Addition by Subtraction [Part 1] – From 10k to 70k MRR | Elite Performance Podcast #8

Itamar Marani 0:00
Today I want to talk about a principle it's going to be a case study, we're going to talk about this principle through one person called Nathan. So Nathan was doing pretty well, he'd been in business for a while, but his business was stuck at 10k a month. And he really wanted to get it to at least 40. Because that way he could retire his wife. Now, a lot of people were telling him to try different things, and to do more this more of that. But that wasn't what he needed. And through a process of what we're going to call addition, by subtraction, he was able to get his business within just two months to 40k. And now it's at around 70 80k. And this recurring revenue, it's not just a launch, or whatever it may be, and he was able to retire his wife, and honestly, just be really, really happy in life. And the principle we're going to be talking today is how to achieve that by addition by subtraction. And while you that can be 10 times powerful and 10 times faster than trying new things.

Dr. Emil 0:50
Yeah, so just to jump in and add here, this applies to multiple domains in life. And this is certainly the first thing I do with health as well is like, right, let's get rid of 95% of the bullshit so that you can focus on the shift that actually makes a difference and get the results

Itamar Marani 1:09
100%. So, here's the thing, what happens a lot of times in let's say, in business, something is stuck. So you think, okay, what can I do to fix this? What more can I add? What new thing can we try? What new channel can we venture out into? The reason we do that is that it's easy. It's easy, and it doesn't challenge us internally, we're going to say, Oh, we just need this new thing, this new thing is going to be my Hail Mary, my saving grace, it's going to be my magic pill as you'd like to call it a meal. But the reality is, what a lot of times it's actually getting in the way of our success is not adding more, but it's removing something that's in our way, instead of trying to push harder on the gas pedal, we make the effort down that handbrake that stopping us. And usually comes in two forms. One, it's either your external environment or your internal environment. And for Nathan, it was very much his internal environment.

Dr. Emil 2:00
So just to clarify, there's two aspects here. One is, so in terms of addition, by subtraction, one is removing distractions, shiny objects, right, and one is removing mindset blocks is that the differentiation between internal and external or

Itamar Marani 2:20
it's interesting, I wasn't thinking in terms of shiny objects, it was more about removing negative people that affect your mindset. I'm talking about only, like, let's say me, I'm just so focused on the mindset right now. So I want you to remove external people that affect your mindset negatively. And internal chatter that you have that again, affects your mindset negatively. Does that make sense? Fine. Yeah, perfect. So let's put it this way, in order to see success, if you visualize a pyramid at the bottom, there has to be a skill set. On top of that, there has to be certain character traits, let's call it like discipline, resiliency, desire, whatever it may be. Above that, and the third ring, there is mindset. This is how you choose to frame certain situations and see them. And at the very, very top, there's emotional clarity. So to make sure that your emotions aren't getting in the way of you doing what you really want to do. So you have the skill set to act on it, you have the character traits that will make sure you're disciplined, you're doing the work. And you have the mindset to make sure you're framing things in the correct way. But if your emotions get in the way, and you get riled up whenever certain things happen, or because you feel you have certain beliefs, that this means this and that means that you have all this fear around that and insecurity, you're not going to be able to act on those things. And the biggest, let's call it impact that this addition by subtraction can have is when you're that fourth rung, where if you just remove that you can start flying, and you get that emotional clarity, start acting out on that skill set of that character in that mindset that you've built up. And that was a that was where Nathan was

Dr. Emil 3:53
just go through that those four rungs again, what just just, I'm trying to write them out as we as we're talking. Because I think this is a really important points, okay, but it's not us highlighting

Itamar Marani 4:05
or diving into, okay, so at the very bottom, you have to have a skill set. If you don't have the best mindset in the world, your super clear thinker, but you don't have a skill set. You can't act on that mindset, or whatever it may be. And also at the beginning, when you're just the beginning of your journey, you don't really need mindset, you have enough motivation, you have to make things happen and that survival motivation, just a skill set can take you a certain level by

Dr. Emil 4:29
like literal business skills. This is sales marketing. So whatever the hell exactly what you're saying is when people start, that's all they need to focus on. They get a skill set and actually without a skill set, you're going to struggle. You can't you can't do anything without getting fine. So this is the wide base of the pyramid. You absolutely need your skill set. And then initially you're operating out of almost primal instincts, fear, anger, whatever it is initially. Is that Is that

Itamar Marani 4:56
about your driver? It's like with your it's like that's one of the Do you have the example of a mother lifting your car off her son because she has to in order for him to survive? Yeah, when you're just at the beginning stages of your business, you have to make money, whether it's achieve a certain level of freedom to provide for you or your family, whatever it may be. So honestly, the mindset stuff and the emotional clarity, you don't need to focus on and that's because you can get away without it, you just need to at first build a skill set. Yeah.

Dr. Emil 5:23
So you know, just highlight that, because I think that's super, super important things like fear, and anger, trying to prove someone wrong or whatever, it is very, very powerful as a motivator, but it's also it doesn't last forever, and it's not a good energy or fuel to use long term. And from my particular story, fear was my driver for a long time. And recently that disappeared. And now I'm trying to move on to a higher emotion, a higher frequency, a higher driver, perhaps, okay, skill set, we've got it, what's the next.

Itamar Marani 5:57
So this is a, I'm gonna stop here, because this is gonna be a really interesting thing for you. Right, where you're gonna find out, again, a meal, just for context is going through the ringer program right now is that you might not need a more powerful or a better driver, we might just be able to remove the internal friction. So you don't have to be as motivated to drive as hard to get the results that you want. You don't need someone to push you that hard. But that's a that's an A side note. So we had the skill set block, okay. After that, you have to have certain character traits, like even if you have a great skill set, but you're not disciplined. You're not driven. You're not resilient, you're not going to be able to act on that skill set. And that's when you really got to develop that. And we see a lot of people that are super disciplined, they work 12 hours a day, but still, something doesn't click there. That's because they got to go up to the next rung as well.

Dr. Emil 6:45
Okay, so before we jump up to the next rung, like, how did you develop those attributes?

Itamar Marani 6:55
It's a good question. And then I'll be honest, here, this isn't my specialty. Like the top parts of the of the of that pyramid are my specialty. The people that come to me are usually people already have discipline the you they're hard workers, they really want to succeed. How do we develop that honestly, like, there's better people to ask that?

Dr. Emil 7:11
Yeah, no, agreed? That's, that's great. That's a great response. Because you're right, people who work with, actually, both of us have skills and are discipline driven and work a lot. That's not the issue here. If you're lazy, you're probably not talking to us.

Itamar Marani 7:29
Yeah, like, I'll be honest, it's what I always say people, like, I'm not the guy to get you from zero to one to get you started. I'm the guy when you're just like, you have to make that next jump to your level of success. I can help you come there, but get how you build discipline and how you do that. I'm not the expert

Dr. Emil 7:44
of that. Let's say that. Awesome. So what's the next level?

Itamar Marani 7:47
The next level is mindset. This is how you frame certain situations. So instead of saying like this thing in front of you right now is an annoyance. It's an agitation, why do I have to deal with this, you can say to yourself, Wow, this is where I want to get to in life. This is the biggest opportunity to help me right now paths to the next level, learn the skills that I need to and so on and so on. So how are you able to look at situations in a way that serves you and actually benefits you?

Dr. Emil 8:12
So this is literally what the arena does. This? And the next one? Yes. And the next one, fine, okay. So how you frame things, how you identify where you want to be, and then decide what actions and things you need to do and be now to achieve that.

Itamar Marani 8:29
And also how this helps you to decide how you're going to look at situations to decide that you're gonna say this is something that can serve me instead of this is something that's difficult. That's what mindset is all about. How are you going to view a situation somebody with a poor mindset can see a situation and think this is just annoying. And I hate that I have to do this, somebody with a good mindset, who knows why they're doing this? Like where it could lead to can say, Oh, wow, I know where this is leading to. And I know this is a part of the game. So great. I'm exactly on the right track.

Dr. Emil 8:58
Okay, so this is, this is the stuff of framing,

Itamar Marani 9:02
by large. That's why I would say mindset is the skill of framing and seeing things for what they can be for you, not for what they are, but what they can be for you. So that's stage three. Is that clear?

Dr. Emil 9:12
It isn't just what you said. It's not what they are, but what they can be for you. If you frame it in a certain way. That is what they are like you will you reality is what you frame it as. Yes. Yeah, I mean, two people can look at the exact same situation and have a totally different experience of reality in quotations, through mindset and all of this. Yes, that's awesome in for that.

Itamar Marani 9:36
So the last rung of that pyramid, the top ones part is what's called Emotional clarity or emotional levity. This is where certain emotions that you have fears, insecurities, doubts, they don't get in your way. So you might have a skill set that you can act on. You might have the discipline to make it happen. You might have the money mindset to frame things in the right way. But still, your emotions say, well, we but if you do that you might be a bad person, people will love you, your father is not going to approve of this, even though he has no idea about it, this person is going to think you're greedy, you're not going to be loved. And that's the stuff that is sometimes the NPS that people need to have in order to really go to the moon. And that was a story with Nathan. So who this who was around money, and he grew up in a very religious background, I think it was Catholic. And basically, when we deconstructed it, what he had bouncing around in the back of his head was that it's greedy to want more than what I have. People will think I'm a soft ingredient, a bad person, if I make more money, and also the am I actually good enough to be deserving of that much money. Now you can see how if somebody has an amazing skill set, a business that has a ton of traffic to it, all that great jazz, is super discipline, even know how to frame things correctly, but has that rattling in the back of their head, they're not going to be able to access that skill set.

Dr. Emil 11:03
And it's worth noting here and correct me if I'm wrong, but these are programs, blocks that are often subconscious are not entirely on the surface, like people until you shine a light on them don't realize that they have these blocks, like you say, It's realizing the wall is there.

Itamar Marani 11:26
So Carl Jung said it best he said, Until you make the subconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate. And that's what this is, like until you get hold of the stuff and make it conscious, you won't be understanding why you can't get to where you want to get to in life, something else is controlling your fate, so to speak. And that's what this stuff is. Yeah, boom. So are the four rungs clear? Let me ask that. Am I going through this pretty clear? No, no,

Dr. Emil 11:56
that's crystal clear. And I think that was very, very useful, because I kind of drew it out as we talked about it. And people can also do that, who are listening to the podcast, because this is powerful. And as you save the arena covers, now, now that you've explained them all mindset and emotional clarity. It basically gets the frame right, and then remove the blocks. Yep.

Itamar Marani 12:15
So let's talk about Nathan a little bit. So what he was able to do, once we got clear on that, and we really challenged the end part, and we were able to get him emotional clarity. That's when he was able to go to the moon. And he didn't really have to do much. That's the thing, he already had a lot of these things in motion, he just gave himself permission to actually try them out in his business, to publicize this to send an email that says this or this or buy from you or whatever it may be. And just by him stopping and getting out of his way, removing those things that he had that was stopping his emotional clarity, those beliefs, those thoughts that he had, this was subconscious patterns, he was able to add a lot more money to his bank account, but way way beyond that, just a lot of lightness and happiness into his life. Because he didn't have those thoughts weighing him down anymore, those kinds of beliefs or that feeling that he knows that he shouldn't be doing more, but for some reason he can't. And on top of that, he retired his wife, and now they can happily just live a much more relaxed and happy life.

Dr. Emil 13:16
Yeah, so I think the key is that it's way more than just money and the subconscious blocks block happiness and contentedness. And one thing you've also said in the past is if you're not where you're supposed to be that causes friction that causes psychological dissonance, perhaps, where you've don't feel right, you don't feel something's arrived. And by removing these blocks, whether it's money, or whatever to begin with, you start to sit into where you should be or nearer more aligns to where you should be. Is that Yeah, is

Itamar Marani 13:54
there anything that you say where you should be? The way I would say, you're, you're much more comfortable within your skin? Perfect. Yeah. Cuz that's the thing. It's like when you know, you shouldn't be doing something bad and you have all this potential, but for some reason you can't do it is frustrates you. Yeah, like I should be better than that. I hear a lot of time from these guys that I shouldn't be better than that. I know, I could be doing more I know, I'm underperforming my potential. And I don't know why. But it's really bugging me is like I have the skill sets, all this kind of jazz, I put in the hard work. But it's that, that block that last block, usually the mindset is a part of it. But really, what it really really comes down to is that lack of emotional clarity is just like fogging everything else up and allowing them to act on their skill set and abilities. Once they resolve that everything is just better in life. Like the business is what we talk about a lot, because it's the most tangible, it's easy. It's easy to say went from 10k to now at around 70 80k. It's easy to understand that kind of jump. But yeah, imagine not having to deal with that voice in your head anymore saying like, maybe you're not good enough. Maybe you don't deserve this. Maybe you're greedy, not having those kinds of weights on your shoulder. And that's what I mean when I say like Emotional levity. The feel much lighter.

Dr. Emil 15:03
Yeah. Yeah. And it's worth remembering I was gonna say keep going.

Itamar Marani 15:13
That's a that's pretty much the moral of the story. This is a pretty quick one, honestly. But it's an addition by subtraction. Yeah, it's very tempting to want to say, Okay, I want to make more money or I want to have a better relationship with my spouse or I want to have more friends or whatever it may be. And it's very tempting to say, Okay, what more can I do here? What more can we let's go on another date night with let's talk about not money talking about the wife, for example, let's go on another date night. Let's go on a vacation. What if instead, you just got very, very honest about your fears in the relationship? And you were able to address that elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about? What have you said, Listen, I don't feel as loved recently, because we've been busy. And I haven't had the time to express this or this, I want to feel this love. That way they've been carrying on your shoulder, what if you can talk that out, and you can remove it, that would improve your relationship tenfold and going on an extra date night a week, or whatever it may be. But that stuff is really, really hard. Like it's very emotionally challenging to look within, and to go deep. And it's much more easy to just try to figure out some solutions that you can slap on. Hopefully, it'll be the fix, as like, people don't want to do the hard things. But it pays off. Not only doing this stuff of addition, by subtraction, it can be 10 times faster than adding more things as far as the results, you can also be just 10 times more impactful. It's just the ultimate thing to do, man. And what I always preach to people is before you try to add more, ask yourself, What's the constraint? And can you remove it? Instead of adding more and adding more like pushing the gas pedal harder? Can you take the handbrake down? As far as sustainability and energy economy and how much effort you're gonna have to put to create things and make them happen? Instead of pushing harder? What if you just removed that handbrake again, now it is going to take initial effort to take down that handbrake. But once it's gone, it's gone. And that's the beautiful thing, you're gonna have to keep using more motivation, like how you were saying, like, what's my new driving force, maybe you don't even need a new strong driving force. Maybe just that handbrakes isn't up so much. So you don't have to drive that hard and push that hard just to make things happen. Not just in business again, but anywhere in everywhere.

Dr. Emil 17:18
Yeah, and I like what you said about, you know, businesses what we talk about, because it's like the thing that people spend a lot of time on. And it's also easily quantifiable, 10k to 70k, great. But this process applies throughout life, and nailing it in one sphere, a business, whatever, teaches you the skills to then be able to apply it to other areas, which are less quantitative, like relationships, or happiness, or whatever else. So I like the idea of this skill of success, like you get good at being good at things. And it feels to me like you're using business almost like a testing ground a framework to learn this, because it's easy and obvious, and then go on applying it. So it's

Itamar Marani 18:04
interesting. It's, I use it, because it creates buy in from these guys. Exactly. And that's the thing. It's like, what I what I really view as success is not when like how you view success is not as somebody just losing weight, but keeping it off and just being a healthy individual afterwards. Yeah, what I view as success is that, not just when like, somebody makes a lot of money through the coaching with me, or whatever it may be, but afterwards when I meet up with them, and the wife is like, thank you so much. Like we are so much happier as a couple. And like that's, that's really success, you know what I mean? Because that means that it went way, way beyond just money in the bins. But it's the fact that, like you said, like, they understood, this is a process I can use to make things better in the business, it's easy for me to see I can understand it. So wait, let me try to apply this to other things in life. And then they go with that. And then yeah, everything just improves. Because again, like they were gonna say, I'm gonna say this, again, addition, by subtraction, stop trying to add if you can just remove this stuff, and go deep and display the courage to actually tackle the things that make you immensely uncomfortable, and are emotional and are not fun. You can go so fast so far.

Dr. Emil 19:09
And do you think in that context of you know, this is, it's simple, it's not easy. But it's the thing that people really need to do. It's the fundamental groundwork, do you think then that things like, you know, going on extra dates or in health, it would be magic pills or in business, it would be, I don't know, doing another course or adding another thing. These are actually distractions from actually what needs to be done. It kind of gives people the feeling that they're doing something even though they fundamentally know that they're not.

Itamar Marani 19:45
So I'll say this, the caution. I want to be cautious about this because I don't want to say that I'm doing it out of ill intent. I think most people are not aware that this is an option, and they really are trying to do their best. They're saying I want to try something new something isn't working. In the business, something isn't working the relationship, let's try another date night. Let's try to get dressed up, let's try to add a spark, whatever it would be, and they really are trying to do their best. And I think usually, in the high level people I meet, it doesn't come from a lack of desire to improve and to actually go deep. It comes from a lack of awareness that this is a possibility. They don't think this way. And I think that's the biggest takeaway. Like, instead of asking yourself, what more do I need? Ask yourself, What could I remove, that can make all the difference? It could be a personal insecurity that you're projecting onto your business, it could be a personal insecurity projecting onto your relationship. It could be a change, again, that you're not comfortable with it, you're projecting out the various things in life. And I think once you can tackle those things, it can make a big, big difference. But you have to have that honest conversation with yourself. And then possibly also have it with others.

Dr. Emil 20:50
Yeah, so I like that frame. And you're right. It's not that people don't want to achieve the greater things. They just don't know. That once

Itamar Marani 20:59
again, like I said, that it's not everybody, some people just want to try the easier things and they want to just stubborn about it. But a lot of the high level people I meet for sure. They're not being stubborn. They just don't know that there's another opportunity. Another possibility.

Dr. Emil 21:12
Yeah. Yeah. So I suppose the next question is, and this might be for the next podcast is how

Itamar Marani 21:23
to the how that's I do think we should do a whole podcast on that. Because processing, it'd be more like a half workshop kind of podcast for people, I think they really enjoy it. But I think before the how it's you have to understand if this is the right thing for you where you are on that, on that pyramid, you got to ask yourself this skill set problem. Now the way to ask you this is a skill set problem, you can ask a very simple question, say, Would somebody else my exact skill set, be able to achieve more? And if you're saying to yourself, no, I don't know anybody that or you can say actually, yes, I know this guy, or this girl that has my skill set, and they're doing so much better than me, that probably means that it's not a skill set issue, you need to move up. Now, if you know that you're not being disciplined, you're not showing resiliency, you don't have a desire to improve. You have to work on that character trait. And I'll be honest, like, again, I'm sure there's a ton of articles out there where you can figure that out. How do I work on that? How do I become more resilient? How do I become more disciplined? Actually, no, I actually also got interviewed recently about how to be more resilient during troubling times. So we'll put that in the show notes somewhere if somebody wants to see that. But on top of that, you have to understand like, what's the next level is the mindset gap, there is the emotional clarity gap there. And you have to assess where you are. And only once you assess where you are, honestly, you can go ahead to the next step. The next type of this be like, Well, how do I fix that? How do I dress it?

Dr. Emil 22:47
Yeah, yeah. And you know, as we discussed, a lot of people who come to us already have the first couple of levels nailed down. But yeah, for sure, have that conversation with yourself, figure out if it is something else? And then start removing that Hambrick.

Itamar Marani 23:04
Yeah, like simple theory of constraints, figure out what the constraint is. Is it a skill set? Is it a character trait that you need to embody, need to develop? Is it a mindset issue, if we don't know how to frame certain situations, and you go into panic where you shouldn't be panicking, and you don't see the opportunity and things? Or is it an emotional issue that's causing you to not be able to see things clearly and act in a way that you want to act? That's getting to where your subconscious is just taking control, not allowing you to control your fate?

Dr. Emil 23:29
Awesome. Well, I think, unless there are any parting notes, it sounds like we wrap up this time. And next time we go deeper into how to once you're you've kind of had that conversation once you're at a certain level. What's next?

Itamar Marani 23:46
Yeah, so we're basically that I want to add one more thing, what we're going to be doing in the what's next episode, it's going to require courage. It's going to require an honest look inside and some honest work. So a little bit of a prompt to give you some motivation to do that, is to ask yourself a couple questions. First, like we just said, Honestly, assess if you need more skill, or if you need more character traits, or what's going on there. Then ask yourself, what is it costing you do not have these things, the skill set or the mindset or the emotional clarity and then decide if you want to do something about it. And if you want to do something about it, because you said enough's enough, and today's the day I'm not going to keep having this in my life. Then listen to the next episode, because we're gonna have some fire for you.

Dr. Emil 24:33
There we go. Let's leave it at that and we will catch you guys next time with how to approach this.