Cameron Herold

Working hard is kind of a very kind of 1970s Protestant work ethic, right? Work hard, keep your nose to the grindstone.

Working hard is kind of a very kind of 1970s Protestant work ethic, right? Work hard, keep your nose to the grindstone.

Instead of saying work smart, find the cheat sheets, find the hacks, find the shortcuts, find, as two of my friends Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy wrote in their book, Who Not How?, find the people that know how to do that so that you can get them plugged in so that they can actually get your how. But this whole work harder, work harder, work harder doesn't scale any company.

Instead of saying work smart, find the cheat sheets, find the hacks, find the shortcuts, find, as two of my friends Dan Sullivan and Ben Hardy wrote in their book, Who Not How?, find the people that know how to do that so that you can get them plugged in so that they can actually get your how. But this whole work harder, work harder, work harder doesn't scale any company.

Even Elon Musk said the other day, and I thought this was really insightful, if you don't know the one big thing, the one big problem facing your company today, you're the problem. And if leaders are so focused on busy, right? Jim Collins in the book Good to Great said it's about working on the critical few things versus the important many things.

Even Elon Musk said the other day, and I thought this was really insightful, if you don't know the one big thing, the one big problem facing your company today, you're the problem. And if leaders are so focused on busy, right? Jim Collins in the book Good to Great said it's about working on the critical few things versus the important many things.

Being busy doesn't necessarily mean being productive. Working hard doesn't necessarily get you the same results of working smart. Taking pause and saying, maybe I can sharpen the saw. Maybe I can work on the flywheel approach. Maybe I can get a little more focused. Maybe I can say no to 80% of our projects that aren't driving gross revenue.

Being busy doesn't necessarily mean being productive. Working hard doesn't necessarily get you the same results of working smart. Taking pause and saying, maybe I can sharpen the saw. Maybe I can work on the flywheel approach. Maybe I can get a little more focused. Maybe I can say no to 80% of our projects that aren't driving gross revenue.

I worked with a CEO in Austria a few years ago that I was coaching. They've got a... But a $60 million company, they had 960 outstanding customer service requests. And she was really nervous because they were going to go from four full-time people to eight in customer service over the next 12 months because they were doubling the company.

I worked with a CEO in Austria a few years ago that I was coaching. They've got a... But a $60 million company, they had 960 outstanding customer service requests. And she was really nervous because they were going to go from four full-time people to eight in customer service over the next 12 months because they were doubling the company.

And I said, I want you to set a goal that you're going to go from four full-time people to one. She goes, that could never happen. I'm like, well, why don't we look at what all the customer service requests are? 90% of them were the same seven problems. So we spent 50 grand and we fixed five of the seven problems, spent another hundred grand and fixed the other two.

And I said, I want you to set a goal that you're going to go from four full-time people to one. She goes, that could never happen. I'm like, well, why don't we look at what all the customer service requests are? 90% of them were the same seven problems. So we spent 50 grand and we fixed five of the seven problems, spent another hundred grand and fixed the other two.

She was spending $200,000 a year for four people. She went from four down to one. So she's now saving $150,000 a year. And instead of having 900 outstanding requests, they were down to 30. So their business got simpler. Their customers were happier, but they spent time on the right stuff instead of just working harder.

She was spending $200,000 a year for four people. She went from four down to one. So she's now saving $150,000 a year. And instead of having 900 outstanding requests, they were down to 30. So their business got simpler. Their customers were happier, but they spent time on the right stuff instead of just working harder.

Most companies would just go out and hire more people and hire more people and hire more people instead of fixing the problem, right? At the end of the day, we only have a customer service department because of four reasons. Either our customer was overset with expectations, right? We promised them more than we can deliver.

Most companies would just go out and hire more people and hire more people and hire more people instead of fixing the problem, right? At the end of the day, we only have a customer service department because of four reasons. Either our customer was overset with expectations, right? We promised them more than we can deliver.

The product sucks, our service sucks, or the FAQs on the website aren't clean enough and clear enough for people to solve their own problem. If you can actually make your FAQs on your website, two sentences each in 20 point font and very visible with no phone number and no email address, people will solve their problem.

The product sucks, our service sucks, or the FAQs on the website aren't clean enough and clear enough for people to solve their own problem. If you can actually make your FAQs on your website, two sentences each in 20 point font and very visible with no phone number and no email address, people will solve their problem.

If you fix the actual problem, if you fix the actual product, like I had a customer that I was coaching and they told all their clients, phone us 24 hours a day, here's our cell number. I'm like, that's terrible. They're like, no, it's great. We're giving them 24. I'm like, you're not going to pick up the phone if you're sleeping.

If you fix the actual problem, if you fix the actual product, like I had a customer that I was coaching and they told all their clients, phone us 24 hours a day, here's our cell number. I'm like, that's terrible. They're like, no, it's great. We're giving them 24. I'm like, you're not going to pick up the phone if you're sleeping.