Grow Without Hiring

[00:00:00] Ken: Most businesses today are not built for durability. They are built instead for activity. How many leads do you have? How many dms did you send? How many posts did you do? Oh, and by the way, how many impressions do you have?
[00:00:19] Ken: It is really about how much volume you can squeeze out in a week. In fact, the largest influencers and gurus online have entire teams to produce more content, because more content means they get more people stuck in their funnels. And buying their things.
[00:00:39] Ken: But that is not you. That is not us.
[00:00:42] Ken: And unfortunately, this obsession doesn't just show up in your business. It mirrors how we operate in society. Don't worry, I'm not gonna get too philosophical today, but it is. A society that now is geared towards constant [00:01:00] motion, constant measurement, and constant urgency. You even see that with your clients and ultimately it is work that's optimized for days and weeks instead. Of months and years. It's not work worth keeping and it's not what allows you and allows people who participate in these conversations to grow without hiring.
[00:01:27] Ken: Now I wanna be clear. I'm not asking you to disappear into the wilderness and run your remote solopreneur business. I'm not asking you to move overseas. Most people that follow me. On places like LinkedIn or listen to my podcast, have real responsibilities. You have kids, you have a mortgage, you have aging parents.
[00:01:49] Ken: You have things that wouldn't allow that to be possible. So I understand more than most people that none of those things are wrong. Paying [00:02:00] bills matters with real responsibility. Short term actions matter.
[00:02:05] Ken: And actually I say this all the time, but optionality is one of the most important things that you could have in your business, But there is a huge difference between using those as levers intentionally and being owned by them.
[00:02:19] Ken: In the past. I've talked about it this way, You're gonna be confused at first, but stick with me for a minute. It is the difference.
[00:02:25] Ken: Between pastries and protein. Now, don't get me wrong, pastries are tasty. They give you that short term, yum, yum, hit. And you've never heard anyone say Yum, yum. Before. And a podcast, what does that look like? A spike in reactions, A bump in your subscribers. I did a viral lead magnet and got a hundred people on my list, it might even translate into a quick revenue win.
[00:02:54] Ken: And then guess what? All that's gone. I've had some of the most viral [00:03:00] of posts. I've had viral subscribers and viral lead magnets before they were a thing. I don't do them anymore. 'cause I often talk about. You need to zig when others zag.
[00:03:11] Ken: And I can tell you that going after that without intentionality, is that the pastries you're pursuing Don't build your business muscle. Remember these two Ds that I'm about to talk about You're trading durability for dopamine,
[00:03:28] Ken: so that's the real cost here. Not that the work is bad, and I actually push my clients to do some of these things.
[00:03:37] Ken: But more so if that's the only kind of work you're doing. If you're just pursuing pastries, it disappears into the feed and into algorithms. You can't reference it. You're not proud of it, and it doesn't work for you six months from now, let alone six years.
[00:03:56] Ken: That's the opposite of work worth keeping
[00:03:59] Ken: [00:04:00] work. Worth keeping is something that you can point to, something that you can reuse, something that compounds. And something that keeps paying you back in time, leverage and clarity. and it's worth saying this, and it's a part that many people miss. Some of that work can inspire work worth keeping. A thoughtful LinkedIn post, a newsletter that was challenging to actually write yourself
[00:04:27] Ken: or a small idea shared in the right moment can be more significant than you realize.
[00:04:34] Ken: I know that many of you don't know me for this today, but I wrote an O'Reilly book. That was about how to differentiate, launch, get apps to the market before. That was a well-known thing and it sold over 10,000 copies. And it's not about my accolade there, but also I am proud of that. Here's the thing, it started as an early morning tweet.
[00:04:56] Ken: Another example is that I became known for helping [00:05:00] people build differentiated offers because I talked about offers constantly, and I showed people what it looked like to close over $50 million in professional services. But the ROI didn't show up until I sat down and actually. Codified that framework and said, here's how I would show people what I've been doing for the last two decades.
[00:05:24] Ken: You know what? Without that, I would not have multiple seven figures over the last few years.
[00:05:30] Ken: The leverage, clearly, in both of these instances wasn't the post, wasn't the pastry, so to speak. But it was the fact that I had something there and I needed to develop it.
[00:05:41] Ken: I didn't really intend for us to get crazy on the letter D today,
[00:05:45] Ken: but I did share about durability versus dopamine, and this other D word that I mentioned a moment ago is also very important. It really does take me back to high school.
[00:05:55] Ken: Because when I took my first AP class, 10th grade college level, [00:06:00] reading loads,
[00:06:00] Ken: we put in the work, me and a few of my classmates, we were the Uber nerds, if you want to say it that way, and we worked hard. We studied and then we'd get our essays back covered in red ink. It wasn't because the ideas were wrong. It wasn't because we were lazy, as I just said.
[00:06:18] Ken: But circled across the essay and the work again and again, was this word develop.
[00:06:25] Ken: I didn't go deep enough. And the problem today in a business where you have to just be in survival mode
[00:06:33] Ken: is that you are also not giving yourself a chance to go deep enough. You moved too fast, you didn't give. The idea room to breathe.
[00:06:43] Ken: And that's exactly what happens in a business that's bombarded by the need to get another post out to send another DM to do another viral lead magnet.
[00:06:55] Ken: It is all about shipping, shipping, shipping. And I do believe speed is important, but it's [00:07:00] more about watching the reaction. And moving on. No development, no depth, no asset creation. No struggling with pushing something beyond the feed.
[00:07:12] Ken: And if you've been paying close attention, it's exactly why concepts like offline mode in episode 31 from last week or the next 30 days from episode 30 matter more than you realize. Hm. They're not about doing less. I want you to hear that it's instead about creating space, space to resist the pastries, the gimmick, the fad that you're finding in your feed.
[00:07:37] Ken: Maybe even today.
[00:07:39] Ken: It is space to choose business protein. Space to work on something harder, slower, and more durable. And I can tell you this, that I've never once regretted
[00:07:53] Ken: skipping, doing more posts or more short term marketing work.
[00:07:57] Ken: To take on something that was [00:08:00] harder and more significant to take on more work worth keeping.
[00:08:06] Ken: and after working with. Entrepreneurs for decades, I have seen what happens when businesses live on those metaphorical pastries.
[00:08:15] Ken: They stay outta shape, they stay fragile, and they end up tied to a hamster wheel funnel instead of building what I call a seven figure flywheel.
[00:08:26] Ken: And being really close to these problems, I would say that a lot of clients, a lot of consultants, founders, people like yourself fall into two extremes. They're either the people that live on dopamine and volume, either intentionally or by necessity.
[00:08:43] Ken: Or they're doing great work that no one knows about. I don't want either extreme for you because neither helps you grow without hiring.
[00:08:52] Ken: My hope and goal for you is to be in business for more than a minute. I have had plenty of [00:09:00] clients. Who have not made it despite their best efforts, often they didn't choose the right market. They were too comfortable. They were used to getting a check
[00:09:09] Ken: regardless of really how well they performed.
[00:09:13] Ken: And doing this thing called entrepreneurship, but especially in a way that is not built on more, better, faster, bigger, all those things you have to build and optimize for a long arc. And for a business that lasts for decades, not just the next quarter, not just for the next month. So I'll just ask you to stop optimizing for the now.
[00:09:39] Ken: Stop optimizing for volume alone
[00:09:41] Ken: because even entrepreneurs who win often wake up five years later with nothing they can reuse.
[00:09:48] Ken: We all need more work worth keeping work we're proud of and work we can reference. and even I've challenged myself to do more of that.
[00:09:57] Ken: It's work that still works [00:10:00] when the algorithms change. So before you jump to the next thing, ask yourself this, what am I working on right now that I'd still be proud of and could point to six months from now? If the answer is nothing, I don't want you to panic, but just pick one thing this week that won't disappear into the feed or into the algorithm.
[00:10:24] Ken: And then please do this. Give yourself that time to do some work worth keeping. Go into offline mode, which I'll also link up in the show notes. Don't expect magic overnight, but a body of work only starts when you have the space to create it.
[00:10:42] Ken: Thanks as always for having these conversations with me. I hope you got a nugget today and I can't wait to continue to help you to grow without hiring.