As we say goodbye to another year, I thought I'd share some of the most valuable nuggets of wisdom I've picked up in 2023. These lessons aren't just about business... they're about navigating the crazy rollercoaster ride we call life. I have learned all these either from the books I read, the coaches I paid, the mentors who took their time with me, successful podcast guests, or figured them out from experience...  Either way, the cost of me learning these was EXPENSIVE.

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Now it's my gift to you.

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📌 The most important question you need to know is WHAT DO YOU WANT? Without knowing that, any decision you make is a coin toss and will either move closer or further to an outcome you may not even want. It is also the hardest question to really sit with and most people spend 5 minutes on this and then a lifetime wondering why they are where they are and if they really want to be there.

Bonus: Anchor this into "WHY" you want those things. If you don't know WHY you WANT, you won't know what you could tolerate paying (everything has a cost) to get it.

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📌  Learn to THINK. Super undervalued skillset. Very few people can actually sit down and just THINK.

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📌  Comparison is absolute poison. Without context into other people's lives, decisions, sacrifices, beliefs... you just have no clue and you cannot compare yourself to half a story at best. It will only hurt you and hold you back. If you are a business, you don't want to be compared to anyone else because if they can compare you to someone, they can compare your prices to them too.

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📌  CERTAINTY is key. Do whatever you can to be sturdy and become a person who acts with certainty.

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📌  The difference between you and the very successful rarely comes down to skill alone... it mostly comes down to the fact that they THINK and BELIEVE differently than you do. What beliefs of yours no longer serve you?

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📌  Water beats rock. Consistency is the ultimate differentiator. Can you keep showing up? If you can, day in and day out, it will have compounding and monumental results.

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📌  Paid ads are a bitch... but it's a cheat code.

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📌  Journaling... I wish I did this years ago. Crazy to look back and see how far you've come or see the areas you didn't make progress. Both are huge eye-openers that can help take you to the next level.

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📌  Make better humans. Be one yourself.

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📌  In life you only get so many moments, especially when it comes to your kids. Today might be the last day your kid asks you for a bedtime story... don't be too busy.

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📌  One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is "What will your children say about you when you die?" And then go operate and be the person you want them to talk about.

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📌  Kids remember what you SHOW them, not what you TOLD them.
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📌  Be grateful for the things you desire BEFORE you have them and as if you already have them. If you can learn to do that, you're way ahead of the pack.
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📌  Proactive > Reactive.
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📌  Both/And. You don't need to always choose one or the other. Sometimes you can have both.
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📌  ASK for what you want. The answer may not always be YES but it's better than the regret of wondering "What if"
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📌  Fear of failure is worse than actual failure. At the same time, fear of judgment from others about your failure holds way too many people back from realizing their success.
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📌  YOU are the biggest roadblock.
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📌  Get a coach. ASAP. How do you know if it's the right time? If you find one you love and trust and it's a stretch (monetarily and timing) for you to hire them -- Do it anyway! That is the right time. People don't drown because they fell into water... they drowned because they stayed in there and didn't know how to swim.
The flip side to the above: NO ONE IS GOING TO SAVE YOU. I have coaches, I've spent money (a lot) on my own development but your coach cannot want it more than you do. They cannot want it for you. You need actually want to be saved.
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📌  Hire A+ players for your team.
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📌  Busyness is laziness. If you're always "too busy",  you're doing something wrong.
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📌  Free advice leads to no action. Pay for advice and charge to give yours.
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📌  You are exactly where you are supposed to be. If you weren't supposed to be there, you wouldn't be.
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📌  We live in bubbles... once you get out of it, you can see it's usually not that bad. Sadly, we enforce our own bubbles (the news, the info we consume, etc).
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📌  You need both the ability to acquire and keep clients/customers. In the beginning, focus on making an experience that can keep them. If you can keep them happy and solve for retention, you can scale a lot easier.
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📌  If you follow the same strategies and tactics as everyone else, your potential to improve is limited.
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📌  "It's far easier to boo and cheer a million-dollar athlete than it is to become one. Generally speaking, amateurs are spectators in the game of life." - Steve Siebold
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📌 Learning, like life itself, must never be stagnant and we must continue to learn from everything and everyone around us.
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📌 Be very deliberate and cautious and mindful of the things you ask for. If you ask for peace, you'll get chaos and turmoil. If you ask for patience, you'll get messiness. It is the only way to help you truly get that "muscle".
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📌 You control the type of clients you get. One easy simple trick to getting great clients and customers is to become the type of one that you want to attract.
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📌 You cannot fix what you don't measure. Measure everything important in business and your life.
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📌 Experiences compound the same way money does. Create as many as possible.
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📌 Your business. Your life. Your rules.
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As we embark on a new year, remember that setting and pursuing your goals isn't a once-a-year event; it's a continuous journey. In the words of Steve Siebold, "Average performers set their goals on New Year's Eve and don't look at them again until the next New Year's Eve. The world-class is in a constant goal-setting mode."‍

Cheers to continuous growth and a life well-lived! 🥂🎉