Jon Acuff's Blog, page 45

Why hustle has seasons (a new video featuring my wife Jenny!)

Of all the investments you must make into your career, none of them involve more tension than hustle.

You have to work incredibly hard, but you have to rest.

You have to say yes to a lot of opportunities but also protect your time and say no regularly.

You need grit to hold on in the tough times and flexibility to quit when it’s time to move on.

Sometimes we think hustle is an excuse to become a workaholic, but it’s not. Rest is actually a really important part of hustle. The hard part is that in a culture that praises busyness, rest is an act of bravery.

In a culture that praises busyness, rest is an act of bravery.
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How do you manage the tension? You start by understanding that hustle has seasons.

That’s the topic of the second video in my free video series, The 3 Rules of Hustle. And as you can see, my wife Jenny joins me in this video to talk about that very thing (as well as some other things like how much Tony Hawk Pro Skater I played when I was putting off writing and why no one eats chili in the summer.)

It’s a fun one. Check it out here by signing up for all three free videos!

I created the 3 Rules of Hustle video series because the truth about hustle is this: hustle is the fuel for the things we work on. And if you use it the right way and apply it to the right things, you get to be more awesome, more often.

The best part is, when you sign up you’ll get access to video #1 and video #2 immediately.

I can’t wait to see what dream, goal or project you apply the 3 rules of hustle to!

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How to run 4 miles when you really don’t want to.

If I ate queso as often as I tweeted about it, I would be dead.

They’d serve it at my funeral with a fountain in one final nod to the melted cheese dream that put me in the grave, but it would be game over for me.

In order to eat queso, I have to work out.

Is that the weirdest reason ever to exercise? Surely no one in the history of mankind has told a trainer, “My motivation for hitting the gym is cheese, glorious cheese.”

 

Traveling makes exercise difficult so I have to plan ahead. I have to pack my workout clothes. I have to pack my sneakers. I have to pre-select a time in my schedule when I can fit in some time on the hotel fitness center.

Calling two old treadmills and seven barbells in a closet does not a “fitness center” make, but hotels are creative with their words.

Three weeks ago I planned to run three miles in Houston, Texas. I got everything ready before hand and was laser focused on running three miles. A little voice inside my heads said, “Why don’t you run 4?” But like most times in my life I was quickly able to shut the positive voice up. (The negative voice in my head? I tend to hold open mic nights for that guy and listen and listen and listen.)

I ran into my friend Ryan Boon in the lobby of the hotel after I checked in. He was working at the same event I was in town for. He runs. A lot. In the course of our five minute conversation we talked about running. Here is verbatim what happened as we parted ways by the elevator:

Ryan: Are you going to run today?

Me: Yeah.

Ryan: How far?

Me: Three miles.

Ryan: Nah, four?

Then I got on the elevator.

An hour later, I ran four miles.

For days I had been planning on running three. I felt good about three. Three was my number!

So why did I run four instead?

Because community calls us to heights we cannot call ourselves.

Community calls us to heights we cannot call ourselves
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Ryan didn’t give me a long motivational speech. He didn’t quote Abraham Lincoln or ask me to make a vision board in my hotel room using the city magazine every hotel has. He didn’t even run with me shouting positive affirmations next to me.

All he did was say two words, “Nah, four?”

And I ran the extra mile.

I ran it because he believed I could.

That was all it took.

That’s the power of community.

Sometimes it is a hurricane of support. Sometimes though, more often than not, it’s a nudge. It’s two words from a five-minute conversation.

This January I’m creating a new community online. I’m going to create a space where you can get a nudge toward a dream or call toward a finish line. It’s going to be crazy simple, but I think it’s going to be crazy effective. I fear our 2016 goals will never know what hit them.

Going it alone is stupid. We’re built to need people who will challenge and encourage us.

If you want to be the first to know about the new challenge and the new community, sign up here.

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My new free video series, The 3 Rules of Hustle!

For the last 18 years I’ve been helping hundreds of thousands of people and companies like Bose, Microsoft, Home Depot, and Comedy Central. Along the way I’ve learned that even though we like to talk a lot about hustle, there’s still a lot of confusion about what hustle really is.

Hustle isn’t an excuse to become a workaholic or roll over people. As it turns out, it’s not a flavor of Axe Body Spray, either. (Though Pulse, Instinct, and Hot Fever are, in case you were wondering.)

Hustle is an act of focus, not frenzy. It’s an act of addition, but also subtraction. It’s about focusing on what matters the most, in the right way.

Hustle is an act of focus, not frenzy.
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That’s why I’m so excited about a new video series I’m doing called The 3 Rules of Hustle. In it I’m going to separate fact from fiction about what it means to really work on your dream. Check out this quick video I put together to tell you what the 3 rules are, and why they’re so important.

The video series is free, but you’ll need to sign up to get access to them because I won’t be posting them on my blog. There’s also a surprise guest who will be joining me for the series, but you’ll have to watch the video to see who it is.

I created the 3 Rules of Hustle video series because the truth about hustle is this: hustle is the fuel for the things we work on. And if you use it the right way and apply it to the right things, you get to be more awesome, more often.

The best part is, when you sign up you’ll get access to video #1 immediately.

I can’t wait to see what dream, goal or project you apply the 3 rules of hustle to!

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Stop trying to make everyone like you.

The reason we argue with the critics and ignore the people who like us is simple:

We want everyone to like us.

We want a 100% approval rating.

I’m here to tell you, it’s not coming.

Not because you’re dumb.

Not because you’re lazy.

Not because you just haven’t tried hard enough.

You’ll never have 100% support for your dream.

The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can start having fun with the people who do support it.

I want 100% approval sometimes. When someone tweets, “I used to like you more a few years ago,” I want to prove to them that I’m still a good person. When someone says, “I miss the funny you,” I want to call them on the phone and ask where our comedic sensibilities parted ways. When someone I’d never met walked up to Jenny and I recently at a farmer’s market and said something really ugly to me based on who they thought I was, I wanted sweep his leg Cobra Kai style.

But karate is never the answer and for all I know, that dude knew the crane kick.

I want 100% approval but then I remember something.

Your ability to do awesome things is proportional to your willingness to be criticized by people who don’t understand them.

Your ability to live loud is proportional to your willingness to be criticized by people who don’t.
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The end.

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How to connect with top mentors without inviting them to coffee.

(I don’t do many guest posts these days, but for years, I’ve loved getting to know the author of this one. I shared the stage with Lewis Howes at World Domination Summit and asked him to write about this topic because I’ve watched him do an amazing job of connecting with mentors. He’s also built a massive podcast with 9 million downloads in part because he’s so great at connecting with people. For more great stuff from Lewis, check out his book “The School of Greatness.”)

How to connect with top mentors without inviting them to coffee. By Lewis Howes

My most valuable business asset, aside from my ability to hustle, is my network. I can pick up the phone and call any number of friends and powerful experts in a wide range of topics asking for advice and I know it will be exactly what I need to get results.

This is priceless.

But about 8 years ago I couldn’t pick up the phone and call one person who I trusted for business advice. I knew football coaches, previous teammates and ex-girlfriends and that was about it. So, if you don’t feel like you have much of a network currently, don’t worry. There’s hope.

Coincidentally, it was my girlfriend at the time who introduced me to one of my first business mentors, when I was a washed up football player recovering from surgery, and clueless about what to do with my career. She knew an inventor who had just moved back to Columbus, Ohio, where I was living at the time, and she arranged a meeting between us.

I showed up in jeans and a ripped off tee shirt with an attitude like I had it all figured out. Thankfully, I was able to tell pretty quickly that this inventor, Chris Hawker, was really smart and a good guy. I could see I might have a chance to learn something from him if I played my cards right. So I started asking him a lot of questions, really listened to the answers, and at the end of our conversation, I asked him if I could work for him.

He said no. But I said I’d follow up anyway.

I followed up with him every week for months until he finally said I could come work for free around his office (and my desk was a closet in his kitchen). I worked for him for a number of months, eventually making $500 a month, sitting in that closet making phone calls and going to trade shows with him. But in exchange, I got to go on a walk with him once a day where I could ask him any question I wanted.

This experience was priceless.

Chris is still my good friend, mentor, and business partner to this day. He taught me so much more than how to run a business or come up with a good product idea. He taught me that to develop a powerful, mutually supportive relationship with a mentor, you have to be willing to give way more than you ask.

In fact, don’t ask for anything.

Just offer to be of meaningful service, in any capacity that will help the mentor in achieving what is important to them. (This could be as simple as showing them how to set up a Twitter cover image that doesn’t look terrible.)

Offer to work for free.

Say yes to anything.

Hustle hard.

Show them you are grateful and willing to learn.

Keep your word.

Skip coffee meetings and go straight to offering a potential mentor whatever you can that will aid them in their own business. Be patient and before you know it, you’ll have a much bigger network. It’s worth the work, I promise.

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2 questions I need your help with!

On Friday I announced the upcoming 30 Days of Hustle Challenge (if you missed it, details are here).

I’m opening up early bird registration in a couple of weeks. Before I do, I have two quick questions I would love your help with today. In my book Do Over, I write about the power of empathy, which I define as “Understanding what someone needs and then acting on it.” One of the best ways to have empathy is to “Read less minds, ask more questions.” (Apologies to grammar fans who know that it should be “fewer” not “less.” I like the rhythm of less better and rhythm is a dancer, so …)

Want to serve people better? Read less minds, ask more questions.
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I don’t want to create a challenge that I think is helpful, I want to create a challenge that I KNOW is helpful because it meets the real needs you’ve got.

You can answer the questions here: Two Questions I Need Your Help With

I’m really excited about this January’s 30 Days of Hustle Challenge! There’s one particular surprise with this challenge that I can’t wait to share with you.

Thanks for your help!

Jon

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3 ways to figure out which online course is best for you.

Last year, people started to bring me queso at book signing events. I actually found a job where people give me melted cheese. Take that, guidance counselor who told me my dreams couldn’t come true!

If 2014 was the year of queso, then 2015 seems to be the year of the online course.

It seems everyone and their grandmother has an online course.

It’s easy to be wowed by what some of these courses offer. Their sales pages are shiny, their testimonials are compelling, and the promises they make all but assure you a better life is just a few clicks away. The offer of magical “passive income” is a particularly bright carrot that is waved as an enticement. The Internet is littered with get rich quick schemes. There are no shortcuts. Anyone who tells you differently is usually trying to sell you a shortcut.

There are no shortcuts. Anyone who tells you differently is usually trying to sell you a shortcut.
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But the 1.7 billion course options you get when you search Google can’t all be that great, right? So how do you figure out which one is worth your time, energy, and money? Here’s how I do it.

I ask these three questions whenever I’m considering an online course.

Question #1 – Who’s teaching it?

Has the founder of the course done something more than be successful at selling online classes?

More to the point, have they done something that you want to do to? Michael Hyatt should teach a course on building a platform, because he’s built a huge platform and led companies for 30 years. Jeremy Cowart should teach you about photography because according to the Huffington Post, he’s the “most influential photographer on the Internet” and has been on the leading edge of the photography world for 10 years.

If you took a class at a college, you could trust that the school vetted the professor. In the Internet age though, anyone can say they’re an expert. Do your homework before taking a course and make sure the person teaching it is a real expert.

Question #2 – Is it worth the price?

Here’s the truth about pricing an online product in 2015: it’s the wild wild west.

If someone decides their class is $200, you have no idea where that came from. Maybe they’ve done studies to find the best price point for the value they’re delivering? Or maybe they’re having a bad fantasy football season and they’re charging more to support their DraftKings habit. How can you know? When someone says, “You can get this $2,000 class for only $200 today,” you should at least ask yourself, “Why is this worth $2,000?” Where did that value come from? Is it based in reality? Or was it just made up out of thin air and no one has ever actually paid that price?

Ultimately, it’s on you to figure out if the price is worth it. I’ve always believed that price isn’t just about what you’re paying, it’s about what you’re doing with what you’ve paid for. If a class is going to teach you how to book paid speaking gigs and you’ll actually put the lessons into practice, it might be worth $2,000. If you’re going to ignore the lessons in the class, then it’s probably not even worth $50.

Will your actions match the amount of money you’re paying? That’s my favorite way to determine if it’s worth the investment.

Question #3 – Is there a community aspect?

Study upon study shows that it’s a lot harder to get anything done without a community.

If you purchase this course, will you be on your own to learn the material and do the work, or will there be others doing it with you and helping you along?

The truth is, creating and sustaining a community isn’t easy. It’s a lot easier for a course creator to email you a PDF and send you on your way, in hopes that you can figure it out on your own.

Providing you with the help of others takes more work on a number of levels, but it always means more value. That’s why I ask if there will be a community that comes with the material to help me get the most out of it. For me, it’s not a “nice to have,” it’s a “must have.”

—

I’m skeptical of about 90% of online classes, but the 10% that are good tend to be really good. I hope those three questions will help you sort through all the ones that are offered. I’m sharing them now because I’ve been thinking a lot about courses lately.

For years people have asked me when I would offer something along the lines of an online course, and I think its finally time to do one.

I’ve got a 30-day challenge I’m working on. I want it to provide wicked high value at wicked low cost.

My new challenge won’t make your teeth brighter. It won’t turn you into Scrooge McDuck overnight with passive income.

It’s going to help you do one thing, but that one thing is awesome.

If you want to be the first to know about the challenge, sign up here.

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Writers are crazy. Here’s proof I am.

(This is the type of conversation I have with Jenny when I start writing a new book. Her words are in italics.)

“I’m writing a new book.” I tell this to my wife in our kitchen.

“What’s it going to be about?” She asks.

“I’m not exactly sure yet, I need to identify some problem in my life that writing the perfect book will solve.”

“Oh good, so we’re looking at what, 6 months to a year of slow, agonizing soul searching torture expressed in the form of creating a self help book?”

“Is there a different process for writing a book?”

“God, I hope so.”

“Well I don’t know one, but that’s only a third of the process.”

“What are the other two thirds?”

“I’m glad you asked that. One third is the aforementioned painful self examination. The other third is trying to guess what will change everyone else’s life and the other third is crafting something no one can criticize.”

“So the second third is that amazing black hole of a question, ‘Who is this book for?’ which will lead you into a narcissistic exploration allowing you to believe that this book will have earth shaking, life changing consequences for all humans.”

“Yes. The fun part is that Do Over got picked up by audiences I didn’t really even know I could serve with my unbelievable ideas. Parents Magazine named it the “Mom Must Read of the Month.” And the guy who bought the most copies, was a military lawyer. He said it was perfect for people who were transitioning out of the armed forces. So now, with this new book, in addition to all the other audiences I’ve always written for, I’m going to try to anticipate the needs of moms and Green Berets.”

“You feel like there’s a lot of overlap between those two audiences?”

“There better be.”

“And the third goal of the book is to make sure that no one criticizes it?”

“No one, but also specific clumps of people.”

“Like who?”

“I call them my Jury of Fears. Get it?”

“Yes.”

“It’s like a jury of peers, like in a courtroom. But I say Jury of Fears. I try to pronounce it in a way that let’s you know it’s capitalized.”

“Yes, I understand it.”

“I think it’s going to make a killer slide or tweet someday. I’ll probably even drop that into one of those ‘Click to Tweet’ things.”

Beware performing for your Jury of Fears, that silent group of fears that get loud when you create.
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“Anyway, there are some people who over the years who have criticized me and though they’ve long forgotten I exist, I like to base my life around trying to win their approval or at the minimum prevent further disappointment.”

“Like who?”

“I think somewhere along the way somebody told me that humor isn’t enough. Somebody told me that jokes are dumb and that unless you have some sort of life changing message you’re just like Gallagher. You might as well be smashing metaphorical watermelons and jumping on a gigantic couch. I don’t know who said it but they must have been important to me because it’s next to impossible for me to write something funny without trying to shoehorn a moral or lesson in it.”

“Yeah, but then you end up ruining really funny humor with an after school message that blindsides the readers. And people love to laugh. You love to laugh. When you’re honest about who you really are, when you’ve got your guard down at dinner parties you’re not giving people life changing advice, you’re trying to make them laugh. The only people you study are comedians. That’s who you are. And it’s the most popular thing you share on the Internet. When you tweet funny things or post funny things on Facebook, those get shared 100 times more than you’re serious stuff.”

“I know, but again, humor doesn’t count. Even though one of my favorite comedians of all time, Jim Gaffigan, said that Do Over was funny, I still have a hard time seeing the value of laughter. More than just not being funny though I think I need to have an epic life to write a book.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s what sells these days. You have to have like hiked the Appalachian Trail in an hour or built an orphanage out of reclaimed shoes or visited every state in the US with a parrot. You need a hook. I need to find a hook to satisfy people that are in love with hooks.”

“So you can’t write a book just because you’re an author and that’s what authors do, they write books? You can’t write a book because you just enjoy writing?”

“Joy? Oh to have such wide-eyed innocence. I love that about you.”

“Is that it? Is that the complete list, of your jury of fears, and I hate myself for using this cheesy description, of your jury of fears?”

“No, there are definitely a lot more and I’m always interviewing new ones, but I think the last one is the guy who tells me I’m too self promotional, that my books are too much about me and that he’s heard my ideas before. I think his name is Josh.”

“That’s not too long of a list, I guess.”

“Actually I forgot two more.”

“Oh, good.”

“I also need this book to satisfy the fear that I’m not a ‘real author.’”

“What does it mean to be a real author?”

“I don’t know, but I know I’m not one.”

“You’ve written 5 books.”

“Those were flukes.”

“You’ve sold hundreds of thousands of books. You’ve hit the New York Times Bestseller’s list, twice.”

“George Foreman sold a million of those grills but that doesn’t mean he’s a good chef.”

“One of the most respected business minds of our generation said your last book was the ‘Best career book ever written.’”

“That was kind of him, but regardless, I won’t be a real author until my books have more research in them. I need more sources. I want my ideas to be based in science and statistics and fact.”

“So basically, being a real author means the bibliography of your book is thicker.”

“Yes.”

“But you’re terrible at research, terrible at data and terrible at science.”

“I know, but that’s all about to change with this book. I’m going to write this book like Jim Collins.”

“Jim Collins, the mid 50s professor from Stanford who has spent twenty years building a research team who works on his books?”

“Yes. I feel like I can close a lot of the gap between us if I go to the library a few times. Probably four times.”

“OK.”

“And last, but not least, is the fear of ‘who cares?’ As in ‘who cares’ what I think or what I know. Who am I to write a book about life? I’m only 40 and what do I really know about life. I’m really unqualified. Everything I’ve written has already been said by someone smarter. I need to address that issue with the content inside the book. I also don’t want to write a book that I look back on 10 years from now and disagree with.”

“But there’s a chance that who you are at 50 will be different from who you are at 40. In the next 10 years you’re going to learn things you don’t know right now and some of those things might contradict what you thought you knew at 40.”

“Exactly, that’s why what I write has to be eternally true forever. This is part of my legacy. This is me leaving my mark on this world. I’m not just writing a book, I’m building a legacy. People like that word. It’s what you start obsessing about when you’re done obsessing about your purpose.”

“What is your great grandfather’s first name?”

“I don’t know.”

“What did he do for a job?”

“Not sure.”

“What state did he live in?”

“No idea. Why?”

“No reason. So how are you going to overcome the fear that as a 40 year old you’re wholly unqualified to write a book giving anyone advice?”

“Well, fortunately for me, the Internet has a very loose definition of the word ‘expert.’ I saw someone the other day say that they’re an expert at live streaming video. Periscope came out in May. You can be a 22-year old life coach as long as you’re successful at taking people to the next level. That’s always the level people want to go to. You can write a book about parenting when you’ve got a 1 year old. So I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.”

“That is good. So in summary, your book only needs to accomplish three things:

1. Fix some significant problem in your own life and be your identity.

2. Fix everyone else’s problems, including stay at home moms and Green Berets.

3. Be universally liked by all people, researched as well as Jim Collins and ensure future generations know your work.

“Yes. That’s a pretty good elevator speech. As a bonus, I’m going to pretend that the entire financial future of our family is riding on the success of this book.”

“But it’s not. We’re not destitute right now though. We’re not about to lose the farm or the ski slope to a rich developer who’s son has really amazing hair but is a jerk who you have to beat in a ski race to ensure we’re OK.”

“I know that, but I don’t feel like I’m very creative unless I’m also very terrified. So in my head, I’m going to act like my future, your future and our kids futures hangs in the balance of every page of this new book.”

“And I get to live with you during this process?”

“Yes. Pretty exciting right? Plus, you’ll get to read each draft of the book! I’ll ask you to give me honest feedback and then when you do I’ll be really mad. I’ll grumpily tell you that you’re wrong, that you don’t understand literature and that I am out of words. That I literally have no more words. I’ll only do this for three hours or so every time you give me feedback and then I’ll admit you’re right and make the change you suggested. It will be fun.”

“I can’t wait.”

Writers are crazy. Here’s proof.
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It took me 13 years to learn this lesson about blogging.

You’ve got a lot of things to do today so let’s get right to the point.

Your platform isn’t for you.

It’s not yours.

Your name might be on it. It might be your smiling headshot that folks see each day on your blog or your twitter profile, but the platform is not for you.

It’s for other people.

Readers, friends, family members, this is why we blog.

Not to get, but to give.

If you don’t share your platform, it will suffocate you.

If you don’t share your platform, it will suffocate you.
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I speak not from theory but from experience. I used to think my platform was mine. I got lost in things like New York Times bestseller lists and affirmation and attention.

I only got a tiny scrap of fame but it was enough to teach me that it hollows you out, it doesn’t fill you up. And it’s incredibly addictive.

But then I learned that my platform is not for me.

It’s for others.

Like Terry.

She’s a survivor of addiction and trafficking. She’s also the barista at Thistle Farms in Nashville, an amazing non-profit in Nashville. They offer a two year residential program to help woman like Terry have a second chance.

There are over 100 women on the waiting list to get into Thistle Farms. That’s not OK with me. Although I might not have a ton of money or a solution to all of the world’s problems, I do have a platform. That’s why I made this video:

 

I hope you’ll buy a candle and help me light the way home for women still on the street. I hope you’ll buy 10 candles and give them out as Christmas gifts because they smell like Christmas trees and who doesn’t love that?

I hope you’ll retweet this post like crazy, put it on Facebook and use your platform for someone who doesn’t have one.

It’s time to light the way home.
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It’s going to be pretty amazing when we sell 5,000 candles and help Thistle Farms change the world.

Don’t miss the chance to be part of this experience!

Jon

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The problem with Halloween

13 years ago, I learned the best idea about parenting before I even had kids.

Before I was writing books about enjoying your career like Do Over, I used to work for Bose. They are a company in Massachusetts that makes amazing stereos and headphones.

One of the markets we would try to sell to is college graduates. We wanted  the 23-year old who got their first real check to buy one of our stereos but we had a problem.

Sony started talking to that 23-year old when they were 6.

Sony sold them a pink stereo in the first grade.

Sony sold them a Playstation 3 at age 13.

Sony sold them headphones at age 15.

So by the time we showed up at 23 to sell them a stereo there was a sense of “Who are you? I’ve never met you before.”

Sony essentially had a 17-year head start on us. If someone took karate for 17 years before you did, they are going to crush you.

The problem with this principle is that a lot of times we parents give pop culture a huge head start with our kids.

We let the world start the conversation, let celebrities drive their dreams, and let society define their values.

Then at age 15 we show up in their life and wonder why they’re lost.

As a dad of two daughters, this cartoon about Halloween by @AndyMarlette bums me out because most of us are too busy to respond with the truth. We miss the “store aisle” conversation with our kids because we think if we don’t have the conversation it won’t happen.

Here’s the truth though:

It’s not whether your kids will have a conversation about the world they live in, it’s whether you’ll have a voice in it.

It’s time to start talking with our kids.

Earlier than we want.

More often than we like.

Don’t give the world a head start with your kids.

Don’t give the world a head start with your kids.
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