“We’ve used a lot of consultants in the past who said, you need to do more of this, you need to do more of that…
And all of a sudden, you've got 1000 Things you need to improve, and you're overwhelmed.”
Julian was the classic high achiever who was actually underperforming.
He was already running a successful 7 figure SEO business, but he… and many others around him… knew that he was only scratching the surface.
The reality was that he was stuck. He just wasn’t clear on how to break through to the next level.
“The biggest obstacle was understanding what I need to fix because sometimes you're so close to yourself, you don't objectively see what you need to improve.
And that's the biggest obstacle because deep down you kind of know, that on a surface level day-to-day, you ignore the things that you need to actually work on.”
So he joined the Arena and we got to work.
Not on what he needed to do…
But on what he needed to STOP doing.
The thing is a lot of entrepreneurs are great at seeing opportunities… But it can be a double-edged sword.
They get caught up trying to do 15 different things at once and end up not seeing any results because of a lack of clarity.
Yes, shiny object syndrome is a real thing, but from my experience, most of the time it’s not the main issue.
You know what is?
People avoiding things that are emotionally hard.
Ask yourself this… What would most people instinctually avoid:
- Trying that new shiny thing that could be amazing… or… looking at what revenue stream they need to cut to make room for the more profitable ones.
- Giving an employee an extra task because “If they’re already here, let's utilize them!”... or… honestly asking themselves if their company is over-staffed with underperformers.
Most people avoid the latter questions. But not Julian. He decided not to.
He decided to because he made a choice to step up.
He realized he had a choice and the results followed.
“Last month, year on year, the revenue of the business was up 128%. Bearing in mind for the last 6 to 9 months up to that point, I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure things out.”
And mind you The revenue went up while the company went down from 70 mediocre employees to 50 high performers. He looked at the data, had the tough conversations, and did what needed to be done.
And profitability shot up as a result.
In his words:
“With your program, it's more about elimination and subtraction to the point where you don't need to do more, you just need to separate the vital few from the trivial many.
If you can do that, then everything becomes easier. For me, the biggest thing was always subtraction.
Up to that point in my whole career of running a business, I've always felt like:
“What do I need to do more of?”
And that was always my direction for recruitment… How do I learn more… How to publish more? How do I create more? How do I hire more people?
And that leads to a compounding problem of doing too much, being burnt out, and being very inefficient.
If you look at the top entrepreneurs and the most profitable businesses, they go the opposite way. It's all about elimination”
So you might think Julian is different, but if you look at yourself, maybe you are a little bit burnt out, perhaps overwhelmed, maybe holding yourself back and frustrated.
But the reality is that, like Julian, you always have a choice.
You can keep doing the same old things that even though you know aren’t good for you… feel familiar…
Or you can choose to step up and become the CEO you know you can be.
So the question you have to ask yourself is:
- How long has this been happening?
- How long have you felt overwhelmed and burnt out?
- And how long will you allow this to keep happening?
Julian made a decision to do something about it. That’s why his business keeps growing and becoming more profitable every month.
And while you can try to do this on your own here are his thoughts about The Arena:
“I recommend The Arena to any entrepreneur who's struggling with direction and really wants to challenge themselves and take things seriously to get to the next level.
You're gonna get very direct, no bullshit advice in a very intense environment. And that's the best way to learn new challenges.
Just do it now because otherwise you're gonna keep going in circles.”
Who dares wins,
Itamar
