How Do You Keep the Faith While Waiting?

This week's question from “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

How do you keep a belief when it seems like nothing is happening?

For example, I’ve been trying to find opportunities to expand my social media network. It’s been quiet for four days. My intuition told me, “speak only what deserves to be spoken”. Then on that day, after being silent, with nothing going on—out of nowhere, I got a free VIP ticket to a social media marketing event.

During that in-between period of waiting, I was anxious and wondering if it was working. How do you keep that belief anyway?

Consider the Law of Gender, which is one of the seven universal laws. This law states that there’s a gestation period for everything.

For most physical things, we understand what the gestation period is, because it’s scientific. For example, we know that a baby takes nine months to develop after conception.

But with ideas, we don’t really know
how long something will take.

What we do know is…

Any image you consistently hold on the screen of your mind MUST manifest into physical form in your life…period. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it. It’s an absolute.

This requires you to believe something beyond the idea of chance, luck, or, “This can’t happen for me.” You must hold a higher belief for yourself.

Also, you have to “condition” your desire. Don’t take your desire for granted. It doesn’t just automatically stay there. It can go up and down. It can experience trauma, in a way.

Things can go haywire in our life, and we can forget about our desire. Or we might make a mistake and have to focus on fixing it instead of our desire.

We have to take care of our desire, as if it were a small child.

It needs a lot of attention. It needs to be fueled, acknowledged. You need to make sure it stays up in front of you every day.

You can verbalize or write down the “why” behind what you’re doing, and what you truly want—so that you’re consistently reminding yourself:

“This is why I’m going after the thing that I want. This is why I’m working, making sacrifices, changing, learning, growing.”

You have to keep it up in front of you.

Keep it focused on the screen of your mind.

Then from there, it’s just about discipline, which in its Latin root, means “the disciple of.” Discipline comes from the root of the word, “student.” Understand that everything is about learning and growing.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 2 ways we can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Each week, we drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in our Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!

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Will I Have My Core Wound Forever?

This week's question from “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

On one of the morning Huddles, I heard David say, “The core wound pattern will always stay.” I really gave that some thought. I also thought about the hero’s journey where you can completely disassociate yourself from being a victim.

Can’t you renew your mind and make a decision to be something totally different than your core wound? That pattern doesn’t have to follow you the rest of your life, does it?

A pattern and a core wound are different things. You can absolutely change the patterns. But the core wound is part of who you are.

The more you challenge your core wound, the quieter it gets. It never fully goes away. It’s always sitting in the background, waiting.

But yes, you can make any changes you want.

You can reinvent yourself completely.

Part of this is understanding that the core wound isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can hold us back, yes—but we can also overcome it. Your core wound is always telling you what you can’t be. But you also have your conscious mind and your desire pushing you forward.

That’s part of how you gain confidence. You grow strength and begin to trust who you are at a soul level by continually challenging that core wound.

If you want to create a new version of yourself, a new person, a new iteration of who you are—then you can absolutely do that.

You can absolutely reprogram your pattern.

But the core wound is different than a pattern.

If God is good all the time, then God is good all the time. That means there’s a gift in everything—which means there’s a gift in your core wound as well.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 2 ways we can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Each week, we drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships. 
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in our Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!

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How Do I Empower My Team to “Figure It Out”?

This week's question from “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

I’m feeling overwhelmed, because there are many demands on my time. I’ve realized my team is still heavily relying on me for answers. They ask me lots of questions and want me to check over everything.

I want to empower them, so that they can just go for it and, and let them make mistakes. But I worry that some of their mistakes might impact my business. So, I have to weigh this. How do I transition them over to being empowered, so that I can free up my time and keep growing our business?

Stop solving their problems for them.

With every question they ask you, your response back to them should be, “What do you suggest?”

If they’re bringing you multiple ideas, ask, “Which idea would you fight for?”

You have to stop being the savior. Stop being the one who solves all the problems.

There’s a really great book called The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey . It’s about how people love to pass the “monkey” (the problem) onto the manager. They come to you with their problem. Then all of a sudden, it’s not their problem anymore—it’s your problem. Now you’re bogged down in everyone else’s problems when they’re perfectly capable of solving those problems themselves.

This really relies on how you respond. If you find that your team is asking the same question over and over again, then that’s a different conversation.

When you empower your team to make decisions, they WILL make mistakes that impact the business. They’re going to, no matter what.

That has to be okay, because no matter what happens—you know that the business is going to be okay.

The idea is that they understand that you trust them to make the decision that’s in the best interest of the company, and that they’ve demonstrated they have the ability to do that.

It’s like you’re telling them, “It’s okay for you to make a decision. It’s okay for you to make a mistake. It’s better for you to make a decision that ends in a mistake than it is for you to constantly pull me in and feel like you need me for every single decision that’s being made.”

You’re going to love The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey. Get that book right away.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways we can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Each week, we drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in our Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join us at The Art of Success Summit! This October, We are getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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How Do I Get Control of My Calendar?

This week's question from “Ask Us Anything” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

I’ve let my calendar get the best of me. My to-do tasks get filled in around whatever open space I have. I get drawn into answering emails that seem important in the moment, but they’re not. How can I anchor my day?

How do you and David manage your calendars? Do you have a to-do list? Do you segment your day, based on what you’re doing that day?

First of all, you’re not a victim to your calendar. You create your calendar. You’re in control of it.

You can create your days however you want to create them.

David and I manage our calendars differently, in a way that suits our personalities. We time-block some things, and don’t time-block other things.

For David, Mondays are usually podcast recordings and research days. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are TEM90 and coaching calls. Thursdays and Fridays, we schedule our VIP days, our custom VIP days, or any travel.

For me, it’s a bit more complicated, because I have more small things that I do on a daily basis.

What I’m hearing in your question is that you’ve got a real problem keeping boundaries around your calendar, and with what you say you’re going to do.

With email, you have to decide when you’re going to answer email. That’s all that matters. I don’t care if something seems urgent—it’s not.

There’s nothing that can’t wait 90 minutes, 2 hours, or even 3 hours. You don’t need to respond.

It’s a trick of your subconscious mind designed to completely distract you and keep you from doing the things you say you’re going to do.

That just takes discipline. Tell yourself, “I’m going to answer my email at this time of day and this time of day—and that’s enough.”

It always is enough. There’s nothing that can’t wait.

If you have a team and something urgent pops up, or something’s bleeding or on fire, then give your team access to you through text, so they can message you in case of emergencies, rather than email you. That will take care of the need to constantly check email.

You can also set up clear boundaries with your clients. If you email me or David on Friday, you won’t get an answer until after the weekend, because there’s so much going on on Friday.

Part of that is communicating boundaries with your clients about when they can expect a response from you.

Everything that goes into your calendar should be purposeful, and reverse-engineered from where you want to go.

The “big rocks” go on my calendar first—travel, big family events, holidays, vacations.

Next, any midsized things (like trainings) go on the calendar.

Finally, I break each of those down into what needs to happen to get to those end results. I put those tasks on my calendar.

Everything I do is reverse-engineered from where I want us to be, by when.

I do have a to do list. (It helps keep my brain straight.) I usually only have three things on it that I absolutely must get done that day.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways we can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Each week, we drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in our Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join us at The Art of Success Summit! This October, We are getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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Resistance Around Hiring Someone

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

I’m a nutritionist and I see clients for several hours each day. There are certain things I need to do to grow my business, but if I’m still the practitioner, I have limited time. Plus, there’s self-care—eating lunch, working out, etc. If I’m working, sitting in the office all day, it feels less healthy. I know I need leverage.

Still, I’m having resistance around hiring someone. Twenty years ago, I managed employees, and had good and tough experiences. Maybe I’m scared to hire someone. What if I bring a ton of drama into my life by hiring someone, and it goes south? Do we all go through that fear of hiring people?

Neagle Code Answer

I don’t think that’s the right question. It doesn’t really matter if everyone goes through that.

What matters is that you make the most use of your time possible.

I’d recommend 3 things:

1) For 1 week, keep a notebook next to you, and write down every single thing you do each day. This will show you where your time is being spent.

Track all the $10/hour tasks that you do, like managing your calendar, sending clients reminders, setting things up on your computer. That’s all stuff you shouldn’t be doing, because it’s not the best use of your time. Those tasks don’t require your skill level or your brilliance.

You could easily pay someone to do $10/hr tasks for you.

If you take those off your plate, how much MORE you could
do—both on your business and in servicing your clients?

2) Look at how many times a day do you say the same thing, or teach the same thing to people?

If you’re repeating yourself over and over again, start to record those things, so you can send clients the recordings. Begin to build a bank of trainings, so that you can inform them, rather than repeating yourself.

3) When you’re looking to hire someone, put them through a process that will give you key indicators of what they’ll do for you.

It’s actually easy to spot people who are high-drama early on in the hiring process.

If I ask, “Hey, are you willing to do a test project?” Instead of a simple yes or no response, they’ll send me, “Yes, I’d love to. But I have this going on Saturday, and I have this on Sunday. So I won’t be able to get it to you until Monday afternoon, but maybe then it might be Tuesday…”

You can get an idea that this person won’t be a good fit.

Get as much information as you can from someone before you even bring them in for an interview.

You HAVE to hire if you’re going to scale. It’s required.

Look at your role mathematically. It’s like a formula. There’s only so much time in the day. You want to spend most of your time doing high-dollar tasks. Offload the low-dollar tasks to someone else, because mathematically you’ll make more money.

The first hire should be an assistant, even if it's only for a couple hours a day.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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How Do I Find My ‘Definite Purpose’ in Life?

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

Hi David,

My question is around goal setting and ‘need versus want.’ I’ve been using Napoleon Hill’s mantra every morning: “I know I have the ability to achieve the object of my definite purpose in life. Therefore, I demand of myself persistent, continuous action towards its attainment. And I, here, now, promise to render such action.”

I love that and have been analyzing what it means. I get stuck at the part that says “definite purpose in life.” That sounds so grandiose and final. I have financial and personal goals… but how do I find my “definite purpose”? Do I need to have a big enough “why” behind the work I’m doing as an entrepreneur?

Neagle Code Answer

What I’m going to tell you is very important. You’ve got to find out what inspires you about what you do. And you’ve got to be 100% honest about it, no matter what it is.

Here’s an example. I have a rockstar client who went over two million, really quickly.

Then afterwards… she started screwing around with writing her purpose out on paper. She wanted to say, “I’m doing all of this for my children.”

And I said, “Why would you change your purpose?”

She felt guilty that her children weren’t in her purpose.

I was like, “If they’re not in there, then they’re not in there. It’s not that you’re ignoring your kids. But you have to be honest with yourself about what turns you on about what you do.”

What turns her on is being seen, being public, being on the world stage, and doing what she does.

“If you take that away and allow yourself to feel guilty—then say you’re doing this all for your kids—you’re going to crash your business,” I told her.

It doesn’t matter what your purpose is,
as long as you’re honest about it.

Ask yourself: “What do I absolutely love about what I do, more than anything else?”

If it’s helping people, great. If it’s building a team, great. If it’s having enough money to buy a Ferrari… buy a house… provide for your family… great.

Whatever it is—whatever gets you out of bed in the morning that excites you about what you do—THAT’S the purpose you need to focus on. At least for now.

If you feel guilt or shame around it, remember:

Whenever you experience guilt and shame, understand that’s not your voice talking to you. That’s the voice of the person who installed guilt and shame into your subconscious mind (usually a parent).

You need to tell that person to get the flying f@&% out of your head. Because it’s not you.

We’re not born with guilt or shame. Someone put it into our mind.

So, if you start feeling guilty about something, or you start feeling shame, you have to ask yourself, “Whose voice is that in my head?”

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This October, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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How Do You Find Your Life’s Purpose?

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

Hi David,

What would you tell someone who is trying to figure out their purpose in life?

Neagle Code Answer

The first thing for a person to understand is that they’re always in their purpose.

The second thing is that they should get comfortable answering the question, “What do I want?”

There’s no living thing on this planet that is confused about its purpose other than human beings. The only reason we’re confused about it is because our entire life, we’ve been told we can’t have it—in one way or another, either directly or indirectly.

The idea is to get to the place where you’re giving yourself permission and you don’t feel guilt or shame by what you really want. Then start following that.

If a person says they don’t know what they want—that’s not true. They DO know. They’re just not being honest.

I’ve never met anybody who doesn’t know what they want.

Get them to a place where they feel safe enough to share, so that they’ll tell you what they want.

The other direction I’ll give to people is this:

What do you think about in your secret thoughts?—the thoughts you don’t tell anybody about?

Because I guarantee you, they’re thinking about something.

They either think they can’t have it, they shouldn’t have it, or they have guilt or shame around wanting it.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! Next week, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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Is Self-Judgment Helpful?

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

Hi David,

My question is around self-judgment. I really resonate with the idea of accepting who you are and what you’ve done in the past.

However, this idea bothers me bit. There are certain standards I want to set for different things in my life. How do I maintain these certain standards if I’m not judging myself? When is self-judgment appropriate?

Neagle Code Answer

Self-judgment isn’t ever appropriate. It does nothing.

You can look at yourself critically and say, “Here are things about me that need to be fixed, that I need to work on, that I can get better at.”

But to feel guilt or shame—or to make yourself a bad person because of it—that’s self-abuse.

You want to judge the result or outcome, not you.

If I get a result that I don’t want, I say, “Okay, what’s the standard that I want to create for myself to get a different result?”

I don’t judge myself as “bad” because of it.

Here’s the truth. If you don’t get the result you want—it’s either due to ignorance, or it’s due to a program you picked up when you were a kid. That’s all it is.

You can get the correct information so that you’re no longer ignorant. AND you can change your internal program, so that you’re no longer held back by your old belief system. (With both of these, it helps to work with a coach who’s been where you want to be.)

There doesn’t have to be any self-judgment around it at all.

Nobody ever felt better by making themselves feel bad.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! This month, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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Should I Give My Team a Raise?

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

Hi David,

I have a large team, and I’m making my best efforts to pay everyone at the upper range of their pay scale for each position. However, people are constantly asking for a raise. This triggers a reaction in me and fear that if I don’t give them what they’re asking for, they’ll leave.

I feel guilt that I can’t pay everybody double or even triple what I’m paying them. How do I handle this?

Neagle Code Answer

First off, I think it’s great that they’re asking for a raise. I want people who will ask for a raise, because that generally shows that they want to improve.

When someone asks for a raise, consider 2 things—their performance, and what you’re willing to pay around the scale for that job.

Ask yourself:

  1. Does the employee deserve a raise (regardless of whether they’re at the top of pay scale or not)?
  2. Where do you want to draw a line with how much you pay people?

That’s a personal decision and a business decision.

Secondly, everybody can be replaced. Don’t ever put it in your mind that you have somebody who can’t be replaced. Otherwise you’ll back yourself into a corner.

Some people are more difficult to replace than others, which may require that you pay them a bit more if you feel that they—and their position—are worth it.

If someone is in a position where you’re not going to pay any more, tell them that upfront. Say, “Listen, you’re already at top of the pay scale. The only way you’re going to get a raise is if the scale increases.”

Is there a place for advancement for that person?

It’s like knowing what their hopes and dreams are, and seeing if that’s a match for your company.

If there’s no advancement possible for them, then you need to let them know. You can say, “If a promotion is not what you’re looking for, and if you don’t want to advance in the company, then I completely understand if you want to move on.”

That’s part of owning a business—knowing that some people aren’t meant to stay in that position for the rest of their life, and you’ll have to replace them.

You’re also looking at individual performance data for the person and their position.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! In April 2022, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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How Do I Handle My Character Being Attacked?

This week's question from my portal “The Neagle Code: Directions for Life” comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous.

Neagle Code Question

Hi David,

Someone has viciously attacked my character, and he doesn’t even know me at all.

I know this isn’t a business question. But if you’re in business, this happens a lot, right? You go out there, write books, and have a ton of exposure to other people. How do you create a strategy to be able to deal with this? I’ve read and reread the harsh attack about me a couple times. I can’t un-read it. How do you handle it?

Neagle Code Answer

You ignore it. You don’t let it into your head.

If you’re in business, it’s absolutely going to happen.

Here’s the first thing. From a healthy perspective, ask yourself, “Is anything this person said true?” Because sometimes we need negative criticism to wake us up about things.

If it’s all BS, then just say, “This is BS. I reject it.” You can reject it with your conscious mind.

Just don’t get emotional about it.

He’s obviously projecting onto you. Just completely let it go. Take it as a great lesson—-the bigger you get in life, the more people you’re going to be exposed to.

That’s just the way that it is.

I don’t pay any attention to any of the negative crap I get online. I don’t get much, but I do get some, and I just don’t pay attention to it.

I know who I am.

I have very trusted people around me who will tell me when I’m messing up, every time. I trust them to tell me that.

Here’s the other thing—when somebody does something like that in a non-productive way (which is exactly what this sounds like), you know it’s projection.

You know it’s projection because it’s not productive. If someone wanted to give you healthy criticism about something, they’d do it in a healthy way.

When they do it in a mean way or a nasty way, they’re projecting their own internal image onto somebody else. Everything he said to you is probably something that’s going on with him or somebody in his own life.

P.S. Whenever you're ready… here are 3 ways I can help you grow YOUR business:

  • Listen to The Successful Mind Podcast. Three times per week I drop cutting edge information and strategies relating to success mindset, leadership, wealth creation, and relationships.
  • Join other like-minded small business owners in my Transformation Facebook Group! Allow us to be a place to share ideas, get advice, and meet others who value truth and growth!
  • Join me at The Art of Success Summit! In April 2022, I'm getting a group of amazing business owners together for 3 days to work on exponentially growing their business.

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