut that time. Right? Procrastination is one of those things that will hold you back and will continue to hold you back. It is a behavior that can be broken. It is one that will probably have better impact in your life than than way beyond just entrepreneurship. So take with some seriousness, do something about it. I know I actively work through it, and it's always a struggle as well. But, you know, you gotta get out there. That's one of the things you gotta do to kind of unleash your entrepreneur. Thanks for listening until we meet again. This is Thomas Selfwork. Thanks.