Justin Stoddart 0:00
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show I’m Justin Stoddart. Oh my goodness, I am fired up thrilled, excited. There were a lot of adjectives right there about how I’m feeling about this episode, and really what this content has done for me in my life. And I’m thrilled to have today’s guest. Before I introduce him, let me just reiterate, the purpose of this show is that when we start to think bigger, we begin to act differently. And as we act differently, our businesses grow. And as our businesses grow, the options in our life and the impact that we can have in the world also grow. And that’s my passion is to help inspire people that want to impact the world, in greater ways. So I’m thrilled and want to thank today’s guest, Geoff woods, Vice President of the one thing for being with us today, Geoff, thank you for being here.
Geoff Woods 0:47
It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Justin Stoddart 0:49
Yes. For those that don’t know, Geoff, and your story, like let me back up by just saying the book “The One Thing” if you haven’t read it, your heads probably been in the sand. It’s been a best seller for a long, long time, on all the major path platforms, right, New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, on and on and on. It has has been a remarkable catalyst for a lot of people to change the way they look at things. Geoff, how did you find out about the one thing
Geoff Woods 1:15
I just and I was in medical device sales at the time, and I remember it was our national sales meeting, I walked into this big ballroom, we probably had 1500 people at the meeting. So lots of chairs, and on every single chair was a copy of the one thing, and I remember picking up the book and looking at and go, Oh, this is cool. And then out on stage was Jay Papasan, and who co-authored the one thing with Gary Keller, and for the next hour, he proceeded to just blow my mind. And I remember Justin, I was at this point in my life where I was ready to make a change. I, in medical device sales, had enjoyed a great living and great quality of life, but I was lacking fulfillment. And prior to this national sales meeting, two things happen that really forced me to make a change. The first was a colleague of mine had a stroke when he was 35. And I remember my wife and I had just bought a house in Orange County, we just had our first child and she made the decision to become a stay at home mom, and my colleague has a stroke. And I remember thinking, Justin, wow, if that happened to me, what happens to my family, and that really rocked me. And then A few weeks later, my company had to make a change to our commission structure to remain competitive in the marketplace. And as a result, I lost 40% of my income. And when you take those two things back to back, all of a sudden, I had a lot of pain in my life that made me realize I’ve actually got to take control of my future. And I heard this Jim Rome quote that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I remember looking at my five and feeling a lot of gratitude because they were great friends, but they weren’t actually already where I wanted to be. And so I was hunting mentors, and here’s Jay on stage blowing my mind and I’m going, Oh, I got to get into a relationship with this guy. But then all the limiting beliefs started to set in like, what could I say to him that would make him interested me Look, the give him that would make it worth his time. And when he came offstage, I just realized, now’s the time, I gotta go, I got it. I got to talk to him. I basically sprinted down the side of the hall, I wanted to be the first guy to talk to him. And I basically tackled him and asked to interview him for a podcast I was hosting at the time called the mentee. And I just kept following up with him asking what he and Gary were focusing on. And every single time I asked, he had an answer, whether it was looking for more exposure for the book. He said that a bunch of times, and the third time, I followed up and asked, after having delivered each time he had a request, he said that he and Gary were looking for a CEO for a publishing company. And I remember thinking, well, I knew three people that were publishing CEOs that might be a great fit. And I offered to make an introduction, said, that’d be great. And I said, Well, before we before I do that, why don’t we talk so you can tell me who you’re looking for. So I make the right intro. And when we got on the phone, Justin, he really surprised me. Because the person he described was not anybody in my network. He described me through my name in the hat. And you fast forward, November 1, 2015, I moved my family from Southern California to Austin, Texas. And for the past three and a half years, I’ve been turning the book into a company that changes the way people do time.
Justin Stoddart 4:13
Really interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that story. I’ve heard bits and pieces of it, but not the whole story. And a couple of things that really stand out to me, Jeff, that I would hope that the audience would maybe get from this, at least that I’m getting from it right, is that, in fact, one of my mentors teaches that you don’t have to be like, super courageous all the time. But there are points in your life where you have to be like 10 seconds of absolute courage. And for you, it sounds like it was that like, I need to go talk to this man like that, what he’s speaking and impact he’s having on the world. That’s kind of what I like. That’s, that’s somebody who I need to know. And it was it probably took a lot of guts didn’t it to like, say, I’m going to go introduce myself, right?
Geoff Woods 4:54
Absolutely, absolutely. I remember when I was going down the road to surrounding myself with people who are light years ahead of me, and all the limiting beliefs that pop up when you want to approach these people. But the truth is you gotta approach. And I remember I’ve asked several of my mentors. Why the heck are you even talking to me? And one guy who was on the founding team of priceline.com, I remember him saying to me because at one point in time I was in your shoes. And there was somebody who reached back, grabbed my hand and help pull me forward. And they didn’t ask for money. They didn’t ask me to wash their car. All they asked is one day I pay it forward. And this guy was now in a position where he was wealthier than he could ever imagine, had everything that he could possibly want. His life was now about impact. And he wanted to help the next generation of entrepreneurs. So it was in that moment that I realized that when it comes to the mentor-mentee relationship, the mentee actually has more power than the mentor. Because while the mentee thinks, Oh, I’m getting so much value from this person who’s pouring into me, you’re actually giving more value to them, because you’re giving them a sense of purpose. Wow.
Justin Stoddart 6:05
Wow, super interesting. I am. I found that when you really want something and kind of going back to another point that you made earlier, is like you recognize at one point that I’m not exactly where I want to be. And this, this path that I’m on might not get me there, right. Like I have a brother in law, actually, who’s in medical device sales. So I know very firsthand, kind of vicariously through him watching what happens that world right? As soon as you make a certain amount of money, which is like, yes, this is where I want to be. They’re like, No, you can’t make that much.
Geoff Woods 6:33
Yeah, they change your territory, they switch the comp plan up it just,
you know, always Yeah.
Justin Stoddart 6:40
And I think you know, the difference between, like, with, what you’ve done is you said, Look, this is not the path, I want to be on long term, I’m going to have to meet different people, I have to get to know other people for you at the time. That was your one thing, wasn’t it? It was these five people, this path that I’m on is, is not the right one to get me ultimately, ultimately, to where I want to be. And I have to change like my five people have to change.
Geoff Woods 7:02
You nailed it. Justin, it was so clear to me that if I wanted to change my circumstances, I had to change my network. And my one thing was surrounding myself with people who were where I wanted to be.
Justin Stoddart 7:15
And it is interesting how oftentimes in our minds, we play it off that people because they’ve had great success, that they’re completely unreachable. I found that not to be true, even though this show is that people successful like you, right, ultimately, people, they want to give back and contribute. As you said, they want to have a purpose because somebody at one point helps them get to that next level. Right? That’s right. That’s right. And, and I think you can sense in people when you’re with somebody who’s, who has a fire burning within them, that they want to contribute in bigger ways that they want to impact the world in bigger ways. Like you, you kind of are compelled to want to help that person. It’s like, I can see I can second see you want it and the end that if I give you hope you’re going to do something with it. That’s right. And so allow me to open a door for you. Right? That’s right. So let’s talk about one topic that I typically bring up at the beginning, but I’m going to go back there. You’ve got a beautiful little family there demonstrated on Facebook. The one thing about being a dad, let me ask it this way. The one thing that you love most about being a family, man. And what’s one thing that you found to really show up big in that space?
Geoff Woods 8:28
Sure. I think the thing I love most about being a parent is I mentioned this in the mentor-mentee relationship, every single one of us is at some point in time in our life, we’re going to want to leave a legacy, we’re going to be looking for a sense of purpose, and to have kids that you’ve played a part in creating, and to realize how much they are a reflection of you to see what they pick up to realize that you can shape and mold this person, like a piece of cake. Les is so cool. And I’ll give you an example. My daughter, Daphne, you know, when she was four or five, I had her go on her suffer 66 Day Challenge, which for those of you who don’t know what that is, it takes on average 66 days to form a habit. And then the one thing we have this model called a 66-day challenge where you isolate or identify the one thing you want to turn it into a habit. And you do it every day for on average 66 days. And for me to help her understand like to sit her down and to say, Daphne, people do not decide their futures. They decide their habits, and their habits decide their futures. For a five-year-old to grasp that concept. Holy crap. Yeah. And then to help her identify her one thing and to actually have her go through a process where she creates a habit around that, my gosh, what does that look like, over the course of a year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, I can’t even comprehend it.
Justin Stoddart 9:58
I think I’m a firm believer that, regardless of what we do in the workplace, if we’re parents, the greatest work they’ll have the greatest impact will actually be the work that we do within the walls of our own home. Because we can, as you mentioned, we can have such an impact there. And I think, unfortunately, and I fall, you know, Victor, not victim to that I fall, you know, to this bad habit as well, is that sometimes we let it right media, even if it’s good media, be a driving force that our kids live, as opposed to having the conversations that you just had, which is teaching them the principles that we’re learning, right? If if they’re people wired like you and like me, like we’re surrounding ourselves with personal development with mentors, and what a great way at a very early age, just like we know that it’s easy to teach a child a foreign language at a young age, it’s easier to teach them these great practices at a young age. And rather than letting the easy kill or whatever, no offense, cuz I know you’ve got a background there.
That there’s such a greater impact that we can have on our children’s lives by just been intentional on teaching them principles from the one thing right another great source.
Geoff Woods 11:03
Well, here’s another example, accountability know, when we when I look at what my standards are in business with the people who work with me, showing up as an accountable person is huge. If you show up and point the finger before you look in the mirror, we’re not going to win together. And for me, my daughter, at age five, I taught her that accountability means that when something doesn’t go your way, you ask, what can I do better. And I remember so vividly the first time when something happened and she was crying. And she came up to me because she did something that was let’s just say we wish she had chosen different actions. And she’s crying and instead of screaming at us, she goes Daddy,
what can I do better? And I just like I started I got out of my knees and I hugged her. It’s like, Oh my gosh, if you can get this at this age, what happens over the course of a lifetime?
Justin Stoddart 11:53
Yeah, what a different mentality then than many rights, which is it’s everyone else’s problem. Right? Yep. Everyone else’s
Geoff Woods 12:00
ask? Never you asked her. If you ask her until your number one priority is done. Daphne, what is everything else and she goes, a distraction, dad.
Justin Stoddart 12:10
I’d love to be a fly on the wall. And you’ve given me the opportunity to be a fly on the wall in the woods home. How awesome. Jumping back to kind of the business side of it. Obviously, for those that haven’t read the one thing, go find the book, please. In fact, I’m going to give you a kind of a jumpstart on that, that if you go to the one thing calm forward slash training, if you have read the book, and you feel like which I know for, you know a lot of people, it’s like, you know, I love the content of the book. But then I look at my emails, but then I look at my voicemails and it’s like, it’s hard to put this into practice, right? What Jeff, together with his partner, Gary Keller, and Jay Pappas and have done have really taken the principles of this book, and turned it into an ongoing curriculum like an ongoing, one must workshop, right? You’re, you’re living it, you’re not perfect. You’re not saying I’ve got it. I’ve even watched, you know, you know, numerous webinars where you’re saying, look, and I’m, I’m, I didn’t do my one thing here, and I’m not on track for this. And here’s how I’m going to fix that. Right? I think what it’s like it’s, it’s either I’m all in and I’m totally successful, and I got it, or, or I can’t do it at all.
Geoff Woods 13:20
No, no. And that’s one of the three commitments you make when you want to live a life of extraordinary results is following this path of mastery. And so many people, when we think of mastery, we view it as a destination we arrive at but in the book, they say the moment you start to view, mastery is a path you go down, rather than a destination you arrive at it starts to feel achievable and attainable. It’s actually not about arriving, it’s about who you become along the way. And every single one of us we manufacture this idea of what perfection or success looks like. And it’s irrelevant. It’s about how are you behaving today? Who’s the person you can become today? And how do you become a better version tomorrow, and the next day and the next day and just get better over time?
Justin Stoddart 14:04
It really takes the mystery out of growth doesn’t it is like sometimes we overcomplicate it. And we think that Oh, those people are successful because their DNA, they’re wired differently. They’re not like me, they don’t have the same weaknesses I and we almost put like the path of mastery on a pedestal, not just the people but the path to being like, like we never even actually set foot on it. Because it’s you know, it’s too far out of reach. So I love what you said there that it’s actually like those that are the most successful, right people you get to hang around, right? Are people who recognize the fact that look, I’m, I screw up every day, but I just stay on this path. And I know that being on the path is what’s going to get me there.
Geoff Woods 14:45
That’s right.
Justin Stoddart 14:47
I would love to have I’ve got some people watching live. If you have questions for Jeff, that you’d like to bring up here, please would so love to engage the audience in this. So So Jeff, talk to us a little bit about what you see. As if you’re a real estate agent. Again, this is this audience is mostly real estate professionals. Sure. What do you see as the one thing that real estate agents need to be doing? In order to really give them the most amount of options and and and the most amount of power over their own schedule and life?
Geoff Woods 15:22
Yeah, great question. And Dennis, thank you very much. He just we’ve got some basics courses on that training page that he’s choosing to take advantage of. So thanks, man, I appreciate it. Here’s what’s interesting about real estate, especially if you’re in production, you’re one thing is pretty well defined.
What is it?
Justin Stoddart 15:38
generate business, right?
Geoff Woods 15:40
Lead Generation, right?
If we walked downstairs and went into Gary Keller’s office together, I would walk you over to a coffee table he has in front of his couch. And on it would be a sheet of paper that has been there for years. And it’s just a blank sheet of paper with written in Sharpie. On until my number one priority is done. Everything else is a distraction.
The real estate business is actually very simple. Lead generate.
Everything else is everything else. And I think most what we see the agents who are most successful, make a habit out of lead generation, the challenges people think big, and they act big. What I mean by that is they think big about being the type of person who leads generates every day and has all these leads and builds this big business. And they tell themselves the story that they have to lead gen three, four hours a day and crush every distraction that pops up and threatens their focus. And when you set that as the bar of success, if you only lead generated for two hours, how do you feel like a failure? And if the next day you do two and a half hours, but the goal was three or four? How do you feel? Yeah, not good. Not good. And what we now know from your working with 10s of thousands of people is that people will only allow themselves to feel like a failure for so long before they rewrite the rules of the game or they quit. In the one thing, Gary and Jay talk about it’s not about thinking big and acting big. It’s about thinking big and going small, based on a vision of being the type of person who leads Jen’s three, four hours a day as a habit and crushes every distraction. How do we whittle it all the way back down to the lead Domino, that two inches little Domino that with the flick of a finger effortlessly, it would fall? Yet it’s so powerful. And because your dominoes are lined up, it truly makes everything else easier or unnecessary. So this is when we could put on our coaching hats and ask, well, what’s the one thing I can do? Such that by doing it would make becoming that type of a person easier or unnecessary? Well, I have to lead gen more. Well, what’s the one thing you can do to lead gen more? I’d have to make calls for at least an hour a day. Okay, well, what’s the one thing you can do to make making an hour of phone calls a day easier or unnecessary? I’d have to make one phone call before I check my email. Boom, there it is. That’s a lead Domino. Now what most people do is when they isolate their one thing, what you know, it’s the lead Domino, when it’s that easy, like that flick of a finger. It’s that small. We discount it because it feels too small. It almost feels like it’s cheating. Yet this is where we have to trust the domino effect. We have to trust that if we just knock that lead Domino down that over time, extraordinary results become possible. Now you watched me go from a really big idea and whittle it down to a lead Domino. Now I’m going to reverse engineer it. I’m going to flip it. Justin, if you become the type of person who every day made one phone call before you checked your email. Do you think you’d be more or less likely to make a second?
Justin Stoddart 19:03
Yeah. The first one is the hardest, isn’t it? I mean that the first one. Because the first one comes with not just the conversation that comes with all the nonsense that we tell ourselves about what phone calls are about right
now. Like that first one is like weighs 5000 pounds, the next one weighs like five pounds.
Geoff Woods 19:22
So if you lifted that 5000 pounds first call, and you made that call, what do you what would you be more or less likely to do when you hung up?
Justin Stoddart 19:29
That was fun. Like that wasn’t so bad, right? What would you do next? I’d make another one.
Geoff Woods 19:33
Do you make another one? And then what would you be more or less likely to do?
Justin Stoddart 19:37
Another one?
Geoff Woods 19:38
Right. So while the mark of success is one phone call, one phone call a day is probably not going to lead you building an extraordinary business. What it’s about is that initial trigger, that if you make a habit out of making a call before you check your email, accomplishing your priority before you check everyone else’s, which is exactly what your inbox is, your moral likely to make more calls, all of a sudden, your lead generating 15 minutes before you check your email, and then suddenly early, generating a half hour, suddenly, it’s an hour, two hours, three hours over time you become the type of person who a meaningful portion of their day is spent generating leads for the business and treating everything else as a distraction.
Justin Stoddart 20:26
Think Big,
Geoff Woods 20:27
act small.
Justin Stoddart 20:31
It’s interesting. You know it for real estate agents. I agree with you about every problem. If you if you whittled it down to there working with bad clients, or there are money challenges, or they don’t have the right, even leverage your team. Oftentimes that’s because they don’t have the resources to do it. It all comes down to do I have enough business? Am I doing enough business to get myself options?
Geoff Woods 20:58
Yep, yep, that’s right. I forget who said it, but they said revenue cures all problems. Yeah, right. If you don’t have leverage, then you need to lead generate to earn the right to bring in leverage.
Justin Stoddart 21:11
And I think too often agents look at their commission checks as, as a paycheck, as I’m treating it like a business. So they think, you know, I’ve made $300,000 this year, as we can live pretty well. What they haven’t taken into account is actually following something, you know, a proven model, like the millionaire real estate agent that says, okay, that’s revenue, income from that is going to come out of that, right. And so this ability to be able to say, I actually need to, if this is what I want to live on, then I need to actually be generating revenue up here, which gives me the space to be able to market gives me the space to be able to higher leverage gives me the, you know, the ability to actually run a business, not just treat a business like a job, which doesn’t work.
Geoff Woods 21:57
So I was in a mastermind with Gary Keller, and he was talking to the top agents in the world. And I remember he said that one of the biggest mistakes that agents have is they allow their lifestyle to rise is their income rises. And ultimately, they’re unwilling to take a step back in lifestyle, to build the business that they want to build. And here’s a perfect example of this. So my other partner, Jay Pappas, and his wife, Wendy, went out to lunch with another agent here locally in Austin. And he picked Wendy up and they were driving to the restaurant, and he was complaining about how he really needed to hire a great operations person for his business. And what Wendy said, Well, how much do you think that person would cost? And he said, How much? And he’s like, I just can’t, I don’t have it in the budget. I can’t afford it. And when he said, Sure you do. And he goes, What are you talking about? Like this is, this is what my profit is, and blah, blah, blah, she goes, No, you don’t get it. You’re actually driving your assistant right now. He was driving a brand new luxury vehicle. He just prioritizes having a nicer car than bringing leverage into his business. Yet, if I look, if we look at probably the wealthiest person that we know Gary Keller, home, he drove a Ford Taurus for a very long time, long after he was Gary Keller. And it got to the point that the board one day went to him and said, Gary, you can’t show up to the airport and pick recruits up in this beat up tourists, you have to go buy a nicer car. And he said I refuse to.
And the company bought him a car.
Justin Stoddart 23:33
I was going to say it. Like we just have a company car. No carrier. We took your car to the car wash and it’s never coming back.
Geoff Woods 23:41
Yeah. So I mean, if I look at, if I look at Jay and Wendy and like, I’m not going to dive into the details of their wealth or anything like that, but Jays driving a car that he’s had for over 10 years. I mean, it’s just when you start to surround yourself with people who truly are wealthy, you don’t usually know it by the by what they’re the way that they look.
Justin Stoddart 24:01
It’s the classic you know, the Millionaire Next Door, classic books. Do you want wealth? Or do you want to have the appearance of wealth? Because
Geoff Woods 24:08
both right? Yep. When I moved to Austin, Jay told me, he goes, we’re going to coach you to be a millionaire. I said, awesome. He said, so now I want you to, I needed to get a car. He said I want you to go and buy a 1500 dollar eater and call it your millionaire mobile.
pay cash and just save it up. I didn’t go quite that bad. But you know,
Justin Stoddart 24:28
just be ready. I might need you to come to pick me off. I think it’s right around. Such great stuff. Jeff, I again, I want to thank you for your time. You know, I always and this is a singature question. If I let me just before I get to that I’ve got one more comment here from Dennis. He said the book. Again, speaking of the one thing changed my life. I’ve actually lost my job non-real estate, but I’m using them to generate leads for job search. They won yesterday five awesome leads.
Geoff Woods 24:51
So, Dennis, I’m curious if you had to describe the two to three things you do exceptionally well, what would they be? put that in the comments. And there’s a lesson in this for the people who are listening. Oftentimes when we as business owners are looking to bring somebody on and we create a job description, and we think of all the things this person has to do for their job. And we would flip that on its head, we asked the question, what are the two to three things somebody has to do exceptionally well. Otherwise, they’re fired. So when Gary and Jay wrote the job description for my job, they said the two to three things, I had to be able to cast a vision because if Gary and Jay had to do the thinking for me, I’m fired, I had to be able to drive revenue, meaning I had to be able to show them I could create $100,000 out of thin air in 90 days or less, or I was fired. And I had to prove that I could recruit and retain talent. Otherwise, I was fired. Those were the three things they were hunting for. And then I had to demonstrate it in the first 30 60 90 days. So, Dennis, the reason I’m asking is when if you can get really clear on where your strengths are, think less about the position and think more about what are the things you do exceptionally well. So I’m saying time blocked and ignoring distractions, lead generate super interesting.
I don’t know Dennis, we are hiring.
Justin Stoddart 26:13
Dennis, actually, a good friend of mine, really brilliant guy has worked for some of the largest software companies in the world. And it was kind of their key strategy sales guy. So anyway, his company actually just outsource sold their North America closer North American operations. So yeah, great guy.
Geoff Woods 26:34
She got his contact info, it will be happy to make it make an email address. Yeah,
Justin Stoddart 26:39
we’ll do. So back to the signature question, Jeff,
Geoff Woods 26:43
you’re on? I pause real quick. Can I cross this goes back to the mentor-mentee conversation? So often we’re in a position in our life where we know that we want something, and we’re not sure how to get it. And the lead Domino is just talking about it. Especially when people say like, how do I find a mentor? Well, can you describe in one sentence, the type of person you’re looking to meet? Oh, I’m looking to meet somebody who has scaled a technology company. And instead of asking people, when people ask you what’s new, what’s going on? What’s up and saying nothing. You say, you know, I’ve gotten a lot of clarity that I’m, I’m looking for my next opportunity right now. And I happen to love to lead generating and scaling businesses and zip your mouth and you would be shocked. Like Dennis is yesterday was day one of him looking for his new job, the fact that he just put it in the chat box, he didn’t know that we’re hiring. Yeah.
Interesting. Put it out there, baby. Put it out there.
Justin Stoddart 27:37
You know, one of the things that I’ve appreciated by being a part of the living your one thing community is that it’s not just about that one question, right? Like before, that there’s some work ahead of time to really be able to identify, like in gain clarity. And you know, what I hear you saying Jeff is like, like the one thing that it is foundational for a lot this, just like for you, when your co-worker had a stroke, and you lost 40% your income, there was clarity of like this is this no longer works for me. And it’s clear that I need to be somewhere else. And it’s interesting to the same question you posed the dentist like, or that you pointed out, right, the dentist, he’s clear on what he’s looking for. Because you can’t speak it until it’s clear in your head. And it’s almost going through that exercise. Talk to me quickly about what the living the one thing community does to help people.
Geoff Woods 28:33
So ultimately, the book went out and is now one of the highest rated business books of all time. And the reason that I have a job and started this company is we wanted to turn the book into a movement that would help people live the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. And there were some things that when we engage with the people who were fans of the book and tried to figure out what their pain points were, they said they were lacking three things. And these are the three things that everybody is lacking. If they’re not achieving extraordinary and versus clarity. Most people are lacking clarity on what their goals are, or the exact plan or how to behave appropriately in the moment. They’re then lacking control. We feel like we lack control of our time. And finally, we are lacking a community. We’re lacking a community that actually has a relationship with their goals, that has a culture of accountability that can support us when we’re talking the language of the one thing. And so we asked what’s the one thing we can do such that by doing it would make giving people clarity, control, and community easier or unnecessary? And the answer was what we call living your one thing. It’s a community, we’ve got about thousand people that are high achievers that are committed to collaborating and having a true relationship with their goals, all based on the models of the one thing and so that link that you put up there the one thing comm slash training. At the top, you’ll see two buttons like a read that says sign in. And there’s a great one that says learn more, just click the learn more, or you go to the one thing comm slash learn more?
Justin Stoddart 30:03
Well, what you guys have done with the community is it’s so reachable, right? And it’s not like it’s $1,000 a month, or 2000 or $5,000 a month product, right or one-time product, but it’s really something that really is attainable for anybody and everybody that serious about this. And I love that about what you’ve done. It’s really about creating a movement, you know, at scale.
Geoff Woods 30:28
Yep, yep. And you nailed it.
Justin Stoddart 30:32
Back to the signature question, we are having so much fun together, we’re not quite getting the end, which is okay, this is there such a value. So I again, want to thank you for your time this is such a treat for all of us. So share with me, Jeff, you’re obviously a big thinker. What is it that you do on a regular basis to continue to be that way to expand your own possibilities to where Geoff Woods his trajectory doesn’t start to flat now but continues to your vision continues to expand? Because that’s one thing that they hired you for. Right? Gary Keller? billionaire, right? I would say one of the foremost leader in the real estate industry right now. Right? report directly to him, your partner with him in this. You’ve got some really bright people around you, they hired you because you needed to create a vision. So you’re you’re obviously a big thinker. What do you do to continue to be that way?
Geoff Woods 31:25
So Episode 143, and 144 of The One Thing podcast is titled the habit that cost 100 million dollars to learn, and why it was worth it. Part One and two.
such a good book. I love it
And, and that I interviewed a guy named Keith Cunningham, who literally lost 100 million dollars. And out of that loss, he formed one habit. And that one habit, he said, gave him an incredible ROI. Because he made back way more than that. That habit is the habit of thinking time. I went on a 66-day challenge where every day I would sit down with a pen, a paper, and a great question. We call them productive questions. A question that is so big that the immediate answer it stopped you dead in your tracks? And you go, oh, great question. Like, here’s an example. Justin, what’s the one thing you’re not currently doing that if you started doing it immediately, you’d a five-x business in the next 12 months?
Justin Stoddart 32:37
This is a question made this isn’t just hypothetical? It’s speaking in front of large audiences.
Geoff Woods 32:44
Okay. It’s like see, like, that’s a question. That’s really, it’s not, it’s not?
What’s on your plate today? What do you have to do today? What else do you have? Right? Right. If my business could talk, what would it say about me? What assumptions Am I currently making? That may not be true? Right. So I, I went on this 66-day challenge of doing this every day. And I don’t do it every day anymore. But I have a regular rhythm of multiple times a week, I have a time block for thinking to sit down, my computer shut down, email is shut down the phone is on Do Not Disturb. I tell my team that for the next hour or however long that is that I’m going to be in a time block which that they inherently understand what that means is your team better get that? Yeah, there’s a common language there, they understand the time block means don’t mess with me. And I asked a great question, and I search for the answer. So often, we are so busy running and taking action in our business. But Keith would say there’s nothing worse than running enthusiastically in the wrong direction. And if you are not the type of person who regularly has time blocked to reflect and plan, how do you know if you’re running in the right direction? It’s why when we design into the one thing, planner, after every single month after every quarter, we have reflecting plans. These are great coaching questions that force you to reflect back gain perspective. And based on this put a plan in place.
Justin Stoddart 34:29
I am you know, one of my mentors is Chris Suarez, who you probably saw took a course from Chris recently called the become the CEO and he talked about in the last session of his course, was about how the top CEOs have white space. Yeah, it’s not how much can they pack in but like even Bill Gates would, would take weeks off at a time not to necessarily a vacation. I’m sure you probably did that as well. But where was just time where he would go and read and think that’s pretty, right? Yeah.
Geoff Woods 35:01
Yeah, I mean, I just pulled up my calendar for my digital calendar for the week. I mean, even today, I’ve probably that’s too. I’ve got three hours out of an eight hour a day, that is just mine. That’s mine. That’s when I get to show up. And if the one thing in that moment is thinking time, or if it’s lead gen or if it’s doesn’t matter.
Justin Stoddart 35:25
Similar to how some people at how all of us, when there’s silence, we get uncomfortable, especially those of us in sales type roles, right? When there’s silence, we tend to want to fill it really quickly. And I feel like a similar philosophy happens or practice happens when it comes to white space on our calendar is we habitually go to email and we’re checking that thing as if it’s like, you know, I hit a crack or sound like it’s, it’s crazy how we have to fill that time we’re really uncomfortable not doing anything. And we fill it with oftentimes. And I’ve liked when I’ve followed my time blocks, I can check my email and get through my emails in probably 30 minutes total of two sessions of maybe 15 to 30 minutes each. And I’m done. Or it can take me all day. And if I don’t have my time block properly followed those same amounts of email, curiously enough, take the same amount of time. It’s I don’t understand how it happens. But it happens. Oh, yeah. And so not having that white space and protecting it and being okay with it being white space and being okay with it is thinking the time is such a powerful practice, Geoff.
Geoff Woods 36:36
So I tell a cool story about why we manage time, the way we manage time.
Justin Stoddart 36:40
I’d love to hear.
Geoff Woods 36:40
So when we were doing the getting ready to create the one thing planner, I had one of our researchers, her name’s Madeline, I gave her a very small task. I said, Madeline, go research the entire history of time.
And she looked at me and said, Are you for real? And I said I said, Yeah,
I said, Go put a binder together. And she went and she did the research. And she came back and she presented me with something that was a great story. She goes when we look back to like an ancient ancient man. There was day and there was night. That was our concept of time, there was a day, there was night. That was it. And as we progressed as a species, we began to notice that in certain times a year, there were animals that showed up that could be hunted, and there were crops that we could grow. And we developed this idea of seasons. And that’s all we had, we had a day, we had night, and we had seasons that we knew so little about who we were and what this world was. And we felt this desire to know more. So we went smaller. And we began to notice that every 30 days or so the moon would wax and wane. And we came up with this idea of months. So we had the day we had night, we had seasons, we had months. And yet we knew so little about ourselves in the world. So we felt the need to go smaller. And then you start going to ancient Babylonians, Greeks, Egyptians Romans, they started to use something called a sex a decimal system, which means units of 60. It’s why there’s 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. If you just keep seeing this progression of knowing so little about us in the world. And this needs to go smaller to the point where you fast forward to today. When we look at our time, we’re looking like our digital calendar, we’re looking at our time in 1531 hour increments. So here’s the question. If we used the models and systems of ancient Babylonians, great Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, to map to manage our time today, what does how they live back then have to do with how we live our lives today? The answer is nothing. Yet we use their systems. And it’s why we feel more out of control than ever before because it’s a different world. And part of this was pressing reset and saying, how do we help people have a bigger view of time, Gary says if you want to achieve big things, you need a bigger view of time. And a digital calendar doesn’t give it to you. I guarantee not a single person here. If we had you open up your digital calendar, switch to the monthly view and say, tell us the most important thing on your calendar for the month, not a single one of you could tell us Yeah. It’s why the CEO of our tech company in Keller Williams, uses a paper planner.
That’s why we created the one thing planner.
So the action that I would suggest is if you are not using a paper planner like I use my one thing planner, and I use the digital calendar. But your digital calendar was designed to capture meetings with other people. It was designed to capture everything. It’s why people open up their calendars, they see all the stuff that’s scheduled and they fill everything else in the time that remains. It’s why we have no white space, versus starting with the blank slate like a paper planner, putting the handful of major priorities that matter most your time off your mate, you’re one thing you’re planning time. And everything else is a distraction. Place the big boulders in the stream, so that everything else that when the water hits it, what does it do? It goes around it, it goes around it, then you open up your digital calendar. And you clearly see hey, my one thing planner says I’m supposed to be a lead generating today. But I see that I’ve got all these appointments that are all these things that are scheduled. And all of a sudden you’re getting to look at them for what they are distractions, and you act accordingly.
Justin Stoddart 40:39
Water needs to move around it.
Geoff Woods 40:41
Bingo.
Justin Stoddart 40:43
Good stuff, man. Again, want to encourage anybody who doesn’t follow Geoff, or hasn’t gone to, you know, the one thing community living your one thing, please do. So do yourself a favor, again for the value that he’s perfect. This kind of value that he’s been so generous to pour into this audience is readily available. And there’s so much there. But it’s in a format that allows you to be on the path of mastery. And I’ll be kind of a personal witness to, you know, the value that’s there. So, Geoff, thank you again, so much. This has been, again, such a treat for me and for my audience want to thank you for being a big thinker and someone who’s encouraging and modeling how to act small, so we can actually apply the big visions that all of us want to live out. So
Geoff Woods 41:33
Awesome. Justin, thank you very much for the opportunity.
Justin Stoddart 41:36
My pleasure. Thanks, everybody. This has been valuable do me a favor and share this out. Tag somebody who needs to hear this message. Somebody who you feel like their greatness is held up because they’re taking on too much and don’t have a proper model in place to help them get to that next level. So thanks again, Jeff. And thanks, everybody. We’ll catch you