Avoid THESE 7 Business Mistakes at ALL COST!

Introduction

Hey, this is Darin Kidd. Quick question for you. Do you ever get frustrated because you’re excited, you have goals, you have dreams, but yet there’s just something missing that’s holding you back? Well, in this training today, what I’m going to do is I’m going to give you seven business mistakes that you want to avoid at all costs. So once again, my name is Darin Kidd, and for 28 years I was actually a distributor in the network marketing profession before I left and went full time into the training, speaking, coaching, and consulting world. I also had franchises. So I had traditional businesses and I was very blessed to have a lot of success, but it wasn’t like that in the beginning. Actually, I failed for my first seven years in this profession of network marketing and ended up bankrupt, ended up having my car repossessed, ended up on Medicaid, government assistance, applying for food stamps. I felt like a failure in life.

When you can’t feed your kids, can’t support your wife, can’t keep a job, and living in a small town, I really had no hope. But when I had the right people that came into my life that taught me what to do and what not to do, it changed everything. And so that’s why now I am so passionate about helping other people go out and do what I did because I know what it’s like. And so what I want to do is I want to give you seven business mistakes to avoid at all costs. I want you to avoid these at all costs, and going into the end of the year, I mean, here we are the end of 2020, and I know recently I saw this meme and I don’t know why it hit me so hard, but it was in November, it was at the end of November, and it goes, “Today marks the fifth year that we’ve been in 2020,” but yet, how did it go from November 1st to the 22nd in only two days?” And I felt that one. It was like, “Oh my gosh, that is so true.”

Business Mistake #1: No Goals

But some people have already, they’re like, “You know what? I’m just going to cruise throughout the end of the year and then the new year, new year, new me. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to crush it.” But for those of you that are watching, I will bet you this, your mindset is like my mindset. I’m like, “You know what? 2021 has already started. I want to get a running start and I want to gain momentum now and not start from a dead standstill in January.” And it’s true, as we go into the end of the year, as we get ready to crush 2021, to get something different, we must do something different. If we don’t like the way the last 12 months of her life have gone, what will we do to change the next 12 months? And here’s another thing you’ll want to write in your notes, the same thinking that got you to where you are is not the same thinking that’s is going to get you to the next level.

And as I’m working with people and coaching people and consulting with companies, I want to give you seven mistakes that I see that happen that if you get these right can make a major impact as you’re setting your goals for your new year and you’re closing out 2020 strong. Number one is not having a goal. How many of you have ever felt like, “You know what? I’m just burned out?” Or maybe you’re like, “Look, I have no motivation. I don’t feel like doing anything.” Well, it’s not burnout and you may have lack of motivation, but it all boils down to you’ve lost clarity. Clarity gives you focus and focus gives you energy. So if you don’t have a goal, if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. I mean, could you imagine if I invited you over and I go, “Hey, listen, we’re going to have fun. We’re going to take the bow and arrow and we’re going to see who can hit the target.” And I go, “I bet you $1,000 I can hit it better than you can.” And you’re like, “Okay, deal.”

And I go, “But wait a minute. Before we get started, I blindfold you and I’ll spin you in a circle,” and I’m like, “Go.” And you go, “Wait a minute, Darin, that’s crazy. How can I hit a target that I can’t see.” That’s true. How can you hit a goal that you don’t have? So if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Every successful person that I’ve ever studied, everyone that you will ever meet, they didn’t accidentally stumble across success. What they did was they had clear, specific goals on where they wanted to be. So make sure that you’re crystal clear when you’re setting your goals. Number two, another mistake, not knowing or focusing on lead measures. Now, what does that mean? You come to me and you go, “Hey, Darin, look, I want to share with you. Look at the sales volume in my organization right now.” And I’m like, “You know what? That’s a lagging indicator of what’s already happened that you can’t do anything about.”

Business Mistake #2: Focusing on the Wrong Metrics

Congratulations if you’re excited about your volume, but what are the lead measures or the leading indicators of what’s going to get you to where you want to go? So volume is a lagging indicator. Prospecting, presenting, following up, those are lead measures that will get you to where you want to be. A lot of times, people, they don’t have a goal and then they don’t know what the lead measures, the high performance, high payoff activities, or the profit producing activities, HPAs or PPAs. So it’s really important to know what are the lead measures that are going to help you attain the goals that you want to reach, whether that’s in your health, whether it’s with your business, whatever it may be? That’s number two. Number three, another mistake, not having a plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. I was looking through the 13 tips of Think and Grow Rich, and they studied the 500 wealthiest people in the world over a 20 year period. We’re talking Henry Ford, Wrigley of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum, Carnegie and they tell you the 13 things that they have in common.

Business Mistake #3: Not Planning

And if you’re reading those 13 things, one of them was, let me find it here real quick, it was organized planning. It talks about that. The first steps for transforming desire into reality is the formation of a definite practical plan through which this transformation may be made. Once you do it, it is critical that you allow yourself with one or more people, or a group of people, as you may need, for the creation and carrying out your plan. So it talks about organized planning. So do you have a plan? I heard someone earlier talking about time management, and then I heard John Maxwell talking about time management recently. And he’s like, “Look, that’s a myth. You cannot manage Tom. Tom is going to go with or without any of us.” He goes, “What you do is you manage priorities. It’s priority management.” So make sure that you have a plan. If you treat your business casual, it can become a casualty.

Business Mistake #4: Not Implementing

And what’s really sad is most people spend more time planning their vacation than they do their life. Now, let’s go to number four, not implementing. Knowledge is not power. It’s potential power. And I know, I’m just going to be completely transparent, there are so many times that I don’t execute on my plans because I feel like I’m not prepared, which is everyone. That’s why Emerson said, “Do the thing, have the power.” He didn’t say, “Wait for the power, to do the thing.” George Patton said this, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” Let me repeat that again. It’s worth repeating. “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be on the path. It’s about progress, not perfection. So another big mistake is not implementing. Not executing. Not moving forward.

Business Mistake #5: Not Tracking Progress

Are you going to be bad before you’re good? Yeah, you’re going to be bad before you’re good. Are you going to make mistakes? Yeah, you’re going to make mistakes. The most successful people I’ve ever met are the biggest failures, but they look at failure from a different perspective. They look at failure as, “Look, I don’t fail. I either win or I learn.” And what they do is they plan to review. They go out, they execute. They make some mistakes. They learn from those mistakes, they readjust, and they do it again. The next thing, number five is track. People don’t track. It’s important to inspect what you expect. Performance measured is performance improved. You could be out there in your business going, “Oh my gosh, I’m just so busy, but I’m not having the results that I want to have.” And when I look at people, I’m going, “Look, well, I want you to start tracking things and sending those to me.”

Business Mistake #6: No Accountability

And next thing you know, they go, “Darin, I realize I was busy but I wasn’t productive. I wasn’t talking to brand new people every single week. I was just beating the same 10 people up every single week.” So it’s important that you track your progress moment by moment, day by day. Your fortune is hidden in your daily routine of activities and performance measured is performance improved. Six, another mistake that people make you definitely want to avoid is not choosing accountability. Not choosing accountability. Apathy, the definition of apathy is a natural human instinct common to us all to seek a comfort zone where nothing ever changes. That’s the definition of apathy. And you will never get to where you should be in your life or could be in your life or reach near your full potential unless you choose accountability. I know how to work out, but why do I have a trainer? I’ve been working out my entire life. It may not look like it, but I have.

I’m 47 years old, I’ve been working out since I was a teenager, but I know that they’re going to push me outside of my comfort zone. I know they’re going to pull more out of me than I want to do myself. I have one of my trainers one time said, “Hey, what do you want to do today?” when I walked into the gym, and I said, “What do I want to do? What I want to do is eat a donut, drink a milkshake, and take a nap.” Anybody want to do that? And he’s like, “Well, we’re not going to do that.” I’m like, “I’m not here to do what I want to do. I’m here to get the results that I want to get and I want you helping me get those results by holding me accountable and pushing me beyond what I normally would push myself.” And then when you also have that accountability, there’s a lot of times we can’t see the picture when we’re in the frame. You can’t read the label when you’re in the box.

Business Mistake #7: Not Having a Mentor or a Coach

And that trainer will look at me and go, “Hey, listen, your form is off when you do this, Hey, I noticed that you’re doing this,” and I couldn’t see it myself. It took that accountability piece to someone else to see something different that I couldn’t see. And last but not least, number seven, a mistake that people make is not having a mentor, not having a coach. Now, that mentor can be somebody virtually like I’m doing with you right now. But if you do not have a mentor, do not have a coach, why would you spend your entire life trying to figure out what to do right when you can hire someone, you can read a book, you can purchase a course where they spent their whole life trying to figure out what to do right and read that book, take that course, learn from that person, and shave years off of your learning curve? A couple of years ago, it’s two or three years ago, I spent almost six figures that year in hiring people to coach and mentor me.

And I have mentors in different areas of my life, spiritual, physical, financial. When it comes to online marketing, I’ve paid people to help me with that. When it comes to my YouTube channel, I hired one of the top 20 YouTubers in Forbes Magazine. When it came to social media, I hired one of the top 10 social media experts in the world according to Forbes. Because I understand, I don’t want to go through years or decades of trying to figure out the right thing to do when I can learn from someone else and shave years off my learning curve. Now, I’m going to tell you, when you’re investing in yourself, you are the best investment you can ever make in you. Your best investment you can ever make is investing in yourself. We don’t make what we want. We make what we are. And if we want to make more, we have to become more.

So don’t expect your broke friends and family to encourage you and say, “Great job and that’s a smart move,” when you’re investing in those courses, in those seminars, hiring someone, maybe you’re in a Mastermind or certain programs, but that’s the reason that the masses at age 65 are broke. To get something different than the masses, we have to do something different than the masses. So let me just review real quick the seven business mistakes to avoid at all costs. Number one is not having a goal. You have to be crystal clear. The clearer the picture of your future, the more goal directed your actions are on a daily basis. And you want to write down those goals. The science backs up why you need to physically write it down because of the brain to hand connection. But you want to be crystal clear on your goals. And not just in one area of your life, but every area of your life.

Number two, not knowing and focusing on the lead measures. What are the things that will get you to your goals? If you’re getting customers and getting customer getters and you want new business, what are the lead measures that will get you to that. Volume, lagging indicator. Prospecting, presenting, following up, that’s a leading indicator of what’s to come. Number three, not having a plan. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Number four, not implementing. How many of you love that quote, George Patton, “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week”? We’re looking about progress, not perfection. You don’t have to be perfect, just be on the path. And by the way, we’re going to make mistakes. That’s part of your story. That makes you relatable. It makes your story relatable and it makes you real. That’s why of the top 10 most viewed TV shows the majority are reality TV shows. People are tired of the fake. They want to know someone that’s real. So not having a plan, not implementing. Not tracking is number five.

Not having accountability is number six. And not having a mentor or a coach is number seven. I would love to have your feedback on which one of those you’re like, “Oh my gosh, I needed to hear that today,” or if you had an aha moment. So with that, let me go over to the comments, see if I can interact with you for just a second before I have to go onto another appointment. All right, great to see everyone. We got Collins from Kenya. You posted that the other day. Hey, Stacy. I’m not sure how to say your name. Is it Rhiannon? I will get it. Hey, Lisa. Treat your business like a business. Accountability is key. Awesome. Well, listen, make sure you tag anyone. Let me know where you’re watching from, by the way, as well. If you’re watching some replay, I like to come back and look at the comments. But if you have someone that you want to tag in the comments, you’re like, “You know what? They need to hear this as well,” it’s a great time to get this information.

Because I don’t know about you, I’m working on crushing the end of this year, but I’ve also started working on my goals for next year and first quarter, because I want to hit the ground running as we kick it off. So I appreciate you joining us. Look forward to seeing you on the next training. And have an awesome day. And for those of you that celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and we’ll see you back here soon. Take care.