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I was chatting with my Dad last night and he made the most interesting (and correct) observation. "When I was in business, it was like getting into a competitive landscape." "It was everyman for himself, fighting for clients. Working against your competition." "Now business is all about helping as many people as you can." "The one who wins is the person who helped the most people." It's true. He's retired now, but he can see it too. Can you? You never need to worry about your competition. In fact you should help them win too. You never need to worry about them. You never need to look at them at all. You don't need to study their products, their messaging. It's wasted time that you could be impacting the world. You just need to help the people you can, without holding back. You only need to study your audience and what they want. Give, give, give, give. Focus on who you can help, potential clients, everyone, even the competition. That makes you the leader in the space. If you look at the competition, you're behind them, you'll hold back, you'll withhold, you'll fall behind! Instead, let them copy you, let them follow you! Innovate faster by opening up and being free with your knowledge. Move at light speed! It's OK if they copy you, word for word, what better confirmation that you're on the right track? Sometimes people DM me, "Stephen, I saw [INSERT PERSON HERE] copy your video almost word for word". I appreciate them looking out for me, I do. (thank you for letting me know) But I don't care. "Good" I think, I put it out there to help people anyway. Not just my potential clients, everyone! So I know it's working, and I've copied people too. I'm not sure humans were meant to copyright everything they touch or create. It holds us all back. Deep inside, I know I'm leading the pack. Just help as many people as you can as fast you can. Everything else will fall into place. It takes a deep faith in your own ability and insight. But it's the way modern business is done.

This past week was tough. Various events kept knocking me off track. I made promises to clients, I had to deliver a new course to my community, and I have 2 YouTube videos to record. And I have to be a good dad and husband to my family. And its ALL important: I need happy clients, happy community members and more YouTube videos to grow my business. And why are we doing all this if we can't be present with our family? That means I have very little time for mistakes, or distractions. But things kept going wrong none the less. - An upset client called my product "ridiculous" - While recording videos for my community I kept making mistakes - I had to re-record hours worth of videos - I realized TWO of the videos used the wrong mic (they sounded terrible) - I was days behind and I still hadn't even started my YouTube videos With a growing TODO list, and less time to do it, there were moments where it was hard to do ANYTHING. I was frozen. All I could imagine was all the people I was about to upset, or let down. These are the times where you have to calm down, regroup, put your head down, and stick to your plan. For me the best method is simple. A quick drive to a local Airport where I can watch a few planes take off and land. AND a good old fashion note book to map out next steps. I mapped out all the things I still needed to get done, in order, so I could focus. One at a time, instead of them all flashing before my eyes all at once. I mapped out what I could do for my upset client, and presented the next steps to resolve the issue. I mapped out what was going wrong with my videos, and how I could use that to produce better videos. I found an AI tool to help me fix the audio issues from recording on the wrong mic. I decided on the 2 YouTube videos I'd record. And then I drove back home and attacked each item one by one. As I sit here right now, I launched the course (on time) and have only 1 more YouTube video to record. I sent the first YT video to my editor an hour or so ago.

One important lesson I learned in the Skool games was that consistent growth requires a consistent high quality traffic source. If you're trying to win the games your growth has to be consistent day after day. And you only have 30 days to lock in your win, so focus is a must. The games force you to think about those daily tasks that can drive traffic to your community. For me, there was really only one lever I could pull to make that happen, YouTube. It's the only platform where when I put in more time on the video I know I get better results. My channel was growing before the Games, but everything changed for the better when I changed my YouTube strategy. And it's simple. - Make the best video on YouTube about that topic - Make a video ONLY you could think up and execute - Give away every detail and step (don't hide anything) I started spending 2-3 days on each video, instead of a few hours and my channel has grown 999x compared to the year before. I also personally make each YouTube thumbnail 1-2 hours. It changed everything for my channel, and frankly my business, and helped me get to #12 on the all time leaderboard for the Skool games. I don't do any channel research, keyword research, competitor analysis, none of it. I'm not saying that stuff doesn't work, I don't really know. But I do know what has been working for me. I just try and make the best video on YouTube. Take a look at the YouTube graph below. The first big spike is when Hormozi announced he was investing in Skool (this made all my existing Skool YT videos blow up!). The next big spike happened June 1st when I entered the Skool games and decided to give everything away on YouTube. I tell you this now because you could wait 1-2 years to do this like I did, or you can start right now and get there a WHOLE LOT FASTER. You don't need a YouTube strategist, you don't need "consistency", you just need to put in the energy to make a great video without fear that no one will hire you (they will).

I've been really fascinated with mission and vision statements lately. Because I've seen their true power. They keep you going when things go wrong. They take your EGO out and make whatever you're doing about OTHERS instead of you. They become a north star that keeps you focused on important things. But they are SUPER hard to actually implement. Very few people take the time to make the statements at all. Some take the time, and then quickly forget about them. Some speak the words into the world and quickly forget them after a lack luster response. And I know why, because at first, mission and vision statements have little meaning. If you do share your mission and vision with others, don't expect a big applause. In fact, the opposite. They are nothing but WORDS. Of course they have ZERO impact on the world. Most people won't connect with a few simple words that don't really directly apply to them. It's too abstract. People connect with true movements and a sense of momentum. That only comes from real proof, people moving in a direction, and lives being changed by those words. So yes you should share your mission and vision, but don't expect anything much in terms of feedback until those words CHANGE LIVES. As the leader you'll need to move mountains and gain that momentum all by yourself. It doesn't have to be you forever, but someone needs to be that flame 🔥 (that fire starter). Keep your eye on that north star and PROVE to people that those WORDS mean something. Then people will care.