Reactal vs. Causal Growth

Apply to all growth planning sessions.

The nugget shares the principle and the reasoning behind the application of Causal Growth. The majority of companies use a Reactal Marketing Philosophy, which carries some validity. As you’ll hear in this nugget, the reactal method pales in comparison. You’ve probably heard the phrases, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” and “What gets measured, gets done”.

This nugget takes those cliches to another level.

On our consulting checklist of “Must be used by all”.

(0:00 – 0:26)
This is a very sensitive topic for me because I wrestled with it my first decade in business. I would say sometimes I won, sometimes this subject or this topic won, and we definitely did not have the growth our first ten years like we’re having our last eight to ten years. It’s the topic of my personal time.

(0:26 – 0:48)
And I don’t mean my personal time as in time away from the office. I mean my time. I mean, what’s the best way to put this? The actual time I spend working, and I work all the time basically, but the point I’m trying to make is, let’s just take a Monday through Friday generic situation.

(0:49 – 1:24)
Your personal time is, what do you actually put in to those 40 hours? How do you fill your calendar? So the bottom line is, I made a very stark high-end 90-degree turn right around the year 2000. So in my early days, I would basically do or tackle anything in front of me. I would sell something, I would make something, I might deliver something, I might even install something.

(1:24 – 1:49)
I would do anything and everything at any moment. Some people say, ‘Hey, but isn’t that what all fledgling small business owners do? Don’t you have to do it all in the early days?’ I am here to call total BS to that. No matter how big or how small a company is, there is a golden rule of your time.

(1:50 – 2:00)
So please write this down. Obviously, if you’re driving in a car, don’t write this down. But here’s the golden rule of what determines what goes into your time.

(2:00 – 2:13)
You ready? You can only do, what only you can do. So again, let me say it again. You can only do, what only you can do.

(2:13 – 2:30)
There are things that I do that I sometimes catch myself, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Somebody else could do this. Why am I doing this?’ So I’ve got to make sure every step of the way that anything and everything that can be delegated is delegated.

(2:30 – 2:36)
And a lot of people out there have a tough time with this. I’m a people pleaser as a personality. I’m what’s called a sanguine.

(2:37 – 2:55)
And I don’t like to delegate per se. If I think I can get it done quickly, by the time I would teach somebody else how to do this, I could have done it myself. And you know what? Being the people pleaser I am, I don’t want to call someone and say, ‘Would you do this for me?’ You know, my body subconsciously finds that offensive.

(2:56 – 3:23)
So the reality is I had to mature and become a big boy in business and realize that there is no way I could forecast 5, 10, 20, a hundred times growth if I was still filing paperwork, if I was still booking travel, if I was still doing something that anybody else could do. So watch this. All business, I don’t care how big.

(3:24 – 3:41)
All activities in a business can be compartmentalized into the following pieces. Watch this now. Selling something or someone, building or creating something, or servicing something or someone.

(3:41 – 3:52)
So watch, I’m going to say them again. These are three departments of business. Selling something or someone, building or creating something, or servicing something or someone.

(3:52 – 4:04)
I say this a lot and people go, ‘Well, wait a minute. What about management? I’m a manager.’ Well, if you’re a manager, you’re selling someone, right? You’re servicing someone.