Grow Without Hiring

[00:00:00] Ken: Have you ever worked all day but can't point to one thing that actually moved your business forward? Of course, you have tabs, open notifications, flying. You might even be checking off your to-do list, and yes, you feel productive. But productive does not equal ROI. Productive does not mean doing the hard work and that. Is the tax of staying plugged in. Offline mode isn't about moving overseas, living off the grid, or even sitting in the countryside and journaling next to a pond. It's about opting out of the noise that quietly takes your attention and ruins your judgment.
[00:00:51] Ken: Let's put it plainly and clearly the market and your world are not short of information. in [00:01:00] fact, you're drowning in it. It's not just a social feed anymore. It's not just Google and instant access to. The world's knowledge. AI changes daily and is almost impossible to keep up with. Macro policy Shifts now change regularly, and 99% of news brings you down, down, down,
[00:01:22] Ken: plus most of what passes in front of your eyes. Are new, shiny, but here's the actual truth. It's just recycled advice. It's a copy of a copy of a copy, of a bad copy.
[00:01:36] Ken: So here's the real problem, and I see this almost every day. You start tracking algorithm shifts like their weather patterns.
[00:01:45] Ken: And unfortunately, both are unpredictable. You chase short-term wins that feel productive, but don't compound. You stay glued to a constant stream of tactics, tools, and [00:02:00] takes. That were never built for your specific business or your business model, No, I'm not just bagging on you. I'm here to help. I'm here to help you realize that it looks like momentum, but it isn't. You are busy, but nothing. Meaningfully actually happens in your business.
[00:02:20] Ken: That's why in the immediate episode and conversation before this one, episode 30, which ironically and unplanned is called the Next 30 Days. I talked about things like declaring to do bankruptcy, going into offline mode and asking yourself questions like, what's out, what's noise? What's fantasy?
[00:02:41] Ken: And what I'm trying to do is get at this truth
[00:02:44] Ken: of why you're not seeing meaningful momentum. I'll put it plainly, busy is a socially accepted way to avoid deciding. Let that line sink in with you for a minute.
[00:02:59] Ken: Instead. [00:03:00] Offline mode is the state you enter. When you stop letting the internet decide what deserves your attention, it's where you stop reacting and start executing. Now, I'll say it this way, a lot of advice out there might actually work just not for you. It works if you're building a volume-based business or have a large audience.
[00:03:22] Ken: I've shared stats like this before, but I will reiterate it again, the biggest. Guys out there make 96 per year per follower. And that's why they have to have millions of people on social channels and on their email newsletters.
[00:03:39] Ken: So it looks like this post constantly create more things chase reach, but they are techniques. That sophisticated buyers ignore,
[00:03:50] Ken: Or put another way, it's the old throw spaghetti at the wall and see what actually sticks. But if you're building, and I know you are a high-end [00:04:00] consultancy, selling to founders, selling to executives, that same advice. It's a liability
[00:04:06] Ken: because you don't need dozens or hundreds of clients. You don't need nonstop output, and you don't need to be trending in the feed. You don't even need exotic backend systems. You just need a small number of the right conversations, which is why I have had so many episodes that show you how to do that. I,
[00:04:28] Ken: and what that means is just five to seven clients. It can put you at 20 to 50 K per month. I have the data. I know the data. It's different math and it's a different game
[00:04:41] Ken: and playing the wrong one. The wrong game is what is stalling your growth quietly.
[00:04:48] Ken: I hope you know this by now, but it's worth saying out loud that algorithms, audience size and AI won't build your business. You do.
[00:04:59] Ken: now. I see [00:05:00] this pattern constantly. This is a newer business relative to a number of businesses I've built, but I have seen it across clients and entrepreneurs for longer than I want to admit. And one current client that I work with comes to mind.
[00:05:13] Ken: He has a newer offer and he was doing everything. LinkedIn and internet gurus swear by posting regularly, trying to figure out how a hook works, dialing in social selling tactics, Working hard, consistent discipline, putting that shovel into the ground. Very proud of their efforts,
[00:05:37] Ken: and I pointed some of this out over a period of time, but really for a good portion of their first year in business. Nothing meaningfully moved
[00:05:47] Ken: So it wasn't because they lacked discipline, they were instead trapped in an echo chamber, optimizing for visibility instead of proximity to that lighthouse [00:06:00] client. So we had an even harder conversation,
[00:06:02] Ken: and the fix wasn't a better tactic.
[00:06:06] Ken: it was subtraction. It is stepping back and silencing the noise.
[00:06:12] Ken: So coming into the first part of this year and month,
[00:06:17] Ken: we went where their lighthouse clients already were. We have to sell to them the way that they're used to buying. And now they have already booked multiple sales calls, same person, less noise, different outcome. It's offline mode, which this person has dramatically embraced in practice.
[00:06:39] Ken: It is a perfect example of why I'm increasingly intolerant. Of distraction masquerading as strategy. I've built businesses to 5 million per year. Been part of businesses that were 20 million plus per year. I've been in rooms with Fortune 500 C-suites and globally known [00:07:00] operators. We never won by adding more inputs.
[00:07:04] Ken: Instead, it was by saying no more than everyone else, including me saying no to some of those people that weren't used to hearing no.
[00:07:13] Ken: Now offline mode is supported by a simple protocol that I've referenced before. I call it Silence the Noise, and it's about getting you away from everything that wants your attention that absolutely does not deserve it.
[00:07:25] Ken: It can be simple. Stop guru hopping fire clients who drain your energy, clean up your digital workspace and feel judged by the 700 files on your desktop.
[00:07:35] Ken: But it can go deeper than that. It's not just about removing the pointless apps, it's about unfollowing people who you're essentially giving your attention to who have never done this. They've never built your business before to scale, period.
[00:07:51] Ken: There are other foundational pieces to it. Prioritizing sleep. Getting exercise and and real rest. These things [00:08:00] are more important than you realize. Now, some of this you hear and you say, this isn't clever, but all of it works. I
[00:08:07] Ken: recently, I ran a focused coworking session around my protocol and helping people. That wanted to opt into offline mode because they were done being busy without progress. No tactics, no brainstorming, no hype execution. As I've said last conversation, progress is better than perfection, as again referenced in the next 30 days.
[00:08:33] Ken: So they executed. Things they avoided for months got done, the hard decisions stopped getting punted, and finally they saw real work move. But what I really loved were the compounding effects.
[00:08:48] Ken: My clients told me at the end of this session, we want more of this. And then I saw something else. It followed them into their own flow, into their [00:09:00] own workday. They started the day with zero tabs opened. They started focusing on work worth keeping that was done away from their screen,
[00:09:10] Ken: and that alone is satisfying, but deals closing and lead flow. Unlocking is the tangible ROI that that I know also really matters to them.
[00:09:21] Ken: So, no, not through hiring, not through fancy systems, through subtraction.
[00:09:27] Ken: please take this away from our conversation. Offline mode isn't a productivity hack. It's not another shiny object. In fact, here's the challenge for this one. When this conversation ends. Sit with it in silence for a minute. If that feels uncomfortable. That's not boredom. That's your clarity. Trying to surface,
[00:09:50] Ken: Offline mode is a strategic advantage. It is a purposeful state in a world addicted to noise,
[00:09:57] Ken: and the longer you delay entering [00:10:00] it, the higher the invisible tax of busyness becomes
[00:10:03] Ken: Noise. Doesn't just slow you down. It quietly convinces you that this is what progress feels like right up until you realize how much time you've burned and another year goes by.
[00:10:15] Ken: No, it's not judgment. It's an encouragement to seek moments where you silence the noise and can be in offline mode.
[00:10:23] Ken: As always, I love these conversations with you. Appreciate your time and attention, and I can't wait to help you again with how to grow without hiring.