RJon Robins: From The Vault
RJon Robins: From The Vault
Ruthless Recognition of Reality
Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn’t see the warning label - this content can be explicit and it is for serious entrepreneurs only.
In this revealing lesson from 2016, RJon offers an unfiltered and objective look at labels within your business. Learn how to make rational decisions by identifying the people, products, and projects that represent different levels of profitability and predictability. Be sure to grab a pad and pen to follow along as RJon guides you through an exercise in effective decision-making.
Let's go to the vault!
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Turn the lessons in this episode into an actionable growth plan for your business with the FREE 5-Week Business Plan Bootcamp. https://htm.live/bootcamp
Welcome inside the vault. This is a collection of previously unreleased lessons from eight-figure entrepreneurial mastermind RJon Robins. And in case you didn't see the warning label, this content can be explicit, and it is for serious entrepreneurs only. Now in this lesson from 2016, RJon gives us a clear understanding of why labeling the "People" and"Projects" in our business is an effective way to make decisions. Let's go to the vault!
Testimonials:Working with RJon is like having a shortcut to future you. Every time I can have an opportunity to spend time with RJon, I try to take it and be a sponge. I thought everyone was crazy. You know, they were running to the front of the stage to see this person. RJon's wearing his crazy shirt. You know, he drinks tiger blood in the morning just for fun and he's like breathing down my throat. Sometimes it's terrifying to work with him. It's like he's looking into your soul. But it's, it's growth the whole way.
RJon Robins:Cash Cows are comfortable. Cash Cows are predictable. Cash Cows are profitable. Cash Cows are good. You know what else Cash Cows eventually do? They die. They eventually die. The key to maximizing your relationship with a Cash Cow is selling it or butchering it before it dies on you. Every Cash Cow will eventually die. That's why your business plan that you wrote five years ago ain't working anymore. The budget you did two years ago? Totally irrelevant. The policies, the systems, the procedures that you drafted once a long, long time ago? Don't help you anymore. Because everything eventually changes. That's how the world goes. That's life. Rising Stars. Rising Stars are exciting. Rising Stars, they tend to be very profitable. Rising Stars are also not that predictable. You know what happens with a Rising Star? Boom. It changes directions very, very quickly. Many of you have Rising Star businesses. They're throwing off all kinds of Cash, but if you don't put proper processes and policies and systems and procedures and infrastructure and all this boring stuff. All this really, really boring, unsexy stuff that you desperately don't want to do because you're all a bunch of ADD entrepreneurs looking for the next bright, shiny object. See? I know my people, right? If you don't put the processes and the policies and the systems and the procedures in place to support the Rising Star, they very often crash catastrophically with very little notice to you. Lots of notice to us. We'll be screaming in your face."It's gonna crash!""It's gonna crash!""Here's the numbers.""Here's the predictors.""Here's the red flags." And then you ignore us because you don't want to do anything about it. Just be aware those are Rising Stars. Got it? Alright, Question Marks. Question Marks are not very profitable and they are not very predictable. Question Marks are seductive. Many of you have Question Marks on your staff. Right? Many of you, a big part of the reason your business has grown as much as it has grown is because you stopped running your business with a bunch of Question Marks. When you hire the young lawyer just out of law school and you have these dreams of taking him or her under your wing and helping them become a Rising Star, what you have is you have a Question Mark. They're not very profitable because they're a huge suck of time and energy and resources. So they're not profitable. And they're not predictable because they may become a Rising Star or they may walk in tomorrow and give notice. And of course then there's Dogs. Dogs are not profitable and they are predictably not profitable. Many of you have Dogs in your business and your ego won't let you let go of them.
Cash Cows:highly profitable, highly predictable.
Rising Stars:highly profitable, not very predictable.
Question Marks:not very profitable, also not very predictable. They could become very profitable, they could become Stars, or they could become Dogs.
Dogs:very predictably unprofitable. Many of you have Dogs on your staff. who need to be fired. Everyone clear? Write out the decisions you've got, the things you've got, the people you've got who are Cash Cows, Rising Stars, Question Marks, and Dogs. Yes. You can include yourself. Yes. Well, yeah, you would include yourself because like, for example, I am a Dog when it comes to doing my own file organization. I am predictably unprofitable doing the job of being my own assistant. This is designed to teach you a skill. Don't worry about the decisions. Just find people, products, projects, stuff you've got going on and put them into the categories. The decision making skill is going to come when you try to come up with increasingly irrational arguments why you should keep your Dogs. And the decision making is going to come when you realize that there's times to shower time and energy and attention on your Question Marks, and there's times when you need to simply cut your losses and move on. And the decision making is going to come when you realize you've become complacent milking your Cash Cows and you haven't taken any time to cultivate any Rising Stars so that you've got the next generation of Cash Cows in production. But first you got to identify what you got before you can make decisions about it.
Narrator:If this episode is resonating with you, click the link in the show notes below to learn more about the upcoming five week business plan boot camp. Yes, this is a free virtual boot camp, which means seats are limited in order to provide personal attention and laser coaching. Click the link below and turn this podcast episode into an actionable business plan to grow your law firm. And now, back to the show.
RJon Robins:Is that a little bit tough? Why was it tough? I bet I know why it was tough. I bet the thing that was really, really, really tough was making the decision to put someone or something into one of those boxes. I bet that was tough, right? So think about this. If you have a hard time even just labeling something and putting it into the box, we haven't even got to the part where now you've got to make a decision what to do about it. Every business decision you make begins by giving it a label so you can wrap your head around it. Talk with someone else about it. Start by giving things labels. Write that down. Start your decision making by giving things labels. Name the thing. Identify its characteristics. Okay? Why was it so tough to give those things their labels? Because then it requires action. It forces you into action. When you give something a label, when you put it into the box of a Dog.'Oh my God, now I have to do something about it as a matter of personal integrity, I've got to do something!' And that's painful. It's scary. So instead we just go through life, abusing ourselves. Not giving anything labels. Keeping ourselves in a state of ignorance.'I don't know. I'm confused.' That's like everyone's subconscious favorite way of screwing with you is,'I don't know and I'm confused.' This isn't like some aspirational bullshit that we're doing here. This is hardcore, objective, ruthless recognition of reality. If it's already profitable, it could be a Rising Star. If it's not already profitable, then it's a Question Mark. The Question Mark either needs to be made profitable, or it needs to be admitted that it's a Dog, and you get rid of it. Okay, do you all get the point? Ruthless recognition of reality, that's what this exercise is all about. Ruthlessly recognizing that the reality is this is a Dog. Ruthlessly recognizing that this is a Question Mark and maybe it turns into a Star. Eventually becomes a Cash Cow, revenue producing income forever. Or it could be a Dog and I have to cut and run. That's really the dynamic that we were talking about before. Does everyone understand how you use this tool? Right? You've got people. You've got projects. You've got clients. You've got marketing initiatives. You all have things going on in your business that you've got to be ruthlessly real about. And is this the right time to be doing that? And I have lots and lots and lots of Question Marks in my business that I had to walk away from in order to climb the ladder because I couldn't climb the ladder with all the baggage. I had to leave them behind. That's part of business maturity.
Narrator:Thanks for listening. Tune in next week for more lessons From The Vault.
