Show notes
We'll say things like, "oh man, there's just so much going on. I'm so busy. I'm just busy, busy, busy every day." When you're saying that sort of thing, it's a strong indication that you've got a bunch of unfinished business. You've got open loops, and maybe you're not capturing it.
David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I will be discussing the topic of no more unfinished business. Welcome back, Kevin.
Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you been?
David: Been doing great. And you?
Kevin: Good, good. So unfinished business. What do you mean when you say that?
David: Well, I learned this somewhere, a number of years ago, and when I first heard, I was like, "oh man, this is me."
They were talking about the fact that in business there are starters and there are finishers. And very often they're not the same person. Right? There are some people who are very good at starting projects and other people who are very good at finishing them. A lot of entrepreneurs, and some salespeople as well, are very good at starting projects.
We're all excited and we're very happy to dive in, and then we tend to lose interest as we go.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: And what that creates is a lot of unfinished things all around. And when you've got these unfinished things, they weigh on you. Right?
And so when I talk about the idea of no more unfinished business, what I'm saying is that we should look at the things that are out there, that are stuck in the back of our minds. It's like, "I know I need to do that. I know I need to finish it. I haven't done it yet, but I don't feel like it," or whatever it is that's keeping us from getting it done.
Kevin: Is it possible that you need to look at it and say were these things really that important in the first place?
David: That's a great way to approach it. Right? Because there are things you just say, you know what? I started that, but no, that's not worthwhile.
Kevin: There's a reason I didn't finish it. Yeah.
David: Exactly. And it's good to eliminate that sort of thing. Whenever you're able to do that. If there's something that you're working on, you decide, look, this is not generating the results I'm looking for.
Yes. Just make sure that you don't cancel it because you don't feel like doing it, right? You got to cancel it for the right reasons. If you're going to eliminate it, make sure that you evaluated it first.
One of the things that I've talked about a lot in terms of just the things that we do in our projects is looking at things, I refer to it as the RADD method, RADD.
It stands for Remove, Automate, Delegate, or Do. Okay, so we start with the R. Remove.
And there's a reason these are actually in this order, which I'd nearly forgotten. But the reason is that if you do it in this order, you're going to end up a lot better off. If you start by removing the things that don't have to be done, then wow, that's a big relief.
You're able to, essentially,
Kevin: Your list just got smaller. Yeah, yeah.
David: Yeah. You just eliminate it before it even becomes a problem, so that's the first step. You basically remove it.
Second step is if you can automate it, right? If it's something that can be automated, then you don't have to do it. You don't have to have anyone else do it, and it will happen automatically going forward.
So simple things like email autoresponders can allow you to create responses to something once and then have them happen again and again and again. So anything that can be automated, ideally should be automated.
Third step is delegating. Can I delegate this to someone else? Can I delegate it to someone else in my organization? To a virtual assistant? Can somebody else do this effectively?
And then the fourth one the second D is Do it. Then you actually do it. And if you go through this in that order, you remove things first. You automate them second, you delegate them third, then you're only left with having to do it.
If you haven't been able to remove it, automate it, or delegate it.
Kevin: Right.
David: So that tends to work really well. Now, in terms of being in a situation where you don't want unfinished business, if you look at that sort of model and say, okay, this is what I'll do.
I'll remove the unnecessary stuff first. Automate the things I can. I'll delegate what I can, and then eventually I'll do it. Then you should have fewer or ideally no more unfinished business on your plate.
Kevin: Do you find that businesses and business owners that have a ton of unfinished business sort of on the plate that it drains their energy?
David: I know it drains mine, when I have stuff on my plate.
Kevin: Yeah, it almost becomes overwhelming, right? Like you just don't even know where to start and you lose some momentum, you lose some drive.
David: It's awful. And I think particularly for salespeople, when you've got a bunch of people out there who are in decision mode, they're trying to decide if they're a yes or a no, and they drag it on for weeks, months, or years. That is just crazy.
Are you familiar with the term open loops in psychology?
Kevin: Yes.
David: It's such an important concept and for those who are watching who aren't familiar with this topic, the idea of open loops in psychology, goes back to the idea like if you're in a restaurant and a waiter or a waitress comes over and takes your order and they're not writing anything down and you're thinking, how are they going to remember this?
There's this thing in psychology where people tend to be able to remember things short term for as long as it's necessary to remember them, right? So if you come back three weeks later, the likelihood of that person remembering your order, unless you've ordered it a dozen times, is very low, right? They don't hang onto it forever.
But this is how things work, generally, in our minds, is that we tend to be thinking about the things that are unfinished. Like if you've got unfinished business, it's going to gnaw at you. That's what I take away from the idea of open loops.
If you've got open loops, it's going to gnaw at you. It's going to drive you crazy.
So the idea of having no more unfinished business, in your business, goes back to that idea. You'll be less stressed and you'll feel better, you'll be able to get more done when you're able to accomplish this.
So by looking at how can I do this, how can I close as many open loops as possible? It just liberates you In your business.
Kevin: You mentioned sales teams. How do unfinished tasks impact the momentum or the confidence of a sales team?
David: It impacts them a lot. And I know that for a lot of years, in sales, what I would do is if somebody was even potential, if they were like, yeah, I'd really like to do it, but I'm not quite sure when or what. I mean, I would just continue to follow up again and again and again and again over weeks, months.
And a lot of times people are just nice and they just don't want to tell you no, but that's not being nice. That's really not nice at all. It's about the worst thing they can do.
Kevin: Yeah.
David: So one of the things that I started doing in my own sales career is that I realized when somebody starts going off in that direction, where they start out very sure and very confident and very certain, and they sound like everything is ideal and perfect, but then they get to a point and they start going the other way.
Yeah. Well, I, no, I'd really like to do it. Now's not a really good time, but you know, Hey, I'll get back to you. I'll get back to you soon. In my head I'm going, this is done, right? Now, it may not be done. But it's done on my end, right?
I'm not going to keep that as an open loop thinking, "oh, maybe that person's going to come back." And maybe they will, and you leave the door open, I'm not saying you say, "well, that's it. No soup for you." We're not doing that, right?
We're not taking that approach, but we are saying, at least internally, we're saying, okay, I'm not going to follow up with this person, necessarily. I may keep them in terms of getting ongoing emails or things like that.
I may check in or may have someone else check in with them every now and then. But I'm not looking at this as being a deal that's going to get done, unless something significantly changes.
So you leave the door open, but if they come back six months or a year later, things are probably going to be entirely different anyway, right?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
David: Somebody tells you they want to buy something and then they come back six months later? Maybe the pricing has gone up. I might not even be offering it anymore. Maybe things have changed. So a lot can happen.
Kevin: Maybe it's discontinued. Yeah. Who knows?
David: So I feel like leaving open loops, even for prospects, is not a great idea. To let them know, "okay, well it sounds like you're not ready to move forward at this point. If you'd like to reach out, at your convenience, that's fine to do that. At this point, I won't follow up with you unless you think you'd like me to call you at a certain point in time.
And then you decide whether or not it makes sense for you to call them at that certain point in time, because it doesn't always make sense to do that.
Kevin: We've all been guilty of what we're talking about today. I think we've all have had a lot of unfinished business, a lot on our to-do list. I can definitely think of times where I have maybe finished something imperfectly just so that I can get it off my plate.
What do you feel about that? Like, is it important from a psychological standpoint to make sure it's done right the first time? Or can you kind of get through it and still feel like you've accomplished something?
David: Yeah,