Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast
Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast
#7 - Optimizing Your Days For Maximum Output w/ Kilian Markert
A lot of high-performing entrepreneurs want to grow and scale their business, but they often forget to master their daily energy and productivity levels, which may lead to burnout or neglecting their health in the long run.
In this episode, Kilian Markert, founder of Consistent Performance Mentoring, joins Scott to chat about how to achieve consistency with the habits you employ both in how you run your business as well as in your personal life. From preparing for the workday with your own morning routines to optimizing sleeping cycles, the episode gets into the nitty gritty of how to make your day more productive without losing energy or focus.
Scott & Kilian also delve into making the most of the time you have in one day and how to avoid falling out of the habits you’ve set for yourself. There’s also an immensely informative section about finding motivation for when you feel like you’re losing your purpose. Tune in to find out more and get ready to learn A LOT of insights!
Join Kilian’s Facebook group High-Performing Agency Owners: Hacks for Consistent Energy & Performance for more tips on how to perform at your best and most efficiently and share insights and learnings with a community specifically designed for high-performing agency owners and business owners.
Visit Kilian’s website to learn more about achieving Consistent Performance and to book a free discovery call.
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0:00 - 0:27 - G&G eCommerce Podcast Theme
This is the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast, powered by Right Hook Digital, with your hosts Scott Seward & Raymond Johnston. If you’re an eCommerce brand founder, entrepreneur, or marketer looking to accelerate profitable growth for your business, then listen in ‘cause this is the podcast for you.
0:27 - 1:06 - Episode Introduction
Scott (0:27 - 1:06) - This week on the podcast, we are joined by the founder of Consistent Performance Mentoring, Kilian Markert. We jump on calls pretty regularly and discuss everything around optimizing your life for better performance, so sleep, routine, mindset, consistency, flow, diet. There’s so many aspects of this. I’m very much into that world of trying to get the most out of everyday that I can to make sure that I’m as productive during my work hours as possible. So this is a really enjoyable discussion. Hopefully, there are some insights for you as to how you can start getting the most out of your days and what habits you need to build to allow that to happen. Let’s dive in, enjoy!
1:07 - 4:20 - Introduction of guest Kilian Markert
Scott (1:07 - 1:41) - Alright, pumped to be here! Kilian, thank you for joining us. It’s always, always exciting to talk about mindset, you know, getting the best out of yourself, performance. Everyone in our circle, I feel like, typically comes from that growth mindset so I think this is really relevant to most people in the marketing and entrepreneurial space, and any eCommerce entrepreneur, especially. Welcome! Tell us a little bit about yourself, what you do, and how you got into the area of, you know, performance mentoring?
Kilian (1:41 - 3:44) - Yeah! First of all, thank you very much for having me on the show, Scott. Super pumped to be here. On our last podcast, that was so much fun to dive into all of these routines and habits. I had so much fun so this one’s also gonna be good. Yeah, so for everybody wondering what I do, I own a coaching business and, basically, we help agency owners and eCommerce entrepreneurs to really level up their daily energy and daily performance, right? Lot of guys, they’ve heard about these things like high-performing habits and you should do this and that, but the biggest thing people struggle with is consistency. Day in and day out, doing what you should be doing, not only in business, but also in your personal life. And so, that’s really what we specialize in, we hit those consistent high-energy levels but also consistent performance throughout the day, and all with the goal that you grow your business the most efficient and effective way possible, but don’t sacrifice yourself, your health, you know, along the way, or burn out. And so, how I got started with all of this was years ago. I used to work in corporate, worked in a multinational in Germany, and so I’ve seen guys, you know, work a lot, really grinding out, working all day, having high status there, meeting to meeting, and really you know, like, high on the corporate ladder. It dawned on me that these people have been doing that for decades and they were not really happy, that’s the one thing. You saw it on their bodies, they were deteriorating, and yeah, they had no time for anything else. So I thought it’s awesome, yeah, to have big goals, you know, we all have the growth mindset, driven, and we have these goals in business, but not if it comes at the expense that you have no time for anything else, you’re sacrificing your health, and you become rackle along the way. That was, kind of, years ago. My trigger point where I decided, yes, I wanna, you know, crush it, make an impact, build business and so on, but do it in such a way that you don’t burn out along the way and still have time for the other areas in your life. That’s, in a nutshell, how I came to do what I do.
Scott (3:45 - 4:20) - That makes so much sense. I think it’s the, especially when you’re starting out in an entrepreneurial space, or even your corporate career, right? You’ve got a lot of pressure on yourself. You wanna get results. It’s always that tendency to push harder, push harder, without really, I think, being conscious of, okay, well am I getting myself into an optimal, cognitive state to deliver in the time that I am working? For me, personally, I know that I don’t. If I’m exhausted, you’re just sitting at the desk and killing time and then you’re saying, ‘Oh, I’m working x amount of hours a week,’ and it’s a bit of an ego thing.
4:22 - 17:46 - How to optimize your sleeping patterns and cycles
Scott (4:22 - 4:55) - Let’s go right into the start, I think, because this is where, you know, I think a lot of people get tripped up, sleep. There’s this whole 4-hour sleep and I’m just gonna work myself to the bone and that’s how I’m gonna get results. I don’t come into that camp and I’ve definitely, I’ve never been able to function with, I know personally, under maybe 6.5 for a couple of nights, but if I’m above 7, I’m usually good. Let’s start with your take on sleep, routine, and how you can optimize that.
Kilian (4:55 - 7:31) - And I love that you asked that question, Scott, at the start. Turns out, sleep is the most important thing. Like everybody heard about sleep, diet, exercise, kind of, that’s like these pillars, right? But turns out, in recent years, if you check out what Matthew Walker’s researching in Why We Sleep and so on, it’s like sleep is actually the foundation that diet and exercise are resting upon, right? If your sleep is not good, you will be more hungry, you will be binging more, you will be more tired, you will not be executing well in the gym. So sleep is really the foundation. Let’s start with that and you’re right. It’s actually the real epidemic or pandemic happening, that people are not sleeping enough. Guys, let’s get this sorted first. Sleep is absolutely crucial and, first of all, there’s different people out there who say, yeah, you know, just a few hours and all this hustle mindset and so on. That’s really bad, right? You got to make sure that you get the hours you need, all those individuals, for sure. You cannot say everybody has to sleep 8 hours, that’s not true, but the thing is, most of the time, 4 or 5 hours are not gonna be enough for you. I mean, the studies that Matthew Walker have done, they’ve shown that for a vast majority of people, under 7 hours consistently have resulted in measurable performance decline. So that’s under 7 hours consistently, and of course, there’s this small percentage of outliers who seem to get by on 5 - 6 hours, but that’s, like, because of a gene variation and so on, but that’s like, don’t do that gamble. Don’t trust that you’re that person, they’re a very small percentage of people. Most people aim for those 7 and above hours, that’s, like, that’s your goal. And then, of course, it depends a little bit. What I would say is this, if you know that you’re super active and you know that you have a lot of stress going on right now in your career and, maybe, a lot of stress because you have a lot of stuff to do in the family, in the business, or you’re just super active because you went to the gym a lot and so on, then give yourself more time. Give yourself 8 and beyond hours. Let your body get the rest it needs. And so, what you need to be doing for this, the best, of course, is if you’re able to hit a very consistent sleep time. That means, end of your day, start of the sleep, and then waking up. If that is, the more consistent that is, the better. And so, another thing a lot of people ask about sleep is, what do I do if I have, like, social commitments or things coming up? Like you, for example, if kids, or if something’s happening, emergencies, right?
Scott (7:31 - 7:54) - I was gonna throw you that curveball! Because I can tell you, routine and everything, when you’ve got young children, which I imagine, like, for a lot of people in their early entrepreneurial journeys have kids waking up, you know, wives are breastfeeding or whatever, kids are coming in to the bed, it is so hard to keep routine. Let’s touch on that ‘cause I think that’s such an interesting…
Kilian (7:54 - 9:50) - Let’s touch on that, that’s, 100%. It’s not only kids, but it can also be other things, right? It can be, oh, you have a social event in the city and you don’t wanna be the guy who leaves at 8, you know, whatever happens, right, or emergency with the family, whatever. At that point, of course, you want to find a balance between being able to, at least, get some good, decent amount of sleep in and then sticking, at least, a little bit to the routine. What do I mean by that? Think more in terms of sleep cycles completed instead of thinking of ‘do I get my 8 hours?’ So what I mean by that, if you, for example, get to bed later because of an emergency, and you know the kid didn’t fall asleep or is sick or whatever, and you, for example, only get 6 hours instead of your usual 8, let’s just say 6 hours instead of your usual 8, this is still 4 sleep cycles or 4.5 hours, which is still good, right? And even if you get less, if you only get 4.5 hours, that’s still 3 sleep cycles. Try to think, try to rather, protect your sleep schedule in terms of waking up. For example, you’re going to bed later because something happened with the kids. Try to still wake up at a similar time, thinking in this 4.5, 6 hour, 7.5 cycles. Try to complete whole sleep cycles and then, if it wasn’t enough, right, if you slept 4.5 or 6 and it wasn’t enough, rather protect the same wake-up time that’s better for your circadian rhythm and then make up for this, if you can, in the afternoon. Maybe the kids are somewhere, in school or somewhere, and then take that 1.5 hour nap to make up for the sleep. There’s studies to show that this is an effective way to making up on lost sleep if you, of course, complete the whole sleep cycles.
Scott (9:50 - 9:54) - So lock the door in your office and have a nap under your desk?
Kilian (9:54 - 10:15) - Exactly! I mean, depends, of course, where you’re working from. If you’re working from a home office, you might have the luxury to actually sleep in your bed and take a nap there. Or if you’re in an office, I recommend, there is this bags actually, which are called the, how are they called? They’re called FatBoy, I think. Do you know what this thing is? FatBoy? That’s like…
Scott (10:15 - 10:17) - I have not heard that one. I don’t know that.
Kilian (10:17 - 10:29) - That’s, like, this super comfortable, thing is, sometimes you see people in the car. Do you see this one, these inflatable ones which you know, open up like this and people just chill on that.
Scott (10:30 - 10:34) - Like the airbag, right? You fill it with air and you can use it.
Kilian (10:34 - 11:13) - These ones are like airbags which are portable ones, and there’s this other ones which have some material in there. That’s, like, perfect for getting, I’m not sure if that brand exists, I remember years ago I was having a nap on one, it’s called FatBoy or FatBag, maybe I’m missing, but something like this. Basically, it’s just a bag, like a little portable couch but just a bag, and you lay on there and you can, you know, have a little side position or you have a napping position. You can do that, a 25-minute power nap or even, you know, shut your office and even 1.5 hours if you need it really, right? That would be a nice investment, actually, for your office to have something like this.
Scott (11:14 - 11:35) - That’s a great idea. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about having an afternoon nap. It’s not something that I’ve ever done. Yeah, I don’t know why. For me, personally, I’ve always felt like, if I have a nap, I’ll just feel groggy, but that’s something I haven’t toyed with. If you need that to get through the later part of the day, makes a heap of sense.
Kilian (11:36 - 11:51) - It definitely depends also because I know you, Scott, you’re really an early bird, right? You wake up early, you hit the gym early, and for you, you’re like executing hardcore and then you’re ending the day pretty early, right? When is it you usually end the day, 4 or when was it?
Scott (11:51 - 12:27) - Yeah, so, I wouldn’t say I’m naturally an early bird. I think you can get yourself into that routine. On the weekends, I sleep in ‘til, I just let myself get up naturally, and that’s usually between 7 and 8. I just take the foot off the pedal a little bit. During the week, I’m up between quarter to 5 and 5, straight to the gym, and then I get into the morning routine, which we can touch on in a sec. Yeah, usually, because I go and start so early, I usually leave the office at like 3:30, 4, and get to spend the afternoon with the kids and trying to get in sync with my family.
Kilian (12:27 - 12:29) - What time do you have lunch usually?
Scott (12:29 - 12:40) - Around midday. I don’t eat breakfast. I usually am in a fast until around the middle of the day, unless I’ve done weights in the morning then I might have something, sort of protein-based in the morning.
Kilian (12:41 - 13:17) - Yeah, see, for you, it’s a bit different because, you know, you’re having lunch around midday and then, you know, you have a few more hours in the afternoon until 3 or 4, until you leave the office. For someone who, for example, starts the day later and then they still work until evening, you know, maybe even 5 or 6, they have more hours in the afternoon. For them, if their sleep wasn’t good, they will definitely notice that in the afternoon, they will crash, especially after a heavy meal. For them, this afternoon nap of not longer than 25 minutes will result in better performance in the afternoon.
Scott (13:17 - 13:56) - And I think that’s an important thing, right? It really comes down to understanding yourself somewhat and when you function best in the day. For me, again, I know that I’m at my cognitive best between, you know, whenever I wake up. I’m usually am pretty good for an hour or so after that until around midday. When it gets to the afternoon, it’s probably more maintenance tasks or, you know, light mental stuff. In terms of deep thinking and problem-solving and learning, it’s definitely in the morning so what would you recommend in terms of figuring out what your natural cycle is, and when you best work? Some people work and are more creative in the evening, for example, right?
Kilian (13:56 - 15:56) - Yeah, that’s 100% correct. There’s, for example, this popular test out there from the book The Power of When by Michael Breus, sleep doctor, you know? The chronotypes where you’re like the lion when you wake up really early, then you’re like the bear that’s the average, and then the wolf are the people at night, and then the dolphins are the people who have insomnia and they can’t fall asleep. There’s a rough categorization. I always say you have to be cautious, though, because some people, they always say, I’m super active at night and I get the second wind of energy at night, but some of that is simply related to bad habits. If you have the computer screen in your face all evening, you will, of course, not be tired. That of course will disrupt your sleep later on and so on. What you would do, what you should do first to figure that out is you should remove all of the unnatural, artificial bad habits like, especially, everything that goes against your, the rise and fall of the sun. That’s super important. For example, it’s not normal to wake up and be in the house all day. We didn’t do that. We used to go out, get light, and all these things. We move a lot. We eat good food. We hydrate. These basic habits that we always implement, do that first, remove things like a lot of technology, a lot of work triggers in the evening. It’s also not normal at 10PM when you usually wanna wind down to check emails. That’s not normal, that’s not how it should be. You wanna have immersion into work at some point, then you wanna let go and recharge. When you let go of that stuff, after a few days and weeks, your body will simply, you know, it will figure out what your tendencies are. Remove that first and then you will see if you’d rather wake up early with more energy or wake up a bit later, then you adjust to that. That’s my advice for this.
Scott (15:57 - 16:33) - Yeah, I think it’s so critical in understanding yourself and how you operate. Again, you come back to people with families, young families, you gotta try and work out how that works, how to be in sync with the people around you that are important. You gotta get that right, you really do. I would say, for me now, I’ve got a 5-year old and a 3-year old. When they were 1, 2, 3, it was really tough, that was hard, especially around fast-growing business in the first couple of years, that was difficult. I was so much more capable of getting into a good routine now and family has allowed that somewhat.
Kilian (16:37 - 17:16) - It’s the same. I have a client right now as well who has a 1-year old and is like, it’s the toughest time, making sure that they are sleeping through and all of that. That is, especially, when the idea of a good structured routine can still help, especially when you say, let me try to wake up earlier so I get some time for myself before it’s really time for the baby and before everyone else wakes up, right? There’s a tricky time, you have to do some workarounds there, but you also know, of course, in your case as well, right, once they’re older, it gets better as well. There’s some light at the end of the tunnel.
Scott (17:16 - 17:46) - Absolutely, and I think it’s a bit of a mindset thing in just understanding that when you’re in that phase, you have to be flexible. You can’t, otherwise you’re just gonna be frustrated. I’m a creature of habit. I like having routine and I operate better when I’m in that, but when things throw it out, and I think this is a good thing to go down later when you talk about consistency, but you know there are situations where you have to adapt, you have to adjust, make allowances for it, and see how you can work within that.
17:47 - 25:28 - How to prepare for the day with morning routines & meditation
Scott (17:47 - 18:21) - Let’s get out of sleep now and move on to morning routine. To me, this is a critical thing for me, personally. It really sets my day up in terms of getting those early wins and knowing what I need to do first thing to make sure I’ve got those wins on the board and I’ve really set myself up to have a productive day. What are your recommendations around what a morning routine should look like? I guess, probably, habit-stacking to make sure that you get that in place and you’re able to maintain it and not trying to do too many things at once, right?
Kilian (18:21 - 22:50) - Yeah, there’s a couple of things to keep in mind. Actually, it starts with the night before. That’s the most important thing. That’s the same for sleep. If you fail the night before, then your mornings are ruined. If you wake up in the morning, you don’t have energy or you’re not motivated, you did something wrong the night before. That’s always the thing to look at. Did you, you know, have food too late? Did you, maybe, you know, worked too late? Make sure that is on track, and then the morning is easier. You can do already a few preparations. For example, what I like to do in the morning is a combination of a couple of things. You can think of it like, I heard this analogy sometime ago, the four elements! That’s pretty cool to think about it. The four elements are, you know, water. You wanna hydrate in the morning, getting up and hydrating. Then you have, like, earth. That means you wanna touch the floor, which is the idea of either walking around or doing some exercises like some push-ups, some squats, right? Or, even better, if you have a garden side, walk in the garden and touch the ground, touch the earth, which is like the movement aspect. Then you have, basically, wind or air, which is also related to that getting fresh air, opening the windows, having some contact there with nature, that’s important. And then you have fire or light, which is getting sunlight. That’s the best thing you can do, getting sunlight. These are already, you know, few crucial elements, if you just, you know, think about the four elements. Basically, hydration, the movement, getting outside, getting some fresh air. If you don’t have a balcony, open the window and just, you know, get some fresh air into the house, open all windows, and maybe also get some sunlight, if you haven’t. That’s already an awesome primer. And then, apart from that, Robin Sharma talks about, you know, the empires, the four interior empires, and it’s always good. We talked about something for the physiology, which is the movement, but then other things you can implement as well, is for the mindset and for the emotional and spiritual side. For a lot of people, that is something related to silence and introspection, which can be, there’s other things you can do. I encourage people to find what works for them. For some, it’s prayer. For some, it’s meditation. For others, it’s simply, you know, sitting down with a journal and recording their thoughts and, you know, what they’re grateful for. In the Miracle Morning, for example, they have this S.A.V.E.R.S. acronym, which stands for Scribing, Affirmation, Visualization, Exercise, what was the other one, Reading.. Forgot the last one, but this is basically a combination of what they can do, right? I always say, get those first ones in first. The hydration, the movement, light, and air to prime your circadian rhythm, to prime your biology, and then you can pick and choose a few of the other ones. Also, don’t pack the morning routine too tightly so you have this, like, check, check, check, and you’re running around. You’re like, what is this, it’s not relaxing! This, again, depends as well on what personality you have. Some people, they’re super groggy in the morning, and they’re lacking motivation for whatever reason. That’s another symptom to diagnose, but if you have that as a quick fix, it’ll be helpful to have a more structured routine and tick things off and get into momentum. To others, maybe like you, who are already super powerful in the morning, they don’t need to have too many things. They’d rather wanna use their energy to quickly, you know, get the gym out of the way and then dive into work, because in the afternoon, they know they don’t have so much energy anymore. That’s how you do it. You line up a few things, you do habit-stacking. Basically say, after I do this, I do that, you know, and have the location, time, and place. And, yeah, you have your morning routine. So, also, one word of caution, make sure that it’s not too overloaded from the start and know that it’s a constant refinement anyway. You have to refine it, you have to figure out how to shift, maybe, that around, do that first, or include something later. Don’t make it perfect. I know a lot of guys, in entrepreneurship, are perfectionists. I’m also a recovering perfectionist and so, I’m letting you know of that consistency mindset, and then, you know, figure out what works for you.
Scott (22:51 - 24:26) - Yeah. There’s so much good advice in there. Where to start? One thing that was, I know is a big friction point for me, and has become a focus point, going back to what you’re suggesting around, start the night before, I need to make sure that I have made, everything’s set up so that I have to make as few decisions as I need to when I wake up. Because, as you said, you wake up, you’re a little bit groggy. Last thing I do before I go to bed, my gym clothes are out in the bathroom and my bag is packed. I literally get up, my alarm goes off, I would get up, walk into the bathroom, put those clothes on, pick up my bag, and then leave, just so I don’t have to think. Because as soon as I wake up and I have to think, that’s when you start making excuses and things become difficult when there’s friction, right? So that’s definitely one thing from my side that helps that part. My morning routine reflects a lot of what you’ve said there so, for me, it’s straight to the gym. The silence time, for me, is really getting into the office early when there’s no one around, so that helps. I come straight in, it’ll be probably 15-20 minutes of journaling, going through goals, habit-tracking spreadsheet, and then an hour of reading, and then do everything else. Sometimes, I’m gonna make some allowances ‘cause we got team across geo and you gotta jump on calls, but that’s typically what I try to do. I love to squeeze that meditation aspect in there, but sometimes that slips just because time permitting, but I do find that helpful as well.
Kilian (24:27 - 25:28) - And that’s also a good point you mentioned that, sometimes, you also benefit from meditation maybe in the afternoon or in the evening. A lot of people, when they have a lot of work-related thoughts, it might be helpful to have a short, quick, not too long meditation in the evening to let go of that. What’s also helpful in the afternoon, when you feel like, oh no, I’ve got some meetings and your head is all over the place, to have some intention-setting to say, hey, how do I wanna show up in that next meeting? How do I wanna show up to that next work block? Really prime yourself, that’s also super powerful. The other thing you mentioned, making sure that you have things packed. That’s the secret for everything! That’s the number one reason most guys who, theoretically, know about these things don’t do them consistently, because they have not used the power of designing your environment to make things easier. They’re still stuck in that old mindset of ‘will of power, will of power, just push myself, do it!’ But they don’t realize, long-term, that that doesn’t work, willpower is not something…
25:28 - 32:40 - How to deal with disruptions and falling out of habit
Scott (25:28 - 26:06) - And then you get frustrated when it doesn’t work, right? Let’s discuss ‘cause it’s really interesting ‘cause this happens with me. Travelling, because as soon as I get out of my home routine where my gym is literally on the road to work so I don’t have to think. I drive, I stop there, I go straight to the office. It’s all just perfectly planned and simple. Whenever I’m travelling and I go stay somewhere, I always have in my head that I’m gonna keep doing this and make sure that I train and exercise when I’m there, but it’s the first thing that I fall out of rhythm with when I’m on the road. How do you deal with that?
Kilian (26:06 - 26:14) - It’s like, probably, you need to have a… Do you say, specifically, for travelling or in general when you’re in a different location?
Scott (26:15 - 26:59) - I guess, for me, personally, and I think a lot of people in our space, maybe not right now in the last 12 months, ‘cause we’ve had COVID and everything else going on, but you know, generally, we do probably travel quite a lot. I find that a disruptive thing to my routine. I think, for a lot of people, I find the same, but it could be anything, anything that’s throwing yourself out. How do you deal with the disruptions to make sure that you keep getting the things done? I think there’s gonna be some non-negotiable things, right, and for me it’s the exercise one because I know if I don’t do that, I’m not gonna perform best and it probably has the most mental impact on me as well in terms of, I guess, self-perception. If I’m not doing that or if I fall out of that routine for a couple of weeks, that’s probably got the biggest negative effect on me.
Kilian (26:59 - 29:29) - Yeah. There’s 2 points. Number 1, let’s talk about the travelling first. The question is, how long are you gonna travel, and what’s the purpose of it? Because if you do, like, a 2-day trip, it might just be like, hey, just take it easy on yourself, let’s enjoy the city and so on, right? That’s not a question. If it was like a 7-day trip, then you’ll probably wanna think about how you wanna keep your habits. And if you move, like, you know, vacation kind of style, 1 month summer, then of course. The longer the trip is, the more you wanna spend some time in preparation in terms of, can I do some preparations in advance, for example, when you book your hotel room, when you book your AirBnB. Again, environment, can you make it easy on yourself? Do they have a good workout room there, maybe? Do they have a good gym nearby? Maybe there’s a, already a healthy meal delivery service in the hotel or nearby in the city somewhere? It takes you… Even your assistant can research that for you, you know? Just give a checklist, please, I’m travelling, check these things, make sure, these are the criteria. Again, you make it easy. You can order meals to your address. You know a gym is close by so it’s easier for you to just go quickly, go down the hotel lobby or you know, whatever. These are a few things. The other thing is, you wanna look at, in terms of routines and habits, what I call, like, having a core routine. There’s some routines that you can do wherever you go to. For example, having a cold shower, meditating, these are things, even a journal and writing that in your book, these are things you can do anywhere you go. The secret is to either stack them towards things you already do anyway like waking up, directly doing push-ups, then directly cold shower, then after the cold shower, then directly meditation. This is a stack which is independent of your environment. You just wake up anywhere and then you basically follow that. If you wanna make it easier, the other thing is, see if you can adapt your environment in a bit. If you’re living in an AirBnB or a hotel room, can you, like, put a meditation pillow out there, right? Or can you like put the journal already there so it’s already easy to follow these things? Can you, maybe, if you have a little workout plan you follow at home or in that AirBnB, there’s really no gym nearby, can you have that written down, just a few exercises that you follow directly? Again, don’t think, make it easier, just walk there, okay, go down, do 5 push-ups, let’s go. You know, just get into motion.
Scott (29:31 - 29:36) - You simplify it, right? At least doing something is better than doing nothing.
Kilian (29:36 - 31:41) - Exactly. That was my 2nd point that I wanna cover. We have this adoptions and preparations of the environment, but the most important point is you have to think long-term. You have to think, okay, this is gonna be a few weeks of the whole year. What is worse? Worse is if I have this all-or-nothing mindset and I think like, oh, I can’t have my 1.5-hour gym session because I don’t have materials or, you know, the gym is too far or whatever. So then I’m not gonna do anything. That’s the worst thing you can do. But if you say, I think about my identity and you talk about this idea of the self-image, and how I feel, self-respect and how I view myself, and say, ‘I’m an active person. I’m a person who works out. I’m an athlete.’ What does an athlete do, you know? An athlete finds a way to work out anyway, and that means you have to lower your bar for success. This is something which I also go through with my clients. It’s like, this idea of 3 divisions, and by that I mean, you have a Division 1, a Division 2, and a Division 3. Division 1 is incredibly easy to stick to, it’s like this, it’s good enough, I can do that at any time. Division 2 is a bit better, it’s already nicer. And 3 is awesome. Take the example of exercising. The good enough rule that anybody can do always, for example, 5 minutes of exercise; 5 minutes and you have, I just do these 10 push-ups and these 10 things and so on. Division 2 would be ramping it up, maybe with a workout on an app that you have, it’s also easier, maybe it’s 20 minutes. And then, Division 3 would be to go to a gym or have a full workout for 1 hour, right? And so, the idea is not anymore all-or-nothing, workout hardcore or not at all. On those days when you’re super busy, let me get my Division 1 in, let me just, you know, do that, show up, and chances are, you’re working out already. It feels good, I still have some time, you’re going to Division 2, and work out a bit longer. And then you can see how it goes, right?
Scott (31:40 - 31:41) - I love that.
Kilian (31:42 - 32:07) - Right, and then the set up, the most important habits that you feel like you struggle with sometimes, ask yourself, are you too all-or-nothing mindset? And how can you break down those habits into divisions so it’s no more zero days, but it’s at least Division 1. Again, it reinforces your identity, I am someone who works out, you will make that time for it, and you will show up anyway. So that’s my take on that.
Scott (32:07 - 32:40) - I love that. I think that’s amazing advice because I think the tendency, generally, and just from my personal experience, it tends to go to that all-or-nothing, as soon as I’m thrown out, but I think if you’ve got that baseline, okay, I’m just gonna do 2 sets of push-ups to exhaustion, couple sets of squats, and some sit-ups, at least I’ve done something and I’ve kept that momentum. I think a lot of it is about momentum because once you get back to that point where you’ve lost it altogether, then you kinda got to go back to square one and build it up again. I think that’s amazing advice there.
32:40 - 38:28 - Productivity and efficiency: How to make the most of the time you have
Scott (32:46 - 33:09) - So I think we’ve really, sort of, set up, okay, how do we set our day up in the best way possible. Now, we know our day, we’re trying to maximize, you know, how we’re using our time and our focus and our productivity. How do you approach that? What recommendations do you have with the guys that you work with? Yeah, look, everyone wants to, you know, I guess ideally work less hours, but get more out of them. How do we do that in an optimal way?
Kilian (33:09 - 37:15) - First of all, you’ve gotta have some structure and some agenda that you follow in your day. So you have to have a good schedule that is structured to protect your deep work hours in the morning. So if you’re the owner of your business, you, of course, make your own hours and you decide where you go. Of course, you have meetings, but you still also have some control over how to schedule them, if you really, you know, make that happen. What I always recommend is, first of all, set up your schedule in such a way that your energy and your focus is protected in the morning, and make that time uninterrupted by any communication - no Slack, no email, no meetings, nothing. Even if it’s just 1 hour, you know, and if you don’t make that then we gotta work on that sleep and make you wake up earlier so you get that 1 hour in. That 1 hour is for those important but not necessarily urgent tasks. There’s this idea, you know, planning out next steps for campaign of hiring someone or business strategy or that stuff where you need creativity, but it’s not that urgent that you’d need to do it today. This is the stuff which usually gets procrastinated on, if you don’t make the time for that. Can also be, you know, crafting some good copy, some content, other stuff that otherwise will get procrastinated on. Apart from that, the 2nd part of the morning would be about, what I call, the focus block which is more of those important and urgent things; can be client communication, client/work meetings, if they are really important. Otherwise, meetings and conversations would be best to have in the afternoon because, as you said, the focus declines there. For the communication time, that’s the best time to do that. The idea is, you work from a calendar, you use time-blocking to block your schedule, and you make sure that the prioritization is in line with when you have the energy. So, in the morning, deep work, important not urgent tasks. After that, the important and more urgent tasks, and you know, making sure that these fires don’t interrupt you in the early morning hours. Once you go into the fires, it’s very difficult to get back in and have some creativity and focus in the morning. And then, in the afternoon, you again have maybe a few more work blocks, more communication-related. And then, very important, at the end of the work day, you have separation between work and outside of work. Because if you’re dragging… There’s 2 things, if you’re dragging work always into your personal life, and you’re checking email or stuff like that late into the evening, well, you have problems recharging, it will affect your sleep, and your performance the next day is compromised. The other point is that you don’t create a sense of urgency for yourself. If you say, oh I could work also until late, you can also procrastinate now because there’s no reason for you to get stuff done. Give yourself that time where you can do it on a weekly basis, but also the night before and the morning where you say, that’s when I wanna end my workday, okay? That’s it. Best case is you do it like you. You have some accountability, some why for why you have it, which for you is the family, can also be for others the gym. I wanna hit the gym because, otherwise, it gets too crowded, and you know, and then everything else drifts outwards. Or if you have a meeting with your girlfriend or you have some buddies you wanna hang out for an hour or something. That’s always good, social accountability, because then you have a reason to end work on time. And then, once you have that, you work backwards, what needs to happen in my workday? What are the deadlines that I set for each work block, and also for the meetings, and then you bring much more assertiveness into each day because you know you have a deadline to meet. That’s, like, Parkinson’s Law, the more time you give yourself for anything, the more you will also use it up! So give yourself a bit of less time and then you’ll be able to stick to your workflow.
Scott (37:15 - 38:28) - Yeah. I totally fall in line with that. I personally work better with tighter deadlines. Even when you go back to school, I was always a crammer. It wasn’t important until the last minute. I think another thing that’s really important, when you’re going back and talking about, you know, keeping your mornings clear and, sometimes, especially for me, that can be difficult ‘cause a lot of my team is US-based so we’re dealing with different geos. One part is really, I guess, getting really good at saying no. There’s a lot of things that you just have to say no to protect your time like that. For me, internally, I’m offered the one that’s the most vocal about. I need an open calendar, I don’t like having meetings, especially when you got meetings scattered because then you find, you’ve got an hour here or 90-minutes there. I like to have big 3, 4 hour blocks where I can really, you know, really get into the zone, focus, and dive deep into something, you know, sink my teeth into. I feel like if I’ve got an hour, by the time I get into the headspace that I need to think in the best way possible, usually, half-way through and then you’ve got to stop and then it’s just really disruptive.
38:30 - 43:12 - Getting into flow and ensuring work-life balance
Scott (38:30 - 38:36) - Getting into flow, what are your thoughts and recommendations around that and, you know, the importance of it?
Kilian (38:37 - 42:28) - Yeah, first of all, to double-down on what you said, that’s also related to flow, is you can have a theme for your day. You can, for example, say that you have only a couple of days where you take calls and then you really bench those calls throughout the day, right? It’s also better to get into that flow, as you said. The advantage is that, on those other days, you have, maybe, no calls and then it’s really nice, you can work on the important stuff. If because of time reasons, time zone reasons with other, you know, US and so on, doesn’t work for you, think about the set-up with the day themes. That’s one point. The other point for the flow is this. You wanna ask yourself, is my, is it easy for my brain to get into the flow? And that, with the background in mind that our brain likes to associate the setting and the context with an activity. For example, if you go to bed, you wanna make sure that when you go to bed, you don’t, you necessarily don’t have your laptop in there because then your brain is confused, it’s like, are we sleeping now or are we working here, right? When you reserve different environments for different activities, it will be easier for you to to get into the flow easier. That means, when you work, have a dedicated workplace. Also, make sure that you don’t do anything else there, apart from working. You know, don’t chill around, watch movies, or whatever. Don’t do that! You work when you work. When you chill, go somewhere else, go to the living room or, you know, go outside. Take a walk and do that. Have those separations in terms of environments. That’s super important. Apart from that, there’s some nice tricks you can do. For example, you can have focusing music, like Brain FM is a big one. You always have a starting ritual with. That’s another trick. It’s like similar to how you start your day, that you start it with morning routine because we thrive on this routine and then, you know, you build that momentum. Same thing for any task. Sometimes, people struggle with procrastination and it’s because they’re lacking clarity, they’re not in momentum. The momentum comes from taking action first. And so, in any case, it helps, to have, for your most important tasks in some task manager or even in a habit spreadsheet. I personally track each day when I start my work day. I have 1 column which is called start of ritual, and I just tick it off if I did it. In that column, I have a description where it says step 1, put in headphones, step 2, click on Brain FM, step 3, get into a good working position. You know, sometimes, I’m slouching and doing weird stuff and I always have to remind myself that I have to stand good and so on. And then, step 4, start a timer. Step 5, do I have clarity on what I’m working on? Do I need to break down some things more? Sometimes, I don’t even know what I’m doing! So this is such an easy ritual. I just go in there, okay, today, I’m not motivated, but I can put in my headphones. I can also start Brain FM, right? And so, this already gets you into a better mode and your brain knows that. That means work is starting, alright. So find these little rituals you can implement for yourself, make it easy to get started, and make it fun as well. People like different kinds of playlists. On some days, I like this massage spa music, which is super calming and grounding. Other days, I like these beats from Brain FM and you can even implement things like these essential oils that you can spray, that’s also cool because you have different smells and your brain’s like, that means focus right now, and then you get started. That’s just a few tips.
Scott (42:29 - 43:12) - That’s so interesting, the music component. When I think about what I listen to during the day, first thing in the morning, when it’s in that, I guess, clear mind, thinking, reading, learning space, it’s usually lo-fi beats or baroque, classical. That gets me into the headspace rhythm, no vocals obviously. But then, if it’s later in the day, when we’re talking after mid-day, and okay I’ve just got to get stuff done, checking off tasks, it’s usually more upbeat like I grew up with a lot of punk, surf-punk, and grunge and that’s usually a bit more energetic. That helps me push through the afternoon, that music energy, so I think music’s a huge part that I find really interesting.
43:15 - 59:15 - Finding the motivation for when you lose focus or purpose
Scott (43:15 - 44:07) - There was something that’s coming to mind as well that was triggered from what you’re talking about before, I can’t remember exactly what it was, but as entrepreneurs, coming back to like mindset components here, right? As entrepreneurs and marketers and people who are always trying to pushing themselves, going back to the Seth Godin term, there’s always the inevitable dip. Everyone goes through those phases where you know, you just, you can’t get your head clear, and you sort of touched on it before where, you know, you lack that clarity and struggling to find that motivation. Maybe it’s a loss of focus on your purpose or whatnot, but when you’re struggling, when you’re going through those phases where you’re finding it hard to get motivated, to find the reason for what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, what are your recommendations around that to try and get yourself back on track if you veer off the path?
Kilian (44:09 - 48:30) - Man, that’s such a good point. And I think a lot of people can resonate with this right now because of everything that’s been going on in the past few months. I can, I wanna tell a quick story, I can resonate with that really hard core. It was also tough for me, I have to say, in the past half year to a year, especially last winter which, in Europe, is of course, you know, starting from, like, October to November. What happened was this, got a case of COVID and I lost my sense of smell, and then I basically, here in Budapest, it gets dark at around 4pm in winter. It was super dark, it was cold outside, it was grey. Gyms were closed, nothing to do. Like, it was really hard, right? All the joy that I had from my life, working out and all these things, gone. I didn’t smell anything, good job. That was also for me were I felt like, man, that’s like, you know, that’s difficult. What helped me to stay grounded at that time, and to show up anyway, was this idea of, number 1, what’s my identity? What’s the kind of person I wanna reinforce and be today? So that’s basically, I have a list of character traits. I have a list of reminders that I’ve accumulated over the years and even my vision, you know, a vision board that I have. I made it a habit to review that stuff and keep myself on track, especially the reminders, you know, this idea that this too shall pass. This idea that, you know, thinking long-term, focusing more on the process instead of the outcome, focusing on showing up. All these reminders that I’ve accumulated over the years, they helped me tons. And then, the other thing is that, again, am I too all-or-nothing mindset right now? Am I being too hard on myself, you know? And understanding that life unfolds also in energy cycles. That’s a big, big thing I learned over the years as well that it’s totally normal that after a few months of working hard core, you have months where it’s a bit slower and you should actually anticipate that. It’s like in the gym, you know, the idea of progressive overload, working out working out, the weights go up, and then you wanna take a week where you do a deload, you take it easier. You still work out, but you take it easier. This is the idea as well, totally normal that you have energy cycles and anticipate that, and then also prepare for that by giving yourself some pampering time. You know, whatever is possible where you at right now, some people have massage salons open or spa places or some trips in nature with your partner or your wife or whatever. This is super important that you anticipate that and that you’re not too hard on yourself. The not too hard on yourself comes from the reminders, been there done that, you know, focus on the process. What have you accomplished already? Think long-term, in the grand scope of 5 - 10 years, having a few weeks or 2 months or so, being in a dip is nothing. It’s just about you getting back on track. And then, the other thing is, what we talked about before, this division set-up. Maybe that’s what I did, I couldn’t work out at the gym, but I still said, I can find some alternative. I usually work out in winter outside next to the river in some workout spot. If I couldn’t do that, I have a short posture correction and basically home workout thing that I follow at home, even if it was just 15 - 20 minutes, right? I know. It’s like, I’m not 100% happy with, like, my progress I made in that time, but it’s totally normal. I know, when the gyms open again, I’ll get back on track and all of these things will get back. And so here’s where the mindset is super important. One thing I also wanna give people to think about. If you guys invest into the stock market, right, the stock only goes up for years, for years, no correction, no correction, you’ll be freaking suspicious. You’re like, something happens here, you know. You even expect it! But for yourself, you expect that everything goes, always perfectly fine, no correction, no setbacks, nothing. Isn’t that strange?
Scott (48:30 - 49:07) - Everything should be linear! Everything should be linear to the moon, right? And I think that’s so true. We’ve just, we do have this tendency to be so hard on ourselves, and the expectations… 1% better everyday, 1% better everyday, 1% better everyday, and then if you sort of feel like you’re not doing that, you feel like you’re underperforming or under-delivering or not doing the best that you can. And then, it’s easy to get into that negative cycle, which can turn a dip into something more prolonged, but I think that’s so critical in what you’re saying. Just don’t be too hard on yourself.
Kilian (49:07 - 51:27) - Yeah! Again, a lot of entrepreneurs have this innate drive anyway. We got into entrepreneurship because we want to make stuff happen and we have this characteristic of, you know, we’re rather driven than not driven, right? That’s usually what entrepreneurs are. You may be on the side of giving too much and being too strict on ourselves. So, sometimes, you gotta learn also to say, man, good job in the past few months, take it a bit easier. Don’t burn yourself out. Enjoy the process along the way. That’s super important and so, the thing is this. When you have some good habits in place, and they don’t have to be perfect, that’s important. But you’re consistently doing things that take care of yourself, right? That is basically the physical component. If it’s reading or just some mindset things, some meditation and so on. Think about it. If you’re investing into ETFs, exchange traded funds. Most entrepreneurs probably know what that is. What you’re doing is this, you’re thinking long-term! You don’t expect that this thing, in half-year or a year from now, makes this crazy returns. Maybe you expect it from Bitcoin, but not from ETFs. ETFs, you think like this, I’m gonna invest in this thing for 20, 30, 40 years, I’m talking retirement. I don’t care what’s gonna happen, I put like 500,000 bucks in there per month, I don’t even know how much is in there right now, and it doesn’t matter whether the stock market’s gonna crash. You know it will every 10 years or so, but you just keep investing, keep investing, keep investing. Because over a long investment horizon of 20, 30, 40 years, studies have shown that, on average, it will always be higher in the long-term than where you’re at right now. That means, you know, there will always be some return. If you ask yourself for that right now, do you really think that in 5, 10, 15 years from now, no matter what slump you’re in right now, you won’t be worse off than right now? No, you will not! You will have learned so many things just by showing up, focusing on the process. You know, trying, not being perfect but giving your best. That’s the mindset, that’s the mentality. Showing up, giving your best, but good enough, and then also not being too hard on yourself.
Scott (51:27 - 52:06) - And it’s the compounding effect with that one, right? Always coming from that aspect of building and building and building, that little bit all the time. I think if you keep that focused, exactly what you’re saying. You’re not trying to go from 0 to 1,000 overnight. It’s just that little bit and little bit and little bit. Over the next 5 years, you know, what you’re building on in 5 years’ time is gonna be so far above where you are now. That’s where you’re gonna start seeing those. For me, personally, I’ve seen that over the last 10 years. When I look back at where I was 10 years ago, I’ve just been chipping away, chipping away, chipping away. And then you look back 10 years later and go, wow, I have actually made a lot of progress.
Kilian (52:08 - 52:58) - And you have to make that looking back as well, that’s important that you know, you smell the roses kind of, and you give yourself that reward. Otherwise, it’s always like the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. You’re always chasing something, but you’re never enjoying the journey along the way. That’s like, I heard this awesome little meditation by Sam Harris from the Waking Up app, highly recommended. He had these little moments which pop in and give you these daily reminders. He said, the biggest mistake is that happiness is expecting that happiness lies at the end of the journey, that someday you’ll get there, and someday you will be happy. It’s not possible. You will only be happy along the journey, by enjoying the journey, by you know, showing up and doing the right things that you resonate with everyday. That’s the mindset. Never fall into the trap of just sometimes.
Scott (52:59 - 53:32) - Yeah, couldn’t agree more. You know, if you’re waking up in the morning, you’re not feeling like this is something that you enjoy doing, then you should probably take a step back and think about, okay, do I need to look at a different direction in my life? To me, the biggest litmus test for that for me, personally, was always on a Monday, am I waking up, am I excited to go and do what I do, or am I looking forward to the weekend? If I’m looking forward to the weekend, that probably says a lot about how I’m mis-spending 5 days of the week, and then time to stop, sit back and reflect on what am I gonna move towards.
Kilian (53:32 - 54:32) - Exactly! It can be a macro-reflection towards saying am I doing the wrong thing? Am I spending the wrong thing on my time on? But it can also be that you simply don’t make time for your body and recharging enough. It can also be a warning sign for your body that there is accumulated sleep deprivation, you haven’t recovered yet, or you just need, also, some time to unplug from all the demands. You can be super good and passionate about your business, but you cannot set it up in a wrong way that, like, everything comes at you and you do all the tasks that maybe, in the business, you shouldn’t do, and things like that. It just drains you, and you can still be passionate about the vision and the thing you’re doing, but just the day-to-day and the recharging and the what you do everyday, that’s messed up. So use these warning signs as reflection. Have also some days off where you don’t use the phone, you go into nature, you let the mind wander, come up with some nice solutions for yourself, and that’s where you get the best breakthroughs and ideas for the future.
Scott (54:33 - 55:31) - What about forcing yourself to take… again, this is just such a tendency of, I guess, entrepreneurs and their nature to struggle, to force themselves to take that time away. I know a lot of us in our team, we always have to tell each other like, go and have a break, you need to go and take 2 weeks. A lot of our strategists even, they’re so, we’re managing large amounts of ad spend and this comes almost like a high-pressure environment, like a hedge fund or something like that, when you’re dealing with those sort of numbers. A lot of that, whether it’s conscious or unconscious, the stress can build up. You need to take that space to move away and think and recharge. How would you approach that, scheduling that, getting what you need in place? I think a lot of times, people feel like they can’t. They can’t. I think it’s a bit of a misconception that things are gonna blow up if I go away for a week or something when they’re not in reality.
Kilian (55:32 - 57:12) - I think in a company environment like, for example, in your specific example, it’s really about the leadership guys like you leading by example. And so, the company culture should encourage that. People should know it’s like work hard, play hard, which means when you work, you work, when you’re home, you’re home. You know, things like that. When you’re in vacation, you’re in vacation. And so, that should be part of the company culture, it should be respected, and it should be encouraged. It should also be seen that you’re doing that yourself. Right? That you yourself are taking time off and it’s good, and that you encourage them to do so. I think that’s the first thing. And then, the other thing is also, they need to learn to reignite and connect with their passions again. Because if you’re in business, you know, it’s nice to be in business, but... I talked with another guy who’s a big agency owner in the US and he said, most people who he talks to in business are so boring, all they can talk about is business. They don’t have anything else going on in their life. And so, this is also a reason, that’s my opinion, that a lot of people, they have trouble letting go because they have nothing else going on. What are some hobbies you did as a teenager, right? Maybe you were into motorcycling, or you were into, you wanna learn some languages, or you danced and things like that. Reigniting that stuff that lights you up, it’s so funny, that’s good stuff, that helps people on a daily basis with their evening routine by not reading a business book again, but maybe reading some fiction book or watching a documentary that you’re so excited about, maybe some tech geek or some astronomy or I don’t care! And the same thing...
Scott (57:12 - 57:19) - I just let my wife choose the trashy Netflix thing that we’re gonna watch that night to keep everyone happy. That’s my mental switch-off.
Kilian (57:19 - 58:18) - Exactly, and that’s totally fine, if that’s what you need for a switch-off. But think about what are passions of yours that you might have neglected. Business is not the only thing in your life, and it can be your passion, your main passion even, but you still can have other things that you’re interested in. Maybe, for me, personally, I love those documentaries about nature and space. You know, the David Attenborough stuff that, and I love also Neil DeGrasse Tyson, like the cosmos and the science and the physics, so good, so fascinating for me! It lights up the inner child in me. So ask yourself, what is the stuff that really lights you up, that you look forward to where you say, I can’t wait to take those 2 weeks off and we have these awesome activities planned and it’s gonna be so nice. That’s another driver that will help you to take it off, enjoy the time taking off, and then come back recharged because, you know, you did something that really fulfills you.
Scott (58:18 - 58:51) - Yeah, I think it’s so huge. For me, what you touched on and going back to nature, for me it’s always been surfing and being in the mountains. I love surfing, I love skiing. I haven’t had as much time over the last 10 years to do that, but it’s always something that I know, if I’m going on a boat trip, or I’m going to the mountains, I know I’m just, you can lose yourself in that moment if you’re in nature. I find going out and doing something outside is always a good thing. For me, I prefer those types of holidays as opposed to sitting by a resort pool and, you know, drinking a cocktail. I’d rather do something…
Kilian (58:52 - 59:15) - You also get out of your head, that’s important, if you know... When you’re doing activities that require a lot of concentration or speed, like skiing at a fast speed or snowboarding, you’d be concentrating. You can’t think about the ad budget, right? You gotta be in the moment, you know, and that’s another important thing. Do those activities that force you to be present, that’s also important.
59:17 - 1:03:35 - 5 key points to focus on to help maximize your schedule and efficiency
Scott (59:17 - 59:48) - Man, so true! This has been a really, really good discussion and, honestly, I could probably sit here and we could talk about this stuff for 3 hours, but we’re getting close to the end of the time. Let’s start wrapping it up and let’s think about, if we wanna just whittle this down to, say, 5 points that people can take away to focus on for the next few weeks that are really important to get in their lives, that they can start getting more out of themselves, maintaining that consistency, and setting themselves up for the best performance from a day-to-day basis, what would your recommendations be?
Kilian (59:49 - 1:02:10) - I would say, definitely, make sure that you see that everything is connected. That’s number 1, everything is connected in your day. That means, start to approach the evenings already in such a way that, you know, next day’s morning will influence the next day’s evening. Everything is connected in your day. That means, make sure, in the evenings, that you have time off for yourself. Have a separation between business and personal, that’s important, that’s number 1. Number 2 is, value yourself more. Give yourself time that you need. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Make sure you know, you take time for your body, for relaxation, and so on. That’s important, especially if you’re a high achiever who has that drive. And then, number 3, I will say, think about how can I make it easy for myself to do the things I know I should be doing. That goes back to not relying on willpower, but designing your environment. That’s, like, the crucial element for everything. And then, the other thing, maybe another point we can mention as well is, make sure that you know why you do all of these things in the first place. Make sure to have, you know, like, have a few ideal character traits that you really wanna reinforce that, when you’re at your best, this is how you show up and the reminders that help you to get into that zone. Collect a little list of those reminders, collect the little list, write them down, and have them in your office. Write them down, put them in your office; when you have that low phase, review that. That’s when I was at my best, that’s what I was thinking, those were reminders. And 5th and final point I would say, a lot of people know about to-do lists and scheduling, we talked about this a lot. Why don’t you have a not-to-do list? Maybe you haven’t tried it yet. Write a not-to-do list, put that in your office, and write down all the things that are your kryptonite. What’s your kryptonite? What kills you, you know? Write it down, not to do that, don’t do that. Prime yourself in the morning about these things because most of the time, you’ll be successful by simply avoiding the downside and, you know, just showing up and avoiding temptations and things that get you off-track instead of always trying better, better, better. Just standard performance without distractions is already good enough, but these are the 5 points that I think will help you.
Scott (1:02:10 - 1:03:02) - That’s beautiful. That last one, I think we discussed that on our call as well, and Essentialism by Greg McKeown is a book that I read over the Christmas holidays, had a really big impact on that, specifically. You know, a question that I come back and keep asking myself as much as I can, consciously, all the time is what’s important right now and what’s not important? What are the things that just aren’t important that I need to get out of my life, clear out, create space, whether it’s going into your wardrobe and getting rid of all the stuff that you do not wear that just takes up room and cognitive load. So that’s definitely a book recommendation. I think that’s a great place to end it here. Kilian, thank you so much, man! This has been such an enjoyable conversation. For someone who’s maybe looking for some consultation or help or just wants to, you know, get more awareness of your space, where can they find you?
Kilian (1:03:02 - 1:03:24) - 100%! Check out our Facebook group The High-Performing Agency Owners Group. Maybe we’ll have a link in the show notes about that as well. And apart from that, if you wanna learn more about how we might be able to help you, just check out kilianmarket.com, that’s my first name Kilian, Markert my last name, dot com. There, you can also find some case studies or also book a consultation with me.
Scott (1:03:24 - 1:03:32) - Perfect. Everything will be in the show notes. So, anyone, reach out to Kilian, absolutely amazing at his craft, and thank you very much for coming on the show.
Kilian (1:03:32 - 1:03:35) - Thanks for having me! It was awesome, as always, man!
1:03:36 - 1:04:40 - Episode Outro
Scott (1:03:36 - 1:04:33) - Thanks again for tuning to this episode of the Growth & Greatness eCommerce Podcast. We hope you got a ton of value out of this episode and if you did, we’d love for you to leave us a review on your platform of choice and help us reach as many people as we can. Now, if you’re a brand founder, an eCommerce entrepreneur, or an in-house marketing manager looking to accelerate your growth this year, reach out to us at Right Hook Digital. We’re a performance branding agency and we specialize in partnering with eCommerce brands to help them hit their growth goals with maximum ROI. Now, if this sounds like a solution that you need, check us out at righthookdigital.com and schedule a call with our client partnerships team. They’d love to have a chat with you and see how we can help you grow in 2021.
