10 Lessons Learned For 2023

10 Lessons Learned For 2023

I am going to be a massive problem for 2024.

Everything is already in motion. As part of my annual tradition, I'd like to share with you the 10 valuable lessons I've gleaned from the experiences of 2023. It's a concise read, taking about five minutes of your time.

1. Simplification

We are making things way too complicated. We are bombarding ourselves with so many emails, texts, etc for the next sale. We have way too much clutter. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked into people’s houses, and it looks like a hoarder plus ten. Cut down on everything. I unsubscribed from hundreds of emails, texts, and calls and it is a world of a difference. I do not feel any stress. With getting things done, do not make it harder than it is. Just go get it done. Focus on one task, and then move on to the next. None of this let’s try and multitask and get 10 things done at the same time. When I was in corporate, I had a boss who loved to ensure we had five major projects going at the same time. How on earth can you efficiently complete one? There is no way. Stop making things more complicated than they are. We have added too much “grey” areas in our lives. It is either right or wrong. Yes or no. Up or down. Right or left. Once you simplify things, you will feel so much better.

2. Set Outcomes, Not Goals

Goals in my opinion are overrated and outdated. Everyone sets goals and then never follows through. You know why? A goal is so uninspiring. I remember my corporate days where we had 10 plus goals, and they were so uninspiring. I tried to make them spicy, and my managers would not go for it. No Joe, you must write the goal this way. Goals are also easy to break. They also allow for excuses to come into play. We can say….well I did not achieve my goal because of the weather or the election.

Outcomes are inspiring. When you set an outcome, things become very clear. An outcome is exactly what you want. You get specific with it. You know the end result. You start with the end in mind, and then you work backwards. Then you can reverse engineer it and figure out how you need to get to that outcome. Drop the goals and live for the outcomes!

3. Authenticity Is Your Super Power

So many of you are trying to be something you are not. You are trying to appease people to like you. You then say and do things to fit in. With me, I am the same online and in my personal life. I am not a fake online personality. People who know me say I am exactly the same wacky person online and in person. That is true authenticity when you are truly YOU. I have been challenged this year to act a certain way or I have been told do not put out that kind of content. BS! I am me and that is that. That is why I am at peace. I know who I am and what I stand for. When you get to that level, life is so much more fun and enjoyable. The freedom you experience when you do not put on any filters or facades is truly amazing.

4. Add More Realistic Positivity In The World

The world right now is so negative and bleak. People are just not happy. People are angry. The world needs people to be more positive. I am not talking about the bs rah rah fake stuff. I am talking about really helping people for the better. Help your neighbors out. Hold the door more. Smile at people more. Say hello to strangers. Do something nice for someone. Do it without expecting something in return. Just show up and add a dose of positive energy daily and this world changes for the better. The fake positive stuff out there is what is making people miserable. No one has their life fully together. We are all a work in progress. If we simply step up and help people without expecting anything in return, we will enrich all of our lives more and truly change the current climate of negativity.

5. Your Network Is Truly Your Net Worth

As you grow in whatever you are doing, you must expand your network. I do not mean go have coffee meetings and BS about nothing each time. I mean true networking. If you run a business, you need new customers to continue to grow your business. Maybe you need some technical help. When you go out and build your network with people who have been successful, talk to those people about how you can add value to each other and help each business grow. Go out and find people who have been successful and network with them. When you are around successful people, you are forced to level up. You emulate those people around you. Take a long hard look at your network and see if it serves you or not.

6. Focus Your Energy More Inward

Right now, we all need to be focused on our own selves inwardly. We are so consumed with what everyone else is doing that it makes us angry when we see others having success. Or, when someone does something, we gossip and gossip about it. Think about how much time you waste on those activities. Think about how much energy is drained from those activities. Focus inward on your mindset. Learn not to worry and think about all the other stuff that is going on. Be aware of it, but do not put the emphasis on it. The most successful people I know have developed this habit of keeping the focus inward on their mindset, and it allows them to overcome any storm.

7. Its Harmony Not Balance

The whole “work life balance” or balance of my life has run its course. I used to believe in trying to have a work life balance. You cannot because balancing takes so much thought. Think about a scale and you are constantly juggling things and tipping the scale. Your focus is on trying to not tip it the wrong way. You see?? Your mindset is out of whack. You will be stressed trying to “balance.” When you use the word “harmony,” life becomes amazing. Harmony is being where you need to be at and being fully present. If you have to be at the office working a long week, you do it. If you have more family things one week, you do them. You harmonize all of the tasks and objectives. It is more proactive being in harmony versus balance which is more reactive. Harmony allows you to plan out your time accordingly. When you put harmony in place, you will instinctively know where you need to be. Life is all about harmony, not balance!

8. Be Omnipresent And Everywhere

As this picture shows, I am planning to show up everywhere in 2024. Like me or not, I am going to be everywhere I can be. It hit me last year and earlier this year. I was in two stores and two different people came up to me and said something like this: “I know you. You are familiar to me. You do those funny videos and do mortgages and positive charging videos.” BINGO!!! When you have a business, you need to make the most noise and be present everywhere. Online, offline, in public, at home. People need to see and want you. Many of you know who Josh Altman is from the hit TV show Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles. I will bet everything that many of you do not know the company he works for unless you are in the same industry. It is about your personal brand. People do business with people they like. People buy Tesla vehicles mostly because of Elon. Look at every successful company and you will see a person at the top of that brand. So start showing up! Don’t be afraid. You must bang the drum the loudest to earn the attention. There are so many more people in the world today that everything is super competitive. You have to gain the attention!!! You do that when you keep showing up every day and everywhere you can.

9. Create More Content Instead Of Consuming More

If I were to look at many people’s screen time, I guarantee its close to five hours a day now. Easily! Many surveys have indicated similar statistics. At the time you are on your phone, you are consuming, but you are consuming way too much. That is why many people are confused. So many experts out there are telling us one way versus another expert saying to do it this way. It is ok to consume content, but you need to create content, even non social media content. The content I mean is content with your family. Fun time. Talk time. Whatever it is, create that content with them. And if you have businesses, people are starving to learn about you and your uniqueness. So go out there and create. The world will be a better place when people can create more things, have more honest dialog, and enjoy the time talking about things.

10. Patience

Being patient was not something I was in my life. I still struggle with it. I do not like traffic jams, long lines waiting, and waiting for things to happen. Over the past year, I have realized that when you are building a business and even developing your family, you must be patient. Results do not usually happen overnight. Sometimes they take years. Two years ago, when I dedicated myself to putting out consistent content every day multiple times a day, I stayed laser focused and did not look at the results and my numbers every day. There were months where I had no views and likes to some of my content. I learned that you need to be consistent and have the patience to understand it takes time to build anything. If you are not patient, you are going to do things that will not work and will ultimately fail. Many of the big successes you see took years to fulfill. You must be patience and do not rush things.